When he looked up the wolf was gone.
Dear Asil,
There was a body. But after some discussion we decided to give this one to you. We owe you some leeway for missing that Kelly was a boy, not a girl. The body wasn’t your date and no one ran screaming into the night—mostly because the person most likely to do that fainted. Your first date was a success! We’re very proud of you.
Your second date has been arranged, two days from now. We chose the dating site mustlovemycat.com. We did (while pretending to be you) tell her that you did not at this time have a pet cat because after your last one died, you couldn’t bear to replace it.
Be grateful. We had planned on using prettypenpals.com, but organizing a date for you with a woman who could not leave her prison cell was too much trouble, even for us.
Sincerely,
Your Concerned Friends
PS—Merry Christmas
Asil pinched his nose and laughed.
About the Authors
Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson has published 120 books, more than fifty of which are national or international bestsellers. He has written numerous novels in the Star Wars, X-Files, and Dune universes, as well as a unique steampunk fantasy novel, Clockwork Angels, based on the concept album by legendary rock group Rush. His original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series, the Terra Incognita fantasy trilogy, and his humorous horror series featuring Dan Shamble, Zombie PI. He has edited numerous anthologies, including the Five by Five and Blood Lite series. Anderson and his wife Rebecca Moesta are the publishers of WordFire Press.
Brad R. Torgersen
Brad R. Torgersen is a healthcare computer geek by day, a Chief Warrant Officer in the United States Army Reserve on the weekend, and a science fiction writer at night. His short fiction appears regularly in the pages of Analog magazine, where he’s been numerated for several Hugo awards, and has won the Analog magazine AnLab readers’ choice award twice. He’s also published in the pages of Mike’s Resnick’s Galaxy’s Edge magazine, as well as Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show magazine. Brad’s first short fiction collection, Lights in the Deep, was released by WordFire Press in 2013. Brad’s first novel from Baen Books, titled The Chaplain’s War, comes out in October 2014.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
USA Today bestselling writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch has won or been nominated for almost every major award in four genres. She particularly loves to write Christmas stories. She has three holiday collections, Five For the Winter Holidays, Santa And Other Christmas Criminals, and Silent Night. Under her paranormal romance pen name, Kristine Grayson, she has a holiday novella series (adding one per season). This year’s is so far unnamed, but last year’s is Visions of Sugar Plums. She also edited Fiction River’s holiday issue, Christmas Ghosts. When she’s not thinking about the holidays, she’s writing the Retrieval Artist series. She will release a book per month in that series in 2015. Then she will turn her attention to her popular fantasy series, The Fey. Her Smokey Dalton mystery series, which she writes as Kris Nelscott, is under development for a major motion picture. Somehow, with all of this, she still manages to write short stories which, honestly, are her first love.
Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes Lackey was born in Chicago Illinois on June 24, 1950. The very next day, the Korean War was declared. It is hoped that there is no connection between the two events.
She was raised mostly in the northwestern corner of Indiana, attending grade school and high school in Highland Indiana. She graduated from Purdue University in 1972 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. This, she soon learned, along with a paper hat and a nametag will qualify you to ask “would you like fries with that?” at a variety of fast-food locations.
In 1985 her first book was published. In 1990 she met artist Larry Dixon at a small Science Fiction convention in Meridian Mississippi, on a television interview organized by the convention. They began working together from that time on, and were married in Las Vegas at the Excalibur chapel by Merlin the Magician (aka the Reverend Duckworth) in 1992.
They moved to their current home, the “second weirdest house in Oklahoma” also in 1992. She has many pet parrots and “the house is never quiet.” She is approaching 100 books in print, and some of her foreign editions can be found in Russian, German, Czech, Polish, French, Italian, Turkish, and Japanese. She is the author, alone or in collaboration, of the Heralds of Valdemar, Elemental Masters, Secret World Chronicles, 500 Kingdoms, Diana Tregarde, Heirs of Alexandria, Obsidian Mountain, Dragon Jouster, Bedlam Bards, Shadow Grail, Dragon Prophecy, Elvenbane, Bardic Voices, SERRAted Edge, Doubled Edge (prequel to SERRAted Edge), and other series and standalone books.
A nightowl by nature, she is generally found at the keyboard between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Quincy J. Allen
Quincy J. Allen, is a self-proclaimed cross-genre author. What that really means is that he’s got enough ADD to not stick with any single genre and, like his cooking, prefers to mix and match to suit his appetites of the moment.
