KELLEY ARMSTRONG has been telling stories since before she could write. Her earliest written efforts were disastrous. If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers’ dismay. All efforts to make her produce “normal” stories failed. Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She’s the author of the New York Times bestselling Women of the Otherworld paranormal suspense series, and the Darkest Powers young adult urban fantasy trilogy, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series.
www.kelleyarmstrong.com
HOLLY BLACK writes contemporary fantasy novels for teens and younger readers. Her books include the Modern Faerie Tale books, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and her graphic novel series, The Good Neighbors. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with her husband, Theo, in a Tudoresque house with a secret library.
www.blackholly.com
LIBBA BRAY is the author of the New York Times bestselling Gemma Doyle Trilogy, which includes the novels, A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing. She has also written several short stories, some plays, one or two letters of complaint, and an occasional grocery list. She lives in New York City with her husband, son, and two bizarre cats. When she’s not writing, Libba works on her Evil Author Overlord™ plan for world domination, which she will get to just as soon as she figures out the proper wardrobe.
www.libbabray.com
SARAH REES BRENNAN was born and raised in Ireland by the sea, where her teachers valiantly tried to make her fluent in Irish (she wants you to know it’s not called Gaelic) but she chose to read books under her desk in class instead. After college she lived briefly in New York and somehow survived in spite of her habit of hitching lifts in fire engines. Since then she has returned to Ireland to write. Her Irish is still woeful, but she feels the books under the desk were worth it. The Demon’s Lexicon, her first novel, was published in summer 2009.
www.sarahreesbrennan.com
RACHEL CAINE is the author of more than twenty-five novels, including the urban fantasy Weather Warden series, and the young adult urban fantasy Morganville Vampires. In 2009, she launches a new urban fantasy series called Outcast Season. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband—fantasy artist R. Cat Conrad—and a whole bunch of unusual pets.
www.rachelcaine.com
CECIL CASTELLUCCI has published three novels for young adults—Boy Proof, The Queen of Cool and Beige, all from Candlewick Press. She also wrote the graphic novels The PLAIN Janes and Janes in Love, illustrated by Jim Rugg, the latter of which was the launch title for DC Comics’ Minx line of graphic novels for young adults. She has had short stories in Wizards of the Coast’s Magic in the Mirrorstone anthology and Candlewick Press’s Cabinet of Curiosities. She is the co-editor (with Holly Black) of the anthology Geektastic. Her new YA novel, Rose Sees Red will be published in 2010. Her books have been on ALA’s BBYA, Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, and Great Graphic Novels for Teens lists, as well as the NYPL Books for the Teen Age, and the Amelia Bloomer list. In addition to writing books, she writes plays, makes movies, and occasionally rocks out.
www.misscecil.com
CASSANDRA CLARE is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass. City of Bones was a 2007 Locus Award finalist for Best First Novel and an ALA Teens Top Ten 2008 winner. She is also the author of the upcoming YA fantasy trilogy, The Infernal Devices. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her boyfriend and two cats.
www.cassandraclare.com
MELISSA DE LA CRUZ is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of many books for teens. To find out more about Dylan’s story, read her Blue Bloods series. The fourth book, The Van Alen Legacy is due October 2009. Her latest works also include The Strip, the sequel to Angels on Sunset Boulevard, and the first book in a new series, Girl Stays in the Picture. Melissa divides her time between Los Angeles, Palm Springs and New York and has spent many summers (but so far only one winter weekend) on Shelter Island, where she has yet to meet a vampire. But she’s always on the lookout for one in danger.
www.melissa-delacruz.com
NANCY HOLDER has sold approximately eighty novels and two hundred short stories, essays, and articles. She has received four Bram Stoker awards for her occult fiction, and serves on the Clarion Foundation Board. She and Debbie Viguié have written five novels in the New York Times bestselling Wicked saga together. This is their first published collaborative short story.
www.nancyholder.com
DINA JAMES After having three short stories published in vampire romance anthologies (The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 1 & 2 and The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance), all set in the mysterious world of the Destrati, she decided to try her hand at writing something for a young adult audience. The result is the story in this collection, “All Wounds.” Based on this story, a full-length novel soon emerged, introducing other vampires, hellhound puppies, and one very independent werewolf. The story featured in this book is, quite literally, just the beginning.
www.dinajames.com
KAREN MAHONEY has been a Tarot reader, a college counsellor, a dating agency consultant, and a bookseller. Ever since she was six years old what she really wanted to be was Wonder Woman, but has instead settled for being a writer, which she thinks is the most fun you can have without bulletproof bracelets. She reads way too many books, hates bullies, and loves her two cats (even though they only have seven legs between them). She does nothing to hide the fact that she is a total geek. If she could be a character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she would have to be Buffy so she could kiss both Angel and Spike. She is British, but hopes that you do not hold this against her.
www.karenmahoney.net
MARIA V. SNYDER switched careers from meteorologist to novelist when she began writing the award- winning and bestselling Study series (Poison Study, Magic Study, and Fire Study) about a young woman forced to become a poison taster. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Maria dreamed of chasing tornados, but lacked the skills to forecast their location. Writing, however, let Maria control the weather, which she happily does via a Stormdancer in her book Storm Glass. Maria enjoys hands-on researching for her stories. She had a blast learning how to fence and fight for this creepy vampire tale.
