Matthew Cushing
Speculative Fiction Author | Editor | Beta Reader
L.V. Ditchkus
L.V. Ditchkus is the author of the mythical Sasquatch Series, which won 1st prize in the Sci-fi category for the 2021 Colorado Authors League Book Awards. The fourth book in that series will be released in 2021.
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Her short story, Beware The Deadly Sins, is included in a Spec Fiction anthology called Second Law and is a spin-off for her next series, a sci-fi thriller with time travel. The first book in that series, Chrom Y Returns, will be released in 2021.
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In addition to being a member of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Linda is the Board Member-at-Large for the Chaffee County Writers Exchange, and a member of the Colorado Authors League.
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While writing, she's led adventure travel trips, hiked and snowshoed hundreds of miles, and volunteered for wilderness advocacy and writing organizations. She and her husband live in a rural mountain community in central Colorado, where she gains inspiration from the five 14,000+ foot tall peaks viewable from her window.
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Susan Bavaria embraces the quote by Joan Vinge that “Science fiction is the anthropology of the future.” She emerged as an adult with classics such as The Left Hand of Darkness, Stand on Zanzibar and The Foundation Trilogy and is sadly awed that the dystopian elements discussed in the 60’s now appear on daily news.
Her nonfiction work has appeared in the Bellevue Literary Review, Literary Mama, Adoptive Families Magazine, Flying South, and the Georgetown University Medical School’s Interacting with the Arts in Medicine website.
Susan Bavaria
Raised on two aloud tellings of Lord of the Rings by her mother (who is still sane), Ejay dove into her father’s Discworld novels and then the random assortment of 60’s and 70’s scifi and has loved it ever since. Ejay self publishes a scifi series, Queen of Spades, and fantasy series, the Last Prophecy. She also has two books with Indie Press Literary Wanderlust, Behind the Veil, a gothic ghost haunted thriller out October 1 2021, and Echo of the Evercry, a NA fantasy.
She is also an intern developmental editor for Literary Wanderlust. She makes a point of reading a selfpub book for every trad one she reads, and is also a Netgalley reviewer. At the moment she’s rereading Dune to win arguments about the upcoming movie with her partner.
EJ Dawson
V.E. Patton
V.E. Patton spent as much of her childhood as she could lost in a good book. She spent most of her adult life lost in a good job as a nurse, midwife, CEO, coach and facilitator (amongst other things). After years of encouraging her children and clients to follow their dreams, she finally got around to remembering what she wanted to be when she grew up - so she began writing. "Ochre Dragon: The Opal Dreaming Chronicles Book 1", was her first fantasy (in a book). She hopes you get lost in it.
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Her novelette “Peace on Earth” was included in “Christmas Australis: A Frighteningly Festive Anthology of Spine Jingling Tales.”
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Veronica is the co-founder of Australian Book Lovers, a website that supports and celebrates Australian authors. She co-hosts their popular podcast of the same name, where she interviews authors and industry experts, and provides news and resources for authors.
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Writing as Veronica Strachan she also publishes children’s picture books “The Adventures of Chickabella: books 1-3”, and non-fiction, memoir and self-development. She lives in central Victoria, Australia with her ever-patient husband and a menagerie of animals.
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Greg Pickens discovered science and fantasy fiction at an early age, immersing himself in his favorite authors such as Jack Vance, Robert E. Howard, Larry Niven, and Michael Moorcock. As an adult, he now grudgingly makes room for other genres such as history, mystery, and speculative fiction.
He isn’t published but is rumored to have almost finished his first science fiction novel which will almost certainly have to be buried, shot into space, or disassembled for scrap.
Greg lives in Washington DC, where apart from his work leading an IT team he keeps busy kayaking, biking, walking, and photography. He was struck more than ten years ago with a tragic case of adult-onset video game addiction and has yet to recover.
Greg Pickens
Matthew Cushing has written speculative fiction since he started adding sci-fi elements into high school assignments. Short stories soon followed, and his science fiction story The Rite to Vote was selected as a 2021 Roswell Award Finalist.
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An aficionado of science fiction, magic, and the macabre, Mr. Cushing enjoys creating character-driven stories that explore the oddities of modern society—often with a dose of humor. His first novel, a sci-fi crime mystery titled The Osect Indiscretion, was selected as a 2021 Colorado Gold Rush Literary Awards Finalist for science fiction.
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Mr. Cushing has degrees from UC San Diego and Yale University and is a member of the Triple Nine Society, the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and Speculative Fiction Writers. An animal lover and amateur trombonist, Mr. Cushing lives in Connecticut.
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Follow him on Twitter.
Matthew Cushing