Did you know that QPB's editorial staffers are published writers?  That's right.  When we're not muckin' through the piles and piles of advance galleys and manuscripts of fiction, non-fiction and the unclassifiable to bring our members the bestest, we're scrawling our own stuff. 

Editorial Assistant/science fictionite and fantasist Alaya Johnson, amazingly, debuted this year with a story ("Third Day Lights") in Year's Best SF 100 AND a story ("Shard of Glass") in Year's Best Fantasy 6.   Of "Shard of Glass," Publishers Weekly said "Stories from such renowned authors as Esther Friesner and Gene Wolfe are surprisingly outclassed by tales from relative newcomers Alaya Dawn Johnson and Anne Harris."  In fact, "Shard of Glass" was a finalist for the Parallax Award....it went to Walter Mosley in the end.  Not a bad person to concede defeat to, if you ask me.  Plus, Alaya's already landed a book deal for her first novel--due out in 2008. Not too shabby for a still-recent college grad, eh?

More on Gary, and even me, in future installments.