One evening when I was only a small boy, my father allowed me to stay up late with him and watch NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD on television. He fell asleep, but I waited for the end. I couldn’t believe they’d let the lead guy die after all that. I was horrified. Later that summer we went to the drive-in, which was a big deal in Norwalk, Connecticut in the 1970s. Everyone went. We all piled into the Bomb, our old station wagon, and saw lots of movies there. There was a swing set right up front where a many of the little kids congregated. We got a kick out of that, especially during GREASE, because there was a similar set-up in the movie. One night, though, there was a double-feature that I’ll never forget. Demon Seed scared me, and the unforgettable images still haunt me. The film that followed, though, ruined me for good. ALIEN. I don’t think I walked past my attic door after dark that entire summer for fear the alien would snatch me up and away. Soon I couldn’t even go to the beach. JAWS waited for us. Of course, this was also the time I discovered my father’s treasure trove of old horror comics, most of which I still have safe and sound. My imagination was on fire. We went to some of the early science fiction conventions in New York. I found Fangoria, and used Tom Savini’s Grande Illusions book in an attempt to make my own monsters at home, and experimented with that for several fake-bloodstained years. Eventually, though, I realized my favorite part was in dreaming up the ideas. In all truth, I was better in that regard than in any of my make-ups. During middle school I put out a xeroxed fanzine Castle Gore that I sold to my classmates for a quarter an issue. Inside, alongside my reviews of whatever movies were coming out, I put some of my own short stories. By the time I was thirteen I’d completed my first novel . . . novella, really . . . about a time-traveling teenager who saves the world from a monster bred in a Victorian scientist’s lab. He used a flying go-kart to do so. Songwriting found me. For years I toured with rock n’ roll bands, opening for national acts, and all the while, writing lots of lyrics, poems, and short stories. Winding up at Emerson College, I truly found myself. My short stories were finally professionally published in some of the local academic literary magazines, and also my script He’d Hoped For Mars won the Latent Image Magazine screenwriting contest, but was turned into a successful short film, scored by Aaron Logan at nearby Berklee College of Music. After college I moved to Los Angeles, taking an internship with Ridley Scott. That was a phenomenal time in my life, and I learned so much. I worked on many big budget films, and got to see how those films I grew up with really came together. Of course, being in that hotbox, I wrote lots of scripts. Had an option or three, and produced a couple of low-budget films while I was at it. Something happened, though. The movies of the scripts often came out so differently than the original ideas. Budget compromises. With writing stories, well, the only limit is your imagination. You’re not limited to how much money you have, or time, or your location, or the skill of the CG artists on your team. Shifting gears to prose has not been easy. I had hundreds of rejections from top markets until I began to place my stories. That is not an exaggeration. It was harder to place a pro-level fiction piece than find financing for my first film. I love the challenge, and few things have been as satisfying. My journey continues, of course. All these years later, we finally have the release of my novel NERVES from Bad Moon Books in the winter of 2012. In the meantime, there’s lots of short stories appearing soon, and several movie projects, too. Thanks for reading. Best, John Palisano

My first novel, RELEASE, was published by Nightscape Press in 2015. I'm also the author of a number of short stories, including "I Love You Mary-Grace", as featured in The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eleven (ed. Ellen Datlow, 2019). This story was also audio-adapted by Jason Hill, of Chilling Tales' Horror Hill podcast, and can be listened to here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5xBr... Some of my stories can be read online, including: "The Bridegroom" (stand-alone ebook, published by The Book Smugglers, also available for free on their site: http://thebooksmugglers.com/2015/10/t...) "Blue Highway" (Yen Magazine #65; winner of their first short story contest; available to read for free online: http://www.yenmag.net/artery/blue-hig...) "These Blasted Lands" (After The Fall, ed. Alex Davis; available to read for free online: https://boohoobooks.files.wordpress.c...)

Jan Edwards - winner of the Arnold Bennett Book Prize with Winter Downs - Bunch Courtney Investigation #1. She also has the Winchester Slim Volume prize and British Fantasy KEW award. Plus a joint British Fantasy Award for best Small Press (Alchemy Press). Her latest book. In Her Defence - Bunch Courtney Investigation #2 is available now in paper and kindle formats! Her short fiction can be found in crime, horror and fantasy anthologies in UK, US and Europe. Jan edits anthologies for The Alchemy Press and Fox Spirit Press, and has written for Dr Who spinoffs with Reel Time Pictures as well as a short story in the accompanying book. More details available at : http://janedwardsblog.wordpress.com/ Newsletter signup https://www.facebook.com/Janedwardsbo...

