Blog | Melissa A. I. Murray

Short story in the works: "Poisoned Plums"

I haven’t posted much about my own writing in a while, so I figured we’re due an update on that front. Last month I started working on a short story that takes place about six months prior to the beginning of The Night Chemist (working title). In broad strokes, the short story involves Aylin Aga (26) investigating whether she is the intended target of a potential poisoning, which took down one of her professors, all while studying for her chemistry licensing exam. Thus, we g

19 hours ago3 min read

Slavic Warrior Women, pt. 1: Introduction

Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy : Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore Last May, I graduated with my PhD from the University of Virginia in Slavic Languages & Literatures. Over the course of my research (almost seven years from my first day of grad school through defending my dissertation), many many MANY folks told me my topic sounded fascinating. Obviously, I’m biased, but I agree. Since I get so many questions and requests to read it, ge

5 days ago7 min read

Slavic Tarot is Sold Out for Good

I posted about this on Instagram a while back as my stock of Slavic Tarot decks was dwindling and then, alas, exhausted, but I figured I should probably talk a bit more about its creation process and why I ultimately discontinued printing it here, for those who are curious or have been pressing me to make another printing. I’ll begin with why I stopped, which I guess is beginning with the ending: printing costs have skyrocketed. They are absolutely bonkers high right now.

Mar 24 min read

February Book Review: She Who Became the Sun

As promised, I’m back with a more thorough review of my favorite February read: Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun . Going to try to do this without giving away too many spoilers, but we’ll see how well I succeed. I’ll start with just a copy/paste of the book blurb from Goodreads, because I don’t feel like inventing my own blurb when a) writing blurbs is HARD, yo and b) the blurb already exists. Work smarter, not harder. In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yel

Feb 284 min read

February Reading Roundup

In my efforts to post more consistently this year, I’ve decided to do a reading roundup at the end of each month to rate the books I’ve read that month and share a few notes about each, and then I’ll do a longer book review of my favorite read. My reading habits are all over the place and I am a chronic re-reader of my old favorites, so fair warning: not all the books I’m going to post in these roundups will be new releases (or even from the past decade). I’m drawn to older w

Feb 265 min read

Olga's Burning Sparrows: Music Release!

My band released two songs this past year (first was actually in 2025, but it was less than a year ago, so I stand by my statement), and I never got around to making any kind of big announcement over here about it, considering I never made any real announcements about anything over here. But hey, better late than never, right? So I thought I’d include links to where you can listen to both our tracks and where you can read the lyrics! So enjoy these nifty embedded players I

Feb 232 min read

Playlist for The Night Chemist

If you haven’t noticed from the website background, I’m a musician. Specifically, I’m a guitarist and a vocalist. Music is a huge part of my life and always has been. I’ve played the guitar since I was ten, and I’ve been singing since I first learned to speak. One of my earliest memories is of playing in the kiddie pool in my backyard, circa age three or four, making up a song about trees. All that to say, I like music. A lot. I’m not one of those writers (or readers) who l

Feb 194 min read

I’m back! It’s been a while (My bad)

Alright. So. I know it’s been a hot minute since I’ve written on here—like, a scorching hot minute—and there are a multitude of reasons for that. Chiefly among them, I’ve been exceedingly busy. Turns out, raising a toddler is a full-time gig in and of itself...and on top of that, I’ve been protesting, writing, guitaring, making art, and in general being a societal nuisance to the best of my ability because these are some dark times, and we need some good trouble. At the end o

Feb 162 min read