Jill MacKay is a 20-year-old student studying zoology at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. When she’s not dissecting snails or chasing after birds, she can be found terrorizing literary agents with various unpublished novels. She and her little sister have been tackling Halo on cooperative play since 2002 but have still to complete Halo 2 on Legendary. This is blamed on their aversion to being shot at.
Dario Maestripieri earned his Ph.D. in psychobiology from the University of Rome, Italy, in 1992. He is currently an associate professor of comparative human development and evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago. His research interests focus on the biology of behavior, and in particular on physiological, ecological and evolutionary aspects of primate social behavior. Dr. Maestripieri has published over 130 scientific articles and several books including Primate Psychology (Harvard University Press, 2003) and Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World (The University of Chicago Press, 2007).
Gregory Maguire is co-director of Children’s Literature New England, Incorporated, and author of books for children and adults, including Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and Son of a Witch.
Nick Mamatas is the author of the Lovecraftian Beat road novel Move Under Ground (Night Shade Books, 2004) and the Marxist Civil War ghost story Northern Gothic (Soft Skull Press, 2001), both of which were nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for dark fiction. He’s published more than 200 articles and essays in the Village Voice, the men’s magazine Razor, In These Times, Clamor, Poets & Writers, Silicon Alley Reporter, Artbytes, the UK Guardian, five Disinformation Books anthologies and many other venues, and more than 40 short stories and comic strips in magazines including Razor, Strange Horizons, ChiZine, Polyphony and others. Under My Roof: A Novel of Neighborhood Nuclear Superiority (Soft Skull Press) was released in early 2007.
Dr. Stephen P. Maran spent more than 35 years in NASA, working on the Hubble Space Telescope and other scientific projects and is the press officer for the American Astronomical Society. His 10 previous books include Astronomy for Dummies® and The Astronomy and Astrophysics Encyclopedia. His awards and honors include the naming of an asteroid for him by the International Astronomical Union, the NASA Medal for Exceptional Achievement, the George Van Biesbroeck Prize of the American Astronomical Society and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s Klumpke-Roberts Award for outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy.
Since 1990, Michael Marano has been reviewing movies and doing pop culture commentary for the Public Radio Satellite System program “Movie Magazine International,” syndicated in more than 111 markets in the U.S. and Canada. In this capacity, he has seen and ranted on and pontificated about perhaps more than 1,000 genre movies, and is now unfit for most any other form of employment. His articles have appeared in venues like the Boston Phoenix, the Weekly Dig, the Independent Weekly, Paste Magazine and Science Fiction Universe. Marano is also a horror writer, with stories in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 11 and Outsiders: 22 All-New Stories from the Edge; his first novel, Dawn Song, won the Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild Awards. He recently visited the set of the “Batman Begins” sequel “The Dark Knight” for the SciFi Channel and saw a lot of cool stuff that he can’t talk about. He is a bitter old punk rocker, and can be reached at www.myspace.com/michaelmarano.
J. David Markham (www.NapoleonicHistory.com/) is an award-winning Napoleonic scholar and biographer and executive vice president of the International Napoleonic Society. Among his books are Napoleon for Dummies (which has been translated into French, Dutch and Russian); Napoleon’s Road to Glory: Triumphs, Defeats, and Immortality; Imperial Glory: The Bulletins of Napoleon’s Grande Armée 1805-1814; and Napoleon and Dr Verling on St. Helena. He has written numerous articles for magazines, journals and encyclopedias, and has appeared on the History, Discovery and Learning channels. His “Napoleon 101” podcast (napoleon.thepodcastnetwork.com/) has thousands of listeners worldwide. David and his wife Barbara live in Olympia, Wash.
Arthur B. Markman is a professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas, Austin. He received his Ph.D. in 1992 from the University of Illinois and worked at Northwestern University and Columbia University before moving to Texas. He has written over 80 scholarly works. He is a past executive officer of the Cognitive Science Society. He is also a member of the scientific advisory board for “The Dr. Phil Show.”
Louis Markos (http://fc.hbu.edu/lmarkos) is a professor in English at Houston Baptist University, where he also teaches courses on film. He is the author of Lewis Agonistes: How C. S. Lewis Can Train Us to Wrestle with the Modern & Postmodern World (Broadman & Holman) and “The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis” (a lecture series produced by the Teaching Company).
Laurence Marschall, Ph.D., is the W.K.T. Sahm Professor of Physics at Gettysburg College where he teaches courses in astronomy, physics and science writing. He received his bachelor’s degree at Cornell University and his doctorate at University of Chicago. He writes a regular column on science books of note for Natural History magazine and is a contributing editor of Smithsonian Air and Space. He also contributes annual astronomy updates to the World Book Encyclopedia. He serves as deputy press officer of the American Astronomical Society. In addition to more than 40 articles in professional journals, Marschall has written for publications such as Sky and Telescope, Astronomy, Natural History, Discover, Harper’s, Newsday and the New York Times Book Review.
