Guest Post: Melissa Pearl

Hey everyone! Today I would like to introduce you all to Melissa Pearl, indie author of the debut YA book, Golden Blood. She was so kind as to do a guest post for my blog and I hope you all enjoy it!

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Let Me Tell You a Story
By Melissa Pearl
I was the little girl whose mother had to call three times to get her attention, because my brain was in the middle of an important scene. I was the kid who didn't hear the teacher's instructions, because my MC had just found out the most shocking news of her life. I was the teenager who walked to class, imagining some sexy high school athlete striding along beside me with his arm around my shoulders.

Man, am I a space cadet, or what?

I don't do it on purpose! I just have an insatiable imagination. I remember lying awake for hours after lights out writing myself into movies and TV shows. I'd adjust scenes, making up new characters to fit in with current storylines. I constantly had new ideas buzzing in my brain. I can still picture some of the scenes I made up, like a movie in my mind.

I get such a buzz out of creating new worlds and characters. It was my all time favorite hobby and I didn't even know it. But one day, that all changed...

I was hanging out with my bestie at the beach. We were watching our fellas boogie boarding and she asked me what I was thinking. I told her about the story that was playing in my head and she said, "You should write it down. You know... write a book."

Something inside me sparked and my fingers itched for a keyboard. I got home that night and wrote my first five chapters in one sitting. It was so much fun. I spent whatever spare minutes I could find nutting out the rest of the story and before I knew it, I was done. I handed it around to a few friends and they all loved it. I'm sure they weren't just being nice ;-)

That was ten years ago now and when I look back, I realize how bad my writing was. I have written ten more novels since then and have delved into the study of writing. The work I produce today is much more publishable and I'm so excited to finally have my first book out there, Golden Blood.

This YA novel was inspired by Twilight. Now, don't go rolling your eyes. There are no vampires in this book. I thought about what I LOVED in Twilight. For me, it was the relationship between Edward and Bella. I wanted to write something like that too. So, I gave it a shot and discovered a world, and romance, way cooler than I thought I could ever imagine.

As you may have guessed, I love to lose myself in another world. I love to jump out of reality and take a break with new characters and situations that I would never encounter normally. The reason I'm risking it all and sharing Golden Blood with the world, is that I want to give other people the chance to do the same thing.

Stories born from the imagination are magic, they should entertain us, teach us, make us laugh, make us swoon and make us cry.

Stories should be shared... that's why it's called story telling.

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Thank you so much Melissa for that great guest post! Hope all of you out there enjoyed reading it and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments. And don't forget to check out Melissa's book, Golden Blood.