Because of these several impediments, as well as other technical difficulties, you will find typos and occasional replication of text. In our humble opinion, typos show that the logs are of *live* chats, not canned interviews, and minimal editing of these logs has taken place.

Melanie Fletcher's Home Page

[Melanie] Greetingd sll!
[Kanus] Hi
* Cybling waves hi at Melanie.
[Kai] hello
[Nyx] Howdy.
[Melanie] Yes, I can actually spell at times.
[Kanus] lol
[MoonScale] Good oldfashioned Day
[Cybling] Folks we'll be doing this chat in "open" mode.
[MoonScale] 1_1
[MoonScale] ack
[MoonScale] ^_^
[Melanie] This simply isn't one of them. :-)
[Cybling] If you have questions for our guest, please just ask. But please, let the guest answer one question before you ask another.
[Kanus] O_O cool
[Kanus] ok
[Melanie] It's been a great con so far.
[Kai] So far......
[Melanie] Lots of energy at the panels, lots of people in the bar. :-)
[Kanus] :) Melanie, how did you get into writing?
[Cybling] LOL
[MoonScale] Lemme just change my color scheme, give me 2 mins...
[Melanie] I've been writing all my life, actually.
[Kai] whoa
[Melanie] I started trying to sell my work around 1994 -- took me a year to make my first sale.
[Kai] What was your first great story Melanie?
[Melanie] Ironically, it was a piece I'd put on the net.
[Kanus] I have been writing for the past 10 years of my 16 yrs, lol :) i wasnt good at the start
[Cybling] (we have 2 questions...hold!)
[Melanie] First great story -- complete or uncomplete?
[Kai] uncomplete
[Melanie] Uncomplete was the novel I wrote at 15, about a group of kids who found a spaceship and formed a "World Protection Patrol."
[Melanie] I actually did about six chapters.
[Melanie] And I was really, really pleased with the work.
[Melanie] Unfortunately, nobody else was.
* Kai nods
[Melanie] Took me a while to recover from that.
[Kanus] Sounds good
[Melanie] In my twenties, I started writing short stories again.
* MoonScale is back
[Kai] I like any kind of good work by any writer if the writer thinks nice of his/her work
[Melanie] My favorite is still my first sale, "Star Quality."
* MoonScale wrote the first part of a short story today, and so is happy to see big authors write short stories too
[Melanie] It was a quasi-cyberpunk story about Hollywood.
[Melanie] Congrats, MoonScale!
[Cybling] okay...
[Melanie] The first step is always the hardest part.
[Cybling] If you have questions for our guest, please just ask. But please, let the guest answer one question before you ask another.
[Cybling] Welcome to Chicon!
* Kanus always writes short stories, is scared to put them on the internet
[MoonScale] lol @ eric
[Kai] I'm a writer too and i'm very good at it I have some of my works going online soon and my school and teachers love my writing skills
[Kanus] hey
[RachH] Hey, Mel! Julia's plane ever get a new battery?
[Melanie] That makes sense nowadays -- I sold "Star Quality" back in 1995, when the net was still pretty new.
[Melanie] Hi RachH! She finally got here around 11:00 pm.
[Cybling] Melanie, you've recently done a German translatoin of Heramaphrodite in the anthology Der Heimliche Spiegel. Can you tell us about that?
[Melanie] That was wild!
[Melanie] My second sale was "Heramaphrodite, an adult fantasy piece about Hera and Zeus.
[Ryan] o_O
[Ryan] Can I have a free copy?
[Melanie] It was first sold to Circlet Press, who publish erotic SF/Fantasy/Horror.
[Cybling] lol
[Kai] lol
[Melanie] LOL!
[Eric] Do you think i should just publish my pieces on the web..whatever?
* Kai grins at Ryan
[Melanie] Anyway, Lisa Tuttle saw it, and wanted it for an anthology she was editing in England.
* Ryan looks on Amazon for it.
[Kai] heh
[Melanie] Its second appearance was in "Crossing the Border" published by Gollancz.
