Submerged Read online

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  SUSAN JETT lives far from San Francisco in an old farmhouse filled with books where she and her husband both write stories and try to civilize a small human. She’s never woken a slumbering cephalopodic alien. Sometimes she says stuff online: www.susanjett.com and @JettSusan

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  J.C. KOCH is scared by horror stories but writes them anyway. Her stories have appeared in Arkham Tales, Necrotic Tissue, and Penumbra e-zines, and a variety of excellent anthologies, including The Madness of Cthulhu Vol. 1 and Out of Tune II. J.C. also likes to do scary things like pay attention to politics, keep up with the Kardashians, and play the stock market. However, she tends to stay hidden under the bed, letting more of the terrors of the mind bleed onto the page, metaphorically and literally. Reach J.C. (aka Gini Koch) at Going Bump in the Night

  (http://www.ginikoch.com/jkbookstore.htm).

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  BILL KTE’PI has been publishing short stories since 1991, and is the author of two novels, LOW COUNTRY and FRANKIE TEARDROP. He can be found online at ktepi.com.

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  JEFFREY J. MARIOTTE is the award-winning author of more than sixty novels, including thrillers Empty Rooms and The Devil’s Bait, supernatural thrillers Season of the Wolf, Missing White Girl, River Runs Red, and Cold Black Hearts, horror epic The Slab, the Dark Vengeance teen horror quartet, and others. With partner and wife Marsheila Rockwell, he wrote the science fiction/horror/thriller 7 SYKOS, and has published numerous shorter works. He also writes comics, including the long-running horror/Western series Desperadoes and original graphic novels Zombie Cop and Fade to Black. He has worked in virtually every aspect of the book business, and is currently the division chief of Visionary Books.

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  MISTY MASSEY is the author of Mad Kestrel, Kestrel’s Voyages and the upcoming Kestrel’s Dance, and co-edited The Weird Wild West and Lawless Lands: Tales From The Weird Frontier. Misty is a founding member of Magical Words. When she isn’t writing, she studies and performs Middle Eastern dance. She’s a sucker for good sushi, African coffee, and blackstrap rum (to nourish her dark heart!). Find her at mistymassey.com, Facebook, Twitter and Dreamwidth.

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  SEANAN MCGUIRE lives and works in the Pacific Northwest, where she attempts to keep her massive blue cats from eating people. She writes a lot of things, because otherwise she stops sleeping. Sleep is good. She is the author of quite a lot of books, and takes quite a lot of naps. Keep up with her on Twitter at @seananmcguire or at

  www.seananmcguire.com.

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  When WENDY NIKEL isn’t traveling in time or space, she enjoys a quiet life near Utah’s Wasatch Mountains. She has a degree in elementary education, a fondness for road trips, and a terrible habit of forgetting where she’s left her cup of tea. Her short fiction has been published by Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Daily Science Fiction, Nature: Futures, and various other anthologies and e-zines. For more info, visit wendynikel.com.

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  JODY LYNN NYE lists her main career activity as “spoiling cats.” She lives near Chicago with her current cat, Jeremy, and her husband, Bill. She has published more than 45 books, including collaborations with Anne McCaffrey and Robert Asprin, and over 160 short stories. Her latest books are Rhythm of the Imperium (Baen), Moon Beam (with Travis S. Taylor, Baen), and Myth-Fits (Ace). She also teaches the annual DragonCon Two-Day Writers Workshop.

  Visit her at www.jodylynnnye.com, on Facebook or Twitter @JodyLynnNye.

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  JENNA RHODES is the fantasy writing pen name used by myself, Rhondi Vilott Salsitz. I also write in other genres and for different age groups. My books have been translated in French, Spanish, Russian and Italian. In May 2017, THE QUEEN OF STORM AND SHADOW was released by DAW Books, completing my Elven Ways series written as Jenna Rhodes.

  Learn more at www.rhondiann.com.

