Emily Jones – Creative Director, Science Fiction Editor
Emily Jones lives in Ohio with her husband and three children. She received her B.A. in philosophy from The Ohio State University. She has been published in Altered Reality Magazine and Dark Fire Fiction as well as The Worlds Within. She produced, contributed to, and developmentally edited the award winning Outcasts: An Anthology.
Devon Ortega – Fantasy Editor
Devon Ortega obtained a bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University and a master’s degree in creative writing at Ohio University. She was the recipient of the 2011 Gertrude Lucille Robinson Award for her poetry series “Tavern at Ten.” Her poetry has appeared in Barren Magazine, Azure Magazine, Door Is A Jar, and several anthologies. She contributed to and developmentally edited the award winning Outcasts: An Anthology as well as Metamorphosis: An Anthology. She currently lives in Pickerington, Ohio with her husband and four children.
Maddie Pauquette – Editor, Social Media (2020-2023)
Maddie Pauquette majored in Law and Social Thought with a concentration in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Toledo. She is interested in pursuing non-profit work with her bachelor’s degree in 2022. She works for Hitchcock Media Group and does independent freelance work, helping writers manage their social media accounts, blogs, and passion projects. Maddie Pauquette left us in October 2023. Her contribution to this literary project has been tremendous, and she will be sorely missed, but we wish her the best of luck!
Angus Freathy – Narration
Retired after 45 years of international professional experience, first as a Chartered Accountant, subsequently with Nestlé. Born and educated in the UK (southern England), based in Europe (Switzerland), Asia (Hong Kong) and North America (US – CA & OH), while travelling extensively. Final phase of career was responsibility for Finance and Executive/Leadership Training, in the Nestlé International Training Centre in Switzerland. Authentic British English, fluent in French, halting in German, notions of Spanish and Italian and, if pressed, adept in various accents (most European countries, Australian, South African, etc), but poor American!! Into my fifth year of audio-book experience – closing in on project no. 60.
Guest Authors
Andrew Albritton “Under Distant Skies”
Andrew Albritton teaches in the Management Department at Missouri State University. His poems have appeared in Cargo Literary, Wales Haiku Journal, and Grand Little Things, among other publications.
Emad El-Din Aysha “Paid to Remember”
Emad El-Din Aysha is an academic researcher, freelance journalist and translator and author currently residing in Cairo, Egypt. He is currently a member of the Egyptian Society for Science Fiction, and the Egyptian Writers’ Union. He has one published anthology to his name (in Arabic) and has published numerous short stories online and in anthologies (in English and Arabic) and has participated in conferences on literature and science fiction. His first non-fiction book on science fiction should be published this year with McFarland.
Curtis A. Bass “Little Green Men,” “Changing of the Guard” and Winter 2022, “La Duchessa”
Curtis A. Bass (Curtisstories.blog) is a writer of short stories in a variety of genres from the American South. He has been published in several online and print journals. When not writing he prefers to stay active ballroom dancing or downhill skiing. He is currently working on his second novel.
T.L. Beeding “The Honeymoon”
T.L. Beeding is a single mother from Kansas City. She is co-editor of Crow’s Feet Journal and Paramour Ink, and is a featured author for Black Ink Fiction. She has also written for Ghost Orchid Press, Tales from the Moonlit Path, and The Black Fork Review. When she is not writing, T.L. works at a busy orthopedic hospital, mending broken bones. She can be found on Twitter at @tlbeeding.
C. K. Bickford “The Graveyard Gardener“
C.K. Bickford is a medical librarian living in Iowa who primarily writes short speculative fiction. She has previously been published in Worm Moon Archive. Her twitter is @Inknosed and her Instagram is @_caroline_kay_
Thomas Cannon “The Glass Leg”
Thomas Cannon’s story about his son is the lead story in Cup of Comfort for Parents of Children with Autism. His novel The Tao of Apathy is based on his years working entry level jobs. He is published in: The Battered Suitcase, Midwestern Gothic, On the Premises, Freedom Fiction Journal, Corvus Review and others. Thomas is also the cohost of the local TV show Author Showcase in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and each year he helps put on the Lakefly Writers Conference.
