Melody Writes

Cinderella has always been one of my favourite fairy tales. It’s classic and comforting. A beautiful girl in a difficult situation endures hardship and eventually, escapes to a better life. People often reduce it to being “rescued by a man”, but it is Cinderella’s kindness, strength, and endurance that make this story timeless. One consequence of being such a popular tale is that the adaptations and retellings are infinite, which is why I get excited when I find a retelling with a fresh, new take on this age-old story, like Freya Marske’s Cinder House. Cinder House opens with tragedy. Ella’s father is dead, murdered by his new wife, Patrice. Moments later, Ella follows in his footsteps, but instead of fading into oblivion, Ella becomes a ghost, bound to the house in which she was murdered. In the classic tale, Cinderella is abused by her stepmother and stepsisters; she is forced to complete all their chores and is treated like a slave in her own home. Ella’s plight is similar, but with...

For my final post featuring the 2025 SSBA Artists, I present Evan J. Peterson, the winner of the Fantasy category. Spoiler alert for the upcoming review - I am halfway through this book and loving it! As usual, more information on the SSBA can be found here , and links to all of my other SSBA posts can be found here . Side note, nominations are open for the 2026 awards - so send them in ! On to the author spotlight!    Evan J. Peterson - Author Biography Evan J. Peterson is a game writer, novelist, and poet. His first novel, Better Living Through Alchemy, won the Small Spec Book Award for fantasy fiction, and other works include METAFLESH: Poems In the Voices of the Monster; Drag Star!, the world’s first drag performer RPG; and The Road to Innsmouth: Arkham Horror. His writing has appeared in Weird Tales, PseudoPod, Queers Destroy Horror, and Nightmare Magazine. POSTHUMAN, his next RPG, is coming in 2026 from Choice of Games. Evanjpeterson.com can tell you more. Where ...

Today's feature is the second last one for the SSBA Finalists of 2025! I bought this book, forgetting it was an SSBA Finalist book based on the awesome title,  The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits , and I cannot wait to dive in! As usual, more information on the SSBA can be found here , and links to all of my other SSBA posts can be found here . Side note, nominations are open for the 2026 awards - so send them in ! On to the author spotlight!   Ben Berman Ghan - Author Biography Ben Berman Ghan is the author of The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits (Buckrider Books, 2024), as well as Behold the Dead (Anstruther Press, 2025), Visitation Seeds (845 Press, 2020) and What We See in the Smoke (Crowsnest Books, 2019). His prose, poetry and criticism have previously been published in Clarkesworld Magazine, Strange Horizons, The Ex-Puritan and Ancillary Review of Books, and have been reprinted in such anthologies as Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction and Year’s Best ...

Good afternoon! If you're like me, you've been mainlining the Olympics for the last two weeks. I love all Olympics and will watch any event enthusiastically. But... I suppose... there are other things in life, like wrapping up my SSBA Finalist posts. Today, it's Michael J. DeLuca's turn, finalist in the Fantasy category. As usual, more information on the SSBA can be found here , and links to all of my other SSBA posts can be found here . Side note, nominations are open for the 2026 awards - so send them in ! On to the author spotlight!    Michael J. DeLuca - Author Biography Where you can find Michael J. DeLuca:  I'm most active on BlueSky as @michaeljdeluca.bsky.social ; I'm also on Mastodon at @michaeljdeluca.climatejustice.social . If you look back on my website The Mossy Skull , there's some travel writing I did about Guatemala and the Maya. And I also publish a literary magazine which deals with a lot of the same themes as THE JAGUAR MASK:...

Good evening! I hope you are keeping well and staying warm. It's unusually cold here for my region, lately, although, I grew up in colder, so I'm used to it, just a bit out of practice. That just means a lot of staying inside, reading, cross-stitching, and watching Olympics. It also means it's time for another SSBA 2025 Finalist Featured Author. (nice segue!) Today's author is Alvar Theo and their book, Benothinged, a finalist in the horror category. As usual, more information on the SSBA can be found here , and links to all of my other SSBA posts can be found here . Side note, nominations are open for the 2026 awards - so send them in ! On to the author spotlight!    Alvar Theo - Author Biography Alvar Theo lives in Wolverhampton with one old cat and two young dogs, all of whom are colossal pains. They have been writing their entire life, a mixture of screenwriting and prose. Their work has been featured in podcast sketch shows and acting showcases. They have a d...

