Jacob Clifton: Jacob Clifton is a staff writer for the website Television Without Pity. His weekly critical columns (for both reality and genre shows, including TRUE BLOOD) have won awards; been included in the syllabi for graduate courses in psychology, philosophy and queer and media studies; and syndicated on MSNBC and Yahoo! This year, the focus is on writing more fiction, publishing novels SERIOUS VANITY and THE URGES, and actually traveling outside Austin once in a while.

Ginjer Buchanan: In the early ‘70s, Ginjer Buchanan moved from Pittsburgh, Penn. to New York City where she made her living as a social worker, while doing freelance editorial work. In 1984, she took a job as an editor at Ace Books. She has been promoted several times. Her current title is Editor-in-Chief, Ace/Roc Books. Her first (and only) novel, a Highlander tie-in titled WHITE SILENCE, was published in February of 1999. She has also had “pop culture” essays included in the third BUFFY, THE VAMPIRE SLAYER episode guide and in FINDING SERENITY, a collection about Joss Whedon’s FIREFLY.

Maria Lima: Maria Lima is a writing geek with one foot in the real world and the other in the make-believe. Her Blood Lines series (Pocket/Juno) is set in the Texas Hill Country--a fabulous place for things that go bump in the night. Maria loves to read, write and watch genre TV and feels very lucky that people actually pay her to do one of these things. Her role models include all the amazing kick-ass women who write urban fantasy. Find her at www.thelima.com or at her blog: www.chickwriter.com.

Nick Mamatas: Nick Mamatas is the author of two novels, Under My Roof and Move Under Ground, and over sixty short stories many of which were recently collected in You Might Sleep... His non-fiction has appeared in H+, The New Humanist, The Smart Set, Village Voice and many other periodicals and anthologies, including over ten Smart Pop titles. A native New Yorker, Nick now lives in Berkeley, California.

Bev Katz Rosenbaum: Bev Katz Rosenbaum, author of the teen paranormal novels I Was a Teenage Popsicle and Beyond Cool, is a certified television addict. She lives in Toronto with her family, though she desperately wants to move to Bon Temps, Louisiana. This is Bev's second Smart Pop essay. "Destiny: Disaster" appeared in Perfectly Plum, about Janet Evanovich's fictional New Jersey-based bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum.

Susan Sizemore is the author of many romance and fantasy novels and short stories. She writes the Vampire Primes paranormal romance series for Pocket Star books and the Laws of the Blood urban fantasy series for Ace. Her current release is DARK STRANGER. She lives in the midwest, knits, loves dogs, spends too much time on http://twitter.com Sign up for Susan's newsletter at sgsizemore.msn.com

Alisa Kwitney is the author of a number of different novels and graphic novels featuring working class intellectuals, including the Eisner nominated mini series Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold, and two idiosyncratic paranormal romances, The Better to Hold You and Moonburn, published under the name Alisa Sheckley. A former editor at Vertigo/DC comics, Alisa has an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University, and has taught graphic novel writing at Fordham. She lives in the Hudson River Valley with her family and assorted beasts.


Vera Nazarian immigrated to the USA from the former USSR as a kid, sold her first story when seventeen and has been published in numerous anthologies and magazines, seen on Nebula Awards® Ballots, honorably mentioned in YEAR'S BEST volumes, and translated into eight languages.

A member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, she made her novelist debut with the critically acclaimed DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE (Wildside Press, 2002), followed by LORDS OF RAINBOW (Betancourt & Company, 2003). Her novella THE CLOCK KING AND THE QUEEN OF THE HOURGLASS (PS Publishing, UK) made the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2005. Her debut short fiction collection SALT OF THE AIR (Prime Books, 2006, expanded and reissued by Norilana Books, 2009) contains the 2007 Nebula Award-nominated "The Story of Love." Recent work includes the 2008 Nebula Award-nominated fantasy novella THE DUKE IN HIS CASTLE, and Jane Austen monster parodies MANSFIELD PARK AND MUMMIES and NORTHANGER ABBEY AND ANGELS AND DRAGONS.

Vera lives in Los Angeles. In addition to being a writer and award-winning artist, she is also the publisher of Norilana Books.

Peg Aloi is a freelance film critic, cinema scholar and teacher of media studies. She also works as a freelance editor and landscape designer. Her anthology Bloodlust and Dust: Essays on Carnivale (co-edited with Hannah Johnston) is forthcoming in 2010 from McFarland. Her poems have been published in the online magazine Goblin Fruit. Her hobbies include singing traditional music, trash-picking, gardening, baking and covering old furniture with pre-Raphaelite images.


Kirsty Walker turned an obsession with screens into a patchy and unsuccessful media career. A Manchester University graduate in TV Production, she was employed variously as a runner, corporate video director and radio station manager before she turned to teaching. She is the content editor for endofshow.com and travels from Cannes to Comic Con using her press pass to score free drinks and easily impressed men. She lives in Runcorn, in the north west of England.