Take Back the Dark, poetry, Issue 37, December 15, 2016

Jennifer Adam lives on a farm with one husband, two teenagers, three dogs, a small herd of horses, and an entire room of books. When she’s not taming wild mustangs, hiking through the woods, driving tractors, or dancing in the moonlight, she can be found surrounded by colored pens and sticky notes. Her work has appeared in The Edge of Propinquity, As You Wish: The Loathly Lady, Six Hens, Queens and Courtesans, and a variety of horse journals. She is currently working on her second novel. 

Visit her at www.facebook.com/jennifer.s.adam

Get to Know Jennifer...

Birthdate? March 8, 1977

When did you start writing? As soon as I could hold a pencil. My kindergarten teacher showed me how to fold and staple paper to make little books, and that was it. I didn't seriously start writing fiction and poetry until a few years ago, though - I was too busy raising children and training wild horses.

When and what and where did you first get published? I've had essays and articles about wild mustangs published in a number of places, but my first fiction sale was a story called "Jim Towne Hollow and the Skinwitch" in The Edge of Propinquity back in July, 2011.

What themes do you like to write about? I often find myself writing about transformation, freedom, and the consequences of choice. I also love to explore the magic that lies just beneath the surface of our everyday lives, the secrets in the shadows.

What books and/or stories have most resonated with you as an author? Why? How do these stories and their characters find expression in your work? This question is nearly impossible for me to answer, because I've been a voracious reader for as long as I can remember. The list of stories and writers who have influenced me is beyond count, at this point. I'm also a moody reader, so certain things tend to resonate more strongly depending on what frame of mind I'm in at any given moment. I will say that my shelf of favorite books/writers includes Charles Dickens, Alice Hoffman, Stephanie Burgis, Sarah Prineas, Mary Robinette Kowal, Peter Beagle, and Guy Gavriel Kay. My favorite poets are Mary Oliver, Dylan Thomas, and Wendell Berry.

I Was Once a King, and the Whole Realm Bowed, Flash Fiction, Issue 66, Spring 2024

Jared Oliver Adams lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he writes, explores, and dabbles in things better left alone. He holds two degrees in music performance, a third degree in elementary education, and is utterly incapable of passing a doorway without checking to see if it leads to Narnia.

Find him online at www.jaredoliveradams.com

Get to Know Jared...

Birthdate?

June 5 

When did you start writing?

In fourth grade, I wrote (and illustrated with colored pencils) a story about a river monster. There were lots of rad tentacles. In fifth grade, I remember one about time travel, which was somehow accidentally discovered when a (child) scientist was working on creating hover skate technology.  

When and what and where did you first get published?

In 2011, my novelette, “Whiteface,” was published over two issues of “Intergalactic Medicine Show.” I regret the title now, because it seems like a subversion of the word “blackface,” which it is not at all, but I still stand by this story, which is a secondary-world fantasy about paternal expectations related as a legend. It, and all the Intergalactic Medicine Show archives, are free to read online.  

Here's the link: http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=issue&vol=i24&article=_005

Why do you write?

I tend to think in metaphor, so writing helps me process the world around me, whether that’s by honing a fictional metaphor into a story, or taking a metaphor that is complete in my mind and ordering it into a non-fiction piece that will make sense to other people.

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy?

I write speculative fiction partially because it presents a broader palette of colors, and partially because I think magic and spaceships are fun.

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story?

Both Emily St. John Mandel’s “Station Eleven” and Guy Gavriel Kay’s “Tigana” come to mind. They're very different, but both authors have a poetic flare to prose that makes every sentence a delight.

What are you trying to say with your fiction?

For me, this usually develops subconsciously as the metaphor in my mind takes shape into story.

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

I’m apparently the sort of person who is paralyzed by a question like this! I’d need to think about this for, like, a year or two.

Treatment, Flash Fiction, Issue 53, December 2020

Conrad Adamson spends much of his time working while other people are in bed. During day hours he spends time with his family while pretending he isn't thinking about story ideas. Sometimes he finds a few hours to sleep. His interests outside of fiction writing include learning foreign languages, sipping scotch, and testing the limits of what can be accomplished while listening to audiobooks. He spent his youth competing in wrestling, boxing, jiu jitsu, fencing, stick fighting, and mixed martial arts, but those days are behind him.

Get to know Conrad...

Birthdate?

1984

When did you start writing?

A few years ago I began a job with a longer commute and I turned toward audiobooks, which have improved leaps and bounds since the old days of tinny books on tape, and my passion for reading fiction reignited. I listen often and starting reading more books and ebooks. I've read books so powerful I don't think I could ever create something on the same level. I've also read books that were fun, but I thought with hard work I could write something that could surpass them. I was inspired to write by both.

When and what and where did you first get published?

My first published story was "Let's Not Argue" in Pulp Adventures #36.  It was a story about a police officer bumbling through a banal life and a marriage that has lost its momentum. He finds himself in the middle of an unexpected emergency that puts everything in perspective with the threat that it might be too late to change.

Why do you write?

I love to create and this is a medium well-suited to me as an outlet.

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy?

Science fiction and fantasy are genres that are wide open and being expanded by innovative authors every day. High level work in SFF can do everything found in other genres--thrilling action, engaging mystery, deep characters that draw you in, romance and adventure--but the constraints are only what the author chooses.  I like the freedom to make the environment and reality as close or as far from our own as I think fits the story I want to tell.

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story?

I could go on for pages about my favorite authors, but my most recent fascination has been with Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga. These books succeed on more levels than most others even try for.  The Vor Game is probably my favorite of the series, but several others aren't far behind.

What are you trying to say with your fiction?

Be loyal to the people who are there for you. Protect them. Make your corner of the world a cleaner, safer place. Learn to be patient and search for truth.

