Coward’s Steel
R. M. WINCH
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
K. C. Ball has been a word junkie since she was six.
A retired librarian got K. C. started with The Hardy Boys and The Black Stallion, then introduced the hard stuff—Stevenson, Defoe and Dickens—before K. C. was nine, and had her mainstreaming Faulkner, Steinbeck and Hemingway by eleven.
K. C. developed an addiction for Heinlein and Niven, Pournelle and Silverberg all by herself.
There came a time, of course, when reading wasn’t enough. At first, K. C. fed her growing need to be an author by writing nonfiction; got paid for it, too. The usual stuff. Reporter. Public information officer. Media relations coordinator.
But that grew pale and thin.
K. C. yearned to write fiction. So she turned out a bit of it now and again; you know, just as a hobby. And she told herself she could quit any time she wanted.
After awhile, now and then wasn’t good enough, either.
So two years ago, K. C. began to write speculative fiction full time. In May 2009, she made her professional-rates debut sale with “Coward’s Steel,” her first-time entry in the Writers of the Future competition.
Since then, her short short, “At Both Ends,” appeared in the June 2009 issue of Flash Fiction Online and “Flotsam” was purchased by Analog. And in December 2009, K. C. became an active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
K. C. lives in Seattle, a stone’s throw from Puget Sound. In addition to new short fiction, K. C. is working on her first novel, A Tithe of Blood.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Ryan Winch started taking classes in drawing at a young age. As he approached the years of middle school, however, his interest in drawing began to fade. Through the appeal of various SF artists, his inspiration and motivation brought pencil and paper back to his hands.
Following high school graduation, Ryan joined the military so that he could afford to pay for art college. During downtime on deployments to Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, he worked on developing his style, mostly through drawing tattoos for his buddies. After five years of military life his time for college came.
Upon returning home, Ryan was introduced to a beautiful lady. She also happened to attend the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, the school he was going to for illustration. After a year of attending the Academy, during which he had three pieces featured in the annual art show, he could no longer afford the school or the city. He married his beautiful lady and joined the military once again to be stationed in Seoul, Korea.
To this day, Ryan and his wife work as a team. Their goal is to get him back to school to complete his degree in illustration. He has entered and won several contests and has created products online.