Danuta Reah who also writes as Carla Banks grew up with stories. Her father, a Belarusian cavalry officer, kept his past alive by telling his children stories of his childhood in the forests of Eastern Europe. She lives in South Yorkshire and uses her urban background in her books. The settings range from the claustrophobic parochialism of the South Yorkshire mining communities to the international stage of new Europe and beyond. Her most recent book, Strangers, is set in the ex-pat community in Saudi Arabia. Crime - or at least dissent - runs in the family. One of her ancestors, John Woodcock, was hanged, drawn and quartered in 1646 for his religious beliefs.

In 2005, she won the Crime Writers' Association Short Story Dagger for her story No Flies on Frank.

Books: Fiction. Writing as Danuta Reah: Only Darkness, Silent Playgrounds (published in the US as Listen to the Shadows), Night Angels, Bleak Water

Writing as Carla Banks: The Forest of Souls, Strangers

Non-Fiction

The Language of Newspapers, Working with Texts

Drew Wagar is a science fiction and fantasy author, living in the UK. He is the author of the Hegira Saga, the Shadeward Saga, The Midnight Chronicles, the Elect Saga and the official Elite Dangerous novelisations.

You can join a mailing list and discover more about Drew's books at his website.

www.drewwagar.com

Stuart Aken was born, against the odds, in a neighbour's bed and defeated the doom-mongers by coming out alive. Raised by his artist mother, who died in a car crash when he was 16, and a travelling salesman step-father, who taught him about the natural world, he has worked in many different roles, including press photographer, farmhand, shop manager, team leader, legal advisor, and office manager.

He refuses to be stuck in a box, so writes in various genres: "The story chooses the genre." Occasionally, he enters writing contests and sometimes wins. He runs an active website and blog, which can be easily found by a search under his name on any browser.

Married to his dream woman, with whom he walks almost daily in his new home in the Forest of Dean, he has a grown-up daughter currently living and working in Australia.

So far, he's published romance, science fiction, short stories, fantasy, horror, erotica, and a personal memoir. You can sample his books here on this page. As he would say, "Enjoy the read!"

Natalie Kleinman began her writing career with short stories, of which some

fifty have been published in magazines in the UK and internationally. She was

winner of the Christmas-themed John Walter Salver Competition 2021 run by the

SWWJ. Her first three novels were contemporary romantic fiction before she moved

to Regency historical romance. She now has seven books published in this genre

and has returned in 2025 to contemporary romance.

When she isn’t writing, Natalie enjoys lunching with friends and spending time

outside. In addition, a lifelong resident of London, she has been able to take

advantage of all the culture and entertainment that amazing city has to offer,

with visits to museums and the theatre being a top priority.

Natalie is a member of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists

Katy Huth Jones grew up in a family where creative juices overflowed and made puddles to splash in. She has been a published author since 1992, and her writing journey has taken her in many unexpected directions. Though she appears to be an unassuming grandmother, she has been a homeschool band director, a Boy Scout leader, a Little League coach, played piccolo in a symphony, fife in a Revolutionary War fife & drum corps, and re-enacted Martha Washington with her very tall Texan husband as George in costumes she made from period patterns. Thanks to God’s mercy, she has survived cancer twice.

Visit her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/KatyHuthJones/

John Hoggard has been writing for as long as he can remember, his first publishing successes coming in the Hartlepool Mail "Chipper Club" aged 6. Since then he's continued to write mainly in the Science-Fiction and Fantasy genres, winning prizes for his "fan-fic" of the Star Trek franchise in his twenties at the various Conventions he attended.

In June 2012 John won the Biting Duck Press "Science in Fiction" Short Story Competition. (It helps that John has degrees in Physics and Computer Science)

In November 2012, John's SF short story Baby Babble was included in the Anthology Fusion by Fantastic Books Publishing.

In October 2014 John contributed two pieces of flash fiction to a charity horror anthology, Ten Deadly Tales.

In May 2016, John's had two SF short stories All in the Mind and The House was included in the Anthology Synthesis also by Fantastic Books Publishing.

John was most recently published in the horror anthology '666', where his 666-word story 'Headhunted' was highly commended by the editors of the anthology.

He's a regular contributor to the Paragraph Planet website, having over 50 stories published there and although he loves the short story format he's also working on a novel.

Walt Pilcher and his wife, Carol, an artist, live in High Point, North Carolina, have three children and six grandchildren, and attend Grace Church in High Point. Walt holds a BA from Wesleyan University and an MBA from Stanford University. Although a two-time victim of corporate downsizing long before it was cool (not unlike his protagonist, Mark Fairley), he eventually became president of two major apparel companies in the U.S. (including L’eggs Products – the pantyhose in plastic eggs) and one in Japan, although not all at the same time, and lived in Tokyo for 14 months during which two comedians were elected as governors of Japan’s biggest cities. We are not making this up.

Walt’s comedy writing career overlapped his business writing career, and it was often impossible to tell them apart. Published works include On Shallowed Ground, including Dr. Barker’s Scientific Metamorphical Prostate Health Formula® and other Stories, Poems, Comedy and Dark Matter from the Center of the Universe and the comedy novels Everybody Shrugged, The Accidental Spurrt®, and Killing O’Carolan (the latter two comprising The Mark Fairley Mystery series), all from Fantastic Books Publishing. His non-fiction book, The Five-fold Effect: Unlocking Power Leadership for Amazing Results in Your Organization (WestBow Press), was a First Horizon Award finalist in the 2015 Eric Hoffer Book Award competition.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/waltpilcher

Facebook: www.facebook.com/walt.pilcher