Author M.M. Shelley

There are a lot of places in L.A. that I have used as the setting for The Chronicles of Orlando , one place that I'm very fond of is Olvera Street. It’s the place where Los Angeles was born, yes it's mostly for tourists and it may scream it, but the buildings that surround it date back and are like windows to the lives of the people who called L.A. home long before I did. Some of these buildings have a haunted look to them almost as if they are daring an onlooker to come in, issuing a silent challenge. For the next few weeks I'm going to be posting about some of the places in Los Angeles that I'll be visiting, these will be some of the forgotten places around town that may or may not find their way into The Chronicles of Orlando such as the ruins of the old zoo, unless you know where to look you wouldn't know it was even there. It's been closed for years but everything is left as it was; the empty cages and walkways are just sitting there almost like they w...

            A few months ago, right before my dog Jackie past away I came across a gray and white cat, her coat was dirty and matted and she was very skinny. I found her after I fed Jackie her lunch, the cat was watching me and waited until I went back inside. Now Jackie wasn’t really eating, she slept most of the day. I watched and waited to see what the cat would do I wasn’t kept waiting long, she walked cautiously toward the bowl and began to eat I didn’t have the heart to chase her away. It was a few days later that I found her litter of kittens, they were using my neighbors garage as their home, going in and out through the vent.             Slowly the mama cat began to look healthier and after my dog Jackie died I continued to feed the cat. The kittens were still nursing so I didn’t worry about them-- yet. The mama cat began to bring her kittens over into my backya...

January is always a busy month known as the month of birthdays, I won’t go into the long list that I have, but I will tell you that today is my brother Jim’s birthday and also my childhood friend Tina’s. Happy Birthday! My Goals: I have been writing everyday and I know I said I would not keep track of my word count-- I always seem to check at the end of the day. As for research, I enjoy it! Its my favorite part of the writing process.   Marketing: I found a site called Red Hot Readers, and I listed one of my books as a giveaway. It’s a great way for authors to connect to readers. Here is the link for Red Hot Readers I will keep this post short as it is my brothers birthday and he and his wife are coming by with the kids, I am planning on taking the kids to the Hsi Lai Temple in Rowland Heights and catch the free tour at 3PM while my brother and his wife go out to dinner. Here is the link for Hsi Lai Temple

Its the beginning of the year and the beginning of another Row challenge, I have a lot of ideas that I'm playing with and I would like to begin working one of them in particular, I have actually started researching the setting for the story. I really do enjoy the research part of writing, but enough of that. Here are my goals: Write everyday- and not focus on word count. Finish up Mishap & Retribution, I am making good progress and I would like to send it to my editor by the end of the month. I usually work with her on it before sending it to my beta readers for their feedback. I also need to make time for my kung fu training and support my classmates, they will be in the Golden Dragon Parade in China Town and I will of course post pictures. I have a video somewhere of a previous parade, I will have to post it so you can see how amazing it is.

Dead Relatives is now on Amazon.com and will soon be on Smashwords, B&N and IBOOKS I will post the links as they become available! Also my other book Mishap & Chaos will be going on tour in January and so I decided that while it's on tour it will be available for $0.99. I hope that everyone has a Happy and Safe New Year!

I first started learning martial arts when I was fifteen and my very first class I speant learning how to throw a good punch. Having four brothers it should have been easy, but ... I was horrible. Also learning how to roll was most difficult for me I think it may have been because when I was seven I broke my elbow in two places and tore through the muscle-- I was quite the daredevil. After my broken elbow I decided to play more safe. And as a side note learning how to do a Kung Fu roll where you use your arm and elbow to balance was not fun. In 2007 I began learning the style of  Tai Shing Pek Kwar, and it has been a rewarding and challenging journey ever since. This video shows two basic self defense techniques that anyone can use.

So far this week I've written 1100 words on Monday, 1250 on Tuesday and 1100 again today. I have not been able to workout at all as I've been fighting a cold. Which means I am losing out on learning the new forms in my Kung Fu class. I'll be able to learn them when I go back, but I'm missing the step by step training and I will have to pick them up quickly before we begin training the next form. This Saturday I'm taking two of my nieces to see Wicked, it's what they told me they wanted for Christmas and I love that they enjoy going to the theatre.