Introduction
Are you looking for fantasy with a science backing and a touch of humour? Do you enjoy quirky heroines? Or would you like some kids science and songbooks co-written by a qualified scientist and an award-winning singer-songwriter? You’re in the right place. Imagine 2200 finalist Dr Melissa Gunn writes dystopian YA fantasy, cosy urban fantasy, and science books for kids.
Weather Gods Series
Climate fiction meets YA urban fantasy.
In a near-future world plagued by storms and rife with conflict between hidden groups of demigods, weres, and other supernatural beings, a young girl tries to find her place while keeping her cat fed. Follow Freya’s journey to adulthood as she searches for her own power, for a place to call home, and for friends to help her in what could turn into an epic struggle with the elements.
Themes: climate change, found family, coming of age, acceptance of difference
Potential triggers: physical assault, divided families, effects of intense weather such as flood and storms
Flash Flood
Flash Flood is the prequel novella to Melissa Gunn’s Weather Gods YA urban fantasy series. Set in a climate-change future, this story takes place in a fantasy version of England where towns are run by different supernatural factions.
Sign up to Melissa’s newsletter to get this ebook for free or buy direct from the author
Storm Surge
Storm Surge is the first novel in the Weather Gods, a YA urban fantasy series. Set in a climate-change near-future world in the north of England, where the coast is crumbling rapidly, while demigods and shifters vie for power.
Thunder Snow
Thunder Snow is the second novel in the Weather Gods series.
Freya thought that moving inland for university would mean safety. She was wrong.
Deep in the underground rivers of Sheffield, Freya and her friends must find and neutralise a kidnapper, or they may not survive until their term exams.
Heat Wave
Heat Wave is the third full length novel in Melissa Gunn’s Weather Gods series. Freya has graduated from university and is determined to avoid supernaturals by pretending to be a mundane. Her plan is short-lived…
Woodside Cosy Urban Fantasy Series
Cozy urban fantasy
Life’s not as predictable as it should be when you’re a born into a family of Seers, but can’t See yourself. This cosy, fun urban fantasy series is set in a magical version of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Themes: Resilience, find a place , self-discovery, humour, magical bookshop, unexpected strengths
Divination and Disaster
When divination fails, will disaster automatically follow?
To take her place as a seer, Sibyl first has to pass an exam proving her ability. But not all exams end well. When Sibyl fails her seers exam, she escapes to a family farm to come to terms with her failure. But her stay doesn’t bring the relief she expected.
While Sibyl’s unable to divine the future, it seems that everyone around her has already done so. Even so, they may not be able to prevent disaster. Can Sibyl see her way past disaster to a new future?
Sign up to Melissa’s newsletter to get this ebook for free or buy the paperback or audiobook.
Seers and Salt
It’s hard to do the unexpected when you come from a family of seers.
Sibyl’s family is descended from the same bloodlines that provided the oracles in Greece. She’s even inherited the name to go with the talent. But she’s just failed her prophecy exams. Worse than that, her dog has disappeared, and none of her far-seeing family can find him. When her aunt prophecies that her dog has gone where he’s needed most, Sibyl decides she’s had enough of the seer lifestyle.
Setting off to seek her fortune without the benefit of predictions, she takes the first bus that comes along to her small rural hometown, hoping to make herself less visible to her family by doing unpredictable things.
Grimoires and Green Tea
What do you do with a grumpy grimoire?
When Sibyl unexpectedly acquires a magical bookshop, she’s torn between exhilaration and panic.
She’s landed on her feet on her first venture away from home, as the bookshop comes complete with an apartment above it. But as her would-be customers press her for an opening date, she has to juggle cataloguing the books and trying to keep her new apartment rodent-free – not to mention settling the unruly grimoire her benefactors left her. Plus, there’s a vampire intent on gaining entry.
With no experience in retail and a grumpy grimoire to keep in check, will she ever succeed in running a bookshop?
Solstice & Silver Spray
It’s a tough job running a magical bookshop, but someone’s got to do it.
Failed seer Sibyl is confident in her ability to handle vampires, dryads, and werewolves, but the hamsters in the ceiling might be too much for her. Or is it pixies?
Life in the city hasn’t been the social whirl she expected. But when both a local dryad and Sibyl’s new werewolf friend go missing, hamsters are the last thing on her mind. She’s prepared to shut up the bookshop to find her missing friends. The dryad’s mother is a private investigator, hot on the trail of a killer. Is there a possibility that the cases are linked?
