Authors
Reed Alexander
Reed Alexander is a political scientist who uses his studies of modern society to—as he puts it—”peel back the scabs and see what makes us tick.” This influences the majority of his horror writing. Reed writes with the assumption that once confronted by real horror, most people will devolve to their primitive instincts. He believes this makes every glimmer of real human sacrifice seem precious. “Morals are a human construct and do not exist outside of society.”
Ben Arzate
Ben Arzate lives in Des Moines, IA. He is the author of the novels The Story of the Y, Elaine, and Music is Over!, the short story collection The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Saying Goodbye, and the poetry collections dr. sodom and mrs. gomorrah and the sky is black and blue like a battered child. He is a regular contributor to Cultured Vultures. Find him online at dripdropdripdropdripdrop.blogspot.com.
Ellyn Bache
Ellyn Bache is the award-winning author of nine novels (one of which was made into a movie starring Susan Sarandon) and dozens of articles and short stories, some of them gathered into three different collections Her work has included a Willa Cather Fiction Prize winner, Literary Guild selections, SIBA Award nominees, Madcap Award winners, and selection to the Publishers Weekly “Recommended Holiday Reading” list.
Ellyn grew up in Washington DC but has spent most of her adult life in the Carolinas, where she has raised her four children, taught some writing classes, and taken great joy in participating in the OLLI program at Furman University After years of concentrating on mainstream literary fiction, she has turned to speculative Jewish fiction for this novella—and hopes you’ll enjoy reading it as much as she did writing it.
John Baltisberger
John Baltisberger is an author of speculative and genre fiction that often focuses on Jewish Elements. Through his writing, he has explored themes of mysticism, faith, sin, and personal responsibility. He lives in Austin, TX with his wife and his daughter. Though mostly known for his bizarre blend of Jewish mysticism and splatter, John defies being labeled under any one genre. His work has spanned extreme horror, urban fantasy, science fiction, cosmic horror, epic verse, and he has even written a guide for mindful meditation. While relatively new to the writing community, (his first book was published in 2018) John has become known for his work in verse, having worked in both extremely short works and massive novella-length poetic epics. He continues to work to push himself to explore new avenues of expression and horror literature.
Maxwell Bauman
Maxwell Bauman is Editor-In-Chief of Door Is A Jar Literary Magazine, and lead editor of Aggadah Try It Books, an imprint of Madness Heart Press. He is a contributor for Chicken Soup for the Soul. His short story collection, The Anarchist Kosher Cookbook (2017) and novella The Mummy of Canaan (2019) were published by CLASH Books. His haunted house/ ghost story novella House of Blood and Teeth (2021) was published by Nictitating Books. When not writing, Maxwell makes LEGO art, some of which has been exhibited at the Blue Door Art Center in Yonkers, NY, and published in the Association for Jewish Studies: Perspectives; The Protest Issue (June 2021). You can find out more about Maxwell’s writing and art on his website maxwellbauman.com and follow him on Twitter @maxwellbauman
Charles Bernard
Charles R. Bernard is a writer who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. His work has been featured in publications like Thuggish Itch and Cosmic Horror Monthly and has appeared in anthologies like American Cult, Peaks of Madness, and Deadman Humour: 13 Fears of a Clown. He is a contributor at Madness Heart Press, where he co-hosts the podcast Wandering Monster and blogs about horror culture. He resides next to Salt Lake City Cemetery; a sprawling necropolis whose tombs and markers stretch out over a square kilometer of grounds. Charles is lively enough company, though. You can find him at https://www.charlesrbernard.com.
David Doub
Self-proclaimed Lord of the Vampires, second only to Lestat. He is the man behind the Dusk Comics’s flagship comic – Dusk. An unabashed story of vampires, hunters, and magick – don’t worry his vampires don’t sparkle. David is the publisher and main writer of Dusk Comics.
Douglas Ford
According to Stoker Award-winning author, Tim Waggoner, Douglas Ford “wields language like a sinister surgeon with a night-black scalpel.” Ford’s collection of weird fiction, Ape in the Ring and Other Tales of the Macabre and Uncanny, was published by Madness Heart Press in 2020, earning praise from Owl Goingback, who called it “a must have collection for every horror library.” Ford followed this collection with The Beasts of Vissaria County, a novel released by D&T Publishing in 2021. His short fiction has appeared in a wide variety of publications, from Dark Moon Digest to Diabolical Plots, and a novella, The Reattachment, appeared in 2019 courtesy of Madness Heart Press. That same press will release Little Lugosi: A Love Story in 2022.