* Kai knows it is at Barnes and Noble where he lives
[Melanie] Ryan, the first sale was in the antho GENDERFLEX.
[Melanie] Anyway, it turned out that a German publisher wanted CROSSING THE BORDER, and put it out in German as Der heimliche Spiegel (The Magic Mirror).
* MoonScale heard melanie's name before and is very sorry not to remember from where ... has a bad memory.
[Ryan] ... I can't find it.
[Ryan] Drat.
[Melanie] It's currently in its second printing, and is doing quite well in Germany -- we're all pleased.
[Cybling] I'm assuming...
[Eric] Is it in the UK?
[Cybling] it's in German.
[MoonScale] It has?
[MoonScale] Then, well...
[Melanie] Yes -- it was translated, as were all the other stories in the antho, into German.
[MoonScale] Maybe that's where I heard you from.
* MoonScale lives in germany
[MoonScale] ^_^
* Eric wonders where he can get it in UK
[Melanie] The funniest bit was this insult I had Zeus fling at a mysterious attacker.
* Kai is only 12 and haves a good open mind in the Arts and Science so he gets into the basics of Scifi and get his stuff done nice and cool
[RachH] An insult rather than a thunderbolt?
[Melanie] He snarled, "Pig. WHatsnot. BUREAUCRAT!"
[MoonScale] LOL!
[Eric] lol
[RachH] Heh.
[Eric] cool
* MoonScale giggles, snorts, cackles, falls over laughing, grunts, nearly chokes in laughter, throws her head back, stops for a moment to inhale, then starts laughing loudly again, near dying, but enjoying it, because she's laughing, cackling, snickering and giggling away!
[Melanie] That's whalesnot, sorry.
[Eric] PY!
[Cybling] Much worse, that.
[Kai] uh
* MoonScale grabs a hold of herself again and stops laughing... barely... coughs once more... 4heh... sorry.... croaks
[Eric] silly girl
[Melanie] The German translation was actually a transliteration, which German friends of mine said was EXTREMELY strange.
[Kai] :P
[Eric] don't know how i put p with ya
[Cybling] Melanie, are you concentrating on short fiction now, or thinking about a novel in the near future?
[Ryan] Well, where can I find it in the US?
* MoonScale chuckles
[Kai] :P
[Melanie] Ryan, you can order DER HEIMLICHE SPIEGEL from amazon.de (the German branch) and CROSSING THE BORDER from the regular Amazon, or perhaps the UK branch.
[Eric] UK!! cool
[Kai] hmmmm
[Eric] but can u get it without odering online?
[Ryan] There
*IS
* an english version right?
[Melanie] As for my curent work, I've been putting the final edits on my first novel, WHITE KNIGHT QUEEN ALICE.
[MoonScale] Heimliche Spiegel?
* MoonScale thinks
[MoonScale] Sounds weird.
[MoonScale] ^_^
[Eric] lol
[Kai] Melanie have you thought of teaching kids how to write short stories?
[Melanie] I actually do that at cons for kid's programming. It's a challenge, but a LOT of fun.
[Eric] :)
[Cybling] Yes, I see that you're doing a Children's Needlepoint...
[Cybling] program or..did it today.
[Eric] i like kids..wait i'm only 16...ummm..i nearly am a kid, doh
[Melanie] With no supplies -- now THAT was a challenge!
[Cybling] lol!
[RachH] Melanie, I'm sure you were up to the challenge.
[Kai] heh
[Melanie] We lucked out -- one of the gofers had a whole bunch of plastic canvas and yarn.
[Kai] Melanie if I wanted to publish a short story where could I find a publisher?
[Melanie] So we were able to make bookmarks.
[Melanie] Kai, your best bet is to start looking for magazines, not publishers.
[Kai] what kind of mags
[Melanie] Subscribe to Locus for market information -- Speculations (which also has a website) is also very useful.
[RachH] Mel, have you ever thought about editing an anthology?
