Author and editor Elaine Isaak credits first grade teacher Mrs. Krackhardt for nurturing an early enthusiasm for reading by allowing her to stay inside and read during recess—and she hasn’t looked back! She withdrew from the Rhode Island School of Design, where she was studying sculpture, to pursue her own interests in business and writing. She had a brief stint at a catalog company phone bank, which she highly recommends as a spur to getting your own business off the ground! Her interest in sewing three-dimensional design led her to work as an animal mascot creator, including one year in which she made over a dozen Easter rabbit costumes. For over a decade, she owned Curious Characters, creating original design stuffed animals and playful desktop sculptures, before finally devoting herself wholly to her writing.

In addition to the many novels detailed on the Rocinante Books site, her stories have appeared in anthologies ranging from Warrior Women (Prime Books, 2016) to Fantasy for the Throne (Gray Rabbit, 2018). Her work also appeared in Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader: Flush Fiction, which she hopes is a comment only on the readability and short duration of her flash stories. Under several names, she has published in and edited volumes of New Hampshire Pulp Fiction from Plaidswede including Love Free or Die, Live Free or Ride, about the venerable Concord Coach stagecoach, and Live Free or Dragons. She’s also written non-fiction for Clarkesworld and Writers’ Digest, and wrote the Lady Blade fantasy fiction column for Alien Skin magazine for three years.

Elaine is a graduate of, instructor at and critiquer for the Odyssey Speculative Fiction Writing Workshop. Her short stories have received notice in the Boskone Short Fiction Contest, Tenebris Press Flash Horror contest, and the Ray Bradbury Short Story Award. She has been honored to serve as a juror for the Philip K. Dick Award, and the World Fantasy Award. An acclaimed workshop leader and speaker, Elaine has addressed audiences and worked with writers as part of the World Fantasy and World Science Fiction Conventions, the New Hampshire Youth Writers’ Conference, the Bay Area Writers’ League, and the 603 Conference, as well as numerous writers’ groups. She has participated in the Library of Congress What-if? reading series, the New York Review of Science Fiction readings, and Boston Speculative Fiction.

Elaine lives in New Hampshire where she creates wearable art clothing when she isn’t climbing the walls at the rock gym.