Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers

“In the Season of Rains” grew out of the author’s realization that her own writing seemed to draw on many mythic traditions other than her own. There is only one mention of Lilith in the five books of Moses, but references to her have been found on stone tablets dating back to 2000 B.C. The lines of poetry that Lilith quotes are from the King James translation of “The Song of Songs.” The story was also inspired by the Sonoran desert, where Steiber shares a home with her husband and a mischievous young cat. The garden behind her house bears a passing resemblance to Enrique’s garden in the story. Please visit her website at www.ellensteiber.com.

Michael Swanwick lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Marianne Porter. Swanwick’s latest novel is Dancing with Bears (2011), a post-utopian adventure featuring confidence artists Darger and Surplus, currently available in paperback. Swanwick is at work on two new novels.

Mark W. Tiedemann began publishing science fiction stories professionally after attending the Clarion West Writers Workshop in 1988. He has subsequently published more than fifty short stories, numerous reviews and essays, and ten novels. Compass Reach was shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award in 2002 and Remains was shortlisted for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 2005.

He served on the board of the Missouri Center for the Book for nine years, five as president, during which time he oversaw the creation of the Missouri State Poet Laureate post. He is a lifelong resident of St. Louis, Missouri.

Elizabeth Wein lives in Scotland with her husband and two children. She is the author of The Winter Prince and the Mark of Solomon duology, consisting of The Lion Hunter and The Empty Kingdom. The Lion Hunter was shortlisted for the Andre Norton Award in 2008.

Wein’s most recent novel, Code Name Verity, is a Boston Globe/Horn Book Award Honor book. The author describes it as “a World War II spies ’n’ pilots thriller.” Wein is the holder of a private pilot’s license and an increasing collection of random wartime ephemera.

Conrad Williams is the award-winning author of seven novels, four novellas, and more than one hundred short stories, some of which have been collected in Use Once Then Destroy and Born with Teeth. He has also edited an anthology of weird cowboy fiction, Gutshot. He lives in Manchester, England, with his wife and three sons. His latest novel is Loss of Separation (2011).

Jane Yolen, often called “the Hans Christian Andersen of America,” is the author of more than three hundred books, most (but not all) for children. Her books and stories have won two Nebula awards, a World Fantasy Award, a Caldecott Medal, three Golden Kite awards, three Mythopoeic awards, two Christopher Medals, a Jewish Book Award, and a nomination for the National Book Award, among others. She is also the winner (for body of work) of the Kerlan Award, the World Fantasy Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s Grand Master award, the Skylark Award from the New England Science Fiction Association, the Catholic Library’s Regina Medal, and the 2012 de Grummond Medal. Six colleges and universities have given her honorary doctorates. For more information, visit her website at: www.janeyolen.com.

A Biography of Ellen Datlow

ELLEN DATLOW IS AN ACCLAIMED, AWARD-WINNING science fiction, fantasy, and horror editor.

Born and raised in New York, Datlow aspired to be a veterinarian when she was a child, but changed her plans when she realized how much she preferred reading and writing to math and science. Her first publishing job was in the New York office of Little, Brown & Co. in 1973. During the next eight years she worked at a handful of other publishing companies before finally finding her calling in 1981 as an editor of short fiction at OMNI magazine, where she worked until 1998. She has also worked at the online magazine Event Horizon and at scifi.com.

Datlow has edited more than fifty anthologies, including the bestselling collections Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy, Supernatural Noir, and Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror. She has published important science fiction and fantasy writers such as Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Ursula K. Le Guin, Clive Barker, William S. Burroughs, and many more.