About the Collective Darkness Authors

Elizabeth is the creator of Editing Mee and co-owner to Collective Tales Publishing, the publishing and editing company for Collective Darkness. Her mission is to help writers when it comes to publishing and editing. She’s always had a passion for writing and helping people, which is how she ended up creating an anthology with some of her favorite new and upcoming writers. Her story in Collective Darkness is “Into the Dark.”

Jonathan Reddoch is co-owner of Collective Tales Publishing. He is a father, writer, editor, and publisher. He writes sci-fi, fantasy, romance, and especially horror. He has been working on his enormous sci-fi novel for over a decade and would like to finish it in this lifetime if possible. Find him on Instagram: Allusions_of_Grandeur_

Jen is an emerging writer specializing in horror and fantasy with a background in theatre and film. In addition to being the author of the short story “Polter Geist,” Jen also engineered the Collective Darkness audiobook.

Brandon has a passion for fantasy that he gained at a young age after reading JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He also loves the horror genre thanks to the works of HP Lovecraft and Stephen King. He leisurely reads and enjoys playing video games and composing music in his free time. He is copy editor of the anthology. His story is “The Figure in the Mirror.”

Writing has a unique power, and Alex Child is just smart enough to know that he's nowhere near smart enough to accurately describe it. Between working half as hard as he should and twice as hard as required at his day job, he continues pursuing that indescribable emotional swell from relating to a literary character and sharing their experiences. He hopes his story brings you even just a portion of that rush.

As a child, Austin was always told he had an overactive imagination. When he grew up, that imagination transformed into storytelling and his passion for writing. He also finds joy in other creative outlets, such as drawing, designing, cooking, and supporting his friends with their artistic passions.

Writing has always been an important part of his life, and this project reminded him that it is always important to find happiness in the things you enjoy doing.

Customer service by day, killing characters off by night. Every story needs a little darkness to make it more complex and interesting. She listens to music while writing, either classical, alternative, or 90s punk, and reads her work aloud to her four pets. They give excellent feedback.

Edward is the youngest writer at 17 years old. He loves to write strange little things, which he hopes will urge you to look deeper. He also loves to make music and tries to convey feelings and concepts that he couldn’t explain with words. Edward hopes to lead you to think in a way you may not have before.

K.R. is, first and foremost, a human, though a few of her psychiatric patients have told her she is not. She has been called a vampire, an alien, a mixed breed of cat/dog/dinosaur, and a mermaid—and is unable to rule out any of those possibilities.

She is lured to studying psychopaths and writing horror because she is a curious cat (dog/dinosaur), and attracted to the occasional adrenaline rush. Besides the short story in this anthology, she has been published in Writer’s Digest, written and published a pirate novel titled A Dead Man’s Tale, and has won various writing contests when she was able to satisfactorily use her vampire compelling spells.

Coming soon, her first fairy tale novella will be part of a boxed set, where she enjoyed fracturing Snow White a little too much.

Chris has often been described as an amalgamation of too many things for his own good. Writer, musician, academic, book collector, scavenger, builder, drinker, shiny object enthusiast. Horror is the gateway to the truly primal, the unknown void, and the creative outlet that can be explored without fear… huh. Moving on. He has written for online publications, and short story collections for Utah Valley University. Currently, he reads far too much to have a singular favorite author, but is often inspired by: Patrick Rothfuss, Robert Jordan, H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Brandon Sanderson, and Joe Abercrombie. One day he will be as well read as that list.

As a Marine Corps veteran who forecast the weather, with an Associates in General Studies and a technical college certificate in Cybersecurity, Samuel works as a manager for a pizza place. He spent most of his upbringing in Missouri, with a few years in Utah, and was stationed in the southeast states for most of his military contract. He spends some of his off-time writing, focused mostly on short humorous fiction which he sometimes posts on his blog, natterbanquet. He enjoys watching primarily comedies and action/adventure shows, playing video games, reading (though most novels are consumed as audiobooks), and spending time with friends and family. He lives in Utah, but longs to be back out east where the good thunderstorms are.

B. Todd Orgill is a warehouse manager, avid outdoorsman, fitness enthusiast, and devourer of knowledge. His experience with horror has largely been relegated to personal experience, most of which was, luckily, non-Lovecraftian. He knows an unnatural number of digits of pi for no good reason at all. He's published several rather dreadful pieces of poetry and the odd short story. His favorite authors are Orson Scott Card, Brandon Sanderson, John Scalzi, Jim Butcher, and Patrick Rothfuss. He once read a book and thought, "I could do that" and has struggled to "do that" ever since, realizing that, in fact, writing is quite difficult. He loves mashed potatoes and sleeping through his alarm.