Steve Carr “The Sisterhood at the Edge of Eternity,” Winter 2022 “The Curious Adventure of Goglin Quish”
Steve Carr, from Richmond, Virginia, has had over 520 short stories published internationally in print and online magazines, literary journals, reviews and anthologies since June, 2016. He has had seven collections of his short stories published. His paranormal/horror novel Redbird was released in November, 2019. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize twice. His Twitter is @carrsteven960. His website is https://www.stevecarr960.com/ He is on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/steven.carr.35977
Enoch Daniel “Eva and the Man Tree”
Enoch Daniel is a surgeon who would usually rather be writing than cutting. His short fiction has been published in Teleport Magazine & Fiction on the Web. He also recently had an article published in Elephant Journal. He has a podcast and a blog where he explores how to be a better man. He lives in suburban Texas with his wife, 3 children, 1 dog, 1 cat, 1 hedgehog, and a rapidly shrinking flock of chickens.
Doug Devor “The Red Glasses“
Doug Devor is a schoolteacher from Cleveland. His work has been published previously by The Ohio Writers’ Association. His stage play, Stranger In Skitter Creek, was performed by The Lost Flamingo Company in Athens, Ohio. He also sold a flash fiction piece to a dude on Fiverr one time. That dude seemed to like it. Doug then used that five dollars to buy a pack of Magic: The Gathering cards. So he has a lot going for him, obviously.
DC Diamondopolous “Crow Barn,” “The Haunting of Piedras Blancas,” Winter 2022, “Safe Harbor”
DC Diamondopolous is an award-winning short story, and flash fiction writer with over 300 stories published internationally in print and online magazines, literary journals, and anthologies. DC’s stories have appeared in: Penmen Review, Progenitor, 34th Parallel, So It Goes: The Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library, Lunch Ticket, and others. DC was nominated for the Pushcart Prize twice in 2020 and also for Best of the Net Anthology in 2020 and 2017. DC’s short story collection Stepping Up is published by Impspired. She lives on the California central coast with her wife and animals. dcdiamondopolous.com
Glenn Dungan “How to Kill an Electric Man“
Glenn Dungan is currently based in Brooklyn, NYC. He exists within a Venn-diagram of urban design, sociology, and good stories. When not obsessing about one of those three, he can be found at a park drinking black coffee and listening to podcasts about murder. For more of his work, please see his website: whereisglennnow.com.
Zach Ellenberger “Blood Vengeance”
Zach Ellenberger is a writer based in Chicago where he lives with his wife and daughter. He grew up in Pittsburgh, PA where he spent his childhood writing comic strips and short stories. After spending his formative years as a musician recording albums and performing with various bands, he graduated from Ohio University with a degree in Communications. He returned to his love of creative writing where he works in various genres including historical fiction, horror and sci-fi to name a few. Zach has published several short stories as well as his debut novel, Potato Kingdom, in 2020 and continues to develop new projects in every medium from novels to screenplays and everything in between.
Joe Graves “In the Name of Ammalee“
Joe Graves is President of Ohio Writers’ Group, Inc., the parent organization of Ohio Writers’ Association and heads the Steering Committee. Joe began writing back in college, when he wrote and produced short films. (They are available online, but he does not recommend watching them.) Over the last six years, he’s been focused on completing his first novel, and since 2020, started writing short stories.
Leland Hames “The Bodark“ and “Pack Animals“
Leland Hames is the writing alias of Paul Cook, a 55-year-old former songwriter and performing/touring/recording musician fronting the band “The Bottletones.” Originally from Southern Illinois, he now resides in Chicago, IL. His life performing was sidelined by a massive and nearly fatal ischemic stroke in 2022, leaving him paralyzed on his left side and in a wheelchair. He continues with his voracious reading habits as he physically recovers and has turned his creative drive into writing short fiction after being encouraged to do so by his wife, and his best friend and co-songwriter/bandmate. He is a parent to two children (15&12), 3dogs, a cat, and a fat, lazy bearded dragon. He strives to write fiction that both kids and adults can enjoy. (He is currently working on a YA novella.) He spends his days as the facilities manager for a busy and well-known Chicago live music venue and the rest of his time reading or creating fiction.
