Writing, Design, and Marketing for Writers
Melissa's BOOKS
BEAUTIFUL GIRL, 2024
Extraordinary stories from my last 12 days with Española's Purple Lady, Rosalía Triana.
In the last days and minutes of her gorgeously generous and crazy life, Rosa taught me how not to fear death and begin to understand that even dying is living.
DIZZY SUSHI, 2013
From a gaijin youth hostel to an ancient Kyoto farmhouse, “Dizzy Sushi” tells the tale of a year of being an outsider in a country that is a paradox of beauty and difficulty. As each chapter unfolds in a new house, this traveling couple grows further apart until a startling discovery pulls them back together to make the decision of their lives.
An artfully detailed, articulate, and authentic memoir of self-discovery, “Dizzy Sushi” is about what can happen when you test the boundaries of culture and commitment.
ANGEL SOMEONE, 2010
A lyrically written novella that takes you from the heart-stopping scene of an accident through the minutes, hours, days and months that follow the tragic death of a pet, and the grief and healing of a family. “Angel Someone” is a uniquely-told story about the love of a pet even after they’re gone, and the emotional impact such a loss carries. If you are looking for a contemporary, thought-provoking book for someone who has just lost a pet, “Angel Someone” will share their grief and comfort them.
KIZUNA: FICTION FOR JAPAN, 2011
Three prefectures in northeastern Japan are devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, and a massive tsunami that takes the lives of 20,000 people. 75 authors from 11 countries came together to collaborate on a mixed-genre anthology of short stories to benefit the orphans of the disaster-stricken Tohoku area. Horror, humor, human drama, science fiction, fantasy, absurdist, bizarro, weird, new wave, bugpunk, Cthulhu, Sherlock Holmes, historical fiction, “I” stories, crime, and much more.