Lisa is also the author of four national best-selling YA novels (The Hourglass Door trilogy and After Hello) as well as several short stories and novellas. She has also edited multiple anthologies about magical creatures. She graduated with honors from the University of Utah, and currently lives in Taylorsville, Utah, with her husband, Tracy.

She has also worked in the publishing industry since 1997. She is currently the Managing Editor for Shadow Mountain Publishing and has worked with several New York Times best-selling authors, including Ally Condie, Brandon Mull, and Jason F. Wright. While fiction is her first love, she also has experience working with nonfiction projects (memoir, educational, cookbooks, etc.) and some children’s picture books.

Bonnie Elizabeth could never decide what to do, so she wrote stories about amazing things and sometimes she even finished them.

While rejection stung her so badly in person, she spent most of her young life talking to cats and dogs rather than people, she was unusually resilient when it came to rejections on her writing, racking up a good number of them.

Floating through a variety of jobs, including veterinary receptionist, cemetery administrator, and finally acupuncturist, she continued to write stories.

When the internet came along (yes, she’s old), she started blogging as her cat, because we all know cats don’t notice rejection. Then she started publishing.

Bonnie writes in a variety of genres. Her popular Whisper series is contemporary fantasy and her Teenage Fairy Godmother series is written for teens. She has published in a number of anthologies and is working on expanding her writing repertoire.

She lives with her husband (who talks less than she does) and her three cats, who always talk back.

You can find out more about her books at her website, www.bonnieelizabeth.com

CJ Erick stumbled into Dallas, Texas, in search of love, really good sushi, and easy access to big box stores. Having found all three, he continues to inhabit the city with his wife, and their two ponderous black-and-tan hounds. When tired of the reckless adventure of an engineering career, he pens classic tales of the space frontier, as well as odd gothic horror derived from decaf-induced nightmares.

Winner of awards in both fiction and screenwriting, Terry has written historical and mainstream fiction, but her first love is speculative fiction. With Middle Earth and Earthsea as early inspirations, the Celtic shadow world known as the Five Quarters takes root in her series "Three Wells of the Sea."

Terry has worked in molecular biology and genetic research labs and currently teaches high school chemistry and astronomy. She enjoys sharing the night sky with young people and is as fascinated by ancient history and mythology as she is by terraforming and space exploration. A mash-up of these is a goal she has set for a future project.

If you enjoy gritty fantasy or metaphysical science fiction, check out her website at http://www.TerryMaddenWrites.com/

Chris Mandeville writes science fiction and fantasy, YA, and nonfiction for writers.

After growing up in California and graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, Chris married a U.S. Air Force officer and moved from state to state, as well as to British Columbia, before settling in Colorado. She now lives in the woods of the Rocky Mountains with her family and her service dog, Oski.

Chris enjoys coffee, action movies, mystery and suspense novels, hockey, Cal football, and dogs of all shapes and sizes. She loves to cook, and can often be found in her kitchen with Top Chef or Chopped on TV. She's not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, and she isn't one for keeping any kind of regular schedule, much to her morning-person-husband's dismay. She drinks a lot of coffee, especially when she's writing, which she likes to do in binges.

Her favorite authors include Jeffery Deaver, Barbara Nickless, John Hart, Lucia St. Clair Robson, Barbara O'Neal, Robert Crais, Jim Butcher, Jonathan Maberry, Chris Bohjalian, and Neil Gaiman, among many others.

When Chris isn't writing, she can often be found at events for readers and writers.

Learn more and become a member of her reader group at chrismandeville.com.

Julia loves stories about heroes, monsters, and heroic monsters.

Julia attended U.C Berkeley and majored in Asian Studies. She is a graduate of Viable Paradise. She and co-author Ken Bebelle have a trilogy acquired by Tor, debuting with Ebony Gate in the Spring ‘23.

Mike Jack Stoumbos is a spec-fic author, disguised as a believably normal high school teacher, living with his wife and their parrot. He won 1st place in the 2021 Writers of the Future Contest, and his stories have appeared in several Scifi and Fantasy anthologies. His space opera series, THIS FINE CREW, is published by Chris Kennedy Publishing and Theogony Books. In addition to writing fiction, Mike Jack has published academic/informational articles, stageplays, and lovably geeky parody lyrics. Find him online at MikeJackStoumbos.com or @MJStoumbos on Twitter.

Jessica Guernsey writes Urban and Contemporary Fantasy novels and short stories. A BYU alumna with a degree in Journalism, her work is published in magazines and anthologies. By day, she crushes dreams as manuscript evaluator for two publishers. Frequently, she can be found at writing conferences. She isn’t difficult to spot; just look for the extrovert.

While she spent her teenage angst in Texas, she now lives on a mountain in Utah with her family. Connect with her on Twitter @JessGuernsey or visit her website at jessicaguernsey.com.

Ken Hoover lives in New Mexico with his family. His short fiction has appeared in magazines and anthologies. In addition to being a semi-finalist in the Writers of the Future Contest, he is an alumnus of NMSU and Superstars Writing Seminars. Please visit his website: https://kenahoover.wixsite.com/website.

Lauren Lang is a former broadcast journalist and current freelance photographer and videographer living in Denver, CO. In her spare time, she writes fiction, cooks, bakes, crochets hats for stuffed animals, gardens with the intent of taking pictures of the flowers should they live, and terrorizes her neighbors by pretending to be a wildlife photographer and running through area parks with her camera screaming, “Birds!”. Occasionally, she does actually take a picture of a bird. She can also occasionally be found in a tree with the birds.

M. Elizabeth Ticknor is a genderfluid fantasy author who married a wookiee and is the mother of twin dragons. She and her family share a comfortable hobbit hole in Southeast Michigan. An avid reader of science fiction and fantasy, she also enjoys well-written horror. Her other interests include drawing, painting, and tabletop role-playing.

Twitter: @lizticknor

Website: www.ticknortales.com

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