Contributor’s Bios and Information:
GD Deckard
Severely beaten as a child by a WWII hero and combat-induced-PTSD stepfather, the author, as a teen, faced the old man down with a shotgun and earned his blessing to join the military at the time Americans were learning about a country called Vietnam. The “lazy, no good son-of-a-bitch” opted out of combat and hard labor by becoming an Air Force medic, stamping out suffering and misery on Freedom’s Frontier at Clark Airbase in S.E. Asia and earning some kind of medal pinned on him personally by then Secretary of the Air Force, Harold Brown, for “Saving lives, etc.”
There followed a summer in Europe ending in the first of many happy marriages. Then graduation with University Honors, kids worth dying for and a career in business. Life is good. Author, The Phoenix Diary. Current WIP: Bob vs The Aliens .
Recipient of the Psi Young award for Creative Biography.
Connect with GD Deckard at the following link:
John Thornton
John Thornton has read science fiction since he was a small child. For over thirty years he has been making notes, writing outlines, and drawing deck plans of various colony ships. These jumbled ideas have finally coalesced into book form in his four series: The Colony Ship Eschaton, The Colony Ship Vanguard, The Colony Ship Conestoga, and The Colony Ship Trailblazer. He also wrote a stand-alone novel, the Battle on the Marathon. John Thornton worked as an RN for 10 years in various ICUs, cardiac, surgical, and medical. He saw lots of people die, and he also listened to some really amazing people share their life stories with him. For the past twenty years he has worked visiting sick, shut-ins, and others in need. He struggles with severe arthritis, but endures thanks to the help of his wife. They have four grown daughters.
Connect with John at the following links:
John's series about the ship Eschaton mentioned in this story starts with the book in the image below.
Judith Rook
Judith Rook was born in rural Yorkshire in the UK. Now she lives in Western Australia.
In her early years, Judith wrote whatever she felt like writing—stories, poems, plays, reflections. Then life intervened and her imagination went underground. For some time, she worked in education and wrote articles and reviews about music.
When Judith began to write and submit novels, rejection notices came in. She joined two writing groups, developed her technical skills and learned how to write stories for other people.
Science Fiction is Judith’s favourite reading genre, then come the great classics. Among her Sci-Fi authors are: Isaac Asimov, Ursula K.Le Guin, C.J. Cherryh, Arthur C. Clarke, Phillip K. Dick and Julian May. Judith also writes short stories, generally about ordinary Australian life.
From time to time Judith rallies around important social issues and has been known to take to the streets in support, so long as there are good cafés along the way.
Angelique S. Anderson
Angelique S. Anderson is a lover of adventure, and all things steampunk. A fan of Chronicles of Narnia growing up, and an avid song and poem writer, she wrote her first novel in November of 2013. In it, her passion was born, and she went on to write the second and third to what would become a young adult fantasy series. Unable to quell the desire to write after the fantasy series, she went on to write an award winning sci-fi novel, Eden’s Serum. Always an advocate for foster children, she followed that up with her personal story of abuse and neglect in Award winning Little Lost Girl: The Complete Series. Her recent releases The Dragon Lady, The Phoenix Lord, and A Steampunk Christmas Carol play up fantasy aspects with a mix of steampunk. She enjoys reading indie authors, making new friends and cosplaying. You can follow her on Facebook at:
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Chrys Cymri
Priest by day, writer at odd times of the day and night, Chrys Cymri lives with a small green parrot called Tilly because the upkeep for a dragon is beyond her current budget. Plus she's responsible for making good any flame damage to church property. She loves ‘Doctor Who’, landscape photography, single malt whisky, and her job, in no particular order. When she's not looking after a small parish church in the Midlands (England) she likes to go on far flung adventures to places like Peru, New Zealand, the Arctic, and North Korea.
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S Shane Thomas
S Shane Thomas has fond childhood memories of creeping out of bed to watch anime until the sun came up. He has fond adult memories of creeping out of bed to write the Anki Legacies Adventures until the sun came up. He road trips, hikes, and hangs with his wife and sons after the sun comes up.
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J C Steel
Born in Gibraltar and raised on a yacht around the coasts of the Atlantic, I’m a writer, martial artist and introvert. In between the necessary making of money to allow the writing of more books, I can usually be found halfway to the further galaxy.
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E.M. Swift-Hook
In the words that Robert Heinlein put so evocatively into the mouth of Lazarus Long: 'Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.' Having tried a number of different careers, before settling in the North-East of England with family, three dogs, cats and a small flock of rescued chickens, I now spend a lot of time in private and have very clean hands.
Connect with E.M. Swift-Hook at the following links:
Robert Holt
Robert Holt is an author of Horror. His works range from the action horror novel Death’s Disciples to the Children’s book The Vegetarian Werewolf. His newest book, There Are No Zombies in America, has been compared to Clerks, Chuck Palahnuik, and the Walking Dead, all comparisons he rejects with smug candor.
