Walter Jon Williams is the author of thirty volumes of fiction, in addition to works in film, television, comics, and the gaming field. Williams has appeared on the bestseller lists of
The Times and
The New York Times. He is a world traveler, scuba diver, and a black belt in Kenpo Karate. He has twice been awarded the Nebula Award.
Gregory Manchess is an award-winning painter and has worked as a freelance illustrator for nearly forty years on advertising campaigns, magazines, and book covers. His work has appeared on covers and for feature stories of National Geographic, Time, The Atlantic, and Smithsonian. Gregory's excellent figure work has led to numerous commissions for stamps by the US Postal Service, including the Mark Twain stamp and the recently released March on Washington stamp. With Manchess's passion for history, the National Geographic Society sent him on expedition to record the exploits of explorer, David Thomson, and chose his work to illustrate the adventures of the first discovery of an actual pirate ship for the traveling exhibition, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah, from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship. Widely awarded within the industry, Manchess exhibits frequently at the Society of Illustrators in New York. His peers at the Society presented him with their highest honor, the coveted Hamilton King Award. Gregory is included in Walt Reed's latest edition of The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000. He lectures frequently at universities and colleges nationwide and gives workshops in painting at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, and the Illustration Master Class in Amherst, Massachusetts.