Born in Ukraine and currently residing in California, Elana Gomel is an academic with a long list of books and articles, an award-winning writer, and a professional nomad. She has taught in Israel, Italy, and the US, and is known in the academy for her (purely theoretical) interest in serial killers, alien invasions, and rebellious AIs. Her upcoming academic publication is Palgrave Handbook of Global Fantasy. She is the author of more than a hundred stories, several novellas, and five novels of dark fantasy and dark science fiction. Several of her stories appeared in Best of the Year anthologies. Her most recent publications are Nigtwood, a novel of fairy tales and exile, and the collection My Lady of Plagues and Other Gothic Fairy Tales. She is a member of HWA.

Steven Pajak is the author of novels, such as the U.S. Marshal Jack Monroe series, the Mad Swine trilogy, as well as short stories and novellas. When not writing, Steven works as an administrator at a university and COO, Managing Editor and Creative Director for Sinister Smile Press.

He continues to be an avid reader of Stephen King and Dean Koontz, John Saul, Richard Matheson, and many other favorite authors in the horror, suspense, thriller and general fiction areas.

Steven lives in the Chicagoland area with his wife and two teens.

Kevin M. Folliard is a Chicagoland writer whose fiction has been collected by The Horror Tree, The Dread Machine, Demain Publishing, Dark Owl Publishing, and more. His recent publications include his horror anthology The Misery King’s Closet, his YA fantasy adventure novel Grayson North: Frost-Keeper of the Windy City, and his 2022 dinosaur adventure novel Carnivore Keepers. Kevin currently resides in the western suburbs of Chicago, IL, where he enjoys his day job in academia and membership in the La Grange Writers Group.

Red Lagoe grew up on 80s horror and carried her paranoia of slashers and sewer creatures into adulthood.

When she’s not spewing her horror-ridden mind onto the page, or substituting at the elementary school like a normal upstanding citizen, Red enjoys amateur astronomy, and can be found lingering in the inky shadows among beasts for a better view of the stars.

Red's short story collection Lucid Screams released in February 2020. She is a staff writer for Crystal Lake Publishing's Still Water Bay series. Her stories have appeared in Dark Moon Digest, Sinister Smile Press's If I Die Before I Wake, volumes 1, 2, & 3, Crystal Lake Publishing’s Shallow Waters Volumes 1,2, 3&4, Trembling with Fear’s Year Two anthology, Owl Hollow Press’ Under the Full Moon’s Light anthology, and more. Her viral apocalypse novel Fair Haven released in 2017.

Brian Asman is the author of I'm Not Even Supposed to Be Here Today from Eraserhead Press, Jailbroke, Nunchuck City, and Man, F*ck This House from Mutated Media. He's recently published short stories in the anthologies Breaking Bizarro, Welcome to the Splatter Club, and Lost Films, and edited the parody anthology Boinking Bizarro. He also writes comics for the anthology series Tales of Horrorgasm.

Based in San Diego, he has an MFA from UCR-Palm Desert and a Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael Myers tattoo. He's represented by Dunham Literary, Inc. Max Booth III is his hype man.

R.E. Sargent is the author of three novels, four novelettes, and many short stories in the genres of suspense, supernatural, and horror. He is also an editor and a publisher. He is an active member of the Horror Writers Association, the Alliance of Independent Authors, and the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses. His short story, “Lucy,” was featured in the 2021 Splatterpunk Award–nominated anthology If I Die Before I Wake Volume 3 – Tales of Deadly Women and Retribution.

R.E. lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and their Chocolate Lab. And the rain. Lots and lots of rain. He is thankful that writing is an indoor activity.

Find out more about R.E. at www.resargent.com.

Scotty Milder is a writer, filmmaker, and film educator living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He received his MFA in Screenwriting from Boston University, and his award-winning short films have screened at festivals all over the world, including Cinequest, the Dead By Dawn Festival of Horror, HollyShorts, and the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and CthulhuCon. His independent feature film "Dead Billy" is available to stream on Amazon.com and Google Play.

His short fiction has appeared or will appear in Dark Moon Digest, KZine, Lovecraftiana magazine, as well as anthologies from Dark Peninsula Press, Sinister Smile Press, Dark Ink Books, and others.

He teaches screenwriting and film production at Santa Fe Community College, Sol Acting Studios, and the Seattle Film Institute. He is also the co-host of "The Weirdest Thing" history podcast with actor/theatre artist Amelia Ampuero.

You can find him online at scottymilder.com or www.facebook.com/scottymilderwrites.

