Hello

My path to Once Upon a Midnight Erie started with food. For years, I ran a small but lively food blog where ordinary dishes took on personalities and sometimes told their own stories. One post—“Cheddar Broccoli Soup”—introduced two grim little characters who refused to leave. They stayed, grew stranger, and eventually pulled an entire world with them. That world became Once Upon a Midnight Erie: a dark Cleveland fairy tale woven from hauntings, urban legends, history, and recipes shared with and by the dead.

I grew up in a series of old houses, each with its own personality and its own oddities. Strange things happened in all of them, but one—one that still shows up in my dreams—was truly haunted. Those years were terrifying, unforgettable, and strangely formative. In a family that loved scary movies, swapped ghost stories, and had an eccentric uncle who traveled everywhere from Dracula’s Castle to the far edges of the world, that haunted house became part of my internal landscape. It shaped how I see the world: the uncanny tucked inside the ordinary, the beautiful threaded through the unsettling.

Eventually, I started capturing that feeling not only in writing but in photographs. I chased subtle moments—the way light reflects off a wave, the sun breaking through trees, the worn and forgotten corners of a place. Every walk, every hike, every quiet excursion gave me something to bring home, a reminder of how beautiful the small, quiet moments can be.

These days, when I’m not writing, I’m usually near the lake, in the kitchen, or wandering Cleveland with a camera in hand. I live with my husband and our small menagerie of animals, all of whom believe they are the true heads of the household.

Once Upon a Midnight Erie is my debut novel. I’m glad you found your way here.