Shane Halbach is a writer and blogger living in Chicago with his wife and three kids, where he writes software by day and avoids writing stories by night. He has been accused of being obsessed with pirates, bacon, zombies and his kids (not necessarily in that order). He is a knitter, guitar player, budding accordionista, and a board and card game enthusiast. His fiction has appeared in Analog, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, and The Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction, among others. He blogs regularly at shanehalbach.com, or can be found on Twitter @shanehalbach.

Find more by Shane Halbach

Marianne Halbert is an author from central Indiana. Her quiet horror stories have been described as “whimsical and terrifying” as well as “elegant and macabre”. Her latest collection is “Cold Comforts” (Crossroad Press, 2019) and is full of slow-burn horror stories. Marianne is a member of the HWA and was on the “How to Haunt a House” panel at V-Con (virtual Necon) 2021.

Find more by Marianne Halbert

You found M. Halstead dabbling in fiction writing in an overpriced apartment in central North Carolina. You were looking for a graphic designer, but instead found remnants of various crafty hobbies and interests, a pile of swords, and an unread stack of books. You have uncovered no evidence of M. on social media but did eventually find the website mhalstead.com. You retreated quietly, so as not to disturb the artist (allegedly) at work.

Find more by M. Halstead

In J.R.’s first collection, You Shall Never Know Security, he included a publication history of all the stories contained therein, thinking that was the thing to do. Nowadays, he’s not so sure if anyone cares about that sort of stuff. Instead he’ll just provide a hat tip to some venues where his work has been published or produced, such as the Drabblecast, Pseudopod, Nossa Morte, 19 Nocturne Boulevard, The Harrow, and Revolution Science Fiction. He appreciates them (and the other magazines that have published his work, some now long-departed) for their support.

Writing is not how he supports himself financially, which explains the general delay in his output. He’s sometimes asked if he’ll ever consider writing full-time, to which he’s amassed considerable pithy responses. (One such response: “I have, but I’ve gotten used to eating daily.”) Until the market improves dramatically for depressing, despairing weird fiction that appears exclusively in small press magazines or podcasts and is published by an author with a cookie-inspired nom de plume (google “hamantaschen”), then part-time his writing shall remain.

Find more by J.R. Hamantaschen

Matthew is a writer and videographer from Leeds, England. He has a penchant for good stories and a loose grasp of apostrophes. He owns a very cute dog, named Bruce.

Find more by Matthew Hamblin

Linda Hamilton is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Sarah Connor in THE TERMINATOR film series and Catherine Chandler in the 1987–1990 television series BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, for which she was nominated for two Golden Globes and an Emmy.

Find more by Linda Hamilton

Dashiell Hammett was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the characters he created are Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), The Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse) and the comic strip character Secret Agent X-9.

In his obituary in The New York Times, he was described as “the dean of the… ‘hard-boiled’ school of detective fiction.” Time included Hammett’s 1929 novel Red Harvest on its list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005. In 1990, the Crime Writers’ Association picked three of his five novels for their list of The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time. Five years later, The Maltese Falcon placed second on The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time as selected by the Mystery Writers of America; Red Harvest, The Glass Key and The Thin Man were also on the list. His novels and stories also had a significant influence on films, including the genres of private eye/detective fiction, mystery thrillers, and film noir.

Find more by Dashiell Hammett

ELIZABETH HAND is the author of numerous award-winning novels and collections of short fiction, as well as a longtime reviewer and critic whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Salon, and many other publications.

Find more by Elizabeth Hand