John Griffith Chaney (1876-1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction. His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories, "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay", and "The Heathen". London was part of the radical literary group, "The Crowd," in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of unionization, workers' rights, and socialism. He wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel, The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, War of the Classes, and Before Adam. London died November 22, 1916, in a sleeping porch in a cottage on his ranch. London's ashes were buried on his property, not far from the Wolf House. The grave is marked by a mossy boulder. The buildings and property were later preserved as Jack London State Historic Park, in Glen Ellen, California.

A Colorado native, Sam Knight spent ten years in California’s wine country before returning to the Rockies. When asked if he misses California, he gets a wistful look in his eyes and replies he misses the green mountains in the winter, but he is glad to be back home. As well as having been Distribution Manager for WordFire Press and Senior Editor for Villainous Press, Sam Knight started his own publishing company, Knight Writing Press, and has curated and edited over a dozen anthologies and is the author of six children’s books, four short story collections, four novels, and over 75 short stories, including three co-authored with Kevin J. Anderson, two of which were media tie-ins: a Planet of the Apes story and a Wayward Pines story. He can be found at SamKnight.com and contacted at Sam@samknight.com.

S. A. Bolich is a fulltime freelancer with a number of published fantasy stories as well as many nonfiction articles in print and on the web, covering a wide variety of subjects from horsemanship to travel (usually with an historical slant) to the state of Flash web design. A native of Washington state, she resides there again after serving six years in Germany as a regular army military intelligence officer. She graduated summa cum laude from college with a degree in history, which she confesses was greatly aided by devouring historical fiction of every era and kind through her formative years. Since then she has taught web design, trained horses, spent a few hectic and thoroughly enjoyable years volunteering with the United States Pony Clubs (kids and horses, oh, my!), worked in global marketing and project management, and finally managed a long-overdue escape from corporate world to write. Her first published short story earned an honorable mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror; other stories have earned honorable mentions from Writers of the Future and 5th place in the Preditors and Editors online poll for best fantasy short (2009). Her first novel, Firedancer, appeared in September 2011. She is currently working on the sequel to Firedancer, "Windrider." You can find some of her previous work in: Beneath Ceaseless Skies (December 2009) Defending the Future IV: No Man's Land Wolfsongs 2 On Spec (Fall 2010) On Spec (Summer 2002) Science Fiction Trails (March 2009) Damnation Books (September 2009, a short published as an e-book)

Dorothy Davies, medium, writer, editor, all round crazy woman who loves history in all forms and all time periods. I love to drive, photograph and most of all - read! I live on the Isle of Wight, that most beautiful place off the English coast, where I can indulge in all my hobbies and occupation surrounded by beautiful countryside and inspiring views. My books can be read as channeled direct from the spirit author or as a good piece of historical fiction. Either way, there are many of them to come! I hope you will enjoy them. (via Amazon.com)