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Diane Andrews

Diane, our first ever antipodean contributor, was the writer of "The Speed of Darke", which saw publication in TQF17. Details of her first published book, an account of a long journey in a small boat, Little Ship – Big Trip, can be found at www.adventureyarns.com.au.


Laura Bickle

At the time of Laura's story "Pumpkin Jack" appearing in TQF#19, she lived in the Midwestern US with her chief muse, where they were owned by four reformed feral cats. She had worked in politics, criminology, and technology for several years.

Her work had recently appeared in Midnight Times (April 2007), Down in the Cellar (Summer 2007), and MicroHorror (June 2007). She had also been featured in an author interview for Midnight Times (July 2007), and had upcoming work appearing in Ballista (Spring 2008).


Ben Chadwick

Born in the Lancashire shoe-making town of Rawtenstall, Ben had been expected to follow his father in the family sandal business, but when the teenage Chadwick developed a leather allergy the family were forced to relocate, eventually settling in Eastbourne on the Sussex coast. He took a degree in Fine Art at the University of Brighton, an traumatic experience that he later drew upon in his unpublished memoir, “Art: the Fascism of the Brush”. Nevertheless his final year exhibition caused a certain amount of interest, and was eventually destroyed by Brighton Council after a lengthy correspondence in the local press.

Soon after graduation Ben declared himself a Futurist in a public announcement (the declaration was made in a public house), and quickly founded IMAB ( the International Movement for the Adoption of Binary). An alliance with the Hove based Workers for the Abolition of Decimal Numeracy ended in 1993 in bitter recriminations, but by this time Chadwick had already joined the Situationist group People Against Humanity. It was during this halcyon period that Chadwick produced some of his best known works. Unfortunately, due to the collective nature of cultural production in the PAH, the copyright of many important pieces is now the subject of a legal dispute between Chadwick and his former collaborators.

It was in 1995, after a fallow period in which he made his living from a “Your Name on a Grain of Rice” stall on Brighton seafront, that the young Chadwick reached what he later described as the pivotal moment in his career as a writer. He discovered a discarded copy of New Words #1 stuffed down the back of a sofa in the smoking lounge of a local drinking hole (possibly the Mitre Tavern in Baker Street, Brighton, for any literary historians reading). This revolutionary magazine galvanised the young artist, and soon his contributions were pouring in. The New Words editorial board were astonished by the boldness of Chadwick’s vision, and though they did not understand a word of his writings, they agreed to risk the inclusion of one of his less experimental efforts. “21 Reasons”, described by its author as “a love song to Kafka” was published in New Words #2, to the complete indifference of the bovine reading public. Issues 3’s photo-montage manifesto/poem “Car Bomb” gained a little more attention and produced a snort of disgust from the picture editor of Interzone magazine, a moment that Chadwick counts amongst his proudest.

After the well-publicised royalties dispute which led him to denounce the New Words team as the running-dogs of the capitalist small-press fanzine oligarchy, Chadwick joined the Civil Service and did not put pen to paper for the next five years. He still lives in Eastbourne and now runs a successful whelk business.

His turbulent genius could be found in a more elegiac mood in his subsequent story, or “entity” as he prefers to call it, “The Man who Found a Comprehensive Solution to the Fundamental Problem of his Existence”.

Ben submitted one further work for publication: "Otherwise Detritus", published in 2007 in Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #15. It is not known whether this was a new piece of writing, or one that had been rejected by other publications during the earlier phase of his writing career.


Jeff Crook

At the time when "Ananke" was being published in Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #18, Jeff Crook's short fiction had recently appeared (or was scheduled to appear) in Nature, Nature Physics, Hub magazine, The Rose & Thorn, Eclectica and Pindeldyboz, and the following anthologies: Futures from Nature (Tor Books), Tattered Souls (Cutting Block Press), Black Dragon, White Dragon (Ricasso Press), Triquorum (Pendragon Press), Stalking Shadows (Hole in the Wall Press), and an untitled Kerlak anthology.

Two of his stories had been recognized as Notable Stories by the 2006 storySouth Million Writers Award.

