Header
​
​
2024 Small Bites Winners
Look for the anthology, Second Star to the Right and other Small Bites Stories coming in May 2024
GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Second Star to the Right
Urban Fantasy
D. Krauss resides in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. He has been a cottonpicker, a sodbuster, a librarian, a surgical orderly, the guy who paints the little white line down the middle of the road, a weatherman, a door-kickin' shove-gun-in-face lawman, an analyst, and a school bus driver. Currently, he's a layabout. He's married and has a wildman bass guitarist for a son.
SECOND PLACE WINNER
The Manikin
Science Fiction
Donald Firesmith is a multi-award-winning author of speculative fiction, including science fiction, fantasy, paranormal horror, and modern urban paranormal novels and collections of short stories. Because of his strong background in software/system engineering and science, his science fiction is well-researched, and he relies on numerous science, technology, and military-technical advisors to ensure that the non-speculative aspects of his stories are realistic and believable. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his wife Becky, and varying numbers of dogs and cats.
THIRD PLACE WINNER
The Restoration of Mary Robinson
Paranormal
Lisa Reifsnider turned to writing when her youngest went off to college forcing her into retirement. After taking several classes and participating in a few National Writing Months, she found her stride. She has written several short stories and is close to completing her first novel. She lives outside Brussels, Belgium with her husband, Jason, of over 30 years.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
%2C%20Michael.jpg)
Little Black Book
Narrative Fiction
Michael Deeze is a natural-born storyteller—in life and in print. A child of the sixties, he draws extensively from his own diverse experiences and subsequent education to introduce the hapless Emmett Casey. As U.S. Army veteran and retired Doctor of Chiropractic, Deeze now lives in Illinois after spending decades living near the forests of northern Wisconsin. He’s a devoted father to his three children, a magical daughter, two grown sons, and his dog. His first novels are the critically acclaimed Bless Me Father, and For I have Sinned, The Heretic is the final novel in the series.
The Convict Code
Mystery
David Hagerty is the author of the Duncan Cochrane mystery series, which chronicles crime and dirty politics in his hometown of Chicago. Real events inspired all four novels, including the murder of a politician’s daughter six weeks before election day (They Tell Me You Are Wicked), a series of sniper killings in the city’s most notorious housing project (They Tell Me You Are Crooked), and the Tylenol poisonings (They Tell Me You Are Brutal). He has also published more than 50 short stories online and in print. Read more of his work at https://davidhagerty.net.
What Waited Under the Stairs
Paranormal
T. E. MacArthur, author, artist, historian, amateur cat whisperer, and parapsychologist wannabe living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She wrote the standout Steampunk series, The Volcano Lady, and the Gaslight Adventures of Tom Turner. A Place of Fog and Murder is her Noir-punk mystery, bringing a fantasy sci-fi 1930s San Francisco to life with her tough-as-nails femme-fatale-detective, Lou Tanner P.I., through exciting car chases and Chandleresque witty repartee. She’s even written for several local and specialized publications, anthologies, and was an accidental sports reporter for Reuters News.
What Burns Inside the Sunrise
Historical Fiction
Michael J Cooper writes historical fiction set at major turning points in the Middle East; Foxes in the Vineyard, set in 1948 won the 2011 Indie Publishing Contest grand prize, The Rabbi’s Knight, set in 1290 was a finalist for the 2014 CIBA Chaucer Award for historical fiction, and Wages of Empire set at the start of WW1 won the CIBA 2022 grand prize for young adult fiction and the Hemingway first prize for wartime historical fiction. A native of Berkeley, California, Cooper emigrated to Israel in 1966, studying and working there for the next decade; he lived in Jerusalem during the last year the city was divided between Israel and Jordan and graduated from Tel Aviv University Medical School. Now a pediatric cardiologist in Northern California, he travels to the region twice a year on volunteer missions for Palestinian children who lack access to care. http://michaeljcooper.net/
The Voice
Paranormal
J.W. Bell’s life reads like an adventure story. He was a Field Artillery Officer in the Army for ten years, is well-versed in long-range and large-caliber weapons, and is an expert with small arms — oh yes, he trained in explosives and is excellent with hand grenades. His military thrillers use actual terminology, weapons, and military courtesy. He traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and the U.S., living in Hawaii for several years. He coached gymnastics for a time and worked for years as a roughneck in the oilfields of Oklahoma. He became a teacher and holds a lifetime teaching license to teach music and drama. He composed his first symphony and now has a good start on his second. He is the author of The Sigma Code Chronicles, and recently branched out into metaphysics with I Am, Therefore I Think.