Francesca Maria

Francesca Maria has been penning horror stories since she was able to pick up a pen and write at the age of six. This fascination with horror was spurred by her insatiable quest to uncover what was haunting her house as a child. Now in her late forties, Francesca is still haunted by her childhood home which continues to invade her dreams. 

Francesca has spent 19 years as the co-owner of Black Cat Comics in Northern California and has been reading comics for over two decades. She is an avid fan of Neil Gaiman, Tom King, Stephen King, Tom Taylor, Geoff Johns and Jeph Loeb. When she's not reading and writing horror, Francesca visits haunted places and records their histories. 

Francesca is a former journalist, a published author and a graduate from University of California at Berkeley.  

Francesca is also a psychic medium and detective and uses her knowledge of the other world to aid in her storytelling.  She has a black belt in Taekwondo, drives a '53 Chevy truck and drums until her hands bleed. 

You can find her work in Crystal Lake's Flash Fiction monthly contests, the upcoming Death's Garden Revisited anthology, Black Cat Chronicles and her debut release of her short story collection: THEY HIDE: SHORT STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK, is out now!

Francesca is the co-chair for the San Francisco Bay Area Horror Writers Association Chapter.