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  MICHAEL ROBERTSON manages projects as his day job, and fits writing fiction around that. And then he also does other things besides just those two. Watching SNL reruns, playing Zelda, eating pizza, etc. But those aren’t relevant to this situation. Born and raised in New York City, he lives in Maine now, where the lack of tall buildings leaves him constantly exposed to avian predators. Or that’s how he feels, anyway. He can be found on twitter as @michaels2cents, and his web site is mrobertson.com.

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  Multiple Scribe and Rhysling Award nominee MARSHEILA (MARCY) ROCKWELL is the author of twelve books to date, the most recent being a novel based on the popular video game Mafia III (written with husband/writing partner Jeffrey J. Mariotte). Her work also includes the acclaimed H/SF novel 7 SYKOS (w/Mariotte); a Xena: Warrior Princess trilogy (w/Mariotte); The Shard Axe series, the only official novels for the global MMORPG, Dungeons & Dragons Online; two collections; dozens of short stories and poems; and multiple articles on writing and the writing process. Find out more here: http://www.marsheilarockwell.com/.

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  A. MERC RUSTAD is a queer non-binary writer who lives in the Minnesota. Favorite things include: robots, dinosaurs, and monsters. Their stories have appeared in Lightspeed, Fireside, Apex, Uncanny, Shimmer, and other fine venues. Merc likes to play video games, watch movies, read comics, and wear awesome hats. You can find Merc on Twitter @Merc_Rustad, Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/mercrustad) or their website: http://amercrustad.com. Their debut short story collection, SO YOU WANT TO BE A ROBOT, is available from Lethe Press (May 2017).

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  JAMES VAN PELT is a part-time high school English teacher and full-time writer in western Colorado. He’s been a finalist for a Nebula Award and been reprinted in many year’s best collections. His first Young Adult novel, Pandora’s Gun, was released from Fairwood Press in August of 2015. James blogs at http://www.jamesvanpelt.com and he can be found on Facebook.

  ABOUT THE EDITORS

  S.C. BUTLER is a writer living in New Hampshire with his wife and son. He is the author of the Stoneways trilogy: Reiffen’s Choice, Queen Ferris, and The Magicians’ Daughter, published by Tor Books; and a contributor of short stories to several anthologies and magazines. Submerged is his editorial debut.

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  JOSHUA PALMATIER is a fantasy author with a PhD in mathematics. He currently teaches at SUNY Oneonta in upstate New York, while writing in his “spare” time, editing anthologies, and founding the anthology-producing small press Zombies Need Brains LLC. His most recent fantasy novel Reaping the Aurora (August 2017) continues a new fantasy series begun in Shattering the Ley and Threading the Needle, although you can also find his “Throne of Amenkor” series and the “Well of Sorrows” series on the shelves. He is currently hard at work writing his next novel and designing the kickstarter for the next Zombies Need Brains anthology project. You can find out more at www.joshuapalmatier.com or at the small press’ site www.zombiesneedbrains.com. Or follow him on Twitter as @bentateauthor or @ZNBLLC.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  This anthology would not have been possible without the tremendous support of those who pledged during the Kickstarter. Everyone who contributed not only helped create this anthology, they also helped solidify the foundation of the small press Zombies Need Brains LLC, which I hope will be bringing SF&F themed anthologies to the reading public for years to come…as well as perhaps some select novels by leading authors, eventually. I want to thank each and every one of them for helping to bring this small dream into reality. Thank you, my zombie horde.

