These Walls of Despair
Anaea Lay
Bernardo Mota
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A natural city girl raised in deep ruralia, Anaea Lay currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where she sells real estate under a different name and collects jobs the way that the Internet collects cats.
When she isn’t advising clients on how well a potential home could be defended during the zombie apocalypse, she can be found running the Strange Horizons podcast, writing reviews for Publishers Weekly, waxing poetic on the virtues of well-designed resource management board games, or chasing a secret recipe for the perfect cup of hot chocolate.
Her short fiction has appeared in places such as Lightspeed, Apex, Daily Science Fiction and Waylines. Her long fiction is currently looking for a home.
Anaea can be found online at: anaealay.com.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Bernardo Mota was born on February 5, 1996, in Setúbal, Portugal, and has had a fun ride so far. Interested in genetically engineering animals, convincing friends that the world was at stake and playing out more fantasies in his head than in retaining memories, his childhood was confusing and lacked drawing.
Growing up surrounded by books, movies, video games and the Internet brought out in him an interest in science fiction, fantasy and, eventually, illustration.
He started drawing at the age of thirteen, desperate to find out if it was an interesting path before having to choose a high school course, and it quickly became an obsession.
His short comic won the second place in the Amadora BD 2011 contest for work in his age range, and he was formally honored as a young talent by his hometown the next year.
He is now in his last year of high school, and is very excited about what the future holds for him.
See Bernardo's art online at: bemota.daportfolio.com or visit him on Facebook at BernardoMotaIllustration.