Melissa grew up a nomad, finally settling in Utah, though her heart belongs to the Oregon coast. Her love of reading fantasy stories has been a constant in her life and she still remembers the places she lived by the books she was reading there: the Riddle-Master trilogy in New York, the Foundation series in Colorado, Howl's Moving Castle in Texas, Crown Duel in Utah.
That love of reading grew into a love of writing, first critical essays and reviews, then fiction. She also loves roleplaying games, in which she usually plays the rogue. This probably says something about her personality better left unexplored.
Her family includes her husband (a long-suffering man willing to let ideas bounce off him at speed), four children (also long-suffering and happy to live off macaroni and cheese while Mom writes) and three very needy cats, one of whom is so dumb he frequently runs into walls.
