Our Story

We are Chicago area authors who love to attend conventions together. Sometimes we’re table neighbors! Sometimes we share tables! We always support & encourage one another.

Writing is hard, and so is retail. Sharing time and space with fellow friendly introverts makes the work a little bit easier and a lot more fun.

A Bit More About Each Of Us

Dex Greenbright

Dex Greenbright is an illustrator as well as a sci-fi & fantasy author. He makes his home in Chicago and can usually be found writing in a cozy little corner of his local coffeeshop.

His short stories can be found in Devolution Z and Electric Spec magazines. He is also an author in and editor of the Tales of the Automazombs series.

For more of his writing and art, please visit dexgreenbright.com.

K. M. Herkes

Before turning to the craft of storytelling, K. M. Herkes collected work experience in high school education, bookselling, staff training, a pet supply retail, and summer camp counseling.

These days she works the Registration desk in the Mount Prospect Public Library when she’s not writing science fantasy & adventure novels or gardening under the close supervision of her cat, Mister Pips.

Her published works include an ongoing series about moms with midlife-onset superpowers, and a completed multi-genre collection, The Stories of the Restoration. All her stories center on broken heroes achieving victory through cooperation and mutual support.

R. J. Howell

R. J. Howell is a writer, an artist, and a library nerd. A Chicago native, she earned her BA in Fiction Writing at Columbia College Chicago and her MFA in Creative Writing: Popular Fiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program.

Her short fiction has appeared in magazines such as Arsenikaand Translunar Travelers Lounge, and in anthologies such as Astral Books’ Beyond the Stars: Rocking Space and Beyond the Stars: Infinite Expanse, Summerstorm Press’ Wicked West, and Smoking Pen Press’ Vampires, Zombies and Ghosts.

She’s a firm believer in living a life well-read.

Brendan Detzner

Brendan Detzner lives, works, and writes in Chicago. His work has appeared in Chizine, Pseudopod, Edge of Propinquity, Ruthless Peoples, Untied Shoelaces of the Mind, and the Book of Dead Things and Exigencies anthologies, as well as elsewhere. Brendan has also been featured at the Twilight Tales, Gumbo Fiction Salon, and Reading Under The Influence reading series in Chicago and runs his own reading series Bad Grammar Theater

Tina L. Jens

Tina L. Jens is the author of the award-winning novel-in-stories, The Blues Ain’t Nothin’; Tales of the Lonesome Blues Pub. She’s had published about 75 short stories, novellas, and poems; countless newspaper articles; and one story in a comic book. Several of her short plays have received table-readings by Chicago’s Make Ready salon. She blogs about writing at Black Gate.

She was the senior editor for Twilight Tales small press for 10 years. For a decade, she taught the fantasy writing courses at Columbia College. She received the 2017 Rubin Family Fellowship artist residency at Ragdale Foundation. She runs the monthly Gumbo Fiction Salon reading series and open mic (sometimes in-person, sometimes via Zoom), which just marked its 10th anniversary.

Lauren A. R. Masterson

Lauren A. R. Masterson is an author, artist, Twitch livestreamer, and YouTuber. Her novels include Love of the Sea and Geisha Hands, both lovingly crafted under the supervision of her supersized cat Squishy and the late cat princess Lady Daintyfoot of Fluffington.

She has also published three romance novels, Freja’s Baby Shattered 2nd Edition being the latest, as well as a fantasy novella Pandora. She also writes tabletop RPG guides for Azukail Games such as 100 Dangerous Plants. She livestreams Minecraft on the weekends on her official Twitch channel and gives tips and tricks about the writing and publishing industry on her official YouTube channel.

Neal Litherland

Neal Litherland is a Northwest Indiana author who works primarily in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. He started his career as a freelancer and ghostwriter in 2008, and it took until 2012 for his fiction to see the light of day under his own name.

Isaac Sher

Isaac Sher grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and at the age of five became a fan of science fiction and fantasy from all around the world.

After graduating from Earlham College, he moved to Chicago where he’s lived ever since, surrounded by amazingly supportive friends and family. He hopes people enjoy the ideas and characters he presents in his stories, and that they’re as much fun for people to read as they were for him to write.

He has other stories currently in the works, from sequels to A Cloak Of Blades to an Urban Fantasy Romance inspired by an amazing vacation to Japan that he experienced in 2018, and other ideas besides. With luck, all these and more will be available to read before long.

Megan Mackie

Megan Mackie is a Chicago writer. She started her writing career as an indie author and had such smashing success in her first year with her inaugural book The Finder of the Lucky Devil, that she made the transition to traditional publishing. She has become a personality at many cons, recognizable by her iconic leather hat and engaging smile.

Outside of her own series, she is a contributing writer for the rpgs Legendlore and Legendlore: Legacies by Onyx Path Publishing and Sirens: Battle of the Bards through Apotheosis Studios.

She lives in Chicago with her husband and children, dog, three cats, and her mother in the apartment upstairs.

Outside of her own series, she is a contributing writer for the rpgs Legendlore and Legendlore: Legacies by Onyx Path Publishing and Sirens: Battle of the Bards through Apotheosis Studios.

She lives in Chicago with her husband and children, dog, three cats, and her mother in the apartment upstairs.