About the Authors and Foreword Writer

The Authors

Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman have been married for five years, writers for ten, and collaborators since some point in between. Together and apart, they’ve produced eleven novels, a couple of audio plays, one direct-to-video feature film script, and an assortment of short films and short stories. Between the two of them, they have been nominated three times for the Aurealis Award for best Australian SF novel, and once for the Ditmar Award.

They live in Sydney, Australia, with occasional returns to Washington DC. Far more can be found out about them at their website @ www.zip.com.au/~korman.

Next up, Kate is working on an original SF novel, while Jon is co-writing a novel based on the Patrick McGoohan TV series The Prisoner, for release in 2004 by Powys Media.

The Foreword Writer

Where do I get my ideas from? I'd be grateful if someone could give me the answer. I suspect it's from every bit of data that enters my brain via my senses. They end up in the cauldron of my imagination, where they're stirred up and mixed together to produce new stories. That cauldron's still bubbling away, and always will.

- Storm Constantine, Roots of a Writer

Since The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit first appeared in 1987 (and long before that), Storm Constantine's "cauldron" has produced a phantasmagoric array of creative works, everything from her best known piece, the Wraeththu trilogy, to Andrew Collins-inspired works like the Grigori trilogy and Burying the Shadow, on down to fantastic visions like Calenture, non-fiction books like Egyptian Birth Signs, and dozens of short stories.

To read one of Storm's books is to enter a world where there is much more than meets the eye and mysteries lie at the heart of things. Magic is essential, and sexuality, often of the forbidden variety, yields not only pleasure but a means of altering reality and opening up the doors to these mysteries. Storm's different races and cultures-- the Wraeththu, the Grigori, the Eloim, the Artemesians, and more - all struggle with balancing magic with the everyday, maintaining harmony in their own world while pushing open the doors to worlds less known, although sometimes far more ancient or exotic.

Recently Storm has returned to the world of Wraeththu with a roar and cry, creating a second trilogy that interlocks with and then continues the story of the original. The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure, the first book in the series, is completed and slated for publication in May 2003 by Tor Books. In the meantime Storm is hard at work on the second book, The Shades of Time and Memory, and is looking ahead to the third book. Storm has also completed a rewrite of Enchantments, which may appear in print at some date in the future.

Visit Storm's website @ www.stormconstantine.com