Color Therapy, Flash Fiction, Issue 44, September 2018

Wharf Rat, Fiction, Issue 52, September 2020

Lord of All Seas. Fiction, Issue 53, December 2020

The Steel God, Fiction, Issue 65, Winter 2023

Mike Adamson holds a Doctoral degree from Flinders University of South Australia. After early aspirations in art and writing, Mike secured qualifications in both marine biology and archaeology. Mike was a university educator from 2006 to 2018, has worked in the replication of convincing ancient fossils, is a passionate photographer, master-level hobbyist, and journalist for international magazines. Short fiction sales include to Metastellar, Strand Magazine, Little Blue Marble, Abyss and Apex, Daily Science Fiction, Compelling Science Fiction and Nature Futures. Mike has placed stories on some 240 occasions to date, totaling over 1.2 million words. Mike's first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Tradition of Evil, has been released by Belanger Books, and his short fiction has appeared in translation in European magazines. You can catch up with his journey at his blog ‘The View From the Keyboard,’ http://mike-adamson.blogspot.com and his website 'The Worlds of Mike Adamson' dream-craft.com/mikeadamson/ 

Get to know Mike...

Birthdate?

April 7th, 1963

When did you start writing?

I remember being asked in school, aged around five, to draw a picture and add a caption: an hour later I had two pages of writing and two small drawings at the bottom, about a sci-fi expedition to the Moon—that may have been the beginning. Then around eight, I wrote a dinosaurs-vs-time-travellers piece in a notebook over a school holiday, and began to think of myself as a writer. By twelve I was hammering away at a manual typewriter on my first sci-fi novel, which I never completed, and two years later was learning to write properly with the beginnings of copious fan-fiction. I wrote my first complete novel, a sprawling space opera, at sixteen, and though I was still nowhere near publication polish, and life would take me in many different directions in the years ahead, the shape of things to come was already pretty clear.

When and what and where did you first get published?

My first published piece was in the classic Australian diving journal Underwater Geographic, in 1985. Absolutely on spec, I sent in a science fiction short story, postulating that cetacean language had been decoded, and the editor, the late Neville Coleman, took me on. The story was serialised over two issues, and featured my own paintings as illustrations. After that I became Marine Mammal Correspondent for the magazine, and published several articles with them on dolphins in Australia. In the Nineties I wrote for hobby magazines, including the US title FineScale Modeler, and placed a story or two with the fiction section of Elsevier Scientific's biology website HMS Beagle, which is sadly no longer with us. However, fiction writing was quite out of focus from the mid-90s onward, as I was in university by then, and not until after my PhD did I have the chance to come back to it, with both the skills and maturity of a new perspective on life.

Why do you write?

I remember as a child looking at the covers and titles of science fiction books, and being excited, intrigued and inspired. I would look at a blank notebook, and to me it represented not just lined paper but what could be created on that paper. I remember a deep, warm feeling inside me that was filled with potential and wanted to come forth, words just wanted to land on paper—and it was frustrating at that age because the mental machinery to do so was not in place. I was left with a formless yearning to create something dramatic and I exotic, and still remember that feeling well. I used to produce copious science fiction artwork on sheets of cartridge paper, quite pulpy stuff at times, and at others sincere attempts to capture the look and feel of the professional art of the period, and I used art to express what I did not yet have the words for. I see them as complimentary parts of the same creative process, and that process is still at work. I write because I feel compelled, the stories must be told, and who am I to deny the muse? It's not all sci-fi, of course, I'm equally happy writing historical adventure, fantasy, military actioners, or mystery. I've recently placed some Sherlock Holmes material and have discovered an academic fascination with the Victorian world.

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy?

Writing has always been escapism, and there remains a delight in bringing to life a time or place which exists only in my own head. Some might say that writing about your own times and places is lazy, because it requires no research, but I would say it's a relief for the same reason. When I write Sherlock Holmes, I use maps of London as it was 120 years ago, and make sure to get my historical details correct, so, quite apart from academia, I'm no stranger to research. But science fiction is the great melting pot for all human ideas, hopes, dreams and indeed fears, and provides the endless opportunity to explore the new and different. These things are not always good—as dystopian fiction lives on—but the chance to reflect on what might be is an eternal fascination. Beyond that, I grew up with science fiction and the genre, in and of itself, is as comfortable as old slippers.

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story?

Very difficult question! There are so many! When I was a youngster, Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was a consuming delight, but of course the obligatory explorations were made through the classic works of Clarke and Asimov. I enjoyed the novels of the Australian writer A. Bertram Chandler, in the old Ace Doubles editions. As a teen I encountered pulp giant Robert E. Howard and he has remained a favourite to this day. In fact I've become a devotee of all the Weird Tales “big three,” being exposed also to the exotic and incredible prose of Clark Ashton Smith in the 80s, and more recently consuming the entire Lovecraftian canon. When it comes to contemporary thriller and adventure, I would cite Wilbur Smith, whose novels I have enjoyed for nearly forty years, as well as the work of great sea writers such as Douglas Reeman, or South Africa's Geoffrey Jenkins.

What are you trying to say with your fiction?

I'm not aware of a particular message, unless it's that “things will get worse before they get better.” This may be endemic to all fiction, though, as a story is obliged to be about conflict (you don't get very far, trying to tell a story without a conflict in it), and conflict implies tough times, with a successful outcome the happily-ever-after aspect.  But, at a deeper level, I find myself coming back often to the theme that the worst aspects of human nature are our own worst enemy. This has an unavoidable political overtone, and lives on the conflict between opposing “isms,” so very much in focus these days. Survival at any price? The relative worth of the old and the new? Can we learn from the past, and, if so, what? These are eternally fresh pastures for storytelling, but at the end of the day I'm an optimist, and need to believe that the human race can survive its adolescence, create prosperity and security for all its members, and look after the natural world in a humane and responsible way as well. We're supposed to be smart, aren't we? Surely, we can solve this equation if we have the will to, and my stories often reflect this battle to overcome, and create a better, durable society.