He has been published in multiple anthologies, magazines, and one omnibus. He’s written for the Internet show RadioSteam, and his novel Chemical Burn—a finalist in the RMFW Colorado Gold Contest—is due out in 2014 in a newly revamped edition from WordFire Press. His new novel Jake Lasater: Blood Curse as well as a military sci-fi novel from Twisted Core Press are both due out in 2014, and Out Through the Attic, his first short story collection, just hit shelves and browsers across the world. He works part-time as a tech-writer to pay his bills, does book design and eBook conversions for WordFire Press by night, and lives in a lovely house that he considers his very own sanctuary.
He’s an entirely all-too-busy writer taking over the world one fiction at a time.
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Over the past thirty-odd years, Nina Kiriki Hoffman has sold adult and YA novels and more than 250 short stories. Her works have been finalists for the World Fantasy, Mythopoeic, Sturgeon, Philip K. Dick, and Endeavour awards. Her fiction has won Stoker and Nebula Awards.
A collection of Hoffman’s short stories, Permeable Borders, was published in 2012 by Fairwood Press. A young adult Hoffman novel will come out from Viking in 2015.
Nina does production work for the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. She teaches writing through Lane Community College. She lives in Eugene, Oregon.
Jonathan Maberry
Jonathan Maberry is a NY Times bestselling author, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner, and freelancer for Marvel Comics. His novels include Code Zero, Rot and Ruin, Ghost Road Blues, Patient Zero, The Wolfman, and many others. Nonfiction books include Ultimate Jujutsu, The Cryptopedia, Zombie CSU, and others. Several of Jonathan’s novels are in development for movies or TV including V-Wars, Extinction Machine, Rot & Ruin and Dead of Night. He’s the editor/co‐author of V-Wars, a vampire‐themed anthology; and was a featured expert on The History Channel special Zombies: A Living History. Since 1978 he’s sold more than 1200 magazine feature articles, 3000 columns, two plays, greeting cards, song lyrics, and poetry. His comics include Captain America: Hail Hydra, Bad Blood, Marvel Zombies Return and Marvel Universe vs. The Avengers. He lives in Del Mar, California with his wife, Sara Jo and their dog, Rosie. www.jonathanmaberry.com
Ken Scholes
Ken Scholes is the award-winning author of the internationally acclaimed Psalms of Isaak series published in the US by Tor. His first novel, Lamentation, won the American Library Association’s RUSA Reading List award for best fantasy and France’s Prix Imaginales for best translated fantasy. Ken’s short fiction is collected in two volumes published by Fairwood Press and new stories continue to show up in various magazines and anthologies. Ken is also a winner of the Writers of the Future contest.
With a diverse background that includes a degree in history, years logged as a Baptist preacher, label gun repairman, government procurement analyst and nonprofit executive, Ken now writes full time and makes hi
s home in Saint Helens, OR, with his wife and twin daughters. You can learn more about Ken by visiting www.kenscholes.com.
Heather Graham
New York Times and USA Today best-selling author, Heather Graham, majored in theater arts at the University of South Florida. After a stint of several years in dinner theater, back-up vocals, and bartending, she stayed home after the birth of her third child and began to write. Her first book was with Dell, and since then, she has written over one hundred novels and novellas including category, suspense, historical romance, vampire fiction, time travel, occult and Christmas family fare.
She is pleased to have been published in approximately twenty languages. She has 60 million books in print. She has been honored with awards from Walden Books, B. Dalton, Georgia Romance Writers, Affaire de Coeur, Romantic Times and more. Heather has also become the proud recipient of the Silver Bullet from Thriller Writers. Heather has had books selected for the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild, and has been quoted, interviewed, or featured in such publications as The Nation, Redbook Mystery Book Club, People and USA Today and appeared on many newscasts including Today, Entertainment Tonight and local television.
Heather loves travel and anything that has to do with the water, and is a certified scuba diver. She also loves ballroom dancing. Each year she hosts the Vampire Ball and Dinner theater at the RT convention raising money for the Pediatric AIDS Society and in 2006 she hosted the first Writers for New Orleans Workshop to benefit the stricken gulf region. She is also the founder of “The Slush Pile Players.” presenting something that’s almost like entertainment for various conferences and benefits. Married since high school graduation and the mother of five, her greatest love in life remains her family, but she also believes her career has been an incredible gift, and she is grateful every day to be doing something that she loves so very much for a living.
