M. K. Wiseman has degrees in animation/video and library science – both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Today, her office is a clutter of storyboards and half-catalogued collections of too, too many books. (But, really, is there such a thing as too many books?) When she’s not mucking about with stories, she’s off playing brač or lying in a hammock in the backyard of her Wisconsin home that she shares with her endlessly patient husband.

Jay is an author, game developer, and software engineer. A steady diet of Star Trek, Star Wars, and The Twilight Zone as a child, mixed with an addiction to the words and worlds of Robert E. Howard, Lovecraft, Heinlein, and of course Tolkien produced a mixed-up young man who went on to corrupt the youth making console and PC video games, and writing stories that grow out of bizarre questions that begin with the words, "What if...?"

While he tries to keep up on the newest speculative fiction by established and new authors, he'll often be found with his nose in pages of 70-year-old pulp magazines. Usually digital versions, because those old pulp magazines are delicate!

Jay is the winner of the 2016 DragonComet award for science fiction and fantasy.

Award-Winning author Scott William Taylor lives in the Rocky Mountains with his family and several pets. Scott's debut middle-grade novel Chaser is available now. Scott's story, Little Boiler Girl is included in Mechanized Masterpieces Steampunk Anthology. His story, Split Ends can be found in Xchyler's Shades and Shadows Paranormal Anthology, and Mr. Thornton, a steampunk treatment from Jack London's Call of the Wild is included in Xchyler's Mechanized Masterpieces Masterpieces. Scott is the creator and producer of A Page or Two Podcast. He also wrote the award-winning short film, Wrinkles.

Scott Tarbet's speculative fiction stories have garnered multiple awards, critical acclaim, and entertain thousands. He writes in several genres, including Steampunk, fantasy, paranormal, techno-thriller, and historical fiction.

When he is not submerged in one of his created worlds, he sings opera professionally and slow-smokes thousands of pounds of authentic Texas-style barbeque. He was married in full Elizabethan regalia, loves Steampunk and cosplay conventions of all flavors. He makes his home in the mountains of Utah.

Follow his writing adventures on his blog (http://www.scotttarbet.timp.net), on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ScottETarbet/), or on Twitter (@SETarbet).

As editor-in-chief of Xchyler Publishing, Penny Freeman has collaborated with several authors, including R. A. Smith, Joanne Kershaw, and Candace J. Thomas. She also edited and wrote the preface to Forged in Flame: a Dragon Anthology, and Mechanized: Masterpieces a Steampunk Anthology. She penned the short story "Tropic of Cancer" under the pseudonym of Neve Talbot.

Penny engages her thirty years of wordsmith experience in historical fiction, journalism, and developmental editing. Literature, history and storytelling are her great passions, although the technical aspects of the language arts satisfy her compulsion for order.

She lives with her husband in southeast Texas.

As editor-in-chief of Xchyler Publishing, Penny Freeman has collaborated with several authors, including R. A. Smith, Joanne Kershaw, and Candace J. Thomas. She also edited and wrote the preface to Forged in Flame: a Dragon Anthology, and Mechanized: Masterpieces a Steampunk Anthology. She penned the short story "Tropic of Cancer" under the pseudonym of Neve Talbot.

Penny engages her thirty years of wordsmith experience in historical fiction, journalism, and developmental editing. Literature, history and storytelling are her great passions, although the technical aspects of the language arts satisfy her compulsion for order.

She lives with her husband in southeast Texas.

Even since childhood D. Lee Jortner has loved fantasy and mystery. Playing with imaginary friends and writing and directing neighborhood plays filled her youth. The first of her historical fantasy series, CHIMMEKEN CROSSES THE DELAWARE was released in November 2014. More in the series will be available soon.

Working as a marketing specialist for Xchyler Publishing introduced her to Steampunk and her first Steampunk story will be published in February 2015 in Mechanized Masterpieces II: A Steampunk Anthology.

Her YA murder mystery Corpse in Kitchen 3 will also be released in 2015.

When not writing, Ms. Jortner teaches English Composition at Ivy Tech Community college in Valparaiso, Indiana or hangs with her husband Larry and her seven children and five grandchildren (and still counting).

J. Aurel Guay is an aspiring author from New England where he lives with his two children, and an energetic Boxer. He writes both fantasy and science fiction with emphasis on strong plots and meaningful themes.

Having played at writing fiction since grade school, Aurel more recently has revived his passion as a coping skill in reaction to his career in biomedical science. Working by day as a scientist studying regeneration, he has signed with Xchyler Publishing to write and publish his latest work in progress, a novel titled 'Jagerund'.

Megan Oliphant has loved words and living in the made up worlds between the covers of a book from the time she was three. She has studied creative writing since college, taking classes from the founder of LTUE (Life, The Universe, and Everything Symposium), Marion K. "Doc" Smith at Brigham Young University. Most recently she won a spot and attended Orson Scott Card's Literary Boot Camp in June of 2014.

Her favorite stories to read and write are about magical events that alter reality and she loves a happy ending, but she's also a sucker for a good mystery where she can't guess the ending first.

Megan divides her time between reading, writing, and "familying" with her husband and five children in North Carolina.