Martin L. Shoemaker is a programmer who writes on the side… or maybe it’s the other way around. He told stories to imaginary friends and learned to type on his brother's manual typewriter even though he couldn't reach the keys. (He types with the keyboard in his lap still today.) He couldn't imagine any career but writing fiction... until his algebra teacher said, "This is a program. You should write one of these."

Fast forward 30 years of programming, writing, and teaching. He was named an MVP by Microsoft for his work with the developer community. He is an avid role-playing gamemaster, but that didn't satisfy his storytelling urge. He wrote, but he never submitted until his brother-in-law read a chapter and said, "That's not a chapter. That's a story. Send it in." It won second place in the Baen Memorial Writing Contest and earned him lunch with Buzz Aldrin. Programming never did that!

Martin hasn't stopped writing (or programming) since. His work has appeared in Analog, Galaxy's Edge, Digital Science Fiction, and select service garages worldwide. His novella "Murder on the Aldrin Express" was reprinted in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection and in Year's Top Short SF Novels 4. Learn more at http://Shoemaker.Space.

SCIENCE FICTION AUTHOR

As an author, Martin has sold stories to the following markets:

"Not Close Enough", in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May 2013.

"Murder on the Aldrin Express", in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, September 2013.

"Brigas Nunca Mais", in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March 2015.

"Il Gran Cavallo", in Galaxy's Edge #5, November 2013.

"Pallbearers", in Galaxy's Edge #7, March 2014.

"Murder on the Aldrin Express", in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois.

"Murder on the Aldrin Express", in The Year's Top Short SF Novels 4.

"The Night We Flushed the Old Town" in Therefore I Am: Digital Science Fiction Volume 2.

"Father-Daughter Outing", the cover story for Heir Apparent: Digital Science Fiction Volume 4.

"Gruff Riders" in The Gruff Variations: Writing for Charity Anthology, Vol. 1

His writing has also won the following awards:

Writers of the Future, Quarter 1, 2011: Finalist, "The Mother Anthony"

Writers of the Future, Quarter 2, 2011: Honorable Mention, "Father-Daughter Outing"

Writers of the Future, Quarter 3, 2011: Honorable Mention, "Scramble"

Writers of the Future, Quarter 4, 2011: Semi-Finalist, "A Most Auspicious Star"

The 2012 Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest: Second Place, "Scramble"

Writers of the Future, Quarter 1, 2012: Finalist, "One Last Chore for Grandpa"

Writers of the Future, Quarter 2, 2012: Honorable Mention, "Incoming"

Writers of the Future, Quarter 3, 2012: Honorable Mention, "Fog Traffic"

Writers of the Future, Quarter 4, 2012: Honorable Mention, "Mama's Little Angel"

Writers of the Future, Quarter 1, 2013: Honorable Mention, "The Books of Cheswick"

Writers of the Future, Quarter 2, 2013: Honorable Mention, "Killing Buddy"

Writers of the Future, Quarter 3, 2013: Honorable Mention, "In Its Shadow"

Writers of the Future, Quarter 1, 2014: THIRD PLACE, "Unrefined"

In addition, he has self-published seven stories and a collection, and has more in the works.

SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE ANALYST

Martin is a software developer with 29 years experience in the industry. He has worked in the fields of color science, on-line shopping, databases, material handling, medical imaging, and customer relations management.

His most popular presentations are his UML courses, which he wrote and presents. As a side effort in his UML work, Martin has written two books on UML:

UML Applied: A .NET Perspective from Apress.

Ulterior Motive Lounge: UML, 80s Flicks, and Bunny Slippers, the world's first UML comic strip. Originally published online in 2009, this successful comic strip let Martin use humor and simple examples to teach UML to a wide audience. It is now collected in a version for Kindle.

Peter J. Wacks, born as Jedidiah Jason Zarathustra Janney Shults, was quickly reminted to a sane name yet never really recovered a sense of normalcy in his life.

Peter (or Zarth, whatever, it’s cool) has travelled to 37 countries, hitchhiked across the United States (very funny, no, he didn’t hitchhike to Hawaii), and backpacked across Europe. He loves fast cars, running 5Ks, space travel, and armchair physics.