Richard Helmling “Keep Your Friends Close…”
Richard Helmling is a teacher and writer living and working in El Paso, Texas. HIs work has been featured in Corner Club Press, Black Heart Magazine, Arsenic Lobster, the Rio Grande Review, The Drabble, and Fiction Brigade. Visit him at www.helmling.com.
Aline Herbreteau “The Follies of Men”
Aline Herbreteau is a budding writer, The Follies of Men being her first short story. She currently lives in Shanghai, China; her comparatively short list of hobbies includes doing puzzles and playing the piano.
Sarah Hozumi “The Guide,” Winter 2022, “An Endless Dance”
Sarah Hozumi is a translator and rewriter who has lived near Tokyo for about 12 years. Along with having a fantastic time learning Japanese, she loves photography and gardening. To see other short stories she’s had published, and to read her blog mostly about all things Japan, plus photos of Japan, please visit sarahhozumi.com. You can also find her author’s page on Facebook at: sarahjhozumi.
Michael Just “Offload“
Michael Just writes book-length and short fiction in the genres of literary, mainstream/contemporary, mystery/suspense, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. He is a former attorney, actor, psychotherapist, and adjunct professor with an amateur background in science, mythology, and storytelling. Born and raised in Chicago, he now lives in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. A hiker with an interest in geology, natural history, and Native American culture, Mike combines all of his interests and expresses them in his writing. Find his blog and links to his books at justmikejust.com
Stephen Kyo Kaczmarek “April Fooling“
Stephen Kyo Kaczmarek is a writer and educator in Lewis Center, Ohio. Much of his writing has been for nonprofits, education, and business and industry, and he also co-authored the textbook Business Communication: Building Critical Skills. More recently, he began submitting fiction to publications. Steve’s online work in multiple genres is available at Five South Journal, Every Day Fiction, The Ohioana Quarterly, The Columbus Dispatch, and more. He has several other stories under review, as well as a completed novel manuscript under revision.
Margaret Karmazin “The Forbidden Martian,” Winter 2022, “Repair Job”
Margaret Karmazin’s credits include stories published in literary and SF magazines, including Rosebud, Chrysalis Reader, North Atlantic Review, Mobius, Confrontation, Pennsylvania Review, Fiction on the Web, The Speculative Edge, Aphelion and Another Realm. Her stories in The MacGuffin, Eureka Literary Magazine, Licking River Review and Mobius were nominated for Pushcart awards. She has stories included in several anthologies, published a YA novel, REPLACING FIONA, a children’s book, FLICK-FLICK & DREAMER and a collection of short stories, RISK.
J. Scott King “The Ethics of Elemental Servitude“
J. Scott King makes his home just north of Seattle. He’s been writing fiction casually for many years and recently decided it was time to become more serious about it. The ‘Ethics of Elemental Servitude’ is his first published work. He is currently working on two short stories and a novella. When not writing, Scott studies Aikido and explores the mountains and coastlines of the Pacific Northwest with his wife and his dog. In his spare time, he works in technology leadership at Starbucks.
Garrett Kirby “Storm Over the Ashlands“
Garrett Kirby’s first short story, “The Other” was published in Franklin/Kerr’s “Down With the Fallen” horror anthology in 2017. He has since gone on to publish another short, “Mother of None”, in the first installment of Toledo Ohio’s “Of Rust and Glass” e-zine in 2020, as well as various articles and product reviews for GamingLyfe.com
Douglas Kolacki “Salvador Dali and the Convergence“
Douglas Kolacki began writing while stationed with the Navy in Naples, Italy. Since then he has placed fiction in such publications as Weird Tales, Liquid Imagination Online and The Fifth Dimension. He currently haunts Providence, Rhode Island.
Denise Longrie “Devil’s Bargain“
Denise Longrie’s work has appeared in Danse Macabre, Liquid Imagination, and Wisconsin Review. She has self-published a nonfiction guide to pre-1900 speculative fiction. Currently, she is working by the flickering light of a Jacob’s ladder on a sequel treating twentieth-century pulp science fiction. In a previous life, she worked as a pharmacy technician.