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

“He saw a future that was worth fighting for, and explored it to the end.”

SkyLore, Fiction, Issue 3, June 1, 2008

Her website is, http://www.writingrealm.com

Get to know Lisa...

Birthdate? 5 March 1965

When did you start writing? Probably about twenty years ago.

When and what and where did you first get published? My first article “Villains & Antiheroes” was published by the Internet Review of Science Fiction in 2004. My first book Sword: Tales from the Green Sahara was published by Pen Press Publishers of London in 2002.

Why do you write? A creative itch that has to be constantly scratched.

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy? Because literary fiction bores me and I’m afflicted with a vivid imagination.

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story? I have many favourites. Ursula Le Guin for her imagination. J.K. Rowling for her achievements. Ken Follett for his breadth of research. Usually, my favourite author is the author of the book I’m currently reading.

What are you trying to say with your fiction? That the possibilities are endless.

Do you blog? No.

If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say? I’m a scaredy-cat, so I don’t like to think about my own death.

Penance, Fiction, Issue 41, December 2017

Ed Ahern resumed writing after forty odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. He’s had a hundred fifty stories and poems published so far. His collected fairy and folk tales, The Witch Made Me Do It was published by Gypsy Shadow Press. His novella The Witches’ Bane was published by World Castle Publishing, and his collected fantasy and horror stories, Capricious Visions was published by Gnome on Pig Press. Ed’s currently working on a paranormal/thriller novel tentatively titled The Rule of Chaos. He works the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories, where he sits on the review board and manages a posse of five review editors.

Biography Questions

Birthday? Christmas eve, 1942

When did you start writing? Dabbled as a teenager, dilettante at sixty-seven, diligent at seventy.

When and what and where did you first get published? First pub credit was a poem in my high school newspaper, followed by a bodice ripper to a pulp. Hiatus writing corporate speak and marketing almost-lies for decades, then individually published  folk and fairy tales, followed by genre and almost literary stories, followed at seventy-one by general poems. First book was my collected folk and fairy tales.

What themes do you like to write about? Whatever the swamp gas mind bubbles up. The fiction is about half genre, a quarter sorta literary and a quarter folk and fairy tale. The poetry is almost all general/literary. Have had a hundred seventy stories and poems published so far.

What books and/or stories have most resonated with you as an author? Why? How do these stories and their characters find expression in your work? There are too many to mention. Am currently on a Neil Gaiman reading kick, but have a recurring  love/hate relationship with David Foster Wallace's fiction and essays. Have reread Tolkien three times, Andre Debus' collected stories twice. I.E. mood and impulse driven reading.

Facebook page? @Ed Ahern73 (This is where I pimp my work)

Twitter? @bottomstripper (I tweet about writing rather than pimp my work)

The Lady of the Lake, Cover Art, Issue 42, March 15, 2018

Rhaega Ailani is an illustrator an freelance designer born near the Mediterranean sea, currently living between Tarragona and  London.

She studied Art and jewelery at the School of Arts and Crafts of Tarragona.

Her former career started in Greece in 2009.

Afterwards, she has been working in little projects and releasing book cover illustrations and some personalized illustrations for some books and the card game "Myths at War", collaborating with some other illustrators, she took three years in silence to focus in finding a new perspective to can develop and improve her art.

In April 27th of 2016 she came back deciding to work with the new name of Rhaega Ailani Art and she released her new exhibition showing a more spiritual & deep side of her personal artwork in her new work called "Mythica": A very transcendental and inner work dedicated to the secret world of fairies that belong to different cultures at The Cultural Center of La Bobila in Hospitalet de Llobregat at Barcelona in June 2016, getting a special mention in the agenda of events from the official Barcelona Pride Magazine

Lately two of her latest artwork called "Affirmation" and "Pure Energy" can be seen in the official collection, together with other artists of the "Tina Turner Museum" in the "Delta Heritage Center" of Brownsville, the town in which was born the Diva of Rock´N´Roll, as a permanent tribute of her Life and Career.

Most of her artwork is focused in Fantasy and Children Illustration and Concept Art, mentioning the release of the cover for the next edition of the fantasy book called “The Eye of the Dragon” from the writer JJ Hernandez Gomez, "Dibujos por sonrisas" ("Drawings in exchange for smiles"), collaborating with different artists donating their artwork, and designating their benefits to get a better life for all the children that are actually in the refugee camps around Europe, the amazing comic book project called "Battle with all her finery: Tales of women who rule", hosted by Mad Scientist Journal, and the design of some inner illustrations for the role book game called “Aureo”

Birthdate? 20 of December

When did you start painting? I started at an early age. I always knew I came to this world to be an illustrator and a painter

When and what and where did you first get published? 

First time I got published around 2009, when I started my career, in Greece, at newcomicz.gr

Why do you do artwork? Basically, because it´s a quite "addictive" personal needing to express through my hands, what is at the corners of my soul.

Why do you do illustrations for Science Fiction and/or Fantasy? Because I found always much more appealing the Worlds of Fantasy and Daydream, and explore my own soul through them, than the common reality itself.

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story? I have too many. As a illustrator, Frazetta, Huges, Azpiri, Mignola, as an author Poe, Lovecraft, Orwell, Rowling or K. Dick,

What are you trying to say with your art? I use it as a open door to other worlds, a new window to another universes, maybe forged by my own dreams and imagination.

Do you Blog? Yes of course: https://thespiritualstrokes.blogspot.com.es/

If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say? A quote from Winston Churchill: "Never give up".

