How Beer Saved the World

About the Authors

Bob Brown lives, works, and writes with his two pugs, two cats, and several dozen chickens in Washington state. He is the author of numerous short stories and the recently released children’s book, The Damsel, the Dragon, and the Knight. He is currently working on several projects including a space opera techno thriller with Irene Radford. He is well known in the science fiction convention community as RadCon Bob, due in part to the nature of his work as a Health Physicist at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation where he supports clean up of nuclear waste left over from the Cold War. Bob is an avid gardener and a teller of chicken jokes.

Barb Caffrey is a writer, editor and musician from the Midwest. Though “On the Making of Veffen” is her first-ever story about beer, she has written other things, including a novel, ELFY, that will be published late in 2013 by Twilight Times Books. Previous stories and poems have appeared in the BEDLAM’S EDGE anthology (with late husband Michael B. Caffrey), the BEARING NORTH anthology, the Written Word online magazine, Joyful Online, the Midwest Literary Magazine, and at e-Quill Publishing. Find her at Elfyverse (AKA “Barb Caffrey’s Blog”) for discussions of all and sundry, or at Shiny Book Review.

Clayton J. Callahan once got a job he really loved, Professional Story Teller. He was performing at renaissance festivals, civil war re-enactments, libraries, book stores and schools. “What a great job to have!” people would tell him after a performance. Then in the next breath they would ask, “Can you make a living at this?” The answer sadly… was no.

To make a living he has served US Navy on an anti-terrorist team, the US Army as a communications sergeant, worked as a public school teacher, deputy sheriff, and Federal Counterintelligence Special Agent. He has served three tours in the Middle East where people tried, rather unsuccessfully, to kill him.

Re-entering the world of storytelling, he has written articles for Knights Of The Dinner Table Magazine, Tournaments Illuminated, Tabletop Gaming News and written informational books for gamers. He is also the designer of two games; Star Run and Battlefields: From Broadswords to Bullets.

Brenda W. Clough is a meek, mild-mannered reporter at a major metropolitan publication. She has published seven novels, many short stories, nonfiction, and innumerable book reviews that revolve around death, misery and grief. She has traveled around the world under the aegis of the US government, and now lives in a cottage at the edge of a forest, surrounded by animals.

Her novel, Revise the World, is available in electronic format at Book View Café (www.bookviewcafe.com). A version of it was a finalist for both the Hugo and Nebula awards. Her latest electronic novel is Speak to Our Desires.

Mark J. Ferrari has been a professional fantasy illustrator since 1987, and a published novelist since 2007, when his first fantasy novel, The Book of Joby, was published by TOR. The Book of Joby has since sold nearly 30,000 copies, been honored as a Booksense Pick, made Booklist’s ‘Top Ten’ for science fiction/fantasy in 2008, was selected as a finalist for the Endeavor Award, and was re-released as a mass market paperback in January of 2012. Mark has completed a new novel called Twice, currently heading toward publication, and has published several short stories in various anthologies during the past year in collaboration with author Shannon Page. Mark currently resides in Seattle, Washington. More info on his art and writing can be found at www.markferrari.com.

Manny Frishberg was born just south of New York City and attended high school in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. He has made his home on the West Coast for more than 40 years.

His feature articles have appeared on the pages of numerous magazines and websites since 1976, and won four journalism awards. He is a freelance book editor and an associate editor and columnist for Dark Eclipse, an online horror magazine, and its quarterly print companion, Dark Moon Digest.

Having been writing science fiction and fantasy for half his life in which children and cats play a significant role, he has sold several short stories that involve neither.

For the past several years he and his partner have made their home in the shadow of SeaTac Airport, where they attend to their cats and wait for the children to call.

Laurel Anne Hill’s award-winning novel, Heroes Arise, was released by KOMENAR Publishing in 2007. Her shorter works of fiction and nonfiction have appeared in a variety of publications, most recently (2012-2013) in the anthologies Horrible Disasters, Shanghai Steam, Fault Zone: Over the Edge, The Wickeds and Spells and Swashbucklers. The fans of HorrorAddicts.net voted Laurel “Most Wicked 2011” for her steampunk/horror podcast, “Flight of Destiny.” She lives in Northern California with her husband and their affectionate 100-pound werewolf. Laurel gives writing workshops to adults and young adults, serves as a writing contest judge, and loves to encourage young writers to follow their dreams. Visit Laurel’s website and podcast at http://www.laurelannehill.com.

Chris Wong Sick Hong writes stories. There doesn’t seem to be much more to say right now. If you’d like to read more, check out his near future urban fantasy, Dick Richards: Private Eye, at www.thedickrichards.com.

Frog and Esther Jones are a husband and wife writing team who live in Eastern Washington with their Flemish Giant rabbit, Oxeye, and their hedgehog, Cinnabun. When they aren’t writing, they work at a rural law firm which handles whatever emergencies walk through the door. Their previous short stories include The Curse of Khenti-Amentiu, published by Skywarrior Books in 2011.