Andrew Fox
Andrew Fox has been writing science fiction, fantasy, and horror since an early age; his first exposure to these genres was watching Japanese monster film Destroy All Monsters from the back seat of his parents’ convertible at age three. He has worked in a children’s psychiatric center, managed a food assistance program for low-income senior citizens,
and overseen temporary housing services for FEMA following Hurricane Katrina. He currently works for a federal law enforcement agency and resides with his family in Northern Virginia. His first novel, Fat White Vampire Blues (Ballantine-Del Rey, 2003), was selected for the Lord Ruthven Award for Best Vampire Novel. Del Rey published a sequel, Bride of the Fat White Vampire, the following year. His imprint MonstraCity Press put out additional sequels Fat White Vampire Otaku (2014) and Hunt the Fat White Vampire (2021), as well as an associated comic fantasy epic, The Bad Luck Spirits’ Social Aid and Pleasure Club (2021). His novel The Good Humor Man, or, Calorie 3501 (Tachyon
Publications, 2009), a gonzo tribute to Ray Bradbury’s classic Fahrenheit 451, was selected by Booklist Magazine as one of the Ten Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels of the Year. His nonfiction book on homeland security emerging tech challenges, The Devil’s Toy Box: Exposing and Defusing Promethean Terrorists, came out from Potomac Books in 2022. He has published nonfiction and short fiction in Tablet Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, SciFi.com, and
Moment Magazine. The End of Daze is his first book with Madness Heart Press.
Alex Gonzalez
Alex Gonzalez is an accomplished horror & comedy writer. Studying in Cambridge, UK, and receiving his MFA in New
York, Alex has had success in both genres. He’s had acclaimed scripts on the Black List, sold stories to various anthologies, and is also the co-creator of DIY horror lit zine, You Are Not Alone. He was born and raised in Florida and now lives in Brooklyn.
Edward Lee
Edward Lee is the author of over 50 horror, fantasy, and sci-fi books, and dozens of short stories. He has also had comic scripts published by DC Comics, Verotik Inc., and Cemetery Dance. A great number of his novels have been reprinted in Germany, Poland, Italy, Romania, Japan, and other countries. He is a Bram Stoker Award Nominee; his Lovecraftian novel INNSWICH HORROR won the 2010 Vincent Price Award for Best Foreign Book (Austria), his novel WHITE TRASH GOTHIC won the 2018 Splatterpunk Award for Best Extreme Horror Novel, and in 2020 Lee won the Splatterpunk Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2009, the movie version of his novella HEADER was released by Synapse Films. He lives in Seminole, Florida.
Paul Lubaczewski
Paul has lived all over the country before settling in Appalachia over fifteen years ago with his wife Leslie and their son. He also has two adult children living in his native Pennsylvania. He is the author of two previous horror-comedy novels. Paul is a member of the Horror Writers Association, appearing on the panel for horror-comedy at the 2021 Stoker Con. While he has put out quite a bit of fully serious horror in his career, he has also never answered the question, “Is everything a joke with you?” correctly once in his entire life
Lucas Mangum
Lucas Mangum is a Splatterpunk Award nominee for best novel (Pandemonium with Ryan Harding) and best novella (Saint Sadist), as well as the author of the cult hit Gods of the Dark Web and several other books. Alongside author and critic Jeff Burk, he co-hosts Make Your Own Damn Podcast, a show centered on the films of the Troma Team and director Lloyd Kaufman. San Diego-born and Philly-raised, he now lives in Austin with his family. Follow him on Twitter @RealLucasMangum or Instagram @RealAFLucasMangum.
Shane McKenzie
Shane McKenzie is the author of multiple horror/dark crime books including Muerte Con Carne, Pus Junkies, and Wet & Screaming, as well as writing some comics for Zenescope Entertainment. He shifted into screenwriting when he wrote the script for the short film El Gigante based on his novel Muerte Con Carne, and has since written many produced short films for LuchaGore Productions. He wrote and co-created a short-form series, La Quinceanera, for Warner Bros. Stage 13. He most recently wrote the script for his first feature film Bingo Hell, an Amazon original, for Blumhouse Productions. Shane is repped by Verve Talent & Literary Agency and Circle of Confusion. He is whippin’ up some new horrific delights, for the screen and the page, in Austin, TX where he lives with his wife and two children.
