Award-winning author DANIELLE ACKLEY-MCPHAIL has worked both sides of the publishing industry for longer than she cares to admit. In 2014 she joined forces with Mike McPhail and Greg Schauer to form eSpec Books (www.especbooks.com). Her published works include six novels, Yesterday’s Dreams, Tomorrow’s Memories, Today’s Promise, The Halfling’s Court, The Redcaps’ Queen, and Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn, written with Day Al-Mohamed. She is also the senior editor of the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series. She can be found on Facebook (Danielle Ackley-McPhail) and Twitter (DMcPhail, eSpecBooks). To learn more about her work, visit www.sidhenadaire.com, www.especbooks.com or www.badassfaeries.com.
PHYLLIS AMES loves tramping through the forests of the Pacific Northwest with camera and binoculars. Her most treasured moments are catching sight, and photos of elusive black-tailed deer, bear cubs, coyotes, and yes, a blurry image of a cougar leaping from the roof of an abandoned cabin into a tall Douglas fir (much too blurry and indistinct to post). She is more afraid of things that go bump in the night than the shadowy depths of forest trails.
MIKE BARRETTA is a retired U.S. Naval Aviator who currently works for a defense contractor as a pilot. He holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Planning and International Negotiation from the Naval Post-Graduate School and a Master’s in English from the University of West Florida. His wife, Mary, to whom he has been married to for 26 years, is living proof that he is not such a bad guy once you get to know him. His stories have appeared in Baen’s Universe, Redstone, New Scientist, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show and various anthologies.
ANNELIESE BELMOND writes Sci-Fi and Fantasy novellas and short stories while she avoids polishing her novels. She is the author of the Star Mage Novella Series. When she’s not writing, she’s binge-watching TV and thinking about plot. She is a graduate of the Alpha SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers. You can say hi to her through her website: http://www.anneliesebelmond.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/writeranneliesebelmond/
SARAH BRAND is a graduate student at the London School of Economics and an alumna of the Alpha Workshop for Young Writers. Her fiction has also appeared in the anthology Athena’s Daughters vol. 2. She can be found at sarahbrand.com or on Twitter as @sarahbbrand.
PATRICIA BRAY is the author of a dozen novels, including Devlin’s Luck, which won the Compton Crook Award for the best first novel in the field of science fiction or fantasy. A multi-genre author whose career spans both epic fantasy and Regency romance, her books have been translated into Russian, German, Portuguese and Hebrew. She’s also crossed over to the dark side as the co-editor of After Hours: Tales from the Ur-Bar (DAW, March 2011) and The Modern Fae’s Guide to Surviving Humanity (DAW, March 2012), Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs. Aliens (ZNB, June 2014) and Temporally Out of Order (ZNB, August 2015). Patricia lives in a New England college town, where she combines her writing with a full-time career in I/T. To offset the hours spent at a keyboard, she bikes, hikes, cross-country skis, snowshoes and has recently taken up the noble sport of curling. To find out more, visit her website at www.patriciabray.com.
DAVID B. COE is the award-winning author of nineteen fantasy novels. His newest series, “The Case Files of Justis Fearsson” (Spell Blind, His Father’s Eyes, and Shadow’s Blade) is a contemporary urban fantasy with a “Were” twist. As D.B. Jackson, he writes the “Thieftaker Chronicles,” a historical urban fantasy that includes Thieftaker, Thieves’ Quarry, A Plunder of Souls, and Dead Man’s Reach. He lives on the Cumberland Plateau with his wife and daughters. When he’s not writing he likes to hike, play guitar, and stalk the perfect image with his camera.
http://www.DavidBCoe.com
http://www.davidbcoe.com/blog/
http://www.dbjackson-author.com
http://www.facebook.com/david.b.coe
http://twitter.com/DavidBCoe
FAITH HUNTER, fantasy writer, was born in Louisiana and raised all over the south. She writes two contemporary Urban Fantasy series: the “Skinwalker” series, featuring Jane Yellowrock, a Cherokee skinwalker who hunts rogue vampires, and the “Soulwood” series, featuring earth magic user Nell Ingram. Her “Rogue Mage” novels are a dark, urban, post-apocalyptic, fantasy series featuring Thorn St. Croix, a stone mage. The role playing game based on the series, is ROGUE MAGE, RPG.
