poison fruits-berries-darts, the tree of life-knowledge, carnivorous flora, cabbage patch kids, wise talking-walking trees, magical beans, primordial slime" The anthology contains the following stories: Personal life Bell was born in Melbourne Australia, the eldest of two daughters to Glenys Joy and Stephen Paul Bell. Her mother is from New Zealand, and her father is from England. Bell lives in Sydney Australia, having spent most of her adult life in either Sydney and Newcastle. She attended high school in Newcastle. Bell has said she adopts the families of many of her close friends, and has an adopted niece Piper. Bell has been outspoken about her experiences with anxiety and depression, stating that the intention of many of her stories is to replicate the "sense of that horrifying panic or despair" of mental illness. Bell has stated that her story Garsdale is an allegory for struggling with depression. In interviews Bell has characterised herself as neurotic, paranoid, and self-doubting stating that she is prone to exhausting herself with over-thinking. She has a fear of amusement park rides, a fear of heights, and a fear of pregnancy. By occupation Bell manages road traffic, working as a traffic engineer and technical writer for local government. Bell has described herself as an idealist (from watching too much Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager as a kid), a gossip and a people-watcher. She is also open about her asexuality, being interviewed by the Hack program on Triple J radio on 19 July 2011, and her atheism, and is described as self-professed feminist and nerd. Bell's hobbies include mosaic, digital art, pub trivia, drag queens, and goldfish. She drinks Twinings Assam Bold tea and writes in Moleskine notebooks. Bell has two female cats (twins) named Romilly and Sansa (the latter named after Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones). References 1981 births Living people People from Melbourne Australian feminist writers Asexual women Australian women short story writers Australian people of English descent Australian people of New Zealand descent Australian atheists 21st-century LGBT people Australian LGBT writers