Fantastic Stories Presents: Fantasy Super Pack #1

Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) was born and raised in rural Texas, the son of a pioneer physician. He began writing professionally at the age of fifteen and turned out dozens of tales of heroic and supernatural fantasy, featuring many memorable creations - including the character he is best remembered for: Conan of Cimmeria. These stories, mostly published in Weird Tales, won him a huge audience across the world and influenced a whole generation of writers, from Robert Jordan to Raymond E. Feist. Sadly, Howard killed himself in June 1936 when he learned that his beloved mother had fallen into a coma.

Philip K Dick was born in Chicago in 1928 and lived most of his life in California. He attended college for a year at Berkeley. Apart from writing, his main interest was music. He won the Hugo Award for his classic novel of alternative history, ‘The Man in the High Castle’ (1962). He was married five times and had three children. He died in March 1982.

During his fifty-five-year career, CLIFFORD D. SIMAK produced some of the most iconic science fiction stories ever written. Born in 1904 on a farm in southwestern Wisconsin, Simak got a job at a small-town newspaper in 1929 and eventually became news editor of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, writing fiction in his spare time. Simak was best known for the book City, a reaction to the horrors of World War II, and for his novel Way Station. In 1953 City was awarded the International Fantasy Award, and in following years, Simak won three Hugo Awards and a Nebula Award. In 1977 he became the third Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and before his death in 1988, he was named one of three inaugural winners of the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Philip José Farmer (1918–2009) was born in North Terre Haute, Indiana, and grew up in Peoria, Illinois. A voracious reader, Farmer decided in the fourth grade that he wanted to be a writer. For a number of years he worked as a technical writer to pay the bills, but science fiction allowed him to apply his knowledge and passion for history, anthropology, and the other sciences to works of mind-boggling originality and scope. His first published novella, “The Lovers” (1952), earned him the Hugo Award for best new author. He won a second Hugo and was nominated for the Nebula Award for the 1967 novella “Riders of the Purple Wage,” a prophetic literary satire about a futuristic, cradle-to-grave welfare state. His best-known works include the Riverworld books, the World of Tiers series, the Dayworld Trilogy, and literary pastiches of such fictional pulp characters as Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes. He was one of the first writers to take these characters and their origin stories and mold them into wholly new works. His short fiction is also highly regarded. In 2001, Farmer won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and was named Grand Master by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.

William R. Eakin pretty much began life at three months old, swinging in a hammock on a boat across the International Dateline to Guam and he has never stopped traveling. He went on to live and then to travel in very interesting places like Japan, India, Egypt, Austria, Poland, Germany, England, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, not to mention California, Texas, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Nebraska and on and on. Guided by wonder and awe and a sense of real gratitude for it all, he learned from his father a love for watching sunsets from the eyes of typhoons and from his mom the tender care of family. He retired from teaching philosophy in 2020 and still travels especially to NYC, Chicago and Seattle, where his children make their homes, though he writes on a cliff above the river in Arkansas. And here he has been inspired to do his most published work.

Shariann Lewitt, who also writes as S. N. Lewitt, is an American science fiction author known for her character-driven speculative fiction, cyberpunk themes, and explorations of technology, culture, and social change. The author of numerous novels and short stories, Lewitt has created compelling futures shaped by artificial intelligence, virtual reality, biotechnology, corporate power, and human adaptation to technological innovation. Her work combines thoughtful worldbuilding with strong characterization, examining the relationships between individuals, communities, and rapidly evolving technologies. A respected voice in contemporary science fiction, Shariann Lewitt has contributed significantly to cyberpunk, near-future fiction, feminist science fiction, and speculative literature. She remains recognized for her imaginative storytelling, technological insight, and contributions to modern science fiction. She is also a professor at MIT.

Chuck Rothman is an American science fiction author, editor, and speculative fiction writer known for his thought-provoking stories, imaginative worldbuilding, and exploration of technology, society, and the future. A longtime contributor to science fiction magazines and anthologies, Rothman has published numerous short stories and collaborative works spanning science fiction, fantasy, and speculative literature. His fiction often combines scientific ideas, social commentary, and compelling characters, examining the impact of innovation and change on human civilization. In addition to his work as a writer, Rothman has contributed to the science fiction community as an editor and advocate for independent publishing. Chuck Rothman remains recognized for his contributions to science fiction, speculative fiction, short fiction, anthology publishing, and contemporary genre literature.

David Niall Wilson is a USA Today bestselling, multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author of more than forty novels and collections. He is a former president of the Horror Writers Association and CEO and founder of Crossroad Press Publishing.

His novels include This is My Blood, Deep Blue, and Jurassic Ark, among others. David lives in way-out-yonder NC with his wife Patricia and an army of pets.