This is a space for the stories that linger. You’ll find Slavic myths retold, original poetry, book reviews, and honest writing about the creative life — the work behind the work, and the life behind the work. Old stories have always carried something we haven’t quite named yet. That’s why we keep returning to them.


I approached Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead with the particular wariness reserved for books that arrive already garlanded with praise. The Pulitzer. Oprah’s Book Club. Raving reviews online. The kind of unanimous applause that makes a reader suspicious before they’ve even cracked the spine. I was wrong to hesitate. The Boy Behind the…

Gods, spirits, and old tales

Poems for the moments that don’t fit

On writing, making things, and building a creative career

Every day, one way or another, I end up being asked about my identity, which I need to express in the way that will be…

Since Jonathan Swift’s political satire Gulliver’s Travels, fantasy has often been used a means to an end, an imaginary stage with an unlikely cast of…

Dark nooks and crannies inhabited by ghouls, trolls, and hags, the monsters under the bed, the suspicious stranger in the street, the thing that creeps…

The sun appeared out of nowhere and cast its golden breath across the furniture. It stroked the pillows, ruffled the plant’s rowdy leaves, upset the…

I’m Erna — writer, poet, devoted cat lady, and a marketer who came to it the strange way, through stories. Slavic mythology sits at the heart of this space, alongside original poetry, book reviews, and honest writing about the creative life.
Pull up a chair. There’s always something worth reading.
Beneath the Surface is a poetry collection about the things we don’t say out loud — the secrets, the weaknesses, the quiet monsters of everyday life. Read more.
New myths, new poems, new stories — whenever they’re ready.