A native of eastern Ontario, Melanie Robertson-King lived in a winterized cottage on the shore of the St Lawrence River during her pre-school years. Before starting school, her family moved to Brockville, where she received her education, including a post-secondary degree in Computer Programming.
As an only child, Melanie was an avid reader and remains so. She knew then that one day, she would be a writer. When she wasn’t talking about her dream of becoming an author, she wrote stories and began honing her skills at an early age.
Melanie’s father was a Scottish national. He came to Canada as a ‘Home Child’ through the auspices of The Orphan Homes of Scotland. She promised herself that one day, her feet would touch the soil in her father’s homeland. That first trip was in 1993, and she’s not looked back since, having returned to the Auld country many more times. Her last trip abroad was in 2018. On one of her many trips to Scotland, Melanie had the honour of meeting Princess Anne (The Princess Royal) at the orphanage where her father was raised.
Encouraged to study Highland Dancing, she competed locally. Her final competition took place during the summer of 1969, a few short months after her father’s death, at the 1000 Islands Highland Games. She won the Silver Medal in the Sword Dance in that last event.
Melanie began her professional writing career in non-fiction. One of her articles graced the cover of an international publication. At the same time, she continued to develop her writing voice: short stories (both fiction and non-fiction) as well as novel-length work.
In keeping with her Scottish roots, Melanie took piping lessons and has her own set of bagpipes. She hasn’t had them out in a number of years, for which the neighbours are thankful.
You’ll find her out and about when not sequestered in her cave writing, plotting or editing. Her favourite haunts (pardon the pun) are cemeteries (the older, the better) since they have more character, and perhaps a few more characters. She also loves travel and photography.
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Title YESTERDAY TODAY ALWAYS
Author Melanie Robertson-King
Genre Romantic Suspense/Psychological Thriller
Book Blurb
Who is stalking Katherine and why?
Still reeling from the death of her husband in the London Bombings, Katherine builds a wall around her heart to prevent further hurt.In a serendipitous moment her first love, Jared Martin walks back into her life. Old feelings are rekindled but as their second-chance-relationship develops, another cruel twist of fate strikes. The helicopter Jared is a passenger on ditches in the North Sea.
Who, if anyone, will survive the ordeal? Is fate still not done its dirty deeds?
Will a reckless moment from her past come back to haunt her?
Excerpt
31st December, 2010
He stepped out from the entrance of the Vue Cinemas. One day she would be his. But not today. Now was not the right time. He was not ready. No instructions came from within his brain. The voices hadn’t spoken to him yet. Only when they did, would the time be right.
In the month since his arrival, he spent hours at the Central Library searching through the city directories to confirm ownership of As the Pages Turn. The business had not changed hands. In addition to those, he perused back issues of The Press and Journal on microfilm for more information about the shop and its owners.
The streets were busy tonight. A group of giggling young women, their skirts too short, and their heels too high, wearing far too much makeup, walked past his hiding place forcing him to retreat further into the shadows. Any one of these girls could be his, but his heart was set on the one with the fiery red tresses. The owner of the bookstore.
Captivated by her beauty, he emerged from the darkness and started across the street, careful not to be seen by the CCTV camera. He crept to the corner of the casino building giving the video surveillance a wide berth.
Back garden fireworks popped and banged. The occasional starbursts of red, green, blue and white rose above the buildings.
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Title A Shadow in the Past
Author Melanie Robertson-King
Genre Time-travel romance
Book Blurb
When a contemporary teen is transported back in time to the Victorian era, she becomes A Shadow in the Past...
Nineteen-year-old Sarah Shand finds herself in Victorian Era Aberdeenshire, Scotland and has no idea how she got there. Her last memory is of being at the stone circle on the family farm in the year 2010. Despite having difficulty coming to terms with her situation, Sarah quickly learns she must keep her true identity a secret. Still, she feels stifled by the Victorians' confining social practices, including arranged marriages between wealthy and influential families, and confronts them head only to suffer the consequences. When Sarah realizes she has fallen in love with the handsome Laird of Weetshill, she faces an agonizing decision. Does she try to find her way back to 2010 or remain in the past with the man she loves?
