Melissa Sarno

2018 was a wonderful reading year. I read almost exclusively fiction, which is par for the course around here. While I sometimes make lofty goals to broaden my reading horizons, I find that I struggle when I feel I *should* read something. Reading is my love, a passion, and I don't see...

I was in bed this time last year, when the bats invaded our home. Little E was two weeks old and, during a middle of the night diaper change, I heard the quick slam of her bedroom door. Tyler was in our room in seconds, holding E in her blue monkey swaddle. 

"There's a bat in h...

My heart is so full today. After dreaming about it since I was a little girl, I am a published author and my first novel, Just Under the Clouds, is in bookstores.

When I was a kid I always said that I wanted to be an "author" but that dream wasn't always nurtured. I was often told it was...

It was a quiet reading year for me, this year. World events were garbage fire and pregnancy has always done a number on my ability to focus and concentrate. Knowing that, I set my reading goals very low. What I lacked in quantity, however, I made up for in quality. I truly enjoyed every...

The first tree fell when I was six years old. We went out in the eye of Hurricane Gloria, everything quiet, sprawled, and exhausted, a giant tree resting against the shattered windowpane on one side of our home. There was no sound. Wind and leaves and branches never coursed through the...

Oh. This. Blog.

This space has felt so very far away from me in the past year. Last fall and it’s brutal election sent me into a fog. I know a lot of writers struggled to find words after last November and I was one of them. I retreated from them here, lending my voice elsewhere, soundin...

Well, I think we can all agree, it’s been quite a year. I haven’t felt up to the task of writing about it. The year in news was brutal and I haven’t been able to let go of all that happened. I won’t any time soon.

It’s only in the past few days that I’ve felt like being creative, setting...

This year, I’ve been working with an accountability group that’s been such an amazing and beautiful force in my life. We’re all women, we all work from home, and we’re trying to move forward in our professional and personal lives, change our attitudes and perceptions, while we prioritiz...

“This is as good as it gets,” a new friend said, running through the sprinkler with his kid over his shoulder. The boy was shrieking, laughing, the summer sun not yet wanting to set.

I stood and watched as Little O followed, grinning, his shorts a

nd tee soaked, his lips faded and shiveri...

If anyone knows a little about my writing journey over the years, it’s the readers of this blog. So, I’m beyond thrilled to share the news that my middle grade novel, NEXT TO NOTHING, will be published by Knopf Books for Young Readers in 2018.

It’s been a long journey, as most of you kno...