Melissa Groeling's Blog

Hey all!

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that the Bucks County Book Festival is going to be under way this coming weekend in Doylestown, PA. It’s featuring all kinds of craziness and fun – from books to arts and crafts to food trucks and games for everyone – kids included!

I’ll be there from 1pm – 4pm, signing copies of my books with a bunch of equally awesome local authors. We’ll be under the big Indie Author Pop-Up tent – think wedding tents, but without the wedding and with all the fun!

Come and find your next great read and get a couple of laughs in while you’re at it. Nothing says summer is coming like outdoor events!

You know, people make playlists for everything, right? For working out, deep-cleaning the baseboards of your living room, sorting out your closet, all sorts of endeavors. So when I thought, hey, let’s make a playlist for The Feeding, I figured it can’t be that hard, right?

Right?

Wrong.

It literally took me weeks to figure out what to put on this list. I don’t know how anyone does this on a regular basis.

So what we have here is purely 90’s grunge and early 2000’s rock, with a few exceptions. So if you’re into that kind of thing, you’ll no doubt enjoy it. If not….well, I can only ask that you give it a whirl. ♫♫♫

I’m not going to bother putting links in – links are made to be broken. Besides, that’s what Google is for.

So here we go:

Far Behind – Candlebox

Panic Prone – Chevelle

Discoloration – Dawn Golden

Mouth – Bush

The Sound of Madness – Shinedown

Revival – Judah and the Lion

Jars – Chevelle

Monster – Lady Gaga

Time of Dying – Three Days Grace

Burn It Down – Linkin Park

*Bonus Track – Monster Mash – Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers

Cheers, my dudes! Let me know what you think!

Hello all!

Long time, no blog!

I like to think, by now, we’ve all recovered from the holidays but I know there’s a shitload of other things that we’re currently trying to recover from by I digress!

I I will be at the Horsham Township Public Library on February 28th, from 2pm – 4pm for their first ever Read Local Author Showcase Event! We’re hoping for a massive turn-out so that this event could become a yearly extravaganza, where 40 local authors (myself included ), are ready and willing to help you find your next great read, from someone who lives right in your own neighborhood!

So come on in and take a much-deserved break. Bring the kids and let your minds wander through pages of new books just waiting to be discovered.

Hope everyone is having a very merry holiday and looking forward to a bright (and better) new year!

Let’s face it – the holidays are a lot like this picture – chaotic, cute and somewhat pretty with a little bit of everything thrown in for good measure – gingerbread men, a tree, presents, a few snow people and is that a moose?

(yes, that’s a moose.)

Honestly, I’ve been eating so many cookies, I’ve forgotten what real food actually tastes like.

Vegetable? What’s that?

Fruit? Never heard of it.

Protein? Excuse me, but what?

Pretend you never saw me – I hear a cheesecake calling my name…

The Feeding Review Spotlight

Hello there, my dudes!

We have now entered that fuzzy period of time between holidays….where you’re just not sure what time it is, what day it is or if you should bother putting on pants.

So it’s nothing that a book can’t cure, am I right?

RR Book Tours is doing an online book tour my new horror book, The Feeding and I’m super-stoked for it!

All week long, we’ll have reviews, promotions and cool-as-hell book set-ups, all featuring this blood-splattered romp of a story!

Sit back and enjoy the ride, my peeps! Christmas will be here before we know!

It’s not like I get asked about my writing process all the time.

But if I did, it would probably go a lot like this: (start the video below at 0:42)

Yeah, it’s nowhere near exciting as it sounds but I will say this, putting The Feeding together was a bloody, gory, amazing ride…in more ways than one.

I guess you could say it was bound to happen sooner or later. Most of my work is rooted in the thriller/suspense genre so horror is not that big of a leap.

The funny thing is that I hadn’t written anything for two years prior. The…thing, the spark, the whatever-it-is that makes me want to write just wasn’t there. You know what the Sahara Desert looks like? That was the inside of my brain.

Dry and empty.

But then my mom was talking about a blood transfusion she had recently and she called it, “ her feeding.” 

I think my brain actually misfired because I remember looking at her, completely taken aback. And then she smirked at me and she goes, “That’s a good title for a book.”

