Hello! I'm Sofiya Pasternack, and I am a mental health professional, disaster response nurse, and an author! Very different skillsets, but I love all of them to pieces! My fondest childhood memories involve my pet goats wrecking up the house. When I'm not at the hospital, I can be found enjoying Utah’s wild places, teaching my kids to make challah, and defending nice dragons. I'm represented by the unimaginably talented Rena Rossner at the Deborah Harris Agency. I spend way too much time messaging Rena ridiculous gifs and not enough time doing professional adulting stuff. My debut novel, ANYA AND THE DRAGON, is about an 11-year-old Jewish farm girl who teams up with the village idiot to save the world’s last dragon from a bloodthirsty Viking and the tsar of Kiev. It was published September 24th, 2019 by HMH's new imprint, Versify! The sequel to my debut, ANYA AND THE NIGHTINGALE, follows Anya on another adventure, where she has to figure out the secret of the sound sorcerer terrorizing Kiev. It was released November 10th, 2020! I love speaking to people about writing, reading, history, and mental health! I've been on panels at writing conventions, and I've spoken with teen writing groups about how to create unique magic, ways to develop a character's unique voice, and how to even put a story together in the first place.