Interview with Melanie Dickerson

Today we have award-winning author Melanie Dickerson with us. She is best known for her historical novels based on the retelling of famous fairy tales. Melanie earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama and has taught students with special needs in Georgia and Tennessee. She has also taught English to adults in Germany and Ukraine. Dickerson won the 2012 Carol Award in young adult fiction and the 2010 National Readers’ Choice Award for best first book. Her novels The Healer’s Apprentice and The Merchant’s Daughter were both Christy Award finalists. She lives with her husband and two daughters near Huntsville, Alabama.

Welcome Melanie!

1) When did you realize you wanted to become a writer?

I realized I wanted to be a writer around the time I was in 7^th grade, but I put writing aside when I graduated high school and went to college. I decided trying to be a published author was not practical. I picked it back up about 15 years later, which was definitely one of my better decisions.

 

2) Tell us a little about your books.

I write fairy tale retellings set in Medieval Europe—historical romance. All my books are stand-alones which can be read out of order, but they are also loosely tied together. In my Young Adult series, Fairy Tale Romance, the 6^th book is releasing Nov. 17 and is a Rapunzel retelling, The Golden Braid. The first book in my other series, The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest, released last May and is a mash-up of Robin Hood and Swan Lake. I also have a new series called The Regency Spies of London, which you might imagine are set in Regency England. They’re basically an homage to Jane Austen, with some spying thrown in.

 

3) What was your favorite book as a teen?

Gone With the Wind, Pride and Prejudice, and Sea Hawk. (Too hard to pick just one. It changed from one year to the next.)

 

4) What is the one author, living or dead, who you would like to co-write a book with someday, and why?

Charlotte Bronte. She could write the sad, depressing parts and we could collaborate on the rest.

 

5) Describe your feelings when you opened the box and saw the first published copies of your very first book?

I felt a little sick. I wondered if people would love it or hate it. I felt exposed. I know I should have been overjoyed, but I have been happiness-challenged most of my life. I guess it’s the Charlie Brown Syndrome. (Is that a thing?)

6) Star Wars or Star Trek?

Star Wars

 

7) Favorite season?

Spring

 

8) Do you have a particular drink or food you consume when you write? Like cocoa, raspberry tea, chocolate?

I drink hot tea in the mornings, mostly flavored green tea, but if I ate while I wrote, I’d be in big trouble! I do love Lindt dark chocolate truffles. I try not to eat more than one a day, but I’m quite sure they enhance my creativity. *wink wink*

 

9) Favorite color?

Mahogany Red, Magenta, Fushia, Cranberry, most any variation of red.

 

10) Do you have a favorite Bible verse?

There is a Bible verse for any occasion. One of my favorites is “Cast your care on the Lord, for he cares for you.”

 

11) Favorite dessert?

Anything chocolate.

 

12) Do you listen to music while you write? If so what are some examples?

I do sometimes listen to music when I write. I like to listen to Andrea Bocelli. He sings in Italian so the lyrics aren’t distracting. I also listen to Medieval music, mostly instrumental or sung in other languages. It’s not music, but sometimes I listen to coffee shop noise when I write on a site called Coffitivity.com. I don’t know why, but the background noise helps me focus. Weird, huh?

 

13) Does anyone else in your family have musical/writing/artistic skills?

My older daughter is a very good poet. She got a superior, one of only two, at a national competition for high school students in Washington D.C. last year.

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Thank you, Melanie! Here is where you can find her online:

 

You can sign up for her newsletter on her website, www.MelanieDickerson.com on the left side of the Home page.

She’s on facebook a lot, and she has a personal page https://www.facebook.com/melanie.dickerson.author as well as an author page https://www.facebook.com/MelanieDickersonBooks and she loves to interact with readers on either.

She’s also on twitter https://twitter.com/melanieauthor

And now Pinterest too https://www.pinterest.com/dickerson3046/