Current Academic Publications
Ivanco, Melissa. "Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy: Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore." PhD Diss. University of Virginia, 2025. https://doi.org/10.18130/19a4-kw60
Ivanco-Murray, Melissa. "Rekindling the Hearth: Slavic Folk Magic in North America." Complete Book of North American Folk Magic: A Landscape of Magic, Mystery, and Tradition. Edited by Cory Thomas Hutcheson. Llewellyn, 2022.
Upcoming Fiction: The Night Chemist
Check back for updates on how the publication process is going for my next book: The Night Chemist! I'm currently in the querying process, on the hunt for an agent. I've just started sending out my queries, so I expect it will be a while before anyone bites. Until then: be patient! I'm going to keep writing. And if by chance *you* happen to be an agent checking out my page to see if I'd be a good fit to add to your client list, I also made a handy Agent Guide to pitch my book in a way that captures the vibes better than a query letter can...and because I need to justify my Canva subscription somehow.
And I can't believe this is even a thing I need to say, but absolutely NO part of this--not the art, not the blurbs, and certainly not the writing (or outlining or editing)--involved the use of generative AI. I am incredibly, enthusiastically, and loudly anti-AI. The art is mine, made in ProCreate on my iPad. I'm not the best digital artist (by far), but it's fun.
Step through the Circle and never be the same!
Once there was only one world, but now there are three. Some say that the splitting of the worlds caused a rift from which the universe may never recover. Find out for yourself by entering a land where science and magic intermingle, and the line between dream and reality disappears. Chaos seeps ever closer to the center.
Welcome, friends, to Aorea.
Destined (Circle, Book 1)
Mari, Gren, and Hal were making the most of the last summer before their senior year. But then Mari met Laria, and the entire world changed. With only a few half-remembered dreams to guide her, Mari leads the group on a quest across unknown lands in a desperate race against the clock. They encounter allies and enemies along the way, including a group of jealous leshii, several ticked off deities, and a dragon whose dinner they inadvertently stole. If they do not reach the sanctuary in time, chaos threatens not only Aorea, but also the world they abandoned: Earth.
Bound (a novella from Aorea)
Now available as an audiobook!
This short novella takes place in between the first book in the Circle series, Destined, and the second, Hidden. Two years after Destined left off, Mari, Gren, and Ruv return to Aorea to pay a debt. However, their plans quickly go awry, and they find themselves caught up in yet another adventure. Join the trio as they shapeshift their way through magical forests, challenge a trickster to a battle of wits, and meet a pair of siblings who could either become powerful new allies or deadly enemies. Find out what happens in the thrilling adventures of Bound.
Hidden (Circle, Book 2)
An unknown shadow brews in the west, clouded from the Spinner's sight. Laria calls the Destined back to Aorea to find and face the darkness she cannot see. Join Mari, Gren, Ruv, and their newest friends as they hunt down the source of the shadow across inhospitable lands, where no one has tread for eons...or at least, so they think. As they uncover Aorea's oldest, most well-kept secrets, they begin to wonder if some truths are better left forgotten.
What readers are saying about the Circle series
Hidden is a wildly entertaining epic adventure novel that keeps you hooked to its pages with its colorful characters, intricate storytelling, and stupendous worldbuilding.
I didn't want it to end! The author has a way of adding details that make you feel like you're in the story sharing space with the characters. I would highly recommend this novella to anyone who's looking for a quick adventure.
Laura B., on Bound
A wonderful new book in the syfy world! I loved all of the characters and every second of the book; I cannot wait for the next book. It was so enjoyable and surprising. Melissa is amazingly talented!!!
Haleigh T., on Destined
Readers' Favorite Magazine
Where the series is headed:
Initially I meant for the Circle series to contain five novels total, with novellas in between each one to supplement the main canon established by the novels. However...I'm not the same writer I was when I started it. The Circle series began when I was still in high school, younger than my protagonists, and it took me ten years to write the first novel, another five to write the second. Even by the end of writing Hidden, I wasn't the same writer as when I began.
Having finished my PhD (another seven years, from start of grad school to receiving that diploma), I'm even further removed from the teenager dreaming up the world of Aorea. If I finished writing those intended books now, they would be drastically different than I once intended. I don't know that my decades later adult brain is capable of doing Mari, Gren, Laria & Hal the justice they deserve. I've thrown myself into other projects: being a mom, fronting a metal band, turning my PhD into a book, and now working on a new series set in a new world entirely.
Thus...the Circle series probably isn't headed anywhere, at least not for the foreseeable future. For those who enjoyed the first two books, I'm so glad you did, and I hope you aren't too terribly disappointed in me. If you want to know what was supposed to happen next, I'm happy to share all the spoilers. But the bottom line (at the bottom) is that I'm not in the right headspace to finish the series as initially intended. Maybe one day I'll return to the world of Aorea, but for now, my focus is the world of Karanlik.