Whenever I sit down to write a Southern Gothic story, I’m not just building a haunting world for my readers—I’m putting myself in the hot seat. I kind of like it though so don’t feel sorry for me. LOL

I am a soul that craves change. Weird huh? Part of that change comes in the form of self improvement. I constantly ask myself: If I were backed into a corner by love or grief, what would I do? I actually have been so I do have the voice of experience on my side. Man, I’ve made some bad mistakes in the past. Not as bad as some but worse than many. 

On reflection through my writing I ask myself: How would I navigate the darkness theoretically? Where would my own limits be?

In my new novel, The Unchanging Mirror (Book One of the Black Magnolia Society trilogy), those theoretical questions take center stage in 1864 under a blood-red Mississippi sky. I mean come on, witchcraft, the Civil War, innocent and not so innocent participants. Cursed legacies. I love writing about history in all sorts of ways. 

Desperate to save her husband, Thomas, from the clutches of war, Ellie stands in a dark ravine and hands over two sacred tokens--a missing brass button and a bloodstained handkerchief. She believes she is buying his life. 

Instead, she opens a grave beneath all their feet. Metaphorically speaking, of course. 
When I wrote that scene, I had to put myself entirely in Ellie's shoes. When the dust settles and the true cost of her choice is revealed, she is left standing with a heavy, terrifying question that I’ve often pondered in my own life:"What have I done?"

It’s a question born of raw grief and good intentions turned catastrophic. How many times have we tried to fix a problem or hold on to someone we love, only to realize we’ve made things infinitely worse?

As a writer, I couldn't just leave Ellie in that despair. Maybe that’s not always possible in real life but in my fictional worlds, yes. I can do this. I had to force myself—and my heroine—to figure out how to navigate the aftermath. That brought me to the second question that drives the entire trilogy: "Can I fix this?"

When Angelique Landry arrives at the forgotten Mississippi estate in 2026 with her four-year-old daughter, Lila, she steps right into the lingering echo of Ellie’s mistake. The door Ellie opened in 1864 hasn't stayed shut, and the curse bound to the Landry bloodline is far from finished.

Writing The Unchanging Mirror was a personal exploration of what grief can persuade us to do—and how we might survive the consequences after the damage is done. 

Through Ellie and Angelique, I got to test the human spirit against supernatural odds. I realized that true redemption doesn't mean erasing your past; it means having the grit to stand up and face it when it comes knocking on your front door.

For every reader who has ever looked at their own past and wondered, "What have I done?"—this story is an invitation to explore how we navigate our way back to the light.

The Unchanging Mirror is out now. I hope you're ready to step into the shadows of Natchez with me and see how you would handle the dark.
​
I’ll be waiting. 

If you've been reading my books for a while, welcome home. ​If you're new here, I'm so glad you found your way to this little corner of the internet.
​For years, I've shared ghost stories, haunted houses, forgotten cemeteries, and Southern mysteries through my novels. But every book begins long before I write the first sentence. It begins with a place. An old photograph. A weathered gravestone. A dusty courthouse record. Sometimes it begins with a conversation on a front porch.
Those stories rarely make it into the finished novel, but they matter just the same.
That's why I created Haunted Musings.
This isn't just a blog about books. It's a gathering place for the things I love most.
You'll find the history that inspired my novels, the real places that still whisper their secrets, and the forgotten people whose stories deserve to be remembered. I'll share behind-the-scenes looks at my writing process, updates on new releases, and the occasional Gulf Coast road trip that sends me wandering down a back road in search of another story.
You might also discover an antique that caught my eye, an old church tucked beneath live oaks, or a quiet cemetery where history seems closer than ever.
The South has always been a place where the past refuses to stay buried. That's one of the reasons I love writing Southern Gothic fiction. Around here, history isn't something you read in a textbook. It's something you feel. It's woven into the land, the houses, the families, and the people who still call this place home.
My hope is that Haunted Musings becomes more than a blog. I hope it becomes a place you'll want to visit again and again—a place where we can slow down for a little while, share stories, and appreciate the beauty, mystery, and history of the American South.
So pull up a chair on the porch.
The coffee's hot, the cicadas are singing, and there's always another story waiting to be told.
— Monica (M. L. Bullock)