Excerpt
Sarah lay on her bed, a pillow bunched up under her chest. In her hands, she gripped a photo of Blair and herself taken in front of the Mercat Cross in Aberdeen the previous summer. A mascara-stained tear dripped off her face and splattered on the picture. They were so happy then. What went wrong? Bad enough he cheated on her, but why with Niamh? Her best friend? Well, not anymore.
From the moment she turned off her alarm clock that morning, she had a premonition something dreadful was going to happen. She shrugged her misgiving off until she encountered the two snogging in the woods. The discovery devastated her.
Her mother tapped and called through the closed door. “Supper’s ready.”
Attempts to regain some semblance of composure were unsuccessful. With conviction, she responded. “I’m not hungry.”
“Stop this moping. Down in five minutes, no longer.”
Sarah dragged herself off the bed and surveyed her reflection in the dressing table mirror. Her eyes were red and watery, and eyeliner and mascara stained her cheeks. She couldn’t go to supper looking like that.
She tried to wipe her face clean with a tissue but smeared the darkened streaks instead. Her cleansing cloths were in the bathroom. Sarah listened at her door to ensure nobody was there, then crept across the hallway.
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Title Shadows From Her Past
Author Melanie Robertson-King
Genre Time Travel Romance
Book Blurb
When a teen is catapulted back to the 21st century, the people and the life she knew in the Victorian era are Shadows From Her Past …
A cruel twist of fate returns Sarah Shand to her life in the year 2010 where she discovers she is a patient in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and has been for months. Struggling to come to terms with the situation, she insists she belongs in the year 1886 at Weetshill mansion with her husband the Laird, Robert Robertson, and adopted daughter, Jenny. Her family and consultant physician try to convince her she was dreaming or hallucinating but Sarah refuses to believe them. Robert, who has experienced strange things at the stone circle at Gordonsfield Farm, somehow breaks through the time-space continuum and visits Sarah in his future. He pleads with her to return to the past but his cryptic messages only confuse her. Medical student, David Robb, himself a descendant of the Robertsons of Weetshill, befriends Sarah. Fascinated with her stories of the past, after her release from the hospital, he takes Sarah to meet his parents, the current owners of the mansion and surrounding land. This year, the winter solstice and lunar eclipse occur on the same day. Will a trip to the stone circle during this combination of events create the magic Sarah needs to return to 1886 and her family there? Or will she remain in the present and make a life with David?
Excerpt from Chapter 3
Sarah flopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. The air in the corner shimmered and she turned her head in its direction. Was it? No, it couldn’t be. It had to be her imagination. She continued staring and two figures materialized in the space. A man and a little girl, Robert and Jenny, appeared in front of her.
Seeing them confused Sarah more than she already was. Perhaps it was a hallucination brought on by all the drugs they had pumped into her. “You’re here. How did you get here? How did you find me? Please help me, Robert.”
“Dearest Sarah, by all that is Holy, what manner of things have they done to you? You’re trussed up like a Christmas goose.” His golden-brown eyes were moist with tears.
“I’m fine, Robert. Honest, I am. But I missed you.” She turned to Jenny. “And I missed you, too, sweetie.”
“S-Sarah hurt?” the little girl asked.
“I was but I’m all the better for seeing you,” she replied and patted the bed beside her.
Jenny turned to Robert who nodded, then clambered up and cuddled to Sarah.
“I missed you.”
“J-Jenny m-missed S-Sarah, t-too.”
Sarah wished she could roll over and hold Jenny to her. Since she couldn’t, she had to settle for letting the little girl snuggle and wrap her arms around her. It required keeping her IV tubes from becoming tangled in the web of arms.
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Title WHISPERS THROUGH TIME
Author Melanie Robertson-King
Genre dual timeline/family saga mystery
Book Blurb
A historic Canadian property becomes the canvas for a tale that spans generations. In 1914, a tragedy unfolded, leaving scars that linger far beyond the passage of time.
In 1947, a visionary purchases the haunted remnants, seeking a new beginning for his family, but his young daughter senses a ghost from the far past.
In the present, urban explorers unlock the secrets of the past while running a web design company. Photographs and sketches capture the essence of the property, documenting the whispers of spirits from another era.
As the explorers navigate the abandoned corridors and forgotten chambers, the photographs unveil subtle anomalies until supernatural phenomena manifest that defy explanation.