Tim Dry played J’Quille – Whiphid and a Mon Calamari Officer in Star Wars Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi. He also played The Alien in the cult Horror / Sci Fi movie XTRO. In the early to mid 1980s he was half of the legendary robotic mime / music duo Tik & Tok. They released 5 singles and a chart album Intolerance in the UK, Europe and Japan. They supported Duran Duran, Adam Ant, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan and Ultravox. Tik & Tok reformed briefly in 2005 and wrote, recorded and released a brand new album Dream Orphans in 2007, which is still available on the official Tik & Tok website. Tim is also an award-winning Photographic Artist, whose subjects have included Mick Jagger, Barbie Wilde, Steven Berkoff, The Mediaeval Baebes, author Rupert Thomson and Joan Collins. His unique art has been exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery, Gallery 286 in London, the Royal Photographic Society, the Association of Photographers Gallery and in Hamburg, Berlin, New York and at the Arts Club in London. As an actor Tim appeared in more than 90 TV Commercials in the UK and Europe. He has had featured roles in the films The 10th Kingdom, Soup and Decadence, and UK TV shows such as The Bill, Eastenders, Casualty, Goodbye Mr Steadman and Father Ted. In 2010 Tim played the title role in the short horror/comedy film SON Of Nosferatu. 2014 sees Tim in two independent movies: the martial arts/gangster tale Le Accelerator and the surreal short Pier Pressure. Tim’s memoir of his involvement in Jedi and of his subsequent appearances from 2003 at worldwide at autograph conventions, Continuum - The Star Wars Phenomenon As Experienced From The Inside, was released in 2012 as an ebook and is available on Amazon, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook etc. A re-edited and revamped version of his autobiography Falling Upwards – Scenes From A Life was published by Bear Claw Books in October 2013. It contains a 20,000 word update from 2005 to 2013. Tim has also contributed articles to Forbes magazine and currently has short stories in three horror anthologies, namely The Bestiarum Vocabulum (Western Legends Press), Demonology (Static Movement) and Phobophobias (Dark Continents Publishing). The first in a series of dark fiction novellas entitled Ricochet by Tim Dry will be published by Theatrum Mundi in early 2015.

Originally from Gabriola Island, Adrian Chamberlain has written about arts and entertainment for the Times Colonist since 1987. His Backstage column appears each Saturday. As well, he writes a column for the Sunday books pages. Before coming to Victoria, he was an arts writer for the Winnipeg Free Press. Chamberlain has won three B.C. Newspaper Awards for arts writing. In his spare time, he plays keyboard for a rhythm and blues band. His heroes are Ricky Gervais, Larry David, Ray Charles, Christopher Walken, and Aretha Franklin.

Lily Childs... writes dark fiction, horror and chilling mysteries. She is currently completing her first novel, a supernatural asylum thriller set in the south of England. Her gothic horrors, ghost stories and crime tales have been published in anthologies, most recently: The House of Three: a Short Story (Ganglion Press), The Twistweaver’s Son in The Demonologia Biblica (Western Legends Publishing), The Ossillatrice Shift in Bones (James Ward Kirk Fiction), Strange Tastes in Fresh Fear (James Ward Kirk Fiction), Girl Don’t Come in Thirteen (Soul Bay Press), Rapture in The Bestiarum Vocabulum (Western Legends Publishing) and Bad Exposure in Phobophobias 2 (Western Legends Publishing) Cabaret of Dread: a Horror Compendium (2012) is a gathering of Lily’s terrifying tales, and a selection of her poems was published in Courting Demons - A Collection Of Dark Verse in 2011. Lily is also author of the Magenta Shaman dark urban fantasy, short story series. Her psychological crime thriller Carpaccio was nominated for a Spinetingler Award in 2011. She is a member of The British Fantasy Society and former Horror Editor at Thrillers Killers 'n' Chillers e-zine. Blog: The Feardom http://lilychildsfeardom.blogspot.com Twitter @LilyChilds and Facebook.com/LilyChildsFeardom