About the Authors

Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff is the New York Times bestselling author of the Mer Cycle Trilogy and co-author of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (with Michael Reaves). Her short fiction has been published in Analog, Amazing Stories, Interzone, and Universe, with nominations for British SF, Nebula, Crawford Fantasy, and Sidewise awards.

Marie Brennan is the World Fantasy Award-nominated author of several fantasy series, including the Memoirs of Lady Trent, the Onyx Court, the Wilders series, the Doppelganger duology, and the Varekai novellas, as well as nearly fifty short stories.

Amy Sterling Casil is a 2002 Nebula Award nominee and recipient of other awards and recognition for her short science fiction and fantasy. She is the author of 27 nonfiction books, over a hundred short stories, three fiction and poetry collections, and three novels. Amy is a founding member and treasurer of Book View Café and former treasurer of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. She is the founder of a new publishing company for the 21st century, Chameleon Publishing.

Brenda Clough writes novels, short stories, and nonfiction. She has been a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards. She lives in a cottage at the edge of a forest, and has been reading comic books for half a century.

Leah Cutter writes page-turning fiction in exotic locations, such as a magical New Orleans, the ancient Orient, Hungary, the Oregon coast, rural Kentucky, Seattle, Minneapolis, and many others. She writes literary, fantasy, mystery, science fiction, and horror fiction. Her short fiction has been published in magazines like Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Talebones, anthologies like Fiction River, and on the web. Her long fiction has been published both by New York publishers as well as small presses.

Marissa Doyle originally intended to be an archaeologist but somehow got distracted, so instead she excavates tales of magic and history from the matrix of her imagination. Or something like that. She lives in New England with her family, her research library, and a bossy pet rabbit.

Doranna Durgin’s quirky spirit has led to an eclectic and extensive publishing journey across genres. Beyond that, she hangs around outside her Southwest mountain home with horse and dogs. She doesn't believe in mastering the beast within, but in channeling its power. For good or bad has yet to be decided...

Katharine Eliska Kimbriel, a John W. Campbell nominee for her first book, writes literate, character-driven science fiction, fantasy & mystery. Known for The Chronicles of Nuala Series and the Night Calls Series, Katharine is a Texas author with Indiana and Michigan roots.

Mindy Klasky, a USA Today bestselling author, learned to read when her parents shoved a book in her hands and told her she could travel anywhere through stories. As a writer, Mindy has traveled through various genres, including science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. In her spare time, Mindy knits, quilts, and tries to tame her to-be-read shelf.

Vonda N. McIntyre writes science fiction.

Nancy Jane Moore is a founding member of Book View Café. Her science fiction novel The Weave came out in 2015 from Aqueduct Press. Her books Ardent Forest, Changeling (first published by Aqueduct Press), Conscientious Inconsistencies (first published by PS Publishing), Walking Contradiction, and Flashes of Illumination are all available from the Book View Café bookstore. She lives in Oakland, California.

P.G. Nagle is the author of sixteen novels and two collections of short fiction, and co-editor of two anthologies. A native and lifelong resident of New Mexico, she has a special love of the outdoors, particularly New Mexico's wilds, where many of her stories are born.

Gillian Polack writes fiction that others have trouble defining. Her novels range from kinda-sorta urban fantasy in The Wizardry of Jewish Women (a Ditmar finalist) to kinda-sorta time travel but probably alternate history in Langue[dot]doc 1305. Alas for the world, she is addicted to chocolate, sarcasm and bad jokes. Fortunately, she lives in Canberra, Australia (where she teaches, edits, writes, and cooks), which is too far from most of the world for these things to matter.

Irene Radford started writing stories when she figured out what a pencil was for. A museum-trained historian, Irene was raised in a military family and grew up all over the US. Her interests range from ancient history, to spiritual meditations, to space stations, and a lot in between.

Deborah J. Ross is an award-nominated writer and editor of fantasy and science fiction. Recent novels include Thunderlord and The Children of Kings (with Marion Zimmer Bradley); Lambda Literary Award Finalist Collaborators (as Deborah Wheeler), and The Seven-Petaled Shield epic fantasy trilogy. Her short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Star Wars: Tales from Jabba’s Palace, Realms of Fantasy, and Sword & Sorceress. She’s edited a number of anthologies, including the Lace and Blade series, Masques of Darkover, Mad Science Café, Beyond Grimm: Tales Newly Twisted, and Across the Spectrum. When she’s not writing, she knits for charity, plays classical piano, and studies yoga.

Dave Smeds, a Nebula Award finalist, is the author of novels such as The Sorcery Within and X-Men: Law of the Jungle. His short fiction has appeared in such venues as Asimov's Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Full Spectrum 4, Peter S. Beagle’s Immortal Unicorn, and Realms of Fantasy.

Sara Stamey’s journeys include treasure hunting and teaching scuba in the Caribbean, backpacking Greece and New Zealand, operating a nuclear reactor, and owning a farm in Chile. Her novel The Ariadne Connection won the Cygnus Speculative Fiction Award; her Islands won the Hollywood Book Festival Genre Award.

Jennifer Stevenson lives in Chicago with her husband and two bossy kittens. She swims, bikes, attempts yoga, gardens, and finds new uses for old sex demons.

Judith Tarr has written historicals and historical fantasies and epic fantasies, contemporary fantasy, and science fiction. She has won the Crawford Award, and has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award. She lives near Tucson, Arizona with an assortment of cats, a blue-eyed spirit dog, and a herd of Lipizzan horses.