I was almost afraid to move after that, afraid that this whisper of an idea would disappear into thin air. But it had latched on somehow and turned into something brutal, blood-splattered and fun.

So now here we are, with a whisper of an idea and it’s starting to take a shape as a vampire or two or three.

“But it’s so overdone,” I complained to my dad.

He looked thoughtful for a moment and then he said, “Well, why don’t you make them come from somewhere else?”

Well, shit, this was turning into a family affair, wasn’t it?

At the urging of a friend (who helps me all the time with this website stuff), I unofficially signed up for NaNoWriMo last year. I know, I know, it shut down in April of this year, due to all sorts of weird shit. I didn’t even bother creating an account because the last thing I need is another account but I did commit to the 50,000 words for the month and no one was more shocked than I was when I actually did it!

The Feeding was alive and taking shape and with the word limit commitment of the writing challenge, there was no time to get bogged down in details or spend an entire day looking at one sentence because it didn’t mesh. (cue Cher from Clueless).

I can’t say at all that I did this all by myself. I had so much help and so much support from so many different people. I cannot express my appreciation for every single one of them!

So if your stomach is growling or you’re feeling in the mood for a little bloody mayhem, or maybe you just don’t feel like turning the lights off because of what’s lurking under your bed, pick up The Feeding.

And you won’t sleep a wink.

The Book Fest at Plymouth Meeting Mall was an absolute blast!

I haven’t done one of these in a long time and it felt good to be back at it, although I was pretty sure I had the smallest table there.

But it was still a great time – met a lot of great authors and the people who wandered through the stacks of books were awesome and so sweet. Especially the 10-year-old who thought my scary books should decidedly not be showcased on a holiday-themed tablecloth.

So a big, ol’ hearty thanks to everyone who showed up to support us and those who couldn’t. I know you were there in spirt.

Oh and this is from my brother-in-law. He was having way too much fun today:

Well hello there! Long time no see. It’s been a while since I’ve posted a blog on here (time sure does fly).

Guess what? I wrote another book! Crazy right? It is called The Feeding and it is out on paperback and ebook. I will write a blog post about that writing process soon. But in the meantime, I wanted to update you all that I am attending Plymouth Meeting Mall Book Fest on November 22nd from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm.

This event celebrates great local fiction and non-fiction. You can browse books, engage with authors (like me ), sign-up for giveaways and a raffle, and learn about local writing groups. And the best part is that it is FREE and open to all ages so really it doesn’t make sense why you wouldn’t come.

Come visit me (and 39 other authors) and visit Santa on the same day! The event is presented by the Norristown Norriton Authors Alliance.

I know things have been quiet on the blog but I promise there is more to come soon! As the famous Ferris Bueller quote says, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss my next blog post.”

Looking back on the first death of your life is not easy. For most of us, at that time, we’re too young to fully understand or even appreciate any of it, and that includes whomever is laying in the casket at the front of the room.

But my experience with the first death in my life and my most recent one was a study in a life of someone who was fiercely loved versus someone who was merely tolerated.

Perhaps this is an unfair comparison because the two people were so different. But the outcome was the same. It was known that the first death was of someone who would be sorely missed. It was an approximation that the second person may be missed for a short while, but the relief that followed is more prevalent.

Even though that first person was so loved, there weren’t many talks of remembrances. No shared memories or good times. Only muffled sobs and one horrible, miserable cry that I still, to this day, recall with absolute clarity. The shock of the suddenness of it took a long time to dissipate and the words would not come, even when it was time to say goodbye. For the second person, there was a sense of just trying to push through it and not in the way of “we’re trying to be strong and keep it together until we’re behind closed doors.” It was a push, a shove really, to get it over with. There were some in attendance who spoke of a funny antidote or recollection but even those held the same pressure of having to say something, anything, just to fill the silence in the room and the perhaps, shame of not having a better way to send this person off. It wasn’t for lack of trying. The disdain and misery the deceased had lived with for so long had permeated every square inch of those left behind. The funeral was the moment they needed to finally cut the strings of it, once and for all.

Unbelievable. This is the first thing I’ve written in months and it’s depressing as hell.