I 'met' Melissa (Missy) Shirley through the website ladieswhocritique.com on 13th March 2014. I'd been plodding along on a story and needed an opinion on whether it was worth continuing. (That story is currently the one I refer to as my dead horse. The one I take it out of the drawer every so often and dust off... and Missy still loves it, so that feels important.)
I've been thinking back over our year, and Missy has achieved an incredible amount. She is like a writing machine. Seriously. I keep joking with her that she's able to sneeze stories out, but part of me wonders if that's kind of true. Either that, or she somehow writes the things in her sleep, or has a time machine that she hasn't granted me access to, because I'm not sure how she's doing it, otherwise. Best of all, her writing - great to begin with - just keeps getting better. She'll start finding me far less useful at this rate.
In the past 12 months, she's had her book For The Love of...Geese? published via the Decadent Publishing Beyond Fairytales line, another contracted by them and due for publication next month (scroll down for an exclusive cover reveal!), and she has a third contract in hand with the pre-order up on Amazon. She has multiple works in progress at various stages, some in need of overhaul, and some just that final polish. Possibly, she is secretly a machine codenamed Missy, and no one told me my CP is an automated cyber person.
I am privileged to get to read her stories at their very earliest stages, and to comment on them, or laugh at the jokes and suggest additional ones. Her small town characters are engaging and quirky, witty and loveable. She writes excellent book boyfriends and towns where you'll want to live.
If you're looking for a fun read, try something of Missy's... and keep your eye on her. She's going places. :-)
Seriously, Missy writes great stories and has been my biggest cheerleader and nag for the past 12 months. Her support has been totally above and beyond - anyone fancy helping me edit 65K in three days? Thought not... but Missy did. I'm sure she reads until she's ready to rip her eyes out, and then she just reads some more. If I could bottle her, I'd let you all have some.
It's been a fun year - here's to all the rest!
So, as promised... here is the cover reveal for Missy's next book "Reading His Mind". It's due for publication by Decadent Publishing on 14th April 2015.
Are You Ready?
Really?
Keep going...
Nearly there...
Ta-dah!
Blurbs and excerpts and all that good stuff to follow, soon.
Lastly, and she might kill me for doing this if she didn't live an ocean away...
Missy in her own words:
I have been married for 23 years and together we have 8 kids. While both a blessing and sometimes a curse (think Christmas shopping), I find them each to be beautiful and smart and wonderful and exhausting.
I have always written, but with life, and the kids, writing fell by the way side. When a horrible tragedy struck our lives, I found that it was easier to get through each day if I could leave my own life for a bit and escape somewhere wonderful and magical. I read a ton of books looking for that place, and while a lot of them were simply amazing, I thought, hey, I can do this. I can create a haven for myself. And thus, Storybook Lake was born along with all the wonderful characters that I have grown to love.
Through writing, I have met some really spectacular people - both real and on paper and I wouldn't trade any one of them. For that reason alone, I will continue to write, both to share my life with the real friends I have met and to keep the love blossoming for the characters I create.
Keep in touch with Missy in the following ways:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/missyshirley2 @missyshirley2
I just can't say enough how much I appreciate my great CP. :-) I bug her literally all the time... chat, chat, chat over our hangout from the moment I wake up, until I finally turn my light out at the end of the day.
Thank you, Missy. :-) I'm super-lucky to know you, and seriously proud of all you've achieved.
