ROGER ABRAMSON  Nashville, TN  Category: Biography  Roger is a freelance writer, researcher and consultant. A native of the great city of Nashville, he is married to Lisa and has a son, Thomas, born in August 2002. He also practices law when the mood strikes him.
	MARK BELLIS Cornwall, Ontario Category: Politics Mark became a journalist at the age of six when someone from a radio station stuck a mike in his face at Expo 67 in Montreal. As a grownup he's worked for The Toronto Star and the Ottawa Sun, distinguishing himself by exclusives on the struggle of Canadian women to earn the right to bare their breasts in public, as well as finding the man with the smelliest socks in the world. His favorite things are Sleeman's Cream Ale, Nanaimo Bars and Tim Horton's double-doubles, partly because Americans don't know what any of them are.
	DOUG BENTIN Bethany, OK Category: Westerns Doug Bentin is a native of San Antonio--Santa Rosa Hospital, class of '48--and currently works as a PR flack for the Metro Library System in Oklahoma City. He also reviews new movies and DVDs for Oklahoma City's weekly independent newspaper, The Oklahoma Gazette, and books on the weekly TV program "Read About It." He's been married for 33 years to the same long-suffering woman and has one short-suffering son. In his spare time he--scratch that, he has no spare time.
PHOTO NOT YET AVAILABLE	BLAISE BIENVENUE Pittsburgh, PA Category:  Historical Fiction Among Blaise's many great discoveries are that he can be ten times as angry sober as he can drunk. Some say his guitar playing "sounds like bees" and he has played in numerous bands. Upon reaching thirty, the Age of Musician Intolerance, he shifted his sites to writing. He currently works in the medical billing field.
	CAROL BRACKEN  Arlington, TX  Category: Current Events  Carol is a single mom, online bookseller, published poet, waitress and eternal student. When she is not working--about ten minutes per week--she enjoys music, drinking, and attempting to play guitar. She is currently working on a screenplay she hopes to put into production in 2003.
	REBECCA BROCK Mt. Gay, WV Category: True Crime Rebecca is working towards a Masters in organizational management and has recently had stories published in the zombie anthology "The Book of More Flesh" and "Hacker's Source" magazine. When not writing, she enjoys reading, cooking, sewing, and living up to the stereotype of a goody two-shoes. She's been a true crime buff for years, which is why she doesn't go out after dark..
	SONIA CAMPBELL Tucson, AZ Category: Horror Sonia grew up as an Air Force brat and now works as a market research associate for a promotions company. She enjoys psychobilly, horror, and special FX make-up. She does FX make-up on independent horror films for a production company called Shadoworks Entertainment..
	STEVE CHAPUT  West Haven, CT.  Category: Thrillers  Steve is a Navy vet and university librarian. For a number of years he was best known as "that guy who looks like Peter David," which actually got him free admission into some comic book conventions. He has spent way too much money on comic books and other useless items, but blames his two ex-wives for that. He'd also like to think that his three college degrees and "good liberal education" will eventually pay off Big Time.
	ARINN DEMBO  Winterfield, North Carolina  Category:  Counterculture Arinn is a writer, critic, voracious reader and lover of words,especially the ones you're not supposed to say in polite company. She also grooves on violent Asian movies, pulp fiction, Forteana, Delta blues, and doing all the things that nice girls don't. In her spare time she sings, does some voice acting, and teaches Gothic Science at her daughter's school--"because every kid needs to know the difference between a mummy and a zombie."
	HEATHER DRAIN Springdale, AR Category: Miscellaneous Heather is a university student and writer who enjoys the literary works of Mikhail Bulgakov, Poppy Z. Brite, Alexander Pushkin and Flannery O'Connor, among many others. She also enjoys all sorts of music, ranging from the mysterious band, The Residents, to the satiric rock of The Tubes.  When not drinking copious amounts of coffee or tea, she is devising ways to enhance her already immense knowledge of pop culture. She spends her free time with her family, friends, and many animals.
