Emerge: The Awakening (30 page)

Melissa A. Craven (the "A" stands for Ann—in case you were wondering) was born near Atlanta, Georgia, but moved to Cleveland, Ohio at the age of seventeen. She still thinks of Cleveland as home, so it was only natural for
Emerge
to take place there.

Today, she is back in Atlanta—for some reason she can't seem to stay away from the ungodly heat that makes her long for things like "lake effect snow" and wind that will knock you flat.

Melissa decided a long time ago that the “life checklist” everyone else was clutching so tightly in their fists, just wasn’t for her. She does everything backwards because she is weird like that, but then, she is an artist and artists are notoriously "unique" and "quirky."

She is an avid student of art and design, and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of West Georgia in 2009. She worked as an interior designer for several years, but she's always thought she might like to be a writer when she grows up.

In her spare time, if she has any, she enjoys shopping for derelict furniture she refinishes to exercise the interior design part of her brain.

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A note to the reader

It has always been my deepest desire that my story feature, not only good examples of strong women, but an equal balance of strong men as well. Allie is flawed. She is real. She is a girl who loves fiercely, is tough when she has to be, but she is never hard and jaded. To me, Allie is a great balance of "real girl" and "girl power" when so many books go to one extreme or the other when representing women. Throughout Emerge, for every strong female character, there is also a strong male, not standing in her shadow, but beside her, just as amazing as she is. I want my characters to show readers what real equality between the sexes should look like. Emerge is not just a story about an extraordinary girl and the boy who loves her, it is about true equality, strength and partnership.

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