Wil Wheaton first entered the public eye in 1986 with his critically acclaimed performance in Rob Reiner's Stand By Me. He spent his teenage years on the starship Enterprise as a series regular on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Since leaving TNG, Wil has explored a number of different career options. In 1993, Wil put everything he had in a storage locker at Los Angeles Union Station, and tried life as a hobo, riding the rails across the US.

He settled in Florida in early 1995, where he found work at The Waffle House, on route 90. Wheaton had found his calling, it seemed, until a tragic accident known only as "the pigs-in-a-blanket-fiasco" drove him out of the Waffle House, and, ultimately, out of Florida completely.

Heartbroken and disillusioned, Wheaton returned to Los Angeles, and reclaimed his place in the spotlight by writing clever biographies for former child actors.

Wil is currently a writer and performer with the ACME Comedy Theatre, and was recently called "rather remarkable" by the LA Weekly. Upcoming roles include the romantic lead in the dark comedy "Jane White is Sick and Twisted" and a guest starring lead on PAX TV's "Twice In A Lifetime".

Wil currently lives in That Spooky Old House On The Edge of Town. He knows exactly what it is that you're up to, and your parents are going to get a phone call from him. And don't make that face. He can see you, mister, and you're not fooling anyone.

David B. Coe was born on March 12, 1963 (Pisces, Chinese Year of the Rabbit). He grew up in the suburbs just outside of New York City, the youngest of four children. His mother, a school teacher, and his father, a stock broker, instilled in all of their kids a deep love of books, and, as a result, all four of the Coe children grew up to be writers. David's oldest brother, Bill, is a technical writer with a large computer company in Massachusetts. His sister, Liz, produces and writes television shows in Hollywood. And his second brother, Jim, is a wildlife artist and bird illustrator who has written and illustrated his own field guides.

David received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and then attended Stanford University as a graduate student in United States history. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on conservation policy during the New Deal, receiving his Ph.D. in 1993. For those who have trouble sleeping, his dissertation, "Realms of Nature, Spheres of Interest: Environmental Policy in the Pacific Northwest, 1932 1952" (Stanford, 1993), is available through University Microfilms, Inc. He briefly considered pursuing a career as an academic, but wisely thought better of it.

More information on the official David B. Coe website.

L. E. Modesitt, Jr., was born in 1943 in Denver, Colorado. He graduated from Williams College under the delusion that poetry was considered respectable and that fantasy and science fiction were not, a mistake he now attributes to youthful enthusiasm.

He has been a delivery boy; a lifeguard; an unpaid radio disc jockey; a U.S. Navy pilot; a market research analyst; a real estate agent; director of research for a political campaign; legislative assistant and staff director for a U.S. Congressman; Director of Legislation and Congressional Relations for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; a consultant on environmental, regulatory, and communications issues; and a college lecturer and writer in residence. In addition to his novels, Mr. Modesitt has published technical studies and articles (generally with boring titles), columns, poetry, and a number of science fiction stories. His first story was published in 1973.

Mr. Modesitt has weathered eight children, a fondness for three-piece suits, a brown Labrador, a white cockapoo, a Siamese rabbit, and various assorted pet rodents. Finally, in 1989, to escape nearly twenty years of occupational captivity in Washington, D.C., he moved to New Hampshire. There he married a lyric soprano, and he and his wife Carol moved to Cedar City, Utah in 1993, where she directs the opera program at Southern Utah University and he continues to create and manage chaos.

More information can be found on his official website.

A brief introduction to me: I was born in 1969 and by 1983 it became clear to me that I had better become a writer because everything else was actual work. Since I graduated from college in 1991, I've been a full-time professional writer, sometimes working for others and sometimes working for myself. For the last several years I've been working for myself. We'll see how long that lasts.

side from books, I am also the Chief Entertainment Media Critic for Official US Playstation Magazine, which means I write DVD and CD reviews for the magazine, as well as a column called "Watchdog," in which I discuss the social and legal issues surrounding video games. I am also frequent writer for my local newspaper, the Dayton Daily News, for which I also write a DVD review column. And if that's not enough I'm also a paid blogger, working for America Online. You can see my AOL blog at By The Way.

