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Leah DeCesare

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Melissa DeCarlo

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Born

May 26

Twitter

meldecarlo

Genre

Fiction

Member Since

July 2014

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Melissa, this is your first novel to be published. How long have you been -- or considered yourself to be -- a writer? And how long did you work on this novel?

Melissa DeCarlo Hi Toni! Thanks for asking!

Like lots of writers I wrote stories and poems as a kid, but I was about 32 or 33 before I really started doing what I…moreHi Toni! Thanks for asking!

Like lots of writers I wrote stories and poems as a kid, but I was about 32 or 33 before I really started doing what I thought of as serious hope-to-be-published writing. I worked at it for a few years, but after producing two and a half terrible novels and only having a couple of short stories published, I got frustrated with the whole thing and quit writing when I was about 40.

For seven years I took up visual art as a hobby and didn't write anything but Christmas cards and grocery lists. But I always missed writing, and in 2009 I heard about NaNoWriMo and signed up on a whim. (National Novel Writing Month--google it if you're interested. It's nuts!) The novel (if you could even call it that) I produced that November was truly craptastic, but the process had reminded me of what I used to love about writing back before I got so focused on publication.

So in mid 2010 I started working on this book--just for fun. I joined a writer's workshop and scene by scene got a first draft produced by late 2011. And now here it is 2015 and the book is only now coming out—although not all of this time was been spent writing. There are lots of lag-times built into the publishing process!

As far as the "considered yourself to be a writer" part? Hmmm. I only changed my facebook job-status to writer a couple of months ago. Ha!
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I recently finished a cozy mystery that was well-written, but the characters were what I would call "flat" -- they didn't seem very interesting and didn't live on the page so to speak. As an author, what do you think the difference is between a flat, sketchy character, and one that seems real? How do you make characters that seem real?

Melissa DeCarlo My definition of flat characters are ones that never surprise me, ones that think or do or say exactly what I’d expect them to in a given situation.

…moreMy definition of flat characters are ones that never surprise me, ones that think or do or say exactly what I’d expect them to in a given situation.

As far as how I make real-seeming characters? I think the most important thing is to resist the temptation to nail your plot down too tightly before you create your characters. If you do, you’ll have to make characters up to fit existing holes, and that makes it hard to let them act in surprising and interesting ways. I like to leave enough wiggle room in the details of my story that I can turn some quirky characters loose and just gently herd them toward the finish. It causes me extra work because sometimes things get things off track, but to me it’s worth it because oddballs are much more fun to write (and read) about.
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Melissa DeCarlo’s books

Average rating: 3.72 · 3,904 ratings · 543 reviews · 1 distinct work • Similar authors

The Art of Crash Landing

3.72 avg rating — 3,904 ratings — published 2015 — 9 editions

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Melissa DeCarlo made a comment on her status in What We Lose " Maryvonne wrote: "Melissa, did you also review this novel. Among over 800 reviews I didn't find your name. An important book for sure, but I am not in ...more "
Aug 19, 2018 11:32AM
Melissa DeCarlo wants to read What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 17, 2018 07:13PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Melissa DeCarlo made a comment on her status in The Mistress of Spices " Cool, MV. Three people now recommending. It's on my kindle, now i just need to get to it! "
Dec 11, 2016 05:42PM
Melissa DeCarlo wants to read The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 08, 2016 07:48AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Melissa DeCarlo wants to read Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman by Alice Steinbach	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 28, 2016 12:14PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Melissa DeCarlo wants to read Almost Missed You by Jessica Strawser (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jun 29, 2016 01:11PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Almost Missed You by Jessica Strawser. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Almost Missed You by Jessica Strawser <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Melissa DeCarlo wants to read The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 10, 2016 01:01PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Melissa DeCarlo wants to read The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 29, 2016 04:23AM · 1 like · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Quotes by Melissa DeCarlo

“There is no such thing as magic," she told me. "You can b e l i e v e all you want, but it's never going to do you any good. Nobody flies. We only fall”
― Melissa DeCarlo, The Art of Crash Landing

tags: flying, magic, pessimism, pessimist, pessimistic, reality

10 likes

“As far as I'm concerned, there are two types of people in this world: people like Queeg who, when life gives them lemons make lemonade, and everyone else. And although those smug lemonade-makers think the rest of us just sit around all day day bitching about not getting oranges, they're wrong. It's all about volume. When you're ass-deep in lemons, you start looking for a shovel, not a pitcher and a cup of sugar”
― Melissa DeCarlo, The Art of Crash Landing

tags: humor, inspirational, lemons

4 likes

“I don’t know what she thinks a Matilda looks like, but I’ve always thought that I look a little like Gene Wilder, except with longer hair and a vagina.”
― Melissa DeCarlo, The Art of Crash Landing: A Novel

4 likes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Melissa’s Quotes

“‎Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.”
― Voltaire

tags: inspirational

3646 likes

“ Be glad of life because it gives you a chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars. ”
― Henry VanDyke

7 likes

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”
― William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

tags: infinity, perception

1458 likes

Melissa DeCarlo’s Followers (122)

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