Books - funny/dark humour fantasy,

Wen Spencer (born 1963) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer whose books center on characters with unusual abilities. In 2003, she was the winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Spencer was raised on a family farm in Evans City, Pennsylvania and attended the University of Pittsburgh, earning a degree in Information science, and has been active in science fiction fandom. Her Ukiah Oregon series features a partly alien character with gentle nature, powerful abilities, and dangerous, werewolf like relatives. Her Tinker universe features a young woman of extraordinary brilliance who is turned into an elf. A Brother's Price posits a world where the gender birth ratio is skewed heavily toward baby girls.

Sharon Green was an American science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and romance author.

Anne Inez McCaffrey (1 April 1926 – 21 November 2011) was an American-Irish writer known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, Weyr Search, 1968) and the first to win a Nebula Award (Best Novella, Dragonrider, 1969). Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first science-fiction books to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list.

In 2005 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd Grand Master, an annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on 17 June 2006. She also received the Robert A. Heinlein Award for her work in 2007.

L. E. (Leland Exton) Modesitt Jr. (; born 1943) is an American science fiction and fantasy author who has written over 75 novels. He is best known for the fantasy series The Saga of Recluce. By 2015 the 18 novels in the Recluce series had sold nearly three million copies. By 2019 there were 22 Recluce novels.

In addition to his novels, Modesitt has published technical studies and articles, columns, poetry, and a number of science fiction stories. His first short story, "The Great American Economy", was published in 1973 in Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact. In 2008, he published his first collection of short stories, Viewpoints Critical: Selected Stories (Tor Books, 2008).

Ellen Guon Beeman is an American fantasy and science fiction author, television screenwriter and computer game designer/producer. She has published four novels and has worked on over 40 video games.

Ellen Beeman describes herself as "mom, videogame designer and producer, author, gadget geekette, Celtic fiddler, former TV writer and city commissioner, etc."

In 1989, Beeman left a career in television writing and was hired by Sierra Online as a project manager. She worked as a writer and project manager at Origin Systems for several Wing Commander titles.

In 2006, she was ranked in the top 100 most influential women in the game industry by Edge Online (formerly next-gen.biz). At the time, she was Lead Program Manager at Microsoft Casual Games, a producer role.

Michelle Michiko Sagara (born May 5, 1963) is a Japanese-Canadian author of fantasy literature, active since the early 1990s. She has published as Michelle Sagara, as Michelle West (using her husband's surname) and as Michelle Sagara West. Sagara has received two nominations for the John W. Campbell Award.

She lives in Toronto and is employed part-time at Bakka-Phoenix, a local bookstore.

Sagara is the eldest child of Japanese immigrants. As a child, Sagara loved reading Nancy Drew mysteries as well as the works of Enid Blyton and J. R. R. Tolkien. She studied Physics, then English, at the University of Toronto before dropping out to pursue writing. After she married in 1990, she began publishing under Michelle West. Her debut book, Into the Dark Lands was published in 1991. She has said, in a 2008 interview: "I submitted the first novel to Del Rey books in 1987. It was rejected, but with a phone call, and in the end I revised the manuscript and sent it back. The revision was passed on to Lester del Rey, who was alive at the time. He rejected it with a 4 page single space letter which had all the trademark curmudgeonliness for which he was famed. But buried in that 4 page letter was a very definite 'This flashback of 94 pages needs to be its own damn book, and it should be book one.' So... I wrote that novel, and I submitted that novel, and that's the novel they bought."

Michelle Michiko Sagara is a Japanese-Canadian author of fantasy literature, active since the early 1990s. She has published as Michelle Sagara, as Michelle West and as Michelle Sagara West. Sagara has received two nominations for the John W. Campbell Award.

Patricia "Pat" Christine Hodgell (born March 16, 1951) is an American fantasy writer and former academic. Hodgell taught in the English Department at University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, but retired in 2006 to pursue a full-time writing career. She has won several awards for her works.

Hodgell holds a master's in English literature and a doctorate in 19th-century English literature, both earned at the University of Minnesota. She completed her Ph.D. and subsequent dissertation on Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe between the publication of her first two fantasy novels, God Stalk and Dark of the Moon. She is a graduate of the Clarion and the Milford Writer's Workshops. In academia, Hodgell produced an audio-cassette-based course on science fiction and fantasy for the University of Minnesota. She taught for many years in the English Department at University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, but retired in 2006 to pursue a full-time writing career. While at the University of Wisconsin, P. C. Hodgell divided her time between teaching and writing, with a strong emphasis on "anything that stirs the imagination". This included attending science fiction conventions, and hobbies such as collecting yarn, knitting, embroidering, and raising cats.

Rosemary Edghill is an American writer and editor. Some of her work has appeared under her original name, eluki bes shahar. Her primary genres are science fiction and fantasy, but she began by writing Regency romance novels.

Maggie Furey (née Armstrong) was a British fantasy writer who was born in Northumberland, England, UK in 1955. A qualified teacher, she wrote fantasy since 1994, and is best known for the Artefacts of Power tetralogy. A resident in County Wicklow in Ireland for many years, she died there in 2016.

Furey was a qualified teacher. She also reviewed books on BBC Radio Newcastle, was an advisor in the Durham Reading Resources Centre, and organized children's book fairs. In later life, she lived in County Wicklow in Ireland.

She died in 2016 and, after a funeral in the town of Wicklow, was cremated at Mount Jerome Cemetery.

She is best known for the Artefacts of Power tetralogy, which is centred on the lead character (and first novel namesake) Aurian, published as paperback originals in the United States and UK, as well as translated hard-covers in Russia.

James Mallory may refer to:James Mallory (jurist) (1916–2003), Canadian jurist and constitutional expert J. P. Mallory, archaeologist and linguistic comparativist James Mallory (coach) (1918–2001), American football coach and baseball player James Mallory (author), co-author, with Mercedes Lackey, of the Obsidian Mountain trilogy

Marjorie Bradley Kellogg is an American theatre set designer as well as an author. She was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated from Vassar College in 1967.

Larry Dixon is an American fantasy artist and novelist.

Jennifer Mitchell Roberson (born October 26, 1953) is an American author of fantasy and historical literature.

Roberson has lived in Arizona since 1957. Though she grew up in Phoenix, the author lived in Flagstaff for 12 years, and now resides in Tucson. Roberson obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from Northern Arizona University in 1982 as an adult student. She spent her final semester in England at the University of London, which enabled her to do in-depth research at castles and cathedrals, museums and estates, and to visit historical sites in Scotland and Wales. She breeds and exhibits Cardigan Welsh Corgis under the CHEYSULI kennel prefix, and creates mosaic artwork as hobbies.

Elizabeth Ann Scarborough is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy and Registered Nurse who lives in Port Townsend, Washington. She has published over 40 novels, as well as collaborating with Anne McCaffrey on multiple series.

Elizabeth Moon is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. Her other writing includes newspaper columns and opinion pieces. Her novel The Speed of Dark won the 2003 Nebula Award. Prior to her writing career, she served in the United States Marine Corps.