Anthology

B.K. Winstead

B. K. Winstead is a SoCal native who has lived in Colorado for more than thirty years. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, where he didn’t necessarily learn to write but definitely learned to read widely and critically. Now working with an excellent critique group, he writes eclectic stories, historical, speculative, and fantasitcal. He works as a technical writer for a software company and has written and edited articles about the tech industry for twenty years. With his wife of more than thirty years, he enjoys dressing up cats, camping in Yellowstone, and frequent trips to Disneyland. Other interests include listening to loud, discordant music in many genres, playing computer games, and reading voraciously to avoid human interaction.

Bowen Gillings

Bowen Gillings writes to keep fiction fun. His latest book Overstuffed Lunchbox: A Bunch of Bite-Sized Bits, is a multi-genre collection of short stories released to rave reviews in 2025. The audiobook production of his murder mystery misadventure A Night to Remember came out in 2026, performed by Audie Award-winner Chris Ciulla. Bowen is an active member of RMFW, Pikes Peak Writers, the Superstars Writing Seminars tribe, and the Author’s Guild. He holds a Master of Education, five martial arts black belt certifications, and is an Army veteran. Travel enthusiast, lover of the outdoors, and writing conference addict, Bowen’s secret joys include quiet moments by the fireplace and picnics beneath swaying aspen.

Chris Dreith

Chris Dreith has written several short stories, including â€ÅOld Solesâ€Â in the Bouchercon 2020 anthology, â€ÅUnknown Male and Parts of Two Othersâ€Â in Cemetery Plots 2021 and â€ÅThe Road To Limerickâ€Â in Mystery Most International 2022. More quirky short stories are being added to her arsenal while she is working on her first thriller novel. Recently retired, Chris is the Vice President of Capitol Crimes, Sacramento California Chapter of Sisters In Crime and a member of NorCal Sisters in Crime, Sisters In Crime Colorado, Sisters In Crime LA, and the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers.

Collin Irish

Collin Irish is an engineer by day and a science fiction author by night—giving both sides of his brain a workout. His short stories appear in Without Brakes, Finger Crossed (RMFW) and Horizons Vol. 2 (Twenty Bellows). He writes the Violet Sky series (M4L Publishing), including his novel Messenger and short stories Subversive and Inventor. The second book in the series, Rebel, will be released soon. Irish also volunteers as a storyteller for youth mentoring groups. He lives in Lakewood, CO, where his wife and two children claim the third half of his brain—and his whole heart. Check out his website and Instagram.

Darlene Daniel Beals

Born in Virginia, Darlene now lives in Colorado. Because her father worked for the U. S. Department of Defense, she spent most of her formative years overseas where she fell in love with stories, reading, and libraries. Darlene wished for a horse since she was two years old. Moving to Colorado as a newlywed, she hoped she could finally have her horse. Still waiting for her horse, Darlene writes of a time when horses were pillars of the American West. Darlene is married with three adult children and an advocate for people with disabilities.

David Horn

David Horn would like it if, when you hear his name, you think young, tall, and talented, but since none of those things are true, he is a storyteller who's told stories for decades and has finally decided to share them as he nears retirement. A veteran, former police officer, and cybersecurity engineer, he writes from human experience and observation and prefers to be genre-fluid. A regular contributor to Inkd Publications anthologies and the Australian science fiction site, AntipodeanSF, he has also had stories published by Analog Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Pomona Valley Review, and Rooted Literary Magazine. His books include Signals from the Edge, an anthology, and the novels The Glass Child, Where the Road Parts, and The Adventure of the Imperial Glassfin, a Sherlock Holmes pastiche. He lives in Westminster. 

Gerry Spehar

Gerry Spehar is an indie musician from an old Colorado pioneer family--coal miners, ranchers and homesteaders who came to Crested Butte from Croatia and Slovenia in the 1880s.  Born and raised in Grand Junction, he worked on an uncle's ranch punching cattle, graduated from GJHS and CU Boulder, then formed the Spehar Brothers Band with brothers George and Tom. 

When his second child came, Gerry put on his only straightjacket--gray mohair--walked into a bank and got a job. For a few years he juggled music and day gig, playing the Grand Ole Opry and landing a Nashville publishing deal. The day gig won. Gerry got a fat job in L.A. and gave up performing to raise two brilliant daughters. But he never put the guitar down and thirty years on jumped back into music, releasing five critically acclaimed albums since 2017. 

