Melody doesn’t like writing bios because her “how I became a writer” story isn’t the happiest tale. She was raised in a strict religious household that did not encourage free thinking or any deviation from the norm. And that’s tough when you’re the creative kid that sees a norm and runs screaming. Even though she demonstrated significant talent and interest in being a writer or performer, she was told that the arts did not contribute much of value to the world in the way that science and math did, and that pursuing them as a career was both foolish and not worthy of respect. She tried journaling until she found out her mother was reading what she wrote and stopped. And eventually, she did what all good kids trying to please their parents do: she locked her dream away in a box and grew up.

But dreams like those don’t sleep. And they don’t stay put. They rattle the nice presentable boxes we store them in and stare back at us through the keyhole, waiting for the day we realize that what we locked in that box wasn’t our dreams but our power.

Many years later, Melody wrote her first official short story, submitted it to a national writing competition, and placed third in her genre (horror). The Universe wanted to make sure she got the hint and soon after that, she discovered Neil Gaiman and Stephen King, the movie Pan’s Labyrinth and the rich watershed of fairy tales and the occult. She realized that there was a place in the world for her love of dark stories and the written word and that she was the only thing standing in her way.

She picked the lock on that box, set it on fire, and hasn’t looked back.

Melody is currently working on The Necromanteion, a five-book Greek myth rewrite of epic proportions. She also writes short stories and poetry and maintains a blog at her website www.melodywingfield.com so she can stay in touch with her readers and other writers. She is passionate about Method and Muse because she wants to reach writers and other artists who still have their best self locked in a box. She loves public speaking, facilitating workshops, spinning poi, drinking second flush Darjeeling, and doing Tarot readings for friends and fans.

Give her a minute and she’ll make you laugh. Give her a page, though — and she’ll blow your mind.

Like all preschool kids, Becky had imaginary friends. Unlike all preschool kids, she had a lot of them, they went everywhere with her, and she wore her mom out telling her about them. At some point in her childhood, she stopped talking about them, but they were still there in her head.

In third grade, her class took a field trip to the Coca-Cola bottling plant. There was an essay contest afterward about what the students had learned. Becky was one of two kids who won – the prize was a six pack of Cokes (hey, it was the ‘80s, no one thought twice about giving kids soda). But along with those green glass bottles filled with sugary deliciousness, she realized that writing was a place where she had an edge.

Beginning in 6^th grade, she started writing fan fiction. This was pre-internet, so she didn’t know what it was called, but she wrote stories for her BFF about their favorite cartoons (if you’re wondering, it was GI Joe and Voltron). 

Becky liked writing so much that for a while she made a career out of it. She majored in communications in college. After Becky graduated she worked as a journalist, then moved into corporate communications, and finally landed in a job that was totally unrelated to her major but she still used her writing and editing skills on the side. 

But all the while, her imaginary friends kept having their adventures in her head and she’d occasionally write them down. And she’s still writing them down today.

Lance’s love of writing really started in high school. For a short-story assignment, he crafted a tale of horror and woe unlike anything his teacher had ever seen. After a ritual cleansing of the classroom and surviving an attempted exorcism, he realized just how much good writing could affect people. Now, as a husband and father of two attention-starved children, he tries to find time to write in order to share his wit and wisdom with the deserving masses. He is the author of several pithy Facebook comments and is currently attempting to write the novel that will rocket him to author stardom.

Paul published his first book, Paranormal Journeys, in October of 2010 with limited success. It would be another two years before he sat down to start working on another book, this one a novel. After getting laid off from his job at a major insurance company, he decided to start writing a story that had been in his head for several years, and Shadow Born: Book 1 of the Shadow-Borne Chronicles started coalescing into something that resembled a novel. There were quite a few stops and starts along the way, moving from one place to another, switching jobs and trying to figure out what direction to take in both his personal life and the storyline of his novel. Two and half years after it was started, Shadow Born was published on Kindle and Amazon. He has since published book 2, The Dead of Night, also on Amazon and Kindle and is currently working on book 3, Darkness Rising.

Paul is a huge fan of the vampire genre but didn’t want to write the same old story being told by others. Instead, he took a character, figured out what made him different and wrote a book based on the trials and issues that someone might find themselves in if they were ‘human’ but had abilities that made them stronger and faster than a creature of the night. Shadow Born follows the life of Alec Carson, a young man that finds himself in a dark world of immortal beings, dark power plays and an unknown enemy that wants him dead. Pick up your copy today to find out how Alec fares.  You can find more information on Paul at www.paul-cagle.com.