Melanie Atkins is a multi-published author of romantic suspense. Writing is more than an escape for her—it’s a way of life. She grew up in the Deep South listening to tall tales and penning stories about her cats. Now she writes gripping stories of love, suspense, and mystery with the help of her furry little feline muses.

With suspense as her forte, Melanie needed to do research… so in 2007, she attended Forensic University, her first law enforcement/forensic oriented conference, sponsored by the St. Louis chapter of Sisters in Crime. Since then, she has attended Lee Lofland’s Writers’ Police Academy five times and participated in three local Citizens’ Police Academies, two with the Jackson Police Department, and one sponsored by the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office. She discovered there’s nothing like riding along with a cop on patrol to get her adrenaline pumping.

Melanie is an active member of Sisters in Crime (SinC), Mississippi Writers Anonymous, the Red Dog Writers, the Gulf Coast Writers Association, the Southern Writers, the Mississippi Writers Guild, and the Byram Writers’ Group. In addition, she blogs about her favorite television show, ABC’s Castle, with Lee Lofland on his Graveyard Shift blog. A link may be found on her Links page under Extra.

You may contact her via email at melanie @ melanieatkins.com (no spaces)

Flip and Widget

“All life is material” is one of my favorite writing quotes, meaning that everything we see, everything we experience, every one we meet is fair game as we plot our stories. High-powered glitz and the mundane, anger and humor, frailty and strength—all combine to make our lives tangled webs, and help to add spice to our writing.

Writers are a strange bunch, and we tend to stick together. Nothing’s more fun than spending a Friday evening plotting murder and mayhem with good friends. Everything is in play in during these plotting parties—news stories, gossip, even fairy tales. So watch out—one day YOU might become the fodder for an eager author’s intricate plot.

I get my ideas from all of the above, including dreams. I’ve been known to jump up in the middle of the night to jot down story ideas. I’ve also nearly had a wreck trying to log plot points while driving. This is NOT a good idea. (I’ve since bought a digital voice recorder—LOL.)

I’m working hard to sell to another publisher. But whether my books are eventually in print or electronic format, I hope you will enjoy them. My stories are scary and suspenseful, but all have the requisite happy ending. For to me, nothing satisfies like romance.

Write on!