Gerry and co-author Stephen Hillard are friends from GJHS. Gerry’s song, Be Nemanic, is the eponym of their story. 

India Hayford

India’s short story collection won the 2023 Neltje Blanchan Memorial Writing Award for best work inspired by nature. She has written two books on embroidery and received multiple grants from the Embroiderer’s Guild of America, Wyoming Arts Council, and National Endowment for the Arts to study and develop courses in Yemenite Jewish embroidery. Her short stories and feature articles have appeared in local, regional, and national publications. For nine years, she wrote a nationally distributed quarterly wildlife newsletter called The Howl. The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree, her debut novel, was named an Arkansas Gem in 2025 by the Arkansas Center for the Book and was a Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books selection. Days of Sun and Shadow is a Fresh Fiction Fresh Pick. She is currently writing a third novel set in the Red River Valley of Northeast Texas.

Inna V. Lyon

Inna Valerie Lyon is a Russian bumpkin raised on a steady diet of cabbage and potatoes peppered with the required reading of Chekhov and Dostoevsky.
During the day, Inna works as an accountant and specializes in producing colorful aging reports and cute collection letters.
At night, she writes stories about life, miracles, and cats. 
Inna is a member of the League of Utah Writers, Blue Quill's president, and an active member of the Infinite Monkeys chapter. She has dozens of writing awards for her essays and stories in different genres. She writes in both languages, English and Russian, and received the title of 2026 LUW Writer of the Year. Inna lives in Utah with a big, happy family. www.innalyonwriter.com.

Jeff Wood

Jeff Wood lives in Colorado Springs, where he spends way too much time staring at the night sky, and a little too much time watching baseball. His stories have appeared in over 30 publications such as Boston Phoenix, New York Press, Wild Musette, Fiction at Work, Bright Desire, The Greyrock Review, Bellowing Ark, and Java Journal. He has a children’s play included in the anthology CHILDSPLAY, in the company of such authors as Sam Shepard and Maya Angelou.

Jill English Johnston

Jill English Johnston pours her heart and soul into writing both speculative fiction and inspirational non-fiction. Ever since childhood, she's appreciated the power of story and the delight of putting pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, wings to words.
Fulfilling her life-long dream, Jill diligently works on her light sci-fi space/fantasy series and composes numerous short stories, including a collection dearly titled the Peddler Series. 
With opportunities abounding, Jill combined her passion for prayer and prose with her husband's love for capturing God's glory in photography, and they worked together to independently publish the Be Still photo devotional series, available on her author Amazon page: Jill English Johnston. She continues to work on other devotional writing projects and her inspirational blog, Tablets of Human Hearts. She can also be found on her author facebook page: Jill English Johnston
Jill currently lives in the Texas Hill Country with her husband, Jon, and spends her time writing, watching sunsets, kayaking, hiking, cycling, and traveling around the country with her husband, their travel trailer, and their fur baby, Wicki, visiting grandchildren, children, family, and friends.

Kelley J.P. Lindberg

Kelley J. P. Lindberg writes YA and adult fiction, and her writing history is littered with dozens of how-to books (including several bestsellers) and hundreds of articles. Her fiction and essays have appeared in literary magazines such as The Baltimore Review and Wilderness House Literary Review, in anthologies, and in the Tellables app for Amazon Alexa. When she isn't writing from her home on the high plains of Colorado, she's traveling as far and as often as she can. She blogs about the writer's life and writing craft on her website, www.KelleyLindberg.com, and on the RMFW blog on www.rmfw.org. Follow her on BlueSky, Instagram, and X at @KelleyLindberg1.

Mel Lake

Mel Lake is a writer, editor, and comic book fan. Her debut novel, a funny vampire mystery titled Bloodbath at VampCon, will debut March 2027 from Severn River Publishing as the first in a four-book series. In addition to vampire novels, she writes short stories and personal essays. Her short story was a finalist for the 2025 Quarterly West Prose Contest and she was a finalist for the 2024 Colorado Gold Literary Awards. 

After working in various industries as a technical writer, Mel is juggling day jobs in the age of (ugh) AI. But she'll always daydream about vampires, aliens, ghosts, and gods.

Originally from Arizona, she now lives in Denver with her partner and the best dog in the world. When not writing or reading, Mel is probably on a mountain somewhere. (Or at mel-lake.com and @melofsometrades on Instagram and Bluesky.)

