I live in the teeny, tiny town of Taylor, NY, (Alliteration Alert!) though my mailing address is Cincinnatus, my telephone exchange is Truxton and I pay taxes and vote in Cuyler. All of these are at least in the same rural county in the southern hills of New York State; Cortland County. There are more cattle than people here. The nearest “big” cities are Syracuse and Binghamton and they are an hour away, in different directions, and not really all that big by most standards, though they both seem humongous to me. I look out my window to see rolling, green, thickly forested hills, wildflower laden meadows and wide open blue, blue skies. My road is barely paved. The nearest neighboring place is a 700 acre dairy farm. My house is a big, century old farmhouse. I moved in here after my divorce in 2006. Just a little over a year later, the house, which I had named, SERENITY, burned. It was 99% gutted, and I lost my two dogs, Sally, an 11-year-old great Dane, and Wrinkles, my 14-year-old, blind bulldog. This was the culmination of my Dark Night of the soul, which had seemed to hit me all at once in 2006-2007. My mother died that year, after a 14 month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was only 60. The youngest of my five daughters had left home that same year, and while that’s not a tragedy at all, it felt like one to me. Then came the divorce. And finally there was the fire—it seemed my darkest night wasn’t quite finished with me after all. I had lost almost everything before that point, and as I poked through the wet ashes and soot the next day, I realized that I had now been stripped all the way to the bone. No better time to start over. (And no, I didn’t come to that realization that day—there were a few days of wallowing in pity first, particularly the day after the fire, when I hit a deer and smashed up my car, which I was practically living in!) That’s when I started to laugh. Just sat on the side of the road as the deer bounded, uninjured and carefree, out of sight, and laughed. It was just too ridiculous at that point, to do anything else! And from there, I picked myself up, and brushed myself off, and said, okay, there’s only one way to go from here. Forward. And that’s what I did. There I was at the age of harrurmphemmph, living in my one, mostly undamaged remaining room, with a dorm-sized mini-fridge, a futon, a TV, my cat (nine lives!) and a laptop. And not much else. (Though thank goodness the room that survived the fire, was a room that had its own attached bathroom!) Since then I have rebuilt my beloved home, which really has become my haven, my “Serenity.” I share it now with my fiancé, Lance, and we have accumulated quite the little family together. “Little” being a relative term. We have a pair of English Mastiffs, Dozer and Daisy, who weigh 203 pounds and 208 pounds respectively, and a little pudgy English Bulldog named Niblet, who is bigger than both of them, inside her mind. We also have the aforementioned cat, Glorificus (“Glory” for short,) who adores her canine pups and keeps them firmly in line. And we've acquired a pair of stray cats as well, a mother and son, Luna (Lulu for short) and Butters aka Buddy. Lulu showed up pregnant during a lunar eclipse, had a litter, and vanished again. We found homes for all the kittens except one. Butters. We got him fixed and kept him. A few months later, Lulu returned, again expecting. This litter was born on the "Monster Moon." Again, all the kittens were spayed and neutered and placed in homes, and this time we got Lulu to the vet in time to spay her before the cycle could repeat. Glory is not amused. She has a story of her own, my old Glory cat, having been with me before the Dark Times descended, she went through it all with me, moved with me, survived the fire, and remains with me still. She's tolerating the newcomers. Barely. My partner is an artist, a mechanic, a welder and an inventor, and the rumors are true, he is much younger than I

USA Today bestselling author Elda Minger is a RITA finalist and has won numerous awards, including Romantic Times' Best American Romance. She is well known in the romance world for over two dozen romance novels, both series and historical, and numerous novellas. She is a popular speaker, and has given several very well received lectures at National Conferences and Universities. Elda lives in Los Angeles with her family, both two and four footed.

