Aprilynne Pike has been spinning faerie stories since she was a child with a hyper-active imagin
ation. At the age of twenty she received her BA in Creative Writing from Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. When not writing, Aprilynne can usually be found at the gym; she also enjoys singing, acting, reading, and working with pregnant moms as a childbirth educator and doula. Aprilynne recently returned to Arizona with her husband and three kids; she is enjoying the sunshine.
Aprilynne is the number one New York Times Bestselling author of Wings and it's sequel Spells about a seemingly ordinary girl with a not-so-ordinary destiny. In this tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever...
Diana Gabaldon is the author of the award-winning, NYT-bestselling Outlander novels, described by Salon magazine as "the smartest historical sci-fi adventure-romance story ever written by a science Ph.D. with a background in scripting "Scrooge McDuck" comics," and the Lord John Grey novels, which are only slightly more describable. Dr. Gabaldon holds several advanced degrees in science, (plus an honorary degree as Doctor of Humane Letters (though no one has yet explained to her just what a humane letter is) and spent a dozen years as a university professor with an expertise in scientific computation before beginning to write fiction. None of this has anything to do with her novels, but there you are. She has also written a graphic novel based on her Outlander series, The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel, with art by Hoang Nguyen, which will be released this fall.
J.S. Lewis is best known as the co-author of the acclaimed Grey Griffins Trilogy published by Scholastic’s Orchard Books. After selling nearly a million copies, Lewis and his writing partner, Derek Benz have teamed with legendary publisher, Little Brown (publishers of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga) to produce a new
series based on that original property. The Brimstone Key, the first book in the Grey Griffins Clockwork Chronicles debuts June 2010.
Lewis is currently wrapping up his first novel with powerhouse publisher, Thomas Nelson. The action-packed trilogy featuring giant robots and men flying around in jet packs will hit shelves worldwide in December 2010.
DC/WildStorm and Sony Online Entertainment recently approached Lewis to write a 12-part comic book mini-series based on Sony’s virtual world phenomenon, Free Realms.
A graduate of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Broadcasting, Lewis has explored an eclectic career that includes news reporting, radio production, animation, graphic design, web development, mural painting, speech writing, video game development, voice over work, and marketing. He currently resides in Arizona with his wife and children.
James A. Owen has been working professionally as an illustrator and storyteller for more than two decades, which is notable mostly because he’s still comfortably in his thirties.
To date, in addition to numerous illustration and design projects, James has written and illustrated two dozen Starchild comics and books which remain in print as the six-volume Essential Starchild set and the forthcoming Complete Essential Starchild. The story will be continuing in Starchild: Mythopolis II.
The first book in a series of prose novels written by James titled Mythworld (Kai Meyer’s Mythewelt in Germany) won the 2003 AI award for Best Novel, and was nominated alongside books by Stephen King and Michael Crichton for the prestigious Phantastik Preis for Best International Novel.
Here, There Be Dragons the first in the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, was published by Simon & Schuster in the Fall of 2006, followed by The Search for the Red Dragon, The Indigo King, and the forthcoming The Shadow Dragons. At least three more books are in the planning stages, as well as a few related surprises…
James works at the Coppervale Studio, a 14,000 square foot, century-old restored church in Northeastern Arizona.
Jeffrey J. Mariotte has written more than forty novels, including original supernatural thrillers Cold Black Hearts, River Runs Red and Missing White Girl, horror epic The Slab, and Stoker Award nominated teen horror series Witch Season, as well as books set in the universes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, CSI, Supernatural, Spider-Man, Superman, Las Vegas, Conan, 30 Days of Night, Charmed, Star Trek and Andromeda. Two of his novels have won the Scribe Award for Best Original Novel, presented by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. He is also the author of many comic books, including the original Western series Desperadoes, some of which have been nominated for Stoker and International Horror Guild awards.
The miniseries Desperadoes: Buffalo Dreams was chosen as the Best Western Comic Book of 2007 by True West Magazine.
Other comics work includes the horror series Fade to Black, action-adventure series Garrison, the bestselling Presidential Material: Barack Obama, original graphic novel Zombie Cop, and the forthcoming original miniseries Garrison. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers and the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers.
