Daniel G. Keohane
Box
Editor's Choice

Daniel G. Keohane’s fiction has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies over the years, including Cemetery Dance, Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest, Shroud Magazine (coming soon), The Pedestal Magazine, Gothic.Net, and many others. Solomon's Grave, his debut novel, is slated for release in 2009 by Edge / Dragon Moon Press in 2009, after being previously released in both Germany (as Das Grab des Salomon) and Italy (as il Segreto di Salamone). An active member of the HWA and SFWA, Dan lives with his family in Massachusetts, where he is always at work on the next novel.

Siobhan Shier
Nowhere
Editor's Choice

Siobhan Shier is an author, artist and horse owner who spends her free time riding out on the trail and attempting to ignore her cell phone. With a degree in Computer Science and a technical background, Siobhan discovered writing stories was more fun then any lines of code. "Nowhere" is Siobhan's first published short story, and is the inspiration for her work in progress: Every Nowhere, a book that challenges the concepts of good, evil, and reality.

A native of Los Angeles, M. L. Archer wound up living in seven major cities and points in between as the member of a fundamentalist religious cult. One day, the leader of this cult bragged that he so renewed his mind to the Word that he no longer even dreamed. Ms. Archer was reminded of 'The Haunting of Hill House,' where Jackson described the house as insane...because it too never dreamed. This made her realize she was in the wrong place and escaped.

She remains convinced that God can use fiction to reach people, even in the strangest places.

And yes, she plays the violin.

Chris Mikesell
Hinky Jenks
Diner Alumni

Chris Mikesell has been a potential Publisher's Clearinghouse winner twenty years running. Since Ed McMahon seems in no hurry to stop by, he has filled the time in recent years writing and teaching English. His poetry, short stories, and satire have appeared in Infuze, DKA (now a part of Mindflights), Raygun Revival, Fear&Trembling, and The Wittenburg Door. His short story "In R'lyeh, Jesus Walks"; appeared in the debut edition of Coach's Midnight Diner. The opening 30 pages of his zombie novel placed second in the Association of Christian Fiction Writers 2008 Genesis contest.

His writing family, The Misfits, live in Arizona, Indiana, Tennessee, and Texas. He and his actual family (wife: Dina, son: Philip) live in Plano, Texas. His online home is mikesell.blogspot.com.

Greg Mitchell
Flowers for Shelly

Greg Mitchell likes monsters. So much so, in fact, that he devotes a great deal of time to writing about them. When he’s not writing about monsters, he can be found with his wife Meghan and their daughter Jo Beth, sharing tickles and lots of laughter. In his Christian Horror series “The Coming Evil”, Greg mixes the worlds of fear and faith into an unlikely concoction that could very well spell the unraveling of the cosmos as we know it. Check him out at www.thecomingevil.com.

Maggie Stiefvater
The Denial

All of Maggie Stiefvater's life decisions have been based around her inability to be gainfully employed. Talking to yourself, staring into space, and coming to work in your pajamas are frowned upon when you're a waitress, calligraphy instructor, or technical editor (all of which she's tried), but are highly prized traits in novelists and artists. She's made her living as one or the other since she was 22. She now lives an eccentric life in the middle of nowhere, Virginia with her charmingly straight-laced husband, two kids, and neurotic dogs. She is the author of LAMENT (Flux 08), BALLAD (Flux '09), and SHIVER (Scholastic '09).

Mike Duran
En Route to Inferno
Diner Alumni, Contributing Editor

Mike was born and raised in Southern California, where he lives with his wife and four grown children. In between working construction, he’s managed to land stories in places like Raygun Revival, Fear and Trembling, Forgotten Worlds, Alienskin, Infuze Magazine and Dragons, Knights and Angels. His essay, The Ark, recently received Editor’s Choice award in Relief Journal 2.3 He contributes monthly commentary at Novel Journey, one of Writer’s Digest 101 Most Helpful Websites for Writers. And though his website is named Decompose (www.mikeduran.com), it has very little to do with corpses or compost.

William Brian Johnson
Tim's Holy Hamburgers

If Brian Johnson were rich, he'd be a profession adventurer; but since he isn't, he chases storms around the Kansas Prairie and writes. Tim’s Holy Hamburgers is his third published short story.

Bob Freeman
Queen's Gambit

Bob Freeman is an author, artist, and paranormal adventurer who lives in rural Indiana with his wife Kim, son Connor, and sister-in-law Cassie.

Bob is the author of the novels Shadows Over Somerset and Keepers of the Dead, and the collection Widdershins: Dark Prose and Darker Poetry. His short fiction and poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Legends of the Mountain State 2, Dark Harvest, and the forthcoming Death in Common.

