Melody Writes

This is my third time reading Pelayo’s work, and the first time I’ve been disappointed. Children of Chicago was a dark, masterful retelling of the Pied Piper, and The Shoemaker’s Magician is another unsettling tale based on the urban legend of a lost movie and Greek mythology. Forgotten Sisters, drew me in with the promise of a ghostly retelling of The Little Mermaid, and it sort of is.  This book, like Pelayo’s other Chicago stories, does not follow the plot of the original tale beat for beat. Instead, she pulls characters and themes from the story and fits them to her own story. Anna, the main character, has an obsession with the tale of the Little Mermaid and identifies heavily with Ariel. She lives in her family home with her sister, Jennie. Their parents drowned in the nearby Chicago River, leaving the two girls adrift in their grief. Because of her trauma, and Jennie’s complicated moods, Anna cannot leave her home and feels trapped there, much like Ariel did. Both long for lo...

  Happy Launch Day to my debut collection - Thin Slices: A Collection of Horror Flash Fiction It is not available in e-book, paperback, and on Kindle Unlimited (for the next 3 months)! Description: 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 secret places only accessible by night. These stories may be tiny, but the terrors they invoke are anything but.   I am so proud of this collection. The 92 stories in here were written over a period of four years and published with a variety of small publishers. Previous blog posts about my self-publishing journey as well as sample stories can be found here . Some of these stories are personal, some are inspired by mythology and other interests, some were written for specific projects. And al...

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash Happy New Year! Every January I like to make resolutions/goals for the upcoming year. There are people that will tell you that new years resolutions are stupid or just get broken, but I think that's because people either make unrealistic goals, give up too easily, or fail to adjust throughout the year as needed. A year is a long time and a lot can happen. I will often reevaluate my goals throughout the year to see how things are going and if I need to make some changes.  In 2024, I achieved a good portion of my goals. I met my financial goals, fell a bit short on writing goals, and did not keep up the exercise routine I started. Some may point to this and say "see? failure", but I don't see it that way. In the late summer and fall, I had some health issues that I am still recovering from that derailed my progress, which is something beyond my control. As well, one of my goals was to reach 500 Twitter followers, but instead I ...

Another year of reading complete. Another end of year top book list. This year, I focused more on short stories and have also posted a list of top short stories that I read this year. My total number of books stayed relatively constant - 70 in 2023 vs. 65ish* in 2024, but that includes short story magazines. 2024 was a complicated year for me, personally. A lot of good things happened - trips with family, and some sad things - had to put down my old doggie. I left Twitter and embraced Bluesky. I also started an author newsletter and put together my first story collection. But this space is for the books I read this year, so here are the ones that stayed with me. As usual, in no particular order.   The Lies We Conjure by Sarah Henning I said it upfront in my review and I'll say it again here: I loved this book. Witches. Supernatural thriller. Locked-room murder. Love it. This book was a fast-paced thriller that was a joy to read from start to finish. Full Review on Horror Tree ...

Photo by Courtney Baucom on Unsplash     This year, I tried to shift my focus from novels to short stories and journal about them, with mixed results. I read more short stories, but fell off of the journaling. I found it was slowing me down, and if my journal wasn’t handy, I would put off reading the stories. Eventually, I decided to just enjoy the short stories as they came and not worry so much about journaling. That said, I do want to highlight ten of my favourite stories this year. I am limiting this selection to magazines, newsletters, and free online, not anthologies. This is also by no means an exhaustive list of my favourites, just ten that stayed with me. Listed roughly in the order I read them, I think. 1.  The Grit Born by Frances Ogamba - January 2024 - The Dark A lonely woman, Egoabia, learns about a company called Rebirth which will send special powder that can be moulded into a child. This story was unsettling the whole way through with a brillian...

Original Review written September 11, 2016 on Goodreads (slightly edited here) Heroines starts off with an intriguing premise. Ann-Marie and her daughter, Penelope, maintain a boarding house in the 1970s, and from time to time Heroines from various novels/plays/stories will come and visit them. There is only one rule: you must never interfere with a Heroine's fate. Little Penelope is 13 and on the cusp of womanhood as a daring Hero (or Villain?) arrives chasing down his lost heroine. She is drawn to this dashing stranger and resents the heroines for monopolizing her mother. Sounds pretty sweet, right? Well, in actuality, it's not bad. It's pretty awesome to see the Heroines outside of their story. Some of them include Catherine Earshaw of Wuthering Heights (annoying as ever), Madame Bovary (Which I have yet to read), and Scarlett O'Hara (whom I adore despite her spoiled nature). That part, where the Heroines come is strong and has actually made me want to ...