With his wife, Maryelizabeth Hart, and partner Terry Gilman, he co-owns Mysterious Galaxy, a bookstore specializing in science fiction, fantasy, mystery and horror. He lives on the Flying M Ranch in the American southwest with his family and pets in a home filled with books, music, toys, and other examples of American pop culture. More information than you would ever want to know about him is at www.jeffmariotte.com.
John Scalzi is an author and online writer, best known for his Hugo Award-nominated science fiction novel Old Man's War, released by Tor Books in January 2005, and for his blog Whatever, at which he has written daily on a number of topics since 1998. He has also written a number of non-fiction books.
Scalzi's first published novel was Old Man's War, in which 75-year-old citizens of Earth are recruited to join the defense forces of human colonies in space. Scalzi noted the book's similarities to Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers by thanking Heinlein in the acknowledgments of the book. Old Man's War came to publication after debuting online: Scalzi serialized the book on his web site in December 2002, which resulted in an offer for the book by Tor Books Senior Editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden. The hardcover edition of the book was published in January, 2005.
Old Man's War was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in March 2006.
Kris Neri writes an urban fantasy series featuring fake psychic, Samantha Brennan, and genuine Celtic goddess/FBI agent, Annabelle Haggerty. The first book in the series, High Crimes on the Magical Plane, was a Lefty Award nominee. She also writes the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity Award-nominated Tracy Eaton mysteries, Revenge of the Gypsy Queen, Dem Bones' Revenge and Revenge for Old Times' Sake. Kris has published some sixty short stories and is a two-time Derringer Award winner and a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee for her short fiction. She teaches writing online for the Writers' Program of the UCLA Extension School, and, with her husband, owns The Well Red Coyote bookstore in Sedona, Arizona.
Award winning and bestselling author, actress and playwright Leanna Renee Hieber grew up in rural Ohio making up ghost stories and obsessed with fantasy fiction and Gothic novels. She graduated with a BFA in Theatre with a focus in the Victorian Era and a scholarship to study in London.
She hit the fantasy fiction scene with her novella "Dark Nest" which won the 2009 Prism Award for excellence in Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. Her critically acclaimed debut novel The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker hit both Barnes & Noble's mass market and overall Bestseller list and was named one of the Top Ten Books of 2009 by Beyond Her Book Publishers Weekly reader poll. This begins her Strangely Beautiful series of ghostly, Gothic Victorian Fantasy novels for Dorchester Publishing, continuing with the much anticipated The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker.
A member of performer unions AEA, AFTRA and SAG, Leanna works often in film and television and lives with her real-life hero in New York City- where she loves nothing more than a good Goth club.
Michael A. Stackpole was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, was raised in and graduated from the University of Vermont in 1979 with a BA in History. Having already sold his first gaming project to Flying Buffalo Inc. in 1977, he headed west to the land of Mexican food, where it seldom snows, and the snow never lasts long enough to be shoveled. Michael has lived in Arizona ever since, save for a four month stint in Hartford, CT, working as a consultant for Coleco Industries.
In 1987, FASA Corporation hired him to write the Warrior trilogy of BattleTech novels and the rest, as historians are fond of saying, is history.
Sam Sykes is the author of Tome of the Undergates, a vast and sprawling story of adventure, demons, madness and carnage. Suspected by many to be at least tangentially related to most causes of human suffering, Sam Sykes is also a force to be reckoned with beyond literature. At 25, Sykes is one of the younger authors to have arrived on the stage of literary fantasy. Tome of the Undergates will be his first book, published in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Holland and Canada. He currently resides in the United States and is probably watching you read this right now.
Steven Riley has been writing and illustrating stories for as long as he can remember. His love for books was born in him many years ago as his Mom would read him stories before he went to bed each night. Among his favorites were Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, and The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Suess.
He loved writing and illustrating wild stories about space. In fact, his first book series entitled Adventures In Space was a series of four short stories about two space-traveling robots named Yars and Yak. He completed this monumental work before he was ten years old, but unfortunately through many years of moving the one and only copy was lost forever, and the awaiting world was left to mourn.
