OFFERING a new twist on ghost-writing, local medium Melita Harvey (pictured, right) has co-written a book with Janelle, an actress who took her own life some years before the two “met”.

The Cockburn psychic had been doing a reading for one of Janelle’s grieving family members: “I watched her go and wished there was more I could do, and Janelle answered loud and clear, ‘writing my story would help’,” says Harvey.

Blissfully Dead is a very readable users’ guide to death and the spirit world, as seen by Janelle.

But the central message is making the most of the life we’re given: “It’s the story of how we can go wrong in life and how we can go right in life. I’ve learnt so much,” Harvey says.

Janelle looks back on her life and talks of meeting other souls, seeing where they went wrong in life, and their continuing journey to enlightenment in the afterlife. It also explores the effect of the lives they led, and their deaths, on their loved ones.

The 29-year-old had plenty to live for, with a successful career, loving family and impending marriage to her childhood sweetheart.

But the crushing desolation of depression won out, feelings of never being good enough, clever enough, pretty enough, or slim enough.

Janelle is a fictitious name, to protect the family and because the author doesn’t want to trade on a famous name. “I don’t want to make fame over anyone’s death, or the family’s grief,” says Harvey.

Harvey grew up thinking everyone talked to dead people, after all as a kid she’d talked to her dead granddad.

Aged 42, she moved from Holland to Australia, where she was taken to a psychic fair by a friend. “The psychic refused to read me because she thought I was taking the mickey.” Reassured that wasn’t the case, she told Harvey she should follow her gift, which she has done successfully for the past eight years.

Blissfully Dead is available from the author ($24) at blissfullydead.com, or a number of books shops, including Arc of Joan, and Amazon.