Joanne Anderton ("When the Mountain Weeps") lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband (who paints) and 2.5 cats (who try to play with the brush). They keep her entertained. She loves speculative fiction and has been making up strange stories for as long as she can remember. When she's forced to step out of her head and interact with the 'real' world, she works in the distribution and marketing side of a small Australian press.

Joanne's writing has appeared in Shadowed Realms, Deep Magic, Flash Me Magazine and Book of Shadows: Vol One. She's also a member of the Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine Co-operative.

http://navicat.livejournal.com/

F.J. Bergmann ("The Dream Tinker") is mostly from Wisconsin. After exciting previous lives starting Thoroughbreds for the track and illustrating manuals of zoönotic diseases, she currently sells used books, maintains websites and a poem-submission service, PoemFactotum, and has more chickens than is reasonable. She claims to have an MFA from the School of the Americas. While she has been extensively published as a poet, this is only her second short-story publication. Her first published short story, Pale Horse, won the 2006 Mary Shelley Imaginative Fiction contest and was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award.

http://fibitz.com/

Susan J Boulton ("All Things Seen") has lived all her life in the English countryside. She is married with two grown up daughters.

Her short story, "Death Won't Be Cheated", was accepted for the third issue of the award-winning magazine, Event Horizon by Mam-Tor Publishing. Her flash fiction story "Aftermath", was published in the first edition of the Australian Anthology, FlashSpec. The story was also among those nominated in the SF short story section for the Aurealis Awards in Queensland, Australia, for 2006.

http://susanjboulton.livejournal.com/

Nike Bourke, BA(CA), BA(Hons), PhD, ("The Secret Cure") teaches in the creative writing and cultural studies discipline at Queensland University of Technology. In 2000, Nike won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Emerging Queensland Author for her novel The Bone Flute which was released by UQP in 2001. Her children's book, What the Sky Knows, was published in May 2005 and has been shortlisted for two separate categories in the 2006 Children's Book Council of Australia Awards. Her adult novel, 'The True Green of Hope' was released in August 2005. She has been a ghost writer for a long time, which isn't nearly as exciting and spooky as it sounds. She is also a regular reviewer for the Courier Mail.

She has four children, none of whom have ever been expelled from school, though they have tried.

Mark M. Cagnacci ("A Year by the Lake") grew up in South Africa during the closing years of apartheid, and is currently a student. Touched by Wonder introduces Mark's fiction to print.

Stephanie Campisi's ("The Boomerang Effect") fiction has been published in various venues in the US, the UK, and her native Australia. She divides her time rather unequally between her studies, work, and procrastination.

Terrie Czechowski, ("What the Cat Knew") while born and raised in the States, has spent the last sixteen years living in a small Japanese fishing town. Here she works part time as a counselor, newsletter writer and DJ on a local radio program. Her short stories have appeared in various literary and speculative journals on and offline.

http://terrieczechowski.com/

Ivan Faute ("A Thing Enclosed") is a doctoral student in the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His work was chosen as a finalist for The Southeast Review's The World's Best Short Short Story Contest and the Calvino Prize sponsored by the University of Louisville. He is the founder and editor of Uptown Books and serves on the board of the Promethean Theatre Ensemble.

Stefanie Freele ("From Across the River") is a student of the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA program in Washington and has recently completed her first novel. Her recent credits include South Dakota Review, Westview, Pebble Lake Review, Hobart, and Cafe Irreal. She will have upcoming work in American Literary Review, and Talking River.

R. Thomas Hogg ("Twice in the River") is currently a Ph.D. student in New York City. His stories have appeared in The Fairfield Review, Ascent Aspirations, and Naked Snake. His fantasy novel, Eva, Redux, is currently being prepared for publication with Bohemian Ink Publishing.

Donna Hughes ("Hotel Clapshott") is the nom de plume of K. M. Bullock, writer and illustrator of children's books. Her writing credits include the popular It Chanced To Rain and A Surprise for Mitzi House, both published by Simon & Schuster. She currently lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and works as an illustrator for an educational publisher. Her first novel for juveniles, Knobb, has just been completed and she is busy working on a sequel. In addition to her interest in art and writing, she enjoys nothing more than curling up with a good mystery. Her next goal is to write a thriller for young adults, and her mind is plotting away even as she writes this bio.

Gloria Kasselman, ("Monster") is a married mother of two, with more pets than children, and less time at the day spa and salon than she'd like.  She has a crush on all things nature.  Mountains, in particular, serve as excellent inspiration-the shaggier, the better. 

Gloria uses her speculative writing to flirt with her more quixotic side, whether it be love potions, time-crossed romance, or simply voicing the message for the oft-overlooked average guy. Her favorite stories, of course, are the stuff of happy endings.

