Staff

Editor-In-Chief and Publisher

David Steffen is the editor-in-chief and publisher of Diabolical Plots, LLC which publishes Diabolical Plots and The Long List Anthology Series. He is also the co-founder and administrator of The Submission Grinder.

Editors

Chelle Parker is a queer, trans, disabled professional editor, book reviewer, and dog parent living in Ottawa, Canada, where they can often be found muttering about punctuation choices to their garden plants. They thrive on Camellia sinensis and sarcasm. You can read more about them, or even hire them, by visiting mparkerediting.com, and find them on most social media platforms as @chellenator.

Chelle Parker

Ziv Wities: Short fiction snuck into Ziv’s life in his teens. It struck a tent, has been entrenched ever since, and sometimes throws parties. (When prompted, he’ll also speechify about source control at the drop of a hat.)

Ziv writes expert overanalyses at zivwities.com, explains the marvels of story structure on YouTube, tweets, vaguely, as @QuiteVague.

Hal Y. Zhang is a lapsed physicist and international transplant who splits her time between the east coast of the United States and the Internet, where she can be found at halyzhang.com. She is a fan of mild tea and sharp words.

First Readers

Harklin Ashe

Harklin (Hark) Ashe is an author, web content wizard, and doting pitbull mom. Her work has appeared in In Somnio: A Collection of Modern Gothic Horror from Tenebrous Press. She lives in Los Angeles, where she spends most of her non-writing time reading, missing thunderstorms, eating, or thinking about eating. 

Rose Ciesla

As a former school librarian with a dusty music history degree, Rose Ciesla takes great pleasure in finding esoteric resources for her very tolerant friends. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and son, a sadly neglected garden, and a very loud cat.

Ryan Cole

Ryan Cole is a speculative fiction writer living with his husband and snuggly pug-child in the greater Richmond, VA area. His work has so far appeared in Writers of the Future, Volume 37 and Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things, and he is currently hard at work on his first novel. Follow his progress at www.ryancolewrites.com.

Monique Cuillerier

Monique Cuillerier writes about lesbian families in space from Ottawa, Canada, where she lives with her cat Janeway. Her work has been published by Diabolical Plots, in several Queer Sci Fi flash fiction anthologies, and four Bikes in Space anthologies, most recently Bicycles & Broomsticks: Fantastical Feminist Stories About Witches on Bikes. When not writing, she likes to run, garden, and overcommit to volunteer activities. She spends too much time on Twitter (@MoniqueAC) and not enough on her website (notwhereilive.ca).

Amanda Helms

Amanda Helms (she/her) is a biracial science fiction and fantasy writer whose stories have appeared in Mermaids Monthly, Fireside Magazine, Diabolical Plots, and elsewhere. She and her family live in Colorado. Though all of them are natives, none ski or snowboard, proving that such creatures indeed exist. When not reading or writing, she’s likely chasing after her toddler or cooing over cute puppy pictures. Find her at amandahelms.com and on Twitter and Instagram under @amandaghelms.

Maria Joannou

Maria Joannou is a speculative fiction and non-fiction writer living in the UK. When not writing, or trying to catch up on reading, she can be found fussing over her vegetable patch, meandering through forests, taking wildlife photos, or drawing silly monsters. She secretly wished to be marooned on a tropical island when she was four, and still quite likes the idea.

Ernestine-Vera Kabushemeye G.

Ernestine-Vera Kabushemeye G. is a Burundian writer, reviewer, and artist who has had the good fortune of travelling all her life. This exposure to various cultures has been a well of inspiration for her; she is currently working on her first novel: an afro-futurist fantasy based in Burundian culture. She is (soon to be) published in the afro-futurist anthology (Re)Living Mythology. She has a blog where she shares writing woes, reading recommendations, and reviews. Her Twitter account is @ernestine_k.

Eleanor Konik

Eleanor Konik teaches (& researches) ancient civilizations, then writes stories & articles inspired by all eras of history. Her nonfiction articles have been published by Tor.com, Worldbuilding Magazine, and the SFWA blog. She shares her short fiction (flash and micro) directly to fans subscribed to her newsletter, alongside nonfiction essays illuminating the obscure history and science behind each piece. In her free time, she helps sort submissions for Diabolical Plots, maintains a very practical garden, and enjoys programmatically-generated storytelling engines (aka video games). You can follow her on Twitter for updates @EleanorKonik.

Leah Ning

Leah Ning lives in northern Virginia with her husband and their adorable fluffy overlords. She spends her non-writing time drawing, playing video games, and playing piano. Her short fiction appears or is forthcoming in PodCastle, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Apex Magazine, and Human Monsters, among others. She’s also the assistant editor for the Storyteller Series Podcast. You can find her @LeahNing on Twitter and on her website, leahning.com.

Sarah Pauling

Sarah Pauling spent several years sending other people to distant places for a living as a study abroad advisor in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She’s now in Seattle, graciously sharing her home with two cats and a husband. A graduate of the Viable Paradise workshop, her stories have appeared in places like Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, and Escape Pod. If approached without sudden movement, she can be found at @_paulings on Twitter, where she natters on about writing, tabletop gaming, comics, and books.

Jaxon Tempest

Jaxon Tempest is an aspiring author of serialised fiction. When she’s not staring at a blank page waiting for words to manifest themselves, she’s drowning out the world with an audiobook or comic, or spending too many hours playing video games.
On social media, find Jaxon on Twitter and on Instagram.

Guan Un

Guan Un (he/him) lives in Sydney, Australia, with his family and a dog named after a tiger. He has been published at khōréō, Translunar Travelers Lounge, and The Dread Machine, and featured on the Tor.com Monthly Recommended List. He is a dumpling connoisseur and a book omnivore, and writes a newsletter about sentences at buttondown.email/topicsentence. Occasionally at @thisisguan and guanun.com.

Lis Hulin Wheeler

Lis Hulin Wheeler (she/her or they/them) lives outside Boston with her spouse and children where she spends her days chasing mail carriers and citing obscure postal regulations. Her life’s ambition is to eat the food of every country.

She writes as Valentine Wheeler and as one third of LK Fleet and serves as Managing Editor for Wizards in Space Literary Magazine. Find her on twitter @ghostalservice and at valentinewheeler.com.

Phoebe Wood

Phoebe Wood is a British writer living near London. She writes long and short fiction in a range of genres, and has a degree in English Literature with Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. She has short stories published or forthcoming in such magazines as The Arcanist, White Wall Review, and Abyss and Apex. She also enjoys sharing her writing journey on her YouTube channel, PhoebeWoodWrites

Also among our First Readers are:

  • Cameron Oliver Robinson

Staff Emeritus

This section is for people who have worked with Diabolical Plots but have since moved on to other pursuits. We thank them for their hard work and wish them the best in all their endeavors!

Kel Coleman is a mom, editor, and Ignyte-nominated author. Their fiction has appeared
or is forthcoming in FIYAH, Anathema: Spec from the Margins, Apparition Lit, The Best
American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022, and others. Though Kel is a Marylander at heart,
they currently live in Pennsylvania with their husband, tiny human, and a stuffed dragon named
Pen. They can be found at kelcoleman.com and on Twitter at @kcolemanwrites.