Sabre1

About the Authors




JAMES ENGE lives in northwest Ohio with his wife and two crime-fighting, emotionally fragile dogs. He teaches Latin, Greek and classical civilization at a medium-sized public university. His stories have appeared in Black Gate, in the Stabby-Award-winning anthology Blackguards, in Tales from the Magician’s Skull, and elsewhere. His first novel, Blood of Ambrose (Pyr, 2009) was nominated for the World Fantasy Award in 2010; and the French translation was nominated for the Prix Imaginales in 2011. You can reach him through Facebook (as james.enge) or on Twitter (@jamesenge) or, if all else fails, via his website, jamesenge.com.


ANITA ENSAL has always been intrigued by possibilities inherent in myths and legends. She likes to find both the fantastical element in the mundane and the ordinary component within the incredible. She writes in all areas of speculative fiction and has stories in several fine anthologies including Love and Rockets and Boondocks Fantasy from DAW Books, as well as a novella, A Cup of Joe, out now. She will be re-releasing her The Neighborhood series in late 2018. You can reach Anita (aka Gini Koch) at her website, Fantastical Fiction (http://www.ginikoch.com/aebookstore.htm).


DAVID FARLAND is an award-winning, bestselling author with over 50 novels in print. He has won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Special Award for his science fiction novel On My Way to Paradise and over seven awards for his fantasy novel Nightingale. He is best known for his New York Times bestselling series The Runelords. Farland has written for major franchises such as Star Wars and The Mummy. He has worked in Hollywood greenlighting movies and doctoring scripts. He has been a movie producer, and he has even lived in China working as a screenwriter for a major fantasy film franchise.


Nebula Award winner ESTHER FRIESNER is the author of over 40 novels and more than 200 short stories. She is also the creator/editor of the Chicks in Chainmail series (Baen Books). The sixth, Chicks and Balances, appeared in July 2015. Deception’s Pawn, latest in her popular Princesses of Myth YA series (Random House), was published in April 2015. Esther is married, a mother of two, grandmother of two, harbors cats, and lives in Connecticut. There is no truth to the rumor that her family motto is “Oooooh, SHINY!”


LAWRENCE HARDING is the literary alter-ego of a PhD medievalist from Cambridge, England. After filling his life with medieval literature and folklore on the one hand and fantasy fiction on the other, it was inevitable that he would combine the two. This is one of the results of that (un)holy union. In between penning stories and marking essays, Lawrence also reviews at: exploringotherwheres.wordpress.co and can be found lurking on Twitter at @lhardingwrites.


D.B. JACKSON (http://www.DBJackson-Author.com) is the award-winning author of twenty novels and as many short stories. He is best known for the Thieftaker Chronicles, a series set in pre-Revolutionary Boston that combines urban fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction. As David B. Coe (http://www.DavidBCoe.com), he writes epic fantasy, urban fantasy, media tie-ins, and just about anything else. He is currently working on a new fantasy trilogy for Angry Robot and a tie-in project with the History Channel. David has a Ph.D. in U.S. history. His books have been translated into a dozen languages.


HOWARD ANDREW JONES lives beside the Sea of Monsters with a wicked and beautiful sorceress. His newest novel, For the Killing of Kings, will be released from St. Martin’s in the fall of 2018. He’s the writer of a critically acclaimed Arabian Fantasy series, four Pathfinder novels, and a slew of short stories. He’s the editor of the print magazine Tales From the Magician’s Skull, among other things, and lurks at www.howardandrewjones.com, where he blogs about writing craft, gaming, fantasy and adventure fiction, and assorted nerdery.


VIOLETTE MALAN is the author of the Dhulyn and Parno sword-and-sorcery series (now available in omnibus editions) and The Mirror Lands series of primary world fantasies. As VM Escalada, she’s the author of the Faraman Prophecy series. Book One, Halls of Law, is available now, and Book Two, Gift of Griffins, will be out next year. She’s on Facebook, she’s on Twitter, and website-wise check either www.violettemalan.com or www.vmescalada.com. She strongly urges you to remember that no one expects the Spanish Inquisition.


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 for the vet bills of one horse and far too many cats.


R.K. NICKEL works as a screenwriter in Los Angeles. His first feature film, Bear with Us, is available on Amazon Prime, and “Stellar People,” a sci-fi comedy series he wrote for Adaptive Studios, will be coming out sometime in 2018. He dove into his prose journey in 2017, and since then has made 6 sales and attended both the Odyssey Writing Workshop and the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop. When he’s not writing, he’s probably playing an escape room or some Magic the Gathering. Or drinking coffee. Mmm coffee. For more, check out @russnickel on Twitter or www.rknickel.com.


JASON PALMATIER is co-creator/co-writer of the epic comic fantasy series Plague published by AAM-Markosia (available on Comixology) and a contributor to the indie comic Lords of the Cosmos by Ugli Studios. His short stories Heart of the Empire and Zorlar the Terrible appeared in the anthologies Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs Aliens and All Hail Our Robot Conquerors! published by Zombies Needs Brains, LLC. He has completed his first novel, War Mind, a near future military thriller, and is currently working on a second book titled Xenoslammer, a parody/rage-piece about the travesty that is the Aliens movie franchise.


JENNA RHODES is a pen name for a prolific author with over 55 books published to date, with several more on the horizon, as well as short fiction. “Rainbow Dark” is her second appearance with Zombies Need Brains. Look for “The Windlost” in the wondrous SUBMERGED anthology. Check out www.rhondiann.com for more background on what she’s working on under this and other names, in the fields of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, thriller, and romance.


AMELIA SIRINA is a Buryat-Russian speculative fiction writer. She studied Classics in Moscow State University, she falls in love with any new myths or fairytales easily and loves learning new languages. In her free time she travels. She currently doesn’t have a website, but she’s working on it.


LEAH WEBBER has been telling stories since she was three years old; the more fantastical, the better. After touring the world in the military for almost a decade, she’s finally back where she started in the wilds of Portland, Oregon with her two dogs, a feral computer, and assorted overflowing bookshelves. Find out more at www.leahwebber.com/