Melody Writes

  Vampire War is about a future where the entire world has been overrun by feral vampires. The remnants of humanity live in a giant airship that flies around in perpetual sunlight. The series follows Alex Goddard and her team, friends, and enemies as they work to protect humanity and solve the mystery of the vampire apocalypse over six action-packed books. I had an absolute blast with this series. Someone, please, pick this up as either a set of action movies, or better yet, an X-COM style video game. Cruising around the world in an airship fighting vampires? Sign me up! I listened to the first few books on audio, but was so excited to see what came next, that I switched over to e-book to get through them faster. Since I burned through them so quickly, it's going to be easier for me to write a full series review rather than parse out each individual book. I'm going to keep this mostly spoiler-free like a regular review and only hint at plot points in the later books. However, s...

First off, let me say that this is a fantastic resource for any horror lover. Sadie Hartmann has outdone herself with this guide. She has a fresh engaging rhythm that kept me reading about each book, even in the categories of horror that do not really interest me. I recommend grabbing this book in print, rather than e-book, because it makes such a great addition to my library. That said, before I read this book, I thought of myself as relatively up to date on horror. Hartmann has completely shattered that illusion. Of the 101 horror books listed here, I have read an embarrassing one of them, with one DNF, and two others sitting in my To-be-read pile. To remedy this shame, I have worked my way through the suggested books and the featured authors to curate a list of 32 horror books that I will be reading over the next year. I had no intention of reading all 101 because then people would be free to murder me. There are also some categories of horror that do not appeal to me such as cosmic...

Original Review posted to Goodreads August 6, 2016   The Review: Well, I finally did it. I finally finished the Wheel of Time. And to be honest, I don't know how I feel. The series is too long already, but I want some more detail on some things and more of a look into the aftermath. I listened to A Memory of Light as an audiobook** and I think that helps add something to the immensity/feel of it. This is not the first time I've blogged about this series. It's a tricky one to write about and I'm contemplating a reread of the series in the future so I can write about the novels I read years ago and barely remember. We'll see. A Memory of Light is the last one, and I don't think that this will be one of those "it's over, but oh wait, here's some more" kind of things. The author, Robert Jordan, passed away. Actually, he passed away before the series was even finished. Brandon Sanderson took over and wrapped it up nicely. What I've ...

 Original review posted to Goodreads on August 6, 2016 More of a discussion of my time with the series than a proper review. The Original Review: What can I say about Game of Thrones that hasn't been said a million times? Instead, I'll recap my own journey with Martin's epic saga. I began with the TV show. My feelings were mixed - I hated most of it, but there were a few people I cared about and enjoyed watching - Dany, Sansa. I made it through season 1 still uncertain, but I eventually landed on the side of "dislike" and as a defence mechanism against the constant barrage of peer pressure, I turned my dislike into hatred. Ask anyone and I was the most adamant anti-GoT person around. The problem was it was EVERYWHERE. I could not escape it. And well... you can't say no to peer pressure, right? Come on, you know you can't. Just give in. All the cool kids are doing it. So I gave in. I started up with season 2 and marathoned it until I was up to d...

The World Outside is Elad Haber’s debut collection of twenty-one short stories. There is a wide variety to this collection including fairy tale retellings, post-apocalyptic science fiction, and stories about grief. It’s hard to find one overarching theme that binds the stories together, but if I were pressed to pick one, it would be the human experience. Even with such different subject matter, at the heart of each story are people living, hating, surviving. I’m not going to review each of the twenty-one stories, but I’ll talk about the ones that stayed with me the longest. Ophelia and the Beast: Haber opens his collection with a mashup of Hamlet and Beauty and the Beast. Ever since reading Hamlet in high school English, I have been interested in Ophelia and her dismal fate. Haber’s Beast rescues her from death and gives her new life in this short piece. It Only Rains at Night: One of the post-apocalyptic tales that dominate so much of the collection. In this one a young girl is trappe...

Author Profile: Dorothy Allison    Picture from Wikipedia On November 6, 2024, at the age of 75, Dorothy Allison, a brilliant author and a personal favourite of mine passed away. In honour of her memory, and the impact her writing had on me, I am writing my first Author Profile. Who Was Dorothy Allison? Allison was born in Greenville, South Carolina in 1949 to fifteen year old Ruth Gibson Allison. Her father died while she was a baby and her mother worked as a waitress and a cook and eventually remarried. Allison's stepfather was both physically and sexually abusive. Later, she and her family moved to Florida, and Allison became the first person in her family to graduate from high school. She later went on to earn a Master's Degree in urban anthropology. Her most famous book is probably Bastard Out Of Carolina , a semi-autobiographical tale about a young girl growing up in South Carolina, involving themes of religion, abuse, and class. It was published in 1992 and later adapte...

My self-publishing journey continues!  I have now worked my way through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing page and set up Thin Slices, officially. It was a bit daunting learning about price points, key words, categories, and everything, but it was also exciting. On January 12, 2025, my book will be released into the world. Thin Slices will come in both e-book and paperback. As of right now, only the e-book is available for pre-order, but I'll be opening up paperback pre-orders soon enough. For the first 90 days, Thin Slices will be exclusive to Amazon, and available to all Kindle Unlimited subscribers. After that, I have plans to expand to other platforms. Pre-order here! Premise: Welcome to Thin Slices , the debut collection from Melody E. McIntyre, writer of short, dark fiction. With over 90 stories, all less than 1000 words apiece, this little book is bursting with scares. Melody drew her inspiration from history, mythology, science fiction, monsters, ghosts, and secre...