Chuck Wendig is the author of the Miriam Black thrillers (which begin with Blackbirds) and numerous other works across books, comics, games, and more. A finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the cowriter of the Emmy-nominated digital narrative Collapsus, he is also known for his popular blog, terribleminds.com. He lives in Pennsylvania with his family.
When he was eleven, Mitchell Hogan was given The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy to read, and a love of fantasy novels was born. He spent the next ten years reading, rolling dice, and playing computer games, with some school and university thrown in. Along the way he accumulated numerous bookcases’ worth of fantasy and sci-fi novels, and he doesn’t look to stop anytime soon. For a decade he put off his dream of writing, then he quit his job and wrote A Crucible of Souls, Book One in the Sorcery Ascendant Sequence. He now writes full-time and is eternally grateful to the readers who took a chance on an unknown self-published author. He lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife, Angela, and daughter, Isabelle.
A. G. Riddle spent ten years starting Internet companies before retiring to pursue his true passion: writing fiction. He is the author of the Origin Mystery, the million-copy bestselling trilogy—including The Atlantis Gene, The Atlantis Plague, and The Atlantis World. A native of North Carolina, he lives in Florida with his wife.
Ian Douglas is one of the many pseudonyms for writer William H. Keith, the New York Times bestselling author of the popular military science fiction series The Heritage Trilogy, The Legacy Trilogy, The Inheritance Trilogy, The Star Corpsman series, The Andromedan Dark series, and The Star Carrier series. A former naval corpsman, he lives in Pennsylvania.
Jay Allan is a former investor and the author of the Crimson Worlds series and the first two books in the Far Stars series, Shadow of Empire and Enemy in the Dark. When not writing, he enjoys traveling, running, hiking, and reading. He loves hearing from readers and always answers e-mails. He currently lives in New York City.
Viola Carr is the author of the Electric Empire trilogy. She was born in Australia, but wandered into darkest London one foggy October evening and never found her way out. She now devours countless history books and dictates fantastical novels by gaslight, accompanied by classical music and the snoring of her slumbering cat.
Liana Brooks is a full time mom and a part-time author who would rather slay dragons than budget the checkbook any day. Alas, Adventuring Hero is not a recognized course of study in American universities. She graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in marine biology, a husband, and no job prospects in her field. To fill the free time, she started writing. Now her books are read all over the world (she says she’s big in Canada), and she’s free to explore the universe one page at a time.
David Wellington lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of the Monster Island trilogy of zombie novels; the Thirteen Bullets vampire series; the epic post-apocalyptic novel Positive; and the Jim Chapel missions, including the digital shorts “Minotaur” and “Myrmidon,” and the novels Chimera and The Hydra Protocol.
Henry V. O'Neil is the name under which award-winning mystery novelist Vincent H. O'Neil publishes his science fiction work. A graduate of West Point, he served in the US Army Infantry with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York, and in the 1st Battalion (Airborne) of the 508th Infantry in Panama. He has worked as a risk manager, a marketing copywriter, and an apprentice librarian.
Michael R. Fletcher is a Canadian writer whose first novel, 88, was published by Five Rivers Publishing, a small Canadian press. His short fiction can be found in Interzone, On Spec, Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, and Arcane. This novel grew out of his desire to write something outside of the normal tropes of fantasy, and his contemplation of rare mental disorders (like Cotard's Syndrome) in a fantasy context.
Sarah Remy writes fiction to keep real life from getting out of hand. She lives in Spokane, Washington, where she shows horses, works at a local elementary school, and rehabs her old house.
Mel Odom is the bestselling author of the Makaum series and many film and computer game tie-ins, including Forgotten Realms, Mack Bolan, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Angel. He won a prestigious Alex Award for his YA fantasy novel The Rover. He currently lives in Oklahoma.
Richard Kadrey is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sandman Slim supernatural noir books. Sandman Slim was included in Amazon’s “100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime,” and is in development as a feature film. Some of his other books include The Wrong Dead Guy, The Everything Box, Metrophage, and Butcher Bird. He also writes the Vertigo comic Lucifer.
Laura Bickle grew up in rural Ohio, reading entirely too many comic books out loud to her favorite Wonder Woman doll. After graduating with an MA in Sociology–Criminology from Ohio State University and an MLIS in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she patrolled the stacks at the public library and worked with data systems in criminal justice. She now dreams up stories about the monsters under the stairs. Her work has been included in the ALA’s Amelia Bloomer Project 2013 reading list and the State Library of Ohio’s Choose to Read Ohio reading list for 2015-2016. More information about Laura’s work can be found at www.laurabickle.com.
Aer-ki Jyr is the author of the science fiction serial Star Force. His latest work, Apex, is his first full-length novel. Be sure to follow him on Twitter.
Kelley Grant grew up in the hills of Ohio’s Amish country. Her best friends were the books she read, stories she created and the forest and fields that inspired her. She and her husband live on a wooded hilltop and are owned by five cats, a dog and numerous uninvited critters. Besides writing, Kelley teaches yoga and meditation, sings kirtan with her husband, and designs brochures and media.
James Kendley is the author of The Drowning God and has written and edited professionally for more than thirty years, first as a newspaper reporter and editor, then as a copy editor and translator in Japan (where he taught for eight years), and currently as an educational software content wrangler living in northern Virginia.
Born in 1983, Nathan Garrison has been writing stories since his dad bought their first family computer. He grew up on tales of the fantastic. From Narnia and Middle-earth to a galaxy far, far away, he has always harbored a love for things only imagination can conjure up. He counts it among the greatest joys of his life to be able to share the stories within him. He has two great boys and an awesome wife who is way more supportive of his writing efforts than he thinks he deserves. Besides writing, he loves playing guitar (the louder the better), cooking (the more bacon-y the better), playing board/video/card games with friends and family, and reveling in unadulterated geekery.
