Ray Zacek is a retired federal officer living in Tampa, Florida, with his wife, artist Theresa Beck. A flaneur and inveterate scribbler, Ray writes horror, dark fiction, and crime/noir. His work has been published by Critical Blast, Denver Horror Collective, Tule Fog, Allegory Online, All Due Respect, Shotgun Honey, among other venues. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association.
William R.D. Wood traces his love of science fiction and horror back to a childhood filled with Space: 1999 reruns, frequent visits to the Night Gallery, and a worn-out copy of Dune. A good writing day finds him at any of several overlooks on Virginia's Blue Ridge Parkway deeply immersed in new works of cosmic horror. His work has appeared in Nature, Daily Science Fiction, and Cosmic Horror Monthly. Will lives in Virginia's beautiful Shenandoah Valley with his wife, children, and assorted scientific enigmas in an old farmhouse turned backward to the road.
C.C. Winchester’s love of horror began at the tender age of five, when she started sneaking into the living room late at night to watch zombie movies with her parents. Her mother said that though her infiltration was discovered, and she was promptly removed, she would return in what she thought was stealth mode, only to be removed again. She currently writes in Dallas, Texas.
Jay Whales Biography
Jay Whales is a US Army Veteran with 25 years of active duty and nine years as a Department of Defense contractor. Jay was a Military Policeman, a CID Special Agent, and an anti-terrorism crime analyst. He owns a small business in Middle Tennessee while submitting his works. Jay grew up in Missouri.
Ashon Ruffins is a native New Orleanian and a Veteran of the Louisiana Army National Guard. He holds a Master’s in Business Adminstration, while holding certifications for several other professions. He loves the art of story telling in all generes and believes the best lessons in life can be told through fiction. Ashon is a huge mental health advocate.
David Rose served in the United States Marine Corps from 2002 to 2006, during which deploying to Iraq to participate in the second battle of Fallujah. Since trading the sword for the almighty pen, he’s crafted multiple collections and composite novels: Forsaken Fantastic and Amden Bog being fine examples. A forthcoming work is Monsters in the Bush, a collection of Lovecraftian military tales, soon brought to the world by Screaming Banshee Press. He lives in Orlando, Florida. He is a founder and co-chair of the HWA committee Veterans in Horror.
James Pack Biography
James Pack served in the Arizona Army National Guard. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association and has published several collections of poetry and short fiction. Learn more about James and his collected works on his personal blog. He lives in Tucson, AZ.
My name is Scott Middlemist, and I am a U.S. Army veteran. My family once owned Burma-Shave, a company known for its memorable roadside jingles, so love for language is in my blood. JIGSAW SOUL is my self-published novel that I’d like to share. To create this story, I leaned on my experience as a former infantry officer and 30 years as an English teacher.
Luciano Marano is an award-winning writer, journalist, and photographer, the author of a trilogy of werewolf novellas, The Ambush Moon Cycle, and many short stories which have appeared in anthologies such as Year’s Best Hardcore Horror, The Best New Weird Horror, Monsters, Movies & Mayhem, and Crash Code, as well as Nightscript, PseudoPod, and Chilling Tales for Dark Nights. His written and photographic reporting has earned a number of industry accolades, and he was twice named a Feature Writer of the Year by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. A U.S. Navy veteran originally from rural western Pennsylvania, he resides near Seattle.
Lori R. Lopez Biography
Author-Illustrator-Poet Lori R. Lopez haunted graveyards as a child. Entering the U.S. Navy to serve as a Journalist, Lori was nominated for the American Spirit Honor Medal. She has since received honors for books including The Dark Mister Snark, An Ill Wind Blows, The Fairy Fly, and Darkverse: The Shadow Hours (an Elgin Award Nominee and Kindle Book Awards Finalist). Two poems garnered Editor’s Choice Awards; seven have been nominated for Rhysling Awards. Verse and stories appear in numerous publications, among them HWA Poetry Showcases and California Screamin’ (the Foreword Poem). She co-owns Fairy Fly Entertainment with two talented sons.
Michael Knost is a two-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award® and served in the United States Marine Corps during the mid-1980s. He was the recipient of the Horror Writers Association’s Silver Hammer Award in 2015 for his work as the organization’s mentorship chair. A former HWA trustee, Michael currently serves as the organization’s treasurer and was recognized as the 2021 Mentor of the Year. He also received the prestigious J.U.G. (Just Uncommonly Good) Award from West Virginia Writer’s Inc. His novel Return of the Mothman has recently been filmed as a movie adaption. Michael has taught writing classes and workshops at several colleges, conventions, online, and currently resides in Chapmanville, West Virginia with his wife, daughter, and a zombie goldfish.
