Melissa Lenhardt

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Melissa Lenhardt

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Melissa Lenhardt writes women’s fiction, historical fiction, and mysteries. The New York Times called HERESY an “unapologetically badass western” and “an all-out women-driven, queer, transgender, multiracial takeover of the Old West.” Heresy also won the 2022 Audie Award for Best Multi-Voiced Performance. Her debut women’s fiction novel, THE SECRET OF YOU AND ME, was the first LGBTQ+ novel published by Mills and Boon in the UK. A lifelong Texan, Melissa is currently traveling the world as a digital nomad.

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Melissa Lenhardt Be patient. The publishing industry moves slower than cold molasses. It's like living in the DMV waiting room. Only worse.

Be persistent. Don't give up…more
Be patient. The publishing industry moves slower than cold molasses. It's like living in the DMV waiting room. Only worse.

Be persistent. Don't give up after five agents reject your MS. Or ten agents. Or twenty agents. Your rejections won't stop when you get an agent. Then, editors start to reject your MS. Then, readers will reject your book. Rejection is the norm throughout the process. If you take rejection personally, you're in the wrong business. Self-publishing might be the best thing for you, but there are pitfalls and drawbacks to that avenue as well.

Learn to take constructive criticism. Was there a common thread in all those rejections? Characters not connecting. Dialogue stilted. Needs editing. If one agent says something, eh. Take it or leave it. (Though I will say that I had one agent give feedback on my Historical Fiction which no one else did that was absolutely spot on. I took her suggestion and the new first chapter won a contest.) If two say it, you should consider it. If three or more say it, your MS has a problem and you need to set your ego on the shelf and fix it.

Be professional. If your MS is rejected, don't send an angry email to the agent. Publishing is a small industry and word will get around about your lack of professionalism.

Join a writer's group. Make sure it isn't a group whose sole purpose is to compliment and stroke each other's egos. If they don't give constructive criticism, find another. If there aren't any in your area, join an online group through a genre organization such as RWA, WFWA, or Sisters in Crime. But, you have to be willing to return the favor. Honestly, learning to critique other people's work will make you a better writer.

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Melissa Lenhardt Not having to work in an office from 8-5.
Average rating: 3.79 · 7,728 ratings · 1,261 reviews · 10 distinct worksSimilar authors
The Secret of You and Me

3.74 avg rating — 2,348 ratings — published 2020 — 11 editions
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Stillwater (Jack McBride, #1)

3.64 avg rating — 1,704 ratings — published 2015 — 6 editions
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Sawbones (Sawbones #1)

3.76 avg rating — 1,189 ratings — published 2016 — 8 editions
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Heresy: A Novel

4.01 avg rating — 789 ratings — published 2018 — 11 editions
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The Fisher King (Jack McBri...

3.99 avg rating — 549 ratings — published 2016 — 7 editions
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Blood Oath (Sawbones #2)

3.92 avg rating — 479 ratings — published 2017 — 9 editions
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Badlands (Sawbones #3)

4.04 avg rating — 376 ratings — published 2017 — 8 editions
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Run Baby Run

3.56 avg rating — 291 ratings12 editions
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Run Baby Run

liked it 3.00 avg rating — 2 ratings5 editions
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Heater Vol. 02 No. 06

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More books by Melissa Lenhardt…

HERESY Wins Audie Award for Best Multi-Voiced Performance!!

Good News! Heresy won an Audie Award, which is like an Oscar for audiobooks, for Best Multi-Voiced Performance! This is the first time one of my novels has won a major award. Of course, it wouldn’t have happened without the amazing voice actors who performed so brilliantly! Thank you Barrie Kreinik, Bailey Carr, Ella Turenne, Nikki Massoud, Natalie Naudus, Imani Jade Powers, James Fouhey. Thank y

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Published on March 05, 2022 13:04
Stillwater The Fisher King
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3.73 avg rating — 2,253 ratings

Sawbones Blood Oath Badlands
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3.85 avg rating — 2,044 ratings

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It took me months to finish this book. It's a difficult read because of what it makes you think of; it distracts you in wondering how complicit you are as a citizen of a country who used torture for years, decades, and most likely still does. You unw ...more
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Quotes by Melissa Lenhardt  (?)
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“You are responsible for her happiness. Not for her death.”
Melissa Lenhardt, Sawbones

Topics Mentioning This Author

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A Million More Pages: R13 - The Page Charmers 194 49 May 30, 2016 05:27AM  
2025 Reading Chal...: Special 10,000 Challenge 206 461 Jul 19, 2016 01:22AM  
2025 Reading Chal...: Ariel's Thumbed Pages of 2016 40 162 Nov 02, 2016 10:44PM  
2025 Reading Chal...: The 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards Challenge 261 1859 Dec 20, 2016 06:34AM  
NetGalley Readers: This topic has been closed to new comments. Books read in 2016 - Target 50,000 1061 430 Jan 12, 2017 01:11PM  
“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
Stephen King

“I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it.”
David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

“If you obey all of the rules, you miss all of the fun.”
Katharine Hepburn

“Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.”
Walt Whitman

“As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.”
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale

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message 1: by Moira

Moira 'I adore Jane Eyre but think The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is better and have just a smidgen of resentment against Charlotte for repressing Anne's work'

MAGIC WORDS, my (new) friend. Oh yes. (I adore Charlotte too, but she didn't understand her sisters v well some of the time - as sisters do.)


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