#WhatsYourStory Featuring Melissa Gale

First, thank you, Amy Rivers, for asking for a guest blogger, and allowing me the honor of being one of yours. Even one who over-uses commas.
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I’ve been a devourer of books since I can remember, and a creator of stories since I can remember. There are few who see the world like I do. I see inspiration and stories everywhere. Snippets of overheard conversation, observing the couple sharing a meal but not a single word sitting across the restaurant from me, the faded 1920 brick building that used to proudly proclaim “HOTEL” and now just whispers it. There’s inspiration everywhere. My struggle is to take it all in and get it all out.
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I started a blog a couple of years ago as a way to get all the thoughts out of my head, and onto the page. It morphed into a site where I’d discuss ways to be sexy and not smarmy, why I love teenagers, half-moon camping in Hana, and generally how to be more loving and kinder to each other. It used to be a weekly blog, but life pivoted (my husband has MS and he rapidly declined for a bit) and now, looking at the state of the world, it looks like I need to fire it back up.

I write erotica. I also write romance, science fiction, and paranormal romance. So far, in my albeit limited fiction writing career, erotica has taught me the most pointed lesson about human nature. Writing about sex, and humans having consensual sex is different than any other topic I’ve explored so far. It’s so taboo. I can’t figure out why. I mean, isn’t open and honest conversation the foundation of any relationship? Talking about sex, or reading about it, shouldn’t be any different. (Spoiler alert: we all are here as a result of sex).

The lesson? Thanks for asking. The lesson is this: I can write an award-winning flash fiction piece about a little girl who has a honey bee friend named Leon, and Leon loves purple. No one assumes or has approached me about wanting to be a little girl again, or loving honeybees, or purple.  I write a flash fiction piece about a futuristic commune where one of the jobs was sexual pleasure, and people assume and approach me about my wanting to cheat on my husband (I don’t) or if I secretly want to start a commune (I don’t. I’m very public about that, but that’s a post for another time.). It seems to me, that if you write about sex then everyone will assume you have done it, want to do it, or want it done to you. I still write erotica and erotic romance, but now I go in prepared for the comments, nasty “knowing” looks, and the surprisingly unwavering support from my friends and The Best Husband Ever.

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Where to Find Melissa's Work

​Currently I’m working on a series of erotic short-stories based on the energies of the 22 Major Arcana cards of the Tarot. I also have a full-length manuscript in the edit/re-edit stage about a girl who is charged with saving the world by healing the veil between our two worlds using the most healing energy of all time – orgasmic energy. I drop the occasional flash fiction piece on myerotica.com under the name “write2unpack.” Feel free to check it out if you are mentally and physically 18.

​​I’m a paralegal by day, story-teller by heart. I have a short story, Well You Know, Maybe It Was published in a “Flash – A Celebration of Short Fiction”, and another The Dansari due to be published in “Itty Bitty Writing Space” this year. My flash fiction Leon Loves Purple placed third in the Write on the River competition in 2018. I’ve judged fiction submissions for 4 years, and this year I will be judging the non-fiction submissions for Write on The River. I’m a member of Romance Writers of America, Emerald City Romance Writers, Write on the River, and a local writing group. In addition to my day job, my hobbies are: creating more loving worlds than this one, camping, gardening, and finding never-ending uses for essential oils. You can find my blog at www.write2unpack.com where I write about things that are sexy, ways to be charming and more loving, and also some Life Lessons from a Labrador.