Sam Knight
As a writer, Sam refuses to be pinned down into a genre and writes whatever grabs his attention, be it steampunk, horror, mystery, science fiction, or children’s books. He frequently speaks at conventions in and near his home state of Colorado, including the Denver and Salt Lake City Comic Cons, where he loves to talk about writing.
As well as being part of the WordFire Press Production Team, he is the Senior Editor for Villainous Press and has a secret project he won’t tell anyone about. He has edited two anthologies and published three children’s books, three short story collections, two novels, and more than a dozen short stories. Sam can be found at SamKnight.com and contacted at [email protected].
Mike Resnick
Mike Resnick is, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. He has won 5 Hugos (from a record 36 nominations), a Nebula, and other major awards in the USA, France, Japan, Spain, Croatia, Catalonia, and Poland. He is the author of 75 novels, 27 collections, close to 300 stories, and three screenplays, and has edited 41 anthologies. He is the former co-editor of Jim Baen’s Universe, and is currently the editor of Galaxy’s Edge magazine and the Stellar Guild line of books. Mike was Guest of Honor at the 2012 Worldcon.
David Boop
David Boop is a Denver-based speculative fiction author. In addition to his novels, short stories and children’s books, he’s also an award-winning essayist and screenwriter. His novel, the sci-fi/noir She Murdered Me with Science, debuted in 2008. Since then, David has had over thirty short stories published and two-short films produced. He specializes in weird westerns, but has been published in many genres including media tie-ins for Green Hornet and Honey West. 2013 saw the digital release of his first Steampunk children’s book, The Three Inventors Sneebury, with a print release due in 2014. David tours the country speaking on writing and publishing at schools, libraries and conventions.
He’s a single dad, returning college student, part-time temp worker and believer. He’s a member of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writer, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Western Writers of America. His hobbies include film noir, anime, the Blues and Mayan History. You can find out more on his fanpage, www.facebook.com/dboop.updates or Twitter @david_boop.
Eric James Stone
A Nebula Award winner, Hugo Award nominee, and winner in the Writers of the Future Contest, Eric James Stone has had stories published in Year’s Best SF 15, Analog, Nature, and Kevin J. Anderson’s Blood Lite anthologies of humorous horror, among other venues.
One of Eric’s earliest memories is of seeing an Apollo moon-shot launch on television. That might explain his fascination with space travel. His father’s collection of old science fiction ensured that Eric grew up on a full diet of Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke.
While getting his political science degree at Brigham Young University, Eric took creative writing classes. He wrote several short stories, and even submitted one for publication, but after it was rejected he gave up on creative writing for a decade.
During those years Eric graduated from Baylor Law School, worked on a congressional campaign, and took a job in Washington, DC, with one of those special interest groups politicians always complain that other politicians are influenced by. He quit the political scene in 1999 to work as a web developer in Utah.
In 2002 he started writing fiction again, and in 2003 he attended Orson Scott Card’s Literary Boot Camp. In 2007 Eric got laid off from his day job just in time to go to the Odyssey Writing Workshop. He has since found a new web development job.
In 2009 Eric became an assistant editor for Intergalactic Medicine Show.
Eric lives in Utah with his wife, Darci, a high school physics teacher. His website is www.ericjamesstone.com.
Patricia Briggs
Patricia Briggs is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of the Mercy Thompson series and has written twenty one novels to date; she is currently writing novel number twenty two! Patty began her career writing traditional fantasy novels in 1993, and shifted gears in 2006 to write urban fantasy. Moon Called was the first of her signature series about Mercy Thompson. The non-stop adventure left readers wanting more and word of this exciting new urban fantasy series about a shape-shifting mechanic spread quickly. The series has continued to grow in popularity with the release of each book. Patty also writes the Alpha and Omega series, which are set in the same world as the Mercy Thompson novels; what began as a novella expanded into a full new series, all of which debuted on the NY Times bestsellers list as well.
Patty and her family reside in Eastern Washington near Tri-Cities, home of Mercy Thompson—yes, it’s a real place! When not working on the next book, she can be found playing truant out in her horse pastures, playing with the newest babies. For more information about Patricia Briggs and her marvelous novels, visit the author on the web at www.patriciabriggs.com or on Facebook.
Other WordFire Titles
Our list of other WordFire Press authors and titles is always growing. To find out more and to see our selection of titles, visit us at:
wordfirepress.com
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