Sam Weller - Shadow Show

Thanks to our dream team of editors at HarperCollins, most notably, our great partner Jennifer Brehl, along with her assistant, Emily Krump. Gratitude, also, to production editor Andrea Molitor and copyeditor Margaret Wimberger. We were so fortunate to have these folks to work with. A tip of the hat to Tom Gauld for his classic cover art (have you been to Ray Bradbury’s basement?!).

To our literary agent, Judith Ehrlich, with us every step of the way.

To the inspiring memory of Danny Squires and the inspiring friendship of Robert Weinberg.

Thanks, also, to our families, Jane, Jan, Mai-Linh, Le-Anh, and Gia-Binh. Live Forever!

Neil Gaimanwas the first author to win the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal for the same book with The Graveyard Book (2008). He wrote The Sandman , now available in collected graphic novel form, and such books as the Hugo- and Nebula-winning American Gods . He dedicated his last short-story collection, Fragile Things , to Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison. He has three children and two dogs, and his wife has a ukulele.

Margaret Atwoodis a poet and novelist ( The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood ); her latest book is In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination (Doubleday, 2011).

Jay Bonansinga’sdebut novel, The Black Mariah , was a finalist for a Bram Stoker Award, and film rights sold to George Romero. The Chicago Tribune calls Bonansinga “one of the most imaginative writers of thrillers.” His novels include Perfect Victim , Shattered , Twisted , and Frozen. His nonfiction Sinking of the Eastland was a Chicago Reader “Critics Choice Book” as well as the recipient of a Superior Achievement Award from the Illinois State Historical Society. The New York Times bestseller The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor (St. Martin’s), coauthored with The Walking Dead TV and comics creator Robert Kirkman, is his latest novel.

Sam Welleris the authorized biographer of Ray Bradbury and the author of the bestselling Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury and Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews . He is a two-time Bram Stoker Award finalist. Weller has written for the Paris Review , National Public Radio’s All Things Considered , and many other publications. His short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, journals, and magazines. Follow him on Twitter @Sam__Weller.

David Morrellis the award-winning author of First Blood , the novel in which Rambo was created. His many New York Times bestsellers include the classic espionage novel The Brotherhood of the Rose , which was adapted into an NBC miniseries that premiered after a Super Bowl. An Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity nominee, Morrell is a three-time recipient of the Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award and was named a ThrillerMaster by International Thriller Writers. His fiction has been translated into twenty-six languages.

Thomas F. Monteleonehas published more than ninety short stories and twenty novels, including the New York Times bestseller Blood of the Lamb , which was also a New York Times Notable Book, and the bestselling Complete Idiot’s Guide to Novel Writing . Monteleone’s TV credits include Tales from the Darkside and PBS Television’s American Playhouse . He is the founder of the twice-annual Borderlands Press Writers Boot Camp for novelists and short-story writers.

Lee Martinis the author of the novels The Bright Forever , a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in fiction; Break the Skin , River of Heaven , and Quakertown . He has also published two memoirs, From Our House and Turning Bones , and a short-story collection, The Least You Need to Know . He teaches in the MFA program at Ohio State University.

Joe Hillis the author of two New York Times bestselling novels, Heart-Shaped Box and Horns , and a prizewinning collection of stories, 20th Century Ghosts . He also scripts the Eisner Award–winning ongoing comic Locke & Key . Once upon a time, he earned a fellowship in Ray Bradbury’s name. You can follow him on Twitter @joe_hill.

Dan Chaonis the author of Fitting Ends and Among the Missing , a finalist for the National Book Award, which was also listed as one of the Ten Best Books of the year by the American Library Association, the Chicago Tribune , the Boston Globe , and Entertainment Weekly , and cited as a New York Times Notable Book. Chaon’s fiction has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies and won both Pushcart and O. Henry awards. His short story “The Bees” appears in All American Horror of the 21st Century: The First Decade. Stay Awake (Ballantine) is his newest collection. Chaon teaches at Oberlin College.

John McNallyis the author of three novels: After the Workshop , The Book of Ralph , and America’s Report Card , and two story collections, Troublemakers (winner of the John Simmons Short Fiction Award and the Nebraska Book Award) and Ghosts of Chicago. He is also the author of two nonfiction books: The Creative Writer’s Survival Guide: Advice from an Unrepentant Novelist and the forthcoming Vivid and Continuous: Essays and Exercises for Fiction Writing, both published by the University of Iowa Press. McNally is an associate professor of English at Wake Forest University.

Joe Menois a fiction writer and playwright who lives in Chicago. A winner of the Nelson Algren Literary Award and a Pushcart Prize and a finalist for the Story Prize, he is the bestselling author of five novels and two short-story collections including The Great Perhaps , The Boy Detective Fails , and Hairstyles of the Damned . He is a professor in the fiction writing department at Columbia College Chicago. His nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times and Chicago magazine.

Robert McCammonis the award-winning author of seventeen novels, including Boy’s Life , Swan Song , and Mister Slaughter . He has been a lifelong fan of Ray Bradbury’s work.

Ramsey Campbellis “Britain’s most respected living horror writer” ( Oxford Companion to English Literature ). His novels, including The Doll Who Ate His Mother , Incarnate , The Hungry Moon , and The House on Nazareth Hill , and short stories have earned him more awards—World Fantasy Awards, British Fantasy Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, and the International Horror Society’s Living Legend and Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award—than any other writer in the genre.

Mort Castlepublished his first novel in 1967; since then, there have been more than five hundred publications of short stories, articles, comic books, poems, et cetera, and fifteen books with his name as writer or editor, including the “bible for aspiring horror writers” On Writing Horror (Writer’s Digest Books) and The Strangers , a novel that, in translation, made the Polish edition of Newsweek’ s Top Ten Horror-Thriller Books of 2008 list. He is a seven-time Bram Stoker Award nominee and a two-time winner of the Black Quill Award (for editing). Castle and Jane, his wife of forty-one years, live in Crete, Illinois, a town noted for its bubbling fountain and the bandstand in the park. Castle is ranked as the best five-string banjo player in his height, weight, and age group.