His love for art also blossomed at an early age while his parents would let him draw pictures to keep him quiet in church. Due to the frequency that his family attended church, Steve had plenty of time to practice!
As he got older, his best subjects in school were always creative writing and art. He went to Murray State University in Kentucky and graduated with a degree in art. Not really knowing what else to do at that point, he moved to Hollywood ,California to try his hand at an acting career. His acting career never worked out, but his move to California proved to be a success, for it was in Hollywood that he met a beautiful young lady named Julie who would become his wife. It was also in California where he discovered Yosemite National Park, and he loved the place so much he moved there.
While living in Yosemite, there was a family of raccoons that lived under his porch. They would come out every evening. Steve often noticed a small one that had a cut in his left ear. The mark made it easy to tell this particular raccoon from the others, and this little raccoon became the inspiration for his first published book, Little Ty Cooney and the Big Yosemite Race.
Steven has finished the next book in the series, called Little Ty Cooney and the Big Yellowstone Mystery, and it promises to be just as popular as Ty's first adventure. Both books are geared toward children between the ages of four and eleven, and are intended to teach them about our wonderful National Parks. Throughout each story are illustrations of all the animals and places one can see as they visit the parks and each story is complete with a life lesson that can help kids build character qualities into their young lives.
Currently Steven is working on the third book in the Ty Cooney series called Little Ty Cooney and the Grand Canyon Tour Company, and two other books not in the National Wonders Series. When not working on his books he spends much of his time touring the country visiting schools and teaching kids about the creative process.
Timothy J. Boyer was born in Allegan, MI, in 1955.
He has been telling stories his whole life, but writing since he was 17 years old.
He began seriously writing his Mirror Gate Chronicles in 2005 when he began telling his friends at work about his dreams. They encouraged him, and along with his wife’s prompting, TJ Boyer has two completed stories of a series of seven. Mirror Gate Chronicles is Science Fantasy, but TJ writes action and mystery stories, as well.
Wil Wheaton's successful acting career began in 1986 with acclaimed roles in Stand By Me and Toy Soldiers. He continued to build his resume through his teen years as series regular ‘Wesley Crusher’ on Star Trek: The Next Generation and opposite Robin Williams in Flubber. But Wil is much more than just an actor; he’s an author, blogger, voice actor, Columnist for the LA Weekly and Suicide Girls, widely-followed Twitter user, and a champion of geek culture.
Wil currently splits his time between acting and writing. He has recently appeared as serial killer Floyd Hansen on Criminal Minds, comic book publisher Miles Sklar on NUMB3RS, and as the voice of Ted Kord, the Silver Age Blue Beetle, on Batman: The Brave and the Bold. He's published three acclaimed books: Just A Geek, Dancing Barefoot, and The Happiest Days of Our Lives. His latest books are Sunken Treasure and Memories of the Future, Volume One. All of his books grew out of Wil’s immensely popular, award-winning weblog, which he created at WIL WHEATON dot NET and currently maintains at WIL WHEATON dot NET: in Exile. While most celebrities are happy to let publicists design and maintain their websites, Wil took a decidedly different turn when he started blogging in 2001. He designed, coded, and maintained WWdN entirely on his own, until he "blew up" his sites' database in 2005 and moved his blog to the TypePad service. In 2003, Forbes.com readers voted WWdN the “Best Celebrity Weblog.” Wil's blog was chosen by C|Net for inclusion in their 100 most influential blogs, and is an "A" lister, according to Blogebrity.com. In the 2002 weblog awards (the bloggies) Wil won every category in which he was nominated, including “Weblog of the year.” In 2007, Wil was nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Bloggie, alongside Internet powerhouses Slashdot and Fark. In the 2008 weblog awards, Wil was voted the "Best Celebrity Blogger," and in 2009 Forbes named him the 14th most influential web celebrity. This is all amusing to Wil, who doesn't think of himself as a celebrity, but is instead, "just this guy, you know?" (Bio courtesy of Wil Wheaton.)
Aprilynne Pike has been spinning faerie stories since she was a child with a hyper-active imagin
ation. At the age of twenty she received her BA in Creative Writing from Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. When not writing, Aprilynne can usually be found at the gym; she also enjoys singing, acting, reading, and working with pregnant moms as a childbirth educator and doula. Aprilynne recently returned to Arizona with her husband and three kids; she is enjoying the sunshine.
