Day: October 22, 2023

From a young age, Kathleen Bednar empathized with storybook monsters and the creatures who lived under her bed. Drawn to the strange and unusual, her healthy obsession with history and the occult sculpted fictional worlds steeped in dark magic and ominous folklore. While working as a graphic designer, her love of comics, visual storytelling and classical arts inspired her to craft tales with quirky style and vibrant imagery. Kathleen lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, toddler and her big, old German Shepherd.

Born with her head in the clouds and an imagination that never seems to turn off, Silk Aubrey’s every waking moment is steeped in creativity. Reading was, and will always be Silk Aubrey’s comfort zone. With brave knights and daring dragons as some of her best friends, it was just a matter of time before her own ideas made their way onto paper.

Life’s never a straight path. Finding her passion, Silk Aubrey earned her BA and Masters of Music while living in Colorado. Although a dedicated educator and clarinetist, Silk Aubrey enjoys her odd jobs and meeting the rich characters that she works alongside. Road construction, horse wrangler, spinal technician, data miner, and security escort are just a few of the adventures she’s found for herself. Now residing in North England, Silk Aubrey loves traveling around Europe with her four cats-one of whom looks more like a human husband.

Kaila Woelk was born in Tsumeb, Namibia before moving to Harare, Zimbabwe when she was six. Though she was a middle child, she was also the only girl and so grew up pretty spoiled. Growing up a tomboy, playing rough with her brothers prepped her to write strong female characters that are just as strong and capable as their male counterparts. Not that it isn’t nice to be saved from time to time.

J.P resides in sunny/rainy/icy Northern Ireland with his wonderful wife and a tiny dictator who insists no day shall pass that isn’t dedicated to the supremacy of Peppa Pig.

When not absorbed in the adventures of her excellency, J.P writes stories of fantasy and horror, which usually take place on the jolly Emerald Isle, where there is plenty of inspiration for larger – than – life characters and outlandish adventures.

When not writing, J.P spends time with his family, runs marathons (for reasons best known to the gods of concrete and agony), and works in Northern Ireland’s Social Housing sector.

Jawahara Saidullah’s first novel, The Burden of Foreknowledge, was published in 2007 by Roli (India) Press. Shorter works of her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in anthologies by Seal Press and Penguin Press, as well as, in Rind Literary Journal, Open Road Review, Feminist Wire and others. From 1995 until 2001 she was a featured writer on the now-defunct South-Asian literary website, www.chowk.com. For four years, from 2000 until 2004 she was a weekly columnist on cross-cultural issues for Mid-Day Newspaper in Mumbai, India. In 2005,Jawahara was invited to be a writer-in-residence by the Ledig-Rohwolt Foundation at the Chateau du Lavigny in Switzerland.

Jawahara procrastinates and/or reads when she is not writing, in New Jersey, where she lives with her husband, seven-year old daughter and two cats.

Gemma Evans lives in Terre Haute, Indiana with her husband and children. Gemma found a love for reading that turned into writing her own stories at a young age. When she’s not at her day job or writing, Gemma can be found attempting to keep the big and little humans alive and tending to the furry and scaled members of her family. A good book never far from her side.

Everest Noel is a non binary trans person with a goal to write fantasy and sci fi stories with LGBT+ protagonists. They are currently working on their MFA with a goal to pursue a doctoral degree in writing in 2023. When they’re not being a work aholic, they can be found playing video games, or posting on Twitter @alwaystheprince.

Emily Shaw is a writer of young adult fantasy. A writer since childhood, she’s excited to get her stories out into the world. Emily lives in the Midwest with her husband and daughter and their small, disgruntled dog. An avid reader, television, and movie enthusiast, when she is not writing you are likely to find her on the couch with a bowl of popcorn.

DJ Solice, the second eldest of six children, was born in the small town of Winnfield, Louisiana, and raised primarily in Lake Charles and Shreveport.

DJ resides part time in the east Texas area, and the rest of the year in Moscow, Russia, where she teaches middle schoolers. She is the proud mother of two beautiful daughters and her three grandchildren are truly ‘the keepers of her heart’.

DJ has been an educator for many years and her career has taken her to the Middle East and now Russia, along with several regions in the U.S. As a state chapter member of the International Reading Association, DJ entered Louisiana’s Educators as Authors Contest, and won first place in fiction. She was a 2016 finalist and a 2018 triple finalist in the Writer’s League of Texas Manuscript Contest.