Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor

📚Fiction Editor @ Dog Mum and Writer of all things 🏳️‍🌈 and spooky.
🐧 Prev. @penguinrandomca

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

Hi #WritingCommunity I thought I'd re-introduce myself!

I’m Melissa—a queer and neurodivergent Fiction Editor living in 🇨🇦 I spent over three years working for PRH and now own my own editing company where I get to do the thing I love most: read!

Also, this is my dog.

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

@JennLeeWriting This sounds sooo good.

[Katie Krohn ✨ is querying ✨ #ya @KKrohnAuthor]

A teen outcast from a secret line of Irish plant magicians must harness newfound powers to protect herself from a poison-wielding ancestor who hunts her family across time.

🍄 Plant magic
🌿Poisons + elixirs
💌 Romance subplot
🎂 Magical baking

#amquerying #GhostPit #ya

[martini dan 🍸 @fairiegnostic]

The dead speak at Innisawen University of Occult Sciences. For one skeptic, answers may rest in a cosmic bargain with a disgraced sorcerer whose web of lies grows tighter by the day.

Unfortunately, falling in love with him wasn’t part of the deal. #PitDark #A #DR #DF

[Alex is open to queries from marginalized writers! @gravity_fail09]

…ANYWAY I am surprise opening to queries from underrepresented/marginalized writers ONLY!

If you’re an underrepresented writer and think we would be a good fit, use this link to query me! 🤩

https://t.co/7atMrNtOw2

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

@mokb444 If it was based solely on merit the publishing industry wouldn’t be made up of predominantly white/cis/straight/able-bodied men and women.

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

If you feel rejected as a white, straight cis person, this is part of the problem. Agents aren’t "rejecting" you, they’re creating space so marginalized stories, ignored for decades, can finally be heard in an industry predominately made of straight/white/cis voices.

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

@andrewcareaga It’s still there as far as I know. This was the post I was responding to.

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

"You look happier." Thanks, I left traditional publishing and started my own business as a Fiction Editor. I now work with NYT, USA Today, and indie authors and I've never looked back.

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

@AmeliaGThorn Ahhh, thank you!! ☺️

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

@Lavishrareness That’s so kind! Thank you!!

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

@lexduncan 👀👀

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

@joyful_joy5 That we do! 🥰

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

@RachelxRussell I got you. 👀

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

@itsrisachang Thank you! 🥹

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

One of the best things you can do for your craft as a writer is read. Read outside your genre. Read outside what comforts you. Challenge your biases. Challenge your taste. Ask questions. See what is/isn't working. Learn from it all and then put it to practice. #WritingCommunity

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

@RichardAHJr Yes! I loved what I read of yours ☺️

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

Would love to connect with any authors writing horror, thrillers, or spec fiction. In fact, the weirder the better my friends 🍄‍🟫🍂🤎

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

When I couldn't sleep last night (insomnia), the last thing I expected was to write an entire short story about the cannibalization of grief, and a boy who carries it too long, too deep—until it curls inside his ribs, and the river feeds on him instead. 🤷‍♀️

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

Being a 🇨🇦 editor, I know how rough the exchange rate can be. In light of recent events, I’m matching my USD prices for Canadian authors on manuscript evaluations. Just a little way to make things easier. If that helps, let’s connect. #WritingCommunity #ElbowsUp

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

For #amquerying authors, if you’re unsure if it’s the query or the pages, I’m a fiction editor who previously worked for PRH and would be happy to review your materials! 🖋️

Feel free to DM me for a price list! ✨

[Melissa || 🌻✨Fiction Editor @MelDurston]

Editing tip—before the catalyst hits, you need the calm before the weird. Readers should see your character’s flawed norm. Not just their routine, but how they navigate their world, what they believe, etc. Let the reader settle in *before* you pull the rug out. #WritingCommunity