Story of the Month Club features a variety of authors and genres each year. Contributors for 2015 have been selected. Please check back in September for 2016 submission dates.
Curating Editor: Jessica Brawner
Art Director: Sandra Wheeler
January
J.L. Forrest is a science-fiction writer who scrawls from the frosty mountains of Boulder, Colorado, from the Old Country of Roma, Italia, or from the wet techno-forests of the Pacific Northwest. He is the author of many short stories and several novels. His most recent collection, Delicate Ministrations, is available now from the Robot Cowgirl Press. His next novel, A Requiem Dawn, will be available in early 2015. He is an Associate member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, loves nature even more than he loves gizmos, and lives with a cat and a crazy actress who are both far cooler than he is. Find him at http://jlforrest.com.
Delicate Ministrations: http://amzn.to/
February
Rie’s short stories appear in numerous anthologies, including Nightmare Stalkers and Dream Walkers Vols. 1 and 2, Come to My Window, Shifters, The Grotesquerie and In the Bloodstream as well as Yard Dog Press’ A Bubba In Time Saves None. Yard Dog Press is also home to humorous horror chapbooks Tales from the Home for Wayward Spirits and Bar-B-Que Grill and Bruce and Roxanne Save the World…Again. Mocha Memoirs has “Drink My Soul…Please,” and “Bloody Rain” as e-downloads. Online, she has appeared in Cease, Cows, Lorelei Signal, and Four Star Stories. She is also the author of six novels and a lyricist for Marc Gunn. More info can be found at http://riewriter.com.
March
Fiona Moore is an anthropologist at the University of London by day and an SF writer by night. Her previous credits include fiction and poetry in, among others, Interzone, Asimov, Dark Horizons and Unlikely Story, three stage plays, four audio plays, and four guidebooks to cult TV series, most recently a 2-volume guide to Battlestar Galactica. She lives in an extremely crowded house in Surrey, and travels a lot. She has a fascination with ruins and abandoned sites; “Leave Only Footprints” is partly inspired by an interest in the Chernobyl area, and partly by curiosity as to how the world presented in 1950s alien-invasion movies could actually function. Read about her adventures at http://www.fiona-moore-com.
April
Kevin Ikenberry
Kevin’s head has been in the clouds since he was old enough to read. Ask him and he’ll tell you that he still wants to be an astronaut. Kevin has a diverse background in space and space science education. A former manager of the world-renowned U.S. Space Camp program in Huntsville, Alabama and a former executive of two Challenger Learning Centers, Kevin works with space every day as a Space Operations Officer with the U. S. Army. A veteran of more than twenty years of military service, Kevin mentors veteran authors new to writing. Kevin lives in Colorado with his wife, two daughters, a fish and a cat who tries to eat said fish. His home is seldom a boring place.
Please visit his website at http://www.kevinikenberry.com/
May
A full-time freelance writer, Josh Vogt has been published in dozens of genre markets with work ranging from flash fiction to short stories to doorstopper novels that cover fantasy, science fiction, horror, humor, pulp, and more. He also writes for a wide variety of RPG developers such Paizo, Modiphius, and Privateer Press. His debut fantasy novel, Forge of Ashes, adds to the popular Pathfinder Tales line. WordFire Press has launched his urban fantasy series, The Cleaners, with Enter the Janitor (2015) and The Maids of Wrath (2016). You can find him at JRVogt.com. He’s a member of SFWA as well as the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers.
June
Frank Martin is a professional chimney sweep who takes his role as an amateur writer way too seriously. He has short comics currently published for the Torsobear anthologies as well as in his very own collection, “Modern Testament.” Frank’s been lucky enough to see several of his shorts produced in film, and has a short story appearing in the upcoming anthology “Crossroads in the Dark” from Burning Willow Press. He currently lives in New York with his wife and two kids.
July
Anne E. Johnson lives in Brooklyn. Her short speculative fiction has appeared in Urban Fantasy Magazine, FrostFire Worlds, Shelter of Daylight, The Future Fire, and elsewhere. Her series of humorous science fiction novels, The Webrid Chronicles, is being published by Candlemark & Gleam. Anne writes speculative fiction for children and tweens as well. Learn more on her website, http://anneejohnson.com. Follow her on Twitter @AnneEJohnson.
