Melissa S. Craib Dombrowski

Melissa grew up on a small horse ranch in Northern California with 10 acres, a sizable library, and no cable television.  She spent the majority of her formative years working on the ranch, taking too many lessons, going to theatre rehearsal, and volunteering in her community.

At the end of High School, Melissa received six scholarships (and was the first recipient of the Charles Hume Memorial Scholarship, a full-ride theatre scholarship) and attended CSU Sacramento for two years.  Wishing to challenge herself further, she enquired about studying abroad for a year in the UK.  Finding there was no exchange program in her field there, she put her efforts towards finding one.  She became the first exchange student between CSUS and Middlesex University in the theatre arts.

While studying in London, Melissa founded a small theatre company (which performed in a disused basement which she converted into a 24 seat theatre) and also worked as a bartender at a local pub.  During this time, she realized that she most enjoyed the process and challenge of creating theatre rather than performing, and changed her focus to directing.   At the end of her year, she was offered the opportunity to transfer to Middlesex University and finish her degree there.  She graduated with her BA (Honors) in Drama and Theatre Studies in 2000. 

Since then, Melissa has continued to work in community, academic and professional theatre (including the California Musical Theatre and B Street Theatre in Sacramento, CA, El Portal in North Hollywood California, the University of Iowa and the Riverside Theatre in Iowa City, IA).  She also founded TarValon.Net, a 501(c)7 non-profit organization that encourages community and volunteerism among readers of Fantasy fiction, and has a career in office administration and support. 

Melissa loves to travel and has been through the USA (48 States; still missing Alaska and Arkansas), Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, England, Scotland, France, Poland and the Czech Republic.  She is a voracious reader (and often works on 2 or 3 books at one time), and enjoys reading epic fantasy, non-fiction essayists, and history (especially domestic history from the 11^th – 20^th centuries).