	BURTON EGEL Chicago, IL Category: Military History Burt has been an observer and student of military affairs and history for forty years. A property appraiser by trade, he currently lives in Northern California writing screenplays, short stories and popular history. He writes and publishes fiction and reviews online at "On noir", http://www.onnoir.blogspot.com/, and about politics at "Bah Humblog" Bah, Humblog .
	AMANDA FLYNN Houston, TX Category: Science Fiction/Fantasy/Thrillers Amanda is an award-winning fiction writer who also creates newsletters, trade manuals, presentations and websites for some of America's largest corporations. She has also explored stock-brokerage, the law, jewelry design, and has been a game-show contestant. She's an avid student of Russian arts and culture, and has two adopted daughters born in Russia.
	JOSEPH FOTINOS Austin, Texas Category: Film Joseph is an actor better known as "Professor Griffin," host of "The Midnight Shadow Show," the only late-night weekly horror show in the state of Texas. He's also the official Halloween Costume spokesperson for Goodwill Industries of Central Texas and writes for Horror-Wood Webzine, The Monster News, The Horror Host Underground and Monster Kid Magazine. He has taught a class on fantastic films at the University of Texas and been featured in The Austin Chronicle and Scary Monster Magazine. He lives and works in Austin with his wife Tammy and son Edward.
	SAM GAINES Greensboro, NC Category: Theology Sam is the former managing editor of EYE magazine and has worked as a copywriter, journalist, package loader, short-order cook, and carpenter's assistant. He's on the board of directors for his local SPCA chapter and is a Baptist. He enjoys movie trash, thrift store art, shooting at his local gun range, and playing with his cats.
	VALERIE HAWKINS Homewood, IL Category: Celebrities Valerie calls herself a Pop Culture Diva and has created five websites, including sites celebrating Dorothy Dandridge, the Jackson Five, Janet Jackson and "Weird Al" Yankovic. She was born in Virginia and raised in and around Chicago, where she studied music, film, writing, acting and dance at area colleges. She works for a private library in Chicago and, when off the clock, can be found at home with her three cats, eating pizza and playing "The Sims," while watching "WWF Smackdown!"
	BENJAMIN HERVEY Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England Category:  Music Ben has just completed his doctorate in Victorian horror fiction at Oxford University. He's also a composer and rock performer who has toured extensively and released three albums. He is currently revising his first novel, a science fiction/horror adventure for children. His favorite film is "Abar, the First Black Superman".
	KEVIN HUMPHREYS Madison, MS Category: Sports Kevin presently earns a living as a corporate attorney, a state of affairs that will undoubtedly continue until (a) his first novel hits big or (b) he dethrones Tiger Woods as the number one golfer in the world. He is also a published poet and columnist, a happy husband and father (two boys), and he ran his first marathon in February of 2003. Heck, he even sings in the church choir. He has thus far resisted the siren song of politics, despite repeated entreaties from friends, mostly because he fears that his penchant for telling the truth will hold him back. As if all of this weren't enough, he recently discovered that he and Joe Bob both earned degrees from Vanderbilt.
	LEONARD JOHNSON Sherman Oaks, CA Category: Essays Leonard works on "the fringes of Hollywood," where his bachelor's degree in English hasn't done him a bit of good. He occasionally writes unsalable screenplays, tells everyone that the New Novel was a dead end for French literature, and is currently looking for an understanding woman.
	AMY KINCHELOE Austin, Texas Category: Biography Amy is a communications specialist who works for the State of Texas. She is also employed as the door girl at a South Austin honky tonk and is a freelance writer. In her spare time she listens to live music, designs and sews her own line of purses, watches movies, raids vintage thrift stores, takes photos and works on craft and decorating projects that would probably make Martha Stewart’s teeth itch.
	JOHN KOHAGEN Minneapolis, MN  Category: Esoterica John is an adjunct English professor for the University of Northern Iowa. He prides himself on keeping informed about all things that slice, dice, splatter, shatter, haunt, hunt, harangue, or otherwise mystify the world of so-called normal people. He lives with his wife and two cats.
