Meet our authors

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JONATHAN L FERRARA

Jonathan L. Ferrara was born in San Pedro, California to an Italian fisherman and a mother from New York. Growing up with one older brother, Jonathan had several hobbies: finding the best hiding spots to jump out and scare his mother, discovering new fantasy book series, and imagining outrageous, whimsical worlds full of magic. He is now happily married, residing in California in the City of Angels. He has two wonderful children-his dog Koda and cat Merlin.  His debut young adult urban fantasy THE BLACKWELL FAMILY SECRET: THE GUARDIANS OF SIN came out on December 5, 2014.

His author’s website is www.JonathanLFerrara.com

 

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GREG BYRNE

Greg Byrne loved stories, words and languages as soon as he knew what crayons were for, and was writing with them all soon after. He recalls, quite distinctly, the place and time as a young boy when his heart opened in unexpected ways to the otherness of The Hobbit, and he spent his early years both reading Tolkien, Le Guin, Clarke, Lewis, Asimov, Moorcock, Herbert, McCaffreyand others and then trying to copy them. He also remembers the exact moment and place where the story of Nine Planets dropped, almost in its entirety, into his head in a ten minute period in late 2006 as he was teaching a class of ESL students in Perth. In between his other duties as a hus-band and father, university tutor and lecturer, an ESL teacher, and a grammar consultant, and in the littlefree time he has, he enjoys exploring places, ideas, history, languages and science, dinner with friends, watching his family grow, and living life’s great adventure.

Greg’s debut science fiction thriller, NINE PLANETS, was released by Dragonwell Publishing on November 30, 2014. His next projects are a YA thriller with a twist, developing a gram-mar teaching system for schools, and writing a grammar text for ESL students.

He lives in Perth, Western Australia, with his beloved wife and family and an overweight British Blue.

 

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JOHN LAWSON

John Lawson is a software engineer working as a principal technical writer for one of the largest software company. His Arthurian dark fantasy, THE LOATHLY LADY, came out from Dragonwell Publishing in 2013. His thrilling fantasy mystery, SORROW, is released in 2014. He lives in Southern California with his wife and two children.

ANNA KASHINA

The award-winning author of THE GODDESS OF DANCE, an installment in Arabian-style romantic fantasy series The Spirits of The Ancient Sands (2013 ForeWord Book of the Year Award) and MISTRESS OF THE SOLSTICE, a dark romantic fantasy based on Russian folklore (2014 Independent Publishers Book Award). A Russian-born author, she moved to the United States in 1994 and is combining writing with a successful career in biomedical research. She has published multiple novels in Russia, Germany, and the US. Her latest MAJAT CODE SERIES has been released in 2014 by Angry Robot Books (UK), with BLADES OF THE OLD EMPIRE (the Majat Code, book I) and THE GUILD OF ASSASSINS (the Majat Code, book II). You can learn more about Anna and her books at her web site and blog (www.annakashina.com).

 

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R. S. A. GARCIA

R. S. A. Garcia is the author of LEX TALIONIS, a morally complex debut science fiction thriller. She lives and works on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean with a large family and too many dogs–not that any of them belong to her. She decided to be an author when she discovered that Louisa May Alcott had been published at the age of 8. Determined to waste no more time, she finished her first collection of stories at 10. She has not stopped writing since, and indulged herself in a deep love of all speculative fiction despite the best advice of every English teacher she has ever had. She has just signed a contract for her debut novel and is working on others in between hyperventilating over edits.

 

CINDY LYNN SPEER

has written three novels and multiple short stories. THE CHOCOLATIER’S WIFE — a romantic fantasy with a murder mystery and some chocolate on top — has been released in July by Dragonwell Publishing. In her other life she is an adept rapier fighter and often assumes the identity of a Rennaissance mystery woman. Her short stories and novellas will be published by Dragonwell Publishing in 2012 and early 2013, including A NECKLACE OF RUBIES — a sensuous and captivating take on the famous Bluebeard tale, upcoming in ONCE UPON A CURSE anthology that also features work by Peter Beagle, Nancy Kress, Patricia C Wrede, and other highly talented authors. You can learn more about Cindy at her web site www.apenandfire.com

LUCY SNYDER

Lucy A Snyder writes poetry, horror, and science fiction. She is a Clarion workshop graduate and a winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Poetry for her collection Chimeric Machines. Her collection Sparks and Shadows won the 2008 Editors’ Choice Black Quill Award for Best Dark Genre Collection. She is also the author of a humor collection Installing Linux on a Dead Badger. She writes a column for Horror World on science and technology for writers, and regularly contributes to Storytellers Unplugged. To date, she has made over 80 short fiction sales, over 50 poetry sales, and a bunch of nonfiction sales on topics ranging from faeries to medicinal botany to ethernet switches. She lives in Worthington, Ohio with her husband and co-author Gary A. Braunbeck. You can learn more about Lucy by visiting her web site www.lucysnyder.com.