In the past, Peter has been an actor and game designer, but he loves writing most and has done a ton of it, which can be found by looking him up online (even if it seems a little cyber-stalkery, don’t worry, go for it!)

Since he doesn’t think anyone reads these things anyway, he will mention Strawberry Daiquiris, Laphroaig, great IPAs, and really clever puns are the best way to start conversations with him.

Are you still there?

The Bio is over.

Go Read.

Mercedes M. Yardley is a whimsical dark fantasist who wears poisonous flowers in her hair. She is the author of many works including BEAUTIFUL SORROWS, PRETTY LITTLE DEAD GIRLS: A NOVEL OF MURDER AND WHIMSY (now available as a graphic novel with art by Orion Zangara), and the Stabby Award-winning APOCALYPTIC MONTESSA AND NUCLEAR LULU: A TALE OF ATOMIC LOVE.

She is a two-time Bram Stoker Award winner for her realistic horror novella LITTLE DEAD RED and her magical surrealism short story "Fracture." She was a Bram Stoker finalist for her short story "Loving You Darkly" and for her ARTERIAL BLOOM anthology, for which she was editor. Mercedes lives and creates in Las Vegas with her family and menagerie of battle-scarred, rescued animal familiars.

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is a #1 bestselling author and Hugo-nominated editor of adult and children's speculative fiction, including 11 novels and 22 anthologies. His debut novel, The Worker Prince, received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club's Year's Best Science Fiction Releases. His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online and include canon entries in The X-Files, Predator, Joe Ledger, Monster Hunter International, Aliens Vs. Predator, and Decipher's WARS, amongst others. As book editor he was the first editor on Andy Weir's bestseller, The Martian, and has edited books by such luminaries as Alan Dean Foster, Tracy Hickman, Frank Herbert, Mike Resnick, Todd McCaffrey, Jean Rabe and more. His anthologies as editor include Predator: Eyes of The Demon, Aliens Vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey, Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers, Infinite Stars and Predator: If It Bleeds for Titan Books, Shattered Shields with co-editor Jennifer Brozek, Mission: Tomorrow, Galactic Games, Little Green Men--Attack! with Robin Wayne Bailey, and The Monster Hunter Tales with Larry Correia all for Baen, and The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie with Henry Herz and Robots Through The Ages with Robert Silverberg for Blackstone Publishing and Joe Ledger: Unstoppable with Jonathan Maberry for St. Martin's Press. His forthcoming books include the novel Shortcut (which is being developed for film), and the anthologies Joe Ledger: Unbreakable with Jonathan Maberry for Journalstone,. Find him online at:

Website/Blog: www.bryanthomasschmidt.net

Twitter: @BryanThomasS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bryanthomass?ref=hl

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3874125.Bryan_Thomas_Schmidt

C Stuart Hardwick is a winner of the prestigious Writers of the Future contest and the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award. His work regularly appears in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, as well as Galaxy’s Edge, Forbes.com and Mental Floss, among others. A southerner from South Dakota, Stuart grew up creating radio dramas and animated shorts before moving on to robots and ill-conceived flying machines. He’s worked with the creators of the video game Doom, married an aquanaut, and trained his dog to pull a sled.

Stuart studied writing at U.C. Berkeley, lives in Houston, and has been known to wear a cape. For more information and a free signed e-sampler, visit www.cStuartHardwick.com.

Tori Eldridge is the bestselling author of the Lily Wong thriller series; finalist for Anthony, Lefty, and Macavity Awards, winner of the 2021 Crimson Scribe for Best Book of the Year. Her short stories have been featured in numerous anthologies, including Crime Hits Home, Back in Black, Joe Ledger: Unbreakable, and Weird Tales Magazine. Tori also penned the Brazilian dark fantasy Dance Among the Flames, inspired by her Academy Nicholl Fellowship semi-finalist screenplay. Before writing, Tori performed as an actress, singer, dancer on Broadway, television, film, and earned a 5th-degree black belt in To-Shin Do ninja martial arts. She is of Hawaiian, Chinese, Norwegian descent, born and raised in Honolulu, longtime resident of Los Angeles, and now resides in Portland, Oregon. Tori launches a thrilling new series with Kaua‘i Storm, a Ranger Makalani Pahukula Mystery in May 2025.