[Eric] BYE
[Melanie] I'd adore it, RachH -- I just have to find someone to trust me with the job. :-)
[Melanie] Bye Eirc.
[RachH] Mel: Pair up with Lee. :)
[MoonScale] lol
[Melanie] Yes, I must talk with the bard.
[RachH] Mel: Well, you know that Musketeer anthology ...
[Melanie] I'm one of the freaks of nature who enjoy editing just as much as writing.
[Cybling] You also did a panel earlier this morning called Bad Sci-Fi Movies. Is this something that's a hobby of yours? Tracking down bad skiffy flicks?
* Ryan chuckles.
[Melanie] I've loved movies since I was able to sit in front of a TV screen.
[Melanie] And bad SF movies are the best -- I was MSTing movies long before the Satellite of Love was launched.
[Melanie] My favorite horrible SF flick is Sword and Sorceress -- "We are the two who are one! VITAL!"
[Cybling] LOL
* Ryan chuckles
[RachH] What about Battlefield Earth?
[Ryan] Almost all of your books on amazon.com are out of stock
[Melanie] Mandy Slater and I had a fun debate about the difference between B movies and BAD movies.
[MoonScale] Heh
[MoonScale] DEFECT BORG - REFUTILE IS SISTANCE! YOUR @$$ WILL BE SIMULATED!
[Ryan] er, wait..
[Melanie] Battlefield Earth. . .never saw it, read part of the book, and that pretty much put me off L. Ron.
[Ryan] Ahh.
[RachH] Knew you had good taste.
[Melanie] But I'm sure there are lots of fans out there, so that's cool -- different strokes for different folks.
[Cybling] You had another panel at 2:30...
[Cybling] What I really do... do you have a problem explaining to people what you do?
[Kai] Melanie do you know any good books where I could learn some good ways to finish up my stories because all of my stories end in like a powerful loop of nothing more than death
[Melanie] Not really -- I'm a technical writer and graphic artist, so most people understand that nowadays.
[Melanie] Kai, I'll pass on advice that Liz Holliday once gave me --
[Melanie] give yourself permission to write badly.
[Melanie] Don't worry about it, just sit down and hammer it out.
[Melanie] If it's bad, you can always edit or throw it out later.
[Melanie] There's no book in the world that can teach you how to end a story -- it's something that you simply learn to do from practice.
[Melanie] Read a lot -- analize how writers you like do their work.
* Kai never ends a story just goes on writing volumes worth of work
[Cybling] Hard advice, but true advice.
[Ryan] Hmmm.. You illustrated for a book called "Mind and Body" .. Do you consider yourself an artist as well?
[Melanie] My artwork is fairly young -- I'm a graphic artist, and I did the cover for MIND AND BODY
[RachH] Melanie: Would you class your novel as F or SF?
[Melanie] and THE EROTIC WRITER'S MARKETPLACE for Circlet.
[Melanie] I just like creating, whether it's with words or with pictures.
[Ryan] It's a pretty nice cover. I definitely dont consider that young compared my skills...
[Melanie] RachH, it's definitely SF -- time travel.
* Ryan grins.
[Melanie] I still need to practice my human anatomy, but it's gotten a lot better over the years.
[Melanie] Learning how to draw well takes a special way of seeing things.
[RachH] Ah, I was curious, with a title like that.
[Melanie] The title refers to two of the main characters -- Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) and ALice Liddell, the inspiration for "Alice in Wonderland."
[Cybling] Excellent, though I notice that your next panel at 10 on Sunday is Nineteenth Century Fantastists... now does that have anything to do with fantasy?
[Melanie] Oh, yes!
[Kai] Melanie:From a fellow graphic artist and writer(me of course :P) if I were to say be a certain age and published a book at my age wouldn't that kinda be freaky for some people
[Melanie] We're going to talk about the seminal beginnings and inspirations for fantasy in the Victorian period.
[Melanie] Kai, how old are you?
[Kai] 12
[Melanie] Ally Sheedy puclished the book SHE WAS NICE TO MICE when she was your age.
