Copycats

Award-winning author Annie Reed describes herself as a desert rat who longs to live by the ocean. Since she hasn’t yet convinced her family to relocate to a nice chunk of beachfront property, she’s done the next best thing—written a series of stories set in a contemporary Pacific Northwest city where magic and reality go hand in hand.

Private investigators Diz and Dee populate Annie’s more lighthearted stories, while denizens of a much rougher neighborhood lurk in her Tales From the Shadows.

A talented and versatile writer whose fantasy, science fiction, and mystery stories have sold to a wide variety of publications, including five of the first seven volumes of Fiction River’s inaugural year.

C.V. Alba is the award winning author of the Mat Briscoe Mystery Series. These gripping crime thrillers are rooted in the years she spent in the business world of high-tech in 1990s Washington D.C. There she encountered dishonesty, cover-ups, half-truths and outright lies–even murder and crime as thrilling as any fictional murder mystery.

C.V. Alba’s short stories have been published in the Blue Ridge Writers Journal and the Journal of the Virginia Writers Project. (https://www.virginiawritersproject.com/).

Find the first of her books here: https://amzn.to/451fV8L

Get a free short story and join her newsletter at https://www.cvalba.com.

Cate Martin is mainly known for cozy witch mysteries set in her home state of Minnesota, including her recently completed series The Witches Three Cozy Mysteries and her new series The Viking Witch Cozy Mysteries.

She also writes science fiction and fantasy under the name Kate MacLeod and has had short fiction published in Analog, Strange Horizons, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies among other places. Under Kate MacLeod she is midway through the YA sci-fi series The Ritchie and Fitz Sci-Fi Murder Mysteries. You can learn more about Cate Martin at her website www.CateMartin.com.

Chris Chan is a writer, educator and historian. He works as a researcher and “International Goodwill Ambassador” for Agatha Christie Ltd. His true crime articles, reviews, and short fiction have appeared in The Strand, The Wisconsin Magazine of History, Mystery Weekly,Gilbert!, Nerd HQ, Akashic Books’ Mondays are Murder webseries, The Baker Street Journal, The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Masthead: The Best New England Crime Stories, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, and multiple Belanger Books anthologies. He is the creator of the Funderburke and Kaiming mysteries, a series featuring private investigators who work for a school and help students during times of crisis.  The Funderburke short story “The Six-Year- Old Serial Killer” was nominated for a Derringer Award. His first book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia,” was published in 2020 by MX Publishing, and he is also the author of the comedic novels Sherlock’s Secretary and its sequel Nessie’s Nemesis.  His book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter (Level Best Books) was nominated for the 2022 Agatha Award for Best Non-Fiction. Murder Most Grotesque, Sherlock’s Secretary, and his anthology Of Course He Pushed Him & Other Sherlock Holmes Stories: The Complete Collection were all nominated for Silver Falchion Awards.

Daniel C. Bartlett's short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Twisted Voices: Stories from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Shotgun Honey, Mystery Tribune, Mystery Magazine, Thrill Ride: The Magazine: Lone Wolves, Thrill Ride: the Magazine: Unlikely Partners, Crimeucopia – Totally Psycho Logical, Yellow Mama, The Yard: Crime Blog, Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir, Vol. 7, Ya Got Trouble, Vol 2 (w/ KT Bartlett), descant, Iron Horse Literary Review, Chiron Review, 3:AM Magazine, and Crab Creek Review, among others. His work was shortlisted among "Other Distinguished Mystery and Suspense" in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023.

He lives in southeast Texas with his wife and partner-in-crime (writing), author KT Bartlett, their daughter (a poet)—yes, God help them, a family of writers—along with two dogs that feel more like four dogs, and a school of always hungry but otherwise pretty cool koi. He also teaches writing and literature at Lamar University.

donalee Moulton is a mystery writer whose stories slip between historical intrigue, contemporary crime, and the occasional dark chuckle. Her short stories have appeared widely in Canada and the U.S., including in Cold Canadian Crime, Black Cat Weekly, and Saturday Evening Post. Her historical mystery Conflagration! won the 2024 Daphne du Maurier Award, and she is the author of Hung Out to Die and the Lotus Detective Agency series, Bind and Melt.

When she's not plotting fictional crimes, donalee works as an award-winning journalist, contributing to The Globe and Mail, National Post, and other outlets across North America. She lives in Halifax, where she shares space with family, pets, and enough books to qualify as a minor structural hazard.

Be sure to visit her website: donaleemoulton.com

Kari Kilgore started her first published novel Until Death in Transylvania, Romania, and finished it in Room 217 at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where a rather famous creepy tale about a hotel sparked into life. That’s just one example of how real world inspiration drives her fiction.

Until Death was included on the Preliminary Ballot for the Bram Stoker Award for Outstanding Achievement in a First Novel in 2016. Kari’s short myth The Spider Who Ate the Elephant placed 2nd in fiction in the 2019 Virginia Writers Club Golden Nib contest.

Her professional short story sales include several to Fiction River anthology magazine, and several holiday-themed anthology projects with WMG Publishing that range from mystery to contemporary to romance.

Kari writes first and figures out the story’s genre later. That results in mystery, fantasy, science fiction, romance, contemporary fiction, and everything in between. She’s happiest when she surprises herself. She lives at the end of a long dirt road in the middle of the woods with her husband Jason A. Adams, various house critters, and wildlife they’re better off not knowing more about.

Kari’s novels, novellas, collections, and short stories are available at www.karikilgore.com and www.spiralpublishing.net.