SFWA Grand Master C. J. Cherryh has written more than seventy books, including the highly popular Foreigner science fiction series. She won the Hugo Award for her novels Downbelow Station and Cyteen, and her short story "Cassandra." She has also won the Campbell Award, Locus Award, and more.

Jane S. Fancher grew up raising and training horses, learning to fly a plane, playing piano, singing, drawing, and studying math, physics, astronomy, and anthropology. While working for WaRP Graphics (Elfquest), she joined a project
to produce a graphic adaptation of C. J. Cherryh's Gate of Ivrel. This endeavor led her to a new home in Oklahoma City, where she found her calling and began writing her own novels.