I'm thrilled to share my love for the written word and inspiration with fellow authors. As a creative writing teacher for twenty years and a writer for longer than that, I have a passion both for writing and facilitating the learning and inspiration process. 

2026 Creative Writing Classes: 
Amazing Writing Courses ahead!

• Melanie is excited to teach university courses in both poetry and publishing this winter and a new class in August 2026 (begins August 3, 2026) called Drawing Doodle Comics for Fun and Entertainment.

My Latest Poetry Books:

The Price of Breathing, will be published by Vine Leaves Press in September 2026 and is available for pre-order and reviewing this summer.

About the book: Meet Helen and Harry Crawley, a couple living in the American West in 1951. A letter arrives that will detonate their everyday routine and send Harry swiftly traveling East (to Helen’s protest) to visit his ailing first love, Flora, now a polio patient hospitalized in an iron lung.

What follows—in telegrams, free-verse poems, letters, and postcard text—is a timeless look at relationship dynamics, raising questions about the strength and meaning of first love long after the sweethearts have parted, the teamwork and ties that bind later-in-life bonds, and the challenges of living with chronic illness.

Does It Look Like Her? (February 2024) follows Alix, a forty-something artist, new educator, and mom, and the famous painting she sits for. The poems explore what it means to pursue artistic passion, the personal meanings we overlay onto art and artists in a society not conducive to art-making, ambition at midlife, and the indirect route to so-called overnight success.

***Order my latest books: Writing it Real: Creating an Online Course for Fun and Profit and Writing it Real: Crafting a Reference Book that Sells.

NEW: From Promising to Published now available.

*** Signed copies available at: WritePathProductions.

*** Check out my three-book series for writers.

*** Love flash fiction and nonfiction? In a Flash is in print or e-book formats. 

*** Calling all poets! Poetry Power, a craft book designed and written especially for poets of all writing-skill levels.

*** Where are my fellow shutterbugs? Photography for Writers

NEW! *** Get all three books in one handy collection! Flash Writing Series Collection.

Online classes to sharpen your skills:

(click on class names for more details or to register)

My poetry and fiction:

*** This Passing Fever, a collection of historical poems set in 1918, was published by FutureCycle Press.

• If you'd like a signed copy, I'd be happy to do so! Contact me first with your address at: writer@pa.net.

• I accept Paypal.

• For unsigned copies of This Passing Fever .

If sweet Regency, a la Jane Austen, is your thing, have I got the book for you!

Check out: Her Humble Admirer , a pet project under my pen name, available in e-reader format.

Prompts to fire up your muse:

• You can find my Prompt Cards, Affirmation Cards, and photo prints at my Etsy Store, "WritePath Productions."

Creative Services:

• Want a motivating independent study or critique?

• Need help writing your artist statement, cover letters/submission materials, or organizing or editing a poem, short story, visual art collection, essay, or book?

• Care to creatively brainstorm your project or publication goals and set up a doable plan with an author who's been there?

• Interested in cover art or website imagery for your latest project? My photos have appeared on magazine and book covers and in an exhibition.

Contact me for rates and availability.