I grew up near Pennsylvania Amish country and began writing while living in San Francisco.

Odd bits of information, like historical footnotes, often turn into stories.

A museum exhibit sparked "Mud," in Terra! Tara! Terror. WWI was mechanized slaughter, a "modern" war with tanks and planes, but also cavalry charges! Imperial War Museum photos show soldiers with dogs and cats, which killed rats in the trenches, and boosted the men's morale. Dogs were trained to carry messages, lay communications wire, and haul machine guns. Animals were decorated. My grandfather told stories about the horses and mules used in WWI.

Genealogy prompted "My Jack" in Flame Tree's Urban Crime. My great- and great-great-grandmothers emigrated from London, England in 1886.

Recently read: Salt, by Mark Kurlansky, the saga of that common substance; Heretics: The Wondrous (and Dangerous) Beginnings of Modern Philosophy, a graphic novel by Steven and Ben Nadler. The Library Book by Susan Orlean, and lots by Jody Picoult!

Jennifer Quail has lived in Virginia, Washington, D.C. and New England, and now resides in her native Michigan. When not working for a museum or writing about unusual vampires and reluctant mages, she owns dogs, manages cats, ballroom dances, collects antique oddities, and is keeper of a retired racehorse.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Chris Wheatley is a freelance journalist, writer and musician from Oxford, UK. He has an enduring love for the works of R.A. Lafferty, Jack Vance, Thorne Smith and Cornell Woolrich, far too many records and no cat. He has just completed his first full-length crime novel and is forever indebted to the advice and encouragement of his wife, his son and his mother, without whom he would never have come so far.