A hand-inked drawing over a photograph of a grand, worn staircase hall with arched doorways and a tall window
Marissa Ericson, Ph.D.

The Tickering

If one version knows, they all know.
A.K.

He's trying to stay in the timeline where his daughters are still alive. She's writing the novel that might erase him.

This novel is a puzzle box.

The clues to which timeline is real are scattered across the others.

Charlottesville, 1978. Physicist Adam Kiteman loses a Friday. Not forgotten. Gone, the edges sealed.

Then the ticking starts, and his twin daughters begin to flicker. In some versions they are five. In others, teenagers. In a few, gone. There is exactly one branch where they grow up, and it is the one where he doesn’t live to see it.

Ithaca, 2014. June Jenson hauls an old Remington up to the room where unfinished things go to wait, and begins a novel about a physicist who can hear time revising itself.

The more faithfully she writes him, the faster he comes apart.

And somewhere, counting backward, a nameless man the hospitals call AK.

It doesn’t announce its strangeness. It unsettles quietly. A novel about the cost of holding on.

Chalk on a blackboard: a point, the axes of time and space, a diagonal begun and abandoned, then everything erased but the point
  • This is not a house. This is the consensus that a house exists.
  • You're not discovering where something is. You're deciding where it is.
  • She says time has to live somewhere when we're not using it.
  • The cone isn't a wall. The cone is a habit.
  • What if the self is just the memory of a self that persisted long enough to write this down?
  • This is what choosing looks like. It looks like a bad mother.

Follow June.

June Jenson, cognitive scientist and one of the people inside the novel, posts from the book on Instagram.

@drjunejenson

Agents and editors: the manuscript is complete. Marissa.ericson@gmail.com

The book you keep almost starting.

Let's write it. Ghostwriting, coaching and manuscript help from someone who has written books under other people's names for twenty years, and has just taken her own novel through sixteen drafts.

The Remington 333 typing a card from the REMMY333 Typewriter Series

The First Read

You have a draft. You need honest eyes on it.

  • A full read of your manuscript
  • An editorial letter on structure, character, pacing and voice
  • Line notes on your opening chapters
  • A 90-minute call to map the revision
Rates on requestInquire

Book Coaching

You're in the middle of it, and the middle is long.

  • Regular one-on-one sessions
  • New pages read and marked up between sessions
  • Structure, deadlines and someone in your corner
  • Fiction, memoir and idea-driven nonfiction
MonthlyInquire

Query & Pitch

The book is done. Now it has to get through the door.

  • Query letter, written or rebuilt
  • Synopsis and comp titles
  • An agent list matched to your book
  • Letters tailored agent by agent
Rates on requestInquire

Ghostwriting

You have the book in you, and not the time to get it out.

  • Interviews to capture your voice and material
  • Proposal, outline and full manuscript
  • Research and science made readable
  • Nonfiction and fiction, start to finish
Waitlist until Feb 2027Apply
  • 24books ghostwritten or edited
  • 400+academic articles, papers, theses and dissertations ghostwritten, edited, or analyzed (see the science)
  • 30+grants
  • 4commercial surveys designed, tested, analyzed and launched with companies for consumer use
Inquire
  1. Write to meTell me about the book and where it stands.
  2. We talkA first call to see if we're a fit.
  3. A planScope, schedule and the right package.
  4. The workPages, notes, and a finished book.

I've spent two decades inside other people's voices, across nonfiction and fiction. The scientist in me finds the structure. The novelist finds the scene. You keep the byline.

I hold a Ph.D. in clinical neuroscience, so I can sit with a researcher and turn twenty years of findings into chapters a stranger wants to read. I've spent fifteen years as a test writer, application reader and mentor, so I know how a reader decides, fast, whether to keep going.

And I've just been through it myself, with a novel I began as a college senior. I know exactly what the middle of a book feels like.

Tell me about your book.

Marissa.ericson@gmail.com

Tell me about your book

The science.

I study how consciousness emerges from the dialogue between brain and body, and I've been the statistician on research from breast cancer equity to urology. Every paper below links to the full text.

Google ScholarConference abstracts and early work
A light cone: light spreading out into the future and converging from the past on a single point, now

Consciousness and the brain-body

Neuroscience of Consciousness2026
I sync, therefore I am: brain–body synchrony in typical and disordered consciousness
Asa Young, Marissa Ericson, Jonathan W. Schooler

I sync, therefore I am

Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2026
PsyArXiv preprint2025
System-Wide Hierarchical Coupling of Brain and Body Rhythms under State and Latent Stress
A. Young, J. Roberts, S. Baumgart, M. Ericson, A. Macy, J. Riddle, J. Schooler

System-wide hierarchical coupling of brain and body rhythms under stress

PsyArXiv, 2025
SSRN preprint2025
EpiWay as a Typology of Human Information Flow: A Complexity Science Approach
Donald M. Epstein, Carin Roesener, Marissa L. Ericson

EpiWay as a typology of human information flow

SSRN preprint, 2025

Electromagnetism's bridge across the explanatory gap

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2022

The slowest shared resonance

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2022

Where's my consciousness-ometer?

Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2022

Electromagnetic field theories of consciousness: opportunities and obstacles

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2024

Two online positive psychology and meditation programs and persistent self-transcendence

Psychology of Consciousness, 2023

Health equity and cancer

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2025
Validating the Black Identity, Hair Product Use, and Breast Cancer Scale (BHBS) Among Black Breast Cancer Survivors
D. K. Teteh-Brooks, M. Ericson, T. N. Bethea, L. Dawkins-Moultin, et al.

Validating the BHBS among Black breast cancer survivors

Int. J. Environmental Research and Public Health, 2025

Perceived everyday discrimination, socioeconomic status, and mammography behavior

Scientific Reports, 2024

Promising directions: interventions with cultural incorporation for advanced cancer

Int. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 2024
J. Oncology Navigation & Survivorship2023
The Sexual Health Needs of Young Women Affected by Breast Cancer
S. Washburn, A. Ahlum Hanson, J. Guglielmino, C. Ormerod, N. Katze, M. Ericson, D. K. Teteh

The sexual health needs of young women affected by breast cancer

J. Oncology Navigation & Survivorship, 2023

Social determinants of health among family caregivers in lung cancer

Journal of Thoracic Disease, 2023

Heavy is the head that wears the crown

American Journal of Men's Health, 2020

The Black identity, hair product use, and breast cancer scale

PLOS One, 2019

Clinical and translational research

JAAD International2026
Assessing the psychosocial impact of a vitiligo support group in Ethiopia: A pilot prospective study
F. Messele, G. Tedla, S. Ayele, A. Chernet, et al., M. Ericson, J. Shiu

A vitiligo support group in Ethiopia: a pilot prospective study

JAAD International, 2026
J. Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases2025
Cryptogenic stroke, embolic stroke of unknown source, and the left atrial septal pouch: the role of transesophageal echocardiography
J. Xu, J. Kang, J. Schilling, A. Paganini-Hill, M. Ericson, J. K. Kim, M. Fisher

Cryptogenic stroke and the left atrial septal pouch

J. Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, 2025
The Journal of Urology2025
Preoperative immersive virtual reality applied to percutaneous nephrolithotomy: a prospective randomized clinical study
A. D. Cumpanas, M. C. Hernandez, A. McCormac, M. Ericson, et al.

Preoperative immersive virtual reality for kidney stone surgery

The Journal of Urology, 2025
Journal of Endourology2025
Ureteral stricture occurrence after transmural ureteroscopic ureteral injury: A previously undocumented concern
A. D. Cumpanas, S. A. M. Lavasani, J. Altamirano-Villarroel, et al., M. Ericson

Ureteral stricture after transmural ureteroscopic injury

Journal of Endourology, 2025

Noninvasive imaging of cellular response to treatment in stable vitiligo

Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 2024

Translational science vs. translational research in CTSA pilot studies

J. Clinical and Translational Science, 2024

Genes, development and mental health

Developmental trajectories of delinquent and aggressive behavior

Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 2022

Multisystem component phenotypes of bipolar disorder

JAMA Psychiatry, 2014

Heritability and longitudinal stability of schizotypal traits during adolescence

Behavior Genetics, 2011

Childhood maltreatment and alcohol-use disorders in males: a twin study

Psychological Medicine, 2011
Doctoral dissertation, USC2011
Relationships between latent executive function ability and antisocial behavior throughout development: A common pathways cross-lagged analysis
Marissa Ericson

Executive function and antisocial behavior across development

Ph.D. dissertation, USC, 2011

Abstracts and early work

Cancer Research2024
The hidden costs of beauty: an evaluation of breast cancer risk for Black women

The hidden costs of beauty

Cancer Research (SABCS abstract PO2-25-09), 2024
Annals of Behavioral Medicine2024
A systematic review of psychosocial and behavioral interventions for advanced and metastatic cancer that incorporate culture

A systematic review of psychosocial and behavioral interventions for advanced and metastatic cancer that incorporate culture

Annals of Behavioral Medicine (poster), 2024
Cancer Research2023
The changing informational needs of young women affected by breast cancer: a national needs assessment

The changing informational needs of young women affected by breast cancer

Cancer Research (SABCS abstract PD8-07), 2023
Cancer Research2023
Black breast cancer survivors’ sociocultural perspectives of beauty, and use of personal care products containing endocrine disrupting chemicals

