Mariely Lares is a Mexican-American writer of fiction. Born in the only hospital of a small town in Southern California—which, fun fact, is also Cher’s birthplace—she grew up straddling two worlds, crossing the border almost every day. She has a degree in Computer Science Engineering and lives in San Diego, where she can be found doing all the outdoorsy things, rescuing dogs, and writing her next book.
Brian Lumley was born near Newcastle. In 22 years as a Military Policeman he served in many of the Cold War hotspots, including Berlin, as well as Cyprus in partition days. He reached the rank of Sergeant-Major before retiring to Devon to write full-time, and his work was first published in 1970. The vampire series, ‘Necroscope’, has been translated into ten languages and sold over a million copies worldwide.
Eric Lustbader is the bestselling author of ‘Second Skin, ‘The Kaisho, ‘The Miko and ‘White Ninja’, all starring Nicholas Linnear. He graduated from Columbia University in 1969. He spent fifteen years in the music industry, including working for both Elektra and CBS Records, and writing for ‘Cash Box’ magazine. He has also been a teacher. He lives with his wife in Southampton, New York.
Renowned as one of the great horror-writers of all time, H.P. Lovecraft was born in 1890 and lived most of his life in Providence, Rhode Island. Among his many classic horror stories, many of which were published in book form only after his death in 1937, are ‘At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels of Terror’ (1964), ‘Dagon and Other Macabre Tales’ (1965), and ‘The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions’ (1970).
Mercedes Lackey has a degree in biology from Purdue University. Like many writers she has worked at a variety of jobs, including short stints as a waitress, security guard and artist’s model. She lives outside Tulsa, Oklahoma with her husband and collaborator, artist Larry Dixon, their several birds and two dogs.
Alan Lee was invited to illustrate the centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings, which led to further Tolkien editions, including The Hobbit and the three ‘Great Tales’: The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin. He worked as Conceptual Designer and Set Decorator on both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, receiving the Academy Award for Best Art Direction for his work on The Return of the King.
Born and raised in America, Stephen Lawhead moved to the UK, to Oxford, in order to research into Celtic legend and history. He lives in Iffley with his wife, writer Alice Slaikeu Lawhead, and their two sons, Ross and Drake.
Robin Hobb is one of the world’s finest writers of epic fiction. She was born in California in 1952 but raised in Alaska. She raised her family, ran a smallholding, delivered post to her remote community, all at the same time as writing stories and novels. She succeeded on all fronts, raising four children and becoming an internationally best-selling writer. She lives in Tacoma, Washington State.
Laura grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where she spent an excellent childhood playing make-believe with her two younger brothers. The Ark (2015) is the direct result of those stories and a lifelong devotion to space-themed television. The sequel The Remnant published this year and the third in the trilogy is expected to follow in 2017.
Laura has a degree in French and a license to practice law, but both are frozen in carbonite at present. She lives in Texas with her family.
Jason was born and raised in Upstate New York and now lives happily with his wife and a long-haired dachshund in Portland, Oregon. He loves gardening, hiking, cooking, and music. During the day, he masquerades as a mild-mannered software engineer at Elemental Technologies.
Jason’s debut novel, Unexpected Rain (2015), a science fiction murder mystery, led to the sequel, Unclear Skies, published in 2016, and the conclusion of the trilogy is planned for 2017.
