Melissa Ruth Rotert -Order THE RIDDERS SERIES!

@melruthwrites.bsky.social

1811 Followers 2308 Following

Kidlit Author (she/her), THE RIDDERS SERIES order now! EIC @EpistemicLit & @Nimblewitlit Repped by T.S. Ferguson https://linktr.ee/irmelsa Oxford Comma #Dis #ND #Pan

Selfie at emo boozy bingo
List of public libraries that allow nonresident cards from reddit.
Boy getting his shirt signed by Maxwell Hairston
Sick of Being Sick Issue 001 Contributors Left Column: JJ Alexi Edwards Suzanne Bernardi Robbie Rose Sadhana Thirumangai Val Jones Liliom Stanley CC Page David Thompson Olliver Christodoulakis Lisa Solis Rae the Dandy Sydney Kurland Johnny Laidlaw Riya Nagendra Shell Walsh Nasta Martyn Misti Cooper Nikki Kossaris Melissa Ruth Rotert Aleena Sharif KSC Hatch Painted Thingies Krista Allen Line Langager Ace Fable Goose Hunt Charlee Innes-Davis Charlotte Harrow Right Column: BP JOHNSON Dominic Lyne flossmoments Elly Rox Chrissy Bernards Kayla Marie Gonzalez Dawn Levitt Tadgh Sage Eleanor Rose Jack & Kiki Arielle Dance Francis Tomkins Kelly Sauvage Moyer Makena Metz luna rey hall Alyssa Roybal Nari Mwelwa Chilekwa Sumofabody Nicole "Nic" Jean Turner Emory Rae Allison Stratton Cathelijne Tiel Dianne Elizabeth Casey Carla Beth Jones V.M. Sawh Jasper, Prince of Jupiter
Pictures from my birthday weekend out
Youth lacrosse player
Book where the pages aren't cut properly from the printer.
Studded black and green cuff bracelets
Inspo board for Emo Boozy Bingo event in Buffalo NY with combat boots, makeup styles, accessories etc.
6 yo dressed in his 90s hiphop best.
Me in a picture with my friend and favorite drag queen ❤️
Tattoo: astronaut pug surrounded by rainbow colors
Facebook post on a community page: If you are disabled, elderly, immigrant, or send me a fact based reason on why you hate Trump and ICE- mow that shit for free. Fight fascism with unity of ethics.
Freshly Picked Cherries When Patrick was 8, Anne was wheelchair bound, often staring blankly into the past, perhaps. Words were labored, few. Undaunted, he tagged along for visits. One afternoon, he carried a small paper sack of freshly picked cherries. Her gaze settled on him and then slid to the bag. "Want one?" Patrick asked. smile nearly formed on her lips as he removed the pit and lifted a single cherry into her slack mouth. When she began to chew slowly, his face bloomed. "Grandma Anne," he said, reaching back into his sack, about another?" -- Mary Birchenough Picture of a little boy sleeping his Great Grandmother's arms.
"Melissa Ruth Rotert now represented by T.S. Ferguson" My picture and the logo for Azantian Literary Agency
Traditional style heart tattoo with ribbon that says "ME"
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and guarantee if it hasn't happened to you, it's happened to someone you love, someone very close to you...even if you don't know about it. Because the thing is, there is still so much stigma in our society against the victims of sexual assault. The world wants us to quietly accept what's happened and move on. But that's not okay, and moving on isn't that simple. It impacts nearly every part of a victim's life and their ability to have healthy relationships afterwards. It can lead to addiction, abuse, and suicide. In order to remove the stigma, we have to leave space for coming forward, space for bringing these crimes into the light and demanding accountability, and space for healing with support. As a sexual assault survivor, fear and shame were the societal weapons that kept me from coming forward at 17 yo. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't wonder if the perpetrator raped others after me because there were no consequences. Even people thought were friends and safe spaces at the time diminished what had happened to me and told me to get over it and forget it. But 25 years later, it still haunts me and interferes with my ability to trust others. It is woven into the fabric of how interact with others and how love through life. am a sexual assault survivor and I will not be quiet.
Young child posing with Josh Byrne from the Buffalo Bandits.
Sign for Uranus Fudge factory in Indiana, bearded cartoon guy riding a rocket.
Big news! Starting today, April 1, 2026, I'll be switching my focus from middle grade fiction to nonfiction about steam engines exclusively! #aprilfools Steam train with a picture of me
FIRST PAGE WRITING COMPETITION FOR YOUNG ADULT SFFH The top 3 submissions will win a critique of their first 5 pages from me, Keir Alekseii, via video call! DEADLINE APRIL 20, 2026 FREE HOW TO ENTER? Requirements here: tinyurl.com/wdwcon10
Picture of a hand holding an mp3 player with a kids' messaging app open. Child messages his dad at 9:24pm with an emoji of a weightlifter. Dad replies: are you awake? Child dies mental calculation and replies: it's mom Dad replies oh ok.
Red stick figure person on a black background with the words "I'm mad" scrubbing in the upper right corner and terribly drawn flames coming out of the person's head
"Poetry for Pets: Book Fundraiser" (headline) Set of books clip art with the cover of the anthology on the front of a forward facing book. "$14.99" "Sponsored by Epistemic Literary" (in a box) Buffalo Pug and Small Breed Rescue logo "All proceeds benefit Buffalo Pug and Small Breed Rescue. Sold exclusively on Amazon. Please help us reach more people by reviewing on Good Reads." "Https://tinyurl com/PoetryPets"
School picture of me as a little girl around 6yo, with a cheesy wooded background typical of the late 80s. I have short uneven bangs. "This is who writes kidlit bc she refuses to grow up and still cuts her own bangs (wink face)"
"wordplay copy & line edits" Logo graphic
4 pictures of a very cute dog from Facebook named Edna the runt
1. Rice (white, brown, basmati, jasmine) 2. Quinoa 3. Potatoes 4. Corn 5. Buckwheat 6. Chickpeas 7. Lentils 8. Beans 9. Peas 10. Butternut Squash 11. Plantain 12. Rice Noodles 13. Fruit (bananas, apples, mangoes) 14. Berries (fresh and dried) 15. Turnips
chocolate lab laying on the couch pouting
