Gary J. Shipley—Gary’s latest books are Gumma Homo (Blue Square, forthcoming), and You With Your Memory Are Dead (Civil Coping Mechanisms, forthcoming). More details can be found at Thek Prosthetics
Mick Clocherty—is a writer who lives in Glasgow. When not emptying various glasses and kicking up puddles, you can usually find him helping run The High Flight fanzine; a monthly publication printed in Glasgow and Edinburgh showcasing some of Scotland’s finest emerging literary talent.
Violet LeVoit—is the author of the short story collections I am Genghis Cum (2011) and I’ll Fuck Anything that Moves and Stephen Hawking (2014). She lives in Philadelphia.
Shane Swank—came of age in the 1960s living in a mobile home in the Mid-West U.S. with a nipple attached to the television set, a stack of comic books for paper training and a love for pop culture of all varieties. He currently resides in the predominantly Republican Slave State of Wisconsin. He hopes to escape someday.
Clive Tern—is a writer of short stories from Crieff, Perthshire. His favored styles are speculative and science fiction, though he has been known to attempt more literary themes on occasion. He works with Spark: A Creative Anthology as a Senior Staff Reader. When not reading or writing short stories and poems he plays bad golf and daydreams of world domination. He periodically blogs at:clivetern.com.
Preston Grassmann—became a freelance writer after working as a regular reviewer for Locus Magazine. His recent stories and poems have been published in Nature Magazine, Futures 2 (Tor Publishing), Daily Science Fiction, Apex, Caledonia Dreamin’, and This is NOT an Anthology. He is an active member of HWA and serves on the jury for the Bram Stoker Awards.
Roger Lovelace—calls North Alabama home. He enjoys the laid back attitude but not the humidity of the south. Always an avid reader, since retiring as an environmentalist from the state, he has focused on his lifelong passion of writing.
Dale McMullen—typically writes short stories about grim stuff but also dabbles in poetry and song writing. He is the co-founder of The Speculative Bookshop; which looks to give writers, artists and poets a platform to perform and sell their wares in a fun, relaxed and friendly atmosphere. When he’s not annoying his wife Anna by playing his ukulele too loud, he will be at his day job as a fire fighter. Dale has also been quoted as “knowing more Pokémon than fireman things.” Please visit us at thespeculativebookshop.com to come say hello.
Rhys Hughes—has been a writer for longer than he cares to remember. His thirty-second book has recently been published. He has different coloured eyes and is starting to suspect that he is actually a perfectly superimposed pair of conjoined twins.
Gregory L. Norris—is a full-time professional writer, with work published in a variety of places, mostly in national magazines and fiction anthologies. He once worked as a screenwriter on two episodes of Paramount’s modern classic, Star Trek: Voyager, and recently penned the screenplay to Brutal Colors (Royal Blue Pictures), his first contracted feature film (the second, The Devil of Lakeford County, is in pre-production). Norris judged the 2013 Lambda Awards in the SF/Fantasy/Horror category, and will soon see the publication of Tales from the Robot Graveyard, a collection of cyber-centric novellas, with a cover by Eric Chu, concept artist on the new Battlestar Galactica series.
Andrew Coulthard—first saw the light of day on the wind-lashed eastern coast of Northumbria. He then spent most of his childhood and youth in the western shadow of the highland boundary fault. Since 1990 he has dwelt north of the land of the Geats—where it can get very cold. When not writing he spends time with his family, explores heroic landscapes and enjoys surfeits of good food and drink—sometimes all at once.
Kris Saknussemm—is the author of the novels Zanesville, Private Midnight, Enigmatic Pilot, Reverend America, Eat Jellied Eels and Think Distant Thoughts, a short story collection Sinister Miniatures, a memoir Sea Monkeys, a play The Humble Assessment, and a portfolio book of paintings The Colors of Compulsion.
P. R. Differ—P. R. Differ is a musician, warehouse factotum and author. Specialising in short fiction and comic books, his writing deals with subjects as varied as addiction, plutocracy, arthropods and unethical surgery.
