Melissa Alvarez's Biography

see website at http://melissaa.com

Melissa Alvarez is an internationally known clairvoyant advisor and an award-winning author of metaphysical nonfiction and paranormal romance (published under the name Ariana Dupre). She has written hundreds of articles as the original paranormal expert at Examiner.com and as the Guide to Romance Fiction at About.com. Alvarez has appeared on numerous radio shows as a guest or host.

Melissa is an award winning author, graphic artist and website designer who obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Virginia Tech. She has always been an entrepreneur and owned several successful businesses with her husband. Melissa became involved in the publishing industry in 2000. She formed New Age Dimensions to self-publish her first book, The Phoenix’s Guide To Self-Renewal, which was released in January 2001. It quickly landed in Amazon.com’s Top 1000 where it stayed until it went out of print. At the time, Melissa was manufacturing the 416-page book in her home and eventually couldn’t keep up with the demand. Melissa says, “The learning process that went with the publication of this book was phenomenal. I jumped into the industry in an unconventional way but it was fun and worthwhile.”

Between March of 2004 and February of 2006, Melissa, founder and CEO, operated New Age Dimensions as a small press. The company had 40 authors and over 70 titles released. During this time Melissa designed the book covers, created the print book layouts and ebook files, designed and maintained websites for the company as well as some of the authors. Melissa had the final decision on contracted books. The company won awards for website design and the books published received numerous five star reviews and won many awards including EPPIE’S, the Oscars of ePublishing.

Because of the industry contacts made when Melissa worked as The Guide To Romance Fiction at About.com, she decided to release her first paranormal romantic suspense novel, Night Visions, under the pen name Ariana Dupré. She wanted the book to stand on its own, to receive good or bad reviews because of the writing, not because she knew a lot of people in the romance industry or because she owned the publishing company. Melissa didn't want her jobs, past or present, to affect the reviews in any way (good or bad). So she kept Ariana's real identity a secret until enough reviews came in that she knew the book had indeed earned success on its own. Night Visions became a multiple award winning title. Melissa's other titles as Ariana Dupre are Paradise Designs, Talgorian Prophecy, and Talgorian Dragon.

In the past, Melissa has been a regular columnist for Suite Magazine, a writing correspondent for The American Kennel Club, a contest judge, a free lance editor, and she is considered a publishing expert and is listed on a Writer’s Digest Top 100 website as such and has appeared on radio shows in the same capacity. As an internationally renowned clairvoyant advisor, with experience in many different areas of metaphysics and as a paranormal romantic suspense author, Melissa wrote an article about the emergence of the psychic fiction genre for Romantic Times BOOKclub Magazine. She has also been published in The Writer's Net Anthology of Prose, Paranormal Experiences Volume One, New Age Dimensions Holiday Extravaganza, and was quoted Book Marketing A-Z by Francine Silverman, How To Operate A Successful Pizza & Sub Restaurant by Shri Henkel, Successful Meetings by Shri Henkel and Book Promo 101 by Nikki Leigh.

Melissa is the founder of International Paranormal Fiction Month, a member of Romance Writer’s of America including the following chapters: PASIC, RWA Online, Kiss Of Death, Futuristic, Fantasy & Paranormal, and From The Heart. She is also a Publishing Expert at Moonspinners Ask the Experts (Writer's Digest Top 100 Website) and a Spirituality & Publishing Expert at BookPromotionNewsletter.com. She is also listed in the top ten psychics on bestpsychics.com.

Melissa can speak or write about the following topics:
• The publishing industry – how to get started, self publishing, owning a small press, critiquing, manuscript formatting, romance fiction, the submission process, looking at both sides of the industry as a publisher and author, ebooks, psychic fiction, and many other topics.
• Metaphysics – clairvoyance, past lives & past life readings, ghosts & hauntings, developing your psychic abilities, spiritual awakenings, spirit guides, empathic abilities, psychometry, telepathy, divination, life paths and lessons, connecting with your higher self, unlocking latent abilities, meditation on the go, crystals, chakras, tarot, pendulums, third eye activation, karma, soul quests, palmistry, elemental spirits, protecting with white light and much more.

Melissa is also the ownerof http://APsychicHaven.com,  http://TopHatFriesians.com and http://VomGrenzpolizeiK9.com  Melissa and her husband are breeders of Friesian horses and German Shepherd dogs.