Face Your Darkness. Save the world.
I’m not kidding you when I say writing saved my life. If you’d have asked me as a child or even as a young adult if becoming an author was something I aspired to, the answer would have been a puzzled look. In retrospect though I can see the thread of circumstances that led me here. Why I sat down to waggle my fingers over my keyboard in 2018 at the peak of my career despair where I woke up every morning disappointed to still be breathing. The refuge creating my Last Battle of Moytura universe lightened the leaden burden of an emotionally taxing job made unbearable by the toxic corporate structures that are hollowing out healthcare.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised that creating a vivid urban fantasy world was a soothing balm. As a young reader, mythology and fantasy stories carried me through the misery of growing up in rural Idaho, where I didn’t fit in at all. Escapism by novel was my salvation, and I’ll defend it to my last breath. Let the snobby literary types sneer—this is the hill I’ll die on. There’s plenty that needed escaping then, and even more now.
The much maligned Chosen One story was my perfect distraction where people from backwater villages with quaint names like Shady Pond or (I hoped) Weiser were plucked from their pointless, boring lives, went on adventures, and did something that mattered. Through the pages of the Lord of the Rings I battled orcs and cast some evil jewelry into a volcano. In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I met a satyr in the snow through my closet. In the Dragonlance series I fought dragons and taught gully dwarves to count past 2.
Reading was a glorious escape, but writing became something even better. In my fictional worlds I control everything. An intoxicating contrast to the real world where I control and next to nothing. In my stories, protagonists find actual power over the evils destroying everything. It wasn’t until I drafted the Author’s Note for my first book that I realized I’d come full circle: I was writing to escape a dismal life, just as I once read voraciously to do the same.
By now you might be wondering whats sort of career path let me in such a hopeless place. Until 2019, I worked in leadership in behavioral healthcare after years as a mental health and substance use therapist. The work itself was deeply meaningful, and I loved the patients I served. What broke me was the system—the corporate greed, the relentless grind, the sheer dehumanization. Teachers, nurses, and anyone working in service professions know this story all too well.
Walking alongside people on their own dark, underworld journeys profoundly shaped my writing. One reader, after attending a convention panel, I gave told me her favorite thing about my books was that my characters had to face their own brokenness to save the world. That moment made me realize just how much my background had influenced my stories. I eventually adopted a paraphrased version of her words as my series tagline: Face your darkness. Save the world. It even made its way onto my business cards, which are (of course) stickers.
The seeds of my series were planted on a long trip to Ireland, led by a Celtic shamanic practitioner. I walked the paths of the mythical figures my family had told me about since childhood. I’d already been practicing the pagan holidays, but something shifted on that journey. Something stirred in me, and a story began to grow, hidden beneath the surface.
The more I immersed myself in the tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann and other Celtic myths, the more I became obsessed with two things: first, how the Celtic way of seeing the world could guide us back to being good stewards of our planet; and second, how these ancient myths could be brought into the present as modern stories. So, I set out to write a sequel to the Book of Invasions, continuing the Tuatha’s saga into the modern world.
I write characters who are complex and human though they navigate a treacherous world of fantastical dangers. None of them are perfect or some untouchable paragon. Instead, they grapple with their internal demons, make mistakes, and, like all of us, stumble their way toward transformation. Whether it’s Harper, my main character, who struggles to reconcile her identity with the unwanted burden of prophecy or fan-favorite Emilio’s journey to reclaim the best parts of himself after loss, my characters reflect the challenges we face every day. They’re navigating questions of belonging, purpose, and how to move forward after life knocks them flat on their asses. Just they have to do it with vengeful Fae breathing down their necks.
These characters don’t overcome obstacles through brute force or some miracle magic. They grow through compassion, adaptability, and learning to trust others. Strength, in my stories, isn’t about going it alone—it’s about finding your people and rebuilding yourself.
My worlds are deeply infused with mythology, but not in a way that feels distant or overly polished. The raw, visceral truths of Celtic myth run through everything I write, from the biting winds summoned by the hag Beara to the eerie, interconnected magic of the mycelial network some characters tap into. These myths aren’t just decorations—they’re living, breathing forces that shape my characters’ journeys and mirror our modern struggles.
At the heart of my stories are themes of connection, transformation, and growth. I’m drawn to the Heroine’s Journey, with its focus on building community, helping others thrive, and finding strength through interdependence. These stories feel especially urgent today, as we grapple with loneliness, division, and challenges that no single person can solve alone.
Through a mix of mythic stakes and raw, personal struggles, I aim to explore questions that matter deeply to all of us: How do we grow after loss? How do we connect in a disconnected world? And how do we transform ourselves and our communities for the better? Most of all, I aim to give you a rollicking good time with an intricate plot line.
The Last Battle of Moytura series blends ancient Celtic mythology with modern life, where flawed characters must face the shadows of their past to save their present. It begins with Harper O’Neill, a young woman dragged into a conflict she never asked for, as ancient Irish gods and Fae resurface to reclaim the world. With prophecy hanging over her and vengeful forces closing in, Harper must confront not just the monsters around her but the darkness within.
As the series unfolds, Harper and her unlikely allies—including Emilio, a scholar haunted by his failures, and Eileen, Harper’s fiery mother fighting for redemption—struggle to navigate a treacherous web of myth and magic. Together, they uncover buried truths, forge unexpected connections, and learn that true strength lies not in conquest but in compassion and cooperation.
If you love intricate plots, morally complex characters, and the raw magic of Celtic myth brought to life in the modern world, the Last Battle of Moytura series is for you.