www.melissajoulwan.com

Melissa recently decided she was done being sensible: journalism and marketing pay the mortgage, but telling stories is a more fun and makes the world better. She recently finished her first young adult novel and is thisclose to being ready to share it with someone other than her husband Dave.

Mel grew up in rural Pennsylvania and was known as "that weird girl who roller skates to the library." Her old blue and yellow sneaker skates from Sears have been replaced with black speed skates, and instead of a stack of books, she gets and gives bruises as Melicious, a member of the Texas Rollergirls, Austin's all-girl roller derby league.

But she's still a sucker for bookstores and libraries and books that feel just right in her hands. She has so many mysteries, cookbooks, children's titles, and photo books (neon and tikis and hotrods) that she had to get a bookcase with overflow room for new additions and a dedicated shelf for those old friends, like Jane Eyre and The Picture of Dorian Gray, that need to be read over and over again. She has not-so-secret crushes on Elvis Cole, Joe Pike, and Edward Rochester.