Christy Marx has had a long and eclectic career as a writer, TV series developer, comics creator, story editor and game designer. She has worked on comics, graphic novels, manga, live-action television, film, animation, computer games, console games and on-line games, and nonfiction books. In 2000, Christy Marx was awarded the Writers Guild of American/Animation Writers Caucus Award for contributions to the field of animation. Her credits include: “Babylon 5,” “Twilight Zone,” “Spider-Man,” “G.I. Joe,” “Jem and the Holograms,” “ReBoot,” “Conan,” “Beast Wars,” “X-Men: Evolution,” “Stargate Infinity,” “He-Man” and numerous games. Full credits available at www.christymarx.com.
Susan R. Matthews was born in a barracks in Fort Benning in the middle of a windstorm whose chaos has characterized her life ever since, most of which has occurred while she was paying attention to something else. She has been most recently seen in science fiction and murder mystery anthologies; her next Koscuisko novel, Warring States (whose protagonist would almost certainly have been Sorted into Slytherin the moment he set foot to flagstone at Hogwarts), is due out from independent publisher Meisha Merlin in January 2006.
Susan lives in Seattle, with her partner Maggie and two Pomeranian doggies. She has yet to quit her day job at the Boeing Company where she enjoys a regular paycheck, health benefits and other Muggle perks, and is convinced that the reason that You-Know-Who is determined that nobody kills Harry Potter but him is that Harry Potter is the final Horcrux.
Tom McBeath lives in Vancouver, Canada, with Karin Konoval. He’s worked on stages across Canada, most recently as “The Caretaker” (Davies) and “Othello” (Iago). His television work includes the movies “Off-Season,” “Prince of Mirrors,” “Nick Fury” and “In Cold Blood.” In addition to his long-running role as Harry Maybourne on “Stargate: SG-1,” he has appeared in over 20 different series, including “The X-Files,” “Millennium,” “Outer Limits,” “The Sentinel,” “Dead Man’s Gun,” “Highlander” and “The Chris Isaak Show.” Blink and you’ll miss him in feature films such as “Along Came a Spider,” “Double Jeopardy,” “Firestorm,” “Cousins” and “The Accused.”
Sam McBride is a senior professor with DeVry University (Pomona), teaching communications courses along with 20th-century literature and science fiction. He is coauthor, with Candice Fredrick, of Women Among the Inklings: Gender, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams. He has also published on Lewis’ A Preface to Paradise Lost.
Joseph McCabe is the author of the Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild Award-nominated Hanging Out with the Dream King: Conversations with Neil Gaiman and His Collaborators. His writing has appeared in such publications as SFX, Total Film, RES, Paste and the New York Review of Science Fiction. He is a contributing editor of Comic Book Artist and has contributed to the Smart Pop anthology The Man from Krypton: A Closer Look at Superman. He’d like to thank his mother for introducing him to the concept of guilt, and for making him, when he was 8 years old, a truly amazing Spider-Man costume for Halloween.
New author Billy McCarthy sets a genre precedent with this smart, dynamic thriller. McCarthy’s debut novel, The Devil of Shakespeare, delivers a punch to the gut of the entertainment industry, spotlighting obscene appetites for fame, backstabbing charades, cutthroat tactics and the bitter consequences of celebrity. The author, a former rock artist and music industry personality, leverages real life experiences and insider insight to orchestrate this addictive tale of believable fiction.
Denis M. McCarthy is originally from Long Island, N.Y. He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology and philosophy from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Kentucky. His research focuses on examining factors (e.g., personality traits, genetic differences) that influence what people learn about alcohol use and alcohol-related behavior. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri.
Chris McCubbin has written more than 20 books, mostly about games (computer and otherwise). He’s a co-founder of and writer/editor with Incan Monkey God Studios. Chris lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Lynette Alcorn, and his dogs, Penny and Sammy.
Pam McCutcheon grew up in Arizona and, though she traveled around the world as an engineer for the U.S. Air Force, she never made it to Trenton. Everything she does and doesn’t know about Trenton and New Jersey she learned from Stephanie Plum and her talented creator, Janet Evanovich. Pam has published romantic comedy novels, fantasy short stories (under the name Pamela Luzier) and nonfiction books for writers. She lives in the mountains of Colorado with her dog, Mo, and has no plans ever to visit Trenton.
Glenn McDonald writes about the busy intersections among film, TV, technology, games and pop culture for various Web sites and magazines. He is the author of Deal Me In!: Online Cardrooms, Big-Time Tournaments & the New Poker, and a contributing writer to the National Public Radio program “Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me.” His humor essays have been described as “grammatically consistent” and “remarkably frequent.” He lives in a series of fortified underground bunkers.
