Melanie makes up stories. In others, she tells the truth.
Melanie authors essays, op-eds, short stories, flash fiction, and blog posts from her Houston-area home. She writes in multiple genres, including upmarket women’s fiction, thriller/suspense, and prescriptive nonfiction. Her story presentations vary, too, from traditional print and broadcast to online and live stage.
She nears completion of her debut novel: Christmas Card. Tagline? You can lie but you can’t hide.
A classic road trip story, Christmas Card follows Emery McDaniel as she visits her college friends, hunting truth after 30 years of holiday letters. Imagine the movie: The Group reconnects On the Road, discovering RainMan.
Before Melanie told her own stories, she reported others’ truths.
Her journalism degree from the University of Texas led to a 20-year, award-winning career as a print and broadcast reporter, photographer, editor, and news director. From her first one-person newsroom to managing a major market news operation, Melanie covered hurricanes and floods, interviewed presidents and celebrities, and reported on Jessica, the little girl in the well.
After working for others, Melanie worked for herself, teaching others how to tell the truth.
She opened a crisis communications company with her husband soon after a chemical plant blew up in Houston, exposing a need for facts, not spin, from corporate America. The pair trained thousands of employees and executives at 200-plus companies around the world before selling their firm in 2017.
Nowadays, Melanie creates her own truth from a writing space once called the front bedroom. Each wall in The Studio bears a different color, akin to these website pages and Melanie’s stories. It’s an author thing.
Beyond dry facts lie the moxie of a life. In the photos below, find highlights, each revealing what a work life never can.
Fourth of four, she slept in a crib until age seven.
