JAMES ALAN GARDNER is a graduate of the Clarion West Fiction Writers Workshop and has published numerous works of short fiction in leading genre publications. He is the author of five previous novels-Expendable, Commitment Hour, Vigilant, Hunted, and Ascending-and was a Grand Prize winner of the Writers of the Future contest. He lives with his wife, Linda Carson, in Canada. His website address is http://www.thinkage.ca/~jim and he can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].