Black breast cancer survivors’ sociocultural perspectives of beauty, and use of personal care products containing endocrine disrupting chemicals

Cancer Research (SABCS abstract P6-05-39), 2023
Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention2022
Perceived everyday discrimination, socioeconomic status, and mammography screening behavior

Perceived everyday discrimination, socioeconomic status, and mammography screening behavior

Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (abstract PO-043), 2022
APHA Annual Meeting2021
Family caregivers of lung cancer patients experience social isolation: a systematic literature review

Family caregivers of lung cancer patients experience social isolation

APHA Annual Meeting, 2021
Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention2020
Black identity, hair product use, and breast cancer: exploring breast health issues in Black women

Black identity, hair product use, and breast cancer

Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (abstract A044), 2020
Behavior Genetics2011
The relationship between executive function and antisocial behavior from age 9–16: a longitudinal twin study

The relationship between executive function and antisocial behavior from age 9–16

Behavior Genetics (abstract), 2011
Behavior Genetics2009
Heritability and longitudinal stability of schizotypal traits during adolescence and early adulthood

Heritability and longitudinal stability of schizotypal traits during adolescence and early adulthood

Behavior Genetics (abstract), 2009
Behavior Genetics2009
A population-based twin study of childhood maltreatment and alcohol use disorders in men

A population-based twin study of childhood maltreatment and alcohol use disorders in men

Behavior Genetics (abstract), 2009
Behavior Genetics2008
Genetic and environmental overlap among schizophrenia spectrum endophenotypes and schizophrenia liability during childhood and adolescence

Genetic and environmental overlap among schizophrenia spectrum endophenotypes and schizophrenia liability during childhood and adolescence

Behavior Genetics (abstract), 2008
University of Southern California2008
Heritability of schizotypal traits during adolescence

Heritability of schizotypal traits during adolescence

University of Southern California, 2008

Beat the SAT.

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Dr. Marissa Ericson
Dr. Marissa
SAT and ACT mentorFor more than 25 years.
Test writerI know how the questions get built.
Application readerI know what readers notice.
College interviewerI know how the room feels.
Graduate essay editorPersonal statements, start to finish.
NeuroscientistLearning, stress and resilience are my research.

The goal is bigger than a score.

Calm and resilience that hold up in the testing room, and everywhere after it.

Marissa.ericson@gmail.com

Marissa Ericson

Dr. Marissa

A neuroscientist who writes novels, and a novelist who reads data.

I studied neuroscience and comparative literature at Cornell, and I've kept one foot in each ever since.

My Ph.D. is in Clinical Neuroscience and Quantitative Psychology from USC, where I studied the neural basis of schizophrenia with EEG and event-related potentials. I taught as a university professor. Today I'm a Principal Statistician at UC Irvine, a research collaborator with the META Lab at UC Santa Barbara on brain-body synchrony and consciousness, Research Director for the EpiEnergetics foundation, and Fractional Head of Product at tapouts, a children's wellness platform.

For twenty years I've also been a ghostwriter, for memoirists, executives, wellness authors and thought leaders. I've mentored more than a thousand students and worked as a test writer, college interviewer and application reader.

I'm a mother of three. The Tickering is my first novel under my own name, two more books are underway, and I write every week on Substack.

The TickeringWork with meScienceMentorship
UC Irvine META Lab UC Santa Barbara EpiEnergetics Foundation Center for the Study of Non-Symbolic Consciousness USC Transformative Technology Lab

No plan, just pulse.

Fiction, motherhood and the brain-body, written weekly in bursts by someone with three kids, two books in progress and no spare time.

Subscribe on Substack

Josie

My mother made croissants this morning, and I didn't eat one.

They Get Bored Anyway

Getting out the door: four humans, three bags, two vanished shoes, and a deadline that does not move.

Marissa.ericson@gmail.com

Instagram Google Scholar

ATLAS had once called chalk old dust, back when she was barely four and believed everything had a previous life. He'd told her gently, “It's limestone,” but she'd whispered to her sister anyway:“It's the bones of clouds.”

ATLASALICE

Dr. Marissa Ericson is a neuroscientist, data scientist, ghostwriter, editor, and professor of Quantitative Science, Neuroscience, and Cognitive Psychology. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Neuroscience from the University of Southern California ('11) and B.A. from Cornell University ('00). She is the Custodian (C) of The Tickering.

Her research and academic work can be found here.

Full bio here.

He'll hug her as many times as she needs, especially if she forgets.

A black Remington 333 portable typewriter in its open case, a sheet of paper in the roller

I am typing the transcript of my life.

Black and white photo of Marissa with two of her children, cheek to cheek

The warning assumed a most. It assumed you get to rank the things you love.