For the Blood Is the Life and Other Creepy Classics, Volume 2

Francis Marion Crawford (1854–1909) was an American writer famed for his classic weird and fantastic stories.

Washinton Irving (1783–1859) was an American essayist, novelist, and historian. The first American author to achieve international fame, his literary career served in many ways to consolidate the cultures of the United States and Europe.

M. R. James (1862–1936) was an English medieval scholar and provost of King’s College, Cambridge and Eton College. He is best remembered for his ghost stories, which redefined the genre. He abandoned the many gothic clichés of his predecessors and opted for more realistic, contemporary settings. His characters and plots, however, reflected his own antiquarian interests. Accordingly, he is known as the originator of the “antiquarian ghost story.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–ca. 1914) was an American journalist, short-story writer, and poet. Born in Ohio, he served in the Civil War and then settled in San Francisco. He wrote for Hearst’s Examiner, his wit and satire making him the literary dictator of the Pacific coast and strongly influencing many writers. He disappeared into war-torn Mexico in 1913.

Abraham “Bram” Stoker (1847–1912) was an Irish novelist and short-story writer best known for his vampire novel, Dracula. His other works include The Mystery of the Sea, The Jewel of the Seven Stars, The Man, and The Lair of the White Worm.

Robert W. Chambers (1865–1933) was an illustrator, novelist, and short-story writer. His best-known book, The King in Yellow, is regarded as one of the most important works of American supernatural fiction. He also wrote historical fiction, several bestselling romance novels, and war and adventure stories. 

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) is considered to be one of the greatest American authors of the nineteenth century. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts, and made his ambition to be a writer while still a teenager. He graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine, where the poet Longfellow was also a student, and spent several years traveling in New England and writing short stories before his best known novel, The Scarlet Letter, was published in 1850. His writing was not at first financially rewarding, and he worked as measurer and surveyor in the Boston and Salem Custom Houses. In 1853 he was sent to Liverpool as American consul and then lived in Italy before returning to the United States in 1860.

Mark Twain (1835–1910) was born Samuel L. Clemens in the town of Florida, Missouri. One of the most popular and influential authors our nation has ever produced, his keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from both critics and peers. He has been called not only the greatest humorist of his age but also the father of American literature.

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Educated by her father until she was sixteen, she also studied under Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Theodore Parker. A prolific writer, her most famous work was Little Women, a timeless American classic.

H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. Virtually unknown and only published in pulp magazines before he died in poverty, he is now regarded as one of the most significant twentieth-century authors in his genre. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he lived most of his life. His relatively small corpus of work consists of three short novels and about sixty short stories.

Cindy Kay is a Chinese Thai American narrator and educator who grew up in the California Bay Area and lives in the Rockies. Her work has been described as listening to a “cozy best friend.” She narrates fiction and nonfiction, and has studied Spanish, Portuguese, Thai, and Japanese.

Sean Jensen was born in South Korea. He was adopted and grew up in California, Massachusetts, and Virginia, mostly on or near military bases. Given his unique background, he’s always been drawn to storytelling, a skill he developed at Northwestern University and crafted as a sportswriter for the last 16 years, almost exclusively covering the NFL. During his career, he’s fostered strong relationships with athletes in multiple sports, and penned award-winning features on Derrick Rose and Adrian Peterson, among others. 

Nancy Peterson is a voice talent and audiobook narrator who won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2018.

Eve Passeltiner is an audiobook narrator who trained in New York and Italy as an actress and has performed on stage in New York, New England, and the Southwest. The voice for multiple women in The Washington Post’s Webby Award Nominee The Women of Kabul, she has a passion for narrating stories of gritty women, capturing their wry humor, intellect, and passion. When she is not narrating, she can be found dancing, playing and watching tennis, or in the glass studio.

Emma Faye, a.k.a. "The Clean Reads Queen," is an audiobook narrator and actor with a passion for bringing stories to life. She specializes in YA, sweet romance, fantasy, inspiring nonfiction, and anything clean. She has twenty-plus years of acting experience and has voiced over thirty audiobooks. Recording in her professional home studio, Emma dives deep into the characters and stories to bring them to life in a fresh and captivating way. She puts her heart into every project and it comes across when you are listening to her audiobooks. Emma also runs a local community theater, moderates a support group for women going through betrayal trauma, and is a proud cat mom of four kitties.