	SALLY LOCKHART Ahwatukee, AZ Category: Biography & Contemporary Fiction Sally is a an office admin by day, seamstress by night, Mom 24/7. Her interests are cooking/baking, dance, American vintage, music (classic swing, traditional rockabilly, jump blues).
	DARREN MADIGAN  Zephyrhills, FL  Category: Fantasy  Darren shares a very small apartment with his younger brother Paul and Paul's overly large dog Chewbacca, as well as the Head of Darth Vader, currently wearing a Confederate flag motif'ed baseball cap, because Darth is very evil. When he's not writing for Joe Bob Briggs, Darren spouts off in a thoroughly obnoxious but often hilariously entertaining fashion on his weblog at www.angelfire.com/blog/abehm, and he has written a whole lot of unpublished but still entertaining fantasy/science fiction, and drawn a whole lot of really hilarious cartoons, which can be found at www.angelfire.com/ny3/docnebula. And he will not eat green eggs and ham.
	LINDA MERINOFF  Milan, NY Category: Food  Linda Merinoff is a food writer and cookbook author. Her past includes writing for rock & roll magazines, censoring television shows, producing Rona Barrett's radio show, becoming a Zen master and having her picture in Penthouse. She's a strong proponent of Slow Food, fast food and any food except organ meats, round beans and mushy green stuff.
PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE	L.J. MILLER Alexandria, VA Category: Foreign Matter Born wearing hiking boots and a backpack, L.J. has circled the globe more times than most of NASA’s finest. From a stint as a Peace Corps volunteer to working in the developing world with relief agencies to teaching English as a second language to international students in the U.S., L.J. has crafted a career aimed at working with people who don’t know the theme song from "Gilligan’s Island," who aren’t defined by the size of their home, bank account or girth, and who just need some love and options in order to possibly create a better life for themselves and their families. When not on the road, L.J. spends an inordinate amount of time finding new ways to recoil in horror at the gaffes of the Bush administration. When on the road, she bears the brunt of other people's horror at the same gaffes.
	CHARLES NICHOLSON Santa Barbara, CA  Category: History Charles is a psychiatrist trained in San Antonio and New Orleans who settled with his family in Santa Barbara twenty years ago. He also races a formula car in Sports Car Club of America and teaches BBQ at the local community college. Charles has hundreds of R&B records and a great hi-fi system.
	JOSH NILESKI Gallitzin, PA Category: Pop Culture Josh is a filmmaker who gradated from Penn Cambria High School and briefly attended New York University. He directed the short film "The Staring Contest" and is currently preparing his feature debut, "Lifespan."
	JOHN PLATT Plainfield, NJ Category: Graphic Novels/Comic Books John is the author of "Die Laughing," a collection of humorous horror stories available from Medium Rare Books. He has written for magazines, newspapers, newsletters, web pages, advertising campaigns, radio, television and comic books. He lives in an apartment in a haunted house in central New Jersey.
	DONNA RASKIN Gloucester, MA Category: Contemporary Fiction Donna is a yoga instructor, certified personal trainer, and regular contributor of fitness articles to women's magazines, as well as the single mom of a two-year-old son. She loves stories--the longer the better--and alternates between her favorite 19th-century authors (Charles Dickens and Henry James) and contemporary writers.
	SCOTT ROCHE Winston-Salem, NC Category: Science Fiction At the tender age of 31, Scott finally decided what he wanted to do with his life: write. Still unpublished, he learns from other writers by ripping their stuff to . . . uh . . . practicing literary criticism. With a wife of seven years, an infant girl, and a newborn son, he's not sure where the time to create is coming from. When asked, he mutters something about loaves and fishes and goes back to typing/burping his son/reading to his daughter while drinking too much black coffee.
