Melissa Ivanco-Murray

I hate generative AI with every fiber of my being, so let’s get that out of the way right now. Does my hatred make this analysis biased? Probably. Does it matter in the long run? Probably not, because the objective evils of gen-AI are pretty overwhelmingly obvious to anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together. Before we go further, a TW: Violence, self-harm. If either concerns you, skip the next paragraph. Environmental impacts from massive data centers aside—a

It’s almost time for MilSpouse Stuff Your Kindle Day , where a bunch of us military-affiliated authors got together and decided to make an e-book FREE for the day! This year: it’s May 8th. So consider this your heads up so you can add that date to your calendars. For the entirely of 8May26, you can stuff your kindle (or whatever else you use to read e-books) with a bunch of fiction and nonfiction alike, all written by veterans, servicemembers, and spouses! There are more of u

Vasilisa Mikulishna, as drawn by yours truly in ProCreate on my iPad Because of my fun doctoral research into Slavic warrior women (in case you missed any of the series of blogs I’ve been posting), I was approached to contribute an article for an anthology about Russian radicals and folklore. While the timing isn’t optimal, between querying The Night Chemist, my husband about to graduate vet school, and us being about to move to a different state...I accepted. Because I have

So on the 29th I’ll be throwing my proverbial hat into the proverbial pitching ring by participating in the QuestPit event on social media. I deleted my Twitter account after Elon took it over (ew), which is where the pitch event originated, but it looks like you can do the whole QuestPit thing on Instagram, Bluesky, & Threads now, too. So here’s hoping someone actually bites on my pitch. Querying sucks, as many aspiring trad-pub authors before me have said and many more afte

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

Alright, time to put out another call for beta readers! I’m going to be pretty selective with who gets to give feedback on this one, 1) because it’s a short story, 2) I plan on using this as a freebie story for people who sign up for my mailing list, and 3) I want to prioritize those beta readers who actually read fast and give good feedback. So yeah  Initial round of revisions and tweaks and edits for “Poisoned Plums” is complete, so it’s time to get a set of eyes on it—or

I do a lot of things when I’m not writing, and not just guitaring. I’m an all-around creative person. I am constantly in a state of creation. Sometimes I sew clothes or costumes or crafts, sometimes I make jewelry, sometimes I make seasonal wreaths because I’m never happy with what’s hanging on my front door...but a lot of times, I draw. I used to paint, but that got messy. Then I went crazy with my Copic markers, but I had a kid and those are way too much temptation for him,

Alrighty, so I’m done with my first draft of the short story, “Poisoned Plums,” that I’ve been working on the past few weeks. Well, maybe a month. I forget when exactly I got the idea and began brainstorming how best to turn that idea into a story. How long I've been working on it isn’t important lol. What is important is, now that the first draft is done, I can take a short break to work on something else before diving back in for the initial round of revisions and rewrites

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

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

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

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