Home » Authors Interviewing Characters: Melissa R. Collings

Authors Interviewing Characters: Melissa R. Collings

October 20, 2026 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

“I’m very picky about romance, but Melissa completely won me over—her writing is sharp, charming, and just incredibly readable in the best way.”

—Mindy Kaling

THE LOVE OPERATION

What if you could step back into your memories and experience them exactly as they happened?

Dr. Cordelia Wren (Cord) has always trusted science more than sentiment. A gifted spine surgeon with her sights set on becoming chief of surgery, she believes discipline, intelligence, and hard work can solve almost any problem.

Then she joins an experimental memory study and suddenly she can vividly revisit moments from her past.

As Cord becomes increasingly drawn into the memories—and the unanswered questions hidden inside them—her carefully controlled present begins to unravel. Her first love reappears, her secret relationship with the hospital’s chief operating officer becomes more complicated, and the career she has sacrificed everything for may no longer be the only future she wants.

Funny, romantic, and thought-provoking, The Love Operation explores memory, ambition, friendship, and what happens when the life you planned collides with the life you left behind.

Here, award-winning author Melissa R. Collings sits down with Dr. Cordelia Wren in a rare interview to discuss surgery, science, mistakes, and the one subject Cord would very much prefer to avoid: her love life.

Melissa: Thank you, Dr. Wren, for agreeing to this interview. I know you’re a busy woman.

Cordelia: Call me Cord. I’m assuming this won’t take long? I need to make rounds before clinic begins.

Melissa: We can reschedule if you need to—

Cord: There’s never a “good” time in my profession. You just have to make room. I feel like I owe you this anyway.

Melissa: [cocks an eyebrow} Oh yeah?

Cord: I mean, I hate you. You’re a monster. What you put me through was the single most unpleasant period of my entire life, and I once had someone vomit directly into my mouth in medical school.

Melissa: Okay, I need to bathe in bleach now.

Cord: You and me both.

Melissa: For the sake of the audience, we’re being dramatic. Please don’t bathe in bleach.

Cord: Please don’t.

Melissa: Okay, back to all your compliments of me. I’m horrible. You hate me. Yada yada. I sense a ‘but’.

Cord: [sigh] I guess it was a good thing.

Melissa: You guess?

Cord: Ugh! You’re relentless!

Melissa: No, doctor. You are relentless.

Cord: ¿Por qué no los dos? Don’t pretend you and I don’t share a lot of characteristics. Overall, you’re just nicer than I am. No, not nice. Kind. You’re kinder than I am.

Melissa: First, thank you. I appreciate your distinction between nice and kind. Second, I see what you’re doing. Stop trying to make this about me. Third, I disagree. You’re actually quite kind. I just think people misjudge you. Some of the time.

Cord: Honestly, what people think about me isn’t my business. If I lived worrying about how others perceived me, then I’d get a lot less done and I’d be a lot less happy. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Melissa: I like that sentiment, but I’d challenge that statement a little.

Cord: You would.

Melissa: I think you probably do care, at least what certain people think about you.

Cord: That’s fair. I don’t have an utter disregard for how I’m perceived. I guess what I mean is that, I do my best, which isn’t always good enough, and at the end of the day, I have to answer to myself, not anyone else.

Melissa: I like that. Okay, let’s move on from your “cold” demeanor, and—

Cord: Wait. People are saying I’m cold?

Melissa: I thought you didn’t care what people thought of you.

Cord: [pause] I don’t. Let’s move on.

Melissa: Okay, I’d like to discuss your love life.

Cord: Absolutely not.

Melissa: Two men! That’s delicious. And you’re saying we can’t go there?

Cord: That’s exactly what I’m saying.

Melissa: But—

Cord: Unless there’s pain radiating through that but due to a spine abnormality, I’m not touching it.

Melissa: People will want to know—

Cord: Then they can read the effing book. Next.

Melissa: Uhh, fine. Can we talk about the memory study, then?

Cord: Absolutely. Fire away.

Melissa: Funny, you already look more comfortable.

Cord: Science is soothing to me.

Melissa: But isn’t love a science?

Cord: Love is an art, and I’m not an artist. So, the study…

Melissa: [chuckle] Being able to revisit your memories, essentially step into them and watch everything as it’s happening in real time, is…I don’t even have words.

Cord: Well, I do. It’s freaking amazing and addictive. Virtual reality on literal steroids. If it hadn’t been happening to me, I wouldn’t have believed it possible.

Melissa: Say less.

Cord: Think about it. Every unanswered question. Every awkward conversation you replay in the shower. Every moment you’ve ever wondered if you remembered correctly. It’s basically a superpower.

Melissa: I know I want it. But what about the idea that the past is better left in the past?

Cord: In some cases, I think that’s absolutely true. Dwelling is one thing, but learning is another. [uncomfortable cough]

Melissa: Was it a mistake?

Cord: What? The study?

Melissa: Yes, at least your part in it. Do you regret it?

Cord: No. Haven’t you been listening?

Melissa: But, even after everything that happened? You’d do it all over again?

Cord: I’m not saying I didn’t make mistakes.

Melissa: Some pretty big ones.

Cord: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I fully admit I’m not perfect.

Melissa: And…

Cord: I wish I’d handled things differently. I could’ve spared myself and the people I care about a lot of pain. But I wouldn’t change the outcome.

Melissa: So you’re saying you learned from your mistakes.

Cord: Unfortunately, that seems to be my preferred learning style.

Melissa: Sometimes pain gives you wisdom.

Cord: And pain.

Melissa: And pain. You said you wished you could do some things differently.

Cord: Absolutely.

Melissa: Care to give us details?

Cord: Friendships are crucial in life. And I did something I can’t undo.

Melissa: Oh. Let me grab a Kleenex.

Cord: No, I’m fine. Can we move on, though? That’s a more tender spot than I realized.

Melissa: Of course. We’re almost out of time. One tiny question about your love life?

Cord: No.

Melissa: You realize this is a romance, right?

Cord: Is it?

Melissa: Oh, stop.

Cord: My love life is simply one component of a much larger disaster.

Melissa: That should probably be on the back cover. Okay, lightning round. Coffee or tea?

Cord: Coffee.

Melissa: Oh, I’m thinking of one scene on a rooftop when a certain someone—

Cord: Melissa!

Melissa: Fine! Rule follower or rule breaker?

Cord: Depends on the rule.

Melissa: New executive hottie or old first-love flame?

Cord: [raised eyebrow]

Melissa: Couldn’t resist trying one last time. Step into real life or step into a memory?

Cord: Again, why not both? [wink]

Melissa: That’s—

Cord: All you’re going to get. I have patients to see and backs to operate on.

Melissa: Thank you for your time, Cord.

Cord: The pleasure was mine. Mostly.

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About the author:

Melissa R. Collings is an award-winning author and former spine surgery physician associate. She writes diverse romance, women’s fiction, and psychological thrillers that balance laughter, heartbreak, and emotional depth. 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.