Silent Bites is HERE!

Hello!! This is Melissa, the author, with important news: Silent Bites is finally HERE! The new cover is an acrylic painted canvas done by a very dear and close friend of mine, Faron Brooks. She’s always been talented as an artist. Her aptitude for drawing characters, backgrounds and original designs are truly divine and I’m proud of her. Here is another link to purchase Silent Bites!

This is a personal project about why I wrote Silent Bites. I hope you will find something within yourself or someone you love as you read my book.

When I started writing Silent Bites, I thought of heritage, family and identity. My three children are half Mexican and Columbian, with the other half being Jewish (on my side). I drew initial inspiration from the descriptions of my mother-in-law’s homeland of Bogotá, Columbia, where I pictured the streets, houses and cities where she grew up as the main character, Arturo’s origin.

Her story felt like nostalgia wrapped in a homesickness bow that truly never went away. This encapsulated by my research into the country, its landscape and its culture, made me feel a deep connection between my own identity and my children’s heritage.

Sometimes, as an immigrant leaves their home country to another, their own sense of belonging and identity becomes lost to sea of mixed cultures, religions, social customs and traditions. I feel this is the most difficult time for a person to find their own place in a new home. Arturo struggles with this, along with his own dysphoria about his body, his ideas on being a man and his desire to be true to himself.

I personally find his strength is also in what is perceived as his biggest challenge, which is finding a balance between how he wants to live verses how he actually lives. It’s a struggle I understand deeply, as my own identity has been a long journey to understanding myself and who I am. Body dysphoria is something I struggle with, but finding a healthy way to process it, understand it and find a way to express it in a meaningful way, is how I processed Arturo’s identity and it was very important to me that it was a valid and respectful representation.

His passion for life and his love of his family, home country and his ideas on freedom create a strong sense of grounding in the confusing and dangerous world he now faces. A past in which he is desperately struggling to run away from in the face of a brand new hope of true love in modern day New York City.

Silent Bites goes into the interconnected realm where what appears to be a group of strangers who have different backgrounds and interests are actually destined to find their ultimate fate in life together. It may not be as prettily wrapped up as one might hope, but life is messy, and for Arturo, Dan, Sera and Aki, they instinctively know that to each other, a kismet is something engrained within their very distinct pathways.

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of fate over circumstances and fate over free will. The ideas that philosophers have on existential issues, existentialism and finding our own meaning to life is something I constantly ponder about. I believe life does follow a pattern, a path, but our choices are what make us who we are.

This philosophy is the heart of my book, where the monsters, either real or imagined, find their insidious ways to pick at our insecurities, breaking down our fears into something palpable that cannot be ignored so easily. Sometimes that monster comes in an innocent looking package, a gift, an innocuous set of situations or events that can lead up to life changing decisions and movements.

Sometimes we see ourselves as the monster. Sometimes, it’s the one person you thought you could trust with your life, your heart, your future.

My intentions for this book are that anyone who follows the story of Arturo, Dan, Aki and Sera will find some kernel of truth to their own story, maybe even some cathartic healing to their past trauma, abuse, loss or grief. I hope you find yourself in the space between my words.

Here is my author page under my new publisher Eukalypto!