Melanie considers herself to be a romance writer but has written in other genres, as well. Eight of her non-fiction articles have been published, with one being a feature cover article.

Melanie’s debut novel - A Shadow in the Past - was accepted by 4RV Publishing in October 2011 and released in the summer of 2012. Melanie even made the trip to the Kansas Book Festival in September to celebrate the launch of her novel and met her publisher and editor face-to-face for the first time, along with three other authors from the publishing house.

The daughter of a Scottish national, who came to Canada as a ‘Home Child’ through the auspices of The Orphan Homes of Scotland, she’s written an article on her father and until recently only shared it with her local writers’ group. Since then she’s sent it on to Leopard Magazine in Scotland where it appeared in their March 2010 issue. She wrote a similar piece for The Scotsman’s My Story, entitled Memories of a Home Child.

Her father encouraged her to study Highland Dancing and take part in local competitions. Her final competition was in the summer 1969, a few short months after his death, at the 1000 Islands Highland Games, where she won the Silver Medal in the Sword Dance. In addition to being a talented dancer, Melanie took piping lessons and owns her own set of bagpipes though she admits they’ve not been used in a number of years. The neighbours are rather thankful of that.

Growing up, Melanie was an avid reader, and although she only had one book in the series, managed to read the entire set of the Nancy Drew Mysteries (then only about 40 titles) thanks to friends and the local library of which she was a member and still is. Black Beauty, The Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, Anne of Green Gables and other tomes gifted to her over the years still hold places of honour on her filled to capacity bookcases.

To this day, Melanie is still an avid reader. Her other interests include genealogy (in particular the study of ‘Home Children’), photography and travel – particularly Scotland as she feels a strong kinship with her father’s homeland. It was on a trip to Scotland, that she had the honour of meeting The Princess Royal.

A native of eastern Ontario, she spent her pre-school years in a winterized cottage on the shore of the St Lawrence River. Her family moved to town where Melanie received her education. She returned to post-secondary education a number of years later where she received a degree in Computer Programming.

The second book in her YA Crossover series - Shadows from her Past - is still very much a work in progress but she hopes to have it off to her critique partner in the coming months.