Brenda Peynado is a recovering computer security specialist who loves dog training, spooky beaches, tangerines, books, her little white terrier, and her author husband, Micah Dean Hicks. Her stories have appeared in over forty magazines and won an O. Henry Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Chicago Tribune's Nelson Algren Literary Award, selection for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy and The Best Small Fictions, a Dana Award, a Fulbright grant to the Dominican Republic, and other awards. She currently teaches in the MFA program at the University of Central Florida.