Lois McMaster Bujold is one of the most honored writers in the fields of science fiction and fantasy and has won six Hugo Awards and two Nebula Awards, including a Nebula Award for Falling Free, included in Miles and Metallurgy. She immediately attracted attention with her first novel, Shards of Honor, which began her popular Vorkosigan series, and quickly followed it up with The Warrior's Apprentice, which introduced young Miles Vorkosigan, one of the most popular characters ever in science fiction. The recent novels in her fantasy series for Harper-Collins have been top sellers, and one, Paladin of Souls, took home her latest Hugo Award. The mother of two, Ms. Bujold lives in Minneapolis, MN. Lillian Stewart Carl is the published author of nineteen novels and a number of short stories in the fantasy and mystery fields. She has worked at a few real jobs--as an engineering aide, a librarian, a newspaper columnist, and a college history teacher--but all along was writing. The mother of two grown sons, she lives in a tract house "disguised as a book-lined cloister" with her husband, a cat, and a number of plants. John Helfers is an author and editor who has published more than forty short stories in various venues and edited more than a dozen anthologies. His media tie-in fiction has appeared in anthologies for the Dragonlance(R) and Transformers(R) universes, among others. He has also written both fiction and nonfiction books, including the third novel in the first authorized trilogy based on The Twilight Zone(TM) television series and a history of the United States Navy. Currently he is writing novels in the Room 59 thriller series for Worldwide Publishing.