He is the author of four fabulous novels in the Dragonlance series – Dark Thane, Conundrum, The Thieves' Guild and The Rose and the Skull – and the editor of Southern Gothic and Postcards from Hell. If you would like to learn more about his work, you can find it all at jeffcrook.blogspot.com.


Jeff Crouch

Jeff Crouch is a one-man literary factory living in Grand Prairie, Texas. At the time of his contribution of "Glurp" to TQF#17, his writing had appeared in Above Ground Testing, Canopic Jar, The Cerebral Catalyst, Cordite, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, The Dream People, Laika Poetry Review, Literary Chaos, Lunatic Chameleon, Media Cake, MG Version 2, My Favorite Bullet, PFS Post, the puddle splashers, The Rose and Thorn, saucy vox, semantikon, SN Review, Spent Meat, Static Movement, Subterranean Quarterly, te_a_ tro, Underground Window, Venue – A Southern Forum, Unlikely Stories, and Wire Sandwich. Yet more of his work was due to appear in Chick Flicks, Concelebratory Shoehorn Review, Locust Magazine, The Persistent Mirage, and Vibrant Gray.


Lawrence Dagstine

Lawrence Dagstine began writing fiction and non-fiction in 1996. At the time of contributing "Our Plight on Amaros" to Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #16, he had appeared well over two hundred times in the genre press, in both print and online venues. Four of his books had been published at that time, three novels and a short story collection: Espionage First, Spencer Prague, Allegiance to Arms and Death of the Common Writer. He had also appeared in four SF-themed anthologies, including Wondrous Web Worlds #3 and #5, and Silverthought Ignition Anthology.

For a little while Lawrence ran a small press journal of his own called The Literary Bone, but it closed in mid-2007 following the controversy caused by the ill-considered publication on MySpace of a very dodgy interview.

Not the most careful of editors, then, but his dedication to writing cannot be disputed: during March 2008 he received a very impressive 300th magazine acceptance, from Midnight in Hell. For further details read the blog of Lawrence Dagstine.


Sean & Craig Davis

Sean & Craig Davis come from a place called Jackson, in the United States. Their manly tale for men, "Live to Be Hunted", appeared in the otherwise slightly girly Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #18. I have no idea if this employee spotlight from 2004 is for the same Craig Davis, but he has a son named Sean, and enjoys hunting, so it's entirely possible!


Mark E Deloy

Mark E Deloy's "Winter’s Warm Blood", a story of vicious wolves attacking an isolated farm, appeared in Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #18. The author's website is called The Ghosts of Silence, whence the rest of this biographical note was shamelessly copied. He is the author of a paranormal thriller, also called The Ghosts of Silence. His short stories have appeared in such magazines as Dark Recesses, Nocturne, World of Myth, Shadowed Pathways, Thirteen, The Late, Late Show, Sinister Tales, Yog's Notebook and Estronomicon. Anthologies where his short stories have appeared include, Lighthouse V Stephen King Special, Damned in Dixie, Twisted Cat Tales, Ten Plagues, Our Shadows Speak and Horror Library Vol 1.

When you've finished with "Winter's Warm Blood", do you want to read something else really scary? Here are Mark Deloy's recommendations.


Trevor Denyer

Trevor was 44 when New Words #4 was published, featuring his story “Goat Tale”. Another fine tale, “Glastonbury” (available online here on Trevor's own site), had previously appeared in New Words #3. He became a civil servant because he thought he’d be able to spend all day writing and drinking cups of tea. Before that he went to art school, but got fed up with having no money and left. His interests at the time those stories were published included watercolour painting, films and reading horror and sf novels. He had previously been published in Good Stories, an anthology entitled Shorts from Hampshire, and had had stories accepted for Geoff Lynas’s anthology, Dark Fantasy Special, and for the first issues of Urges and Footsteps. He was a member of the Farnborough, Fleet and District Writers’ Circle.

Trevor went on to be the respected editor of his own magazines, Roadworks and Legend, and contributed to the anthology, Gravity’s Angels. Recently he launched a third magazine, Midnight Street. A partial bibliography of his work appears here.


