Amanda Helms is a biracial writer and editor who formerly worked in educational publishing, starting out as an editorial assistant and eventually climbing the corporate ladder to content editor. Now, she spends her time envisioning alternate worlds and creating characters to populate them, while keeping her editorial skills honed at Diabolical Plots magazine. Her short fiction has appeared in FIYAH, Uncanny, and Lightspeed, among other fine venues. The Upper Tentacle is her debut book.