Born in the Year of the Dragon, Vonnie Winslow Crist is author of award-winning short stories, poems, and books. An active member of the Horror Writers Association, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators, and National League of American Pen Women - she taught creative writing for the Maryland State Arts Council for 10 years.

"Shivers, Scares, and Goosebumps" won a 2023 Imadjinn Award. "Beneath Raven's Wing" won a 2022 International Edgar Allan Poe Festival Saturday Visiter Award and was an Imadjinn Award Finalist. "The Enchanted Dagger" won a Maryland Writers Association Book Award and was a Compton Crook Award Finalist. Both "Owl Light" and "The Greener Forest" won eFestival of Words Short Story Collection Awards (2017 & 2018).

Her speculative writing appears in hundreds of books and magazines including "Asimov's Magazine," "Amazing Stories," "Chilling Ghost Short Stories," "Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noir," "Faerie Magazine," "Weirdbook: Witches," "Black Infinity," "Cirsova," and "Cast of Wonders."

As an illustrator, she's had over 1,000 illustrations published in books, magazines, and calendars.

She is an avid JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis fan, and a firm believer in the magical world that surrounds us! A clover-hand who has found so many 4-leafed clovers she keeps them in jars, Vonnie is quite fond of Harry Potter & Hogwarts, The Hunger Games, A Song of Ice & Fire, Star Wars, Star Trek, and everything Faerie!

Finalist in the 1st Quarter of the 2020 L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest, as well as that year's J. F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction and a nominee for the Pushcart Prize. In addition to writing, Anthony Regolino has worked professionally in the publishing industry as an editor and copywriter. He has also been a ghostwriter and contributing writer, as well as having written blogs and articles professionally for major companies' websites.

Lauren Marrero is a historical fantasy and romance writer.

Born and raised in Pasadena, California, Lauren has always had a passion for writing. After receiving her bachelors of Arts in English from UC Berkeley, she immediately set out on a world tour looking for adventure which has taken her everywhere from India to Andalucía in search of interesting stories and experiences. When she is not writing in her favorite coffee shop, Lauren spends most of her reading romance novels and trying new recipes.

Told by a high school teacher that he had writing talent, Steve Carr’s career as a writer began right after graduation. He spent three years in the Army as a military journalist, writing articles for newspapers all over Florida, and followed that up with four years in the Navy where he taught in the Psychiatric Technician Program at Portsmouth Naval Hospital, training Hospital Corpsmen how to provide care and support in an inpatient setting for young men with psychiatric disorders. He then finished college, majoring in English/Theater and then spent the next 13 years working in non-profit health care development and management, mostly in rural communities, during which time several of his plays that he wrote in his spare time were produced in several states. He gave up the steady income to pursue his dream of writing/producing/directing his own plays and began a theatrical production company in Arizona. He retired early and in June 2016 began writing short stories. Since then he has had over 550 short stories published internationally in over 280 different print and online magazines, literary journals and anthologies. Collections of his short stories, Sand, Rain, The Tales of Talker Knocks, and the hardback edition The Very Best of Steve Carr: 52 stories, was published by Clarendon House Publications. His collection of short stories, Heat, was published by Czykmate Productions. His self-published debut novel, Redbird, was released in November, 2019. He independently published LGBTQ: 33 Stories, which was released in January, 2020. In May of 2020 his short story collection The Theory of Existence: 50 short stories, was released. His guidebook Getting Your Short Stories Published was also published by Clarendon House. He has over 130 publications and books that contain his short stories listed on his Amazon bibliography. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize twice. In 2019, he was on the cover of the Inner Circle Writers’ Magazine inaugural issue and dubbed “The King of Short Stories.” He’s a native of Cincinnati but has traveled extensively in the United States and abroad. He currently lives in Richmond, Virginia where when he’s not writing he frets about his writing peers not getting the attention they deserve. He is the founder of Sweetycat Press, a Facebook Group, that produces publications as promotion tools for emerging writers

James Agombar resides near the treacherous waters of Southend-On-Sea, Essex, UK where visions of the speculative, criminal and supernatural have taken hold of his mind (usually alongside a bottle of whiskey). He holds a BA Hons in Humanities where the creative writing module inspired his first published work with Luna Press.

He is a fan of the short story format and takes inspiration from authors such as Ray Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft, and Richard Matheson.

Occasionally he delves into the world of travel and has five published essays in various journals, some of his travel writing can be found here: www.wanderlust-journal.com.

With thanks to Michael Terence Publishing

www.mtp.agency

C. Marry Hultman (born 1977) is an expatriate Wisconsinite. He currently works teaching High School, yet still finds time to write all forms of genre fiction. He hosts the podcast W.A.R.G -The Guild where he talks to various indie authors about the craft of writing. You can follow him on https://wisconsinnoir.wixsite.com/wisnoir and delve into the cosmic horror of Wisconsin. He currently lives in Europe with his wife Marie, two children and the cat Fizzgig.

Chris Bannor is an LGBTQIA+ speculative fiction writer who lives in Southern California. Chris learned her love of genre stories from her mother at an early age and has never veered far from that path. You can find her serial novels on Kindle Vella. Chris has also been published in over 50 anthologies. Her stories range from horror and science fiction, to romance, fantasy, and steampunk.

When Chris isn’t writing, she enjoys movie marathons, binge-watching TV shows, musical theater, and road trips with her family. Otherwise, she is a general homebody who lives with her two teenagers, a cat, and two dogs. You can follow Chris on Facebook @chrisbannorauthor or at her homepage at www.ChrisBannor.com

Alanna Robertson-Webb is a rising star among short story writers, and one of the anthologies she is featured in (Monsters, by Black Hare Press) has been nominated for a 2019 Bram Stoker Award. Additionally, the novella she co-wrote (Storming Area 51: Horror at the Gates) reached the #1 spot in Amazon's sci-fi books in October of 2019.

Her stories are often infused with hair-raising horror, and her paranormal tales in particular add just the right amount of darkness to keep her readers intrigued.

For Alanna the spooky side of writing is a riviting journey through the human psyche, so whether you are looking for some of her wholesome horror (Monstronomicon by Haunted House Publishing) or wish to be transported into one of her grimmer worlds (Death and Butterflies by Suicide House Publishing) then grab a book and embark on a thrilling read!