He is a member of Indiana Horror Writers, Midwest Paranormal Writers, The Aleister Crowley Society, as well as being the founder and senior investigator for Nighstalkers of Indiana, field investigator for ADCI, and the Hoosier State's Doorways Investigation Group liaison.

Jason M. Waltz
With the Brightness of His Coming

Thirty-five plus years spent with his nose in a book has given Jason - besides the alternate personality found at von Darkmoor’s thoughts - an insatiable taste for quality reading material. And a crooked nose. Reader of many words, struggling writer of a few, Jason has been a long-time inhabitant of the worlds of fantastical fiction and an eager pupil at the feet of its illustrious members. The man behind Rogue Blades Entertainment, he longs for fiction thick with action, adventure, heroism, and hope. He aims to rejuvenate the world of reading by delivering a shot of adrenaline to every reader, author, artist, and publisher he meets.

Marianne Halbert
The House of Abandoned Characters

Marianne Halbert is an attorney in Indianapolis, IN. She has published one short story, "Invisible Fences", which appeared in Indiana Authors 2007: Inspiration from the Heartland (New Century Publishing), and her short story "The Last Spectre" will appear in Dark Distortions II, due out in 2009. Her writing is a bit ecclectic, as she can't help what pops into her head. Most of her stories seem to combine mystery, suspense, quirkiness, poignance and the unexpected. "The House of Abandoned Characters" is dedicated to Olivia and Chloe, who she hopes will always strive to be the authors of their own life story.

D. S. Crankshaw
The Office of Second Chances

D. S. Crankshaw is an Electrical Engineer in Boston. As his job doesn’t give him much of a creative outlet, he's found other ways to indulge his writing obsession, including his blog, Back of the Envelope, its associated Storyblogging Carnival, and a writing group he leads at his church. He's previously published short stories in Aoife’s Kiss and the e-zine Residential Aliens.

Kim Paffenroth
Field of Blood

Kim Paffenroth is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College. His nonfiction work, Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Visions of Hell on Earth (Baylor, 2006), won the 2006 Bram Stoker Award. Since then he has been writing zombie fiction, including Dying to Live: A Novel of Life among the Undead (Permuted, 2007), and Dying to Live: Life Sentence (Permuted, 2008). Check out his Gospel of the Living Dead blog at http://gotld.blogspot.com/.

Virginia Hernandez
Small Accidents of God

Virginia Hernandez, youth minister's wife AND writer/reader of horror, wishes those two things didn't seem mutually exclusive to most church members. She lives in Florida with her three terrific kids and spectacular husband, who have all adjusted to her weird tendencies and reading addiction. She is tired of all the "almosts" in the writing world and is therefore thrilled to have her first short story published.

Jerry Gordon
9th Ward

Jerry Gordon couldn’t figure out a way to be an astronaut, film director and superhero in the same lifetime, so he settled on writing about them. His work has been published in InfoWorld, Indie Review, and the Midnight Diner. He recently completed his first novel, Severed Dreams, and can be found blurring genre lines at www.jerrygordon.net

Jason Brannon
Running Toward Eden

Jason Brannon is the author of The Cage, Winds of Change, The Machinery of Infinity, and others. He currently resides in Amory, MS and maintains a website at www.jbrannon.net

Anna D. Allen
Virtue's Blood

An award-winning writer, Anna D. Allen lives in western Michigan with too many books and not enough dogs. She recently completed her BSc and MA. Her future plans include cleaning out the freezer and growing tomatoes. She can be found most days in the kitchen or with her nose stuck in a book. Other publications include "Ten Gallons a Whore" in Writers of the Future and "Mrs. Kelly's Ghosts" in Ruins Metropolis.

Michael couldn't remember having a normal life. Not after he, Vega, and Jiana accepted that very first hunt from The Diner. It certainly didn't involve international crime bosses, drug traffickers, or any flying bullets. But this was his life now.

Michael looked out over Antioch City. He shook his head. "I have a bad feeling about this."
Jiana rolled her eyes. "How bad could it be?"
Vega placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "It always gets worse when you say that."
"So we're not taking the hunt?" she asked.
"Of course we are," Michael replied.
Vega sighed, "I'm going to regret this...I just know it."

Brett McLaughlin
Change of Heart

Brett McLaughlin is a bestselling and award-winning nonfiction author. His books on computer programming, home theater, and analysis and design have sold in excess of 100,000 copies. He has been writing, editing, and producing technical books for nearly a
decade, and is as comfortable in front of a word processor as he is behind a guitar, chasing his three kids around the house, or laughing at reruns of Arrested Development with his wife.