More information on the official John Scalzi website.

Born Feb 14, 1952 in Manchester, England, writer and critic of sf and fantasy also known as Ann Halam, writer of teenage fiction. Winner of two World Fantasy Awards, BSFA short story award, Children of the Night Award from the Dracula Society, Arthur C. Clarke award 2001 for Bold As Love; co-winner of the Tiptree award. Cult status as scriptwriter for the eighties scifi tv cartoon The Telebugs. Lives in Brighton,England with her husband and son, a Tonkinese cat called Ginger and her son Frank.

Substantially more information can be found on the official Gwyneth Jones website.

Margaret Weis was born and raised in Independence, Missouri. She attended the University of Missouri, Columbia, graduating in 1970 with a BA in creative writing. Weis worked for almost thirteen years at Herald Publishing House in Independence, where she started as a proof-reader, ending as editorial director of the trade press division. Her first book, a biography of Frank and Jesse James, was published in 1981. In 1983, she moved to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to take a job as book editor at TSR, Inc., producers of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS role-playing game.

At TSR, Weis became part of the DRAGONLANCE design team. Created by Tracy Hickman, DRAGONLANCE revolutionized the role-playing industry, introducing such innovative techniques as pre-generated characters, a story line running through numerous game modules, and adult novels that were a direct tie-in with the game. 2004 will be the twentieth anniversary of the DRAGONLANCE CHRONICLES. The Chronicles continue to feature on best-seller lists.

Published fantasy works include the Dragonlance series, which has sold over twenty million copies world-wide; the Darksword trilogy; the Death Gate Cycle; Rose of the Prophet; the Soverign Stone trilogy. Science fiction works include her own series, Star of the Guardian, and the Mag Force 7 series.

Weis is owner of Sovereign Press, the publisher of the Sovereign Stone RPG and the new Dragonlance D20 RPG products licensed from Wizards of the Coast. She is co-author of the Dragonlance Core System rulebook, Wizards of the Coast, 2003, and co-author of the Dragonlance Age of Mortals rulebook published by Sovereign Press, 2003.

Weis's first book in the new series for Tor books, Mistress of Dragons, was released in May 2003 to critical acclaim. She is currently working on the second book in that series, The Dragon's Son. Weis continues her work in Dragonlance wth a new series of novels for Wizards of the Coast titled Dark Disciple. Movie deals are being pursued on several of her works.

Weis lives in a converted barn in Wisconsin with four dogs: Sasha, a black lab; Kelly, a collie, and Tess and Max, border collies, and three cats, Nicolai Mouseslayer, Motley Tatters, and Shiva, Destroyer of Nations.

More information can be found on the official Margaret Weis website.

Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 2 March, 1943, the first of three sons of a salesman and a nurse. The salesman wanted him to become an athlete, the nurse thought he would do well as either a doctor or a Lutheran minister, but all he wanted to do was to learn to read.

When kindergarten turned out to be a stupefyingly banal disappointment devoted to cutting animal shapes out of heavy colored paper, he took matters into his own hands and taught himself to read by memorizing his comic books and reciting them over and over to other neighborhood children on the front steps until he could recognize the words. Therefore, when he finally got to first grade to find everyone else laboring over the imbecile adventures of Dick, Jane and Spot (?See Spot run. See, see, see,?), he ransacked the library in search of pirates, soldiers, detectives, spies, criminals, and other colorful souls, Soon he had earned a reputation as an ace storyteller, in demand around campfires and in back yards on summer evenings.

This career as the John Buchan to the first grade was interrupted by a collision between himself and an automobile which resulted in a classic near-death experience, many broken bones, surgical operations, a year out of school, a lengthy tenure in a wheelchair, and certain emotional quirks. Once back on his feet, he quickly acquired a severe stutter which plagued him into his twenties and now and then still puts in a nostalgic appearance, usually to the amusement of telephone operators and shop clerks. Because he had learned prematurely that the world was dangerous, he was jumpy, restless, hugely garrulous in spite of his stutter, physically uncomfortable and, at least until he began writing horror three decades later, prone to nightmares. Books took him out of himself, so he read even more than earlier, a youthful habit immeasurably valuable to any writer. And his storytelling, for in spite of everything he was still a sociable child with a lot of friends, took a turn toward the dark and the garish, toward the ghoulish and the violent. He found his first ?effect? when he discovered that he could make this kind of thing funny.

