Hi! I’m mel harding-shaw (She/Her).

I write Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy as Mel Harding-Shaw under my Coruscate Press imprint, and short Speculative Fiction as Melanie Harding-Shaw. Check out my publications section to see where you can find my work, including free-to-read stories.

I’m a public policy advisor as my day job and the stories I write always start in my head with a ‘what if’ that explores the effect of a change to reality or technology on people’s motivations and actions. Sometimes you can see the day job bleed into my writing, like in my award-winning epistolary creepy climate fiction short story ‘Data Migration’.

In 2022, I was honoured to win agent’s choice in the Romance Writers of New Zealand Great Beginnings Contest for my debut Paranormal Romance / Urban Fantasy novel City of Souls. City of Souls was also a finalist for Best Novel in the 2023 Sir Julius Vogel Awards. You can read the free prequel short story ‘From the Ashes’ and the first chapter of City of Souls if you subscribe to my newsletter.

My short stories have appeared in a range of international and local kiwi publications including Strange Horizons, Analog, Daily Science Fiction, newsroom and Takahē. I’ve had stories accepted in all four volumes of Year’s Best Aoteroa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy, as well as The Best of British Fantasy 2019, and Year’s Best Hardcore Horror Volume 6, and I was honoured to win Best Short Story in the 2022 and 2023 Sir Julius Vogel Awards.

I’ve also indie published five books of speculative short fiction, including my Censored City series of near-future thriller novelettes, my short story collection Alt-ernate: A collection of 37 Stories, and my (sub)Urban Fantasy witchy fiction novella Against the Grain.

I live in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand with my husband and three children. I’m doing my best to give back to my fellow authors. I was the Writer Liaison for CoNZealand—the 78th World Science Fiction Convention, and I continue to wrangle my local Wellington speculative fiction crew to hang out as well as collating speculative fiction works from all over New Zealand to make awards nominations easier in this spreadsheet. I was honoured to win the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror in 2020 for my efforts.

Sign-up for my newsletter if you’d like to follow me on my writing journey. You can also find me on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.  

Thanks for your interest!

 

Short 3rd person Bio

Mel/Melanie Harding-Shaw is a pākehā paranormal romance and speculative fiction writer from Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Her debut novel, City of Souls won Agent’s Choice in the RWNZ Great Beginnings Contest and was a finalist for Best Novel in the Sir Julius Vogel Awards.

She is a widely published award-winning short story writer, with stories in publications including Takahē, Strange Horizons, Analog, Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy and The Best of British Fantasy. She’s published five books of short fiction and won Best Short Story in the 2022 and 2023 Sir Julius Vogel Awards.

She also won the award for Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror in the 2020 Sir Julius Vogel Awards.

You can find her at www.melaniehardingshaw.com and on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.