Michael McCarty has been a professional writer since 1983 and the author of over forty books of fiction and nonfiction, as well as hundreds of articles, short stories and poems. He is a Five-Time Bram Stoker Finalist and winner of the David R. Collins' Literary Achievement Award from the Midwest Writing Center.

He is the author of such books DARK CITIES: DARK TALES, DARK DUETS: MUSICAL MAYHEM, A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FIENDS, I KISSED A GHOUL and LOST GIRL OF THE LAKE (with Joe McKinney)

In Nonfiction, he wrote MODERN MYTHMAKERS (Crystal Lake Publications) a collection of interviews with Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz, John Saul, Elvira, William F. Nolan, the cast & crew of Night of the Living Dead and several more. He also co-written the book CONVERSATIONS WITH KRESKIN with The Amazing Kreskin (Team Kreskin Productions) a cornucopia of stories of Kreskin's Amazing life, culture, famous friends, inside knowledge of entertainment personalities, his mind power, thought reading, and much more. ESOTERIA-LAND the Authentic, Eclectic & Eccentric Nonfiction of Michael McCarty and GHOSTS OF THE QUAD CITIES (with Mark McLaughlin) true ghost stories in the Quad Cities metro area.

Michael McCarty have written the following fiction books with Mark McLaughlin: DRACULA TRANSFORMED & OTHER BLOODTHIRSTY TALES (Dracula & vampire short stories and novellas), APOCALYPSE AMERICA! a science fiction and horror novel and MONSTER BEHIND THE WHEEL a horror novel.

Michael McCarty & Jody LaGreca wrote the BLOODLESS series together (published by Simon & Schuster (as a kindle) and Amazon as a trade paperback. The three book series BLOODLESS, BLOODLUST and BLOODLINE is about a 100 year old vampire who survives both the sinking of the Lusitania and the Hindenburgh explosion but has a hard time dealing with his family.

His stories and interviews have appeared in a wide variety of magazines and anthologies including Fangoria, Cemetery Dance, Starlog, Filmfax, ON WRITING HORROR (A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association, edited by Mort Castle), MIDNIGHT PREMIERE and IN LAYMON TERMS (both anthos from Cemetery Dance publications).

McCarty's first solo novel, a vampire satire called LIQUID DIET, was released in 2009 release by Black Death/Demonic Clown Books and republished as an ebook as LIQUID DIET & MIDNIGHT SNACK: 2 VAMPIRE SATIRES from Whiskey Creek Press. McCarty was the former staff writer for Science Fiction Weekly (the official website of the Sci-Fi Channel). He can be found on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelMcCarty.Horror

Kristin DeMarr lives in Davenport, IA, with her four children, two dogs, and (yes!) 7 birds. She also has two incredible bonus adult children! Kristin has been a college English/Film teacher part-time since 2003. She has also done freelance writing and editing for many years. Kristin was the first-place winner in the nonfiction category of the 2019 and 2024 Iron Pen Contests from the Midwest Writing Center, and has been published in their Writer’s Block E-Magazine (2019). She is the co-author of Quad Cities Beer: A History, author of First Impressions: In Fifty Words, and has several publications forthcoming. She has also written several profiles for the Quad City Times newspaper. She was a contributor to the Babyville Boutique line of cloth diapering products with articles and tutorials written for the books by Prym Dritz. She also contributed to their blog and website with tutorials and articles.

She is a regular writer on Medium, and writes a Substack newsletter.