As if scripted, the rest of life followed. He went on scholarship to Milwaukee Country Day School and was the darling of his English teachers. He discovered Thomas Wolfe and Jack Kerouac, patron saints of wounded and self-conscious adolescence, and also, blessedly, jazz music, which spoke of utterance beyond any constraint: passion and liberation in the form of speech on the far side of the verbal border. The alto saxophone player Paul Desmond, speaking in the voice of a witty and inspired angel, epitomized ideal expressiveness, Our boy still had no idea why inspired speech spoke best when it spoke in code, the simultaneous terror and ecstasy of his ancient trauma, as well as its lifelong (so far, anyhow) legacy of anger, being so deeply embedded in the self as to be imperceptible, Did he behave badly, now and then? Did he wish to shock, annoy, disturb, and provoke? Are you kidding? Did he also wish to excel, to keep panic and uncertainty at arm's length by good old main force effort? Make a guess. So here we have a pure but unsteady case of denial happily able to maintain itself through merciless effort. Booted along by invisible fears and horrors, this fellow was rewarded by wonderful grades and a vague sense of a mysterious but transcendent wholeness available through expression. He went to the University of Wisconsin and, after opening his eyes to the various joys of Henry James, William Carlos Williams, and the Texas blues-rocker Steve Miller, a great & joyous character who lived across the street, passed through essentially unchanged to emerge in 1965 with an honors degree in English, then an MA at Columbia a year later. He thought actual writing was probably beyond him even though actual writing was probably what he was best at - down crammed he many and many a book, stirred by some, dutiful to the claims of others, and, more important than any of this, educated by the writerly example of his dear, eternal friend, the poet Ann Lauterbach.

Stuffed with books and opinions about books but out of money, he married his beloved, Susan, took a job teaching English at his old school, now renamed University School of Milwaukee, and enjoyed a minor but temporary success as Mr. Chips-cum-jalapenos, largely due to the absolute freedom given him by the administration and his affection for his students, who faithfully followed him as he struck matches and led them into caves named Lawrence, Forster, Bront?Thackeray, etc., etc. On his off-hours, he fell in love with poetry, especially John Ashbery's poetry, and wrote imitations of same. Three years later, fearing to turn into a spiritless & chalk-stained drudge, he went to Dublin, Ireland, to work on a Ph.D., secretly (a secret even to him) to start writing seriously.

Dublin, 1969-1972. His dissertation, a mess, devolved. He published poems in poetry places, did readings with new friend Thomas Tessier who was writing plays and poems, published two small books of poetry, Ishmael and Open Air, and finally surrendered to psychic necessity and wrote a novel, not at all a good novel, called Marriages, accepted by the first publisher to whom it was, heart in mouth, sent. He moved to the larger world of London.

London, 1972-1979, Ann Lauterbach lived on the other side of Belsize Square; Thomas Tessier soon materialized, magnificently, as the Managing Director of a publishing house. He wrote & wrote & sometime in 1974, in desperation and despair first gathered up his ancient fears and turned them into fiction & by doing so saved his life. He and Ann talked about poetry, the mysteries of everyday life and everything else; he and Tessier talked about H.P. Lovecraft, No Orchids for Miss Blandish, and everything else, including the horror movies shown at the Kilburn Odeon. His writing improved. He and Susan bought a house on Hillfield Avenue in Crouch End, N8, and begat their first child, Benjamin, born during the writing of Ghost Story.

In 1979 he returned to America, living first in Westport, Connecticut, where Emma Straub was born, then in New York City, where he and his family inhabit a brownstone on the Upper West Side. He continues to enjoy the crucial friendships of Ann Lauterbach, Thom Tessier, and several others, mainly writers and jazz musicians. At some point he became conscious of the central issues of his life, which recognition made it impossible to cast them into the patterns, however imaginative, of horror literature, as least as conventionally regarded. Horror itself, on the other hand, has not abandoned him, nor can it ever, a matter for which he feels the deepest gratitude. He is a member of HWA, MWA, PEN and the Adams Round Table, and though he is without ?hobbies,? remains intensely interested in jazz, as well as opera and other forms of classical music.

