T.J. Berg is a molecular and cellular biologist working and writing in Sweden. She is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop. Her short fiction has appeared in Talebones (for which it received an honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror), Tales of the Unanticipated, Electric Velocipede, Daily Science Fiction, Caledonia Dreamin', Sensorama, Thirty Years of Rain, and Tales to Terrify, and is upcoming in Urban Crime and Diabolical Plots. When not writing or doing science, she can be found stravaigin the world, cooking, or hiking. She can be found on the web at www.infinity-press.com.

Get to know T. J. Berg...

When did you start writing?

I have been writing stories since I could put words on paper, but it became a real passion around 11 years old when I started actually spending my free time trying to write stories.

When and what and where did you first get published?

My first story was “To Crown A Sand Castle Just Right” in Talebones.

Why do you write?

I have stories constantly running through my head, and probably started writing them because I enjoyed them so much. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve begun writing partly to learn about others, partly to learn about myself, to explore and dream and—I can’t deny—fight what I see as the injustices of the world as I try to understand them.

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy?

I enjoy reading them! But also, I love the freedom of genre. Any tool you want to explore something is available.

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story?

I have never been able to answer “favorite” questions! This upsets my 4 year old son quite a bit.

What are you trying to say with your fiction?

If there was an underlying theme to my fiction it would be about our shared humanity.

If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?

I don’t think I would want to.  I would be extremely curious to know what others wrote about me though, because I’m nosy that way, and maybe self-centered that way? But then I’d worry they were lying anyway, because I’m dead.  So I guess maybe I’d have to say “Don’t believe a word of it” on my gravestone.  Or maybe I’ll just live in denial until I die, since science fiction has promised me eternal life in some form or another.

Do you blog? 

I have website at which I, very, very occasionally, write something.