The Wall at the End of the World, Fiction, Issue 39, June 15, 2017

Birthday? 17 January in the year nineteen hundred and sixty three

When did you start writing? Shortly afterwards!

When and what and where did you first get published? 

My first published story was called 'Do You Want to Die?'. As you'd expect from the title, I wrote it when I was very young, in my late teens (if posed such a question now, my answer would be a resounding, 'No!'). The story was published in a little Irish magazine, sometime in the early 1980s and for nearly two decades it was the only story of mine that was published.

What themes do you like to write about? Walls at the end of things.

What books and/or stories have most resonated with you as an author? Why? How do these stories and their characters find expression in your work?

The writers who've most influenced me include JRR Tolkien, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson and Evelyn Waugh. The attentive reader will note that I've employed one of Kipling's typical structures in 'The Wall at the End of the World', while I try to emulate these writers' precision in language and exuberance in imagination in my own work.

Website? www.edoardoalbert.com

Facebook page? EdoardoAlbert.writer

Twitter? @EdoardoAlbert

Biography 

Oswiu: King of Kings, the third volume of Edoardo Albert’s The Northumbrian Thrones trilogy, has just been published by Lion Fiction. Edoardo is online at www.edoardoalbert.com, and on Facebook and Twitter, @EdoardoAlbert, too

Realms' Reservations, AI Assisted Fiction, Issue 64, Fall 2023

Matthew D Albertson is an aspiring author, most commonly found in the Pacific Northwest. New life was breathed into him when the pandemic struck and he went back to school to earn a new piece of paper-- to prove some inherent value to this capitalistic hellscape. His heart is ablaze, much like the land he calls home.

Birthdate?

I was born sometime between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the USSR.

When did you start writing?

Most recently, I took Intro to Creative Writing with Matt Chelf as a filler class. That course has since led to me first getting published.

When and what and where did you first get published?

I was first published in H S Leigh Koonce's Sincere Dalliances, with my piece "Whiling by Lake Harold."

Why do you write?

In the hopes that I might make someone's monochromatic world viewed in technicolor, when my emotion stirs to critical mass, my heart ruptures upon the page.

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy?

I love to play D&D, and I have some far-off hope to transcribe our weekly misadventures for readers to enjoy, even half as much as I enjoyed playing.

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story?

My favorite author at the moment is N K Jemisin, my favorite story is probably Old Man's War.

What are you trying to say with your fiction?

What I'm trying to say is never as interesting as what readers say they've gained.

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

To grawlix is to live a lie.

Masque, Flash Fiction, Issue 32, September 1, 2015

Amy Allison's fiction can be found at Fiction365.com, HotValleyWriters.com, and RoseCitySisters.com. Her poetry has appeared in Cricket magazine. She lives in Southern California. 

Her website is, www.byamyallison.com.

Get to know Amy...

Birthday? February 3

When did you start writing? Not long after I learned to write cursive.

What themes do you like to write about? Awakening.

What books and/or stories have most resonated with you as an author? Why? How do these stories and their characters find expression in your work? Myths and fairy tales, with their deep roots in the unconscious.

Skull Cups, Poem, Issue 55, June 2021

After the Apopcalyse, Poetry, Issue 61, Winter 2022

Colleen Anderson lives in Vancouver, BC and has been nominated in poetry for the Pushcart Prize, Aurora Award, Rhysling, and Dwarf Stars Awards, and longlisted for the Stoker Award in fiction. She is a BC Arts Council and Canada Council grant recipient. Her writing has been published in multiple venues, including Polu Texni, Cascadian Subduction Zone, HWA Poetry Showcase and Space and Time. Her fiction collection, A Body of Work (Black Shuck Books) is available online. www.colleenanderson.wordpress.com

 Get to know Colleen...

Birthdate? 

April 27

When did you start writing?

I guess it all started with those banal 5-year diaries I had from about the age of 8. I still have them. I then explored poetry in my teens and started a novel in the theme of The Most Dangerous Game. Poetry was both the existential exploration of teenagerhood and coping with a not very happy family life.

When and what and where did you first get published? 

My first published piece was a poem titled “Weathered Memories” in Carousel Magazine back in the mid 80s. Then it was a few more poems, followed by the story “Phoenix Sunset” in Tesseracts 3 in 1990.

Why do you write?

I have a pin that says, Write Hard, Die Free. I write because I must, to share strange worlds, because it keeps me sane and it hurts too much to stop. Sometimes the rejections hurt a lot but I can’t help myself and must keep writing.

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy? 

I was steeped in fairy tales and myths as a child and my older brother moved out leaving a collection of SF/F books. After the Nancy Drews and my mother’s novels there wasn’t much else to do but read them. Those and the dozen comic books that I read over and over. So I write in the genre (mostly) because there are fascinating permutations, the imagination stretched to new perspectives. We still touch on humanity and what it means to be alien. And because my mind just always wants to veer off the path and look at things askew. The what-ifs broaden the horizon.

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story? 

That changes so often, it’s hard to say. I love the way Angela Carter wrote. Jeff VanderMeer’s Strange Bird caught me in its otherworldness. I was very tied to Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl” when I was a kid. It’s a dark story and ends in death. I guess that was a sign. I also loved Ray Bradbury’s work. There are so many stories….

What are you trying to say with your fiction? 

Different things, depending on the piece. Often it’s a  morality tale. In poetry, it’s a twist on the common view or perception, another way to view a character’s or item’s place in the world. Sometimes it’s just to open the box a little wider.

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

You think I’m gone, but I’m not.

Do you blog? 

