Melanie Hooyenga

A Lifetime of Inspiration

A lot of my fellow writers can name an author who inspired them to become writers, or who inspire them to continue writing as adults. Neil Gaiman, Sue Grafton, Judy Blume… the names of these icons roll off their tongues without hesitation. But for me, it’s a little more complicated.

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Guest Author Cover Reveal: Meet Me Under the Stars

For as much as I talk to other authors and read their lovely books, I rarely mention them here — but no more! Today I have the pleasure of hosting the cover reveal for KD Proctor’s MEET ME UNDER THE STARS, releasing on July 18, 2017 from BookFish Books! Check out this beauty… I wanted …

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My Fan Mail to You

The past month has been a whirlwind. We renovated our kitchen, I’ve had four book events (including speaking at a writers’ conference tomorrow), and everyone seems to love The Slope Rules! This is the fourth time I’ve been published and at this point I thought I knew what to expect, but the response has been amazing. AND I’ve been hanging out at the top spot in my category on Amazon. O.o

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My birthday gift to you: The Slope Rules for 99¢!

I’ve never been one to shy away from my birthday, even when I’ll officially be as old as TWO people who can legally drink (but hey, at least now I know the answer to the universe right?) so in honor of my birthday today (yes, I’m a St. Patrick’s Day baby) I’ve dropped the price of THE SLOPE RULES to 99¢!

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Meet the Author!

I’m officially in full promotion mode, which isn’t my favorite part of writing but it’s certainly necessary. But the fun side of that is going to events and meeting readers! Starting this weekend, I have quite a few local — and a couple not local — book and author events and I’d love to see you there!

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…Or You’ll End Up in My Novel

If you hang around authors enough, you’ll hear the phrase “be careful or you’ll end up in my novel.” Many threaten to murder, ridicule, or torture real-life people through characters who may only subtly resemble the characters in the book, but the author knows it’s them. I’ve never killed a character based on a real person—if anything I tend to base characters on people I LIKE—but I have made a few the antagonist. In Fracture, the female bully was based on a particularly lovely woman I worked with, and about two weeks ago I realized who inspired the Snow Bunnies, aka the Snow Bitches, in The Slope Rules.

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Today’s the Day! The Slope Rules is Now Available!

I can’t believe it’s finally here! When I first came up with the idea for this book during the Freakish Snow of 2014 (which also coincided with the 2014 Winter Olympics), I knew it was totally different from anything I’d written before and I didn’t know if I could pull it off. Two years later when I finally started writing (I forced myself to write FADED first so I could finish the trilogy) I realized how fun it could be. And the fun continued until I finished it (for the most part…) and I STILL love this book — which all writers know isn’t always the case.

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