The ebook edition of Nancy Jane Moore’s collection, Conscientious Inconsistencies, was released in May 2013 by Book View Café. Her other books include the novella Changeling, available in print from Aqueduct Press and in ebook form from Book View Café, and the flash fiction collection Flashes of Inspiration, also a Book View Café ebook. Her short fiction has appeared most recently in PS Publishing’s Postscripts, the military SF anthology Best Laid Plans, and the steampunk anthology Gear and Levers 3. In addition to writing fiction, Nancy holds a fourth degree black belt in the martial art of Aikido and is working on a self defense book.

G. David Nordley is an author and astronautical engineer. A retired Air Force officer, he has extensive experience in spacecraft systems operations, engineering, and testing as well as research in advanced spacecraft propulsion. As an author, he is a past Hugo and nebula award nominee as well as a four-time winner of the Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact annual “AnLab” reader’s poll. His latest novel is The Black Hole Project, with C. S. Lowe, from Variationspublishing.com. and his latest short fiction is “The Fountain” in the June 2013 Asimov’s. Including nonfiction, songs and poetry, “A Wartime Draught” will mark his 100th publication. He lives in Sunnyvale, CA, with his wife, a retired Apple Computer programmer. His website is www.gdnordley.com.

Shannon Page was born on Halloween night and spent her early years on a commune in northern California’s backwoods. A childhood without television gave her a great love of books and the worlds she found in them. She wrote her first book, an illustrated adventure starring her cat, at the age of seven. Sadly, that story is currently out of print, but her work has appeared in Clarkesworld, Interzone, Fantasy, Black Static, Tor.com, and a mighty number of anthologies, including Love and Rockets from DAW, Subterranean’s Tales of Dark Fantasy 2, Flying Pen Press’s Space Tramps: Full Throttle Space Tales #5, and the Australian Shadows Award-winning Grants Pass. She has two novels appearing in 2013: Eel River, a hippie horror tale, from Morrigan Books; and The Queen and The Tower, first book in The Nightcraft Quartet, from Per Aspera Press. Shannon is a longtime yoga practitioner, has no tattoos, and is an avid gardener at home in Portland, Oregon. Visit her at www.shannonpage.net.

Irene Radford has been writing stories ever since she figured out what a pencil was for. A member of an endangered species, a native Oregonian who lives in Oregon, she and her husband make their home in Welches, Oregon where deer, bears, coyotes, hawks, owls, and woodpeckers feed regularly on their back deck.

A museum trained historian, Irene has spent many hours prowling pioneer cemeteries deepening her connections to the past. Raised in a military family she grew up all over the US and learned early on that books are friends that don’t get left behind with a move. Her interests and reading range from ancient history, to spiritual meditations, to space stations, and a whole lot in between.

In other lifetimes she writes urban fantasy as P.R. Frost and space opera as C.F. Bentley. You can follow Irene Radford on Live Journal, rambling_phyl or on FaceBook Phyllis Irene Radford

Bruce Taylor, aka. “Mr. Magic Realism”, writes magic realism. He has nine books published. A collection (“Alembical”) with his novella, “Thirteen Miles to Paradise”, received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. “Kafka’s Uncle and other Strange Tales” was nominated for the &NOW Award for Innovative Writing (SUNY, NY). Other titles are, “Edward: Dancing on the Edge of Infinity”, “Magic of Wild Places” and (with Brian Herbert) “Stormworld”. With Elton Elliott, he co-edited “Like Water for Quarks”, an anthology about the blending of magic realism and science fiction. New titles recently released are “Mr. Magic Realism”, “Metamorphosis Blues”. His first anthology, “The Final Trick of Funnyman and Other Stories” has just been re-released as an e-book from Baen Books. Another book, “Mountains of the Night” is slated for re-release as well as its companion book, “Magic of Wild Places”. The third book of the trilogy (“Majesty of the World”) is presently being written. Bruce is also working on other projects with Brian Herbert. Living in Seattle, he has a smashing view of Mt. Rainier. His website is: www.brucebtaylor.com.

Joyce Reynolds-Ward is a middle school learning specialist, horsewoman and skier living in Portland, Oregon. Besides earning a Semi-Finalist placement in Writers of the Future, she’s had short stories and essays published in Random Realities, M-Brane SF, The Fifth Di…, Nightbird Singing in the Dead of Night, Zombiefied, River, Gobshite Quarterly, and Gears and Levers 1. Her newest novel in The Netwalk Sequence, Netwalker Uprising, will be available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other sites in e-book form and trade paper in March, 2013. Examples of her professional education writing can be found at ChildsWork.com. When not teaching, she’s often thundering about on her intrepid reining mare Mocha, living la vida ski bum, and writing. Joyce is currently working on a certificate in Interpersonal Neurobiology through Portland State University and hopes to integrate her study of neuroscience in both her teaching and her writing. Follow her adventures through her blog, Peak Amygdala, at www.joycereynoldsward.com.