About Me

My name is Mistina, and I’m addicted to stories. Since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, I’ve been greedily consuming stories of various genres and forms. Horror, romance, mystery, thriller, literary, fantasy. Novels, musicals, plays, movies, television series. When I overcame my aversion to audiobooks a few years back, it changed my life. Now, I’m devouring stories while running errands, folding laundry, chopping onions, walking the mutt . . . basically, anywhere a physical book might be inconvenient.

My first published short story, “Daddy’s Girl,” appeared in Indian Country Noir (Akashic Books, 2010). Since then, much like John Irving’s Garp, I’ve embraced novels as my natural medium. (Seriously, I wrote a 110,000-word novel in about the same length of time it took me to draft the aforementioned short story.) That novel, sadly, didn't find a home, though I did sign on with my dream agent. In the meantime, I turned my attention to a light, fluffy paranormal mystery that evolved over a decade into the first book in an urban fantasy trilogy. That manuscript is currently a hot mess, weighing in at more than 157,000 words.

Upon reaching “The End,” I turned my attention to something completely different: a cozy-ish mystery set in the mountains of rural Pennsylvania. Now complete, that manuscript is marinating while I return to the urban fantasy. More details to come!