Welcome to my Laboratory of Cranky Optimism.
Love. Monsters. Misfits. Magic in the Margins.
I write urban fantasy and liminal speculative fiction about characters searching for belonging while brushing against hidden magical worlds.
New here?
Read the first five chapters of my serial Rivershade for free.
When two strangers walk into Bohdie Marchenko’s graveyard shift at the Shay-D-Mart and offer her a job guiding tourists to local folklore and cryptid sites, she sees a way out of her dead-end job.
Instead, she finds herself caught between long-buried family secrets and the dangerous politics of Rivershade’s hidden magical world.
Tropes you’ll love:
- Fake magical heir but real supernatural trouble
- Cryptids and folklore
- Small town secrets
- Frenemies
- Paranormal investigations meets dead-end job
- Reluctant, brooding mentors
- Dangerous men with hidden agendas
- Cinderella gets her moment
- Family secrets
Articles
Interested in musings about moths, mushrooms, corvids and more? I love blogging about these things plus liminal spaces, books and art.
I recommend checking out Mothing 101, a series of posts for the Moth Curious where I write about moths and magic, moths in literature and how moths are the OG inspiration for paranormal scent tropes.
Updates and goodies
Sign up for my newsletter, The Ravenford Diaries, for story updates, art, research into my story world, and the occasional shallow dive into whatever rabbit hole my magpie mind has discovered.