Nancy Joie Wilkie worked for over thirty years in both the biotechnology industry and as part of the federal government’s biodefense effort. Now retired, she composes original music, plays a variety of instruments, and has recorded many of her original compositions. She also created a series of greeting cards that display her artwork and photographs. Faraway and Forever is her second collection of stories. Seven Sides of Self, her first, was published by She Writes Press in November 2019. She also will release a collection of fantasy short stories titled The River Keeper and Other Tales in February 2025, published by Subplot Books (an imprint of Mascot Books). She is currently working on a follow-up collection of science fiction novelettes titled By The Light Of The Sun and a children’s story. Nancy resides in Brookeville, Maryland.

This collection of novelettes takes the reader from the not-to-distant future to a time when travel between worlds is a common occurrence. Each stop along mankind’s journey outward to the stars is accompanied by a deeper look inward—from examining how extraterrestrial beings might use our own biology against us, to how wishes are really granted, to posing questions about the very nature of our souls. Original and thought provoking, these stories—which include an interstellar religious thriller involving a second coming of Christ—will stimulate the intellect and engage the imagination.

The stories in Seven Sides of Self explore the various sides of one’s personality: the storyteller, the skeptic, the survivor, the saint (or the sinner), the scholar, the seeker, and the savior. Through the lives of central characters such as Zarce Sun De’oggo, Sister Othrosa Vella, Jarka Moosha, and Old Mims―Nancy Joie Wilkie explores themes of battling strong emotions, the lengths we might go to for self-preservation and self sacrifice, the inability to accept things different, and taking responsibility for what we create in pieces that inhabit the worlds of both sci-fi and fantasy. Original and thought provoking, these are stories that will stimulate the intellect and engage the imagination.