Biographical note

Anne McCaffrey was one of the world's leading science-fiction writers, and won both the Hugo and Nebula awards as well as the Margaret A. Edwards' Lifetime Literary Achievement Award. She was deeply honoured to have been made a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 2005, and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2006. Born and raised in the US and of Irish extraction, she moved to Ireland in 1970 where she lived in the ‘Garden of Ireland’, County Wicklow, until her death in 2011 at the age of eighty-five. She is the creator of the Dragonriders of Pern® series. Her website is www.pernhome.com.

Margaret Ball lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, children and pets.She has a BA in mathematics and a PhD in linguistics from the University of Texas.After graduation, she taught at UCLA, then spent several years honing her science fiction and fantasy skills by designing computer software and making inflated promises about its capabilities.Her books include Lost in Translation and Mathemagics. When not writing, she plays the flute, makes quilts, and feeds the pets.