Dear Diary,

I can't believe I'm a character in a book series and have my own melaniemartin.com website!

My author, Carol Weston, has been writing advice books forever and she kept meaning to write fiction but I was never there to help her. Well, guess what? Here I am and her first novel stars me me me! It's called The Diary of Melanie Martin and takes place in Italy and is about family stuff. The second, Melanie Martin Goes Dutch, takes place in Holland and is about friendship. The third is With Love From Spain, Melanie Martin, so you can guess what it's about! And in the fourth, Melanie in Manhattan, I'm a tour guide instead of a tourist.

I feel pretty lucky that I often get to go traveling around keeping diaries. And I'm glad I was born double-digits and didn't have to be a soggy baby or clueless kindergartner or anything. But you know what? Life is not a total piece of pie. My brother is dorky (I call him Matt the Brat) and my mother is obsessed with art. She knows all about people like Michelangelo (Michael Ann Jello) and El Greco (rhymes with Gecko).

Anyway, if you want to know what goes on during our vacations, you can read my diaries. Isn't that nice of me? I mean, they are diaries! They even have poems in them. Here are two:

The cats are all cute
In Italy's boot.

and

I'm just about ready
To give up spaghetti.

Well, g2g. I have places to go and stories to tell and poems to write! And my passport needs more stamps! Hey, want to come on my trips? I hope so! As they say in Spanish, that would be excelente (Eggs Say Len Tay)!

Ciao for now,

Melanie Martin, World Traveler