Yes, though it’s become far too infrequent and the pandemic has made it harder. 

www.colleenanderson.wordpress.com

Progress Report, Poetry, Issue 20, September 1, 2012

Leslie Anderson was born in Dearborn, Michigan. Most of her childhood was spent on horseback. She received a BA in English from Michigan State University and an MA from Ohio University. She loves comic books, Star Trek, and video games. They tend to show up in her writing.

Get to Know...

Birthdate? July 26th

When did you start writing? I began writing at ten years old, when my 5th grade teacher told me I was an excellent writer. For the first time it occurred to me that the key to writing was just to write. You didn’t have to own snifters or be dying of consumption at all!

When and what and where did you first get published? I suppose my first publication was in my middle school yearbook. My poem was selected to represent the graduating class. My first professional publication was in a poetry magazine called Uncommon Sense, from Flint, Michigan. Unfortunately that publication no longer exists.

What themes do you like to write about? I learned to ride when I was seven, and horses appear prominently in my riding. I love westerns and classic science fiction. They both seek to explore the resilience of courage against the darkest sides of man and nature. I love to write about adventure and the search for the ideal even in the face of harsher realities.

What books and/or stories have most resonated with you as an author? Why? How do these stories and their characters find expression in your work? I love fantasy and science fiction books. I think creative, fanciful stories reflect the mythical power of literary history like Morte D’Arthur, the Odyssey, and Beowulf. My favorite short story is Asimov’s “Nightfall,” a story with very limited action, which becomes a meditation on the terrifying concept of infinity.

King Nothing, Flash Fiction, Issue 16, September 1, 2011

Matt Athanasiou usually writes in Chicago. His writing has appeared in print and online publications such as Horror Bound Magazine, The Blotter Magazine, Danse Macabre and others. The South Million Writers Award recently listed his short story “And the Earth Opened Wide” as a notable story of 2010.

His blog is, letspretendimlying.wordpress.com.

Get to Know Matt...

When did you start writing? I started writing creatively in 2004. A professor told my class that writers have the power to create new worlds, an idea that had somehow eluded my grasp before then. I went into the computer lab after class and typed a few sentences about people from another world, maybe to see if I could, and I've been putting word after word since.

When and what and where did you first get published? My first publication was a poem in a small university journal, entitled Mush, in 2006. The poem was my protest against a professor lecturing me about the necessity of marginalia and about the importance of Billy Collins’s poem by the same name. I sent my poem to Collins after someone told me the author would probably appreciate it. Collins mailed me a letter that said he had been wondering when someone would write an anti-marginalia poem.

What themes do you like to write about? Themes often arise after I've written a few drafts of a story--character and plot come first--but a lot of my fiction seems to focus on characters confronting an internal darkness while dealing with difficult situations.

What books and/or stories have most resonated with you as an author? Why? How do these stories and their characters find expression in your work? Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is the first book I read after I started writing creatively. The novel essentially told me that I can write about anything, if I can make it believable.

Tons of short stories have impacted my writing, but three stand above the rest. The first two are George Saunders's "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" and Joe Hill's "Pop Art." Both stories never allow readers to question their fantastic elements, by making the paranormal integral and emotional pieces of the plots. The third is Benjamin Percy’s “Refresh, Refresh." This tale should come with a warning that readers might cut their fingers on pages of honed pacing and character development.

Inside Out, Fiction, Issue 12, September 1, 2010

Get to Know Gayle...

Birthdate? April 27, 1961

When did you start writing? Professionally around the age of 20

When and what and where did you first get published? Sold first poem to Blue Mountain Arts entitled "A Friend" at around the age of 22.

Why do you write? To communicate and share.

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy? Because this genre allows the freedom to imagine and dream the truth into an alternate reality.

Who is your favorite author? Ayn Rand

What are you trying to say with your fiction? Be one with the universe, whatever shape it takes.

Do you blog? Where? No

If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say? Born to eternal adventure.

Dragon's Lament, Poem, Issue 51, June 2020

Poet, writer, narrator and kitchen witch Jasmine Arch lives in a rural little corner of Belgium with two horses, four dogs, and a husband who knows better than to distract her when she's writing. Other than the long-suffering husband, her love of the written word in all its iterations and incarnations knows no rival though coffee, shoes, and fine mead come fairly close. Her work has appeared in Illumen Magazine, The Other Stories Podcast, and Nightingale & Sparrow, among other places.  

Get to know Jasmine...

Birthdate: May 6th, 1983

When did you start writing? 

That's a tricky one. I've always been creative in some way or another. But writing? I believe it was when I was 13. My Dutch teacher (that's my native language) sent us out into the park with pencil, paper, and instructions to not come back without some haiku. I ran out of paper before the hour was out. Distilling images into those one-breath-length snippets of poem became addictive for a while. Then I started art school and I just didn't have the time to write.

I picked it up again years later, when I was 26. First with a blog about yarn work. Nice, safe, and not too personal. I was one of those people who thought writers and poets are like unicorns. You can't just decide to be one. Then, when I couldn't resist anymore, I started in Dutch. And my prose felt overwrought and stilted. Dutch has a complicated rhythm and it easily turns your words a lovely neon purple. Since Dutch speculative literature is hard to come by, I had always been a voracious English reader. And when I tried my hand at writing in English, something clicked into place for me. The rhythm and syntax suits me so much better. It was like the fairytale of the red dancing shoes. Once I started, I couldn't stop.

When and where did you first get published?

In January 2019, my poem Mask was published in the Winter issue of Illumen Magazine.

Why do you write?

Because it keeps me sane. I started writing with a story based on a traumatic event I experienced. That was my way of processing it from the safe distance of a third person POV. But once I let story ideas bubble to the surface, they kept coming. That has to go somewhere. I'm at a point now where I need to let the pressure off in time. If I go too long without writing, I become a difficult person to live with.

Why do you write Science fiction and/or Fantasy?

