Today we’d like to introduce you to Mel Todd.
Hi Mel, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always written but never thought of it as a career path because of all the horror stories about rejections. In 2003, I started writing fanfiction and had a blast. As of now (2023), I have over 2 million words of story out there. In 2011 a fanfic author friend of mine suggested I take a look at writing original stuff and publishing it via Amazon. I went why not and started to try and improve my writing. Unfortunately (fortunately), I got in with a local writing group that was all erotic writers except me. News flash – my erotica sucks. I kept beating my head against their feedback but managed to write a few stories. Now the fortunate part of that is some of the women I met there are still friends to this day, and I am grateful for their existence in my life.
In 2016, my husband was killed, and that derailed me. I took a year off, grieving and thinking. I realized I had a library of over 3000 novels that were all sci-fi and fantasy. So why was I writing erotica? I changed gears and started writing stuff I loved. I started writing and publishing, and… here we are today. In January of 2023, I quit my high-paying day job (sobs, I miss my health insurance) and started writing full-time.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Ha! Having your husband die is a major one. But then two years later (2018), my father’s health took a turn for the worse. My parents had lived with us since day one for multiple reasons, and part of the deal was my husband was supposed to be there to help me when they got elderly. Still annoyed at him for dumping all that on me. But… yeah the amount of care needed ratcheted up severely. My father died in August of 2020, along with my sister-in-law’s father, my mother-in-law, and a friend all in a ten-day span. Then in October of 2021, my mother fractured her pelvis, and again in April of 2022. By that summer, she was almost 24-hour care. She died in November 2022. So yes, more than a few things that have prevented me from focusing on my career.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
So, given the death of my husband (yes, he had a massive effect on my life), writing a romance plot held zero interest to me. Instead, I wrote stories with relationships – friends, siblings, parents – and the response has been incredible. My latest series has an asexual main character who has a rich found family, and people love the series. I’ve proven you can write intriguing characters with dynamic relationships that don’t rely on sex or romance. It makes me happy and while I still have some romance ideas from my time as Renee Lovins (romance penname) I’m not dying to write them yet.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
It was sheer luck that my Twisted Luck series took off. I still don’t know who started talking about it or what hit all the boxes for people, but it skyrockets and pulled my other series with it. I’ve also been lucky in that I had a great boss and a career that let me save enough to take the sort of leap I took. I was fortunate to have a family that has always been my biggest fan. Mostly, I’m just ecstatic about the opportunities I’ve been granted.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.badashpublishing.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/badashbooks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/badashbooks
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/badashbooks
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@badashbooks
- Other: www.meltodd.com
