Before going any further, I want to extend my thanks to Steve Himmer for inviting me to serve as the Necessary Fiction writer-in-residence for February. I’ve been looking forward to this!

By way of introduction, my name is Richard Melo. It’s all right if you haven’t heard of me. I’m sure I would never have heard of Richard Melo, either, if I wasn’t given the name at birth.

I’m a Portland, OR-based author of two novels published by indie presses. I’m a less than bombastic presence on social media, I don’t teach (although I enjoy helping out people who ask), and I jump at the opportunity not to talk about writing, because what I’ve found is that not talking talking about writing is what helps my writing. I believe that self-promotion is never shameless, but it does kill the soul. My self-identity is not tied up in being a writer or presenting myself as a writer. I have nothing to prove that’s worth proving. I’d call myself a literary dropout but I’m not sure I was ever on the scene enough to drop out from it, but what the hell, I’m a literary dropout.

So what does a literary dropout do with all that free time not wasted on literary pursuits?

I write. Oh, and I read.

When it comes to novel writing, I’m a tad obsessive. I fall asleep every night trying to work out the kinks in my projects. Every time I experience a powerful emotion, I wonder how I can apply it to a character I’m writing. In college, I filled notebooks with hundreds of ideas for different novels I would one day like to write, and as I’ve matured, I still fill up several notebooks a year, but fortunately, for just one novel at a time. I’m hoping to write five novels in my lifetime. I am almost finished with my third. I better slow down.

So here’s the plan for the month: I’ll be posting on M-W-F and sticking mostly with the writing part of writing. I see novel ideas everywhere and in everything. The focus will be on items I’ve encountered that (in my mind) connect to a novel writing aesthetic. Some of the exhibits I will be writing about are literary, though filtered through a strange light (for example, how King Lear messed up my life or the time when I tried to write a Chekhov-style play with characters straight out of Sam Shepard), while others are based in pop culture (like, the important writing lessons I learned from the Dark Shadows soap opera).

Stay tuned. More soon.