Editor
Brent Weeks and John Ottinger III
Contributors
Jim Black’s interest in science fiction began in the early 70s when he read a copy of Lester Del Rey’s The Runaway Robot. He moved on to the Tom Swift, Jr. books before graduating to Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Roger Zelazny and many others. Hundreds of books later he still enjoys reading everything from the classic through the modern authors.
Book reviews have fascinated him since he first read the reviews by Spider Robinson and Richard Geis in Galaxy Science Fiction. In 2008, he started a review blog called Science Fiction Times.
His other reading passion has always been comic books. While his first comic book reading love was the super hero books, his tastes have expanded to include the Vertigo line from DC Comics and many independents. Among his favorite current creators are Jonathan Hickman, Grant Morrison, Robert Kirkman, and Christos Gage. He joined the review team at Comic Book Revolution and later started doing interviews and reviews for Comic Related.
As a young teen, R. L. Copple played in his own make-believe world, writing the stories and drawing the art for his own comics while experiencing the worlds of other authors like Tolkien, Lewis, Asimov, and Lester Del Rey. After years of writing devotionally, he returned to the passion of his youth in order to combine his fantasy worlds and faith into the reality of the printed page. Since then, his imagination has given birth to The Reality Chronicles trilogy from Splashdown Books, along with numerous short stories in various magazines. More information can be obtained at his website. In his Texas Hill Country residence, he continues to create and give wings to new realities so that others might enjoy and be inspired by them.
Steve Davidson is an author and editor and a wanna-be writer. He has enjoyed success as a non-fiction author with several books about the sport of paintball; his most recent – A Parent’s Guide to Paintball (Liaison Press) was recently distributed at the 100th Boy Scout Jamboree. He currently edits the paintball news website www.68caliber.com , and has contributed a cross-over article to Fantasy Magazine. He enjoys wanna-be status in the realm of fiction writing, having placed only two flash fiction pieces (Rough Trade, House For Sale). He also blogs (very little of late) as The Crotchety Old Fan and curates The Classic Science Fiction Channel.
(c) Mark A. Rayner
(c) Bryan Thomas Schmidt
Find him online at www.bryanthomasschmidt.net and blogging at www.bryanthomasschmidt.blogspot.com.
Read all of Bryan’s interviews…
Jacob Topp-Mugglestone is an SFF reader and reviewer over at Drying Ink. Though whim provides an essential part of his choices, his favourite authors include Steven Erikson, Kate Griffin, Robin Hobb, and Brandon Sanderson, which he reads while waiting for the rain to stop. Living in the UK as he does, this rarely happens, and his current TBR pile rarely lasts very long.
RETIRED
Philip Athans is the New York Times best-selling author of Annihilation and ten other fantasy and horror books including the just-released The Guide to Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction. Born in Rochester, New York he grew up in suburban Chicago, where he published the literary magazine Alternative Fiction & Poetry. His blog, Fantasy Author’s Handbook, is updated every Tuesday, and you can follow him on Twitter @PhilAthans. He now resides in the foothills of the Washington Cascades, east of Seattle.
(c) Lexie Cenni
Reading is her passion and main pursuit in life, something no one bothers to question after meeting her for the first time. She’s studying to be a paralegal, with aspirations towards spy work (wouldn’t that make a good story? Reader becomes Spy!) and like everyone else she knows, trying to write a great novel.
When she isn’t reading, blogging, or writing (sometimes all three at once), you’ll find her in her kitchen trying to master new cooking skills (edibility is a work in progress), yelling at the TV while playing a video game (her nickname is ‘Black Widow’, her characters die horribly) or sobbing over a new asian drama (she’s a romantic at heart).
Ordinarily you’ll find her blogging at her personal blog Poisoned Rationality, an apt description a teacher once coined when confronted by Lexie’s unusual…logic.
Ashley Crump: Books equal air. It’s been that way as long as I can remember.
I wrote a book when I was in the fourth grade. I’m not sure if I decided right then or later that I would probably be better off reading than writing. Now, I’m 35 – and in my constant quest to explore new places and do new things, I’ve ended up here with you at Grasping for the Wind, and I’m just glad to be here!
At my day job, I work to correct the impression that all English teachers are terrible people who believe that you won’t make anything of yourself if you can’t make subjects and verbs agree. After all, I think 2+2=5, and I teach English. If I can do that, there’s hope for anyone.
When I’m not being herded by my two cats or listening to my 92 year old grandmother’s stories, you can find me on Twitter as @ohthatashley and doing the occasional book review at SF Signal.
Patrick Hester is an author, blogger, podcaster and functional nerd who hangs out and publishes his stuff at his blog, ‘All things from my brain’ over at www.atfmb.com. He can be found daily on his his twitter feed at twitter.com/atfmb. Patrick’s goal is to be a published science fiction and fantasy author. He is also one half of the Functional Nerds, (www.functionalnerds.com), a weekly podcast talking about computers, technology and speculative fiction.
(c) James Knapp
(ROC Books, Penguin) which released in February of 2010, as well as the next two books in the Revivors trilogy The Silent Army
(to be released Oct 05, 2010) and Element Zero
(April 5th, 2011). He was born in Dover New Hampshire, and after a nomadic romp around New England which took him from Pownal to Bridgeport, he settled in Groton Massachusetts with his wife Kim where he writes code by day, and fiction by night. He will not claim outright that reading his works will change your life, but if cornered, he will imply it.
Like most of you, Lisa Parkin is an avid reader. She’s been reading fantasy novels since she first picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone when she was in the fifth grade. From there, Lisa’s jumped into the sub-genres of epic, urban and young adult fantasy. Currently, her favorite authors are: Sharon Shinn, Juliet Marillier, Maria V. Snyder, Robin Hobb and Kristin Cashore.
Lisa lives in sunny Florida, where it’s just as likely to pour down buckets of rain as scorch you with blazing heat. She has a academic background in journalsim and literature and works as a professional writer and editor for a health website.
Other than reading, Lisa loves writing, editing, scrapbooking, laughing, coffee, raspberry pie, journaling, picking at her nails and collecting quirky friends. You can find other fantasy and YA reviews on her blog, Read. Breathe. Relax.
Jim Rion grew up in small town Kansas, with the incredible good luck of a well-stocked local library. He grew up to love words of all kinds, and he eventually acquired a BA in German and Philosophy and an MA in Germanic Linguistics. He also came down with a terrible case of wanderlust, leading him from the fields of home to Japan via Oklahoma, Germany and Russia.
Now he lives in a small Japanese city on the Seto Inland Sea, with his amazing wife and manga-obsessed mother-in-law. He teaches ESP (English for Special Purposes, not that other thing), plays inexcusable amounts of PS3, reads (and tries to write) science fiction and fantasy, and collects straight razors and inordinately expensive Japanese whetstones. You can read more on his SF/F centered blog A Loss For Words, or check out his alter ego’s straight razor and traditional wetshaving blog at Eastern Smooth. You can also follow him on twitter @EasternSmooth.
(c) Moses Siregar III
