ABOUT THE AUTHORS
TIM AKERS was born in deeply rural North Carolina, the only son of a theologian, and the last in a long line of telephony princes, tourist trap barons, and gruff Scottish bankers. He moved to Chicago for college and stayed to pursue his lifelong passion for apocalyptic winters and traffic. He lives with his incredibly patient wife, and a nearly unmanageable collection of plastic miniatures.
SUSAN R. MATTHEWS was raised in a military family and spent her younger years living around the globe in a myriad of places including Germany, both coasts of the U.S., and India. Often cut off from television and other media, she read voraciously. Her first encounters with science fiction came via classics such as I, Robot and Stranger in a Strange Land. Matthews’s debut novel, An Exchange of Hostages—the first entry in her critically acclaimed Under Jurisdiction series—was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award. Matthews was also a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer. Matthews lives in Seattle with her wife, Maggie, and two delightful dogs. She is a veteran of the U.S. Army, where she served as operations and security officer of a combat support hospital. She is also an avid HAM radio operator.
D.J. (“Dave”) BUTLER grew up in swamps, deserts, and mountains. After messing around for years with the practice of law, he finally got serious and turned to his lifelong passion of storytelling. He now writes adventure stories for readers of all ages, plays guitar, and spends as much time as he can with his family. He is the author of City of the Saints, Rock Band Fights Evil, Space Eldritch, and Crecheling from WordFire Press, and Witchy Eye, Witchy Winter and Witchy Kingdom from Baen Books. Read more about Dave and his writing at http://davidjohnbutler.com, and follow him on Twitter: @davidjohnbutler.
Amazon bestselling author L.J. HACHMEISTER writes and fights—although she tries not to do them at the same time. L.J. is a world champion stick-fighter, a black belt in Doce Pares Eskrima and Taekwondo, and a purple belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu, but maintains that no opponent is as daunting as the last 30 percent of a manuscript. L.J. is a cross-genre author under the umbrella of science fiction/fantasy. Her Cuban roots and LGBTQA+ ties greatly impact her writing, as well as her career as a registered nurse. However, her love for rescuing puppies and working with other animal charity organizations drives her passion to succeed as an author so she can continue to give to animals in need. L.J. is an avid sponsor of Lifeline Puppy Rescue. Connect with L.J. at www.triorion.com.
JODY LYNN NYE lists her main career activity as “spoiling cats.” When not engaged upon this worthy occupation, she writes fantasy and science fiction books and short stories.
At science-fiction conventions over the last thirty or so years, Jody has taught in numerous writing workshops and participated on hundreds of panels covering the subjects of writing and being published. In 2016, Jody joined the judging staff of the Writers of the Future contest, the world’s largest science fiction and fantasy writing contest for new authors. Jody lives in the northwest suburbs of Atlanta with her husband, Bill Fawcett—a writer, game designer, military historian, and book packager—and three feline overlords: Athena, Minx, and Marmalade.
JESSICA CLUESS is the author of the young adult fantasy trilogy Kingdom on Fire and the House of Dragons duology. A graduate of Northwestern University and the Clarion Writers Workshop, she lives in Los Angeles.
SIMON R. GREEN has spent most of his life in the small country town of Bradford-on-Avon, the last Celtic town to fall to the invading Saxons in 504 AD. He has committed series several times, including Deathstalker, Nightside, Secret Histories, Ghost Finders, the Ishmael Jones mysteries, and the Gideon Sable caper novels. All told, he has written seventy novels, two collections of short stories, and one film, Judas Ghost. He has also worked as an actor, journalist, shop assistant, and bicycle repair mechanic. He once wrestled a ghost. Yes, really.
R.R. VIRDI is a two-time Dragon Award finalist and a Nebula Award finalist. He is the author of two urban fantasy series: The Grave Report, and The Books of Winter. One of his short stories was part of a collection of artists’ works to go to the moon aboard the Astrobotic Peregrine Lunar Lander in 2021. Should the writing gig not work out, he aims to follow his backup plan and become a dancing shark for a Katy Perry music video.
ANTHONY MARTEZI is a blessed husband, newly minted father, and the great-grandson of four immigrant families from Greece, Turkey, and Lithuania. He obtained his degree in Creative Writing, with a minor in Classics, from North Carolina State University. When not traipsing about Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains or North Carolina’s Blue Ridge and coastal region with his adventurous wife, he enjoys swimming, playing viola decently, painting poorly, and chanting at church. Very unfortunately, he also is a Pittsburgh Pirates fan until death’s sweet embrace takes him.
PETER FEHERVARI is a freelance television editor who dabbles in writing whenever the sullen spectres of reality and sanity misalign to permit such madness. By fate or fortune, if indeed there is a difference, he has served as a scribe for the Black Library for over a decade, carving out an eclectic—some might say heretical—niche in the Warhammer 40K mythos. His stories, informally known as The Dark Coil, include four novels and a dozen shorts that are reputedly grimmer, darker, and stranger than most tales of that war-torn dystopia. He wouldn’t have it any other way, even if it consigns him to the shadows, where only the lost linger to listen. “Bleeding from Cold Sleep” is his first foray beyond the walls of the Black Library. As within, so without.
T.C. McCARTHY is an award-winning and critically acclaimed Southern author whose short fiction has appeared in Per Contra: The International Journal of the Arts, Literature and Ideas, Story Quarterly, and Nature. His debut science fiction trilogy, Germline, Exogene, and Chimera, were released in 2011 and 2012 to critical acclaim. In addition to being an author, T.C. is a PhD scientist, a Fulbright Fellow, and a Howard Hughes Biomedical Research Scholar who served as a weapons expert in the CIA during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. He has neither been fired on nor fired a shot in anger, but is a recognized expert in future warfare who has been invited multiple times by USSOCOM to speak on the topic of future warfare.
CHRISTOPHER RUOCCHIO is the award-winning author of The Sun Eater, a space opera fantasy series, and the former Junior Editor at Baen Books, where he edited several anthologies. His work has also appeared in Marvel Comics. He is a graduate of North Carolina State University, where he studied English Rhetoric and the Classics. Christopher has been writing since he was eight and sold his first novel, Empire of Silence, at twenty-two. His books have appeared in five languages. Christopher lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, Jenna.