It's what I grew up on. My mother and older brother were huge readers and they passed that love on to me. And since I worked my way through the youth library long before I was allowed in the adult section, all I had was my brother's extensive collection of pulpy science fiction and fantasy novels. I probably read a lot of things you wouldn't exactly consider age appropriate, and I don't remember half of it now. But I spent so much of my formative years immersed in magic and spaceships that I have a hard time staying out of those worlds now.

And it's good for you. It cultivates the imagination and it allows you to hold up a mirror to yourself as well as society in a way few other genres can for me.

Who is your favorite author/poet? Your favorite story/poem?

My favorite author right now would be TJ Berry. I read her debut novel Space Unicorn Blues last year, and book two Five Unicorn Flush, is on my wish list right now. As soon as I find enough peace and quiet to actually sit and read. The way she combines magic, spaceships, and utter chaos is delightful. And did I mention it has unicorns?

Please don't make me choose a favorite poet. I can narrow it down to two though. Hester Pulter is the first. I first learned about her last year through a podcast focused on trailblazing women who were forgotten by history, and she's a textbook example. Literally no one knew her work existed until someone discovered her manuscript in the Leeds library in 1996. Since then, her work as been digitised and is available in at The Pulter Project. Go on and have a look. You won't regret it.

The second poet is a good bit more recent. I discovered her through her poem Daedal, published in the May issue of Poetry Magazine. The poem--a villanelle--is inspired by the myth of the Minotaur, and almost feels like a maze itself. Especially in spoken form. It's so easy to let yourself fall into the rhythm, that you need to listen to it a second time to really savour the words and images. And she makes it look so effortless. If I can ever manage that, I can die in peace.

What are you trying to say with your poetry?

I think I mostly want to challenge people to look beyond their own experience. I'm very eclectic in my writing but that's one thing that always comes through, both in my speculative and in my more literary poems. Dragon's Lament for example, came from a desire to write about how little respect we often show to what we don't know or understand. And I do have a soft spot for non-human POVs.

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

Here lies Jasmine. If you dare cry, she'll come back to haunt you. Celebrate her life with a nice beer and one of her stories instead.

Do you blog?

I try to. Does that count? On my own website, JasmineArch.com, I post a lot of reviews, as well as trying to keep up with the work you can find out there of mine, in my reading nook. But consistency is not my strong suit. 

Although lately, I've been blogging a lot for the blog and poscast I'm starting up with two friends, called Mythsterhood of the Travelling Tales. Our first season will launch on June 21st and will be about dragons too. Go figure. Turns out I'm fond of those.

Nitokris, Poetry, Issue 5, December 1, 2008

Her website is, http://mirrordancefantasy.blogspot.com

Get to Know Megan...

When and what and where did you first get published? My first sold work was a poem, “Leanansidhe,” in the July – September 2007 edition of The Lorelei Signal. It was a unique undertaking for me—126 lines with a rhyme scheme inspired by Tennyson’s “Lady of Shalott.” I haven’t tried anything quite so tightly structured since.

Why do you write? I write for one of two reasons: either I have words in my head searching for a story, or I have a story in my head searching for words. Language is persuasive and I haven’t yet found a way to turn down a plot bunny!

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy? My characters and story ideas can only be written as Fantasy; they demand things that can’t happen or places that don’t exist. 

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story? My favorite contemporary author is Sarah Monette for the Doctrine of Labyrinths books; my favorite story is Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.

What are you trying to say with your fiction? The way I see the world. I don’t know if it works for anyone else, but it works for me.

If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say? She was her own hero and her own villain.

Relocation, Fiction, Issue 59, Summer 2022

Bio

Joel Armstrong is a writer based in West Michigan. His stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Daily Science Fiction, and Teleport Magazine. By day, he’s an editor at an independent book publisher. Find out more at joeljarmstrong.com or follow him on Instagram @joelarmstrongwrites.  

Birthdate?

June 19—now a federal holiday!

When did you start writing?

I have early memories of trying to write a story on the computer, finding the typing frustrating, and then forcing my older brother to type the story while I dictated. It was titled “The Life of Stinky” and was an instant classic.

When and what and where did you first get published?

I first published academic essays. I studied early twentieth-century literature in graduate school and published two pieces on the detective fiction of Dorothy Sayers and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. My first published poem appeared in Sufi, and I published my first fiction piece in Asimov’s Science Fiction in their January/February 2022 issue.

Why do you write?

I started writing because it’s a family thing. I have grandparents and grandaunts and aunts and a mom and siblings who all write. I think I’ve stuck with writing because it gives me a way to express all the questions and thoughts and emotions inside of me. I’m constantly using little things I’ve noticed in nature or bits of conversation with friends or my own feelings in my writing. 

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy?

Stories with fantastical elements are often the best—or perhaps safest—way to ask the big questions I’ve grappled with. There’s an extra layer of distance when writing about something hundreds of years in the future, or in a magical world. I can write about violence against animals, or war, or trauma, or allyship, or our responsibility to our own planet with an openness I don’t feel when I’m writing about the world I live in.

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story?

Dorothy Sayers’s Gaudy Night is probably my favorite book. It effortlessly mixes detective-fiction pacing and plotting with sophisticated reflection on issues of sex and gender in 1930s England. Sayers was a technically excellent writer and someone who wasn’t afraid to use popular genre fiction to ask the questions she was most interested in. It goes without saying nowadays that mystery fiction or fantasy are natural places to ask big questions, but that’s because of the work of Sayers and other writers like her.

What are you trying to say with your fiction?

That’s a great question; I’ve been asking myself the same thing lately. I believe that fiction—and storytelling in general—is necessary for people because it helps us build empathy and see the world from other perspectives. I’m currently trying to figure out what I see from my perspective that other people might need to see. A lot of my stories are about different responses to loss and trauma, and the importance of connection for healing and survival.

