Melissa Ivanco-Murray

We’re still settling into our new house in Ohio, and I’m not nearly as far along with my unpacking as I’d hoped. We’re getting the floors redone (some gnarly old carpets need to be ripped up), so I can’t even move most of my furniture into its final resting place yet...which doesn’t help matters. Thus, about 75% of my belongings are still boxed up in the basement or garage. But hey, at least we have a garage now so that I actually have a place to keep these things for the tim

First off, sorry I missed my last two scheduled posts. Alas, moving has proven a much more complicated process than anticipated. Between fighting with the moving company to get my stuff in the first place—they missed TWO scheduled deliveries, claiming their “truck was broken” (they only have one??) without giving me any notice; I had to call multiple times to find out WHY my stuff wasn’t there yet—and then, once they finally brought my stuff, they dropped my upright piano on

Alright, so this has been a long time in the works—with a lot of back and forth—but I suppose I should share the big news. As the title says: we’re moving to Ohio! My husband is graduating from the Virginia Maryland School of Veterinary Medicine, and he took a job at a wonderful clinic in Marietta, Ohio (which is right on the border with West Virginia along the banks of the Ohio River). It’s a gorgeous location and a historic city with a unique background—the origin of the Un

Alas, we used to practice in Bob's Basement Confession time: I haven’t guitared in forever. Ever since I started working on The Night Chemist (working title), I have had a hard time motivating myself to focus on my music. At first, it was because I just I was so excited about my new project; the novelty kept me hooked. Then, I started to stagnate. I found myself playing the same songs over and over, mindlessly, rather than trying to actually improve or learn/write anything n

I've got news! Sort of. It's small news. I have been bouncing the idea around for a while now of creating a brand new mailing list from scratch, since I never really figured out how to get the first one going with any consistency. They have a ton of new tools nowadays for organizing and scheduling email newsletters, so I'm going to try this again! I've got a lot of topics and exclusive goodies and such that I plan on covering in these emails, but I promise I won't spam your i

Now that March is almost half gone, I suppose I should actually explain why I’ve been more active on social media than usual: I am participating in a social media/writing challenge with one of the writer groups I’m in. With querying being as slow and frustrating of a process as it is, it can be difficult to maintain momentum and motivation while playing the waiting game. It’s hard not to resent the “gatekeeping,” even though I know it’s not the agents’ fault that they can acc

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