About

This is my face.

This is my face.

Hello and welcome!  My name is Melanie Atherton Allen, and this is my blog/blaugh/website/thing. 

I write fiction (mostly horror, mystery, and comedy).  

On this site, you will find a few short stories.  What you’ll mainly find, though, are my weird projects.  For example, Artificial Artifacts are a big thing at Atherton’s Magic Vapour.  We (and by “we,” what I mean is, “I”) think a lot of them here.  They are fake ads, articles, wills, laundry bills (actually, we haven’t done that one yet), tables of contents, lists of illustrations, etc., all made by me to tell or suggest a story, or to amuse or frighten the reader. 

You won’t find much about me here, because I kind of hate writing about myself.  This should not be taken as a sign either of Becoming Modesty or Low Self-Esteem, as I assure you that neither of those are problems that I have.  To be perfectly honest, I find that writing about myself is hard.  Not, like, emotionally, or anything–more sort of grammatically, if you see what I mean.  Still, there are a few things on here about me, and I will let you know when someone is going to publish one of my stories.

Why Is Your Blog Called Atherton’s Magic Vapour?

Good question, Jenkins!  “Atherton’s Magic Vapour” is a chapter title in Richard Marsh’s The Beetle, a ridiculously extravagant work of Gothic Horror that I don’t exactly recommend.  I mean, it really depends on how you feel about that sort of thing.  I enjoyed it thoroughly, but – well, I would.  The chapter title had a lot of appeal for me, because, as you may have deduced, I am slightly obsessed with my middle name.  Anyway, it is now my blog. 

 

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16 Comments

  1. Hi Melanie! I nominated you for a Liebster Award. I don’t know if you are familiar with it or not, but the details are at http://lorilmaclaughlin.com/2014/05/17/the-liebster-award. Accepting the award is completely optional, but I wanted to let you know that I really enjoy reading your posts. 🙂

  2. It was nice to meet you at the writer’s conference last weekend. Best wishes in your writing career.

    Jim Moore

  3. Well, I know it’s weird I come here after having read so many of your entries for the AtoZ Challenge, but I just wanted to tell you how much I’m enjoying your blog.
    I’m really impressed by your professionality too. I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with me even when the Challange is over 😉

  4. Hi Melanie,I nominated you for the Creative Blogger Award! The award is completely optional, but if you choose to accept, the details can be found at http://lorilmaclaughlin.com/2015/06/12/celebrate-the-small-things-the-creative-blogger-award/. Looking forward to more murder mysteries in the future!

    • Melanie Atherton Allen

      Hey Lori! Thanks so much! I will check it out!

      I, too, look forward to writing more murder mysteries here- but right now, I’m trying to re-learn how to write U.S. English (the language of my current work-in-progress)… so it might be some little time before I do anything in the usual Atherton’s Magic Vapour tone. We shall see!

  5. Thanks so much for including me in your mentions! Looking forward to following your musings!

    • Hey Marquessa! No problem– also, your A to Z was epic! I haven’t read it all yet, but I plan to, and what I have read was really amazing and fun. I like how you deal with a heavy topic with such a light touch.

  6. Hi Melanie! We met during the A to Z Challenge and I’ve contacted a few other A t Zers. Just wanted to let you know that for pure fun, I started a #FictionFriday Challenge where music lyrics are used as prompts and we could read each other’s work. If you are interested, feel free to take a look. Cheers! M xoxo

  7. What a gorgeous blog! How wonderful to meet you and discover all this. Happy A to Z!

  8. Finding your blog for the first time during the #Challenge. Love reading mysteries, but find as a writer, they are not easy to write. I have tried to introduce a degree of mystery into my novels but tip my hat to you who have undertaken the mystery genre. I will try and catch up with your AtoZ posts. Liking the few I’ve read and know you have had a great time preparing for your April posts. Writing about Bookstores as my theme this year has been fun. Books, one of my passions. I imagine you hang out in bookstores when possible too.

    • Hello, and welcome to Atherton’s Magic Vapour! Mystery is tricky (but so much fun, too!). And it is possibly my favorite genre to read. It is certainly the genre I read most often. I always enjoy making my A to Z posts! And yes, I love bookstores. Thanks for visiting!

  9. What ho blaugher! Due to the general spiffyness of your writing and the overall excellence of your website, the Outer Entities known as @DebsDespatches and @Breakerofthings would like to grant you the boon of the protective amulet known as the Liebster Award.

    Mwahahahahaha!

    @BreakerOfThings
    AtoZing at Fiction Can Be Fun
    Sometimes to be found at A Back of the Envelope Calculation

    • Thanks!!! I like protective amulets! Also awards! Someone has mentioned this Liebster thing to me before, and I keep promising myself to look into it– but! It will really happen! I am extremely flattered!!!! 🙂

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