Melissa Maygrove

  This is my   Insecure Writers Support Group   post for September 2026. Alex's awesome co-hosts this month  are:  Kate Larkinsdale, SE White,   JS Pailly, Olga Godim, & Natalie Aguirre! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you .  💻💻💻💻💻 IWSG turns 15 this month! via GIPHY Kudos to Alex J. Cavanaugh for starting the group, and to all the admins who've kept IWSG going over the years!  ❤❤❤ Today, I'm also celebrating my mother's 91st birthday. (I keep telling her she's going to outlive us all. LOL) (This pic is from her 90th last year.) Happy birthday, Mom! ❤❤❤ Keep reading. The freebies are at the end. 😉 September 2nd question - Do you have a favorite character archetype you tend to gravitate toward in your writing?   The heroes of my romances tend to be masculine and protective with a soft side, while the heroines tend to be meek yet inwardly strong. Some of this arises from the historical settings and the social mores of the ti...

Last month, I posted about reformatting my debut novel, Come Back .  As part of the glow-up, I added a series link in the back matter, plus a QR code for the paperback, and a couple of sentences that told the reader which books contained stories of supporting characters (books 2 & 4). My goal was to improve series read-through. The e-book interior was updated September 12th and the paperback September 16th, so, the backmatter changed roughly half way through the month. I compared both Kindle e-book sales and Kindle Unlimited page reads by looking at total sales and page reads for each of books 2-4 and calculating what percentage they each were of the sales/reads of book 1. Ex: If I sold twenty copies of book 1 for the month and ten copies of book 2, read-through for book 2 would be 50%.  Of course, I have no way of knowing whether the same reader bought all four books - or in the case of KU, whether customers were reading the entire series or even the entire book - but th...

Our new rescue cat, Poe, has made himself at home under our tree.  Can you find him? Poe has an easy gift idea. This is one of those buy-it-in-your-PJs kind of gifts. Amazon chose  COME BACK  for a month-long December Kindle deal. They cut the price in half!  Now's a good time to buy it for yourself, if you haven't read it, and gift a copy to the romance readers in your life. A kindle book is one of the easiest gifts to give. And it won't be opened before Christmas unless you want it to be. Stay safe and warm this holiday season!

Three more days! Release day for my next western is just around the corner. Here are some excerpts from Fool's Iron, book 3 in the Forging America series. Fellow authors Elizabeth Seckman and Alex J. Cavanaugh  kindly gave Fool's Iron a mention. Show them some blog love and pay them a visit. 💗 Available for preorder Releases June 1st ~~~ Book one, Come Back , is still on sale for 99c.

A big THANK YOU goes out to everyone who participated in this giveaway and helped promote Precious Atonement. You guys are the best! I let Rafflecopter choose the winners at random from all eligible entries. However, I could not let it display them because my sweet, sneaky son entered the giveaway without telling me - and got picked!  I had to disqualify him, of course, because I couldn't let a family member win. LOL Don't worry. I'll reward him for his good intentions. ;) The official winners are... Come Back theme book thong Eva Solar Precious Atonement theme book thong  Elizabeth Hartman Seckman  Autographed copy of Precious Atonement C. Lee McKenzie   $30 Amazon gift card Toinette Thomas Congratulations! Thanks again to everyone who participated. :)

Looking for something for your TBR? You're kidding us, right, Melissa? Um. *glances at own TBR pile and blushes* Never mind. Need a gift for someone who likes historical romance? *smiles and nods hopefully* If so, you're in luck!  Come Back is on sale now through October 19th.  In fact, a whole herd of western romances are.   There are giveaways, too.

I'd like to thank everyone who entered the contest, as well as all of you who helped make my debut release a success. I could barely keep up with all your tweets and comments and Facebook luv! Launching Come Back was most definitely a group effort. :) The randomly chosen winners are...

I can't believe the day is finally here. I made it! :D But I wouldn't have made it without the help I got from CPs, betas, my family, and you guys — so THANK YOU!  This wouldn't have happened without YOU! Pat yourself on the back and take a bow. :) Now break out the champagne and party with me!  :D

I'm posting quotes from my debut novel, Come Back , to generate some buzz in anticipation of its release. I'd be extremely grateful if you'd click to tweet your favorites. Here are the last three...

