“Introduction to the Body in Fairy Tales” was originally published in Phantom Drift, edited by David Memmott, Martha Bayliss, Leslie What, and Matt Schumacher.
Neil Gaiman is the Newbery Medal — winning author of The Graveyard Book and a New York Times bestselling author. Several of his books, including Coraline, have been made into major motion pictures. He is also famous for writing the Sandman graphic novel series and numerous other books and comics for adult, young adult, and younger readers. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, Mythopoeic, and World Fantasy awards, among others. He is also the author of powerful short stories and poems.
For more information: www.neilgaiman.com/
“Down to a Sunless Sea” was originally published at www.guardian.com
Brian Hodge is the award-winning author of eleven novels spanning horror, crime, and historical. He’s also written around 110 short stories, novelettes, and novellas, and five full-length collections. His first collection, The Convulsion Factory, was ranked by critic Stanley Wiater among the 113 best books of modern horror. Recent or forthcoming books include Whom the Gods Would Destroy and The Weight of the Dead, both standalone novellas; No Law Left Unbroken, a collection of crime fiction; a newly revised hardcover edition of Dark Advent, his early post-apocalyptic epic; Worlds of Hurt, an omnibus edition of the first four works of his Misbegotten mythos; and Leaves of Sherwood.
Hodge lives in Colorado, where more of everything is in the works. He also dabbles in music, sound design, and photography; loves everything about organic gardening except the thieving squirrels; and trains in Krav Maga, grappling, and kickboxing, which are of no use at all against the squirrels.
Connect through his web site (www.brianhodge.net) or on Facebook (.www.facebook.com/brianhodgewriter).
“The Same Deep Waters as You” was originally published in Weirder Shadows over Innsmouth, edited by Stephen Jones.
Jane Jakeman is a British author who has published crime and ghost stories in Supernatural Tales, Ghosts and Scholars, and All Hallows, some of which were reprinted in the collection A Bracelet of Bright Hair. She has travelled widely in the Middle East and lives in Oxford, United Kingdom, with her Egyptologist husband and two small black cats.
“Majorlena” was originally published in Supernatural Tales, edited by David Longhorn.
KJ Kabza’s short stories have appeared in Nature, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily Science Fiction, AE: The Canadian Science Fiction Review, Buzzy Mag, Flash Fiction Online, New Myths, and many others.
He currently lives in sunny Tucson, but he sort of misses the Gothic atmosphere of late autumn in New England, if he’s being honest. For updates on forthcoming releases and links to free fiction, you can follow him on Twitter @KJKabza and peruse www.kjkabza.com.
“The Soul in the Bell Jar” was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, edited by Gordon Van Gelder.
Derek Künsken has built genetically-engineered viruses; worked with street children in Latin America; served five years as a Canadian diplomat; and, most importantly, teaches his nine-year-old son about superheroes, skiing, and science. He writes science fiction, fantasy, and sometimes horror in Ottawa, and can be found at www.derekkunsken.com.
His fiction has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies, and he recently received the 2012 Asimov’s Readers’ Award for his novelette The Way of the Needle. “The Dog’s Paw” had been kicking around in his head for a while, but came out of his pen in Port-au-Prince in the weeks after the earthquake of 2010.
“The Dog’s Paw” was originally published in Chilling Tales: In Words, Alas, Drown I, edited by Michael Kelly.
Linda Nagata is the author of multiple novels and short stories including The Bohr Maker, winner of the Locus Award for best first novel, and the novella Goddesses, the first online publication to receive a Nebula award. Her story “Nahiku West” was a finalist for the 2013 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. Her newest novel is the near-future military thriller The Red: First Light. Linda has spent most of her life in Hawaii, where she’s been a writer, a mom, a programmer of database-driven websites, and lately an independent publisher. She lives with her husband in their long-time home on the island of Maui. Find her online at: MythicIsland.com
“Halfway Home” was originally published in Nightmare Magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams.
Kim Newman was born in Brixton (London), grew up in the West Country, went to University near Brighton, and now lives in Islington (London).
His most recent fiction books include Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the d’Urbervilles, Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard, and An English Ghost Stories. His nonfiction books include Ghastly Beyond Belief (with Neil Gaiman), Horror: 100 Best Books and Horror: Another 100 Best Books (both with Stephen Jones), and a host of books on film. He is a contributing editor to Sight & Sound and Empire magazines and has written and broadcast widely on a range of topics, scripting radio documentaries and TV programs. He has won the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Critics Award, the British Science Fiction Award, and the British Fantasy Award. His official website, “Dr Shade’s Laboratory,” can be found at www.johnnyalucard.com.
“The Only Ending We Have” was originally published in Psycho-Mania, edited by Stephen Jones.
Lynda E. Rucker is an American writer currently living in Dublin, Ireland. Her fiction has appeared in such places as The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Black Static, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, Postscripts, Shadows & Tall Trees, and Supernatural Tales. She is a regular columnist for Black Static, and her first collection, The Moon Will Look Strange, was published in 2013.
She blogs very occasionally at lyndaerucker.wordpress.com and tweets more frequently as @lyndaerucker.
“The House on Cobb Street” was originally published in Nightmare Magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams.
Priya Sharma went to medical school when anatomy was taught by dissection of cadavers and inappropriate mnemonics. “The Anatomist’s Mnemonic” started life as a love story but Priya soon got a grip of herself and made it into something darker. However, long before she learned where the scaphoid bone is located, she was taught about heart, head, and life lines.