Having cut her literary teeth on Edgar Allan Poe and gothic romances based on the vampire soap opera “Dark Shadows,” she was fascinated by the concept of ordinary women falling for creatures of the night. It just seemed natural to incorporate ghosts, time travel and magic into her stories.

As a teenager, Tipton wrote a “fan fiction” romance novel that circulated among the students at her high school, earning enthusiastic reviews and requests for “the next chapter.” Realizing that the most direct route to becoming a professional writer was through a journalism career, she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Kent State University. After graduation, she left her Ohio hometown to take an internship with the Antelope Valley Press in the California high desert, where she remained as a writer and editor for 14 years. She specialized in writing historical features, travel articles and arts and entertainment reviews. Her ability to spin historical detail into an engaging presentation was recognized when the California Newspaper Publisher Association selected “Remember When,” a special commemorative magazine conceived and researched by Tipton, to receive a first place award.

After years of writing nonfiction, Tipton shifted gears to explore the production side of newspaper publishing, which introduced her to the world of pagination and computer technology. This technical experience enabled her to change careers and she attained a position with an Air Force contractor, editing the public Web site for the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base. During her off hours, she continues writing both fiction and nonfiction, earning freelance credits in consumer and trade magazines, and the New York Times. Her first novel, “Rings of Passage,” a time travel romance, gained representation in the mid-1990s, but is no longer represented and remains unpublished.

Tipton’s latest project, “Dangerous Reflections,” is the first in a three-book series, in which time travel and magic are at the heart of the romance between twenty-first century psychologist Martie Harris and nineteenth century wizard “Doctor Uncle.”