YA Scavenger Hunt Spring 2016 Announcement

You guys! From March 29 – April 3 there’s going to be a HUGE Young Adult Scavenger Hunt (aka YASH) going on ALL OVER THE INTERNET. It includes 160 authors — with a total of 160 FREE BOOKS up for grabs — and I’m one of them! I’ll be hosting one person and linking to …

My Interview on the Podcast BOOKMARKED

Last week I recorded an interview for a new podcast called Bookmarked. It’s hosted by local author/illustrator Kevin Scott Collier on Grand Haven Talk Radio and I was the debut interviewee! Listen here: (Jump to the 8 minute mark to hear me.) What do you think?

A Cohesive and Necessary Story

I finally received the editorial feedback from the Writer’s Digest Self-Published eBook Awards! Here’s what my judge had to say: In Flicker by Melanie Hooyenga we are presented with a story that is heavy on the romance and teen drama while mixing in some supernatural thrills and interesting historical ideas as well. It mines this …

2016 Goals: Pushing Out of My Circle

At the beginning of this year I challenged myself to break out of my circle, meaning I needed to get myself and my books in front of people I didn’t know. I’m happy to report that since then I’ve added the following experiences to my list: 2 3-Day Conferences (Women’s Expo & Comic Con) 2 …

Introducing Melanie Hooyenga, Award-Winning Author

Are you sitting down? At the end of last summer I decided to enter a writing contest for ebooks that had been self-published within the past five years. This was important for several reasons: My novels are self-published My novels are in both print and ebook form Flicker, the first book in the trilogy, was …

Event This Saturday

I spent the past three days at a work conference in the same space as the Great Lakes Book Bash in mid-October, and between sessions today I received a call asking me to appear at a children’s and middle-grade book event this Saturday! Book events for everyone! (btw, the Barnes & Noble event was a …

The Calm After the Storm

This past spring was, to put it mildly, rather chaotic. I had several book events, including two the week FADED released, so I took a much-needed break through the beginning of August. But now I’m back and ready to roll! I have four fun events scheduled this fall, plus I’m writing my next YA novel! …

It’s Crunch Time!

No, I’m not going to make you drop and give me 20 (although it’s done wonders for my love handles) — FADED will be published in EIGHT DAYS! 192 hours! 48 working hours! I’m super excited to release this book to the world, and even more excited to hear what people think. I’ve spent a lot …

Fracture is Published!

I’m thrilled to announce that Fracture is now available on Amazon! Today you can only get the ebook, but tomorrow (probably in the evening) the print version will also be available!

Things I learned (or remembered) while prepping this book for publication:

This Time I’M a Guest Blogger… with Shenanigans!

The lovely Colby Marshall, who you met last month, invited me over to her neck of the internet. Pop on by to learn a few of my favorites, what I’d rescue in a fire, and something you might be surprised to learn about me. FLICKER: An A to Z Shenanigan Because who doesn’t love shenanigans?