  The Zombie Horde: Asha Bardon, Simon Dick, Andrew Wilson, Sarah Cornell, J.R. Murdock, Kimberly Lloyd, Bruno Girin, Sharon Wood, Kari Maaren, Heidi Cykana, Nancy Lambert, Vicki Greer, Ash Marten, Diana Castillo, Brian Quirt, David A. Holden, Gabriel Sinclair, Jason M Hough, David Rippere, Kerry Ebanks, Stephanie Cranford, Stephen Goodrow, Kimba Wilson, Jakub Narębski, Gia B., Tina Black, Christina Roberts, Erin Kenny, Ryan Poindexter, Pierre Gauthier, Phil Olynyk, Scott Drummond, Patrick & Sarah Pilgrim, Alexander Gideon, Carolyn Petersen, Elizabeth Belden
Handler, April Steenburgh, Aurora N., Marissa Lingen, Veronica, Millie Calistri-Yeh, Jean Marie Ward, Stephanie Cheshire, Christine Swendseid, Fred Herman, Sidney Whitaker, Teresa Carrigan, Jen Edwards, Fred and Mimi Bailey, Cyn Wise, Brenda Moon, Kristin Evenson Hirst, Juli, Jeffery Lawler, Andrew Kinstetter, Petter Wäss, Duncan and Andrea Rittschof, Nick W., Anders M. Ytterdahl, Michael Fedrowitz, Andy M., Susan Carlson, Cate Crowley, Kelly Crowell, Kerry aka Trouble, John Idlor, Claire Sims, Tibs, Steven desJardins, Sheryl R. Hayes, Anna Rudholm, Jake Woodworth, Chuck Hickson, Jill Chinchar, Andrija Popovic, David Bruns, Elyse M Grasso, RKBookman, Tamara Michelle Slaten, Miranda Floyd, Becky Allyn Johnson, dbschlosser, Samuel Kohner, Carol J. Guess, shadow cat, Patti Short, Don Larson, Zoe, Jenny Barber, Michele Hall, Jim and Darla Nault-Tait, Peter Donald, Mandy Stein, Shawna Jacques, M. E. Gibbs, Scott Raun, Chad Bowden, Mr. And Mrs. Smooth, Rachel Stuart, Sarah Brand, Michele Fry, Lauowolf, Eleanor Russell, Elise Power, Susan Oke, Michele Dainiak, Elizabeth Inglee-Richards, Cathy Green, Debra Stewart, Douglas Park, Kerri Regan, ANDREW AHN, David Hill, Stephen Ballentine, William Hughes, Atthis Arts LLC, Dina S Willner, Ashley R. Morton, James Conason, Jennifer McGaffey, E. Smith, Katherine Malloy, Lace, Leslie Gawne, Sidsel N. Pedersen, pophyn, Elaine (Lainey) Rothman, Lark Cunningham, Helen Cameron, Sachin Suchak, Niall Gordon, Robby Thrasher, Lennhoff Family, Chris Matosky, Jules Jones, Laura Sheana Taylor, Patrick Thomas, Fen Eatough, Jennifer Berk, Jaq Greenspon, Sontaran Empire, Kevin Winter, Marty Poling Tool, Peter Hansen, Cindy Cripps-Prawak, Alan and Morva, Kyrielle, Diana Ramos, SusanB, Matthew Markland, David Quist, Stephanie Lucas, Erin M. Evans, Tony Anjo, Keith Jones, Colleen R. Cahill, Pulp Literature Press, Steven Saus, Cheri Kannarr, Catherine Sharp, Gary Phillips, Tindra Tieren, Gina & Jon Freed, Adora Hoose, Caryn Cameron, Todd V. Ehrenfels, Debbie Matsuura, Rachel Blackman, Jörg Tremmel, Pat Knuth, Simon Niklasson, Yoshio Kobayashi, Yankton Robins, Ferd Burfle, Carol Mammano, Karen Laage, Michael Bernardi, Mark Carter, Andrew Hatchell, Annie Mosity, Chris ‘Warcabbit’ Hare, Morgan S. Brilliant, Chrissie & Jake Palmatier, Vespry family, Harvey Brinda, Brendan Lonehawk, Sheryl Ehrlich, Tom P. Powers, E.G. Languzzi, Robert Killheffer, Andreas Gustafsson, Thea Maia, Kai Herbertz, A.K. Skelding, Mervi Mustonen, Ed Ellis, Alisha Henri, Merav Hoffman, Gavran, Chris Gerrib, Keith Bissett, Brenda Rezk, Dave Hermann, Richard P Bissmire, Jessica Reid, Jerel D Heritage, Yes, Robin Yang, Pat Hayes, Keith Setzer, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Deborah Fishburn, Colette Reap, Revek, Eagle Archambeault, Tory Shade, Katrina Allis, David Rowe, Ivan Donati, KixieKat, Sharon E. 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