Peter Medeiros “Light as Air“
Peter Medeiros teaches composition and research writing at Emerson College, fiction and poetry at the non-profit GrubStreet, and Kung Fu at Davis Square Martial Arts. His work has appeared in over a dozen publications, most recently in Children of the Sky, Bards and Sages, Strange Horizons, Bewildering Stories, Mirror Dance, Strangelet Journal, Strange Horizons, Spark IV: A Creative Anthology, among other speculative fiction magazines. He is particularly interested in SFF that explores issues of education and community. He is represented by Susan Valezquez at JABerwocky Literary Agency.
Christina Moore “Flight of the Rainbow Dragon“
Christina Moore lives in Columbus, Ohio. By day, she works as a cataloger in the libraries at The Ohio State University. By night, she writes mysteries and speculative fiction– either science fiction or horror, depending on mood. She also enjoys cycling, photography, aquarium fish, choral music, big dogs, and rogue house cats. She has two upcoming short story publications, one with the Ohio Writer’s Association, the other with Of Rust and Glass.
James Moran “A Whole New Form of Warfare“; “The Greatest Emptiness“
James Moran is a professional astrologer and author who regularly publishes fiction, nonfiction and poetry. His published work can be found at https://jamesmoran.org/the-creation-playpen and he can be found on instagram @astrologyjames.
Lannie Pihajlic “Born Under a Bad Sign“
Lannie lives smack dab where the Great Plains meet the Rocky mountains with his wife, two poodles and two cats. He is a former college biology teacher (shudder) and current art teacher (chef’s kiss). When not writing or making art, he likes to find inspiration in the Wilds.
J.B. Polk “Dead Man’s Lake“
Polish by birth. First story short-listed for the Irish Independent/Hennessy Awards, Ireland, 1996. Since she went back to writing in 2020, more than 90 of her stories, flash fiction and non-fiction, have been accepted for publication. She has recently won 1st prize in the International Human Rights Arts Movement literary contest for her story about Victor Jara, a Chilean folk songwriter, and an honorary mention for her first-ever story written in Spanish in the Teresa Hamel Short Story Competition.
Ryan Steven Reed “Not Gone Yet“
Ryan Steven Reed is in the Creative Writing MFA program at the University of Missouri – Kansas City with a focus on fiction. He has worked as a producer on the Fiction/Nonfiction podcast and as a fiction editor for the student literary publication No. 1 Magazine. You can find Ryan here @ryanstevenreed on twitter and @GrumpWizars on Instagram.
Valeriya Salt “The Last of the Kelpies“
Valeriya Salt is a multi-genre author from the United Kingdom. She studied History and earned her Master’s degree in Art Expertise at St. Petersburg University of Culture and Arts. She’d lived for many years in the different corners of Eastern Europe before settling down in the north of England. Apart from creative writing, she has a passion for travels, arts, history, and foreign languages. Her short stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including The Copperfield Review, Bewildering Stories, Strange Fiction ‘Zine SF&F, The Pine Cone Review, The Chamber Magazine, Tall Tale TV (podcast), etc.
Eva Schultz “One Last Thing Before I Go“
Eva Schultz lives in Aurora, Illinois, where she is a business writer by day and a fiction writer by night. Her work has recently appeared inTDotSpec’s Strange Wars anthology, Backchannels, and Frontier Tales. She lives with a big orange cat named Gus and enjoys drawing, painting, and collecting typewriters. Visit her online at www.evaschultz.com.
Bela Seitz “The Visitor“
Bela Seitz (she/her) is a graduate of Vanderbilt University (BA) who currently lives in New York City. Other previously published works can be found in the Vanderbilt Fiction Review.
Sherry Shahan “Fractured Mirth”
Sherry Shahan’s writing has appeared in ZYZZYVA, Confrontation, Oxford University Press, Critical Read, F(r)iction, and is forthcoming from Fiddlehead, Hippocampus and elsewhere. She earned an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and taught a creative writing course for UCLA extension for 10 years.
