Ray Melnik

Ray Melnik, author – born Raymond Bernard Melnik Jr. on Staten Island, New York in October 1957.

In 1975 Ray won first place in the "National Pen Women Competition" for his fictional short story, Distinction, as well as winning second place in the New York "Best of City - The Written Word". In Staten Island Community College he majored in literature and studied existential. In 1979 he pursued a musical career, as a singer and lyricist.

In 1979 Ray Melnik was the lead singer for the band, One Hand Clap with lead guitar player Steve Stevens. They played Long Island clubs almost six nights a week for about a year. Steve and Ray then moved on to join the Fine Malibus in New York City. The Fine Malibus all lived and rehearsed in a 3000 square foot loft on west 30th street. Jimmy Miller who originally produced some of the first Rolling Stones albums arranged for them to record an album at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, which was funded by Chris Blackwell of Island Records. They spent two months there in 1981 and also performed at a local club at night. The album "The Fine Mailbus", with Island Records was never released. Steve left the Mailbus when their manager introduced him to Billy Idol.
Ray went openned a production company and recording studio called "Mannik Productions" at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Staten Island.

In 1989 Ray was the writer for “Sound off on Sound”, a pro audio column for the monthly musicians magazine “American Liverpool” in New York. In 1993, Ray went into the fields of telecommunications, network engineering and network architecture. In 1999 he created the company and website, “” and was the primary writer of the technical articles. New Technology Home was sold in 2007. Ray published his first novel in 2007. is an existential novel, set in the town of Washingtonville, New York, in the lower Hudson Valley. is

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