Xavier served 6 years in the Air Force after which he spent 14 in the Air National Guard, retiring in 2020. He currently lives in St. Louis with his wife, Morticia, in a state of mutual weirdness with their dogs Chuck Norris and the three-legged Jabba the Hutt. Thanks to the GI Bill, he has a MFA in Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing from Emerson College. Xavier has published three books: The Hidden Lives of Dick & Mary, Broken Hearts & Other Horrors, and A Mother’s Torment. He also writes short horror for the Fear From The Heartland podcast.
Douglass Hoover is the author of The North Woods, The Accursed Huntsman, and The Homestead. He is a Marine Corps infantry combat veteran and holds an MFA from Emerson College. His days are spent writing, hunting, and blacksmithing on his small farm in rural Maine with his wife, Patience, and their three mutts, Bug, Furiosa, and Skootcha Nunchuck Monsterface.
Pamela K. Kinney gave up long ago ignoring the demanding voices in her head and has written been writing ever since. Her horror short story, “Bottled Spirits,” was runner-up for the 2013 WSFA Small Press Award and considered one of the seven best genre short fiction for that year. She has various short stories and poems published in fiction and nonfiction anthologies, magazines, and online zines, a science fiction novella, an urban fantasy novel, five nonfiction ghost books, and a nonfiction cryptid book. Her horror poem, “Dementia,” got her mentioned in Best Horror of the Year, Volume Thirteen.
Brandon Ketchum Biography
Brandon Ketchum is a speculative fiction writer from Pittsburgh, PA who enjoys putting a weird spin or strange vibe into every story, dark or light. He is a member of SFWA and the Horror Writers Association, and his work has been published with Air and Nothingness Press, Perihelion, Mad Scientist Journal, and many other publications, including the short story collections Legio Damnati and its sequel Civili Bellum. Brandon is a therapist in the mental health field and provides treatment for veterans with addictions, as well as conducts trauma therapy for veterans with PTSD. He is also a disabled veteran.
My name is Jeremy Eads. I was a counterintelligence agent for the United States Army from 2002 through 2007. I mainly specialized in push ups, cutting grass, and turning the rocks over so they didn’t get sunburned. I’m an invited contributor to The New Guard IX and made it to the final rounds of The New Guard’s 2020 Fiction competition. I was long listed in Madville Publishing’s 2021 Blue Moon Novel Competition. The Lodge is my debut novel and I’m extremely proud of it. Thus far it has over 80 ratings/reviews on Amazon with a 4.6 out of 5 star average. Which brings me to my next point.
I have been serving in the US Army (National Guard) since 2006. I enlisted at age 17 to be a 12B (Combat Engineer). After several years and earning my college degree from St. John’s University, I commissioned as an Engineer Officer. In 2018, I transitioned to full-time in the Army National Guard where I currently serve as a Battalion Executive Officer. I currently reside in Stillwater, a small river town in eastern Minnesota, with my husband (Josh) and dog (Delta). In my free time I lift weights, run, cook, yardwork/garden, and of course write.
Del Howison Biography
Del Howison is an author, journalist, actor (see IMDB), and the Bram Stoker Award-winning editor of the anthology Dark Delicacies: Original Tales of Terror and the Macabre by the World’s Greatest Horror Writers. He has written articles for Fear.net, Cemetery Dance.com, and Writers Digest among others. His western short story The Lost Herd was turned into the premiere (and highest rated) episode, The Sacrifice, for the television series Fear Itself. His dark western novel The Survival of Margaret Thomas was nominated for the Peacemaker Award given out by the Western Fictioneers. He has been shortlisted for over half a dozen awards including the Shirley Jackson Award and the Black Quill.
I’m an active service member and noncommissioned officer in the Army National Guard with twelve years of service and one tour overseas to the Middle East and Southeast Asia. I have a degree in writing and media communication from the University of Wisconsin, followed by five years as a broadcast journalist. I also serve as a co-chair for the Veterans in Horror chapter of The Horror Writers Association and contribute bi-monthly to their newsletter. Currently, I work as a digital marketing and communications coordinator for one of Oregon’s largest nonprofits. I’ve self-published one debut novel and am currently seeking representation for two others.
Charles Wood is a recent addition to the writing scene and writes horror, dark fantasy, and other light-hearted fabrications. Charles served in the Marine Corps 1988-1996. He also served in the Army Reserve and Air Force National Guard.