Molly McFadden

Molly McFadden (she/her/hers) worked as a biostatistician in health research, but creative writing is her first love. Her unpublished novel Dogs in Mourning was a finalist in the 2024 Colorado Gold Rush Literary Awards. She lives in Utah where she delights in the high mountains and red rock deserts.

Oliver Blakemore

Oliver’s not in a band. He likes getting that out of the way early. It saves time. Although he still writes stories aimed to get fists pumping and make people throw devil horns. Like so many punks and metalheads before him, he’s a recovering intellectual and an undiagnosed neurodivergent. His idea of a true story is explaining the world by saying it must be witches and dragons (which need befriending) and systemic stereotypes (which need defeating). And he only writes true stories. He lives in Colorado with his partner and her animals. In his daywalker job, he interviews fledgling rock and rollers and writes marketing material for them.

P.M. Castle

P.M. Castle draws on more than 40 years of experience as an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor in western Colorado. His freelance work has appeared in diverse publications, among them the Washington Post. He was a contributing author to the 2026 Horizons anthology published by Twenty Bellows and 2025 Western Colorado Voices anthology published by the Western Colorado Writers’ Forum. He’s a member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and four-time finalist for the Colorado Gold Rush Literary Awards bestowed by the organization. He won the award in 2020. P.M. Castle writes mysteries set in the rugged northwest corner of Colorado. For more information, visit the website at www.pmcastle.com

Paul Martz

Paul Martz is a fiction writer, technology blogger, and former punk rock drummer. His work is published at Uncharted, Amazing Stories, and creepy Podcast, among others. He co-edited the 2024 RMFW anthology Without Brakes, Fingers Crossed, and is the author of the non-fiction book, Solve It! The Only Speedsolving Guide for Blind Cubers. Follow him at PaulMartz.com.

R. Ch. Garcia

Garcia's speculative stories appear in anthologies: Latinos in Lotusland; Needles and Bones; Rudy Rucker's Flurb; Lost Trails: Forgotten Tales of the Weird West; Cricket's Revista Iguana; and the Xicanxfuturism Codex II [2026]. Contests: honored by Writers Digest Fiction Contest, 1st in Somos en Escrito's Extra Fiction Contest. His novel The Closet of Discarded Dreams, honored by the International Latino Book Awards; the SW/Mexico fantasy Death Song of the Dragón Chicxulub took 1st place with ILBA Fantasy Book-to-Movie. His YA fantasy The Obsidian Princess and the Grandest Gardener is set in Mexico 100 years before Cortez. More at rchgarcia.com
Garcia is a co-founder of LaBloga.blogspot.com, holds a B.A. in Writing from the University of Colo.-Denver and retired as a Denver bilingual elem. teacher.
Writing in Northside Denver, Garcia gardens, landscapes, woodworks and cares for cacti and wild birds that visit his wife Carmen's gardens. Plus he has two Nietos, a bright, friendly dog Menqui, and a sorta feral cat, Panther. His adopted credo: "Give up on the adults!" [P. Bacigalupi]

Rachel Delaney Craft

Rachel Delaney Craft is a travel writer by day and a speculative fiction author by night. A longtime RMFW member, she has contributed to three past anthologies—Found, Bizarre Bazaar, and Without Brakes—and co-edited the 2020 anthology, Wild. On the novel side, she is a two-time winner of the Colorado Gold Rush Literary Award and is represented by Alex Land at Mad Woman Literary Agency. Her work is often inspired by places she visits; â€ÅDead Spacesâ€Â grew out of a séance she attended at the historic (and possibly haunted) Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. Find her at racheldelaneycraft.com or on Blue Sky @RDCwrites.  

Sinclair Buckstaff, Jr.

Sinclair Buckstaff, Jr. and his wife live in Wyoming in a house they designed and built themselves.  They have two grown daughters.  Short fiction of Mr. Buckstaff’s has recently appeared in a number of competition anthologies.  Additionally, a 2,500-word article of his entitled â€ÅCrossing America on a Bicycleâ€Â was printed in the October 1978 issue of the Saturday Evening Post magazine.

Stephen Hillard

Stephen Hillard is a fan of the RMFW and believes everyone has a great story inside them.  An attorney, entrepreneur and philanthropist, he is the author of several novels (including the award-winning Mirkwood — 2011, and KNOLL — 2016). He wrote the short story, An Occurrence in Farway Canyon, in the 2020 RMFW anthology. He co-wrote and executive produced the award-winning movie Glowzies (2023, currently streaming on several platforms).  With writing and film projects in process, he resides with his wife, Sharmaine, in Grand Junction.