[Melanie] published, sorry.
[Melanie] It's certainly not impossible.
* RachH sold her first story at 19.
[Cybling] Cool.
[Melanie] Of course, you might wind up having a lot of older people be jealous of you. :-)
* MoonScale sold her first story at 12...
[Cybling] LOLOL
[Cybling] Yes...and congrats MoonScale.
[Melanie] "Man, I was playing with Barbies when I was twelve. . ."
[RachH] Mel: Oh, no. Not the Barbies!
[Melanie] See, Kai -- it's been done. So you wouldn't be freaky at all.
[Melanie] If you want to find markets (now that I know your age), go to the library and ask the librarian for help.
[Ryan]
[16:22]
[Melanie] Of course, you might wind up having a lot of older people be jealous of you. :-)
[Ryan] Quite a few younger ones too ;)
[Kai] See Melanie I have like a full complete book of some of my works from my earlier days of being afraid of anything and i want to send it to a someone I can trust with my works that might be intrested in reading my stories
[Melanie] Your library might carry LOCUS or THE WRITER'S MARKET, which can give you market information.
[Melanie] Kai, I would say -- format it properly, find a publisher, and send it in.
[Cybling] Melanie, you mention that you're and ex-patriate Chicagoan who now lives in Sweden, and you told me earlier you've lived all over Europe. When did you first move overseas?
[Melanie] I first moved to England when I married my husband -- we were among the first five couples
[Melanie] to meet and marry because of the Internet.
[Melanie] I owe my happiness to Rowan Atkinson, in part. :-)
[Cybling] LOL
[Ryan] How could they keep track?
[Ryan] Heh..
[Melanie] A friend of mine married her New Zealand husband, and her wedding was underwritten by Apple.
[Melanie] She was in the top ten, and I was married two years earlier, so I figure we were at the crest of the wave.
[RachH] Any more word on if you'll be moving back to the States?
[Melanie] With any luck, in October.
[Cybling] folks, can we have a final question for Melanie?
[RachH] Just in time for WFC. :)
[Alpiyano] hello!
[Melanie] Bingo. :-)
[Cybling] Folks, Melanie will be leaving us in just a moment...
[Cybling] do we have a final question for her?
[Melanie] Heya!
[Ryan] Yes
[MoonScale] Yeah - Where do i go to met you in person?
[Ryan] Is there an english copy of that book anywhere in the us that I can buy?! :P
[MoonScale] Where do i go to met her in person?
[Melanie] MoonScale -- I'll be in Chicago all this week -- come down to the con!
[MoonScale] ^_^
[MoonScale] Heh, I wish
* MoonScale lives in germany
[RachH] Say howdy to the other Musketeers, for me, please.
[Melanie] Ryan, check for CROSSING THE BORDER at amazon.co.uk -- you should be able to get it there.
[Kai] :P
[Kai] Melanie Do you have a email
[Ryan] ok
[Melanie] My email address is xanadu1
[Melanie] sorry -- xanadu1@ibm.net
[Melanie] My webpage is at http://www.io.com/~hoosier
[Cybling] Okay then, let's hear some loud applause, because Melanie has been a wonderful guest for us this afternoon.
[RachH]
*applause
*
[Ryan] Hmmm can't find it on Amazon
* Cybling applauds Melanie very loudly
[Ryan] oh, wait
[Ryan] I didn't see all of the results
[Ryan] :)
* Melanie bows grandly and waves to the crowd
[Cybling] LOLOLOL!
* RachH tosses Melanie a brownie.
[Cybling] thank you so much for joining us Melanie.
[Melanie] NUM!
[Cybling] We'll be talking to you again soon I hope!!!
* MoonScale waves
[MoonScale] Toraq-hun, sai ita!
[Melanie] Thanks for having me!
[MoonScale] Zherutaek!
[RachH] Take care, Melanie.
[MoonScale] Farewell!
[Kai] see you sometime
[MoonScale] Aufwiedersehen!
[MoonScale] Au revoir!
[MoonScale] ])