Mysti works in San Francisco for a software company and lives in a forgotten corner of The City with her husband, graphic novelist Dale Berry and a black rescue cat.
An active member of MWA, Sisters in Crime, and ITW, Mysti serves on the board of her local MWA Chapter (NorCal!), and has previously served on the board of two Sisters in Crime chapters and the PSWA. Mysti is the editor and publisher of Low Down Dirty Vote, three volumes of short stories created to raise money for voting rights work. All three volumes contain stories by award-winning writers. We’re especially proud of Faye Snowden for her Volume 2 story “One Bullet. One Vote.”, which has been republished in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021. From Volume 3, Faye’s “The Obsession of Abel Tangiers” was republished in BAMaS 2023. Also, Volume 3 was nominated for an Anthony at Bouchercon 2023.
When not raising money for voting rights, you can find Mysti writing her first historical mystery set at the time of the 1938 Hilo Massacre–an era and location where Mysti’s real-life haole mother was born. Spending imaginary time in Hawaii is good work when you can get it. Mysti’s short stories have been published in a number of Sisters in Crime anthologies as well as AHMM and EQMM.
Her latest adventure is offering developmental editing services and ebook formatting. She’s helped USA Today bestselling authors and beginners alike.
Mysti has an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco, “half an MFA” from UCLA (screenwriting), and a BA in Linguistics from UC Santa Cruz—but she never lets degrees get in the way of a good story. She loves to talk with people about story structure, language, and film noir, not always in that order. She was really fond of Dalwhinnie until a Scotsman told her it is a “lady’s whisky,” so now she’s working on refining her whisky palate. One of her favorite adventures was serving as the amuse-bouche for MC Beaton at Bloody Scotland.
If you see her at a writer’s conference or book festival, please do say hello, or drop a line in the contact form.
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