Tom Crosshill’s fiction has appeared in magazines such as Intergalactic Medicine Show, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Lightspeed. In 2009, he won the Writers of the Future contest. After many years spent in Oregon and New York, he currently lives in his native Latvia. He’s a satellite member of the writers’ group Altered Fluid. In the past, he has operated a nuclear reactor, translated books and worked in a zinc mine, among other things. Visit him at tomcrosshill.com.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (29 January 1860-15 July 1904) was a great Russian short-story writer, playwright and physician. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov practiced as a doctor throughout most of his literary career: “Medicine is my lawful wife,” he once said, “and literature is my mistress.”

Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later adopted by James Joyce and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

As a child, Patrick Dey’s Dad took him to the library every Saturday. One day he stole into the adult section and discovered that Heinlein was but one of many writers of adult SF — he would not have to give up those astounding stories when he grew up! In the systematic (some say boring) manner that would serve him well later in life — as a computer programmer, quality consultant and information security auditor — he started at Aldiss and Asimov, and worked through to Wyndham and Zelazny, then back to Anderson… When children came along — there are four, now old and nice enough to buy him beer — he read to them and discovered Harry Potter.

Pat writes science fiction and fantasy, featuring resourceful characters pitting their wits and human values against greed and corruption in worlds of man-made magic and misery. He relaxes in a real ale pub in Derby, England, where he either solves the world’s problems with family and friends, writes at pldey42.typepad.com or plays jazz guitar with anyone who can rock.