About Melanie

Melanie w Jaguar

Near Mexico City, with Aztec Jaguar

The Basics…

I earned a BS in Photography from University of Maryland at Baltimore County, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Virginia Commonwealth University, and I’ve been writing fiction for about thirty years.

My short fiction has appeared in publications such as The Pearl, The Tusculum Review, Fiction International, Zahir, UnCommon Origins: A Collection of Gods, Monsters, Nature, and Science, and Parhelion. My short fiction collection is The Evolution of Reptilian Handbags and Other Stories, and I edit See the Elephant, a magazine of speculative fiction.

Going Deeper…

I am an iconoclast, DIY kind of person. I would rather take my time and figure things out for myself, then try to fit in someone else’s shoes. I leap into the abyss on a regular basis and see where I land. It’s not always the easiest way, but I recommend it, despite the skinned knees and bruises that sometimes result. Without them, I wouldn’t quite understand the world. I wouldn’t have compassion for the mistakes of others if I hadn’t made so many myself. I wouldn’t be able to tell stories.

For me there are no distinctions between spirituality and work, or art and life. As much as people and places do, stories and ideas have the power to transform me at my foundations. I’m interested in books that wake me up or make me dream, those that explore the intersection of subjective and consensual reality, and the spaces we inhabit when we step more fully into our truth.

In recent years, I’ve been at work on a cross-genre novel that combines horror, suspense, metaphysical and gothic elements to explore the abuse of power and the exploitation of the vulnerable by corrupt individuals and institutions.

I’ve also become a climate change educator and lobbyist, which is a large reason why this blog is not updated more often. Activism is not what I dreamed of doing in my spare time, but I feel that we all have a responsibility to the future to solve this crisis while there is still time. There are solutions out there, but many people don’t know what they are. Many have given up, but that will leave future generations living in a post-apocalyptic world. I can’t accept that, and I hope you won’t either. To learn more about a bi-partisan bill that would reduce carbon emissions by 90% by 2050, visit www.energyinnovationact.org.

Thank you for visiting!