Jack McDevitt is a former English teacher, naval officer, Philadelphia taxi driver, customs officer and motivational trainer. His work has been on the final ballot for the Nebula Awards for 12 of the past 13 years. His first novel, The Hercules Text, was published in the celebrated Ace Specials series and won the Philip K. Dick Special Award. In 1991, McDevitt won the first $10,000 UPC International Prize for his novella, "Ships in the Night." The Engines of God was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and his novella, "Time Travelers Never Die," was nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula awards. McDevitt lives in Georgia with his wife, Maureen, where he plays chess, reads mysteries and eats lunch regularly with his cronies.

Mike McPhail is the award winning Author and Anthologist of the military science fiction series Defending The Future, published by Dark Quest Books, and editor of the publisher's DTF Publications imprint. He is a member of the Military Writers Society of America (MWSA), and the creator of the Alliance Archives (All'Arc) series and its related Martial Role-Playing Game (MRPG), a manual-based, percentile system, that realistically portrays the consequences of warfare. Born into a military / engineering family, his lifelong dream was to join NASA and become a mission specialist; to that end, he attended the Academy of Aeronautics in New York, as well as enlisting in the Air National Guard. While working towards his goal, a sudden illness brought a halt to these dreams. After recovering, he came to grips with his new reality; so he chose to put his hard-earned technical skills and imagination to use as a graphic artist, writer/editor and game designer. To learn more about his work visit: www.mcp-concepts.com www.defendingthefuture.com www.milscifi.com