Meet Melody Tink: Author of RAT

What or who inspired you to start writing? In elementary school, my friends and I were always looking for ways to earn a quick buck. We made cloth dolls, bookmarks, jewelry, etc and would go around the neighborhood trying to sell our wares. We stationed lemonade stands outside our houses. We sweet-talked old ladies into paying us pennies for made up songs. One day, my dad brought home a magazine clip with a contest for short stories. The prize was $500. The stories had to be written by children. My friends and I decided we would each write a story, and if one of us won we would split the money four ways. We spent days working on our stories. Then we read them out loud to each other. Mine was a short story called Grandmother Wise, about a girl who travels across the globe of a fantasy realm to find a flower that would save her dying grandmother. My friends thought it was too boring. Discouraged, I decided not to submit the story to the contest. Instead, I spent years editing and revising it. The story grew, evolved, became my first three novels. I fell in love with the writing process, with the architecture of crafting a novel.

How did you come up with your idea for Rat? I wrote a series of high-fantasy manuscripts. I loved my world, but I became bogged down by all the rules and technology I had built around my characters. I wanted to write something lighter, a bit more tongue-and-cheek. The dragons were only a side note in my first novel, but the mystery behind them intrigued me. I envisioned an off-beat Cinderella story, with a fiery teenager going up against the dragons and coming out both richer AND wiser. Elanor reflects the modern female displaced in a male-dominated society, and her story simply flowed out of me in two months flat, the summer of 2005. Then the real work of editing/revising began!

As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans? I'm currently in the process of pitching my newest work, an urban YA fantasy novel. I'm also 60,000 words into a sci-fi novel.

If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why? Obviously, Elanor. She's tart and gutsy--exactly the kind of girl I'd want to be.

Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing? I have two critique partners--one a published novelist, and one who is well on her way. I have also used online critiquing venues, such as http://www.critters.org/. This has absolutely helped my writing. I've often found that while not every suggestion is a useful one, many critiques have served to improve the flow, characterization, and plot of my novels.

Do you outline your books or just start writing? A little of both. Normally, I start an outline of a few chapters, then the novel begins to weave itself, and then, if I hit a road block, I'll outline a few more chapters to get the juices flowing again.

Anything else you might want to add? For more information on me or my work, feel free to peruse my blog: http://www.thefaerytale.wordpress.com/