Charese Mongiello

Charese Mongiello fell in love with entertaining people at four years old, appearing in commercials for her parents’ pizza shop in Erie, Pennsylvania. At sixteen, she drove from San Bernardino to Los Angeles three days a week to rehearse one line in Romeo and Juliet. One line was enough. She was doing what she loved.

That love grew into a career spanning more than twenty years as an actress, producer, director, and script supervisor. From founding The Rose Theatre to working on film sets around the world, she has always loved bringing stories to life—and helping other artists find the confidence to create their own.

Now she brings that passion to The Fivefold Crown, beginning with An Ember Beneath the Banner. Her fantasy adventures explore courage, loyalty, friendship, and love, following people who face impossible circumstances and still fight to make their world better. There is magic, danger, and a little humor along the way. Even a heroine deserves a moment to laugh.

Charese also writes filmmaking guides and shares stories about leadership, loss, and finding her way through creating on her blog, Cyn’s War Notes.

She believes everyone has some kind of art inside them. Her hope is that her work gives readers both a place to escape and a little encouragement to keep creating a life they love.