Keepin It Real had an interesting conversation with Francesca Maria. Not only Francesca Maria is an Author, but she is also a Psychic Medium as well. This conversation had Keepin It Real asks Francesca Maria so many questions about so many things. Francesca Maria told Keepin It Real that she loves helping people. She is in her two worlds day & night. She writes very dark books and in the day, she is in the light by helping people to find their loved ones. 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 of the 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 the upcoming debut release of her short story collection: THEY HIDE: SHORT STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK, coming 2023. Who are we if not for the monsters that we keep?

They Hide: Short Stories to Tell in the Dark collects thirteen chilling tales that weave through the shadows, exploring the nature of fear, powerlessness, and control.

- A series of murders in a New England colony

- An untamed beast in pre-revolutionary France

- A mysterious stranger who invades 18th-century Ireland

- A traveling circus that takes more than the price of

admission

- A gathering of the Dark, telling tales on the longest night of

the year, and more. Francesca Maria writes dark fiction surrounded by cats near the Pacific Ocean and you can find her at

francescamaria.com and on Twitter @Writer_of_Weird. Thank you for listening to and supporting the podcast. If you want to be heard email [email protected] or follow me on Instagram @mscaramellucas