Welcome to my mental breakdown!

A catalog of the creative projects of Mary VanAlstine

I'm Mary! I'm a thirty-something mental health therapist, artist, and fantasy writer. I live in Minnesota with my nerdy husband, nerdy child, puggle, and three cats. I like coffee, video games, tattoos, and pretty people.

What...what is this.

I've been drawing and writing ever since I was a 5th grader. Since then, I've written 14 completed stories. Five of these were graphic novels ("manga" as I called them as a little baby weeb), and the rest being prose varying in length from 20,000 to 170,000 words. This site is meant to catalog my stories broken down by format, with an extra section about the characters I've recycled since the beginning. below you will find each story and a brief description, the icons linking to more comprehensive pages about each project

Tap each circle to learn about the story and see their galleries.

Nikkei
Manga

This four-volume manga series follows the dramatic exploits of housecat-turned-teenager Nikkei, his family, and some killer vampires.

Rebels
Manga

Erik Atwaters is a vampire police chief bent on revenge for the death of his girlfriend, involving the witnesses in a political standoff by kidnapping them to his montain cabin.

Redefining Evil
Manga+Novel

The Evereaux family is trying hard to outrun a traumatic past with vampire police chief Danyil Kaehn, only to run into the jaws of a ruthless and psychotic vampire Danyil must protect them from.

Cadence
Manga

In a world of magical element kings, four special children hold the fate of the kings in their hands, and the love of one of the children and the king might destroy them all.

Farewell, Fairytale
Novel

Sophie Lemars has her head in the clouds, but when an injured wolf turns out to be cursed thief Fyodor, she gets more than she bargained for.

The Catcher
Novella

Grumpy fairy catcher Andrew Vidasche must learn to put family first when unexpectedly gaining custody of his teenage niece.

Unface
Novella

When Ashlyn Taylor gets trapped in a half-dream cityscape, she must hunt down the dream master before she turns into one of her dreamy unfaces forever.

Sun-Walking
Novel (Trilogy)

Lucienne Chantos lives in a dark world where the only light is manufactured by the mysterious Sun-Walker. When she abandons her betrothal to go become one, a whole new world of light opens before her.

Dumping a Dragon
Novella

Noeli Corazon kind of believes that her boyfriend Sivarthis is actually the dragon he says he is. But when her sister gets kidnapped by a dragon, Noeli must team up with her recently dumped dragon boyfriend to rescue her.

Code: Compromised
Manga

University student Micah has always loved Master Code Summoner Andrew Vidasche. But Micah's childhood Codey, Peel, turns into a dangerous Error bent on destroying Andrew.

The Heartwood Trilogy
Novel (Trilogy)

Half-Fae Micah Stillwater is intent on making the Folk of Lilydale play nice with the humans in the city below, but to do so he must harness his own unique and volatile nature.