Stories and podcasts and blogs, oh my!

It's Fall Y'all

On October 15th, I turned in Blood Worth Bottling, book two in the Technically Dead Detective Myseries series. Whew! Time to catch my breath for about, oh, 16 days, then it's DenNoWriMo time. Formerly NaNoWriMo, this is a frenzied effort by writers across the country to write a 50,000 word novel draft in 30 days. I've participated several times, and since book three is right around the corner, it comes at the perfect time for me to start drafting.

Oh, and there's some holidays in there, too. 😅

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"True Story: Tales from Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers" is available now!

It's here! The 2026 RMFW anthology stories are based on true events, places, or people. The kickoff party was a good time, with author readings and a lively gathering at a local brewery. Hard to get more Colorado than that.

I'm impressed, as always, by the talent and sheer range of the members of RMFW. We have such amazing authors in Colorado! There's something here for everyone, including multiple ghost stories, a somehow-hilarious forest fire story, touching stories related to the Big Thompson flood, and an homage to one of our very own cult figureheads, Mother God.

Mine is one of the ghost stories, called "The Dance," about a real gala that took place inside a silver mine in the 1800s.

Find the anthology on Amazon (print), Barnes & Noble (print or ebook), or Bookshop.org (print or ebook).

Listen (or watch) me on the Mystical Metropolis podcast

I was honored to appear on the Mystical Metropolis podcast and talk about VampCon!

Host J.M. Shaw and I chatted about vampires, the supernatural, plotting for books in a series, and more. It was a fun chat, and I hope others enjoy listening to me talk about my silly vampire world.

Mystical Metropolis is part of the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network, and Storybound Chronicles series on YouTube. 

Links here:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVHSDSSTBBw

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4xpEpibzvazdJDmZSlVXHB

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mel-lake-talks-supernatural-mysteries-and-dark-humour/id687959058

New RMFW Blog Post: Answering the call...for submissions!

Also this month, I wrote a blog post for RMFW to coincide with the release of the 2026 anthology about writing stories based on a submission call. The process seems simple....but is it? And what does Batman have to do with it? Read and find out!