Press & Author Information
Mona Lee Ray is a Filipina author, performer, and multidisciplinary storyteller with a creative focus on film and narrative storytelling. As a child who struggled to speak, she found in art a way to express what words could not yet hold. Today, her work spans fiction, poetry, movement, and visual art, exploring survival, human contradiction, and the intimate work of building a life after upheaval. Drawn to dark humor, tenderness, and the unsettling, she creates stories that invite readers to look closer at people they might otherwise misunderstand.
Books & projects
Norah Wolfe Has Gone Insane (2022)
A young adult novel about grief, mental health, and the complicated bonds of family. As Norah struggles to understand what she’s going through, she faces an urgent question: how can she help save her father when she’s still learning how to care for herself? Also available as an audiobook created by the author.
Liberation, Poems (2026)
A poetry collection about reclaiming your voice after grief, survival, and the expectations that taught you to stay quiet. Intimate and unvarnished, these poems trace the uneasy, exhilarating work of becoming your own.
COMING SOON | Rhythm & Ruin
Working title; also under consideration: Contamination
Milana Rodriguez has fought hard for a life she can call her own. When a powerful man from her past returns, the freedom she built begins to fracture—and his influence reaches further than she imagined. Set against Atlanta’s nightlife, Rhythm & Ruin is a dark, sensual thriller about power, survival, and the dangerous work of reclaiming a life someone else believes he owns.
For interviews & features
Mona is available to speak about writing across artistic disciplines, creating an audiobook, motherhood and the creative life, and finding a voice through art.
Press inquiries: use contact button ^
Books & artwork: www.MonaLeeRay.com
Socials: @MonaTheRaven
By joining my Patreon
Writing a book can feel a little like building a strange world alone in a quiet room. Patreon is where I open the door and invite readers inside that space.
By joining, you’ll get access to early chapters, behind-the-scenes notes from my writing desk, exclusive audio books, and the messy, magical process of bringing stories to life before they ever reach the shelves.
Members also get a closer look at the worlds I’m building, from Norah Wolfe’s universe to future novels still taking shape. Think of it as a small creative studio where readers and storytellers gather around the same fire.
Your support helps me keep writing, dreaming up new worlds, and sharing them with the people who care about stories as much as I do.
Title may change
Rhythm & Ruin (TBA)
Thriller/Horror 18+ #SpicyBookTok
COMING SOON
Milana Rodriguez has spent years building a life that no longer feels like something she has to survive. She wants a home, the freedom to write, and enough safety to become soft again.
Then Rubén Castillo—the nightclub owner she escaped years ago—returns to remind her that some men mistake survival for surrender. As his influence begins contaminating every corner of her life, Milana must descend into the world she fled and resurrect the woman she had to become inside it.
But this time, she is not returning as his possession.
She is returning to dismantle his dominion—and reclaim everything he believed still belonged to him.
Liberation (2026)
poetry collection
Liberation is a collection of raw, intimate poems that explore what it means to reclaim yourself after survival, heartbreak, identity shifts, and the quiet battles no one sees. Moving between tenderness and fury, these pieces unravel the weight of past wounds, the complexity of human connection, and the slow, steady rise toward self-love. With a voice that is unfiltered and deeply human, Liberation reflects on trauma, healing, motherhood, identity, and the fractured relationships that shape us. Each poem holds a mirror to the parts of ourselves we're taught to hide, inviting readers to look inward and release what no longer belongs. This book is for anyone rebuilding themselves piece by piece, learning to trust their own voice, or standing at the edge of a new beginning. Liberation is both a confession and a breakthrough-a testament to the strength it takes to survive, soften, and finally set yourself free.
Norah Wolfe Has Gone Insane (2022)
Young Adult/New Adult, Heartfelt, Family Dynamic, Slowburn, Fiction
22 year old, Filipinx-American bookseller, Norah Wolfe, deals with anxiety. She has a healthy escape in tabletop roleplaying, and streaming games in her bedroom to cope. She has one best friend (Mateo Townes, YouTube makeup artist on the rise of fame) and her huge, blended family. But when her grandpa forgets who her dad is at her birthday party due to his Alzheimer’s, she watches as her dad begins to react in a way that no one was expecting. With her family seemingly falling apart in front of her, she sets out to “save him” . . . That is, until he flees to the open road to be by himself.
Keeping this a secret from her bestfriend, she’s then forced to face herself. Desperate for answers and to save her dad, she starts to take signs that her ex is communicating with her from the cosmos. It leads her to continuously bump into an old friend (Russell Maverick), who’s fresh off the open road himself. He’s back in town saving money to fix his camper-van when they unknowingly ignite a strong flame with having more in common than they realize.
Awaiting her dad’s return, Norah and Russell share meaningful conversations varying from mental health, generational trauma, and wanting to save the world. They just have to figure out who they are after healing first.
With nostalgia being another main character, the healing of Norah Wolfe couldn’t come without a playlist. Threaded with tunes from the 80’s and immersive settings like a dreamy bookstore, a gorgeous harbor set off the southeast coast, and an arcade, to name a few, Norah Wolfe embarks on the quest to save her dad, which in turn, is the moment she starts to save herself.
This original comic takes the reader on a journey through what it’s like to have D.I.D. Led by the alter Ramona. New issues will drop randomly!