What is ‘Haunted’ and Why Did I Write It?
Emily Rose - Independent Author - ‘Phantom of the Opera’ Enthusiast
Trigger Warning - This post deals with a medical emergency
‘Haunted’ is my debut novel releasing October 7, 2026. It’s a ‘Phantom of the Opera’ retelling set in present day Chicago at the historic Lyric Opera House. In my retelling, the Phantom, Erik, is a famous masked rockstar who secretly helps a down on her luck costume assistant he knew from his youth. Oh yes, and it’s a little spicy.
The idea for ‘Haunted’ came from a, clears throat, spicy dream I had in May 2025 about a popular masked rockstar and I doing the deed below stage after singing onstage. He happened to be dressed as the Phantom of the opera.
At this time I was doing a lot of work for my business while my son was in speech therapy for two hours each week. While I worked, I listened to the aforementioned popular masked rock band. I also watched the sequel to Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies, during this season and listened to the soundtrack on repeat. These two things converged in my subconscious to deliver a very scintillating dream.
The dream stuck with me the following day and I thought “huh, that’d be an interesting story.” I wrote an outline and sent it to two of my best friends who lovingly read it and said “this is cool, I’d like to read more please.”
After that, I tabled the idea until August 2025 when I had a fragile medical emergency thrust upon me that left me inches from death. After a summer of being in agonizing pain, unable to play with my kids or enjoy summertime festivities I was way closer to death than I’d ever like to be again.
I was rushed into emergency surgery on the first day of school for my oldest. Afterward, I was sad, heartbroken, in pain, and grieving. I needed an outlet to stop thinking about what had happened. The thoughts of shame of a summer I felt like
I wasn’t there for my kids. The excitement of the first day of school clouded by a medical emergency. Grieving the loss of something I really wanted.
I began expanding my outline on my little iPad almost every night. My outline slowly went from 3,000 words to 30,000 by the end of the year. Over the course of 2026 it went from 30,000 words to 50,000 and now sits at a cool 91,448 words. I’m in awe. This book has awoken a part of my creativity that I thought was asleep forever. I’ve always enjoyed writing and now I’m about to be a published independent author. Again, I’m in awe.
In my book, the main character, Christine, is grieving the loss of her father. There truly is no right way to grieve someone or something that didn’t turn out that way you wanted it to, you just have to do it. I hope this book helps others who may be navigating the tumultuous waters of grief. Or at the very least brings a bright spot to their life.
I hope every person who reads ‘Haunted’ enjoys it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I have big plans for the Shattered Mirror series and I hope you’ll stick around.
With gratitude,
Emily