Melissa writes horror and thriller novels and short fiction. She also works as a freelance editor and marketing consultant. She currently lives in Italy with her family.
Favorite books: Station Eleven, Pride and Prejudice, The Broken Earth Trilogy, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Black Leopard Red Wolf, Tenth of December, The Sparrow… and so many more.
Favorite authors (excluding authors of the books above, though they belong in this list too): Tana French, Joe Hill, Gillian Flynn, Yann Martel, Jeff VanderMeer
Favorite movies: Death Proof, Pump Up the Volume, Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion
Favorite TV shows: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dark, Beef
Publications
The Back Orchard, published in Dark Moon Digest.
The Edge of the Wild, finalist for the Stuff You Should Know podcast’s inaugural Halloween short story contest, published in Disturbed Digest by Alban Lakes Publishing.
The Hangar, published in Mistresses of the Macabre, an anthology by Dark Moon Books. Here's a review.
Work in progress
Currently editing a sci-fi mystery, mostly to make sure the science is (somewhat) accurate. It’s compete at around 80,000 words
Trying not to think about the structural edits needed on a completed ~95,000-word horror novel
Four short stories and two flash fiction pieces under submission to various markets
Too many short stories in various stages of assembly/disassembly
What am I reading?
Nonfiction: Never Saw Me Coming, by Tanya Smith
Fiction: On Beauty, by Zadie Smith; The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield
Short stories: I’m finding so much to love at Bourbon Penn, On the Premises, Story Unlikely, and Apex Magazine, among others.
Get in touch
If you’d like to reach out, please do! Or if you’d just like to know if a new book or story comes out, please sign up for my newsletter using the form below.