Poetry for Pets - get your copy today - Exclusively at Amazon, $14.99 - For a limited time receive a free audiobook of “Love Hurts” by Genalea Barker gcbwrites@outlook.com - Sponsored by Epistemic Literary (image of Epistemic Literary logo) - All proceeds donated to Buffalo Pug and Small Breed Rescue (image of logo); Buffalopugs.org - bottom right is image of the cover of the book: Poetry for Pets: An Anthology, Edited by Melissa Rotert, with a photo of a pug
Front and back cover of Poetry for Pets: An Anthology. Edited by Melissa Ruth Rotert All proceeds go to Buffalo Pug and Small Breed Rescue. Picture is a black pug looking over his shoulder. He is wearing a red white and blue sweater.
Green football field comforter with a big foot all along the right side of the blanket design.
The cover of 'Back to the Ridders' by Melissa Ruth Rotert held up in front of the camera. Rocky glyphs before a purple sky with lightning striking through the scene. A rock golem. In the distance and a young girl standing on a high rock looking determined.
The most beautiful chocolate lab princess in the universe lying on the couch with one ear flopped up against the arm of the sofa, with fucks to give.
Cover of "Poetry for Pets" anthology with a picture of a black pug wearing a white, blue, and red, shirt that is looking over his shoulder.
Son's picture with Tahoka Nanticoke
Blue and pink mixed sky with lightning background with a hatchling pterosaur squawking. Books 1,2,& 3 of my mg trilogy showing with the phrase "the Ridders" below
Cover of an upcoming anthology called "Poetry for Pets" with a black pug looking over his shoulder smugly. He's wearing a red white and blue shirt. There is a pink/orange water color background. He is a very good boy.
Drawing with a close-up of a woman holding a terrified girl whose face is only partially shown in the lower left corner. The reference image is of a family fighting against ICE
Close up of hand with zubaz print, red, and white nails with a Buffalo Bills symbol on the white nail.
Me at a Buffalo Bills game
Cover for Book 3 of The Ridders Series: Back to the Ridderlands Purple sky with a streak of lightning through the middle. Monoliths in the foreground and background with a rock golem between them and a young girl on the right.
White pug in a tie dye hoodie
Package of "American rock salt" that has red and white rays spreading behind a man with a pickaxe.
White pug perched on a couch arm.
I am turning to stone. A slow and gradual process, but it’s painful as hell. My body, my cells--my very essence--resists, but the fight itself speeds up the process. I am lucky I can still move. As my limbs and joints harden, I lose more and more mobility. The bending and turning that once glided smoothly like an eel through water, now grinds and scrapes and clicks. An auditory reminder of my curse. As if I needed reminding. As if the daily agony of existing in this state of transmutation wasn’t reminder enough. One day, I will be a statue. I spend a great deal of time wondering the shape I will eventually take on, forever. On any given day, some part of my being may and will cease to move. It will take on it’s forever form. I can’t plan for this any more than you can anticipate the moment your marriage ends, or the placement of your birthmarks. Even if I could, do I care what shape I take? I guess I do want a say in the way my family and friends remember me. To literally leave a lasting image as my legacy. I know what I don’t want to become, a reminder of the burden this curse will put on anyone that loves me. I don’t want to be curled into a ball, face frozen in anguish. I don’t want to...any of this. Realistically, once my legs go, whatever is left will have pretty limited options. Or worse yet, what if my head goes first? A complete waste of whatever time my body would have had left. There are no desirable outcomes.
A tweet I wrote from many years ago responding to a picture I saw on fb of an elf on the shelf destroying a kitchen making the spaghetti marshmallow syrup mess from the Elf movie " Saw this on fb and just wanted to say...I don't live my kids this much."
Still from the Apple TV show The Last Frontier.
Pug precariously perched on the arm of the couch watching the neighborhood through a window.
6yo's sharpied sneakers/ without permission
With sleep comes reprieve. Rather than the pull of death, you feel the vitality of life. You rush through the thick trees on short fast legs that make running feel like flying. You don’t even stop when the low branches slap against your arms leaving scratches, and the thistles cling to your socks. The summer heat is less apparent the deeper you get under the shade of the cluttered canopy of leaves. You fly along until you reach a stream and crash into the cool water fully-clothed. The pirate lord has thrown the prince overboard, and you thrash intently in the water on the way to his rescue. You dive left and right, out-swimming sharks that lunge with sharp rows of teeth in your direction. A punch to the nose and you’re through their churning circle around the prince. You tow him out of danger and pull him to shore. Panting and grinning with the exhilaration of your imagined adventure, you can’t wait to tell Poppo all about it tonight. He is your best friend and confidante, and the only one that truly understands you.
Cover of book three in The Ridders series: Back to the Ridderlands. Purple sky background with a lightning streak. Rock formations, a rock golem, and a young girl in the foreground.
“As close as we once were, you never asked about who I was or why I came to be a wisp of a man on the edge of your bedclothes. Maybe you did not believe me to be real—or only real in the way all young children believe their fantasies to be—but like you, I once lived a life in the very house you grew up in. I once had a wife and children of my own. A son, like you, whose imagination tugged him into dark corners or off running through the gardens with a stick as his sword. It is my son that led me to your room that first night.
Me at indie author day the Buffalo and Erie county library