Melissa Goodrich
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goodmel.bsky.social
Melissa Goodrich
@goodmel.bsky.social
360 followers 230 following 170 posts
Author of THE CLASSROOM and DAUGHTERS OF MONSTERS. Currently at work on a novel about the end of the world. She/her.
melissa-goodrich.com
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goodmel.bsky.social
I haven’t drawn in years, but I was thinking about how little kids draw all the time—and how much unabashed joy they have—and I want to too
July 2, 2025 at 5:06 AM
goodmel.bsky.social
Who else is notebooks deep in Blue Prince? This game rules.
May 9, 2025 at 11:55 PM
goodmel.bsky.social
For those interested in a more unhinged severance bingo
March 20, 2025 at 11:09 PM
goodmel.bsky.social
March 20, 2025 at 4:32 AM
goodmel.bsky.social
Woke up from a nap with this small rattling poem
I was I am a sing -le note in a bird ‘s caught throat
March 16, 2025 at 8:04 PM
goodmel.bsky.social
YES. I feel like fiction is my way of telling the truth, of taking some stimuli from real life and kaleidoscoping it into something stranger (and, somehow, truer)

open.substack.com/pub/etgarker...
The stories always start from something in the real world (an image, a sensation, a sentence) that attaches to something inside me (a thought, a feeling, a longing) only to burst out together in the form of a story. Most of the stories I’ve written are like a simile of the event that birthed them: a girlfriend who leaves is a great inspiration for a story about the end of the world; a bout of diarrhea produces the tragic tale of a frustrated plumber; bad turbulence on a long flight generates a story about someone who gets into heaven, only to discover that he’s allergic to angel feathers
February 4, 2025 at 3:56 PM
goodmel.bsky.social
And while all the definitions are interesting and helpful, I fully co-sign the idea that the inbetween-ness, unpinnable-down qualities of flash is part of what makes it magic
So, maybe (having just spent the best part of fifteen hundred words doing the exact opposite!) we should put our need for labels to one side and simply let each piece of writing be whatever it needs to be. Whether we’re writing short or medium or long, gritty or lyrical or funny, deep and layered or puffy and light, let’s allow ourselves to simply swim about in this constellation of forms until we find the right combination of elements to do justice to our idea. Let’s allow those butterflies (or glow-worms, or bumblebees, or hummingbirds, or moths) to flutter free of their jam jars and consider how they might metamorphosise into something even more brilliant by the notion of being free.
February 3, 2025 at 3:28 PM
goodmel.bsky.social
Really enjoyed this substack exploring definitions of flash fiction by @mattkendrick.bsky.social

prattlefogandgravelrap.substack.com/p/a-butterfl...
There’s something lyrical about the tonal quality of flash even in pieces that skew towards the more realist or gritty side of the spectrum. Even in the humorous, flash has a certain tone. It’s repetition. It’s imagery. It’s rhythm and sound and sentence construction and voice. The tone of flash is both restrained and propulsive.
February 3, 2025 at 3:20 PM
goodmel.bsky.social
This pop quiz from @mcrane12.bsky.social’s I KEEP MY EXOSKELETONS TO MYSELF
January 24, 2025 at 5:12 AM
goodmel.bsky.social
Working at @uapoetrycenter.bsky.social is an incredible gift—because I get to go to readings like this "for work," where Ada Limón casts spells and makes us laugh and launches us directly into space:

voca.arizona.edu/reading/ada-...
Ada Limón reading poetry in December 2024
January 23, 2025 at 6:30 PM
goodmel.bsky.social
Thanks I hate it
January 19, 2025 at 3:56 AM
goodmel.bsky.social
"The need to call this thing 'good' and this thing 'bad,' this thing 'white' and this thing 'black,' was an impulse that Effia did not understand. In her village, everything was everything. Everything bore the weight of everything else."
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
November 23, 2024 at 7:45 PM
goodmel.bsky.social
I love working at the @uapoetrycenter.bsky.social, because I get to spend all day making things like this
February 17, 2024 at 6:21 PM
goodmel.bsky.social
I also (side note) appreciate learning this gorgeous novel took NINE YEARS plus a lifetime to write. There is no such thing as slowness, all in our own good time
Cover or audiobook: Roses in the Mouth of a Lion. Pale yellow background with chunky drawings of green stemmed flowers with red and orange buds.
September 4, 2023 at 12:01 AM
goodmel.bsky.social
My new favorite thing when I finish a stunning book is to see who the author is reading/recommending. When I finished @mcrane12.bsky.social’s EXOSKELETONS, they recommended ROSES IN THE MOUTH OF A LION. having just finished that stunner, I found an interview with Bushra Rehman:
4. What are you reading right now? I love this question because so much of writing is about reading. Right now I’m reading A New Race of Men From Heaven by Chaitali Sen, Starshine & Clay by Kamilah Aisha Moon, Nevada by Imogen Binnie, Girls That Never Die by Safia Elhillo, Who Is Wellness For?: An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who It Leaves Behind by Fariha Róisín, and How to Kill Yourself Instead of Your Children by Quincy Scott Jones.
September 3, 2023 at 11:58 PM
goodmel.bsky.social
I have....a lot of photos to go through
9.800 photos, 932 videos
August 28, 2023 at 2:49 AM
goodmel.bsky.social
Going through my icloud photos and found this gem that may or may not have to be incorporated into my novel:
Photo of all black chicken with article title "Goth Chicken Is Completely Black From Its Feathers to Its Bones"
August 28, 2023 at 2:48 AM
goodmel.bsky.social
I love the character writing a novel in my novel. He’s my little buddy.
“How do you come up with your characters?” I ask Manny one day. “First you give them a face,” he says. “Then you give them something to do.”
August 20, 2023 at 4:37 AM
goodmel.bsky.social
Can’t decide if it’s funny or sad that the google slides app is for ages four and up.
Screenshot of google slides app, average rating of 4.6 stars, #13 in productivity, for ages 4+
August 20, 2023 at 4:32 AM
goodmel.bsky.social
Back in bangs
Car selfie of me rocking bangs and shoulder length bob
August 18, 2023 at 9:41 PM
goodmel.bsky.social
Anyone else get the @ they wanted on bsky? You know, the one some twitter user from 2009 made and abandoned THAT VERY SAME DAY
Screenshot of a single tweet from @goodmel from 4/16/09 reading “never stop to learn.” Literally the only tweet they ever tweeted.
August 18, 2023 at 8:09 PM
goodmel.bsky.social
“…when we touched the world, it died.”
Screenshot of the audiobook Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion by Bushra Rehman
August 16, 2023 at 4:31 AM
goodmel.bsky.social
Never a bad time to be reminded of this Hannah Cohen wisdom:

https://theoffingmag.com/insight/the-last-fanfiction-i-ever-wrote/
I never want to forget the feeling of writing for the sake of creative freedom. I want a release from the productivity mill. No more racing to the top of the pyramid writing scheme. We are living during a fucking pandemic in a world on fire, so if I want to write self-indulgent bullshit, I’ll write self-indulgent bullshit.
August 13, 2023 at 9:24 PM
goodmel.bsky.social
Scholarly
A black rabbit with white front paws flops beside a tall bookcase.
August 13, 2023 at 4:32 PM
goodmel.bsky.social
Such a thoughtful essay by Emily Berry

I often feel like *reading* a poem/story/novel has saved my life, and I guess I write for the hope that one day my words may be a life raft

https://tlth.co.uk/furtherinjury
August 11, 2023 at 3:38 PM