Melissa Ruth Rotert -Order THE RIDDERS SERIES!
LightNews LightNews
banner
melruthwrites.bsky.social
Melissa Ruth Rotert -Order THE RIDDERS SERIES!
@melruthwrites.bsky.social
1.6K followers 2.1K following 1.4K posts
Kidlit Author (she/her),
THE RIDDERS SERIES order now!
EIC @EpistemicLit & @Nimblewitlit

https://linktr.ee/irmelsa

Oxford Comma #Dis #ND #Pan
Posts Replies Media Videos
melruthwrites.bsky.social
Indie Author Day 2025 @ the Buffalo library
Me at indie author day the Buffalo and Erie county library
November 15, 2025 at 7:37 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #writingcommunity #writesky
From my #ya #scifi called Timewalkers or Alone in the Multiverse
Most mornings when I wake up, it’s in a world where I’m still being raised as a boy. No matter how much progress I make with one version of my family, I’m deadnamed in the next. My mom always comes around to the truth sooner or later, but I’ve lived through so many hateful alternate forms of my father in varying stages of religious fervor.
November 15, 2025 at 3:03 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
#WIPSnips lots to choose from here, but I felt this passage really gets to the heart of my characters environment and frustration.
Inside is a cluttered mess of boxes. Some of it is our stuff, sent ahead by the packing company. Some of it is Grandad’s, unsorted and ready to be discarded. Dad says Aunt Sherry spent one weekend “managing the estate” before she called him crying that she couldn’t do it. According to him, she actually said the words, “It’ll be easier for you because you’re already accustomed to loss.” I’ll be honest, part of me wanted to slug Aunt Sherry. But Dad is the guru of calm and forgave her completely insensitive whining immediately.
November 14, 2025 at 5:13 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
It's Literacy Night and I saw this in the library!
School dry erase board in a library that shows for the month of November that 3rd and 4th graders are reading Sue B and the Ridders (my book)
November 13, 2025 at 10:34 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #writingcommunity #writesky

This is a WIP that has been buried for a long time bc 1) it needs a total rewrite and 2) dystopias died in the market
“…there’s talk amongst the builders about the Elders’ disappearance in the community.” Realizing she had only half been listening, Kiera perked up when she heard her mother. She was desperate to say something now. It was more than the guilt. It was a way of obtaining information, of knowing that others had been thinking what she had been thinking. Others had noticed too. She couldn’t help it.
November 13, 2025 at 4:04 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
I'm apparently V bad @ the internets & missed that winners were posted, & GUESS WHAT? I'm 1 of them!

And I was hand picked by the amazing @alexgino.bsky.social, author of Melissa.