	BOB SCHREIBER  Brooklyn, NY  Category: Humor  Bob holds a degree in Modern and Popular Literature and ekes out a comfortable living as a substitute teacher because he likes being his own boss. He has done freelance work for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News and Fangoria, and has served as a panelist on the AMPAS Student Academy Awards, where he and others proudly sent the short subject "The Lunch Date" on its path to eventual Oscar glory. His major writing opus is his 90-page thesis on "Browning's 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came' as a Blueprint for Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower Series'". Currently, he is terrifying his community with an on-line, on-going satirical horror epic-- about them!
NO PHOTO AVAILABLE	SCRIPTCHICK New York, NY Category: Contemporary Fiction Since obtaining her MA in English Literature at Cambridge University in 1989, Scriptchick has worked as a senior development executive, producer, journalist and publicist for a variety of leading broadcasters and publishers in New York, London and the Middle East. She uses a pseudonym so as not to annoy the authors at her current publishing house or those of competing houses. She enjoys cross-cultural hilarity with her lovely American husband of three years.
	ARIANA SINGER St. Agatha, ME Category: Erotica Ariana is a former English teacher who writes serious novels under her real name. She lives in a rural area with her three dogs and two cats, and sometimes contributes to gardening magazines. Unfortunately, the climate doesn't favor her orchids, but she manages to grow them anyway in a greenhouse that eats up most of her income.
	JOHN D. SMITH Washington, D.C.  Category: Animals, Nature and Environment  John has lived in Chicago, Houston and Ottawa, where he has written and published poetry, fiction, and essays. He is currently seeking a publisher for two children's books and a non-fiction book, "The Complete Tough Guy." He works as an editor at an international organization and shares Washington with a large number of squirrels, some of them found outside the White House and the Congress.
	ANDREA SPEED Spanaway, WA  Category: Short Stories Andrea is a home health care worker who aspires to become a private investigator or a professional writer. She writes periodic comic reviews for a major internet comic site and has an opinion on just about everything. Her favorite movies are "The Road Warrior," "The Usual Suspects" and the original Norwegian version of "Insomnia," and her favorite crap movie at the moment is "The Giant Spider Invasion."
	RAQUEL STARACE New York, NY  Category: Current Events Raquel is a native New Yorker and graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology. For five seasons she wrote for National Public Radio's series "Little Chills," which has been compared to "The Twilight Zone." She has also lent her  somewhat bizarre vocal talents to NPR's comedy series "Visit New Grimston, Anyway," and the Sci-Fi Channel's Seeing Ear Theater, for which she also wrote the episode "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" starring John Ritter.
	TRACY VONDER BRINK Loveland, OH Category: Mystery Tracy is a former high school French and Spanish teacher who now stays home with her four-year-old daughter. Her interest in mysteries began with the Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown and continues today. She spent a year as a board manager for an on-line mystery area and has co-moderated a weekly mystery chat for the past seven years. An Indiana native, she takes care of both a doctor husband and a guinea pig.
	KRISTI WALSH Springfield, VA Category: Thrillers Kristi Walsh holds a degree in broadcasting and a certificate in computer animation, neither of which she is currently using. Her passions, other than reading, include drawing, dancing, film, theater and travel. She plans a return to art school to study graphic design. Her favorite book is "Jane Eyre" and her favorite Beatle is George
	PAMELA WHITE Adams, N.Y. Category: Horror/Food Pamela reviews restaurants and books from the front parlor of her "spirited" pre-Civil War home. She's a regular columnist for The Writing Parent, County Families (of Michigan), and Backwash.com. She teaches food Writing at www.writerscollege.com and has been published widely on parenting, writing, food writing, and food topics, and writes murder mysteries to blow off steam. But before all the writing duties comes the fun with her three children, five cats, one dog and one great husband.
	WENDI WILKERSON New Orleans, LA Category: How-To, Social Commentary Wendi has been an actress and playwright in Boston and Cape Cod, a road manager for the Wailers Reggae Band, and a production assistant/"featured extra" in such screen gems as "Night Race," "How Henry Miller Changed My Life," "Zanzibar" and a few infomercials and industrial films. She currently holds down a few day jobs in order to support her Spoken Word habit and her MFA studies at the University of New Orleans. She is just giddy about reviewing for the Joe Bob Report.