August
Ramon Rozas III has been writing science fiction and fantasy since he was growing up in Northern New Jersey. Only recently has he been able to get anyone else to read it! When not working writing short stories or working on his novel, Ramon lives and practices law in West Virginia, primarily handling criminal defense and general civil litigation. He gets great support in his writing from his wife, daughter and too many cats and dogs.
September
Thomas A. Fowler is the author of nerdy things. His feature film, “The Code: Legend of the Gamers,” a comedy about video gamers vying for a spot in a coveted tournament, is available on IMDb. His action-based steampunk shorty story, “The Hour Wheel,” was published in Penny Dread Tales: Volume III – In Darkness Clockwork Shine. Working as a Broadcast & Digital Producer by day, his website and blog helps writers and creative types market themselves, from aspiring writer to established author. The conversation is always live on Twitter @thomasafowler as well as his website, ThomasAFowler.com.
October
Keith R.A. DeCandido has been writing fiction since 1994, which means his writing career is now old enough to drink. His other Cassie Zukav fiction has appeared in the magazine Buzzy Mag; the anthologies Apocalypse 13, Bad-Ass Faeries: It’s Elemental, Out of Tune, Tales from the House Band Volumes 1 and 2, and Urban Nightmares; and the short-story collections Ragnarok and Roll: Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet and Without a License: The Fantastic Worlds of Keith R.A. DeCandido.
When he isn’t writing about Norse fate goddesses in Key West, Keith writes fiction taking place in universes both his own and created by others. His recent and upcoming media tie-in work includes the Sleepy Hollow novel Children of the Revolution, the Star Trek coffee-table book The Klingon Art of War, the Stargate SG-1 novel Kali’s Wrath, the Heroes Reborn novella Save the Cheerleader, Destroy the World, the Tales of Asgard trilogy based on the Marvel Comics version of the Norse pantheon (with novels featuring Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three), and short stories in the anthologies Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: Far Horizons and The X-Files: Trust No One. He also has stuff in his fantasy/police procedural setting of Cliff’s End that began with the novel Dragon Precinct and includes the novels Unicorn Precinct, Goblin Precinct, Gryphon Precinct, and the forthcoming Mermaid Precinct, as well as short stories in Murder by Magic, Bad-Ass Faeries, Hear Them Roar, Pandora’s Closet, Dragon’s Lure, Tales from Dragon Precinct, and the aforementioned Without a License. He’s also written a novel (The Case of the Claw) and two short stories (in the anthologies With Great Power and The Side of Good/The Side of Evil) involving the Super City Police Department, with more to come. He’s been involved in Jonathan Maberry’s shared-world V-Wars anthologies, with stories in both the first anthology and the third one (subtitled Night Terrors), and he adapted Greg Wilson’s novel Icarus into graphic novel form.
On top of that, Keith is also a freelance editor for clients both corporate and personal, a rewatcher of various TV shows for Tor.com, a veteran podcaster, a second-degree black belt in karate (in which he both trains and teaches), a professional percussionist (currently with the parody band Boogie Knights), and probably some other stuff that he can’t remember due to the lack of sleep.
He lives in the Bronx with assorted humans and felines. Find out less at his web site at DeCandido.net, which is the gateway to his entire online footprint.
November
Jessica Brawner, online at www.jessicabrawner.com, sprouted in the wilds of South Texas and plotted ways to spend her life traveling the world. She has been remarkably successful at that endeavor, and is now based in the Front Range region of Colorado. Twelve years ago she discovered the wonders of Science Fiction and Fantasy conventions and has spent the years since working as a booth babe, volunteering for bands and vendors at conventions all over the country. Now she has taken those experiences and written a book: Charisma +1: The Guide to Convention Etiquette for Gamers, Geeks, and the Socially Awkward.
In addition to her convention activities, Ms. Brawner has developed and taught self-defense classes, worked as an event planner, an entertainment agent, a computer teacher, and an executive assistant.
Visit her website, or find her online on FaceBook and Twitter @JABrawner
Photo courtesy of Honey Lindburg
December
Jason P. Preu lives, works, and farms rainbows in the Kansas City metro with his wife and two children. His writing has recently appeared in Holdfast magazine, 4Ties ma
December Bonus!
A Colorado native, Sam Knight spent ten years in California’s wine country before returning to the Rockies. When asked if he misses California, he gets a wistful look in his eyes and replies he misses the green mountains in the winter, but he is glad to be back home.