Each day through Sunday, I'll be posting quotes from my debut novel, Come Back , to generate a little buzz in anticipation of its release. I'd mean a lot to me if you'd click to tweet your favorites. Here are the next two...

Each day through Sunday, I'll be posting quotes from my debut novel, Come Back , to generate a little buzz in anticipation of its release. If you're willing, please click to tweet your favorites. Here are the next two...

Each day through Sunday, I'll be posting quotes from my debut novel, Come Back , to generate a little buzz in anticipation of its release. If you're willing, kindly click to tweet your favorites. Here are the next two...

This is my Insecure Writers Support Group post for May.   For more information about the group, see the bottom of this post. Alex's awesome co-hosts for May are :   Mark Koopmans, Joylene Nowell Butler, Elsie,   and Lisa Buie-Collard! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you . I'm kidding with that title, and yet I'm kinda not. This is likely the most insecure IWSG post I'll ever write. My debut novel is set to release on Monday.  0_0 Pardon me while I faint. No. Scratch that. Puke, then faint.

I'm feelin' the love so much today, I can hardly stand it! The writing community is awesome. Multi-published author and NA leader E.J. Wesley is posting the cover of my debut novel, Come Back . Thanks E.J.! The kind and multi-talented Michael Di Gesu chose Come Back for his letter 'C' post. He wrote one of his cool intros for my book! Another favorite writer-blogger, Liz Blocker , is hosting me for a guest post — an interview about writing the difficult scenes. This one's short, but it's deep. Fair warning. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you'll pay these generous bloggers a visit.  :)

    I've decided not to  publish after all.

I can't believe it! Reveal day is finally here! For over two years, I've been researching and writing my debut novel,   Come Back , and preparing it for publication. I was blessed to meet author and graphic designer Carrie Butler early in my writing journey. Carrie has not only helped me improve as a writer, she's the talent and inspiration behind the novel's cover design. You can find this multi-talented lady at... I know you're anxious to see the cover, so I won't make you wait any longer.

Today is the LAST day of my cover teaser activities — a cover reveal contest, scavenger hunt style. For those coming late, there's still time! Every day this week, awesome writer friends have posted snippets of the cover along with a trivia question. Give them a round of cyber applause! *jumps up and claps* Woohoo!!! Today you'll get to see the last one. ;) To be entered in the drawing, visit all participating blogs and gather the answers to the questions. Your answers don't have to be correct to win, but you must have answers to all 7 questions to enter . Email me with your list by midnight, Saturday, March 29th (That's tomorrow!) , and I'll enter you in the drawing. You can also use my blog's contact form . The prize is a free e-copy of Come Back once it's published and your choice of a $10 gift certificate to Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Today is the fourth day of my pre- cover reveal activities week. This is a cover reveal contest, scavenger hunt style. If you're joining us late, you can find the details and rules of the contest here . The prize is a free e-copy of Come Back once it's published and your choice of a $10 gift certificate to Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I'll post the answers and announce the winner on Monday, March 31st — cover reveal day!

Today is the third day of my pre- cover reveal activities week. This is a cover reveal contest, scavenger hunt style. If you're joining us late, you can find the details and rules of the contest here . The prize is a free e-copy of Come Back once it's published and your choice of a $10 gift certificate to Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I'll post the answers and announce the winner on Monday, March 31st — cover reveal day!

Today is the second day of my cover teaser week for my debut novel, Come Back . This is a cover reveal contest... a scavenger hunt of sorts. Every day this week, awesome writer-bloggers will post a snippet of the cover and a trivia question. To be entered in the drawing, visit all participating blogs (I'll link them daily as the posts occur.) and gather the answers to the questions. Your answers don't have to be correct to win, but you must have answers to all 7 questions to enter. Email me with your list by midnight, Saturday, March 29th , and I'll enter you in the drawing. You can also use my blog's contact form. *The prize is a free e-copy of Come Back once it's published and your choice of a $10 gift certificate to Amazon or Barnes & Noble.*