Belfast Writers Group Anthology 2012

Contributing Authors Biographies

Logan Bruce

Logan Bruce produces Northern Ireland's premiere Speculative Fiction e-zine, ORBzine, with updates available since 1999 on E-Mail, Livejournal, Twitter and Facebook. He has also
spent years doing fund-raising challenges for Action Cancer as part of Studio NI, the largest Arts and Culture group in the North of Ireland.

As Studio NI moderator, Mr Bruce runs annual events such as the Belfast writing workshops for NiNoWriMo (Northern Ireland Novel Writing Month). During NiNoWriMo every year
he undertakes the challenge of writing his own novel in 30 days.

Mr Bruce's first published novel “Blood of Thrones” is a historical fantasy set in and around the year 1066, and delivers thrills, excitement and adventure as ancient bloodlines battle for the thrones of Britannia. “Blood of Thrones” is available on Amazon, and 20% of all sales are donated to Belfast-based charity Action Cancer.

Lynda Collins

Lynda Collins was born in 1986. She has been writing since the tender age of five and even has the school reports to prove it, though she would like to hope that she has improved a little since then.

As well as a few stories published on the internet, she has had one story published in ‘Undead Tales 2,’ and considers the $3US she was paid for it allows her to call herself a professional writer. She cut her editorial teeth on this anthology, and found it strangely enjoyable. Any mistakes that she has missed... just don’t tell her about them, eh?

Whilst she had until recently focused on writing short stories, she has now decided to knuckle down and write something longer. She is currently working on a series of four fantasy books, each inspired by one of the four elements. The first book in the series, based on the element of Air, will be published just as soon as she stops finding excuses to procrastinate and actually finishes it.

Lynda is one of the moderators of the Belfast Writers’ Group (http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Belfastwriters/) . You can contact her there or at her blog at: (lyndacollinsblog.wordpress.com ).

Phil Deane

Phil Deane likes to talk about himself in the third person. An avid conspiracy theorist, international playboy, Olympic weightlifter and compulsive liar, he spends most of his time talking to himself, laughing at his own jokes, embarrassing his wife and three children and writing things that entertain him.

His first novel is due out in 2013.

You can read his blog at http://philipdeane.wordpress.com

James Donnelly

James Donnelly was born in 1979.  He has previously had some of his poetry published but this is his first work of fiction. 

Holly Ferres

To pursue her interest in writing, Holly Ferres attended a creative writing class at Belfast Metropolitan College in 2010 which she found constructive. She contributed to the class anthology. 

She likes writing short stories and is writing a novel about a carer who starts working for a family, with the intention of stealing.  The carer becomes emotionally involved and through her character the dynamics of the extended family are portrayed.  

Philip Henry

Philip Henry was born in 1974. He first started writing sketches while studying Performing Arts. After that he moved on to short stories and a couple of failed attempts at movie scripts. During long shifts at one of the more boring jobs he had, he began making notes for a novel, which he then wrote on his days off. That novel, Vampire Dawn, was released in 2004 and proved so popular it was extended into a trilogy with Vampire Twilight in 2007 and Vampire Equinox in 2009.

Mind’s Eye, a novel about the monsters of high school, was released in 2006 to great critical acclaim, as were Freak (2008), and Bleeding (2010).

My Ivory Summer (2011) was Philip’s first novel without a supernatural twist, and was short-listed for the National Self-Publishing Awards 2012. His latest novel, The Dead Room, a haunted house/ghost story, is due for release at Halloween 2012.

Philip continues to write novels, screenplays and short stories, all based around his home on the North Coast of Ireland.

 Contact the author through: www.philiphenry.com

 Sarah McNeill

Sarah McNeill is a 36 year old Community Development worker from Portadown, currently living in Gilford. Over the past four years she’s written 17 short stories and has had one published in a Southern Education and Library Board anthology. 

She is currently working on a tale of ghostly vengeance, called ‘A Dark Glance,’ based in the grounds of a pauper's workhouse. The research element has been terribly uplifting!

John-Henry Parker

John-Henry Parker is a twenty-one year old born in Los Angeles but raised in Belfast; he is a psychology student at Queens University and originally wrote this short story as an assignment for a queen's open learning writing class.  John-Henry has always been interested in writing and ‘Dancing in the Dark’ is his first completed short story.   

Michael Rush

Michael Rush was asked to contribute to the venerable anthology you now hold, and, in an attempt to pass himself off as a gentleman, he complied. His body of work has garnered little praise, fan recognition or even publication. And while awards may continue to elude him, he did have fun trying. He lives somewhere in Northern Ireland, where (for his sins) he studied Ancient History (for far too long) at Q.U.B. He has four dogs and a cat, an eclectic taste in literature, and a vast respect for Christie, Conan Doyle, Dumas, and Maurice Leblanc.

He doesn't have a blog.

Neill Stringer

Neill Stringer is a writer, director and editor. In 2008 he wrote and directed his first short film called "Thine Own Self" (which you can view at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmVJNJr8VgE&feature=plcp)

The film received good praise at the recent Film Devour Film Festival. More recently Neill co-founded The Other Ones Productions along with Ian Lawther, which is an off shot of The Other Ones Science Fiction, Fantasy and Gaming society also founded by Ian Lawther. The aim of this company is to produce SF and Fantasy projects from local filmmakers and a platform for them to showcase their skills. Through The Other Ones Productions Neill's next project will be his most ambitious yet, "The Rocketman Rides Again", which will be a series of short films which will pay homage to the old serials from the 1950s. Neill is the writer and director of the project.