Welcome!

I’m so glad you’re here!

Whether we’re meeting for the first time, or you’ve found me again after my hiatus, and we’re getting reacquainted, you can learn more about me below. Because life is short, the quick version is first. Scroll down for all the details.

TL;DR

Lauricia Matuska is an epic fantasy author, former high school English teacher, and bookstore owner whose debut novel, The Healer’s Rune, was a 2017 Carol Award finalist. Her journey into writing began with a grade school essay competition and a middle school challenge from her mother to write a better story—a quest she’s been pursuing ever since. Despite battling chronic illnesses that nearly ended her writing career, Lauricia continues to craft epic fantasies that blend sweeping adventure with intimate human emotion. A collector of fairy tales from around the world and an unapologetic scone enthusiast, she lives in the Houston area with her husband and two dogs, where she writes stories that prove compassion can be the most powerful magic of all.

RTF(ull)A

Lauricia’s writing journey began in the fourth grade, when she won a Thanksgiving writing competition disguised as a school essay assignment. The prompt: What are you thankful for? The award: a Thanksgiving turkey and a public reading of the essay broadcast by a local radio station. Lauricia doesn’t remember her answer, but she remembers that it ended with the idea of being grateful she wasn’t floating out in space somewhere, which amused all who heard it. (Even then, her love for the speculative was strong.) Three years later Lauricia watched a book-to-movie special that she hated. When she fussed about it, her mom challenged her to write a better story. Lauricia’s been working at it ever since.

Lauricia’s debut novel, The Healer’s Rune, earned recognition as a 2017 Carol Award finalist, and both her first and second novels were received with the kind of enthusiasm that makes an author’s heart sing. Even now, readers approach her with the same question: “When’s the next book coming?” It’s the kind of credibility that can’t be manufactured—only earned through stories that genuinely move people. Lauricia writes epic fantasy that feels both sweeping and intimate, tales where grand adventures are grounded in genuine human emotion and where compassion proves more powerful than any sword.

But Lauricia’s writing journey hasn’t been an easy quest through an enchanted forest. As a high school English teacher juggling six prep classes, finding the time to write and the energy to be creative was already a Herculean task. Add two chronic illnesses and undiagnosed anemia to the equation, and the challenge became nearly insurmountable. There were days, sometimes weeks, without putting pen to paper. She felt as though her creativity had evaporated entirely. It had been so long since the publication of her second book that she was certain any readers she’d had must have given up hope. So physically and emotionally exhausted that she almost didn’t miss writing, she stood at the edge of quitting altogether. But she couldn’t walk away. Although diminished, the need to put pen to paper refused to disappear altogether.

In 2023, Lauricia’s illnesses forced her to retire from teaching, but she still struggled to find her creativity, so when an opportunity to open a bookstore fell in her lap, she took it, hoping that the lighter workload would give her more time and energy to write. It took three years, but now she’s back to functional energy level and more frequent writing sessions.

Based in the Houston area, Lauricia is an ardent adorer of stars, stationery, and scones (because every proper writer needs a preferred pastry). She writes epic high fantasy that carries the warmth of someone who genuinely cares about her characters and wants readers to care about them too. Her work invites readers into realms where magic feels possible, where compassion conquers darkness, and where the battles fought are as much internal as external—because she knows from experience that the fiercest dragons we face are often the ones nobody else can see.

The fact that Lauricia continues to write despite chronic illness, despite exhaustion, despite all the very legitimate reasons to stop, speaks to something essential about her relationship with storytelling. She doesn’t write because it’s easy. She writes because epic fantasy chose her as much as she chose it—because somewhere between the whimsy and the wonder, between the fairy tales she collects and the scones she savors, there are stories that demand to be told. And she clings to the hope that her readers are still waiting, still believing, still ready for whatever magic she conjures next.