Nikky Lee is an award-winning author who grew up as a barefoot 90s kid in Perth, Western Australia on Whadjuk Noongar Country. She now lives in Aotearoa New Zealand with a husband, a dog and a couch potato cat. In her free time she writes speculative fiction, often burning the candle at both ends to explore fantastic worlds, mine asteroids and meet wizards. She's had over two dozen stories published in magazines, anthologies and on radio. Her short fiction has been shortlisted six times in the Aurealis Awards with her novelette Dingo & Sister winning the Best Young Adult Short Story and the Best Fantasy Novella categories in 2020. In 2021, she received a Ditmar Award for Best New Talent. Her debut novel The Rarkyn's Familiar won the 2023 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Youth Novel, three 2022 Indie Ink Awards, Bronze in Young Adult Fiction at the 2022 Foreward INDIES Book of the Year Awards, and was a finalist in the 2022 Aurealis Awards for Best Young Adult Novel.

Sasha Hanton grew up in the tropics of Darwin, Northern Territory. From a young age, she devoured books and iced coffee, both of which she continues to intake on an almost daily basis. Now living on beautiful Bribie Island in Queensland her time is split between writing and spoiling her puppy Miley. Sasha, who has a Bachelor of Journalism from Bond University, has dabbled in the journalistic profession but finds fiction far more fascinating. Her first published work The Short Story Press Collection draws on her love for a diverse range of genres and passion for short stories. Coming from a multicultural background (Eurasian) she aspires to make her writing inclusive for people from all walks of life and to bring a unique blend of eastern and western culture to her writing. Throughout her life, she has been a lover of history and mythology, and at any time will find some way to worm one or the other into her storytelling. When she’s not writing or reading she can be found walking her dog and volunteering. You can keep up with her writing over on www.theshortstorypress.wordpress.com

Stephen is an IT Geek, writer, actor and film maker based in Canberra Australia. He has been writing for over twenty years and has completed a couple of dodgy novels, sixteen feature length screenplays and dozens of short stories and scripts. Stephen’s scripts, TITAN, Dark are the Woods, Control and Death Spores have found success in the international screenwriting competitions with a win, two runner-up and two top ten finishes. His horror stories have featured in Sproutlings, Hells Bells, Below the Stairs, Trickster’s Treats #1 and #2, Shades of Santa, Behind the Mask, Beyond the Infinite, Beside the Seaside, The Body Horror Book, Anemone Enemy, Petrified Punks and Beginnings. His Sherlock Holmes stories have been published in Sherlock Holmes in the realms of H.G. Wells, Sherlock Holmes: Adventures beyond the Canon, The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes stories: Part XI and will soon be seen in Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the realms of Steampunk, The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes stories: Part XIV & XVI. Later this year, Stephen will appear in A Tribute to H.G. Wells, and has had over twenty drabbles accepted for the Curses and Cauldrons, Blood and Bitemarks, Worlds, Angels and Monsters anthologies.

By day, a manager at a well-known bookstore chain in Melbourne, Australia, moonlighting as a ghoulish horror author by night. Marcus lives to share his passion for the written word – whether it’s in recommending books someone else has written, or in sharing his own. He particularly likes to use words to scare the shit out of people. A dedicated horror aficionado, Marcus is also a gamer, metal-head/elder emo kid, voracious reader, and may be a little too obsessed with Cthulhu, the apocalyptic hubris of mankind and the inevitable heat death of the universe. Marcus lives with bipolar II disorder. He uses his experience to inform his bipolar- and mental illness themed podcast, “Letters From The Edge”, available to listen on Spotify and other major podcast/radio platforms.

My name is Zoey Xolton, and I’m an Australian Speculative Fiction Author. I like to daydream, and write stories about the beautiful and improbable, the dark and fantastical, as well as the adventurous and utterly romantic! Whether it’s fairy tales, fantasy, horror, paranormal romance, urban fantasy, or science-fiction…I dabble in it. I have featured in over 100 anthologies to date, and am currently working on progressively longer stories. I pray you enjoy, and fall in love with the deliciously tempting tales, and the characters that I bring into the world. My writing is my guilty pleasure…perhaps reading it will become one of yours? To find out more, please visit: www.zoeyxolton.com!

I am a lover of books and whisky, and both at the same time. I'm lucky enough to put words on paper and sometimes have it turn into STUFF! I'll write whatever I dang well want, but usually my mind leads me to contemporary fantasy and the paranormal/supernatural. If asked why I write what I do, the first response is usually "Because it entertains me". I have a wide range of reading interests, both non-fiction and fiction, in a range of genres. I like a good bit of action, but will preference stories with vibrant and relatable characters. Note: I am not affiliated with any form of goldfish.