John Hall

John Hall is best known as a Sherlockian scholar, and a member of the International Pipe Smokers’ Hall of Fame. His numerous literary interests include Raffles, Sexton Blake, and the stories of HP Lovecraft and MR James. He is the author of Special Commission, a medieval murder mystery. To TQF#23 he supplied the mystery of "Shaggai", and in TQF#25 we found ourselves "In the Vale of Pnath".


Bruce Hesselbach

Bruce Hesselbach is a self employed attorney, practising in the following areas of law: General Practice in all State and Federal Courts, Commercial Litigation, Personal Injury, Negligence, Probate Law, Workers Compensation Law, Real Estate Law, Landlord and Tenant Law, Bankruptcy Law. Find out more from his legal profile. He wrote "The Tragical History of Weebly Pumrod, Witch Hunter", part of the Tales of Yxning series, for Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #18 and followed it up with "The Remarkable Life of Yren Higbe" in TQF#19. "Contrarieties" then appeared in TQF#20, completing a fabulous hat-trick of 2007 fabulations!

He had previously written High Ledges, Green Mountains (Bondcliff Books 2005), a memoir about hiking in New England. Two fantasy poems by Bruce appeared in Spellbound. Numerous other poems and some humorous essays had also appeared in the small presses. His dog Dickens has his own website at http://dickenshiking.bravehost.com, which includes photos and accounts of various hikes they have taken together.


Polly Jebson

Polly Jebson was born in 1949 broke onto the literary scene in the mid-1960s when she edited an underground beat poetry magazine called The New Morsel. She was politically active during the 70s and 80s, leading a muscularly feminist movement, which was strongly linked with Valerie Solanas. In the 1990s she denounced all feminist thought and literature and took up writing Science-Fiction instead. Despite having a prolific literary output, her only short story ever to be published was “Cerebomni’s Memorine” and featured in New Words #2 in 1995. Polly now lives and works in California where she deputises a relaxation centre, putting people in touch with their Chi.


Dan Kopcow

At the time when "Gone English" appeared in TQF#17, Dan Kopcow was very proud of his stories having appeared in The Wild River Review, Silverthought, The Duck and Herring Company, The American Drivel Review, Gold Dust Magazine, and The Quirk. He had written many short stories, novels and screenplays, and he was a founding member of the Ambler Writers Group. Later the same year he contributed "Who Picked the Pope's Nose?" to TQF#19.


Robert Laughlin

At the time of his story, "The Spirits of '26", appearing in TQF#22 (during 2008), Robert Laughlin lived in Chico, California, in a Craftsman bungalow destined for restoration by some well-heeled future owner. His short stories have appeared in several American magazines since mid-2006; “The Spirits of ’26”, was his first publication in a British magazine. Mr Laughlin’s story, “In the Evening Made”, published in Atomjack Magazine, was voted a Notable Story of 2006 by the judging panel of the storySouth Million Writers Award. He is the creator and administrator of the Micro Award, an award for previously published short fiction not over 1000 words in length. His first novel, Vow of Silence, was published by Trytium in the autumn of 2008.


Bob Lock

Bob Lock is a Welsh writer of science fiction, fantasy and horror, whose debut novel Flames of Herakleitos was published in March 2007 by Screaming Dreams. His work has also appeared in Cold Cuts 1 & 2, and Cone Zero, edited by D.F. Lewis, and online at Whispers of Wickedness, Sfcrowsnest, Scifi UK Review, Alienskin, Sams Dot Publishing, Fiction Online, Sffworld and his very own Bob Lock blog. He contributed a short Halloween tale by the name of "Jack" to TQF#25.


Sam Leng

Sam Leng lives in Yorkshire, England. She has had fiction published in various print and online magazines, including Skive, Delivered and Steelcaves. During 2007, at the time when her story, "When the Sun and the Moon Did Not Shine", appeared in the fantasy section of TQF#19, she was producing her own webzine at www.neonbeam.org. In 2008 she contributed a slice of apocalypse on toast, "A Matter of Taste", to TQF#22.


