“All children mythologize their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know someone? Heart, mind and soul? Ask him to tell you about when he was born. What you get won’t be the truth: it will be a story. And nothing is more telling than a story.” — Diane Setterfield

Mikaela was born on an ordinary Wednesday in Manila. It was September.

Published in September 2024 by Annick Press, Mikaela’s debut novel, Danica Dela Torre, Certified Sleuth, is the first in a middle-grade mystery series of heart and hauntings. Her words have been featured in Ricepaper Magazine, Living Hyphen, Layered Butter, Augur Magazine, Cambio & Co., Goalcast, Savant-Garde Literary Magazine, S.M. Beiko’s Gothic Tales of Haunted Futures, and more. She graduated with an Honours B.A. in Creative Writing & Publishing at Sheridan College, where she was the 2021 recipient of the Ampersand Award. Mikaela was born in the Philippines but has lived most of her life in Mississauga, on the Treaty and Traditional Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and The Huron-Wendat and Wyandot Nations. She is currently working on her second book.