www.faithhunter.net
https://www.facebook.com/official.faith.hunter
https://www.facebook.com/faith.hunter?fref=ts
@hunterfaith
http://www.yellowrocksecurities.com
www.gwenhunter.net
SUSAN JETT used to work for Sea Shepherd, but has always found the idea of swimming in anything deeper than a lap pool utterly terrifying. Now she lives about 20 miles from the ocean in an old farmhouse where she and her husband both write stories and try to civilize a small human. Find her online: Twitter @JettSusan and www.susanjett.com
KATHARINE KERR lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two cats, and a vagrant skunk. Although she spent her childhood in a Great Lakes industrial city, she became a confirmed Californian at age nine, when her family relocated here. She’s the author of the “Deverry” series of epic fantasies, the “Nola O’Grady” series of light-hearted urban fantasy, the “Runemaster” duo, and a few science fiction works, mostly notably Snare.
ELIZABETH KITE lives on a mountain located between Las Vegas and the desert. When she’s not tanning by moonlight, you can find her next to a good cup of tea. Twice a year, she puts on a corset and pretends to be an escaped French nun while her husband plays a dashing bard. Her bookshelves are running out of space. Visit her on twitter at @Kitewrites.
GINI KOCH writes the fast, fresh and funny “Alien/Katherine ‘Kitty’ Katt” series for DAW Books, the “Necropolis Enforcement Files,” and the “Martian Alliance Chronicles” series, as well as many other novels, novellas, and short stories. As G.J. Koch she writes the “Alexander Outland” series and she’s made the most of multiple personality disorder by writing under a variety of other pen names as well, including Anita Ensal, Jemma Chase, A.E. Stanton, and J.C. Koch. She has stories featured in a variety of excellent anthologies, available now and upcoming, writing as Gini Koch, Anita Ensal, and J.C. Koch. www.ginikoch.com
ASHLEY MCCONNELL’s first novel was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award. Since 1990, she has sold horror, fantasy, and numerous media tie-in novels, as well as a handful of short stories and assorted articles. (“A” and “the” featured prominently among them.) She is responsible for the erratic publication of the Bloodstained Bookshelf, a list of forthcoming traditionally-published mysteries at http://mirlacca.com/Bookshelf.html, and has a column in the Novelists, Inc. newsletter on Links You May Have Missed. She is currently owned by two horses and far too many cats.
SEANAN MCGUIRE lives and works in the Pacific Northwest, where she attempts to keep her massive blue cats from eating people. She writes a lot of things, because otherwise she stops sleeping. Sleep is good. She is the author of quite a lot of books, and takes quite a lot of naps. Keep up with her on Twitter at @seananmcguire or at www.seananmcguire.com.
ELIORA SMITH lives in Central New York with two cats and an ever-growing collection of dragons. In addition to writing fiction and poetry, Eliora makes jewelry. “Among the Grapevines, Growing” is their first published story, however some of their writing can be found at their sporadically updated WordPress blogs, Words of Realms and Scribbling on Seashells. They can be found on Twitter @Disabled_Dragon.
APRIL STEENBURGH is an author and freelance eBook formatter living in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. She shares her home with a lively band of animals and a very understanding partner. When not writing, she can be found working as a librarian at a local community college and as president of the Southern Tier Animal Rescue Network. Online, you can find April at https://aprilsteenburgh.com/
or https://www.facebook.com/fireun.
JEAN MARIE WARD writes fiction, nonfiction and everything in between, including novels (2008 Indie Book double-finalist With Nine You Get Vanyr) and art books. Her stories appear in numerous anthologies, such as The Modern Fae’s Guide to Surviving Humanity, The Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs. Aliens, and Tales from the Vatican Vaults. The former editor of Crescent Blues, she co-edited the six-volume, 40th anniversary World Fantasy Con anthology Unconventional Fantasy and is a frequent contributor to BuzzyMag.com. Her website is JeanMarieWard.com.