Gina McGuiness spent more than 35 years in the public affairs arena, handling highly sensitive and controversial subjects of international, national and California interest, community relations and public information management with the U.S. State and Defense Departments, numerous California government agencies and nonprofit, healthcare and educational organizations. She is an award-winning military journalist and a Vietnam veteran. She holds a pilot’s license, but hasn’t flown in many years. She retired from the United States Air Force with the rank of colonel. She serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Air Force Women Officers-Associated (AFWOA), an organization dedicated to maintaining ties between active and retired women officers and preserving the history and promoting recognition of the role of military women. The organization also lends support to women engaged in education and training programs and sponsors a permanent award at the Air Force Academy.
Denise I. McLean is the mother of AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys. She has been interviewed numerous times, including a “20/20” interview with Connie Chung and interviews on MTV, VH1 and “The Howard Stern Show.” She lives in Orlando, Fla.
Sean McMullen is one of Australia’s leading SF and fantasy authors and has over a dozen books and five dozen stories published or sold. He is the winner of 13 awards for SF and fantasy, and his international sales include the USA, Britain, France, Poland, Russia, Romania, Italy and Japan. He works in scientific computing but is currently doing a Ph.D. on Medieval Fantasy Literature at Melbourne University, where he is also an instructor at the campus karate club. Before he began writing, Sean spent several years in theater and as a musician.
Cathy McSporran is in her third year of a Ph.D. in creative writing. She has published over a dozen short stories and won several awards. She has written papers and essays on C.S. Lewis, Elizabeth Hand and Philip Pullman and teaches classes on creative writing, Arthurian studies and Dante’s Divine Comedy. She is currently working on a novel, Cold City. Cathy lives in Glasgow, Scotland, with her husband and a large roving population of cats.
Teresa Medeiros wrote her first novel at the age of 21 and has since gone on to win the hearts of both readers and critics. All 15 of her books have been national bestsellers, climbing as high as #12 on the New York Times bestseller list, #20 on USA Today and #9 on Publishers Weekly. She is a six-time RITA finalist and a two-time recipient of the Waldenbooks Award for bestselling fiction. Her next novel, After Midnight, will be released by Avon Books in September 2005. You can visit her Web site at www.teresamedeiros.com.
Kenneth Meeks is the managing editor of Black Enterprise magazine and the author of Driving While Black: What To Do If You Are A Victim Of Racial Profiling. He lives with his family in New York City.
Robert A. Metzger is a research scientist and a science fiction and science writer. His research focuses on the technique of molecular beam epitaxy, used to grow epitaxial films for high-speed electronics applications. His short fiction has appeared in most major SF magazines, including Asimov’s, Fantasy & Science Fiction and SF Age, while his 2002 novel, Picoverse, was a Nebula finalist and his most recent novel, CUSP, was released by Ace in 2005. His science writing has appeared in Wired and Analog, and he is a contributing editor to the Science Fiction Writers of America Bulletin.
Award-winning author Tanya Michaels doesn’t think of herself as self-destructive, although she does experience both weakness and addiction when it comes to shows such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Veronica Mars,” “Battlestar Galactica” and “Project Runway.” When she’s not glued to the television, she writes funny, heartwarming romance novels and, under the name Tanya Michna, more serious women’s fiction.
Ellen Michaud is the award-winning former editor-at-large of Prevention Magazine. She has been featured in Better Homes & Gardens, Cosmopolitan, the New York Times and the Washington Post. She is a former instructor at Temple University, and she conducts the Vermont Women's Writing Retreat annually. She lives in South Starksboro, Vt.
Dr. Joe Miller is an associate professor in the Department of Cell and Neurobiology at the Keck School of Medicine at USC, as well as the director of pharmacology for the medical school. He is a neuropharmacologist with research primarily in the fields of circadian neurobiology, sleep and stem cell research. In addition, he is a science fiction critic of long standing and has been a fan of science fiction in literature and in cinema for over 40 years.
Joyce Millman is the co-author of the book The Great Snape Debate (BenBella/Borders). Her essays on pop culture have appeared in the New York Times, Salon.com, the Boston Phoenix and several Smart Pop anthologies, including Neptune Noir and Getting Lost. Read more of her work at www.joycemillman.com.
Richard Miniter is the author of two New York Times–bestselling books, Losing Bin Laden and Shadow War, and is an internationally recognized expert on terrorism. He lives in Arlington, Va.
Daniel P. Moloney has a B.A. in religious studies from Yale and a doctorate in philosophy from Notre Dame. He has taught in the Department of Philosophy at Notre Dame and the Politics Department at Princeton. A former editor at First Things, he has written for First Things, Wall Street Journal, National Review, Crisis and American Prospect, among other publications. He is also a contributor to BenBella’s Smart Pop anthology on Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. He now lives in Rome, preparing for his next great adventure.