Diana Gabaldon is the author of the award-winning, NYT-bestselling Outlander novels, described by Salon magazine as "the smartest historical sci-fi adventure-romance story ever written by a science Ph.D. with a background in scripting "Scrooge McDuck" comics," and the Lord John Grey novels, which are only slightly more describable. Dr. Gabaldon holds several advanced degrees in science, (plus an honorary degree as Doctor of Humane Letters (though no one has yet explained to her just what a humane letter is) and spent a dozen years as a university professor with an expertise in scientific computation before beginning to write fiction. None of this has anything to do with her novels, but there you are. She has also written a graphic novel based on her Outlander series, The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel, with art by Hoang Nguyen, which will be released this fall.
J.S. Lewis is best known as the co-author of the acclaimed Grey Griffins Trilogy published by Scholastic’s Orchard Books. After selling nearly a million copies, Lewis and his writing partner, Derek Benz have teamed with legendary publisher, Little Brown (publishers of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga) to produce a new
series based on that original property. The Brimstone Key, the first book in the Grey Griffins Clockwork Chronicles debuts June 2010.
James A. Owen has been working professionally as an illustrator and storyteller for more than two decades, which is notable mostly because he’s still comfortably in his thirties.
Jeffrey J. Mariotte has written more than forty novels, including original supernatural thrillers Cold Black Hearts, River Runs Red and Missing White Girl, horror epic The Slab, and Stoker Award nominated teen horror series Witch Season, as well as books set in the universes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, CSI, Supernatural, Spider-Man, Superman, Las Vegas, Conan, 30 Days of Night, Charmed, Star Trek and Andromeda. Two of his novels have won the Scribe Award for Best Original Novel, presented by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. He is also the author of many comic books, including the original Western series Desperadoes, some of which have been nominated for Stoker and International Horror Guild awards.
John Scalzi is an author and online writer, best known for his Hugo Award-nominated science fiction novel Old Man's War, released by Tor Books in January 2005, and for his blog Whatever, at which he has written daily on a number of topics since 1998. He has also written a number of non-fiction books.
Kris Neri writes an urban fantasy series featuring fake psychic, Samantha Brennan, and genuine Celtic goddess/FBI agent, Annabelle Haggerty. The first book in the series, High Crimes on the Magical Plane, was a Lefty Award nominee. She also writes the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity Award-nominated Tracy Eaton mysteries, Revenge of the Gypsy Queen, Dem Bones' Revenge and Revenge for Old Times' Sake. Kris has published some sixty short stories and is a two-time Derringer Award winner and a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee for her short fiction. She teaches writing online for the Writers' Program of the UCLA Extension School, and, with her husband, owns The Well Red Coyote bookstore in Sedona, Arizona.
Award winning and bestselling author, actress and playwright Leanna Renee Hieber grew up in rural Ohio making up ghost stories and obsessed with fantasy fiction and Gothic novels. She graduated with a BFA in Theatre with a focus in the Victorian Era and a scholarship to study in London.
Michael A. Stackpole was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, was raised in and graduated from the University of Vermont in 1979 with a BA in History. Having already sold his first gaming project to Flying Buffalo Inc. in 1977, he headed west to the land of Mexican food, where it seldom snows, and the snow never lasts long enough to be shoveled. Michael has lived in Arizona ever since, save for a four month stint in Hartford, CT, working as a consultant for Coleco Industries.
Steven Riley has been writing and illustrating stories for as long as he can remember. His love for books was born in him many years ago as his Mom would read him stories before he went to bed each night. Among his favorites were 
Wil Wheaton's successful acting career began in 1986 with acclaimed roles in Stand By Me and Toy Soldiers. He continued to build his resume through his teen years as series regular ‘Wesley Crusher’ on Star Trek: The Next Generation and opposite Robin Williams in Flubber. But Wil is much more than just an actor; he’s an author, blogger, voice actor, Columnist for the LA Weekly and Suicide Girls, widely-followed Twitter user, and a champion of geek culture.