I'm beyond excited. Thank you @lydialukidis.bsky.social & @kaitlynleann17.bsky.social & @professoraixa.bsky.social
Orange badge shape with "FWF Winner 2025" and a fall tree inside.
November 11, 2025 at 10:33 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
#wipsnips #writingcommunity no burger, a lot of pizza tho... Going with food
“Right. Listen, Derek. I mean this in the nicest possible way, but it would be a total waste of my time to get into any of this. In a couple of days you’ll be just like everyone else. Let’s eat our lunches quietly until that happens.” “There is no way—” She puts her finger to my lips. “Shhhhh.” Then goes back to her food, leaving me legitimately speechless. After our silent lunch, I give up on making friends for today. I have gym, science, and whatever Eagles Engage is before I can go home and shake today off.
November 11, 2025 at 2:15 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #writingcommunity #writesky #YA #scifi #multiverse
Despite all this, she loves her mom, every single version of Christine Garza: the divorcee working two jobs just to pay the bills, every day cursing her ex for forcing her to quit her dream job when she got pregnant; the happily married woman who volunteers on weekdays with a local animal rescue, content to spend her time walking dogs and snuggling the cats; and even, the depressed lump Erin spent two hours coaxing out of bed this morning, only to be rewarded with lectures about not understanding responsibility.
November 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
Moderate Democrats will never get it. They are so misaligned with the demands and the voices of Americans who were sending a very clear message. Goodbye to the only leverage they had.
Photos of the 8 senators (Democrats and one independent) who voted to end shutdown and double healthcare costs
November 10, 2025 at 1:50 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #writingcommunity #mg #ghosttrain
She could not see the ghost light on her path to the station, too many trees and buildings blocked the way. This meant the train had already descended the hill into the valley where the station waited, Ms. Howard most likely wrapped in her favorite shawl with the wind blowing the escaping, spectral threads of her hair around her face. It was clear as day in Joey Clark’s mind. A sight she’d seen countless times. Ms. Howard, in her long life, had a habit of feeding the birds in the park from her favorite bench. Whether sun or bitter cold, Joey often spotted her scattering the seeds across the sidewalk with a content look upon her face. If she held the picture in her head, the ghost of Old Ms. Howard would be waiting for her—waiting for Joey to take her picture and prove she was right about the train.
November 10, 2025 at 1:37 AM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
Thank Glob, an easy one.
#WIPSnips #writingcommunity #horror #writesky
In the beginning, there was just a vague idea of a peaceful death. Then Henry became aware that he was lying in the twin bed of his childhood bedroom. The details of the room grew clearer with each visit to the dream. The little blue dresser displayed his found treasures atop its painted surface: pinecones and feathers, tokens and buttons. The kind of things that only a child could find valuable. Henry saw the nearly-sheer curtains with the pale blue and red sailboats embroidered carefully onto the fabric. By the third month he could feel the cool summer breeze pushing past those curtains and tickling his skin. Soon there was a bite to the air that was both familiar and haunting. Not haunting in a way that triggers fear, but the kind of haunting that alerts him to something important. Something looming.
November 8, 2025 at 2:10 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
I had to.
November 8, 2025 at 3:22 AM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
This is hilarious and awesome! And look at me hanging out with Robert Frost.
"Today my kiddo wrote a story with characters names "Mellissa and Robert." I asked her where she got the names from and she said, "your classroom bookshelf" Two book bins in a shelf. One has Sue B and the Ridders at the front, written by Melissa Ruth Rotert
November 7, 2025 at 1:38 AM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
Not everyone's cup of tea, but it's so perfectly me. #tattoo #pug #pugbutt
Tattoo of a white pug's butt with him looking behind him
November 6, 2025 at 7:13 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
This is as close as I can possibly get to #penultimate. #WIPSnips #writingcommunity #scifi #lit "Final two years"
It would be seven years before my heart started beating again and the shadow of that day lifted just enough to see some light. Seven years where Daniel waited on the other side of time for me. I don’t have any idea what kind of hell he existed in for those seven long years, because I was too caught up in my own, and he never spoke of it. One year when I didn’t leave my bed. Two years when I didn’t leave the house. Two more years before I was ready to first ride in an automobile, then drive one. The final two years, to make seven, I started to live in the world again, just barely, but just enough to let my husband love me and give me another daughter. October 18, 1971, my Sarah was born. The only other child I’d have. Sometimes, I think, she was the only reason I kept on living, more and more every day.
November 6, 2025 at 1:33 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #writingcommunity #writeSky
#mg #catdragon
“Cool trick,” I say, genuinely impressed. “Think you can do more of those? Without the awful choking sound?” I ask. A low grumble erupts from her throat. I can’t tell if it’s a warning sign for another fireball or if she is letting me know she doesn’t appreciate the comment. My guess is a little of both. Marmalade shoots flame after flame as we make our way through the woods. Finally we can see what's before us. The cat chooses our path and I hope she knows where she’s going. As a dragon she seemed able to smell her way to Sissy as we flew overhead, but I don’t know if cats have the same ability. Even if she is only a cat some of the time.
November 5, 2025 at 3:55 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #writingcommunity #writesky #multiverse #YA
Luckily, Natsu appears oblivious. It’s only Olivier who smirks with a faint twinkle in his steel blue eyes. Erin shakes it off. “So…maybe we’re wrong about Thomas?” “It is only a hypothesis.” “What’s your birthday, Frenchy?” Bonnie asks. “Seventh of August, just like you, I assume?” Olivier asks. “Yes. We all have the same birthday,” Erin answers. “Natsu, if that really is the reason we’re able to remember who we are and walk into any timeline we want—well, not any timeline, there are the locked worlds—then why not Thomas?”
November 5, 2025 at 4:01 AM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
Help me pick a new #headshot for my website and author page.
One of 4 pics of me to pick a headshot Two of 4 pics of me to pick a headshot Three of 4 pics of me to pick a headshot Four of 4 pics of me to pick a headshot
November 3, 2025 at 4:00 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #writingcommunity #writingprompts #writesky #scifi #ya #multiverse
Erin shakes her head, tossing off his nonchalance with her own, despite being secretly impressed. "Satisfied. And it is very nice to see you. Just also very surprising to see you first thing in the morning chatting with my mother like it's a regular "Fair enough." Natsu's reply makes Erin laugh. know. It doesn't really matter, right? It'll all get written over tomorrow or the next day. No one but us remembers anything."
November 3, 2025 at 1:29 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #writingcommunity #timegod
Really had to dig to find something even remotely relavent, despite having a whole wip about time and it's relation to the past.
I have seen the power of mothers. Young mothers who have grown without love or care, unable to love themselves, yet manage to cherish their children with a love unmatched. I am not here to defend my choice, only to explain that it was men and mortality that showed me that time can be used as a gift that can both shorten a life and give it eternal meaning.
November 1, 2025 at 2:13 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
Beggar's night is the big event here, but my son wanted a different costume for today. He's Finn, named for the Adventure Time character, dressed as Jake the dog. His older brother's costume from the same age (13 years ago). I made a last minute lumpy space princess for me.
November 1, 2025 at 1:41 AM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
You can't rep #CharlieBrown and expect to win a football game. Green Bay pulled a Lucy.
Aaron Rodgers in Steelers throwback uniforms
October 27, 2025 at 12:19 PM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
#halloween fun at the farm
Boy in the orange glow of his carved pumpkin Mom and son in Halloween costumes sitting on a hay bale holding chickens Boy on bounce pad in army costume with an alien coming from his stomach
October 27, 2025 at 12:43 AM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
What #authorsofbluesky #writingcommunity say about my edits:
With a meticulous eye for grammatical details and line-by-line editing that not only elevated my writing but also taught me plenty going forward, Melissa’s editorial feedback has been some of the very best that I’ve ever received. With eyes like a hawk, she was able to help fine-tune my writing to make it more concise and clear, ensuring that the words flowed smoothly. I truly could not recommend a better person to point out the small details, all to help make the bigger picture better. - marse Melissa is brilliant when it comes to editing. She communicates with clarity and offers solid guidance without compromising the author's voice. She delivers every single time, and I would never hesitate to recommend her. - dana Wordplay logo
October 25, 2025 at 1:40 AM
melruthwrites.bsky.social
New tattoo time
Tattoo of a frog version of Gandolf during the " you shall not pass" moment with his frog buns showing
October 24, 2025 at 11:21 PM