On this engaging episode of Author Express, host Kathleen Basi welcomes Melissa R. Collings, an award-winning author and self-described “unicorn” of Nashville. Discover the creatively charged vibe of Nashville beyond its country music roots, and hear how Melissa’s background as a spine surgery physician associate influences her writing. The conversation teases at her emotional and witty novel, "The False Flat," inspired by real-life cycling stories and her own biracial identity. Wondering how a Cap’N Crunch cameo or a wild Bonnaroo festival scene fits into the story? Find out how Melissa faces complex themes like social anxiety, belonging, and finding light in dark times. If you crave authentic author insights, personal reflection, and the perfect blend of romance and drama, this episode will inspire and surprise you.

Melissa R. Collings is an award-winning author and former spine surgery physician associate who traded the OR for the page—but brought the scalpel-sharp emotional and psychological depth with her. A biracial writer with an endless fascination for life’s contradictions, she writes stories that reflect complex relationships, rich representation, and the many ways identity shapes who we are. Her novels will make you laugh, wreck you a little, and stay with you long after the last page—always balancing light and dark, laughter and heartbreak, glitter and charcoal smears. When she’s not writing or plotting, you can find her chasing her two kids in Nashville, studying preventative health, or losing herself in a painting. Her imagination never fails to get her into trouble, and she lives by the philosophy: nothing is impossible, and everything is better with glitter—except surgical wounds.

You can find Melissa online or subscribe to her weekly newsletter for behind-the-scenes bookish fun, medical moments, and reader extras:

Newsletter: melissacollings.com/newsletter

Website: melissacollings.com

Facebook: @MelissaRCollingsAuthor

Instagram: @melissarcollings

Support your local bookstore & this podcast by getting your copy of The False Flat at Bookshop.org

A little about today's host-

Kathleen Basi is a novelist, musical composer, and nature lover. Her debut novel, A Song for the Road, follows a musician on an unconventional road trip. Bestselling author Kerry Anne King writes, “In a novel filled with music, heartbreak, and surprising laughter, Basi takes us on a journey that encompasses both unimaginable loss and the powerful resilience of the human heart.”

Meaty, earnest, occasionally humorous, and ultimately uplifting, Kathleen’s fiction highlights the best within ourselves and each other. She writes monthly reflections on life, writing, and beauty in her newsletter. Subscribe at https://kathleenbasi.substack.com/.

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How Nashville Shaped an Author's Life and Her Novel, The False Flat -132