Authors

 GD Deckard Severely beaten as a child by a WWII hero and combat-induced-PTSD stepfather, the author, as a teen, faced the old man down with a shotgun and earned his blessing to join the military at the time Americans were learning about a country called Vietnam. The “lazy, no good son-of-a-bitch” opted out of combat and hard labor by becoming an Air Force medic, stamping out suffering and misery on Freedom’s Frontier at Clark Hospital in S.E. Asia and earning some kind of medal personally pinned on him by then Secretary of the Air Force, Harold Brown, for “Saving lives, etc.”
There followed a summer in Europe ending in the first of happy marriages. Then graduation with University Honors, kids worth dying for and a career in business. Life is good. Details: GD Deckard
Author, The Phoenix Diary. Founder, Sci-Fi Lampoon Magazine. Recipient of the Psi Young award for Creative Biography.

 Atthys J Gage is the author of Spark and Flight of the Wren, both available at Amazon.com. He also blogs at Speak More Light. His third book, Whisper Blue, is available from Black Opal Books and can be easily found at Amazon or Kobo or many other places.

Mimi Speike has been kicking around this mean old planet for seventy years. She has many tales to tell, a number of which have found their way into her major work (a comic novel set in the sixteenth century) in one form or another. Others, based on her adventures in Boston’s notorious Combat Zone in her hippie-dippy twenties, are probably best unreported. She outgrew the hippie, but not the dippy, as many can attest to. To straighten up and fly right, as her father used to say, seems to be beyond her. She works what the hell to the max in her screwball storytelling.

Curtis Bausse. The birth, by all accounts, was long and difficult. At one point it was feared that Curtis had got lost, or gone off to explore. Either that or he’d received inside information about the outside, and decided it wasn’t for him. Eventually, though, he had to bow to the inevitable. This particular journey was strictly one way. Upon emerging, he took one look around and screamed his head off. Hastily putting it back on, the midwife held up the howling result by the ankles. ‘Isn’t that sweet?’ she said. ‘His first tantrum.’ Curtis decided then that he wanted to write. One Green Bottle and Perfume Island are the first two books in the Magali Rousseau Detective series. He blogs at curtisbaussebooks.

Tom Wolosz. Wanted to write sci-fi since I first read a book about a space station.  I think I remember actually writing a story when I was about 7, then lost my nerve.  Finally said to myself, damn it – do it!  Of course, it took about 50 years.  Well, better late than never, eh?  So to all those folks like me who walk around with stories in their heads – do it! Write it.  You’ll never regret it whether it gets published or not.  Visit my Web Page at TomWolosz.com for more advice on writing (it’s free, so as the old saying goes: it’s worth what it costs!).

Perry Palin. I grew up in the country, and went away to the city for marriage, family, and a series of day jobs. I stayed in some of those jobs for far too long. Retired in 2016, I now spend my time in trout fishing and volunteer work, and as a farm hand in fence repair, gardening, landscaping, light carpentry, and as a whisperer to honey bees, laying hens, and driving horses. I’ve had short fiction and creative non-fiction appear in local and regional newsletters, journals, and magazines. I write stories about people, but because of who I am the stories usually take place outdoors. Two short story collections have been published by a small traditional publisher. I am finishing my first novel, and now I have to decide what to do with it.

Carl E. Reed joined the Marine Corps in 1981 at age 17 and worked the next four years as a photo-journalist in the Far East. Upon discharge in 1985 a mind-numbing succession of sales and marketing jobs followed. He has done improvisational theater, 1000-mile rides on a succession of V-twin motorcycles, and a brief stint as a door-to-door salesman for Encyclopaedia Britannica. (Best job ever.) Carl’s penultimate job was taxi driver. He currently works the showroom for a window, siding, & door company just outside Chicago. His poetry has been published in The Iconoclast and Spectral Realms; short stories in Black Gate and newWitch magazines.

Old Spice, Alien, Earth Mission Commander, represented here by Lizbeth, his ventriloquist doll and Official Translator, wishes, First, to make it perfectly clear that rumors about his family banishing him to Earth over an incident involving his father’s mistress are misleading. Second, his Spaceness looks forward to many happy encounters with you natives. Finally, please address all inquiries, supplications and complaints to myself, Lizbeth, as Himself has difficulties with English as a Second Language.

Follow Old Spice’s adventures in the blog, Writing DaysZ,

Rob Akers was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in April 1969. His family moved to a tiny Mayberry town outside of Memphis, Tennessee in 1980. He spent the formative years goofing off, skipping school and being a general nuisance in his world. On the rare day when he actually went to school, he sat in the back of the class looking out a window or daydreaming about being the hero of a future life. When a movie called Top Gun debuted at the local movie theater, his dreams changed from being a rock star to being a pilot. He attended Arkansas State University in 1987 and generally just had a good time in college living that life. Graduating in 1991 just after the conclusion of the first Gulf War, Rob went to the Air Force recruiter ready to become “Maverick.”

The recruiter asked three questions.
What is your Major? Answer Psychology.
What is your GPA? Answer 2.2.
Have you ever flown an airplane? No.
The recruiter started to laugh and told young Rob that he would never be an Air Force pilot. Four years later, Rob had earned his Commercial Pilot’s License, a Master’s Degree and was starting Air Force Flight School.
Rob became an Instructor Pilot in the C-130, he served in three wars and read hundreds of books while letting the autopilot fly the airplane at altitude or laying in a tent. In 2003, a story started to germinate in his head. By 2008, it had reached critical mass and was begging to be placed onto paper. Rob accepted the challenge and began to teach himself how to write. Currently, that story is being professionally edited and will see the light of the day in 2018.

Rob has been married to Donetta for fifteen years. They have two kids, two cats and a dog. They make their home in Scott Depot, West Virginia. He has been a pilot for a major airline for fourteen years and is currently a Captain on the Boeing 757. He hosts a blog at robakers.wordpress.com

Bill McCormick began writing professionally in 1986 when he worked for Chicago Rocker Magazine in conjunction with his radio show on Z-95 (ABC-FM). He went on to write for several other magazines and later transitioned to blogs. He wrote a sports blog at Jay The Joke which was featured in ESPN (The Magazine), Sports Illustrated, on the Jonathon Brandmeir Show (WLUP), and referenced many times in local newspapers including the Sun Times & Tribune. He still writes a twisted news blog at World News Center which provides source material for his weekly appearances on The Big Wake Up Call which airs on WBIG 1280 AM, FOX! Sports. Yes, you read that correctly, he does a show about anything other than sports on a sports radio station even though he has written extensively about sports.

In 2011, Bill started submitting some fictional short stories to various publishers. Much to his surprise, and the consternation of linguists everywhere, they began publishing his efforts. Bill has expanded his repertoire to include comic books, graphic novels, and full length novels. He has currently penned everything from dystopian nightmares to cuddly children’s stories.

Bill is a big fan of nicotine, vodka, music, and this rambunctious redhead (formerly a bottle blonde) who keeps waking up in his bed.