Anna M Lowther

Anna M Lowther provided “When a Baby Laughs” for TQF#23. If that unsettling (especially for anyone who has been present at a child’s birth) little story makes you want to search out more of Anna’s work, a short story of hers, “Miss Magnolia’s Secret”, opens the horror anthology Damned in Dixie. Her voodoo tale “Gris Gris” appeared in the special Halloween 2007 issue of Sinister Tales Magazine. Her short pirate story “The Black Butcher” was due to appear in the anthology Black Dragon, White Dragon, from Ricasso Press. And another of her stories, "Grace's Garden", was planned to appear in Abominations.


Eric R Lowther

Eric's beefy western fantasy, "Rural Legend", appeared in TQF#19. He wasn't sure how it would go over with UK readers, but it went over very well with the editors of TQF!

At that time his work could be seen in Blood Blade & Thruster magazine (July/August 2007), in separate anthologies from the producers of Magazine of the Dead and Dark Distortions respectively (set for publication Fall 2007) and in Night to Dawn magazine (Spring 2008).


Richard K Lyon

Richard K Lyon contributed "The Christmas Present War" to TQF#17. He had previously collaborated with Andrew J Offutt on a trilogy of novels, and was an active member of the SFWA. A very interesting interview with him was available to read on the Sword & Sorcery website. His work appeared again in TQF#19, this time a continuation with Andrew J Offutt of the stories they had previously told of Tiana: this one was called "The Iron Mercenary". During 2008 a further series of Tiana stories saw publication in our pages - some had appeared in various venues before, but others were previously unpublished. In TQF#22 a young Tiana faced the terror of "Arachnis", while TQF#23 brought us the "Devil on My Stomach". "The Hungry Apples" appeared in TQF#24, and Tiana was "Naked Before Mine Enemies" in TQF#25. Richard died in December 2008, but he left a bundle of his stories with us for future publication.


Caroline Marwitz

Caroline contributed "The Good Fortune Driving School for Men", an extract from her novel-in-progress, Chameleon Man Gets Lost, to Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #16. Her previous novel, Naming the Winds, was published by High Plains Press in 2001.


David McGillveray

David's story of a struggle for survival on an alien planet, "The Broadest Divide", appeared in TQF#19. He lived in London at the time, and there was some mystery as to whether he was the same David McGillveray who had made contributions to the film section of the Radio Times, a mystery which could admittedly have been cleared up by asking him about it. For the avoidance of confusion, it was not the same David McGillveray.


Rafe McGregor

Rafe McGregor supplied a review of Hive to TQF#23, and several more reviews to TQF#24 and TQF#25. To TQF#25 he also supplied a short tale of Zenda, "Murder in the Minster". He is a crime fiction author who, he told us, spends far too much of his time rereading the work of H.P. Lovecraft and M.R. James. He lives with his wife in a village near York.  More information on all his writing can be found on his website (www.rafemcgregor.co.uk). For TQF he has reviewed: The Black Veil & Other Tales of Supernatural Sleuths; Dracula’s Guest & Other Tales; Ghosts in Baker Street; Hive; The Man in the Picture: a Ghost Story; Shadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror!; Sherlock Holmes and the Hentzau Affair; Sherlock Holmes and the Plague of Dracula; and The Tangled Skein.


Michael McNichols

Michael McNichols has an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia College Chicago. His work has appeared in The Banana King, Worse Than Pulp, AfterburnSF, Lost Souls, Inclinations, The Externalist and Coyote Wild, but most importantly of all, his short fantasy story "Glimmerick" appeared in Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #18. He seems to be unfortunate enough to share a name with an unsavoury character or two, judging from the results of googling it.


Jacob Miller

Jacob Miller wrote Frank and the Hermaphrodites in 1995 for New Words #1.


Ralph Robert Moore

Ralph Robert Moore’s fiction has been published in America, England, Ireland and Australia, and translated into Lithuanian. He has been anthologised in the nineteenth edition of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow; Ten Years of the Best of Sign O’ the Times; Darkness Rising; Revelation III; Dark Distortions; and Read By Dawn (edited by Ramsey Campbell). An interview with him, as well as a bibliography and new story, is in the seventh issue of Midnight Street (edited by Trevor Denyer, famous – of course! – for his contributions to our own New Words). Ralph's story "The Machine of a Religious Man" was nominated as Best Story of the Year in the 2006 British Fantasy Society Awards.

