Dr. Charles E. Gannon is best known for his multiple best-selling and award-winning Caine Riordan hard SF universe and Dragon-nominated Vortex of Worlds epic fantasy series. Baen Books has also made him the showrunner and lead author for the New York Times best-selling 1632 series, in which he wrote five novels with its creator, the late Eric Flint.

He has collaborated with many other authors in their universes: Black Tide Rising (John Ringo), Starfire (White & Weber), Honorverse (David Weber), Known Space (Larry Niven), and War World (Jerry Pournelle).

His awards include the Dragon, ALA Choice, and Compton Crook and he has been a finalist for the Nebula four times and the Dragon three times. Earlier in his career, he was a TV writer/producer and writer/designer for GDW games.

As a Distinguished Professor of English, Gannon received five Fulbrights, and his book Rumors of War & Infernal Machines won the 2006 ALA Choice Award for Outstanding Book. He is a frequent subject matter expert for national media venues (NPR, Discovery, etc.) and for various intelligence and defense agencies.

Gannon has five children (four living) and lives in Annapolis, Maryland.

Griffin Barber spent his youth in four different countries, learning three languages, and burning all his bridges. A retired San Francisco police officer, Griffin lives the good life in East Tennessee with his wife and indifferent cats, his daughter having moved on to life in the big city. He is the author, with Eric Flint, of 1636: Mission to the Mughals and1637: The Peacock Throne.

Mike Massa has lived an adventurous life including stints as a university researcher, a tech entrepreneur, an investment banker and a U.S. Navy officer (1130). In addition to the usual military deployments, he has lived outside the US for several years as a civilian, mostly in South America and Europe. Newly published, Mike is married and enjoys the challenges of three sons and a growing cohort of grandsons all of whom check daily to see if today is the day they can pull down the old lion. Not yet . . .

A Webster Award winner and three-time Dragon Award finalist, Chris Kennedy is a Science Fiction/Fantasy author, speaker, military veteran, and small-press publisher who has written over 30 books and published more than 200 others. He lives in Coinjock, North Carolina, with his wife, and is the holder of a doctorate in educational leadership and master’s degrees in both business and public administration.