Backspace Writers Conference

Jackie Kessler

Some kids want to grow up to be doctors, or movie stars, or political assassins. Me, I wanted to draw comic books. Not Archies, either—superhero comic books. Maybe it was all the heavily muscled guys in spandex…

Around the time I was 15, I realized that as much as I enjoyed drawing (note that I’m saying nothing about the quality of those pics), it was a lot of fun putting words in the characters’ mouths. I didn’t know the term “fanfic” back then, but I started writing stories about the X-Men, Alpha Flight, and the Teen Titans. Didn’t do anything with those stories, other than horrify my mother. She asked why I couldn’t write nice stories, you know, about bunnies. Nope—me, I wanted to write about power. About magic. About hot guys in spandex. And about beating those guys bloody and senseless. (In retrospect, maybe I really did want to horrify my mother. Hey, not my fault. When I was a kid, I busted her doodling on the cover of New Teen Titans Number 6. Argh!)

So maybe it’s ironic that the book I wound up writing had nothing to do with overly muscled men and everything to do with scantily clad women. (Well, temporarily scantily clad.) Oh, right, and demons.

Along with the Hell on Earth series, I've written a number of short stories:

	"Red" was published in REALMS OF FANTASY (April 2007)
	"To the Core" was published in the Freya's Bower anthology, DREAMS AND DESIRES (February 2007) both in hardcover and in softcover.
	“Why Monsters Don’t Do Group Therapy” was published in From the Asylum (December 2006)
	“The Ties That Bind” appeared in Farthing (Spring 2006)
	“Giving the Devil His To-Do’s” appeared in From the Asylum (December 2005)
	“Reflections,” my first dark erotic story, was published under the byline J.M. Kaye in Ruthie’s Club (November 2005)
	“Hunger”—really, not a vampire story—appeared in Byzarium (September 2005)
	“The Compromise,” my first non-genre story, was published in Wild Child Publishing (August 2005)
	“Guilty Pleasures” was my first-ever sale…for money! This horror tale appeared in Peridot Books (Winter 2005)

I also had a book review published in Tenebres in 2000, but it was translated into French, so I can’t read my contributor’s copy. C’est la vie…

Previously, I was the fantasy editor for Wild Child Publishing. Along with working with terrific authors and editors, I’d been fortunate enough to interview a number of fabulous people for WCP, including Margaret Weis (I think Raistlin was my first crush).

I’m a member of SFWA, RWA, HWA, Backspace, Absolute Write, and the Speculations Rumor Mill.

In case you’re wondering, I live in Upstate New York, along with my Loving Husband and two Precious Little Tax Deductions, two cats, and about 9,000 comics. (But actually, that number is now closer to 8,000, thanks to a flooded basement. Alas!)

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]

Vintage

Something Different for Joomla