Other magazines that have published his fiction include Albedo One, Collages and Bricolages, ChiZine, fugue, Lullaby Hearse, Lunatic Chameleon, Porcupine Literary Arts Magazine, Redsine, Revelation, Roadworks, Sein Und Werden, Sign O’ the Times, Songs of Innocence (and Experience), Space and Time, The Los Angeles Times Calendar Magazine and Thirteen. His novel Father Figure was published in 2003. At the time when "Strangers Wear Masks of Your Face" was published in TQF#25, he had recently completed his first play, Duck Eggs. His website SENTENCE features a wide selection of his writings.


Robert Neilson

Bob Neilson is the respected editor of long-running sf magazine Albedo One. His short story, The Final Throw, appeared in New Words #4.


Andrew J Offutt

"The Iron Mercenary", a tale of Tiana that Andrew J Offutt wrote with Richard K Lyon, appeared in TQF#19. He was the first author appearing in TQF to have his own Wikipedia page. During 2008 a further series of Tiana stories saw publication in our pages - some had appeared in various venues before, but others were previously unpublished. In TQF#22 a young Tiana faced the terror of "Arachnis", while TQF#23 brought us the "Devil on My Stomach". "The Hungry Apples" appeared in TQF#24, and Tiana was "Naked Before Mine Enemies" in TQF#25.


J.R. Parks

J.R. Parks is a professional writer of children’s graphic novels. His works of fiction and poetry have been published in such anthologies as The Northridge Review, I Am This Meat, The Bandersnatch Vol. II, Centres of Expression, Parade of Phantoms, San Jose Zine, and others. He is also the author of Machine Town: Flight of the Sky Captain, as well as a graphic novel adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles. Two of his pieces have been professionally recorded into audio editions, and can be heard on his website (www.jrparks.com). He contributed "Mississippi Sunshine" to TQF#25.


Aaron Polson

Aaron is a high school English teacher and freelance writer who dreams in black and white with Rod Serling narration. He currently resides in Lawrence, Kansas with his wife, two sons, and a rather sturdy – almost supernatural – tropical fish. His short fiction has appeared in various places, including Reflection’s Edge, GlassFire Magazine, Big Pulp, Johnny America and Permuted Press’s upcoming Giant Creatures Anthology. You can visit him on the web at www.frozenrobot.com. To TQF#24 he contributed "The Brass Menagerie".


Vicki Proserpine

Vicki Proserpine's tribute to Adolphe, by Benjamin Constant, "Ellénore", was published in Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #13.


Steve Redwood

Steve Redwood’s short story collection, Broken Symmetries, was to be published in August 2009 by Doghorn Press. His review of Midnight Street 12 appeared in TQF29.


Nick Sansone

Nick Sansone has worked as a wildland firefighter and environmental do-gooder in the National Forests of the western United States. He typically spends his summers in the UK, working as an academic administrator for a theater program at Oxford College. "Foundling" appeared in TQF29.


Mike Schultheiss

Mike Schultheiss contributed “Darwin’s Corridor” to TQF#22, bringing adventure, ecology, colonialism, evolution and religion together in one steaming teapot of a tale. Though we had published many, many wonderful contributions over the previous year of TQF, this kind of intelligent adventure was so exactly what we were after that we were tempted to post it in full on our submission guidelines page. And it came with a scientific note. How wicked is that? Notably, the story contained the word erectus 91 times. If you laugh, it’s only because you’re as immature as I am.

At the time of the story's publication (in 2008), Mike was living in Davis, California, and attending the university of the same name. He was looking forward to his graduation, and planned to pursue a career as a high school teacher of Social Studies and English through the UC Davis credentialling program in the fall. Having grown up in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevadas, Mike is a long-time nature and animal enthusiast and is particularly fond of reptiles. At that time he was at work on a novel-length version of “Darwin’s Corridor” as well as a vampire novel, Blood Moon Queen. You can befriend (or just secretly spy on) him at www.myspace.com/mikeschultheiss.


John Shanks

John produced the spectacular covers of Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #16, depicting a diver pursued by a giant sea creature, a scene drawn from the adventures of Howard Phillips, and TQF26. He has his own website - Homegrown Goodness - from which you can request bespoke cartooning, or purchase his hilarious animal encyclopedias.


