Orphaned at an early age, William Sanders was raised by a family of Ozark Free-Tailed Bats, and to this day can still locate flying insects in the dark by emitting shrill chirps. After graduating from an obscure Arkansas agricultural college, he served in the U.S. Army for three and a half years, counting stockade time, before being fired. In the early 70s, after repeated failures to hold a real job, he turned to writing, at which by hard work and persistence he eventually rose to the heights of obscurity that he enjoys today. Author of more than 20 books, he has become even more infamous for his work in the short form; his stories have lowered the tone of many major magazines and anthologies, and been nominated for several awards, a couple of which he has inexplicably won. In his twilight years he has retired to a cabin in Oklahoma, surrounded by his books, his gun collection, and his memories. You can read more about his shabby life and works at http://www.sff.net/people/sanders/index.htp. Photo by Heywood Jablomi. |
Lawrence Watt-Evans is a professor's kid from Massachusetts who decided early in life that writing for a living looked like more fun than a real job. The result of that decision to date has been some three dozen novels, six score short stories, hundreds of articles, and a handful of poems, comic books, TV story treatments, and other oddities, as well as two kids who grew up thinking it was perfectly normal to have their father home all day, holed up in his cluttered little office staring at his computer. Among his more notable works are the Ethshar fantasy series and the Hugo-winning short story, "Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers." He maintains a sprawling mess of a website called the Misenchanted Page. Photo by Julie F. Evans. |
Bud Webster lives surrounded by more than 10,000 books, from ratty, dog-eared paperbacks to rare, signed first editions. There are books in every room except the smallest ones, and occasionally (like Scrooge McDuck) he likes to gather them all in a pile in the middle of the floor, toss them up in the air, and let them come down and hit him on the head. A columnist for the SFWA Bulletin and frequent contributor to the "Curiosities" page of F&SF, he's the author of 41 Above the Rest: An Index and Checklist for the Anthologies of Groff Conklin, the definitive bio-bibliography on the subject, as well as The Joy of Booking: Webster's Guide to Buying and Selling Used SF and Fantasy Books. He also writes fiction, but not nearly often enough to suit Mary, his Significant Other. He lives in Richmond, Virginia, with the long-suffering Mary and three damn cats. Photo by Wolfgang Jasper. |
Expatriate Chicagoan Melanie Fletcher is a woman of simple tastes — she likes to write, preferably for money. She also draws, quilts, fences, knits, bellydances, and functions on way too little sleep. When not working on websites, she works on stories; her latest publishing credits include "Lost in Whitby" (Fabulous Whitby, Shrew Press UK) and "Lurleen Terwilliger and the Swedish Bubba Balls" (International House of Bubbas, Yard Dog Press), and her novella Best Protection will be half of the fourth Double Dog from Yard Dog Press. Oh, and if she can convince the cats to leave her alone long enough, she may even finish editing her first novel, White Knight, Queen Alice. Photo by Melanie Fletcher. |
Born and raised in the heart of the rust belt, Amy Sheldon has worked a series of mind-numbing jobs, which wouldn't be so bad if only they paid more. She is thrilled to bits to be associated with the creative forces behind Helix, and hopes to be worthy of their trust. She has promised to help fund the magazine with the TEN MILLION DOLLARS her good friend Miriam Abacha will be sending from Nigeria, but until the bank draft arrives she encourages everyone to contribute generously to the Helix kitty. |
A long time SF reader and computer geek, Berry Kercheval has recently begun writing fiction. So far his work has appeared in International House of Bubbas and Flush Fiction: Stories to be Read at One Sitting, but more is on the way. He lives in the heart of Silicon Valley with his wife, children, cats, dog, and far too many old British cars. |
When John Barnes was eighteen, his father told him "The trouble with you is, you'll work hard at anything you're interested in, but the only things that interest you are theatre and science fiction." John Barnes has published around twenty-five books of science fiction, depending on what you count, and has a Ph.D. in Theatre Arts, so his father was probably right. Also probably right about that making a living thing. Currently this planet has only four statistical semioticians who do commercial consulting. If you happen to be looking to hire one, John Barnes is the only one you will ever need. Photo by Diane Talbot. |
Doranna responded to all early injunctions to "put down that book/notebook and go outside and play" by climbing trees to read & write. Such quirkiness of spirit has created a wandering path through the publishing world, spanning genres and form to include over twenty novels — mystery, SF/F, action-romance, and franchise, including the Compton Crook-winning Dun Lady's Jess — and a slew of essays and short stories. But after all that, mostly she still prefers to hang around outside with the animals. She doesn't believe so much in mastering the beast within, but in channeling its power. For good or bad has yet to be decided... Doranna's webstead is at www.doranna.net and (this should not surprise you), Connery Beagle has his own livejournal. Photo by Thomas P. Powers. |
Lynn Calvin has been collecting books since her age was a single digit, encouraged by a grandfather who funded the Science Fiction Book Club selections for years. This reinforced an acquisitive gene for books that goes back three generations. Since discovering the Internet in 1994, Lynn has done a lot of talking about books including reviews at http://www.romanticsf.com. In her spare time and to fund her book habits, she has spent the past 27 years as a federal bureaucrat (a records manager.) She has been married 32 years, has two adult children and lives in an enormous Victorian house built in 1897. You can read her occasional blog at http://romsfuulynn.livejournal.com and see a listing of some of her book collection at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/romsfuulynn. |
A refugee from Massachusetts, Robert Brown currently lives in the wilds of north Texas, subsisting on roots and berries, and small companies in need of technical expertise. He has had articles in the science fiction journal Chronicle and Pyramid Magazine. Some of his semi-coherent ramblings can be found at www.grumpypundit.com. |