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

I’d like to be remembered for being kind to others, for continuing to grow and evolve over the course of my life, and for having good relationships. The idea of writing my own epitaph makes me uncomfortable for several reasons though, to be honest.

Do you blog?

I’ve had so many blogs over the years, but no, I don’t currently blog. My most up-to-date thoughts and doings can be found on Instagram @joelarmstrongwrites.

Self Imposed, Fiction, Issue 5, December 1, 2008

Her website is, www.ashleyarnold.com.au

Get to Know Ashley...

When did you start writing? I started writing on December 21st, 2012.

When and what and where did you first get published? I first "got published" in the back seat of a 1984 Corolla (a Corolla is a kind of Australian car that has an uncomfortable back seat but emits a 

pleasant odour when you crush pineapples against the hood).

Why do you write? Otherwise, nameless monstrosities nibble at my ears and shave my bones with blunt whistles.

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy? This question is irrelevant since Scott Adams told me we are all mindless automatons with no free will. I have no choice but to believe him.

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story? "Sam Gets a Lobotomy", by Sam.

What are you trying to say with your fiction? Help me! My brain is trying to kill me! 

Do you blog? Where? Like most people, I blog in the toilet.

If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say? "At least he didn't use a spoon."

The Leaf, Fiction, Issue 31, June 1, 2015

Erin Ashby experiences existential dread on a daily basis at her dull office job. When she's not pondering that crisis or re-watching The X-Files, she's working on YA speculative novels and short fiction. You can find her at various pubs in East Hollywood, California ankle-deep in the red ink of her writing group cohorts. 

Her Twitter is, @spoonflipper

Get to know Erin...

Birthday? August 8, 1980

When did you start writing? Once I learned to read, I don't believe there was ever a time when I wasn't writing.

When and what and where did you first get published? My only previous credit for fiction is in the Northridge Review at California State University Northridge.

What themes do you like to write about? In short fiction I think I gravitate towards themes of identity, anxiety, and stranger unnameable emotions or experiences. I tend to start with a concept or a feeling and try to find a way to express it through story. Other times I get an idea because I had a weird interaction on a bus, so there's no telling. In novels I want to create epic adventures with high concepts, big themes, and characters that teenagers will write three paragraph hashtags about. I dig smart asses, nerds, rogues, robots, dopplegangers, and everybody eventually being forced to make an impossible choice. 

What books and/or stories have most resonated with you as an author? Why? How do these stories and their characters find expression in your work? I've always read from a variety of genres and styles. I'm never able to quite settle on favorites or stick to one type of thing. I'm sure I've been as influenced by Star Trek novels and Harry Potter as I have been by Kafka or Fitzgerald or Vonnegut. I think every bit of media you consume and everything you experience is going to seep into your artistic consciousness, and hopefully the percolation over time makes some decent coffee.

The Sword and the Ring, NonFiction, Issue 5 December 1, 2008

Sarah Ashwood is twenty-three year old, full-time college student, currently working towards a B.A. in English with an emphasis on creative writing. Scholastically, I am a member of the International Honor Society, Phi Theta Kappa, and recently joined my second International Honour Society, The Golden Key.

As for my literary efforts, a chapbook of my poetry, entitled A Minstrel’s Musings, will be published by Cyberwizard Productions in 2009. My poetry was first published in the October 2007 edition of Art and Prose. Later that same year, I won first place in a local literary contest for an essay on the importance of reading. Since that time, my work—both poetry and prose, fantasy and non-fantasy—has appeared in such publications as Aoife’s Kiss, Flashing Swords Press, Mindflights, Outdoors Spectacular, The Lorelei Signal, and Abandoned Towers. Lastly, I am co-editor of the fantasy ezine, Moon Drenched Fables.

Get to know Sarah...

Birthdate? 

May 29, 1985

When did you start writing? 

I’ve written short stories since I was a young child, but only seriously began writing fiction in 2003.

When and what and where did you first get published? 

My first piece published was a fantasy poem titled “Spawn of Darkness.” It was published in October 2007 by Art and Prose.

Why do you write? 

This is a question that could bear a long, extended answer. However, I can sum it up easily by quoting Anne Tyler who said, “I write because I want to have more than one life.” In writing, I am male and female, rich and poor, wise and foolish, bold and cowardly, human and animal. I am every one of my characters, and live in every one of my worlds. The chance to live these different lives is the main reason I write.

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy? 

I’ve only ever dabbled in Science Fiction, but I write fantasy because it transcends boundaries of time, reality, and space. There are no limitations. Real world elements can be included in fantasy, as well as anything the author’s muse breathes into his/her ear. In short, fantasy expands the imagination. This is why I write it.

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story? 

My favorite fantasy author is probably Juliet Marillier, and her novel Daughter of the Forest is also my favorite fantasy book. Other fantasy authors I enjoy are Jennifer Fallon, Sarah Ash, Jim Butcher, Dawn Cook, Kristen Britain, and Robin Hobb.

What are you trying to say with your fiction? 

I want to write fiction that is appropriate for everyone from young adults to the elderly. I want it to be thoughtful, thought-provoking, touching, humorous, and entertaining, but I also want to explore the different sides of human nature: the bad as well as the good, the evil as well as the noble. An essential theme in many of my stories is that of forgiveness and redemption. I believe few people—if any—are beyond either.

Do you blog? Where? 

No, I don’t blog. Perhaps, when I eventually build my own website, I will add a blog page.

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

She served God and lived her dreams.