More information at the official Peter Straub website.

Terry Brooks was born in Illinois in 1944, where he spent a great deal of his childhood and early adulthood dreaming up stories in and around Sinnissippi Park, the very same park that would eventually become the setting for his bestselling Word & Void trilogy. He went to college and received his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College, where he majored in English Literature, and his graduate degree from the School of Law at Washington & Lee University.

A writer since high school, he wrote many stories within the genres of science fiction, westerns, and non-fiction, until one semester early in his college years he was given The Lord of the Rings to read. That moment changed Terry's writing career forever, because within the pages of Tolkien's great work he found all the elements combined in one genre that would allow him to release onto paper his own ideas about life, love, and the wonder that fills this world.

With that new found knowledge he wrote and published The Sword of Shannara in 1977, the grand result from years of trying to retain some form of sanity while studying law at Washington & Lee University. It became the first work of fiction ever to appear on the New York Times trade paperback bestseller list, where it remained for over five months.

On the spare time he could afford from his law practice Terry wrote The Elfstones of Shannara, which followed in 1982 and once again brought us an epic novel of wonder and adventure in the eagerly awaited sequel to The Sword of Shannara. The Wishsong of Shannara, published in 1985, finished the remarkable trilogy.

After publishing his first three Shannara novels, Terry knew that writing was not only his life's ambition but that he could make a living with it as well. Even though he was hesitant, he quit his practice of law to pursue a full-time writing career. He moved to Seattle and began writing Magic Kingdom for Sale--Sold!, which began a bestselling new series for him in 1986. After two more Landover novels, The Black Unicorn and Wizard At Large, Terry wrote The Heritage of Shannara, a four-book series returning to the very heart that made him such a success. The publication of The Talismans of Shannara in 1993 concluded that storyline.

One of the idiosyncrasies about Terry is he can't write in one series for long; he needs, as a creative writer, to take time off from a project which inevitably allows him to explore new mythos and ideas that he is constantly thinking about. In essence, he recharges himself this way so when he comes back to a series it is meaningful storytelling. Rather than start a new Shannara novel after he finished The Heritage of Shannara series, he began writing two more Landover books (The Tangle Box & Witches' Brew).

Once done with the Landover books, and another foray into the Shannara series with the release of First King of Shannara, Terry decided to create something new. Since the beginning of The Heritage of Shannara series in 1990, Terry had been thinking of a new series; a dark, contemporary fantasy set in a town similar to the Illinois hometown he grew up in. The ideas for this new series grew, expanded, and grew some more over the next several years while he wrote other novels, and in September 1997 Terry released Running With the Demon, his darkest most complex masterwork yet. The story of Nest Freemark and John Ross continued in A Knight of the Word and Angel Fire East in what has been tentatively titled The Word & Void trilogy.

In the midst of writing The Word & Void trilogy, George Lucas, the esteemed creator of Star Wars, personally asked Terry if he would write the novelization to Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Being a Star Wars fan Terry agreed easily and soon found himself travelling to Skywalker Ranch to discuss the project with Lucas and a month before the theatrical release of the movie the book was published with great success.

It was during this time that Terry decided to have an official website, one that a dedicated fan would devote time towards to ensure that the latest news, touring information, and book summaries could be available to his fans. Terry found his fan. Read that history HERE.

At the moment Terry has returned once again to the Shannara series with a new trilogy titled The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara. The first book, titled Ilse Witch, takes place 130 years after the events of The Talismans of Shannara where Walker Boh is still a Druid and is trying to do something to reform the Druid Council. Antrax and Morgawr finished up the series. Not tired of Shannara, Terry will continue to write three more books that take place 20 years after the events in Morgawr, the first of which is titled Jarka Ruus.

What's on the horizon after that? Who knows. Rest assured it will be something that only Terry Brooks can bring us.

He lives with his wonderful wife Judine in the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, and on the road meeting his fans.

http://asimplerway.com/tdp/Terry_Brooks.m3u