Fantastic Stories Presents The Dragon Super Pack

Nisi Shawl is a multiple-award-winning writer and editor. Their novel Everfair was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the short story collection Filter House won the James Tiptree Jr. Award. They cofounded the Carl Brandon Society to help give people of color greater visibility in the science fiction and fantasy worlds, and their "Writing the Other" workshops and accompanying book (cocreated with Cynthia Ward and K. Tempest Bradford) have taught thousands of writers new ways of thinking about diversity and representation within fiction.

Nisi received the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Speculation is their first novel for young readers. Born near Kalamazoo, Michigan, Nisi now lives near Seattle. Find them online at nisishawl.com and on Twitter at @nisishawl.

NAOMI KRITZER has been re-reading favorite books since childhood, and probably still has passages from A Wrinkle in Time memorized. She writes for both adults and teens, including Catfishing on CatNet and Chaos on CatNet from Tor Teen and Liberty's Daughter from Fairwood Press. Her writing has won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Edgar Award, the Locus Award, and the Minnesota Book Award. Naomi lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her family and three cats. The number of cats is subject to change without notice.

Sylvia Spruck Wrigley was born in Germany and spent her childhood in Los Angeles. She emigrated to Scotland where she guided German tourists around the Trossachs and searched for the supernatural. She now splits her time between South Wales and Andalucia where she writes about plane crashes and faeries, which have more in common than most people might imagine. Her fiction was nominated for a Nebula in 2013 and her short stories have been translated into over a dozen languages.

Misty Massey is the author of Mad Kestrel, a rollicking adventure of magic on the high seas, and Kestrel's Dance, the winner of the 2023 Palmetto Scribe Award for Best Novel. When she's not writing, Misty plays Malibu, the cheerful, sun-drenched cleric, on the Authors and Dragons podcast sister show, Calamity Janes.

Gerald Hausman, born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1945, grew up in New Jersey and Massachusetts. He graduated from college in New Mexico and continued to live there for two decades. During that time, he had a summer residence on the island of Jamaica where he and his wife, Loretta, founded a school for creative writing. Mr. Hausman has lived in Bokeelia, Florida since 1994. In addition to his many books about Native America, Gerald Hausman has written extensively about animal mythology. His work as a folklorist has earned him many national and international honors. Gerald's most recent award is from the Florida Magazine Association for his column "Pine Island Soundings" about life on a barrier island.

Gerald Hausman is a frequent storyteller at college writers programs and at young authors conferences. Recently, he performed at the Young Authors Conference in Kaiserslautern, Germany as a guest of Department of Defense Dependent Schools. His lively presentations, complete with a myriad of sound effects, have earned him praise from storytellers, speakers, writers, and listeners.

Nancy Austin, a member of the PaperBirch Poets, was born in Whitefish Bay, WI, but has lived on both coasts, and points between. She holds a master's in psychology and ran a Community Support Program for individuals with mental illness for many years. She now resides in the Northwoods in a setting she had always hoped to move to. Austin serves as the Northwest Region VP of Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (WFOP). She has been published in various journals and has poetry collections titled Remnants of Warmth (Aldrich Press/Kelsay Books, 2016), The Turn of the Tiller, the Spill of the Wind (Kelsay Books, 2019), and a collaborative anthology with the PaperBirch Poets titled Stitching Earth to Sky (Water's Edge Press 2019).

Cynthia Ward has 40 years of experience in the healthcare field. She has worked for dermatology, radiology, and cardiology practices in Indianapolis. Cynthia held the positions of coding supervisor, billing manager, and coding compliance director during her employment with these practices. She has provided instruction and direction as Program Director for the Billing and Coding program at Medtech College, at the Greenwood, Indiana, campus. Cynthia has also consulted with practices and taught residents and medical students and has provided instruction through her work as a reviewer for various coding and billing texts.
Cynthia has been a member of the AAPC since 1996 and was a member of the local chapter advisory board for 10 years. Cynthia lives in Indianapolis with her husband, Bob, a retired special education teacher, and her daughter, Emily.