About The Author

I feel slightly uncomfortable writing about myself. I am much more at home with fictional characters. They have the ability to live the life that I dream about. Not that my life is not good, it is—I just tend to think of my life as ordinary. 

            Born in Long Beach, CA and raised in Torrance, CA I was fortunate enough to live the first thirty-five years of my life near the beach. A husband and four children later found me moving to an equally wonderful spot near Lake Folsom in northern California.

             Much of my writing focuses on issues that young people face. I suppose this is because I have three sons and a daughter. The life of young adults intrigues me. We currently live in a semi-rural area on the outskirts of Sacramento, CA. All of my children love four-wheeling—and yes, I sometimes accompany them. It’s sort of like those thrill rides at Disneyland, without the crowds.

            Like most writers I don’t remember a time when I didn’t write. My first memories are playing with words when I was in kindergarten. One of my earliest recollections of my writing, that got me noticed, was when I was in third-grade. I wrote a note to the principal, with all the concern my eight-year-old life could muster, and asked him to give my teacher some time off because she seemed so tired. That little caring note caused quite a ruckus at my grade school. My teacher, as I recall, got in trouble. My parents were called in while the principal interviewed me. Honestly, she just looked like she needed a few days off. It was written for the purest of reasons. I think that day I began to understand the power-of-the-pen, though I am sure I wouldn’t have been able to articulate it quite that way. I do know I was an early, and avid reader, characteristics sometimes (but not always) associated with budding writers.

            I am an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I have held various callings, my favorite being that of an ordinance worker in the Oakland, California Temple.

You can contact Melissa here!