BERNIE BROWN is an Iowa farm girl transplanted to Raleigh, North Carolina. She has published nearly 40 short stories and essays, sews well, and plays the harmonica badly. She holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in English from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and is a Writer-In-Residence at the Weymouth Center for the Arts, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. In 2019, her short story, “The Best Shot,” set in Iowa, was published as one of the contest winners of the Grateful Steps Publishing contest. Brown’s debut novel, I Never Told You, was released in October 2019 by Moonshine Cove Publishing. Her Iowa childhood, travels in the States and Europe, and her contemporary life in Raleigh influence Brown’s writing. Watch for Bernie’s horror collection, The Holy Ghost and Other Spooky Stories, arriving in 2023 from Gravelight!
More at berniebrownwriter.com.
ELLIE COOPER is a native Texan who lives and writes in Austin. Ellie’s passion for the written word began in high school, and although she wrote secretly throughout her life—early mornings or late at night between the demands of work and family—it was only after being laid off three years ago and retiring that she dusted off old pages, took creative writing classes, and began writing anew. Influenced at an early age by Southern Gothic writers, Ellie feels that you can find horror in the ordinary where innocuous events, a wrong decision, or heightened emotion can become the material of nightmares. Ellie’s work centers around those flawed, dysfunctional relationships between men and women that often become dangerous. Besides writing, Ellie enjoys spending time with her husband, gardening with native plants, hiking the greenbelts around Austin, and visiting state and national parks in an RV camper. Ellie’s writing has appeared in numerous publications including Rio Review, Mused Literary, 2 Elizabeths, and Untitled Voices. Ellie is currently pondering/writing a longer piece of fiction.
DAVID W. DUTTON (1947-2021) was a semi-retired residential designer who was born and raised in Milton, Delaware. He wrote two novels, several short stories, and 11 plays. His musical comedy, oh! Maggie, created in collaboration with Martin Dusbiber, was produced by the Possum Point Players and the Lake Forest Drama Club. He wrote two musical reviews for the Possum Point Players: An Evening With Cole Porter (in collaboration with Marcia Faulkner) and With a Song in My Heart. He also wrote the one-act play, Why the Chicken Crossed the Road, commissioned and produced by the Delmarva Chicken Festival. In 1997, Dutton was awarded a fellowship as an established writer by the Delaware Arts Council. In 1998, he received a first-place award for his creative nonfiction by the Delaware Literary Connection. His piece, “Who is Nahnu Dugeye?” was subsequently published in the literary anthology, Terrains. Dutton’s work appeared in anthologies such as Suspicious Activity, Solstice, Halloween Party 2019, Equinox, and Aurora. In fall 2018, Dutton’s third novel, One of the Madding Crowd, was published by Devil’s Party Press. In 2019, it was awarded best original novel by the Delaware Press Association.
R. DAVID FULCHER is an author of horror, science fiction, fantasy, and poetry. Major literary influences include H.P. Lovecraft, Dean Koontz, Edgar Allen Poe, Fritz Lieber, and Stephen King. Fulcher’s first novel, a historical drama set in World War II, Trains to Nowhere, and his second novel, a collection of fantasy and science fiction short stories, Blood Spiders and Dark Moon, are both available from authorhouse.com and Amazon.
FULCHER’S work has appeared in numerous small press publications including Lovecraft’s Mystery Magazine, Black Satellite, The Martian Wave, Burning Sky, Shadowlands, Twilight Showcase, Heliocentric Net, Gateways, Weird Times, Freaky Frights and the anthologies Dimensions and Silken Ropes. Fulcher’s work can also be found in the DPP collection Halloween Party 2019, available at Amazon and at the DPP online store. A passion for the written word has also inspired Fulcher to edit and publish the literary magazine, Samsara (samsaramagazine.net), which has showcased writers and poets for over a decade. Fulcher resides in Ashburn, Virginia, with his wife Lisa, and their rambunctious cats.
Watch for Fulcher’s short story collections, Dark Harvest (volumes 1 and 2), coming from Gravelight in 2023.
JAMES GOODRIDGE was born and raised in the Bronx. Now living in the Yorkville section of Manhattan, Goodridge has been writing speculative fiction since 2004. After 10 years as an artist representative and paralegal, he decided in 2013 to make a better commitment to writing. Goodridge is currently at work on The Passage of Time Saga, a series of short stories in the occult detective genre featuring Madison Cavendish and Seneca Sue, living vampire and werewolf occult detectives. He has written a series of Twilight Zone-style short stories entitled “The Artwork (I to V),” and runs the Facebook writers’ page: Who Gives You the Write. Goodridge also pens an annual series of blogs for Black Horror History Month at horroraddicts.net He is a member of the Black Science Fiction Society. James is currently completing a Madison Cavendish collection for Gravelight, and we couldn’t be more excited!
ANDREA GOYAN is a writer, actress, and master Pilates instructor. Her short story, “My Neighbor’s a Fucking Monster,” appears in the Devil’s Party Press anthology, What Sort of Fuckery Is This? Other recent work by Goyan can be found in On Loss: An Anthology, Dirty Girls Magazine (May 2019), and Newfound Journal (October 2018). Goyan was shortlisted for the 2019 Anton Chekhov Award for Very Short Fiction. An accomplished playwright, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband, a dog, and two cats. More at andreagoyan.com.
