Zachary Taylor Branch is the pen name of a semi-retired scientist and consultant, enjoying the good life with his wife Nancy in Lorena, TX.  He is currently supporting food security and community resilience efforts in and around Waco.  “The Gray Horizon” was his first professional fiction sale,  his short story “The Nerine Seven” has been published in Alien Dimensions Issue #26, https://aliendimensions.com/, his short story “The Gateway” is in process for the B Cubed Press Alternative Truths series, and “Doctor Decon” received an Honorable Mention in Allegory’s Fall 2023 issue.   His fiction writing are profiled on his blog, https://zacharytaylorbranch.com/ where you can also inquire about his real life, non-fiction writing.  His family has deep roots in Virginia, the basis of his fictional New Elisia, and his children David and Elise are too far away in Saint Louis and Houston, pursuing careers in counseling and medicine.