Described as ‘Brilliant’ by the Guardian, ‘among the most important writers of contemporary British horror’ by Ramsey Campbell, and ‘completely lacking in common sense’ by his mother, Simon Bestwick was born in Wolverhampton. Thankfully, his family escaped to civilisation (well, Manchester) where he lived for many years before relocating to Merseyside, having finally found a partner who’d put up with him. He now lives on the Wirral, where he dreams of moving to Wales, getting a dog, and not having a proper job. He is the author of seven novels and four full-length short story collections, has been four times shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award, and is addicted to tea, Pepsi Max and semicolons.

Matt Maxwell is the creator/writer of the western/horror comic series STRANGEWAYS, which has been ongoing since 2008. He is also the author of the recent short story collection TUG ON THE RIBBON AND OTHER STORIES which ranges from magical-realist near-future SF to the dark and smoky LUNA SANGRE which blends science fiction and fantasy to CRUNCH TIME which is a blackly humorous look at office life in the time of the zombie apocalypse.

He is also the author of RAGNAROK SUMMER, which will begin online serialization in spring of 2011. The second STRANGEWAYS book, entitled THE THIRSTY is due for printing towards the end of the year. He is also hard at work on the third STRANGEWAYS collection, entitled THE LAND WILL KNOW.

At one time or another, he was a digital animator and visual effects artist, an office monkey in a university thinktank, the guy who got jammed quarters out of your arcade machines, direct-mail stuffer for a televangelist you've probably been spammed by, teacher of 3D animation and thanatology (though not at the same time), has driven across the US once that he remembers and knows where to find the last of the wild V-8s.

Lynda E. Rucker is an American writer born and raised in the South and currently living in Berlin, Germany. Her first collection of short fiction, The Moon Will Look Strange, was published by Karoshi Books in 2012 and reprinted by Undertow Press in 2019. Her second collection, You'll Know When You Get There, was published by Swan River Press in 2016. She has also edited an anthology, Uncertainties 3. Her short stories have appeared in such places as The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, Shadows and Tall Trees, Nightmare Magazine, The Dark and Supernatural Tales among others. She is a regular columnist for Black Static.

Scott Gable lives in the beautiful underwater city of Seattle. He is publishing serialized novels and anthologies, such as Nowhereville, Welcome to Miskatonic University, Ride the Star Wind, Tomorrow's Cthulhu, Ghost in the Cogs, and By Faerie Light, via Eyedolon magazine. He runs the independent press Broken Eye Books, publishing the odd, strange, and offbeat side of speculative fiction from many wonderful authors, and is lead designer on the forthcoming The Faerie Ring roleplaying game from Zombie Sky Press.

Jeff C. Carter’s stories have been featured in dozens of anthologies, translated for international markets and adapted for podcasts. His love of science, adventure and Halloween continue to inspire his science fiction, action and horror writing. He lives in Southern California with a cat, a dog and a human.

He is also a host of The Six Demon Bag Podcast.

Find him on Facebook (Jeff C Carter), Twitter (@Carterwroteit) or contact him right here.

His new collection BETWEEN THE TEETH is available now.

Lizz-Ayn Shaarawi is a Texan lost in the Oregon wilderness. She first became enamored with the horror genre when she accidentally caught part of an edited-for-television version of The Shining while still a child. In fifth grade, she managed to coax her mother into letting her check out Stephen King’s Dead Zone during a weekly library trip. After a stern skimming of the book, her mother allowed her to have it on the condition that she promised not to have any nightmares. After all, if it’s a library book it can’t be that bad (cue maniacal laughter.)

Not only did these events give her a lasting love of horror (as well as the work of the maestro himself) but they also cemented her need to share her own stories and nightmares with the world. She is a horror screenwriter and author. Her short stories have been featured in numerous anthologies including Fortunes: Lost and Found, Phobias, Ain’t No Sanity Clause, and Shadows of the Mind. Her screenplays have been recognized by the Austin Film Festival, The Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, and the International Page Awards. She is always searching for that elusive “next level” of writing and constantly strives to reach it. You can find her random babblings on Twitter under her username @lizzayn

Joshua Alan Doetsch is a sentient word virus spreading across the collective unconscious through the vector of human language. It has taken on many forms, from short stories, to screenplays, to tabletop roleplaying games. It spreads through print, digital, and audio mediums. It coalesced as the novel STRANGENESS IN THE PROPORTION and shaped itself into an anthropomorphic guise as Lead Writer of THE SECRET WORLD, a massive multiplayer online computer game. It is made of cuttlefish ink and earworm rhymes, and its fingernails are gleaming fountain pen nibs. You can help spread the infection at joshuadoetsch.com. It’s already too late.

Nebula, Shirley Jackson and two-time World Fantasy award finalist Mike Allen wears many hats. As editor and publisher of the Mythic Delirium Books imprint, he helmed MYTHIC DELIRIUM magazine and the five volumes in the CLOCKWORK PHOENIX anthology series. His own short stories have been gathered in three collections: UNSEAMING, THE SPIDER TAPESTRIES and AFTERMATH OF AN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT. He’s won the Rhysling Award for poetry three times, and his most recent collection of verse, HUNGRY CONSTELLATIONS, was a Suzette Haden Elgin Award nominee. A dark fantasy novel, THE BLACK FIRE CONCERTO, appeared in 2013.

More of Mike's stories have popped up in places like BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES, LACKINGTON'S, SPECTRAL REALMS and the anthologies BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR ONE, CTHULHU'S REIGN, SOLARIS RISING 2, TOMORROW'S CTHULHU, PLUTO IN FURS, PHANTASM/CHIMERA, NOWHEREVILLE, TRANSMISSIONS FROM PUNKTOWN and A SINISTER QUARTET.

For more than a decade he’s worked as the arts and culture columnist for the daily newspaper in Roanoke, Va., where he and his wife Anita live with a cat so full of trouble she’s named Pandora. You can follow Mike’s exploits as a writer at descentintolight.com, as an editor at mythicdelirium.com, and all at once on Twitter at @mythicdelirium. You can contact Mike at mythicdelirium[at]gmail[dot]com.

Adam Heine lives in Thailand where he and his wife foster kids with nowhere to go (current value: ten kids; current status: only mostly insane). He spends a lot of time training these kids to be gamers, thinkers, and supervillains. (Though a few insist on being good at sports and stuff; he tries not to hinder them).

By day, Adam is the Design Lead for the upcoming computer role-playing game Torment: Tides of Numenera. By night, he writes science fiction and fantasy for whomever will pay him. His short stories have appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Paizo's Pathfinder Tales, and the Tomorrow's Cthulhu anthology. You can see more of what he's written and what he's working on at adamheine.com.

He desperately tries to pretend that he still has spare time in which to watch Marvel shows on Netflix and play the latest Shadowrun RPG.