People sometimes ask me how a woman of faith writes about demons, dark spirits, and ancient evil. Some ask with curiosity. Some ask with concern. And every now and then, someone asks as though writing about darkness is itself a kind of surrender to it.
I want to set the record straight. Writing about darkness — entering it on the page, looking it square in the face — is one of the most deeply faithful things I do.
Here’s what I’ve come to believe: faith that has never been tested against real darkness isn’t faith. It’s comfort. And there’s a difference.
“Spiritual warfare isn’t a metaphor in my books. It’s the whole point. Evil is real, it has strategy and intention, and it can only be defeated by something greater than human strength.”
When I write a scene where my characters are genuinely outmatched — where the darkness presses in from every direction, and there is no human solution — I’m not writing horror. I’m writing the moment before the miracle. I’m writing the place where faith stops being an idea and becomes an action.
That’s why Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness changed everything for me. He didn’t flinch from how organized, intelligent, and relentless evil can be. And that honesty made the light in his story matter. It made prayer matter. It made faith matter in a way that no safe, sanitized story ever could.
My Ravens Cove series lives in that same territory. Ken and Kat Melbourne, Bart Andersen, Josiah Williams — these are ordinary people who encounter darkness that is genuinely beyond them. They are frightened. They make mistakes. They doubt. And then they fight anyway, because their faith isn’t dependent on the odds.
That is the story I want to tell. Not because darkness deserves the spotlight, but because light means nothing without it. A candle only matters in a dark room. And a faith that only operates in safe, comfortable spaces has never really been put to the test.
So yes — I write about evil. Ancient evil, cunning evil, evil that has had centuries to grow strong and learn the weaknesses of human hearts. I write it as accurately as I can, because I want you to feel the weight of what my characters are up against.
And then I want you to feel what happens when God shows up anyway.
That is not darkness winning. That is faith doing exactly what faith is meant to do.
Mary Ann Poll is the author of the Ravens Cove supernatural thriller series. The Tide Weaver (Book 6) is available now on Amazon. Her podcast, Real Ghost Chatter, is live now — true supernatural accounts that will make you wonder where fiction ends and something else begins. Visit maryannpoll.com to learn more.