Karen Lord was born in Barbados. She has been a physics teacher, a diplomat, a part-time soldier and an academic at various times and in various countries, before returning to Barbados, where she is now a writer and research consultant.

Her debut novel, Redemption in Indigo, won a slew of awards, including the Frank Collymore Literary Award, the William L. Crawford Award, the Kitschies Golden Tentacle Award for Best Debut Novel and the Mythopoeic Award, and was shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award. Redemption in Indigo, The Best of All Possible Worlds and its sequel, The Galaxy Game, are published by Jo Fletcher Books.

Evan Dicken has written the short story 'The Path to Glory' and the novella The Red Hours for Black Library. He has been an avid reader of Black Library novels since he found dog-eared copies of Trollslayer, Xenos and First and Only nestled in the "Used Fantasy/Sci-fi" rack of his local gaming store. He still considers himself an avid hobbyist, although the unpainted Chaos Warband languishing in his basement would beg to differ. By day, he studies old Japanese maps and crunches data at The Ohio State University.