Van Essler tinkers with devious devices and macabre magic. She writes a signature blend of dark edged, cross-genre fiction, creating fantastical settings to expose real world societal issues. Her work appears in Like Sunshine After Rain, Story Emporium Magazine, and Zimbell House anthologies and she won the Founder’s Award from the Professional Writers of Prescott for fiction. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. A tarot deck collector and believer in cat naps, Essler makes friends with all her dreams, whether they are sweet reveries or nightmares. She lives in the Seattle area with her family, and spoiled, ginger cats. You can find her on twitter @VanPunkAuthor or her facebook author’s page.