Queen of Horror M.D. LaBelle’s Biography
Early Years
M.D. LaBelle was born in Fremont, Michigan, August 5th, 1974, as Melinda McDonald. Her father Thomas McDonald, a man of many trades including owning his own heating and cooling business, was born in Chicago in 1934. He was mostly Sioux and a small part Scottish. LaBelle’s mother Joan McDonald (maiden name Albright) was born in Fremont in 1937 and for the most part was a homemaker and a mother to three. She is German and Scotch-Irish. They were married in White Cloud, Michigan in 1962. They had Julie McDonald and William McDonald two years later before eventually moving to Chicago, Illinois for work. Returning to White Cloud a few years later where they had LaBelle. Her parents struggled for most of their life to make ends meet but they always made sure that they had food on the table.
When LaBelle was 3 months old, she was diagnosed with rhabdomyrofibrosarcoma, one of the world’s rarest childhood cancers and shortly thereafter was sent to St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, TN. She gives credit to them freely for saving her life and has even published a children’s book dedicated to St. Jude Hospital titled, “I Survived Cancer And So Can You.” At age 16, her sister Julie McDonald left home and began living with her grandmother. LaBelle began to play the violin at age 7. By the age of 8, she was performing on stage with Grande Ole Opry musicians like The Clark Brothers. At age 10, she was winning awards and competitions in music.
As a young child, LaBelle was an avid reader. She would wait for the newest books to come to the local library and then read for hours. Consuming all of the Stephen King and Dean Koontz novels. At age 11, she won The Young Author’s Award competition, and her horror story was published traditionally in an anthology. When LaBelle was 12, her brother William McDonald, age 22, took his own life, leaving LaBelle as the only child left at home. The next few years were especially hard on her but at age 13, LaBelle toured Europe with The Blue Lake Fine Arts Orchestra, as one of the youngest 1st section violinists. All throughout the early 1990’s, LaBelle continued to write short stories, perform both on Violin and clarinet while winning awards in music and art until she graduated high school in 1993.
College and Family Life (1993-2021)
LaBelle had her pick of many colleges and universities after graduating high school. However, she had always had her sights set on a music and art career, so she started her first semester at Western Michigan University in 1993 with full ride music and art scholarships. She soon found out that her learning disability would prove to be a substantial hinderance. After 2 years, she transferred to Central Michigan University where a lesser-known professor taught her everything she knew. LaBelle soon began to take over her teacher’s private lessons while her professor would go around the world touring. However, once again LaBelle’s learning disability made it impossible for her to get her degree because of one class. So, eventually, LaBelle dropped the music major and graduated with an art degree in 2001.
During the last year of her studies, she had begun working at the Morning Sun Newspaper as a Proofreader/ editor of graphic ads and newspaper articles. She had also been performing in the Midland Symphony for 3 years and continued it all until a drunk driver hit her in a car accident in 2003, ending it all.
LaBelle was married July of 2001, to her first husband Sean Cueny in Mt. Pleasant, MI where they lived for the next 17 years. During this time, she gave birth to Celeste McDonald in 2003, in 2007, she gave birth to twins, Skye McDonald and Ian McDonald. Over the years she would continue to read and write short stories in her free time. In 2018, LaBelle filed for divorce and it was finalized in April of 2019.
The Last 5 Years (2021-Present)
In 2021, LaBelle published her first book as an indie author on Kindle Direct Publishing. Within the 1st week The Blue Eyes Series went straight to the top 10 of the Amazon Bestsellers List in Romance. For several weeks it was at #1 or around it in Romance, Supernatural Romance, or other subgenres of Romance. Amazingly enough, the book was never meant to be published. It was just something she did in her spare time after a dream she had one night. Eventually, when it was finished, she mentioned it casually to her family who over the next few years, pushed her to publish it. In August of 2020, at White Cloud, Michigan, she married her new husband, Rickey LaBelle, and adopted 3 of his children, Kaylynn LaBelle, Rickey Jr. LaBelle and Jessica LaBelle. LaBelle lives in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan with her husband, youngest daughter Kaylynn LaBelle and twins Skye McDonald and Ian McDonald. Her husband ultimately led the final push, and LaBelle ended up hitting the publish button.
She had never thought that one little decision would change her life so much. Once she found out that people actually enjoyed reading it, she wrote another one. Too Hot To Handle. This one did the same. But something else begin to happen too. Not only did it hit the bestsellers list numerous times but then she ended up having readers contact her and tell her how much they loved them. Afterwards, she ended up putting a few books on apps like Goodnovel, Dreame, Inkitt, and more. LaBelle entered the competitions and won.
One of her first horror anthologies was My Nightmares, winner of the Goodnovel Thrillers Chillers Award for their Horror Contest (2021) and it established her as an award-winning professional horror author. In (2022), Sophia was entered into the Inkitt Horror Competition and won. Her second horror award in a year’s time. LaBelle then went on to publish even more titles on the apps and in wide distribution to Amazon, Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Noble. Plus, many others.
While still writing horror, she delved into other genres such as fantasy, dark fiction such as Psychological Thriller, Psychological Horror, Splatterpunk, and Supernatural Horror. Her first debut in film and also her breakout novel into mainstream horror, The Circus, the 1st book of The Circus Series debuted as an Easter egg in Blood on the Bleachers, (2025). Her work Some Things Come In Little Packages debuted in the anthology, Tales From Deranged Minds: The Night Before Christmas. She has also published nonfiction, children’s books, and YA Thrillers.
Among other awards, LaBelle has won 4 BookTok Awards in 2025. Best Psychological Thriller for Just Love Me, Best Young Adult for Mr. Creeper’s Chillers: The Girl With No Head, and on Book Authority, The Circus for Best Audiobooks of All Time, Best Circus eBooks, Best New Circus Books of 2024 and Best New Circus Books of 2025 for The Circus Is Back. Special recognition from IVOOX.com for Best Audiobooks, The Circus and The Circus Is Back. Horrorbookwormsreviews.com critical review, Reading M.D. LaBelle’s books are like Lay’s Potato Chips, “You can’t read just one.”