For a young Scott Harper growing up in 1970’s Southern California, the world was just a tad dull and unimaginative. He found a creative outlet in the world of Marvel Comics, fervidly devouring the monthly adventures of Iron Man, Hulk, and Captain America. Later, his tastes turned toward the Marvel black and white magazines’ more esoteric horror province, faithfully following titles such as Dracula Lives! and Tales of the Zombie. Influenced by these works and such great authors as Bram Stoker, John Steakley, and Marv Wolfman, Scott’s unique writing style combines horror and fantasy elements with superhero-style action. When not writing, Scott spends his time either reading, working out at the gym, adding to his model collection, or walking his two dogs. He lives in California with his wife and son.

Check out his web site at https://www.scottharpermacabremaestro.com/

Once an operating room registered nurse, Bridgett Nelson so enjoyed playing with human organs, she decided to turn her macabre interest into a horror writing career. She loves bubble baths (because nothing says spooooky writer like orange-scented bubbles), hates not knowing what’s swimming in the water with her, lives for Halloween season (but loathes chainsaw-wielding dudes in haunted houses), adores her West Virginia University Mountaineers, is very pro-Oxford comma, and thinks bananas are absolutely disgusting.

She was a 2022 Michael Knost "Wings" award nominee, and won second place (out of fourteen contestants) in the '22 Gross-Out contest at KillerCon in Austin, Texas.

Bridgett has contributed to multiple anthologies, including COUNTING BODIES LIKE SHEEP, edited by K Trap Jones. Her debut collection, A BOUQUET OF VISCERA, is available now!

More tidbits! Bridgett is a(n)…

HWA: WV Chapter co-chair. Editor. Audiobook proofer. Bookworm. Dog lover. Tarantula whisperer. Bra avoider. ENJF. Amaretto Sour obsessor.

Check out her website for more info.

www.bridgettnelson.com

Sinister Smile Press is a publisher dedicated to the publication of anthologies and collaborative novels focusing on themes of horror, supernatural, karma and vengeance. Creating nightmares is our business...and business is good!

Visit us at www.sinistersmilepress.com

Tattooed vegan dog lover writing in and about the Pacific Northwest & Alaska.

Frank Beghin is a University of Toronto graduate, married father of two, and a writer of literary fiction and poetry.

I'm an author and musician (plus sometime editor, visual artist, scriptwriter, composer, and all-round Renaissance man) based in Adelaide, South Australia. I've had over sixty short stories and poems published around the world thus far; I've always written, but for many years it came second to trying to establish a career in music. I write dark fiction, horror for the most part, though I take an eclectic angle to all things. My approach to writing is character-focused, broad-minded, and averse to standard tropes.

I was shortlisted for a 2020 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novelette ("Heritage Hill") and I won two categories in the 2019 Australian Shadows Awards: Best Short Story ("Steadfast Shadowsong") and the Paul Haines Award for Long Fiction ("Supermassive Black Mass"). My work has been shortlisted three other times for the Shadows Awards ("The Heart of the Mission", 2016; "This Impossible Gift", 2017; "Vision Thing", 2020), three times for the Aurealis Awards ("Andromeda Ascends", 2018; "Supermassive Black Mass", 2019; "Pilgrimage", 2019), and once for the Washington Science Fiction Association Small Press Award ("Heritage Hill", 2020). I also served as a reader and judge for the 2016 and 2017 Aurealis Awards — acting as Panel Convenor the second year — and for the 2018 and 2019 Australian Shadows Awards.

My first collection of short stories, IF ONLY TONIGHT WE COULD SLEEP, was released by Things in the Well on January 31, 2020. My first novel, MIDNIGHT IN THE CHAPEL OF LOVE, was published by JournalStone on January 29, 2021.

I've performed spoken word shows with punk poets Paroxysm Press, including three Adelaide Fringe gigs, and with the SA Writers Centre — the latter in the West Terrace Cemetery. I attended MAPS Film School in 2010 and since then I have been sporadically involved in short films and live videos as a scriptwriter, director, editor, producer, composer, grip, and (gasp!) actor. My most recent film work has been as an extra in a number of club scenes for Dick Dale's forthcoming splatterpunk feature RIBSPREADER. I play bass and other instruments, sing, write songs, edit videos, create album sleeves, and do all sorts of other things in the progressive/alternative rock/metal bands Blood Red Renaissance (on hiatus since 2013) and icecocoon. I've so far played on seven albums, three EPs, and seven singles, and I've gigged extensively with numerous bands and one-offs.

I currently live in Somerton Park.