And will Sibyl find them before it’s time to open the bookshop for the holiday rush?
Woodside Dryads Urban Fantasy Series
Cozy-adjacent urban fantasy
Part-dryad private investigator Ngaire is desperate for a job to pay the bills. But when a new client asks her to investigate a murder, Ngaire might be biting off more than she can chew. Especially when the murdered person turns out to be her ex. When she joins an arborist crew to get the inside story on her ex’s life, not to mention protect her teenage daughter, she must confront her unwillingness to embrace her dryad heritage. Where will it end? Even she doesn’t know.
Set in the same world as the Woodside Cosy series, some books (and characters) include concurrent events.
Potential triggers: includes chainsaw-wielding orcs, kidnapping, and off-page murder
Halloween Hunt
A standalone Halloween fantasy suitable for middle grade to YA readers
Halloween Hunt
Cleo’s witch is sometimes a little scatterbrained, so it’s just as well she has a cat to keep her in order.
Cleo has her paws full making sure that her witch Elodie’s do-it-yourself charms are worth the boxes they’re packaged in. Her witch isn’t always the best flier, either.
Elodie just needs to get her next batch of charms made in time for Witch Week. If only Cleo didn’t keep getting in the way, upsetting pumpkins, and getting her claws into everything.
But when Cleo and Elodie find a hunter and his hellhounds risking wildfire in the forest one Halloween morning, the cat and her witch will have to work at their best to make sure the Wild Hunt doesn’t bring terror to the nearby town.
Song Book Series
These science, song and and activity books feature the songs from award winning New Zealand songwriter Claudia Robin Gunn’s family albums Sing for the Earth – Little Wild Animals and Sing for the Sea – Little Wild Ocean Friends. Her original tunes celebrate the fascination children have with wildlife of all kinds. This collection presents a range of well-loved and unusual creatures through fun songs and natural history storytelling. Dr Melissa Gunn has added science facts and activities to make these song and activity books burst with information and entertainment. Available now as ebooks and print.
Science and Song: Sing for the Earth
This original songbook features all 25 songs from Claudia Robin Gunn’s 5th family album Sing for the Earth – Little Wild Animals. The project features watercolour illustrations by Elise De Silva, depicting a friendly and fun cast of animal characters. Full of heart, positivity and useful science notes and activity ideas for each song written by Melissa R. Gunn. This collection introduces kids to a range of well-loved and unusual creatures, including New Zealand’s amazing varieties of insects, amphibians, arachnids and invertebrates, the tiny native bats of Aotearoa (pekapeka) and endemic little blue penguins (kororā). Australia’s monotremes take the spotlight in Echidna Lullaby and We Are the Platypus. From Central and South America we hear songs of cloud forests and sloth, while from the Arctic we hear tales of mama and baby polar bears, plus many more animals from all around the world. The songbook includes all the lyrics and simple chord notation for each song. This project was proudly supported by Creative New Zealand.
Science and Song: Sing for the Sea
This songbook features all 24 songs from award winning New Zealand songwriter Claudia Robin Gunn’s 4th family album Sing for the Sea – Little Wild Ocean Friends. These original tunes celebrate children’s connection to the oceans and the little, the wild and the gentle giant creatures that call it home through songs of tugboats, glow in the dark sea life and marvellous escaping octopus among many more. Featuring full colour illustrations by Elise De Silva depicting a sparkling watercolour ocean world full of character, life and positivity and fascinating science notes and activity ideas for each song written by Melissa R. Gunn. Songbook includes lyrics and simple chord notation for each song. This project was proudly supported by Creative New Zealand.
Toutouwai New Zealand Robin
Dr Melissa Gunn and Claudia Robin Gunn collaborate to bring together activities, songs and information about the New Zealand Robin, Toutouwai.
Shop by Format
Meet the Author
Melissa spent several years pursuing a science career (she holds a doctorate in conservation genetics) before deciding it would be fun to write fiction, too. It turns out that there is even more research involved in writing, but luckily that’s one of her favourite things.
Melissa writes YA and cosy urban fantasy/climate fiction crossover and speculative fiction stories. Under the name Melissa R Gunn she writes science-related educational books for kids.
What People Say About The Books
Kelly
James
“Reading is fun again”
reviewer
“light-hearted splice of life with a mystical fusion“