Richard Thomas—is the award-winning author of seven books—Disintegration and The Breaker (Random House Alibi), Transubstantiate, Staring Into the Abyss, Herniated Roots, Tribulations, and The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books). His over 100 stories in print include Cemetery Dance, PANK, storySouth, Gargoyle, Weird Fiction Review, Midwestern Gothic, Qualia Nous, Chiral Mad 2, and Shivers VI. He is also the editor of four anthologies: The New Black and Exigencies (Dark House Press), The Lineup (Black Lawrence Press) and the Bram Stoker-nominated Burnt Tongues (Medallion Press) with Chuck Palahniuk. In his spare time he writes for LitReactor and is Editor-in-Chief at Dark House Press.
Ian Welke—Ian’s stories have appeared in Big Pulp, Zombie Jesus and Other True Stories, and the American Nightmare Anthology amongst others. His first novel, The Whisperer in Dissonance, was published by Omnium Gatherum Media in 2014. His second novel, End Times at Ridgemont High, is slated for 2015.
John Palisano—Sometimes John Palisano isn’t quite sure which world he’s inside. This is due to an overwhelming pull deep within his brain, which is likely a miniature, sentient fig that went up instead of down when he tried to eat it as a child. The Fig of his imagination has gifted him with many short stories that have appeared in over thirty places, not to mention books old and new. The Fig realizes they’ve been at it a while and has steered its host to archive it all at www.johnpalisano.wordpress.com or just check on Facebook and Twitter under his name. John’s. Not his Fig.
Beckett Warren—Survived by his cat, Blackie, and his girlfriend’s dog, Mogley.
Tony Yanick—Survived solely by his dog, Sadie.
Love Kölle—lives in his native Sweden with his fiancée and their two pet cats. 2013 saw the release of his debut novel Galtmannen (The Hog Man), and in 2014 Rymdvoodoo vid Apacheravinen! (Space Voodoo at Apache Ravine!), a collection of pulp fiction cut-ups, hit the stands. Apart from these two books he has been published in several short story anthologies, both in his native Sweden and abroad.
Chris Kelso—is a writer, editor and illustrator from Scotland. He is the co-creator of the Slave State and is not to be trusted…
Spike Marlowe—has held a number of odd jobs, including working as a detective, a busker and a performer in a Wild West show. These days, she’s a writer, blogger and editor at Eraserhead Press. Her fiction has appeared at The Drabblcast, Allegories of the Tarot and as part of the Ladybox chapbook collection. Her novella, Placenta of Love, is also available at the usual locations. You can stalk her online at spikemarlowe.wordpress.com and on Twitter at @spikemarlowe.
Seb Doubinsky—was born in Paris, in 1963, right in the middle of a western movie, of which his parents never saw the end. He has thereafter split his life between France and the USA, having spent most of his early childhood in Syracuse and Seattle. After some studies, a lot of wandering and a few strange jobs, Seb has finally found himself teaching French literature in Denmark
Andrew Hook—Andrew Hook’s publications in 2015/16 should include the neo-noir crime novel, Church of Wire (Telos), a short story collection, Human Maps (Eibonvale Press), the anthology punkPunk! (DogHorn Publishing), Slow Motion Wars (co-written with Allen Ashley, Screaming Dreams), and The Greens, a novella from Spectral Press. With his partner he has recently established Salò Press, whose first publication, the surrealist anthology A Galaxy of Starfish, is currently open for submissions.
Michael Faun—Michael Faun writes horror, surrealism and exploitation fiction. His books include Black Heart Metal Monster, Deep Invaders #3, Cannibal Island and SS Death Simulation, all of which are published by Dynatox Ministries
Hal Duncan—is the Glasgow-based award-winning author of Vellum and Ink. Other work includes novels, short fiction, poetry, non-fiction, musicals and collaborations with the bands Aereogramme and The Dead Man’s Waltz. “
The Last Straw” was first published in the Glorifying Terrorism anthology (ed. Farah Mendlesohn,)
Mitchel Rose—Co-writer of six fantasy pulp adventures for Granton City Press, Mitchel cites H P Lovecraft and China Mieville as some of his main influences. As well as writing fantasy and dark horror, Mitchel also provides a ghost writing service giving help and advice to struggling authors, writes fiction and instructional books, and produces web content.
Gio Clairval—is an Italy-born writer who used to live in Paris, France, and is now based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming here and there. She translates literary works from French, Italian, Spanish and German.
Cover art by Terence Jaiden Wray
Interior illustrations by Rob Baumer, Dario D’Alatri, Andrew Coulthard and Shane Swank
Wire & Spittle art by Chris Kelso
Slave Stories Page 22