Christine Morgan
Christine Morgan recently relocated from the Pacific Northwest to her family’s ancestral home in the suburbs of sunny Southern California. There, she hopes to finally take the plunge of making it as a full-time writer. Her works span the horror gamut from historical to cosmic to extreme, including the Splatterpunk Award-winning Lakehouse Infernal. She was a longtime contributor to The Horror Fiction Review and occasionally dabbles in freelance editing. Her other hobbies include weird crafts and baking, when she’s not being bossed around by her cats. And she learned way more about the sex-lives of sea creatures than anybody should ever have to know in the course of researching her books.
Jeff Oliver
Jeff Oliver is a veteran TV executive, producer, and developer. As VP Current Production at Bravo, he oversaw Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Million Dollar Listing, Blind Date, etc., and developed shows for both linear and digital. At Food Network, he developed the hit series Cutthroat Kitchen and worked on such epic culinary hits as Worst Cooks In America and The Culinary Adventures Of Baron Ambrosia. He is the author of the novels Failure To Thrive, and The Two-Plate Solution, which earned a Starred review in Publishers Weekly “Fully human characters help make this hilarious send-up a standout.” Jeff lives in Maplewood, New Jersey with his family and a clingy dog named Luna.
Gillian Polack
Gillian POLACK is an award-winning Jewish Australian science fiction and fantasy writer based in Canberra, Australia. Her most notable award is the 2020 Bertram A. Chandler Award, for lifetime achievement in science fiction. Dr Polack’s publications include novels, short stories, a scholarly monograph and various works of non-fiction. A list of her books can be found at https://gillianpolack.com/my-books. She is also an ethnohistorian with a special interest in how story transmits culture, both Medieval and modern and quite possibly has too many PhDs. Her current research examines how contemporary speculative fiction novels serve as vectors for cultural transmission.
Gina Ranalli
Gina Ranalli is the Wonderland Award winning author of nearly twenty books, mostly in the horror and bizarro fiction genres. She lives in Washington State and you can connect with her online at twitter.com/ginaranalli.
Nikolas Robinson
Nikolas P. Robinson lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with his girlfriend, his daughter, three dogs, and a cat he’s allergic to. In addition to being a writer, he’s a freelance photographer and a lover of the outdoors. His blog can be located at meltdownmessiah.wordpress.com and he can be found on social media platforms as @MeltdownMessiah.
Rachel Rodman
Rachel Rodman’s work has appeared in more than 30 markets, including Analog, Fireside Magazine, and Daily Science Fiction. When not writing—or eating—she hunts down forgotten stories from the history of science and dreams up cross-disciplinary projects that combine science and art. Exotic Meats is her first collection.
Michael Allen Rose
Michael Allen Rose is an author, musician, and performance artist based in Chicago. His published books include The Indifference of Heaven, Embry: Hard Boiled, Party Wolves In My Skull, and Boiled Americans. Having studied theatre in the frozen wastes of North Dakota, Michael’s plays have been produced in major cities such as New York, Chicago, and Portland. He has hosted the Ultimate Bizarro Showdown at BizarroCon each year, spent time in the conservatory program at Chicago’s famed Second City, and taken the stage as a burlesque performer. He releases industrial and experimental music under the pseudonym Flood Damage. His short stories can be found in such publications and anthologies as The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction, Forbidden Futures, Tales From The Crust, Bizarro Bizarro, and Mighty In Sorrow: A Literary Tribute to David Tibet. He really likes cats, and enjoys fine teas.
Armand Rosamilia
Armand Rosamilia is a New Jersey boy currently living in sunny Florida, where he writes when he’s not sleeping. He’s happily married to a woman who helps his career and is supportive, which is all he ever wanted in life… He’s written over 150 stories that are currently available, including horror, zombies, contemporary fiction, thrillers and more. His goal is to write a good story and not worry about genre labels.Arm Cast Podcast – interviewing fellow authors as well as filmmakers, musicians, etc. He also loves to talk in third person… because he’s really that cool. You can find him at https://armandrosamilia.com for not only his latest releases but interviews and guest posts with other authors he likes!
