Welcome to the Scavenger Hunt
Welcome to the Secrets in Our Cities Scavenger Hunt! This master post will be your guide for the next month of interviews, clues, and all-around fun. Enjoy paranormal urban fantasy? Love reading? Want to win a prize? Read on!
The Scavenger Hunt will take place from October 1st until November 5th, 2018. The final post will go live on October 31st (release day!), giving all participants time to assemble the clues and figure out the secret line. Four winners will be selected. One grand prize winner will receive a paperback copy of Secrets in Our Cities, and three winners will receive ebook copies. This giveaway is open internationally.
Today, we’re celebrating the beginning of our scavenger hunt with an interview of one of our talented anthology authors: Melion Traverse!
Interview with Melion Traverse
JL: Thank you for being here today, Melion. We’re excited to learn more about you! When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
Melion: I don’t really know when I first decided I wanted to be a writer. Maybe in the eighth grade when my teacher told me that my fiction had real potential. Maybe it was after that. Maybe it was before. It’s hard to say because I’ve written all my life (well, since I learned to write, that is) but I can’t say when I decided, “Yes, I want to share my work with the public.”
JL: What is your favorite thing about paranormal urban fantasy?
Melion: I like that paranormal urban fantasy lets me blend the familiar with the bizarre and the speculative. For a moment, there’s a sense that the wild, magical events could be waiting just around the next corner in real life. I mean, yes, it’s delusional to actually think that, but it’s fun to imagine that my trip to the grocery store for a jar of pasta sauce could become an exciting adventure.
JL: Your main character in “A Particularly Powerful Lunar Event” has a dog named Ranger. Was Ranger inspired by your own dogs?
Melion: Yes, Ranger is inspired by both my dogs. If I combined my shepherd-mix and my border collie-mix, I suspect I’d end up with Ranger.
JL: What is your favorite paranormal creature…other than werewolves?
Melion: Well, I like unicorns a lot. But I like my unicorns snarky and a little bitter. Gryphons are also pretty darned cool. At the moment, I have a short story I’m working on about a girl who befriends an enfield, which is a creature with the head of a fox, the forelegs of an eagle, and the hindquarters of a wolf. Okay, so that’s more than one creature–I don’t math very well.
JL: What projects are you working on now?
Melion: Most of my energy is taken up by my non-writer life, at the moment. I do have the above-mentioned story that I’m dabbling with, but numerous other projects are strewn in jumbled piles across my computer’s hard drive.
JL: Thank you again for stopping by! Readers, be sure to check out Melion’s short story, “A Particularly Powerful Lunar Event, a Completely True Story,” in Secrets in Our Cities. It’s a riveting read!
About Melion Traverse
Melion lives with two dogs, one spouse, and a fluctuating amount of chaos. When not writing, Melion practices historical fencing and other martial arts, studies medieval history, lifts weights, consumes energy drinks, and wages the Battle of Dog Fur.
Melion’s works have been published in Deep Magic, Cast of Wonders, Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, Havok, and other magazines. Melion has also published under pseudonyms in Cicada and Electric Spec.
You can find Melion blogging haphazardly on WordPress.
The Master List of Blog Posts
10/1 — Just-Us League Blog — Introduction of Scavenger Hunt and Interview with Melion Traverse (You are here!)
10/3 — Heather Hayden — Interview with Maddie Benedict
10/6 — Kristy Perkins — Dragons
10/10 — J.E. Klimov — Interview with Heather Hayden
10/13 — Madison Wheatley — Interview with J.E. Klimov
10/17 — Authors 4 Authors — Katelyn Barbee Interview
10/20 — Hanna Day — Urban Legends
10/24 — Melion Traverse — Interview with Kristy Perkins
10/27 — Elise Edmonds — Interview with Madison Wheatley
10/31 — Corinne Morier — ARC Review (no scavenger hunt clue)
11/1 — Heather Hayden — Release Day Announcement and Personal Giveaway (final clue)
11/7 — JL Blog — Grand Prize Winner reveal
The First(?) Clue!
Below you’ll find the first (or is it the eighth?) clue of the Scavenger Hunt. Remember to check back regularly for new posts and more fun as the month progresses.
Once you’ve gathered all of the clues, figure out the secret line and submit it. Your information will only be used to contact you if you win a prize.
Though a part-time editor by day, Heather Hayden’s not-so-secret identity is that of a writer—at night she pours heart and soul into science fiction and fantasy novels. Fueled by chocolate and moonlight, Heather is currently working on Upgrade (the sequel to her first published novel) and an as-yet-untitled series of fairy tale novelizations.
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