Welcome to My Mental Breakdown
This site is an archive of Mary VanAlstine’s writing projects from their middle school days through to their first published books, including a walk through the sort of archetypical characters who walk through multiple projects in various iterations.
Mary’s writing projects are comprised of ‘manga’ (novels that used panels and speech bubbles to tell a story) and prose, and vary in length from small novellas to multi-part novels.
The projects will be separated for your exploration based on chronology and length.
A Timeline of Projects
Nikkei
2004This four-volume manga series follows the dramatic exploits of housecat-turned-teenager Nikkei, his family, and some killer vampires.
Rebels
2006 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.
The Terror of Night
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
2008In 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
2009Sophie 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
Grumpy fairy catcher Andrew Vidasche must learn to put family first when unexpectedly gaining custody of his teenage niece.
Unface
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
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
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
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
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.
Call Forth the Moonlight
Secretly a magiqon, professor Alister Henry risks everything to fight for the preservation and liberty of a dangerous gryphon.
Mary VanAlstine (they/she) is a writer, artist, and therapist. Writing and art have been a hobby for some twenty years now since they were a goofy little middle schooler. Mary grew up devouring fantasy, especially urban fantasy, and hearing about the writing craft from their father, a science fiction writer.
Mary lives in the city in Minnesota with their nerdy husband, a dramatic preschooler, a very dumb puggle named Bilbo Waggins, and two perfectly angelic cats.