A Vindication of Monsters

USA TODAY bestselling author Nancy Holder is thrilled to be back at Harlequin/Silhouette where she sold her first two novels many years ago (for a young-adult line that no longer exists.) In answer to recent queries, yes, she is "that" Nancy Holder, who wrote for Bantam Loveswept, and also Laurel Chandler. She wrote thirteen category and women's fiction single titles before writing two erotic horror novels with her coauthor, Melanie Tem, and a solo horror novel titled Dead in the Water, which received a Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association.

Soon after that, Nancy was asked to write an original novel based on the TV show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and working with other writers and solo, she has wound up writing more Buffy and Angel material (including show guides) than any other writer. She has written for Buffy since the show went on the air, and her latest Buffy effort is on the stands now. She has also written tie-in books for Smallville, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Highlander and other "universes."

She also writes a lot of young adult and children's fiction, sometimes under various "house" names. She loves retold fairy tales, and has worked on those as well.

Nancy has lived in San Diego for most of her adult life, and is a doting mother to her daughter. The Holder women recently sold their first collaborative effort, a short story about Lightning the Mouse, to an anthology. Lightning is a brown mouse that belongs to her daughter. They also have two cats, Kittnen Snow and David.

Nancy is a Jazzercise devotee and also studies yoga. She dropped out of high school to become a ballet dancer in Germany, but a number of injuries sidelined her. She figure that's just as well - she's very happy with being a freelance writer.

Nancy is a charter member of both RWA and HWA (the Horror Writers Association). She also belongs to the IAMTW, the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers; and Persephone, which is an organisation for women horror writers. She attends a lot of science fiction and fantasy cons. She learned about the Silhouette Bombshell line at a fantasy convention from a friend of hers who used to write scripts for Xena.

Nancy also teaches at the University of California San Diego through the Extension department, and has also taught at the Maui Writers Retreat and in other venues. She is delighted to report that several of her students have gone on to great publishing success, which is just as thrilling to her as selling something herself. You can check for classes if you're local at www.nancyholder.com. You can also email her through the web site. Please feel free to "snail mail" her (including a self-addressed, stamped envelope, please) at: Nancy Holder, P.O. Box 26384, San Diego, CA 92196, USA.

Lisa Morton is a screenwriter, author of non-fiction books, Bram Stoker Award(R)-winning prose writer, and Halloween expert whose work was described by the American Library Association's Readers' Advisory Guide to Horror as "consistently dark, unsettling, and frightening." She has published four novels, 200 short stories, and three books on the history of Halloween. Her latest releases include Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances and the Bram Stoker Award-nominated The Art of the Zombie Movie; recent short stories appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2020, Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles, and Classic Monsters Unleashed. Lisa lives in Los Angeles and online at www.lisamorton.com.

Michele Brittany is the book review editor for the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics and is the co-chair of the Ann Radcliffe Conference held in conjunction with Horror Writers Association's annual Stokercon. She lives in Glendale, Arizona.

Leslie S. Klinger is one of the world's foremost authorities on Sherlock Holmes. He is the editor of the three-volume set The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. The first two volumes, The Complete Short Stories, won the Edgar for Best Critical/Biographical work. His New Annotated Frankenstein was nominated for a World Fantasy Award. Klinger is a member of the Baker Street Irregulars and lives in Malibu.

Octavia Cade is a New Zealand writer. She has a PhD in science communication and a particular interest in how science intersects with speculative fiction: examples of her work on this can be found in Horror Studies, MOSF Journal of Science Fiction, Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, Supernatural Studies and various anthologies from academic presses. She has also sold over 60 short stories to markets including Clarkesworld, F&SF, and Strange Horizons. A novel, several novellas, two poetry collections, two short story collections, and a nonfiction collection have sold to various small presses. She is a four time Sir Julius Vogel Award winner and a Bram Stoker nominee. Octavia attended Clarion West 2016, and was the 2020 writer in residence at Massey University.