Cross promotion! This story is simultaneously appearing over at The Mad Scientist Journal, a/o 2013 June 17. 

The bell rang, and the countdown was on.  

Nathaniel Lee puts words in various orders. Periodically people give him money for this. The correlation is weak at best, but present. He lives somewhat unwillingly in North Carolina with his wife, son, and obligatory cats, where he maintains a vague sort of career that provides sufficient money to continue his writing and board game habits. Coincidentally, he is the Assistant Editor of both Escape Pod and the Drabblecast (the posts were each offered independently and without knowledge of the other). As a result, he has read enough stories about penises, serial killers, and time travel. He is also an assistant editor for the humorous anthology series Unidentified Funny Objects. Check out his blog at Mirrorshards where he does Very Short Stories. 100 words. No more. No fewer. Every day. 

First appeared right here in Daily SF. 

Caroline M. Yoachim is a writer and photographer living in Seattle, Washington. She had six new stories come out in 2012, including appearances in Lightspeed, Interzone, and Daily Science Fiction. For more about Caroline, check out her website at carolineyoachim.com. 

First appeared right here in Every Day Fiction. 

Sylvia Spruck Wrigley is an aviation and fantasy writer. Born in Heidelberg, she spent her childhood in California and now splits her time between southeast Wales and Andalucia, two coastal regions with almost nothing in common. Her new non-fiction book, Why Planes Crash: 2001, is just now out. The series explores 21st century aviation disasters and brings the investigations to life. Find out more about it at fearoflanding.com. Or, find out more about Sylvia at intrigue.co.uk. 

(Sorry about the nearly-empty file uploaded the first time, guys! All fixed now.)

She had my teeth. I hadn't expected to recognize myself in her, but when she greeted me, her maroon lips parting into a crescent, there they were. 

(First appeared right here in Daily SF.) 

Krystal Claxton writes speculative fiction in the sliver of time between raising a three-year old with her amazing husband and being a full-time computer technician. She enjoys attending Dragon*Con in costume, science magazines, and feverishly researching whichever random topic has just piqued her interest. Keep up with her at krystalclaxton.wordpress.com or @krystalclaxton on Twitter. 

The therapist's waiting room was plain--white sterile walls and carpet floors that smelled of chemicals. 

Dr. Kenneth Kao is a graduate of Odyssey Writing Workshop and Orson Scott Card's Literary Boot Camp. His fiction has sold to OSC's Intergalactic Medicine Show, Daily Science Fiction, Buzzy Magazine, Drabblecast, and others. He is the chiropractor and owner of Vital Balance Chiropractic. He is also a Parkour/Freerunning/Kung Fu instructor, and besides being a writer, he is an avid pole dancer. Find him at pkchiro.wordpress.com. 

I put out the ad so long ago I thought that no one was going to respond, I mean some people did respond but they were all really weird and kind of crazy, and then you responded, and at first I thought it was a joke, but now you're here! 

Alexandra Grunberg is a student at New York University in the Tisch School of the Arts. Her work has been published in Daily Science Fiction, Mustang's Monster Corral, and Garbled Transmissions. She loves Stephen King, Game of Thrones, and Mystery Science Theater 3000.  

(First appeared in Grendelsong.)

Samantha Henderson's short fiction and poetry have been published in Realms of Fantasy, Strange Horizons, Goblin Fruit and Weird Tales, the anthologies Running with the Pack and Fantasy, and reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Science Fiction, Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded, and the upcoming Mammoth Book of Steampunk. She is the author of the Forgotten Realms novel Dawnbringer, and the poetry collection, The House of Forever. Her website is at www.samanthahenderson.com. 

"I feel good, actually. Quite normal. I'm not aware of any odd cravings or a stray compulsion to go out and tickle the bellies of Basset hounds." 

Canfield's phobias run to politicians, lawyers and oil company executives. Some of his current work includes stories in Atomic Avarice and Mad Scientist Journal. He likes dogs and beer.

(First appeared right here in Daily SF.) 

Anatoly Belilovsky was born in a city that changed six or seven owners in the last 100 years, learned English from Star Trek reruns, and is now a pediatrician in an area of Brooklyn, New York, where English is the fourth most commonly spoken language. He is a SFWA member with stories in Nature, Ideomancer, Kasma, Stupefying Stories, and Andromeda Spaceways, among other publications. Unlike most other writers, he is not owned by any cats. 

(First appeared in Fear and Trembling)

Nicki Vardon: Hard-core scientist, soft-hearted metalhead, seasoned night owl and part-time catsitter. Dutch by birth, British by tea addiction. Nicki can be woken up in the middle of the night for - or by - metal concerts and Twining's Lady Grey, but always at one's own risk. Her work has appeared in Niteblade, The Red Penny Papers and Fear & Trembling.

(First appeared in Redstone SF.)

Steve grew up listening to his dad's ghost stories and never recovered. He attended Orson Scott Card's Literary Boot Camp in 2009 and currently lives in Oklahoma in a small house full of girls. His stories have appeared in Intergalactic Medicine Show, Redstone, Daily Science Fiction, and others. His nonfiction blog posts have been featured by SFWA.