CYNTHIA WARD was born in Oklahoma and lived in Maine, Spain, West Germany, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and Tucson before moving to the Los Angeles area. An alumna of the Clarion West Writers Workshop, she has published two short novels, The Adventure of the Incognita Countess and The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum with Aqueduct Press. She has also sold stories to Asimov’s SF Magazine, Analog, Nightmare, Weird Tales, and other anthologies and magazines. Cynthia’s reviews appear regularly in The Cascadia Subduction Zone and irregularly in other websites and publications. She is working on the next Bloodthirsty Agent adventure.

With author Nisi Shawl, Cynthia teaches the acclaimed fiction writers workshop, Writing the Other: Bridging Cultural Differences for Successful Fiction.

ANGELA WALLACE has been penning adventures ever since she was sucked through a magical portal as a child. What she saw and whom she met gave birth to exciting and complex fantasy worlds where defying the laws of physics was a bonus. She has since come back down to earth, only to discover this mortal realm has magic of its own.

Now she is also quite at home in the world of urban fantasy, though believes that love, faith, and hope are of a stronger magic than fire wielding and sorcery. She loves gun-toting good boys, and could have been a cop in another life except real blood makes her queasy. She’ll have to stick to solving supernatural mysteries. Language is her pleasure, whether it’s weaving words on a page or lassoing linguistics into translations as a sign language interpreter.

Angela is currently working on her next book. She is the winner of the 2013 Best Indie Book Award in Fantasy.

DEBORAH WALKER grew up in the most English town in the country, but she soon high-tailed it down to
London, where she now lives with her two teenage children. Find Deborah in the British Museum trawling the past for future inspiration or on her blog.

Her stories have appeared in Nature’s Futures, Cosmos, Daily Science Fiction and The Year’s Best SF 18 and have been translated into a dozen languages.

ONSER VON FULLON has submitted works to the Pathfinder Chronicler and to the PAGE International Script contest. He is currently working on a series of dark fantasy novels entitled Orphans of Endra (the first installment, Dark Friends, is published on Amazon and Kindle).

He currently lives in rural Missouri as a (not so) starving artist.

KENECHI UDOGU lives in London and enjoys writing fantasy/paranormal fiction and short stories. She also hates the cold and hopes to one day figure out how to hibernate in winter.

She is the author of a number of young adult books including The Other Slipper, a retelling of the Cinderella story, and The Mentalist Series, a set of novels about a young girl with mind altering abilities.

BRIAN W. TAYLOR is a former soldier turned writer with a soft spot for the horror genre, black Labs, and soul patches. He grew up in Rochester, New York watching horror movies with his grandmother before cancer took her, which naturally led him to seek out horror in literature. It was then that he stumbled upon Dean Koontz and never looked back. He likes his stories grand with authors like Margaret Weis and Tim Lebbon also serving as influences.

He spent six years in the US Air Force as a fuel systems specialist, working on C-141B, KC-10A, and C-17 aircrafts. His time in the military hammered home a commitment to excellence as well as instilling a “can do” attitude. A recipient of numerous awards, such as receiving a Below the Zone promotion and a two time maintainer of the quarter, Brian still holds onto many of the core values he learned while serving.

When he was younger, Brian believes he saw the ghost of his great aunt. He found out the next day she had passed the night before. He’s been a believer ever since. He even messed around with an Ouija Board, but will never touch one again. Ever. In his opinion, horror should be intelligent, play off reader’s fear of the unknown, and also be based around some kind of truth. He tries to bring those same characteristics to his stories and can’t imagine a life without horror.

His short fiction has appeared in several anthologies and he has several short stories still under consideration.

C.L. STEGALL is the author of modern speculative fiction novels and short stories and holds a manifest aversion to bios. His work ranges from Young Adult (the Progeny series) to Urban Fantasy (the Valence of Infinity series) to thrillers such as The Ordeal, White Sands, and the new web series, CHURCH: Defining Moment. His short stories have been published in such anthologies as “Past the Patch,” edited by horror author Brian Fatah Steele and Twice Upon A Time from The Bearded Scribe Press.

He is the editor of (and contributor to) the novella anthologies 4POCALYPSE: Four Tales Of A Dark Future and 4RCHETYPES: Modern Interpretations of Classic Horror. He has also served as editor for numerous short stories by other authors and enjoys the process as much as the results.

An occasional speaker at writers’ conferences and workshops, C.L. loves to share his knowledge and experience with other writers.

C.L. is a fan of sci-fi and fantasy in all their forms, a lover of carrot cake and a former military intelligence linguist. He lives in Plano, TX with his lovely wife and two dogs who think they run the joint.

TRACY ARTHUR SOLDAN is a recent transplant from the Pacific Northwest to Roswell, GA. He works for a large multinational you’ve never heard of because its industry is neither sexy nor controversial. He discovered science fiction and fantasy almost as soon as he learned how to read. He was introduced to roleplaying games (RPGs) with Blue Book D&D, and has been active in Live-Action Roleplaying (LARPing) for nearly 20 years. He wonders why the Muses waited until he was 48 before deciding to start inflicting him with stories to write. He lives alone, with no pets. Not even a goldfish.

JULIANNE SNOW is the author of the Days with the Undead series. She writes within the realms of speculative fiction, has roots that go deep into horror and is a member of the Horror Writers Association. Julianne has pieces of short fiction in publications from Sirens Call Publications, Open Casket Press, James Ward Kirk Publishing and Hazardous Press as well as the forthcoming shorts in anthologies from 7DS Books, Phrenic Press, and the Coffin Hop charity anthology Death by Drive-In. Be on the lookout for her contributions to a number of collaborative projects to be announced shortly.

BRIAN RATHBONE was born in the garden part of The Garden State, far from the New Jersey seen in the Sopranos. Farm life shaded his perceptions and old-world knowledge seemed to separate him from his peers—or perhaps it was the ever-present smell of horse manure. Though he obtained a certain level of skill working with horses, he somehow knew his life would take a different path.

Corporate America called to him. He imagined it would be better to work in an air-conditioned office than in the fields or on the racetrack. He started in the mailroom and worked every day to learn new skills and advance his position. He got lucky, and some wonderful people gave him the chance to prove his worth, but as
Brian climbed higher and higher on the corporate ladder, he came to see that the machine was broken.

He started working from home and finally found the time to write down the story that had been growing in his mind for over a decade. At times, Brian felt like a juggler in motley while he balanced the writing of code and the writing of fiction, but it’s all been worthwhile.