Acclaimed Non-Fiction:

 

A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN: TRUE STORIES OF AMERICA'S GHOSTS

Co-authored with Boroughs of the Dead founder Andrea Janes. 

Kensington Books / Citadel Press, 2023

 

A 2022 Bram Stoker Award Finalist for "Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction"!

 

 Order: Bookshop.Org - Powell's - Barnes & Noble WORD, NYC - Amazon 

 

From the notorious Lizzie Borden to the innumerable, haunted rooms of Sarah Winchester's mysterious mansion, this offbeat, insightful, first-ever book of its kind explores the history behind America’s female ghosts, the stereotypes, myths, and paranormal tales that swirl around them, what their stories reveal about us—and why they haunt us…
Sorrowful widows, vengeful jezebels, innocent maidens, wronged lovers, even the occasional axe-murderess—America’s female ghosts differ widely in background, class, and circumstance. Yet one thing unites them: their ability to instill fascination and fear, long after their deaths. Here are the full stories behind some of the best-known among them, as well as the lesser-known—though no less powerful. Tales whispered in darkness often divulge more about the teller than the subject. Riveting for skeptics and believers alike, with humor, curiosity, and expertise, 
A Haunted History of Invisible Women offers a unique lens on the significant role these ghostly legends play both within the spook-seeking corners of our minds and in the consciousness of a nation. "A Haunted History of Invisible Women looks beyond the legends of maligned female ghosts and gives us their real histories. It is both a meditation on the misogyny of a ghost-hunting culture that capitalizes on false narratives of sex and death, and a fascinating look at the flesh-and-blood women behind the ghost stories. This book is a long-overdue search for historic truth, yet it recognizes that “When it comes to ghosts, truth is as elusive as the spirits themselves.” Chris Woodyard, Author of The Victorian Book of the Dead.
Afterword by Bram Stoker Award-winning author Linda D. Addison

Acclaimed Non-Fiction:

 

AMERICA'S MOST GOTHIC: HAUNTED HISTORY STRANGER THAN FICTION

 

Co-authored with Boroughs of the Dead founder Andrea Janes. 

 

 

Kensington Books / Citadel Press, 9/30/2025

 

Order: Bookshop.Org - Barnes & Noble - Personalized, Signed copies: WORD, NYC 

 

From the Bram Stoker nominated author team who penned A Haunted History of Invisible Women, the first book of its kind to investigate gothic tropes that define American lore. Here is the hidden, dark history of what frightens us - and why.

The Gothic. Brooding, atmospheric, chilling, and not always the outpouring of a feverish imagination. Reality can be even stranger as borne out in this lush and ghostly look at real people who lived—and died—amidst the trappings of the Gothic.

Fog clinging to an isolated mansion. A dangerous patriarch or an overbearing matron. Locked doors and forbidden rooms. Whispers of murder and madness. And a woman shadowed by omnipresent threats. You’ve guessed it. You’ve stumbled into a Gothic tale, and it will haunt you like a ghost.

We often think of the enduring tropes of the Gothic in terms of fiction and film—breath-catching escapes that tap into our fears, anxieties, forbidden desires, and unsettling dreams. But what if some of these chilly vibes are rooted in the experiences of real and tragic people who danced a macabre waltz with love and death? That’s why we’re here. Take the case of teenage Mercy Brown, victim—or was it predator?—of Rhode Island’s vampire hysteria of the 1890s. Marguerite de la Roque, a French noblewoman condemned for “sexual crimes” to Canada’s long-lost Isle of Demons. What happened to her and the barren landscape itself is the stuff of legend. And “Mad Lucy” Ludwell, the decidedly peculiar eighteenth-century high-society hauteur driven mad in the Virginia estate she prowls to this day. President Helen Peabody’s spirit still stringently watches over her Women’s College, now part of Ohio’s Miami University. Ghosts of workers lost in horrific conditions while building the Hoosac Tunnel warn of imminent danger. Settle in. There are more.

Welcome to the phantom ships, haunted academic halls, menacing landscapes, and family curses of America’s Most Gothic—a tour of true spectral sightings and disordered minds. But beware: it’s sure to get under your skin. The haunted—and haunting—figures herein want it that way.

 

Acclaimed Non-Fiction Essays:

 

"On Paranormal Chaplaincy" - via The Deadlands

 

"Between the Dreaming and the Dead" - via Apex Magazine

 

"Depeche Mode's Memento Mori - Remembrance and Celebration" - via Psychopomp

 

"A Goth's Guide to Over the Rhine" - via Psychopomp