Jessica Mason lives near Portland, Oregon with her wife, daughter, and dogs. She has studied opera, practiced law, and worked as a fandom journalist and podcaster, among many varied careers. First and foremost, she has always been a storyteller. When she manages to stop writing, she enjoys gardening, travel, music, and witchcraft. She is passionate about stories of all kinds and loves to discuss and create them.

Born and raised in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, Jessica is the daughter of playwright and attorney Tom Mason and photographer and attorney Renee Bryant. A lover of theater and storytelling from a young age, Jessica spent her youth acting, singing, and dreaming. Her first loves were The Wizard of Oz, Sleeping Beauty, and anything magical. At eight, she first saw The Phantom of the Opera live on tour, and she was never the same after.

Jessica earned her Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, where she graduated as a Coolidge Otis Chapmann honors scholar and completed her thesis on pagan symbolism in Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle. In college, she served as a peer minister (the pagan kind) and founded her college’s musical theater appreciation club.

After her undergraduate studies, Jessica continued to love music but shifted focus to helping others after she began work as a juvenile court clerk back in Oregon. Inspired by her parents and the families in need she worked with, she attended Lewis and Clark Law School, where she graduated cum laude. She took (and passed) the Oregon State Bar in July of 2011 and married the love of her life, Heidi, ten days after.

Armed with confidence and a desire to help, Jessica opened her own legal practice in the fall of 2011 under the shingle of Saint Johns Family Law. In her practice, Jessica focused on serving underrepresented communities and clients who could not otherwise afford an attorney. While this was a fulfilling career, it was also a hard one, and Jessica stepped back from law in 2013 to support herself and her family.

In 2014, inspired by her love of geek media like Supernatural, Jessica turned her attention and skill behind a keyboard to fandom journalism and media criticism, and began contributing to various websites, appearing on convention panels, and developing long-form nonfiction content and books. She took a break in 2015 to give birth to her daughter, Tamsin, who would have absolutely been named Dean if she had been a boy.

Jessica established herself as a unique and insightful voice in fandom journalism, with her articles and criticism reaching wide audiences across the web. She attended conventions, including San Diego Comic Con, as press and had the opportunity to visit sets and report from red carpets at numerous events. She continued appearing on panels herself and hosted and produced The Reel Magic Podcast, where she dug into the confluence of Hollywood magic and actual witchcraft.

In 2021, Jessica moved from short-form online media and journalism into books. Riverdale Avenue Press published her first book, The Binge Watcher’s Guide to Supernatural, that fall, inspiring Jessica to pick up on a project she began back in college: A series of novels retelling her favorite story of all time, The Phantom of the Opera.

In January of 2023, Jessica and Murmuration Books published Angel’s Mask, the first installment in The Phantom Saga. The series has since gone on to become the most-reviewed independent phantom retelling on Amazon and sell over 11,000 copies across the world. While establishing herself as a fiction author, Jessica has also managed to find a place on social media as a content creator.

When she isn’t behind a keyboard, Jessica is an avid reader herself, consuming everything from romantasy to archaic medieval history. She has been a practicing witch since she was 10, and is an avid gardener and pet mom. She loves volunteering at her child’s school, cooking for her family, and fighting the patriarchy whenever she can.

Find her on social media: @ByJessicaMason.