Good evening! Tonight, my SSBA Author Feature is for the winner of the Horror Category - R. A. Busby author of the book with a title I can't stop thinking about -  You Will Speak for the Dead.  I will be eventually reviewing this book, too (it'll be a bit, I have a bit of a queue right now). But, for now, you can still learn all about R. A. Busby and check out the book yourself. As usual, more information on the SSBA can be found here , and links to all of my other SSBA posts can be found here . Side note, nominations are open for the 2026 awards - so send them in ! On to the author spotlight!    R. A Busby - Author Biography Biography R. A. Busby is the 2020 Shirley Jackson Award recipient for short fiction, and the author of the horror novella Corporate Body (Cemetery Gates, 2023). She is a member of the Horror Writers Association. In her spare time, R.A. Busby watches cheesy gothic movies and goes running in the desert with her dog.  Where you can fi...

Hello again! Slight schedule change on the SSBA posts. Last time, I promised 1 every Sunday, but instead I got sick and missed one. The current plan is to post twice a week (Wednesdays and Sundays) until the posts are complete! Anyway, today's featured author is one of our returning semi-finalist interviewees , Carson Winter, author of A Spectre is Haunting Greentree . As usual, more information on the SSBA can be found here , and links to all of my other SSBA posts can be found here . Side note, nominations are open for the 2026 awards - so send them in ! On to the author spotlight!    Carson Winter - Author Biography Carson Winter is an award-winning author, punker, and raw nerve. His short fiction has appeared in over 20 publications, including Apex , Vastarien , and Chthonic Matter Quarterly. He is the author of Soft Targets , The Psychographist , and A Spectre is Haunting Greentree .  Where you can find Carson Winter:  You can find Carson Winter at carso...

Happy New Year - Hope you enjoyed your holidays! I had a hectic holiday season and am now back full swing at work, life, and writing! And as part of that writing, I'm kicking off with another SSBA featured finalist. This series will continue for the next five Sundays, after which, I'll start reviewing the winning books.   More information on the SSBA can be found here , and links to all of my other SSBA posts can be found here . Today, the author I am spotlighting is Michael Merriam, author of Terror at Tierra de Cobre, and previously included in my semi-finalist series.  Michael Merriam - Author Biography Michael Merriam is the award-winning author of the Weird West and Steampunk series Sixguns & Sorcery . Michael’s work has appeared with Carina Press , Queen of Swords Press , and Uncanny Magazine , among others. He has published fourteen novels, novellas, and collections, as well as over 100 short stories and poems. He is an award-winning playwright and screenw...

Hello and welcome to the first post in my SSBA Finalist Series. I will be highlighting a number of the finalists from the Small Spec Book Awards. The SSBA is all about promoting small press and indie speculative authors. More information on the awards can be found here . The first author I am spotlighting is Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, author of Cursed Under London, and previously included in my semi-finalist series.  Gabby Hutchinson Crouch - Author Biography Gabby Hutchinson Crouch  ( Horrible Histories ,  Newzoids ,  The News Quiz ,  The Now Show ) has a background in satire, and with the global political climate as it is, believes that now is an important time to explore themes of authoritarianism and intolerance in comedy and fiction. The Darkwood Series does so in a funny, engaging way that never loses the warmth of humanity, even as its villainous Huntsmen try to dehumanise their victims as well as anonymising and dehumanising themselves....

After a brief hiatus due to an unexpected illness, I am back with the last round of SSBA Semi-finalists before I start featuring the Finalists and Winners! Check out the first,   second , and third posts! I have two wonderful books/authors left to highlight: More Bugs by Em Reed and Moon Dust in my Hairnet by JR Creaden. Each author has been asked the same questions:  1. What inspired you to write this book? 2. What was your favourite part of writing it?   3. Where can we find you and your work? (socials, blog, website)     More Bugs by Em Reed Dumped, broke and stranded at her mother's house, Amy has few options for escape. Hanging out with her ex comes with getting to know his new girlfriend, someone who looks suspiciously like Amy's younger, straighter doppelgänger. Strapped for cash and desperate to be out of her mother's home, she ends up babysitting the UFO-obsessed kids of the hot working mom down the street. Over a dull, torrid summer in the Pennsylvani...