I’m Melissa. Please don’t call me Mel. I grew up on the Internet, and also on two different continents. I’ve been writing since I was 4, except I didn’t know words then, so I was drawing. Once I did learn what words were, it was the end (or the beginning). My first short story was illustrated (also by me - this is not a profession that stuck) and was about two wolves falling in love. One wolf was from the other side of the tracks. (This is a trope that did stick with me.)

I write in all genres, but have mostly called myself a poet since 2022 when I was suddenly possessed by an eager ghost of poetic creativity and cranked out like 13 poems in a year. This probably isn’t a lot for some people, but it was a big deal for me. One thing led to another, and I published my first chapbook in the fall of 2023. It’s about my Dungeons & Dragons campaign. No, really. Never let anyone tell you play isn’t important!

I’ve won some awards for my work, but I’m of the fanfiction.net era…so what I love the most is a really hefty comment of what exactly people like about a piece. I also love an em dash. I hate that they’ve been co-opted by LLMs. And I LOVE a comma. God forbid a girl want to pause.

Out there, in the real world, I am a government relations/communications professional, know a lot about Japanese pop culture, and have a cat named Bagel.