Fort Worth writer Jonathan Shipley has never bought into "newer is better." Old houses, old furniture, and old portraits are his way of life, and like many collectors, he cohabits with more antiques than strictly fit into his house. He has had fantasy and science fiction stories published in Dragon Magazine, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, and dozens of recent anthologies. However, he is actually a novel writer at heart and spends most of his writing time on a vast story arc that ranges from Nazi occultism to vampires to futuristic space opera. Several principal characters in this created world are also collectors of portraits, so there is a mirroring back and forth between art and reality throughout the story arc.