Monica L. Olsen writes historical fiction with the heart of a Japanese gardener designing a zig-zag bridge—drawing attention to beauty, focusing on images that surprise or inspire when readers slow down and take a look. Her stories don't just transport readers to another time; they shift perspective, turning the familiar into something luminous and new. Whether she's crafting tales inspired by saints, myths, or the magical landscape of South Louisiana, Monica invites her audience to pause on the zigzag path and see truth from an angle they hadn't considered before.

Her journey as a writer began, unexpectedly, with rejection. After submitting her first children's book about St. Maximus the Confessor, an editor praised her writing but gently noted that illustrations of torture might not be ideal for young readers. "Why don't you try writing for an older audience?" they suggested. Monica, with her characteristic blend of enthusiasm and naivety, thought, "Sure, why not?!" Six years into writing her first novel, she discovered she didn't actually know how to write a novel. Instead of discouraging her, that dark moment sparked something essential: she started taking classes with Jonathan Rogers, Nicholas Kotar, Paul Kingsnorth, Jonathan Pageau, and more. For someone who loves to learn, it turned out to be the most enjoyable part of the journey.

Monica's writing is deeply rooted in the stories that shaped her imagination: hagiography, Bible stories, fairy tales, myths, and legends. As a writing instructor, speaker, and mentor for homeschool parents, she's spent years helping others find their voices while refining her own. Her Cajun fantasy draws from magical childhood visits to her grandparents' houses in South Louisiana, where the landscape itself seemed alive. But at the heart of her work is something more personal—her own struggle and the help she found along the way. When wrestling with the plot of her original Cajun fantasy novella, she realized her Guardian character was inspired by St. Paraskevi, a saint who helped her with own struggles. She made a list of verbs from the saint's canon and kept it by her computer for inspiration, letting ancient poetry guide her modern storytelling.

What makes Monica's approach unique is her willingness to leap before she looks. Others call it "gutsy," though she laughingly admits it's probably just naivety. This quality—jumping into things without knowing exactly what she's doing—could be a weakness, but with Grace, it becomes a strength. It's the same adventurous spirit that inspires her to dress up as a literature character for her students or sends her on long walks in nature. It's the same generous impulse that makes her want to cook Cajun food for every new person she meets.

Monica's vision aligns with what writer Melissa Woodruff describes as wanting "truth revealed to me in a new way that I haven't seen before. I want the things I know already, to be the foundation for the layers of truth I haven't yet understood." This is precisely what Monica offers her readers: not new truths, but familiar ones seen from a transformed perspective. Her little saint biographical sketches capture a single moment from an unexpected angle, helping turn readers towards an aspect of the story they had’t noticed before. When she writes fantasy, she's really writing reality—just from a different vantage point.

Social and adventurous, Monica brings the same energy to her writing that she brings to life. She's the friend who, when she finds something wonderful, can't help but share it. (Come to Shakespeare in the Park with me! It’s free!) She's the writer who reads something that touched her and can’t help but turn it into a story that might bless her readers. And she's the teacher who knows that the best learning often happens when we admit we don't know what we're doing and dive in anyway.

Monica L. Olsen lives her life and crafts her stories with the understanding that perspective changes everything. Through her historical fiction, she builds bridges for readers—zigzagging paths that slow us down, turn us around, and show us gardens we thought we already knew in a different light.