Mélissa Laurendeau has books in her skin. In addition to launching the third volume of her fantastic series “Fragments of Souls”, she has just founded an authors’ cooperative in addition to organizing book fairs.
A life full of books and everything that revolves around them. Met at her home in Princeville, Mélissa proudly presented this book which will be released on November 4 and which is entitled “Era of Dawn”. It complements “Era of Darkness”, available since 2021, and “Era of Lights”, published in 2022. The fantasy trilogy, intended for an adult audience aged 15 and over, integrates several characters and points of view. The Order of the Templars, these police officers of the magical world, as well as several mythical creatures are featured in these three books full of adventures. “With the first, we are more in the action,” she summarizes. For the second book, it’s more the psychological aspect as well as the repercussions of previous events. As for the third volume (to come), it still brings together action and psychology, but also the emotional aspect.
For the author, this story that she has been cooking up since she was in high school, it stood to reason that she would make a trilogy. She explains that writing and reading have always been a part of her life. “In high school, I wasn’t good at spelling, but I liked developing my imagination,” she confides. This little quibble had discouraged her a little from pursuing writing, but after having her children, a job in a bookstore made her discover the behind the scenes of literature and, by the same token, that she was possible to publish thanks to the services of proofreaders. The arrival of “The Game of Thrones” novels finally convinced her that she had her place in this literary world. An illustrator and graphic designer by trade, she now mixes her talents in her books. She is the one who self-publishes and, of course, creates her cover pages.
Even if her third volume is not yet available, Mélissa indicates that she has three other book projects that have been started, which is not trivial for someone who has been writing seriously since only 2021. “I have a thirty projects accumulated,” she says. Among them, some, including “La Cantine”, are made in groups, which she really appreciates.
There is also “The Chronicles of Mèric”, which she published in 2023 and which includes four short stories about the last dragon. Another kind of book, well appreciated at the fairs that she also began to frequent. In his editions, we must not forget “M. Patastrof”, written by his 11-year-old son, Shad Rahem. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” she said with pride. Indeed, seeing her write, her son wanted to do the same and imagine a story intended for his cousin, which she helped to achieve.
A coop
In addition to all this, Mélissa found time to found, a few months ago, the Cooperative of Passenger Authors of Quebec. After participating in several book fairs, she realized that in Victoriaville and the regions, there was nothing of the kind. She therefore wanted, with a few people, to organize literary events called Salon Passager. “When I met Guillaume Morissette and his Literary Caravan, it opened up a world of possibilities for me,” she says.
This is how the first was born in 2022 near Longueuil and there were five in total that year. The next, seven shows were presented, people contacted her to organize them at their home. “I then saw that I couldn’t organize them all,” she remarked. This is how the idea of a cooperative was born. “A motivated committee emerged and the cooperative was born to continue to hold fairs and offer other services to authors, regardless of their publishing method,” she announces.
This cooperative has been formed for a few months and already 50 people have joined, coming from all over Quebec. “The mission is to support members so that they develop their marketing, their visibility and their network,” she summarizes. The organization also makes it possible, with the fairs, to compensate for the lack of visibility and accessibility to certain events for emerging or lesser-known authors. He will soon have his website which is currently under development. Of course, we can consult it through social networks too.
For the moment, members, with an annual membership fee of $40, benefit from discounts for their registrations for Passenger lounges. “But we want to develop partnerships for, for example, training,” hopes Mélissa. In short, the objective is to make life easier for authors by providing them with tools.
Many are interested in the mission of the cooperative she chairs and help organize the fairs. Moreover, the next one will take place on November 9 near Sainte-Catherine in Montérégie. And on the Victoriaville side, it will launch the year 2025 and is already almost full of exhibitors. It is scheduled for Saturday, February 15 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the Mount Arthabaska pavilion.
Mélissa Laurendeau, as we can see, is passionate about books and what surrounds them. Describing herself as a girl of projects, she does not hesitate to give time to her passions which increasingly nourish her life.
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