Browse through Melissa’s fiction books here. You’ll find speculative fiction, climate fiction, ecofantasy and YA urban fantasy/climate fiction crossover.
The Weather Gods
A YA climate fiction/urban fantasy series
Flash Flood
Tammy is a demigoddess with a water affinity. It’s just her luck that she lives in soggy England, and has developed a water allergy. On her way home from school with her sister Freya, she encounters a flash flood and a teenage werewolf, and everything changes – but for better or worse? This quick read forms the start of the Weather Gods series, but can be read on its own.
An introductory novella to the Weather Gods series.
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Paperback and ebook also available online or direct from the author.
Audiobook narrated by the author available now!
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Storm Surge
Book 1 of the Weather Gods
It was just another rainy day in autumn when Freya’s house fell into the sea. Freya isn’t your average suburban school kid – she’s a demigoddess. But even she can’t hold back the sea. After a violent storm, Freya and her family are set adrift in a world where the weather comes with attitude, and rising sea levels are as much about personality clashes as climate change. School isn’t a walk in the park either, not when Freya’s classmates could be demigods, trolls or weres. All Freya wants to do is keep her cat fed and her family together. A friend wouldn’t hurt either. Over the years she develops her own powers, but will those be enough to achieve her modest goals, or will her world wash away once again?
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Heat Wave
Book 2 of the Weather Gods
New job? Check. New home? Check. A life free of supernatural interference? If only.
With university behind her, Freya is trying to live life as a mundane rather than deal with the reality of being a demigoddess. It should be easy, but supernaturals just won’t leave her alone. The hot guy at work? Volcano demigod. Shifters? Turn up around every corner. And the boring guy who hangs around the canteen is either just plain odd, or is a secret master of the universe. The North of England is heating up, and if Freya can’t learn to embrace her heritage as a demigoddess, it won’t just be her love life that goes up in flames.
Buy the ebook, paperback or hardback online, or direct from the author.
Thunder Snow
A Weather Gods novel – coming soon!
Other works
Treescape
An urban fantasy novella, first appearing in Magic & Mystery: A limited urban fantasy anthology and now published as a stand-alone. A new series in the Treescape world is coming soon!
Metamorphosis isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. But when a private investigator with dryad ancestry has to find her ex’s killer, she might have to embrace it.
Ngaire is desperate for a case to pay the bills. She needs to feed herself and her teenage daughter, not to mention paying the rent. But the case she gets turns out to be more challenging than she was prepared for when it turns out to be a murder investigation. As a part-dryad, she’s able to use some non-standard investigative procedures. But partial metamorphosis isn’t much fun, and it’s not something she wants to advertise either. As the information she obtains leads her closer to the person who killed her ex, she finds herself obliged to moonlight as an arborist, a job she’s really not cut out for. Can she find the murderer, or will it be too hard to separate the wood from the trees?
Buy the ebook or paperback online or direct from the author.
Audiobook narrated by the author is available now!
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Feels Like Heaven (in Aftermath)
Aftermath: Stories of Survival in Aotearoa New Zealand
Welcome to the End of the World
…and more importantly, what comes after.
Disasters have occurred around the country and the world, but we’re “getting through it”, as Kiwis are apt to do. She’ll be right. Life moves on, in some form.
Things were bad here in Aotearoa, but in our isolation down under, we’ve escaped most of the chaos around the world. In fact, we might be the last bastion of humanity on the planet – anybody else home out there? Radio silence. Nada. Zip.
This is not, however, just an anthology of disaster stories. These pages are filled with hope in the form of short stories, poems, flash fiction and artwork about what comes afterwards. The contributions are exclusively from SpecFicNZ members and reflect the diversity and breadth of this country we love to call home… even if the edges are a bit torn and tattered. Nothing that a bit of Kiwi ingenuity and some number 8 wire can’t fix, eh?
This is Aftermath: Stories of Survival in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Kia kaha. Stay strong.
And remember – we are always stronger together. Kotahitanga.
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SpecFicNZ member contributions by Gary Nelson / Robinne Weiss / Jill Winfield / Hazel Bergen / Melanie Harding-Shaw / A. Zaykova / Erica Challis / Jacqui Greaves / Nicky Taylor / Deryn Pittar / Bing Turkby / Barbara Uini / Melissa Gunn / Trishia Hanifin / Jan Goldie / Miriam Hurst / Jennifer Rackham / Gary Venn / Paul Chapman / Scott Fack / Feby Idrus / Gregory Dally / C. D. Jacobs / Daniel Stride / Octavia Cade
First Pav on Mars (in Pav Decontsructed)
Kiri and Jill want to celebrate their First Year anniversary on Mars. But how to do it right?
First Pav on Mars is a flash fiction story based on pavlova, and is part of the Pav Deconstructed anthology of stories, art and poems.
A Gift of Coconuts (in Imagine 2200)
A family races against time to prepare their coconut farm for a storm surge
Climate fiction can be a powerful climate solution. It invites us to look beyond the current moment to envision the world that could be, and empowers us to work toward it. The winners of this year’s Imagine 2200 short story contest from Grist are not afraid to explore the challenges ahead, but offer hope that we can work together to build a more sustainable and just world. Through rich characters, lovingly sketched settings, and gripping plots, these stories welcome you into futures that celebrate who we are and what we can become. Read them now: https://grist.org/imagine2200-climate-fiction-2024/
Melissa is thrilled to have her story, ‘A Gift of Coconuts’ in this collection.