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Melissa Payne is the bestselling, award-winning author of The Night of Many Endings, The Secrets of Lost Stones, and Memories in the Drift. Her fourth novel, due out in November 2022, is a fast-paced tale that delves deep into the idea of community and family, either the family we are born into or the one we make for ourselves. It is about surviving, despite prejudice and hate, and the beauty that exists in the imperfections.

For as long as she can remember, Melissa has been telling stories in one form or another—from high school newspaper articles to a graduate thesis to blogging about marriage and motherhood. But she first learned the real importance of storytelling when she worked for a residential and day treatment center for abused and neglected children. There, she wrote speeches and letters to raise funds for the children. The truth in those stories was piercing and painful and written to invoke a call to action in the reader: to give, to help, to make a difference. Melissa’s love of writing and sharing stories in all forms has endured.

She lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains with her husband and three children, a friendly mutt, a very loud cat, and the occasional bear.
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