We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mel Todd. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mel below.

Mel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

Hindsight is always 20/20. The truth is I should have had more faith in myself and wrote the fantasy and sci-fi that I loved. I’d been writing fanfiction for about six years when one of my fellow authors pinged me talking about his original stuff and posting it on Amazon. The idea intrigued me, but was I good enough?

Imposter syndrome is really with most of us, and even though I was a relatively popular fanfic writer I didn’t think people would read my writing. I decided to find a writing group and the one I stumbled into was mostly erotic writers-who were making a killing in Amazon at that time (2011/2012). So I kept presenting my sci-fi to a group of women writing erotic novels. Yeah. Now some of these women are still friends to this day, but they were NOT my audience.

If I had just written what I loved, and published it then I suspect I’d be much further along than I am now. But I can’t really complain and you will drive yourself crazy with “what if” or “if only” thoughts. I learned a lot and it has gotten me to where I am now.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

First and foremost I am a reader. I literally do not ever remember not reading. I read everything in our local library, then wanted more.
In 2016 my life was shattered and I decided I wanted to write the stories I want to write, ones without a romantic plot line. This is for a few reasons, but it also is that I don’t really write sex scenes that well and after a while they get boring. The majority of my books as Mel Todd have no romance plots and no sex scenes- okay full disclosure one of the first books has a rape scene (which has nothing to do with sex but power) but it had a purpose. And the reasons I put that in are something that you’d have to get me at a bar with drinks to get me to explain (laughs).

I tell stories I’d like to read, where friends don’t betray you, life isn’t easy, and often you have to go to the bathroom at the worst possible moment. There is action, adventures, friends, aliens, but most of all a story where you don’t always have a “bad guy”. Sometimes the biggest challenge is just making it through life.

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

Laughs – I’m not sure if it is a goal or a mission, but I want to be free. I want to travel, to explore, to do all the things I’ve put off for years because I didn’t have time, money, vacation days – whatever. This is my vehicle to do that. I can write from anywhere, so why not? I’m making enough money writing that I can lay the world at my feet. Right now I still have some obligations, but I’m getting to the point that I can go and try to live.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Resilience. More and more that is becoming a dangerous word. A quote I heard once was “You have no idea how strong you are, until you don’t have a choice”. I’ve been there and done that. Over the last few years many of us have lost loved ones, jobs, homes, careers – yet we carry on. I’m not sure resilience is the right way to look at it any more. Just because we survived, doesn’t mean we aren’t wounded, scarred, traumatized. You can be strong and resilient and still want to curl up and bawl. So something that characterizes it in my life? – laughs – In 2016 my husband was killed in a car accident. In 2020 my father died after six months of grueling in home hospice care. In 2021 my mother broke her pelvis, then again in 2022. And yet – I write, I tell stories. I have some months that my writing is barely anything and other months I break 40k. I think we are all resilient, we all keep breathing, we all face the next day. The difference is will you keep going because your dreams are worth the effort, no matter how long it takes, or do you realize they aren’t what you want badly enough to sacrifice other things for?

Contact Info:

• Website: www.badashpublishing.com
• Instagram: badashbooks
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/badashbooks/
• Twitter: badashbooks
• Other: TikTok – @meltodd_writer