Who (or what) is mildly haunted?

In my favorite place, the bookshop.

I am a certified scaredy cat. In 2007 I had to walk out of the theater before the ending of Paranormal Activity because I thought I might pass out from fright. I hid behind my friend’s couch for the entirety of watching Cabin in the Woods. Which I now know is more comedic than it is scary. I refuse to go to Halloween haunted houses and sometimes avoid looking in the mirror of a dark bathroom so as not to summon Bloody Mary. Yet I’m fascinated by ghosts and hauntings in real life. Born and raised in Connecticut I have a pre-disposition to old haunted things. I love to explore a cemetery. Visiting them is one of my few requirements (besides a visit to the local bookshop) on any trip to somewhere new.

Hence “mildly haunted”. A slight predilection to haunted things, an unhurried 10-course tasting menu of fright. That and the alternate definition of haunted is showing signs of severe anxiety. Of that I am only mildly afflicted.

In a roundabout way, via a Bachelors in Anthropology and a Masters in Adult and Higher education (and a lot of chaos in between), I finally pursued my dream and completed an MFA in Creative Writing in May 2025. I focused on memoir and one of my application essays, titled Cowboy Ghost outlined this tentative affection for haunted things and my (almost) run-in with a cowboy ghost in an art store in Taos, NM. More on that in a future post.

With that the idea for this blog was born. Then further developed as I managed to watch all of Mike Flanagan’s series The Haunting of Hill House and The Fall of the House of Usher (love and love). Then in my last semester of my MFA I had the chance to read Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I was enamored! And proud that I had read something scary. Though I know the hardcore horror fans wouldn’t consider it that.

So, what can you expect from Mildly Haunted?

a significant focus will be on my series “scaredy cat reads scary stories” in which I start to dive into the world of thrillers and horror. And try to write my own! I’ll be doing a post about that series next.
My MFA is in memoir, which I know can feel like a scary genre to some so I hope provide guidance on the writing craft of the genre, book recommendations, and general conversations.
I’m currently diving into a number of new areas of writing including zines and comic books, so I plan to share that journey.
I’m pursuing publishing my non-fiction essays, which is a terrifying and exhausting endeavor so follow me for updates.
And other random, yet related, tidbits like my experience working as a part-time bookseller, how social media ruined my writing process, and more!

In the future I hope to also share more of my writing process, writing snippets and drafts, and also start a newsletter.

If anything above interests you, then I hope you’ll join me. Posts hopefully every Thursday (but no guarantees)! Subscribe to have those sent directly to your inbox.

See me around the internet: linktr.ee/mildlyhaunted

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