Chris A. Smith “The Doors to the Sky”
Chris A. Smith is an award-winning San Francisco writer. His background is in political and international reporting–he has written on topics ranging from African acid rock to Palestinian protest to squatter punk culture–but he also writes poetry and horror and fantasy fiction. A surfer and cat person, he taught a variety of politics and nonfiction writing courses at the Art Institute of California-San Francisco for a decade, and is now at work on two books. One, with co-author William Nessen, is about the American
anti-apartheid movement, and the other is a dark fantasy novel centered on heavy metal, revolutionary politics, and the Egyptian land of the dead. His work is available at chrisasmith.net.
Paul Stansbury “Conversations in Space”; “Crossing the Barrens“; “A Situation in the Relda System“
Paul Stansbury is a lifelong native of Kentucky. He is the author of Inversion – Not Your Ordinary Stories; Inversion II – Creatures, Fairies, and Haints, Oh My!; Inversion III – The Lighter Shades of Greys; and Down By the Creek – Ripples and Reflections. His speculative fiction stories have appeared in a number of print anthologies as well as a variety of online publications. Now retired, he lives in Danville, Kentucky. www.paulstansbury.com
Nathan Sweem “The Last Sludge Caravan“
Nathan Sweem served five years as an Army linguist specializing in Arabic. He studied math at CSU Sacramento and Data Analytics at WGU. He taught math for three years at a high school in Southern Oregon before leaving for a job in corporate. He currently writes fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, and encourages his former students to pursue their passions. His writing has been published in The Antihumanist, Active Muse, Ink Pantry, and many others.
WH Ware “Black-Winged Terror“
WH Ware has been published in Canadian Voices: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry by Emerging Canadian Writers. He worked as a reporter for newspapers in Thunder Bay, Ontario, as an editor of a trade magazine, as editor of an in-house newspaper for an Ontario energy supplier, and operated his own freelance writing business for about eight years.
Richard Webb “A Single Soul”
Richard Webb is a UK-based writer of long and short SFFH fiction, with stories published in: Clarkesworld, Teleport magazine, ‘Legends’ anthology (NewCon Press), BloodMoon Rising, East of the Web, Wyldblood, ReMastered Words and StarShipSofa amongst others. He was the winner of the British Fantasy Society short story contest 2020.
He also writes screenplays, with six short films produced to date, winning multiple awards at international film festival awards and was shortlisted for the BBC Writer’s Room 2016; he co-wrote/co-hosted an indie radio music show for two years, which ran for 100 episodes. More on his adventures in film-making can be found at: www.richteasersscripts.com
Richard acted as Events Coordinator of the British Fantasy Society for two years and was the panel programmer for FantasyCon UK in 2015, which featured over one hundred panellists. He is a fiction reviewer and active member of the UK SFF community. He lives feral in the wild, carving out stories on trees with his bare claws. Twitter: @RaW_writing
Carol Willis “Cold Comfort“
Carol Willis (she/her) is currently a candidate for an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts (summer 2023). She also served as a reader for VCFA’s literary journal, Hunger Mountain. You can find her short stories in the anthology, Crimeucopia: Tales from the Back Porch, and several online zines, Unlikely Stories.org, Cowboy Jamboree, Inlandia: A Literary Journey, Mulberry Literary, and forthcoming in Dark Horses. Please visit carolwillisauthor.com and on Instagram @carolswritelife.
Nicholas Woods “Take My Place“
Nicholas Woods is represented by Writ Large Literary Management. He wrote and directed the crime/drama ‘Echoes of Violence’ which premiered at CINEQUEST FILM FESTIVAL in 2020 and was released in 2021 featuring Sam Anderson (Lost, Justified) and Frank Oz (Star Wars, Knives Out). Nicholas’s feature film debut The Axiom was distributed through Vertical Entertainment and sold by DevilWorks, with over 1 MILLION streams world-wide. It was accepted into the acclaimed Sitges Film Festival/ BIFFAN Film Festival, and was distributed globally.
Dan Yokum “Welcome Home“
Dan Yokum is an almost retired graphic designer who decided some years ago that creating fiction is more exciting than slogging through web content. Since then, he has written and stashed numerous beginnings, and is now completing many, transitioning to a full-time life of chasing the thrill of the story. He has had three short stories published and is working on second drafts of two novels.