ROBIN HILL-PAGE GLANDEN worked for 20 years as a professional actor, musician, and writer/editor in Philadelphia, New York City, and Los Angeles. Glanden edited books for Los Angeles public relations guru, Michael Levine, and her nonfiction articles were featured in several Los Angeles magazines. Family matters brought Glanden back to her home state of Delaware, and she’s now working as a freelance writer, editor, and performance artist. Her short stories have been published in several Rehoboth Beach Reads anthologies, and she has won awards for her fiction from the Delaware Press Association. Her short story, “Waves,” has been published in the anthologies, Halloween 2019 and Exhumed. Her poems, “Change Your Feng Shui, Change Your Life” and “I Remember,” have been published in the Dreamstreets literary magazine. Her poem, “Worry and Wisdom,” was included in the anthology Delaware Bards Poetry Review. Glanden is a regular contributor to two of the Guideposts magazines, Mysterious Ways and Angels on Earth, where she writes true accounts of curious “coincidences” that have occurred in her life. Glanden produces cabaret variety shows, conducts workshops for writers, and performs readings and original music with her husband, Kenny.
JEFFREY D. KEETEN was born on a farm among the flatlands and the endless horizons of North Central Kansas. He’s chased and been chased by tornadoes. He’s survived dust storms, droughts, and blizzards. He’s been stomped by bulls, kicked by horses, and nearly struck by lightning. He left the farm to earn a degree in English Literature from the University of Arizona. While in Tucson, he worked in a bookstore to pay his tuition, which morphed into a 10-year odyssey of managing stores in Arizona and California. He became part owner of a regional, weekly, farm publication in Dodge City, and every Friday as the paper rolled off the presses, he frequently got high on the smell of hot soy ink and the vanilla scent of crisp, new paper. He also owned real estate and rentals, but has downshifted away from those endeavors to focus on what he deems most important. Keeten is, first and foremost, a reader. A writer of book reviews. A collector of books. He dabbles with writing fiction. Jeffrey’s favorite book is whatever book he’s currently reading. He watches the sky with his wife and their Scottish Terrier. Jeffrey will helm the editorial reins of Halloween Party ’23, arriving in fall 2023. We’re excited to see what sort of macabre tales he’ll pack into this, our fourth blood-churning HP collection.More at jeffreykeeten.com and goodreads.com
HEIDI LOBECKER writes short fiction about weird and wonderful characters in uncommon and unusual situations. She majored in English and takes some of her inspiration from her love of Shakespeare. Living in rural New Jersey, she spends her free time outdoors, hiking, biking, camping, and sailing with her husband and two sons. She works as an IT product manager. Her go-to question is, “Did you test it?”
BAYNE NORTHERN transitioned from writing nonfiction to fiction after publishing an executive summary to “The Future of Independent Life Insurance Distribution,” Her prose has appeared in several anthologies including Equinox, Solstice, and Suspicious Activity. She is currently completing her first novel, The Bitch Seat, situated in the financial services industry. An avid short story author, Northern is also an active volunteer with the Rehoboth Village Improvement Association and a resident of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
JOSEPHINE QUEEN grew up in England and moved to the US in her early 20s. She now resides in the Northeast with her husband and daughter, writing flash fiction and short stories that err on the creepier side of things. She is making final edits to a middle-grade fantasy novel—which she hopes to have published during her lifetime—as well as a collection of ghost/horror tales. Josephine’s writing has been published in Siren’s Call, 72 Hours of Insanity, and Mother Ghost’s Grimm (volume 2) and on websites including 101 Words, Nutshell Narratives, and Christopher Fielden’s 81-Word Challenges. More at josephinewrites.com.
J.C. RAYE’s stories have appeared in anthologies by Scary Dairy Press, Books &Boos, Franklin/Kerr, C. M. Muller, HellBound Books, and Death’s Head Press. Other publications are on the way with Belanger Books, Rooster Republic, and Jolly Horror. For 18 years, she’s been a professor at a small community college, teaching the most feared course on the planet: public speaking. Witnessing grown people weep, beg, scream, freak out, and collapse is just another delightful day on the job for Raye, and seats in her classes sell quicker than tickets to a Rolling Stones concert. She also loves goats of any kind, even the ones that faint.
RUSSEL REECE’s poems, stories and essays have appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies including Blueline, The 3288 Review, Memoir Journal, Crimespree Magazine, Edify Fiction, Under the Gum Tree, The Broadkill Review and others. Reece has received fellowships in literature from The Delaware Division of the Arts and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. His stories and poetry have received Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations, and awards from the Delaware Press Association and the Faulkner-Wisdom competition. He won the Pat Herold Nielsen Poetry Prize in Chester River Art’s 2019 Art of Stewardship contest. Russ lives in rural Sussex County near Bethel, Delaware on the beautiful Broad Creek. More at russellreece.com.
LINDA RUMNEY started writing after a painful break-up, a near-miss nervous breakdown, and a discovery that she’d spent a lot of time making others happy while being miserable herself. Since 2011, Linda has written nine feature film scripts, seven short film scripts (two of which she directed and produced and were subsequently inducted into the National Screen Institute of Canada), two novels (one that took her to the Squaw Valley Writer’s Community in 2018), and a collection of short stories. Linda currently works as a palliative nurse clinician, guiding and supporting patients and their families toward a “good death.”
ELIZABETH VEGVARY studied creative writing at California State University, Sacramento, before dropping out to manage the import section of a famous record store and misspend her youth. Years passed and now she lives in a small enclave in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. When she’s not taking long walks in the dark woods with her husband and her dogs, she’s far too often wandering alone with her thoughts. She’s been writing for most of her life, absent a two-decade sojourn to raise her babies, become a certified lactation educator, and hang a professional photographer shingle. Currently life is smaller, but the words are bigger. Elizabeth manages her husband’s business and edits a monthly parenting magazine. Her work has been published by Zoetic Press, Rozlyn Press, and has appeared in Oberon Poetry Magazine.
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