The Bramble Wolf and the Hunter, Fiction, Issue 3, June 1, 2008

Moon Magic Eclipse, Flash Fiction, Issue 20, September 1, 2012

Triptych of the Final String, Flash Fiction, Issue 55, June 2021

Goddess of the Braided Light, Fiction, Issue 58, Spring 2022

Daniel Ausema's fiction and poetry have appeared and are forthcoming in many publications, including Strange Horizons, Fantasy Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, and Diabolical Plots. He is the author of The Arcist Chronicles and the creator of the steampunk-fantasy Spire City series. He lives in Colorado, at the foot of the Rockies.

His Website is https://www.danielausema.com

Get to know Daniel...

Birthday? February 9.

When did you start writing? There's no simple answer to this question. I began making up stories when I was quite young and would enact them with my brothers, down in our basement. At the time I called that writing stories, though in truth I would at most draw a map and write a list of character names, maybe draw a few pictures with crayons and cut them out as two-dimensional action figures. My writing progressed from then, I suppose, with some training in poetry writing and journalism along the way.

When and what and where did you first get published? In 2001, at roughly the same time, I had a poem in the online Red River Review and a story in the social-justice-focused print magazine Out of Line. My writing repertoire at the time was very small, and my submitting very scattershot, so it wasn't until some five years later when I started selling more stories and poems (and began focusing more, though not exclusively, on speculative genre venues).

What themes do you like to write about? The pair of immigration and exile come up a lot in my stories. The idea, which plays out in "Moon Magic Eclipse," of righting a wrong, even at personal expense...that pops up in a lot of guises, often with a sense of the characters wanting to do so but not knowing how. I also deeply enjoy evoking a strange and imaginative place, a city or culture or landscape that's as far from bland as I can make it.

What books and/or stories have most resonated with you as an author? Why? How do these stories and their characters find expression in your work? Oh, so many. Probably the current writers who most interest me are Jeff VanderMeer and Catherynne Valente. I definitely try to check out any stories and books they come out with. City of Saints and Madmen by VanderMeer remains a touchstone in my reading, ever since I stumbled across it at a local library about a decade ago. I loved how it managed to meld a deeply imaginative setting with a variety of narrative approaches that seemed much more nuanced than a lot of the more straight-forward stories I was more familiar with in fantasy at the time. And Valente's two-book Orphan Tales is simply such a perfect blend of fairy-tale beauty and power with a playful, nesting structure that fit so wonderfully.

Outside of current writers, I always cite Italo Calvino as a favorite. My college adviser recommended him to me--she was surprised that I hadn't already read him, given the other writers I enjoyed--and I immediately fell in love with his books, starting with Invisible Cities and If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. There's a playfulness to his writing that underlies a keen examination of things. Playfulness, it would seem, is a key part of what draws me to some works. It isn't the only thing, and a lack of playfulness won't drive me away, but it does certainly catch my attention. A favorite quote for a while now has been from writer and musician Stephan Nachmanovitch: "There is an old Sanskrit word, lîla, which means play. Richer than our word, it means divine play, the play of creation, destruction, and re-creation,the folding and unfolding of the cosmos." Many of my favorite works have this sense of play--not mere silliness (though they may or may not be silly on one level), but a sense of Nachmanovitch's divine play.

For Davian's bio please click here

The Dryad's Books, Fiction, Issue 55, June 2021

Rachel Ayers lives in Alaska, where she writes cabaret shows, daydreams, and looks at mountains a lot. She has a degree in Library and Information Science, which comes in handy at odd hours, and she shares speculative poetry and flash fiction (and cat pictures) at patreon.com/richlayers.

Get to know Rachel...

Birthdate?

January 8

When did you start writing?

When I was four or five I began writing letters to my cousin, and by the time I was in grade school I was writing stories about magical cats and teleportation.

When and what and where did you first get published?

My alma mater, Pittsburg State University, has a literary magazine called Cow Creek Review, in which they included “The Brick Joke,” my romance story about a joke that is told over hours or days before the punch line.

Why do you write?

To stay sane.

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy?

It's my home turf; I am more comfortable making up history than researching it.

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story?

Some recent favorites are N.K. Jemisin, Ted Chiang, and Jacqueline Carey. Chiang's title story from the collection Exhalation  has haunted me since I read it.

What are you trying to say with your fiction?

Love each other.

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

Over sea and under stone

Dusty now but not alone

Do you blog?

Sporadically; I'm more likely to be sharing cat pictures on my patreon!

The Torchbearer’s Burden: A Personal Note on Economics in Science Fiction, Nonfiction, Issue 62, Spring 2023

Emad El-Din Aysha is an academic researcher, author, journalist and translator currently residing in Cairo, Egypt. He has a background in economics and a PhD in International Studies from the United Kingdom. He has taught at university, writes movie and book reviews and has worked in energy journalism and also translates novels and stories from Arabic into English. He has one SF anthology to date (in Arabic) and one non-fiction book about SF (in English).

Get to know Emad…

Birthdate?

25/11/1974

When did you start writing?

2015

When and what and where did you first get published?

A short sci-fi story published with a Qatari literary newspaper in 2016 – in English.

Why do you write?

To get things off my chest and express ideas that are too radical for academia. And to find practicable solutions to our problems.

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy?

I want to see the future and help build it. I’ve loved science since I was a kid and while I grew up on a steady diet of fantasy stories and movies – Wizard of Oz, The BFG, Lion, Witch and Wardrobe, Never Ending Story, along with Greek myths – I think in a practical way, always wondering about the feasibility of something, so I lean much more towards SF. Plus, I watched Star Wars as a kid, actually in class at school!

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story?

Philip K. Dick. The Man in the High Castle.

What are you trying to say with your fiction?

That we can make a better world if we put our thinking caps on, and that we can be heroes if we want to be, particularly where I come from in the Global South where we have so many unresolved problems.

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

Here lies Emad El-Din Aysha, an Arab who tried to chart a path of glory for his people in the whacky world of scientific realism.