For most of her writing career, Melanie Forde ghosted on international security issues. She published her first novel, Hillwilla, in 2014, followed by On the Hillwilla Road in 2015. Her West Virginia trilogy culminates in Reinventing Hillwilla, published in 2018. 2018 also brought forth her Irish-American family saga, Decanted Truths, 20 years in the making. In 2022, Forde mined the stories from her French Canadian ancestors to produce another period novel and family saga, The Quarryman's Girl.