Christine Feehan is a #1 New York Times bestselling author multiple times over with her portfolio including over 90 published novels, including five series; Dark Series, GhostWalker Series, Leopard Series, Drake Sisters Series, the Sisters of the Heart Series, Shadow Riders and Torpedo Ink. All of her series have hit the #1 spot on the New York Times bestselling list as well. Her debut novel Dark Prince received 3 of the 9 Paranormal Excellence Awards in Romantic Literature (PEARL) in 1999. Since then she has been published by various publishing houses including Leisure Books, Pocket Books, and currently is writing for Berkley/Jove. She also has earned 7 more PEARL awards since Dark Prince. Her series include: The Dark Series - https://www.christinefeehan.com/darkb... The GhostWalker series- https://www.christinefeehan.com/ghost... The Leopard Series - https://www.christinefeehan.com/leopa... The Shadow Series- https://www.christinefeehan.com/shado... Torpedo Ink series- https://www.christinefeehan.com/torpe... IN HER WORDS: I've been a writer all of my life—it is who I am. I write for myself and always have. The ability to create pictures and emotions with words is such a miracle to me. I read everything; I mean everything! All kinds of books, even encyclopedias. I am fascinated by the written word and I love storytellers. It is a great privilege to be counted one myself. (www.christinefeehan.com)

Sabrina Jeffries is the NYT bestselling author of over 50 novels and works of short fiction (some written under the pseudonyms Deborah Martin and Deborah Nicholas). Whatever time not spent writing in a coffee-fueled haze of dreams and madness is spent traveling with her husband and adult autistic son or indulging in one of her passions—jigsaw puzzles, chocolate, and music. With over 9 million books in print in 22 different languages, the North Carolina author never regrets tossing aside a budding career in academics for the sheer joy of writing fun fiction, and hopes that one day a book of hers will end up saving the world. She always dreams big.

Angela Knight is an American author of mostly erotic fantasy. She was a reporter for ten years and a comic book author. She lives in South Carolina. First published under Red Sage, she was able to write romantic fiction for the first time in 1996. She published several short stories in their Secrets anthologies. Editor Cindy Hwang brought her to Berkley Publishing and has helped her become a best selling author. When developing her Mageverse series she wanted to create a unique spin on the vampire tale. Taking the Arthurian legend and twisting it, she has vampires that are not evil, still possess their souls, and can reproduce. Merlin was an alien who traveled to Earth from the Mageverse (an alternate world where magic is everywhere) to establish protectors. Merlin's race had seen species that destroyed themselves as they advanced. To avoid this, he searched Earth for worthy men and women who would give everything to protect others. After drinking from the Grail, men became Magi, vampires and women became Majae, witches. They have a symbiotic relationship. The Magi have to drink blood from the Majae to help absorb the energies of the Mageverse. The Majae have to donate blood or they will suffer heart attack from excess blood and elevated pressure. The Majae are the magic in the Mageverse. The Magi also sleep during the day as another means of gaining magic. The men and women could theoretically live forever, should they not be killed. They are capable of reproducing with mortals to ensure that there are more potential candidates to recruit. Anyone born of such a union is a Latent. Their Gift, becoming Magi or Majae, is triggered by three or sexual encounters with a Gifted man or woman. A Latent must be approved by the Magi or Majae councils. Many can not psychologically handle the impact of the Mageverse (It can trigger insanity). There are professional court seducers who Gift latents on the Councils orders. On Mageverse Earth, there are Fairies, Dragons, Unicorns and the city of Avalon where the Magi and Majae live. They magically create gates to travel to Realspace Earth. The Fairies are featured in Master of the Moon, which has King Llyr of the Faeries. Merlin, who knows that power can corrupt, created another magical species in case the Magi and Majae become out of control. These are werewolves. They do not have to wait until the full moon to change. They are a rigid society that has been hidden from their inception. In Master of Wolves, the werewolves declare themselves and fight alongside the Magi and the Fairies. Master of Swords introduces the dragons of Mageverse in more depth and the hero for Master of Dragons is introduced. Futuristic Books Jane's Warlord introduces Jane Colby, a 20th century reporter. Baran Arvid is sent back from the future to protect her from another time traveler, Druas. Druas travels back in time to commit the Jack the Ripper murders and his next target is Jane. Baran is a technologically and genetically enhanced human classified as a Warlord. Mercenaires is three short stories (originally published electronically) set in a future like Baran’s. They can be technologically and genetically enhanced. Space travel has extended to other galaxies and other life forms have been discovered. Humans have established many new colonies on planets capable of sustaining life.