The Call with Melody Dean Dimick

After Joyce Sweeney and I met at a Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) conference in Miami, she became my content editor. Through her wise guidance, I found my voice and a traditional PAL publisher,Taylor and Seale Publishing. At a subsequent SCBWI conference in Orlando, Joyce bestowed one of her coveted Magic Bean Ceremonies on me. We continued working together. She knew I was seeking an agent, and she loved my novel in verse. Joyce suggested I submit What Lies Beneath to her.

                

About Melody Dean Dimick:

Melody Dean Dimick is an award-winning author, the president of the Florida Writers Foundation—a not-for-profit organization promoting literacy—and a member of the Florida Writers Association (FWA), the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), the Daytona Writers Guild, the Florida State Poets Association, and the Florida Authors and Publishers Association. She draws on her experiences teaching at Northern Adirondack Central School and the State University of New York at Plattsburgh to write YA fiction and poetry. Dimick leads the Lake Helen Villa Writers.

Nine of Melody’s short works appear in (FWA) collections. Both her Backpack Blues and What Lies Beneath won First Place in the unpublished general category of the Florida Writers Association’s Royal Palm Literary Awards. Blame and Backpack Blues: Ignite the Fire Within won Daytona Writers Guild Excellence in Arts awards. Taylor and Seale recently published Ain’t It a Shame, a three-act play based on Backpack Blues: Ignite the Fire Within. Her poem, “Ysobel Gomez,” captured Second Place in an FWA Royal Palm contest. Her No Parents Allowed is a semi-finalist for this year’s RPLA Young Adult Novel of the Year.

Other books by Melody Dean Dimick include Silent Screams, Sinister Silence, Cat Girl, No Parents Allowed, and the three-act play Ain’t It a Shame. She is represented by Joyce Sweeney, literary agent with The Seymour Agency.

Melody conducts poetry workshops, served as a speaker on the First Books Panel at a Miami SCBWI conference, participated in a panel discussion at the Museum of Arts & Sciences as part of the Volusia County National Endowment for the Arts NEA Big Read, visits and speaks for writers’ groups and at schools and libraries. She has conducted workshops at conferences in Altamonte Springs/Orlando, and Port Charlotte. Local radio host, Mary Flynn interviewed Melody and her husband, Barry, on Orlando’s 1520 WBZW. To learn more about Melody and her books, readers can follow her blog under: My News at https://www.melodydeandimick.com/.

In her spare time, Melody loves to read, play pickleball with her husband, Barry, attend and judge poetry slams, and play pinochle with her son and his wife.