Judith Sonnet
Judith Sonnet is a horror and splatter author. She often writes dark, explicit, and gruesome novels. She’s known for starting the Ten-Day Challenge, where indie authors come together to write, edit, and publish novellas within a ten-day deadline. Judith is a vegetarian, a queer woman, and the biggest Nicolas Cage fan on the planet.
Nate Southard
Susan Snyder
Susan Snyder lives in Austin, Texas with her black cat and VHS collection. She is a ravenous reader and writer of horror poetry and short fiction. She has been nominated twice for a Splatterpunk award for her short stories. Broken Nails, Susan’s debut poetry collection, was released in 2020 from Madness Heart Press. Her work can be seen in poetry showcases, literary magazines, and anthologies. Susan writes a weekly shark movie review blog called Sharksploitation Sunday. For movie reviews and more from Susan, please visit http://www.sharksploitationsunday.com.
Tamika Thompson
Tamika is a writer, producer, and journalist. She is co-creator of the artist collective POC United and fiction editor for the group’s inaugural anthology, Graffiti (Aunt Lute Books). Her fiction is forthcoming in or has been published by Prairie Schooner, Glass Mountain, Literary Orphans, The Matador Review, Orca, and Huizache among others. Her non-fiction is forthcoming in or has been published by The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Huffington Post, Chicago Review of Books, and PBS.org among others. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Columbia University and a Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of Southern California. She lives on
Chicago’s North Shore with her husband and two children. You can find her online at http://www.tamikathompson.com.
Jay Wilburn
Jay Wilburn was a prolific writer of horror, romance, YA, and science fiction, with hundreds of stories written and published. He won many awards during his astonishing and remarkable career. Along with his podcast “Matters of Faith, Jay was notable for his Patreon and Twitch feeds. While most writers would see others as competition, Jay saw them as friends and he went out of his way to promote and encourage others. Jay passed away on October 18th 22, he left an impact on the writing community that will never be forgotten.
Wrath James White
Wrath James White is a former World Class Heavyweight Kickboxer, a professional Kickboxing and Mixed Martial Arts trainer, distance runner, performance artist, and former street brawler, who is now known for creating some of the most disturbing works of fiction in print.
Wrath is the author of such extreme horror classics as THE RESURRECTIONIST (now a major motion picture titled “Come Back To Me”) SUCCULENT PREY, and its sequel PREY DRIVE, YACCUB’S CURSE, 400 DAYS OF OPPRESSION, SACRIFICE, VORACIOUS, TO THE DEATH, THE REAPER, SKINZZ, EVERYONE DIES FAMOUS IN A SMALL TOWN, THE BOOK OF A THOUSAND SINS, HIS PAIN, POPULATION ZERO, IF YOU DIED TOMORROW I WOULD EAT YOUR CORPSE, HARDCORE KELLI, and many others. He is the co-author of TERATOLOGIST co-written with the king of extreme horror, Edward Lee, SOMETHING TERRIBLE co-written with his son Sultan Z. White, ORGY OF SOULS co-written with Maurice Broaddus, HERO and THE KILLINGS both co-written with J.F. Gonzalez, POISONING EROS co-written with Monica J. O’Rourke, MASTER OF PAIN co-written with Kristopher Rufty, and BOY’S NIGHT co-written with Matt Shaw among others.
Wrath lives and works in Austin, TX.
Artists/Designers
Jim Agpalza
Jim Agpalza was born and raised on an island in the middle of the Pacific. He now resides in Portland Oregon with his wife and two kids and a cat, and a ghost cat. He has spent his whole life drawing the end of the world. You can see his work in the beautifully illustrated Last 5 Minutes of the Human Race, as well as on the covers of Gush and Bladejob.
Rollin Kunz
Rollin is an illustrator and game designer who loves ink-heavy art and low-brow themes and tabletop microgames and abstracting complex systems and emergent gameplay and dungeons and dragons and Dungeons & Dragons and maps and building and comics and oh, boy! Lots of stuff! He did the artwork and layout for the ODD GOBS game.
Luke Spooner
Painter, artist, and illustrator, Luke Spooner’s art may be found on most MHP covers such as the Book of Ze’ev series, and Warlock Infernal. He has also provided art for TTRPG projects such as Godless League Adventures, and Morkkabeans.
Simone Tametta
Simone is a talented TTRPG illustrator who works with Madness Heart Press & Games. From his stronghold in Italy, Simone has provided art for Godless League Adventures, Morkkabeans, The Bighead, and other MHP titles.