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Brian Rella
Brian lives in New York with his wife, who is far too good for him, and his two vivacious young boys who challenge his light-saber skills daily. Most of his writing is done on the train to the cube farm where he works so he can buy stuff and support his family while he pursues writing fiction as a career. He published his first book in 2015 and hopes to write from his beachfront property overlooking the Mare Tranquillitatis one day.
Find Brian at the following links:
Assaph Mehr
Assaph grew up in Israel, where wherever you dig you’ll find historical relics from the dawn of civilisation. His favourite spot was the port of Jaffa, where layers of cultures could be dug down to the ancient Egyptians, and the many citadels remaining from the crusades and Ottomans. He now lives in Sydney, Australia with his wife Julia, four kids and two cats. By day he is a software product manager, bridging the gap between developers and users, and by night he’s writing – he seems to do his best writing after midnight.
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A. M. Rycroft
A.M. Rycroft is an award-winning fantasy and horror writer. She wrote her first horror story when she was just eight years old, to the horror of her parents and teachers. No matter how hard they tried, she never bought her college professors’ assertions that “serious” authors didn’t write genre fiction. Rycroft has written six dark fantasy novels, three of which are published, and several short stories, including “Hair”, which most readers agree is one of the creepiest stories they’ve ever read.
Connect with A.M. Rycroft at the following links:
Andy Zach
With his first book, "Zombie Turkeys" Andy blazed new ground in paranormal humor. The second book in his Life After Life Chronicles, "My Undead Mother-in-law" is now on sale for Amazon Kindle and Createspace print edition.
Andy Zach was born Anastasius Zacharias, in Greece. His parents were both zombies. Growing up, he loved animals of all kinds. After moving to the United States as a child, in high school, he won a science fair by bringing toads back from suspended animation. Before turning to fiction, Andy published his Ph.D. thesis "Methods of Revivification for Various Species of the Kingdom Animalia" in the prestigious JAPM, Journal of Paranormal Medicine. Andy, in addition to being the foremost expert on paranormal animals, enjoys breeding phoenixes. He lives in Illinois with his five phoenixes.
Connect with Andy Zach at the following links:
Melissa H North
Melissa H North was brought up in the Brisbane to Lockyer Valley region of Queensland. Her home was inspirational as her young creative mind overflowed with ideas and images. She moved, with her husband, to the North West region and has seen both her children born and raised. She returns to Brisbane every year to her family home. She has always loved telling stories and so writing seemed to be the next natural thing to do. The Halfling took her about 6 months to write, and she is well into the first draft of the sequel. She has also written a collective of Steampunk short stories called A Confabulated Compendium of Anecdotes which she is hoping to launch at Brisbane Comic-con. She loves the journey she is on and would like to share her creative adventures with the youth of Queensland, Australia, and the world.
You can find more from Melissa H North at the links below:
Bonnie Milani
Bonnie has freelanced feature articles for magazines ranging from Science Digest to Mankind. She has taught every element of writing as well as running her own writer's group. When she's not editing (both fiction and non-fiction) she ghost-writes screenplays for Hollywood insiders.
You can find more from Bonnie Milani at the links below.
Aaron-Michael Hall
Aaron-Michael Hall is an award-winning author residing in Georgia. She writes classic epic fantasy with a grimdark edge and science fantasy romance. Since August 2015, she has written nine full-length novels and published five. Her first novel, The Rise of Nazil, has won numerous reader awards.
When she is not interviewing indie authors on her Desu Beast Blog, being super mom, wrangling stampeding miniature dachshunds, or managing her 9 to 5, she is interweaving genres, creating languages, and adding just the right edge to keep you turning pages.
Aaron-Michael created the Mehlonii language for her Epic Fantasy series. Along with intriguing characters, multilayered plots, new species, deities, and creatures, the Mehlonii language adds that fantastical element missing from modern Epic Fantasy.
When asked why she wrote this series, Aaron-Michael simply said, “It needed to be written.”
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Bonnie Milani
Bonnie has freelanced feature articles for magazines ranging from Science Digest to Mankind. She has taught every element of writing as well as running her own writer's group. When she's not editing (both fiction and non-fiction) she ghost-writes screenplays for Hollywood insiders.
You can find more from Bonnie Milani at the links below.
Claire Buss
Claire Buss is a science fiction & fantasy writer from the UK. She wanted to be Lois Lane when she grew up but work experience at her local paper was eye-opening. Instead Claire went on to work in a variety of admin roles for over a decade but never felt quite at home. An avid reader, baker and Pinterest addict, Claire won second place in the Barking and Dagenham Pen to Print writing competition in 2015 with her dystopian novel The Gaia Effect and set her writing career in motion.
Cindy Tomamichel
Cindy Tomamichel is a writer of action adventure romance novels, spanning time travel, sci fi, fantasy, paranormal, and sword and sorcery genres. They all have something in common – swordfights! The heroines don’t wait to be rescued, and the heroes earn that title the hard way.
Her next book, Druid’s Portal: The Second Journey is in progress. An action adventure time travel with a touch of romance set in Roman Britain. Keep up to date via links below.