Send Melicious a love note.

I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and was known as "that weird girl who roller skates to the library." My old blue and yellow sneaker skates from Sears have been replaced with black speed skates, and instead of a stack of books, I get (and give) bruises as Melicious. I'm #11 on the Hotrod Honeys and was a founding member of the Texas Rollergirls, Austin's Flat Track Roller Derby league.

As spokesperson for the Texas Rollergirls, I got to show off on Good Morning America(August 2004) and schooled Diane Sawyer on how to be a Rollergirl. I've also been interviewed for other broadcast media, including Today on NBC, The Early Show on CBS, Insomniac with Dave Attel on Comedy Central,Switched Up!on ABC Family, and National Public Radio. My name was even mentioned in Playboy once, which made my parents very proud. (And now, of course, I've made it to Penthouse!

While I'm bragging, I may as well mention that in 2005, I was voted Crowd Favorite by Texas Rollergirls fans and back in '03, I won the Best Rack title and was crowned the first Miss Texas Rollergirl at our annual Whammy Awards. ceremony.

I'm a sucker for bookstores and libraries and books that feel just right in my hands. I have so many mysteries, cookbooks, children's titles, and photo books (neon and tikis and hotrods and tattoos) that I had to get a bookcase with overflow room for new additions and a dedicated shelf for old friends - Jane Eyre, The Picture of Dorian Gray - that need to be read over and over again. I have not-so-secret crushes on Elvis Cole and Joe Pike (created by Robert Crais), Cliff Janeway (created by John Dunning), Gabriel Allon (created by Daniel Silva), Edward X. Delaney (created by Lawrence Sanders), and Edward Rochester (created by the inimitable Charlotte Bronte).

I play a shiny cherry-red Nord Electro 2 keyboard and sing with two Austin-based bands: a power-pop band called Peter Elliott and the Sellouts, and a rootsy-rock group known as St. Joe's Choir. I'm also the hostess for Karaoke Apocalypse with The DeadMotleySexMaidens, a live karaoke band that plays metal, punk, and new wave classics.

I mostly try to have fun and do the right thing, while acting like a 17-year-old as much as possible (and simultaneously keeping manageable balances on my credit cards, eating plenty of cruciferous vegetables, and remembering to floss daily).

Need to know more about me? Check out my favorite interview - with Dave Maas - from the San Antonio Current.

RollergirlTheBook myspace page | Melicious myspace page

The Work Me
This is the bio I use when I need to create the illusion of being a grown-up.
-- Melicious

A founding member of the Texas Rollergirls, author Melissa Joulwan gets (and gives) bruises as Melicious, #11 on the Hotrod Honeys team. She developed the Texas Rollergirls brand and is the voice of the league.

Melissa's most recent journalistic gig was as the sole writer for You Decide, a syndicated monthly feature that appears on KQED.org, Salon.com, and the web sites of other public broadcasting stations. Her work won the Grand Prize at the 2004 Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism, as well as the 2004 Golden Dot Award from George Washington University. You Decide was also honored as a finalist in the Online Journalism Awards (Annenberg School for Communication) and was nominated for a 2005 Webby Award.

Melissa has published articles on fitness and nutrition, music, culture, and the rise of Roller Derby for mainstream magazines, alternative publications, and web-zines. Her work has appeared in Paste, Carbon 14, the Austin-American Statesman, Chemical X, ACE Fitness Matters, and others.

In 1996, Melissa launched Go, girl!, an online zine dedicated to getting women involved in sports; it had a monthly readership of 17,000. She received positive press in publications such as Shape, USAToday, Utne Reader, and The Village Voice.

From 1998 until relocating to Austin in 2001, Melissa worked as a copywriter and Creative Director for Organic in San Francisco, leading creative teams to extend well-known brands online for a variety of clients, including Sony Playstation, Macys, Nike, Blockbuster, Hard Rock Cafe, and Home Depot. She also lead brand development projects for Internet start-ups, and taught all-day seminars in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles on Writing for the Web and User-centric Web Design. She was a featured speaker at the Digital Storytelling Festival and Web-World San Francisco.

Melicious lives in Austin, Texas, with D the B (the world's greatest Derby widower), where beer, BBQ, and live music are always just around the corner.