Carla Montgomery began as a reluctant voyeur, but is doing her best to make up for that naughty behavior now. Her essays and short stories have appeared in several anthologies and her commentaries aired on the local NPR station. For really weird story ideas, she highly recommends working as a late-night cop reporter. She currently lives with her family in Utah … but that’s another story.
Dr. Max More is an internationally acclaimed strategic futurist who writes, speaks and organizes events on the fundamental challenges of emerging technologies. Max is concerned that our burgeoning technological capabilities are racing far ahead of our standard ways of thinking about future possibilities. His work aims to improve our ability to anticipate, adapt to and shape the future for the better. Max co-founded and is chairman of Extropy Institute and authored the Principles of Extropy, which form the core of a transhumanist perspective. His most recent project is the Proactionary Principle, a tool for making smarter decisions about advanced technologies.
David Morefield is a video producer and freelance writer with a B.S. in mass communications from Virginia Commonwealth University. Since 1996, he has served as an editor at Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the award-winning James Bond tribute site (www.ianfleming.org), for which he has written numerous articles on 007 and his world. David’s writings on Bond and pulp fiction have also appeared in the magazines Razor and Thriller UK. He lives with his wife and two sons in Richmond, Va., and is on the Web at www.davidmorefield.com.
Actor Tee Morris began his writing career with the portrayal of Maryland Renaissance Festival’s Rafe Rafton, a character that led to his 2002 historical epic fantasy, MOREVI: The Chronicles of Rafe & Askana. Since then Tee’s titles have included Billibub Baddings and The Case of The Singing Sword, Legacy of Morevi and (with Evo Terra) Podcasting for Dummies. He has also contributed essays to The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy, The Fantasy Writer’s Companion and BenBella Books’ Farscape Forever: Sex, Drugs, and Killer Muppets. When he’s not writing, Tee is heard podcasting MOREVI from Podiobooks.com and is the host of “The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy” (found on www.teemorris.com/blog/), a podcast that explores marketing and self-promotional concepts for published and soon-to-be-published authors. Find out more about Tee Morris at teemorris.com.
When not watching “Alias” or being intimidated by gadgetry, Tracy S. Morris is a writer of funny fantasy, silly science fiction and the occasional serious news story. Her first novel, Tranquility, a Southern/science fiction/mystery/oddity novel, is available from Yard Dog Press, along with Bill Allen’s Gods and Other Children. Her fantasy humor chapbook, Medieval Misfits, is also available from Yard Dog Press.
Tracy lives in Fort Smith, Ark., with her husband and three hyperactive ferrets. The ferrets are in charge. You can find out more about Tracy’s work at her Web page, www.tracysmorris.com.
Former Connecticut small-town resident and amateur economist Sara Morrison does recaps of various television shows, including “Gilmore Girls,” at www.televisionwithoutpity.com. She resides in Los Angeles, where she gets way too many parking tickets. It’s really not fair. This is her first publication unless you count “The Red Fox,” a short story she wrote in first grade that was so good her elementary school had it bound and placed in their library. Sara hopes her hometown will allow her back in after this book comes out.
Anne Moyer earned her Ph.D. from Yale University and is an assistant professor at Stony Brook University. She studies psychosocial issues surrounding cancer and cancer risk. She is also interested in research methodology and methods of synthesizing research. As a social and health psychologist, she is fortunate to be able to refer to her fascination with reality TV as “research.”
Dr. Neil Mulholland was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland. He is presently a senior psychologist in child and family psychiatry at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton, Canada, and consults to several health teams in the region. He also runs a small private practice for kids and adults, where he often uses Harry Potter as a therapeutic tool. In 1979, after spending ten years in the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico, Dr. Neil graduated from Arizona State University. He then returned to Vancouver, Canada, and spent 20 years there before moving to the prairies of Alberta. According to the online quizzes, he’s a bit of a Mr. Weasley.
Jessica Murakami received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and her M.S. in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon. She is currently a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Oregon. Her main research interests are in the area of depression research, particularly related to gender and cultural differences in depression. She is also very much interested in understanding the motivations, risk and protective factors for suicide in diverse populations. At the University of Oregon, Jessica is also pursuing her M.F.A. in creative writing (poetry). She is an avid Harry Potter fan and is convinced that Snape is innocent.
Kevin Andrew Murphy is the author of various science fiction, fantasy and horror novels, including House of Secrets, Penny Dreadful, Drum into Silence and Fathom: The World Below. He’s also published many short stories and novellas, a number in the World of Darkness and Wild Cards anthologies, as well as formal poetry and, of course, essays. He lives in California with three whippets and tries to keep up with them. He thinks they may have knowledge of wormholes.