Kurt Kirchmeier ("Petals") lives and writes in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. His fiction has appeared in Kaleidotrope, Raven Electrick, Reality Complex, Reflection's Edge, and many others.

http://isaiah13.livejournal.com/

Lisa A. Koosis ("Atlantis Rising") recently placed second in the Hudson Valley Talespinners competition for 2006 and her winning story, "Identities," was featured in The Poughkeepsie Journal in October 2006. Her short story, "Waltz in E Minor" is scheduled to appear in an upcoming issue of Not One of Us. When she isn't visiting the Universe Next Door in search of story ideas, she resides in New York with her husband, Aron, and their three cats.

Heather Leah ("Life as We Know It") is a student, still wondering what she should do with her life. She practices yoga and meditation, studies history and philosophy, and spends her free time skateboarding and playing video games. Heather's dream is to travel around the country, serving people through volunteer work and random acts of kindness, and writing about the strength and love humanity shows every day.

Susan McElheran ("This Simple Thing") reads her poetry to audiences throughout northern Arizona, as a member of a troop of women poets. Her writing has been published in Snowy Egret, The Pointed Circle, Illumen, and other journals.  She lives in Prescott, Arizona.

Corey Mesler ("Scuff Maladicta"), a Pushcart Prize-nominated author, has been a book reviewer (for The Commercial Appeal, BookPage, and The Memphis Flyer), fiction editor, university press sales rep, grant committee judge, father and son. With his wife he owns Burke's Book Store, one of the country's oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores.

Corey's writing has appeared in countless publications, anthologies, and chapbooks. His novel-in-dialogue, Talk, was published by Livingston Press in 2002, with raves from Lee Smith, Robert Olen Butler, Steve Stern, Debra Spark, Suzanne Kingsbury, Frederick Barthelme and John Grisham. His new novel, We are Billion-Year-Old Carbon, is also from Livingston Press.

http://www.coreymesler.com

E.C. Myers ("Fortune Favors the Bold") considers his writing an ongoing experiment in sleep deprivation, the products of which have appeared in various print and online publications such as flashquake, Fictitious Force, and Raven Electrick. He is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers' Workshop and a member of the excellent writing groups, Altered Fluid and Fangs of God.

http://www.ecmyers.net

Michelle R. Rasey lives in the Midwest with her husband, a baby on the way, and two sweetly disobedient dogs. Her work has appeared on Hatch.com, Doghero.com, Sciencefictionfantasyhorror.com, and in various regional newspapers.

Readers can find her online at: http://twistedfantasy.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Ian Rogers ("Man from the Currents") has been published or has stories forthcoming in Cemetery Dance, Dark Wisdom, All Hallows, and Revelation. He is currently working on his first novel.

http://www.ian-rogers.com

Steven Savile has spent the last few years working very hard at becoming an overnight success. He is the author of the Von Carstein Vampire trilogy (Inheritance, Dominion, Retribution) set in Games Workshop's popular Warhammer world, and has re-imagined the bloodthirsty Celtic barbarian Slaine from 2000 AD in a new duology of novels for Black Flame (The Exile, The Defiler). He has also written for Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and four incarnations of The Doctor. Steven also has other Thera stories coming soon; The Song Her Heart Sang, forthcoming in the Solaris Book of Fantasy, and a collection, The Machineries of Silence and Other Stories, on its way in early 2008.

Jacqueline Seewald ("Girl with One Green Eye and Cat") has taught writing courses including Creative Writing at the high school, middle school and college level and has also worked as an academic librarian and educational media specialist. Six of her books of fiction have previously been published. Her short stories, poems, essays, reviews and articles have appeared in numerous publications such as: Sasee, Affaire De Coeur, Lost Treasure, The Christian Science Monitor, Pedestal, Surreal, After Dark, The Dana Literary Society Journal, Palace Of Reason, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. A new novel, The Inferno Collection, is forthcoming from Five Star/Thomson Gale in hardcover June 2007.

Robin Svedi's ("Yellow Ribbons") short fiction, essays and poetry have been published numerous times in both print and online publications. she is the contributing editor for Fresh Cooking From Your Gaden, a site devoted to her love of cooking and cultivating fresh vegatables. Robin is married to her high school sweetheart and together they've raised two wonderful sons.

http://www.gardenandhearth.com/gardencooking.htm  

David Walton ("Mattie's Cougar") lives near Philadelphia with his wife, Karen, and four children who, even if they added their ages together, still wouldn't be old enough to leave home. His first novel will be out from Meadowhawk Press in 2008. Many of his short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies, most notably Analog Science Fiction and Fact.

http://www.davidwaltonfiction.com