PETER S BEAGLE

Peter S. Beagle was born in 1939 and raised in the Bronx, where he grew up surrounded by the arts and education: both his parents were teachers, three of his uncles were world-renowned gallery painters, and his immigrant grandfather was a respected writer, in Hebrew, of Jewish fiction and folktales. As a child Peter used to sit by himself in the stairwell of apartment building he lived in, staring at the mailboxes across the way and making up stories to entertain himself. Today, thanks to classics like The Last Unicorn, A Fine and Private Place, and “Two Hearts,” he is a living icon of fantasy fiction. In addition to eight novels and over one hundred pieces of short fiction, Peter has written many teleplays and screenplays (including the animated versions of The Lord of the Rings and The Last Unicorn); six nonfiction books (among them the classic travel memoir I See By My Outfit); the libretto for one opera; and more than seventy published poems and songs. He currently makes his home in Oakland, California.

NANCY KRESS

Nancy Kress is the author of thirty books, including fantasy and SF novels, four collections of short stories, and three books on writing. For sixteen years she was also the “Fiction” columnist for WRITERS DIGEST magazine. She is perhaps best known for the “Sleepless” trilogy that began with BEGGARS IN SPAIN. Her work has won four Nebulas, two Hugos, a Sturgeon, and the John W. Campbell Award. Most recent books are a collection, FOUNTAIN OF AGE AND OTHER STORIES (Small Beer Press, 2012), a YA SF novel, FLASH POINT (Viking, fall, 2012); and a short novel of eco-terror, BEFORE THE FALL, DURING THE FALL, AFTER THE FALL (Tachyon, 2012). Kress lives in Seattle with her husband, SF writer Jack Skillingstead, and Cosette, the world’s most spoiled toy poodle.

PATRICIA C WREDE

Patricia Collins Wrede was born in Chicago, Illinois and is the eldest of five children. She started writing in seventh grade and began work on her first novel, Shadow Magic, just after graduating from college in 1974. In January, 1980, she co-founded the writer’s group that later became known as “The Scribblies.” In April of 1980 Shadow Magic, sold to Ace Books. In 1985, shortly before the publication of her fifth book, she became a full-time writer. She lives in Minnesota with her two cats. In addition to writing books, Patricia enjoys sewing, embroidery, desultory attempts at gardening, chocolate, not mowing the lawn, High Tea, and, of course, reading.

SIOBHAN CARROLL

Siobhan Carroll grew up in Canada and (briefly) Saudi Arabia, where she developed a taste for international travel that will no doubt serve her well in her villainous quest for world domination. She is a Clarion workshop graduate and an English professor at the University of Delaware. Her fiction has been published in magazines like Realms of Fantasy, On Spec, and Son & Foe and has earned multiple honorable mentions from the Year’s Best anthologies of fantasy, science fiction, and horror.

IMOGEN HOWSON

Imogen Howson’s favorite stories are those that ignore biology, reality and the known laws of nature. She writes romantic fantasy and science fiction, and makes liberal use of the substance known as handwavium. She lives near Sherwood Forest in England, with her partner and their two teenage daughters. Imogen has published several novels and short stories. In the virtual world, she can be found at her website www.imogenhowson.com, blog imogenhowson.com/blog, Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/imogenhowsonauthor, and Twitter twitter.com/imogenhowson. She loves to hear from readers and can be contacted at imogenhowson@gmail.com.

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W. B. J. WILLIAMS

W. B. J. Williams, the author of THE GARDEN AT THE ROOF OF THE WORLD, holds advanced degrees in anthropology and archeology. He is an avid historian, mystic, poet, and author who manages an information security program at a prominent New England start-up.  He is noted for his bad puns, and willingness to argue from any perspective.  He is endured by his beloved wife and two daughters, and lives in Sharon Massachusetts.  When he is not at home or at his computer, he can often be found haunting the various used bookstores of Boston.

He maintains several web sites where one can learn more about different facets of his life:

www.wbj-williams.net
renakuzar.livejournal.com (Writing Journal)
renakuzar.blogspot.com (Poetry Journal)
laedain.livejournal.com (Spiritual Journal)
wbjwilliams.livejournal.com (Professional Journal)

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