Amidst the subtle changes in decor and the flickering candle flames frozen in time, the explorers find themselves entangled in a mystery transcending the boundaries of the living and the dead, forcing the urban explorers to confront the unresolved secrets that echo through the corridors of time.
Is a structure just that, or can it house remnants of horror, pain and sin? The urban explorers find they must confront the unresolved secrets that echo through the corridors of time.
Excerpt from Chapter 4
October 15, 2022
Nicole left the office room hurriedly. That chill. Was she the only one who felt it? The way Connor had spun around and checked the windows said that he did, too. Her sketch showed nothing untoward. The photos wouldn’t show anything either. Something in there was wrong but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
As she ascended the stairs to the second level of the abandoned mansion, the air suddenly chilled, and something moved by, jostled her, pushing her against the wall and forcing a startled yelp from her. Nicole dropped onto the step closest and sketched out this bizarre encounter. It was a man dressed in a black suit and white shirt, black waistcoat, and black tie. Clothing styled from about one hundred years ago. None of them were dressed in that way. And none of them were transparent. It had to be the guys playing a trick on her. After all, they were pranksters.
“Connor, Cooper, Mitch, not funny, guys.” Nicole stared at the location where the apparition stood. “I mean it guys, this isn’t funny.”
“What’s going on, sis?” Connor asked as he poked his head out of the room his sister had just vacated.
The ghost or whatever it was faded away.
“Yesterday, upon the stair,” she whispered.
“What are you talking about?” Cooper asked as he joined her in the corridor.
Nicole’s eyes remained transfixed where the ghost-like being vanished into thin air.
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there!
He wasn’t there again today,
I wish, I wish he’d go away!
“What gibberish is that you’re spouting?”
“It’s not gibberish. It’s the first stanza of the poem Antigonish by William Hughes Mearns. Don’t you guys know nothin’?”
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Title It Happened at Lake Louise
Author Melanie Robertson-King
Genre Sweet romance
Book Blurb
Only the Brave meets Fallen Angel
A new name. A new look. A new identity. But is it enough? Lori Brownlee, a victim of childhood sex abuse, has relocated to Calgary to try to put the sordid past and its unpleasant memories behind her. Although it's been years, specific triggers bring the past roaring back. Christopher Scott has also suffered a painful past. He currently works in the Oil Sands and, when he's at work, entrusts the care of his Great Dane to his neighbour. While Christopher is at work, the nightmare of the distant wildfires becomes a reality. During the mandatory evacuation on May 3, 2016, the dog runs away. With no time to spare searching for the animal, the family flees for their own safety. Lori, an animal lover, spots the Great Dane on the news. She drops everything and rushes to Fort McMurray to rescue him. She connects with Christopher Scott through social media, and they agree to meet near the Chateau Lake Louise so she can reunite him with his pet. Can Christopher move beyond his pain and form a meaningful relationship with Lori? Will Lori's past come back to haunt her?
(Contains some disturbing content.)
Excerpt
Near the Chateau Lake Louise, Alberta
May 18, 2016
“Hello, Abi.”
That voice. It couldn’t be. He was in prison. That sickening-sweet scent of the cologne he always wore. The one she caught a whiff of earlier, but on someone else. Lori’s blood ran cold, as if ice water coursed through her veins. Her heart pounded against her ribcage with enough force to fracture her ribs. Only one person ever used the shortened version of her name. Even her parents called her Abigail. If she was in trouble, then it was Abigail Laurie Brownell.
A growl rumbled from the Great Dane beside her. Her left index finger worked between the stack of bracelets to the raised welts from periods of cutting. It settled in a deep gouge where she took a chunk out of her arm.
Why was he here? Why now? He wasn’t the dog’s owner, was he? She was to meet that person near the Chateau Lake Louise to ensure the animal’s safe return to him and his home in Fort Mac. People came and went in droves here. The phrase safety in numbers suited this place to a T. No way would she have met a stranger at her apartment in Calgary. Who knew what creeps waited to prey on a single white female? She had been a victim as a kid and into her teens. Not anymore. A steady stream of pedestrians strolled by where they stood. They would help her if needed. Wouldn’t they?
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