Lisa Shopland

Lisa was the writer of "13 Definitions to Say What You Don't Mean", which appeared in New Words #3.


Sarah Singleton

Sarah Singleton contributed an excellent story to New Words #4, The Dove, her first published work. Since then she has gone on to greater things, with her novels The Crow Maiden and Moths in the Mirror seeing publication on both sides of the Atlantic. For further details, see Sarah Singleton's website.


Janice Slonczewski

Janice contributed "Flying Jim" to New Words #3.


W.D. Sparrow

W(alter) D(ennis) Sparrow was born in 1946 in Swansea. He got married in 1965 and moved to Wood Green in North London where he worked as a Health and Safety Inspector for the next 30 years. In 1988 he appeared as a contestant on the popular television quiz show “Catch Phrase” . During the first section of the show Walter managed to win £100, but lost his nerve during the Ready Money Round, and when invited by the host Roy Walker to “say what you see” he inadvertently blurted out the words “I’m a big dog”. The correct answer was in fact “the tail that wags the dog”, and while his attempt was good, it wasn’t right. Sadly, because of Walter’s surprising confession the show could never be broadcast. Sparrow left his job in 1995 and spent most of his retirement honing his skills as a science-fiction writer. He submitted one story, “Revenge of the Post-Historic Skeletal Polyhedrons” to New Words, which was duly published in New Words #3. As far as we have been able to determine this constitutes his entire literary oeuvre. W.D. Sparrow died in 1999.


Benjamin Sperduto

Benjamin Sperduto is a freelance writer specialising in fantasy, science fiction and horror. His short story, "The Doom of Mournshire", appeared in The Sleepless Sands (Earlyworks Press, 2006). A graduate of the University of South Florida, he lives and teaches in Tampa, Florida. His story of pirates and sorcery, "La Tierra de la Sangre", appeared in Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #18.


Sarah Stone

Sarah Stone was born in 1968 in Düsseldorf, Germany to English parents, and was educated in Austria. Over the years she has enjoyed a variety of careers, being involved in everything from mortuaries to Alchemy. Her first and only published story, “Blue Jeans and Moonbeams”, graced the very first issue of New Words in 1995 and dealt with the tricky subjects of murder, necrophilia and robots. Sarah’s literary output since then has been limited mainly to sports articles for local newspapers and work for industry trade magazines. She currently lives in Kensington and is married with no children. Sarah’s family has a fine literary tradition running down through the generations. Sarah’s Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandmother, the very first Sarah Stone, was published in 1737 with her acclaimed “A Complete Practice of Midwifery” , which is still used in maternity wards today.


Wayne Summers

Wayne's story of a mysterious garden surrounded by a wall, "The Walled Garden", appeared in TQF#19. At that time he was about to be published in On The Night Highways, Art&Prose Magazine and Creative Island. He grew up in rural Kojonup, Western Australia, where his writing career began. While in high school he'd write small articles and stories for the local newspaper. He now lives in Perth, Western Australia. Wayne is an English language teacher and is studying to be a counsellor. His focus remains writing and during 2007 he had more than 17 horror and fantasy stories accepted for publication. A second story, "The Exile from Naktah", an epic horror fantasy, appeared in TQF#21. "The Orphans of Time" appeared in TQF#23, making him one of the most frequent contributors to the magazine.


David Tallerman

David Tallerman can be found online at http://davidtallerman.net. His fiction has appeared in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Pseudopod, Hub and Dark Horizons. "Imaginary Prisons" appeared in TQF29.


Douglas Thompson

Douglas Thompson’s stories have appeared in TQF28, TQF29 and Dark Horizons 54, with another to appear in Dark Horizons 55. He won the Grolsch/Herald New Writing Award in 1989, and second prize in the Neil Gunn Writing Competition in 2007. His stories have been widely published in magazines and anthologies, most recently Ambit, New Writing Scotland, Subtle Edens and Dark Horizons. “Madame Mortadore & the Clouds” is from his first novel/collection Ultrameta which was to be published in August 2009 by Eibonvale (see www.glasgowsurrealist.com/douglas).