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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Book Recommendation:
Broken Hearts & Other Horrors
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.
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.
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.
Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author of some thirty novels and collections, and there’s some novellas and comic books in there as well. Most recent are Don’t Fear the Reaper and the ongoing Earthdivers. Up before too long are The Angel of Indian Lake and I Was a Teenage Slasher. Stephen lives and teaches in Boulder, Colorado.
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.
Eboni J. Dunbar (She/her) is a queer, black woman who writes queer and black speculative fiction. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner. She received her BA from Macalester College in English and her MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. She is a VONA Alum and the former managing editor for the Hugo Award-Winning FIYAH Literary Magazine.
Arley Sorg is an associate agent at kt literary and co-Editor-in-Chief at Fantasy Magazine. He is an SFWA Solstice Award Recipient, a Space Cowboy Award Recipient, a two-time World Fantasy Award Finalist, a two-time Locus Award Finalist, and a finalist for two Ignyte Awards. Arley is also a senior editor at Locus, associate editor at both Lightspeed & Nightmare, a columnist for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and an interviewer for Clarkesworld. He is a guest critiquer for the current Odyssey Workshop and the week five instructor for this year’s Clarion West Workshop. Arley is a 2014 Odyssey graduate. His site: arleysorg.com. Twitter: @arleysorg Facebook is… a weird number.
My first novel Paradise was a love story in the South Pacific during the Age of Discovery (my second novel was Ring) and my third novel was also situated in the South Pacific, the story centers around a destined love story between a crew on a tuna fishing ship and a lovely female singer-songwriter. I personally am a yachtsman, so the ocean is the one situation I can really show my best.
Photo Credit: Colin Murray
Lisa Tuttle, a Texan by birth, Scottish by inclination and residence, is the author of 13 novels and seven short story collections. Windhaven, written in collaboration with George R.R. Martin, was her first novel and his second and has been almost continuously in print since 1981. She’s also written non-fiction and books for children and worked as a journalist and library assistant. The Curious Affair of the Missing Mummies, the third in a series of 1890s-set, supernaturally tinged mysteries, is forthcoming from Jo Fletcher Books, as well as a new collection, Riding the Nightmare, is out from Valancourt this summer.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisatuttlewriter
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro started writing stories at age six; she’s still at it.
Did you start out writing or working in the horror field, and if so why? If not, what were you writing initially and what compelled you to move into horror?
Nancy Holder is the former vice president and former board member of HWA. She is New York Times bestselling author of over a hundred book-length projects and hundreds of short stories, essays, and articles. She has received 7 Bram Stoker Awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association and was named Faust Grand Master from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. She is known for writing material for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other intellectual properties, as well as novelizing movies such as Wonder Woman and Crimson Peak. She taught in the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing program offered through the University of Southern Maine for thirteen years, and many of her students have gone on to high-profile publishing success. She has been “investitured” [sic] as a Baker Street Irregular and an Adventuress of Sherlock Holmes. She is currently writing the forthcoming supernatural comics
They Call Me Midnight
Editor, anthologist, and reviewer Paula Guran has edited more than fifty science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies and more than fifty novels and collections featuring the same. She was senior editor for Prime Books for seven years. Previously, she edited the Juno fantasy imprint from its small press inception through its incarnation as an imprint of Pocket Books. Guran edits the annual Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror series (first ten volumes with Prime; now published by Pyr). In an earlier life, she produced the weekly email newsletter DarkEcho (winning two Stokers, an IHG award, and a World Fantasy Award nomination), edited Horror Garage (earning another IHG and a second World Fantasy nomination), and has contributed reviews, interviews, and articles to numerous professional publications. The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Volume 2 was nominated for a World Fantasy Award in 2022. Guran currently reviews for Locus Magazine. She lives in Akron, Ohio, near enough to her grandchildren to frequently be indulgent.
I came to editing by a unique route. I had a background in journalism/editing as a teenager, but my first career was in technical theatre. My second career was as a full-time mom (and consequently, school/community volunteer). Although I was a science fiction and fantasy reader, with some exceptions, I wasn’t a big horror fan until I started discovering a lot of great writers/fiction around 1994. I wanted to spread the word and help writers and just sort of fell into it via the internet.
Ellen Datlow, of course. Also, Gardner Dozois, Ann VanderMeer, David Hartwell, Kathryn Cranmer, Gordon Van Gelder, Michael Moorcock, Harlan Ellison, and more.
More the changes to publishing as a whole rather than just horror. The internet provided me with a way to make myself a niche in the field. Print-on-demand provided me entry to professional-level work that led to other things. Borders book chain wanting more genre fiction from independent presses gave me a full-time job. Lots of other things, of course, including the rise of fantasy and urban fantasy, played parts.
Not really, at least no more than society in general. At first, I think people assumed I was younger than I am. And since I entered the field at a relatively late age, I never particularly advertised my age.=&0=&
Not really in horror, but the orcamancer in Sam J. Miller’s
Blackfish City
Kathryn Ptacek is the editor of the landmark Women of Darkness I and Women of Darkness II, published at a time when most anthologies included few or no women writers. She knew they were out there, though. She has published numerous novels, short stories, articles, reviews, and poetry in various genres. She edits the monthly HWA Newsletter. She is also the recipient of three of HWA’s awards: The Silver Hammer Award, the Mentor of the Year Award, and the Richard Laymon President’s Award. Her books are available on Amazon and from Crossroad Press as e-books. She also sells extra copies of her print books; contact her at gilaqueen@att.net or find her on Facebook.
The first two novels that sold were historical romances (Satan’s Angel and My Lady Rogue). I had always loved history, and at that time, historical romance was hot hot hot … so I thought, what the heck! I’ll give it a try.
As it happens I have some darker elements in my historicals… I wasn’t even aware that I seemed to be moving in that direction … But looking back, I can see I was drawn to horror, although it wasn’t a separate genre as such back then. Long before that I had entered a radio’s writing contest about the Christmas spirit, and my entry had this dark creature crouching on someone’s roof late at night. Well, not precisely Santa or festive! And when I was eight or so, I did a series of watercolor comics which featured monsters. And when I was five and went to a New Year’s Eve party with my folks, I wandered through the house and found an older kid watching a movie:
Frankenstein
Douglass Hoover is the author of 
