Melissa Cate has always been a storyteller— when she was a preschooler, her mom would record the bedtime stories Cate would tell at night and type them up for her. Cate currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family, but is a Midwesterner through and through.

After thirty years of mostly academic, devotional, or biographical writing, she jumped headfirst back into fiction in October 2023 and was a Write on the River winner in the Spring of 2024. She has published four short stories in anthologies in 2025, and her first novel is planned to be published in 2026.

Cate’s short story “Welcome Home” appears in Recipes for Romance: A Sweet Valentine’s Day Anthology (2025) and is available as an extended edition from Attic Ebooks, “The Kindness Challenge” appears in Home for the Holidays: A Christmastime Anthology (2025) and is available as an extended edition from Attic Paperbacks, and “When Lightning Strikes” appears in Just One . . . : A Summer Romance Anthology (2025). Follow Melissa on Instagram @melissacatewrites, Facebook @melissacatewrites, and her author website.