Mother Berchte (Berchta, Berta, Percht) first stormed out of folklore and into Steven Piziks's life ten years ago. His life hasn't been the same since. This is his third sale to the Chicks in Chainmail series and his second sale involving Mother Berchte. (She stomped through Marion Zimmer Bradley's FANTASY Magazine in 1997.) Berchte now glares at him from the top of his Yule tree, daring him to write about her again, while Nassirskaegi burps in the branches below. He teaches English and health in southeastern Michigan, where he lives with his wife, son, and harp.
William Sanders was born in 1942 in Arkansas. He has been at various times a soldier, preacher, logger, construction worker, encyclopedia salesman, powwow dancer, and sportswriter, besides publishing 16 books. His short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies; his story 'The Undiscovered' was nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon Awards, and won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. His latest novel, The Ballad of Billy Badass and the Rose of Turkestan, was published in 1999. He lives in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, in a little old rock house, with his cat, his computer, and his motorcycle.
Charles Sheffield has published forty books. He is a winner of Nebula, Hugo, John W. Campbell Memorial, and Sei-un awards, and has had best- sellers of both fact and fiction. The story in this collection is the eleventh involving lawyers Henry Carver and Waldo Burmeister. He says that they are depressingly easy to write.
K.D. Wentworth used to have a life, but can't find it anymore. This is because of things like teaching 4th grade, working on con committees, and writing. As for the latter, she has sold short fiction to such markets as F &SF, Hitchcock's, Realms of Fantasy, Return to the Twilight Zone, and Chicks and Chained Males. Her fourth novel, Black/on/Black, was published by Baen in February 1999, and a sequel is currently in the works. Her first three novels, The Imperium Game, Moonspeaker, and House of Moons will be reprinted by Hawk Publishing, Summer, 2000.
Leslie What has published over forty short stories and many nonfiction feature articles and columns. Her work has been featured in a variety of magazines, including The Writer, Amazing Stories, Hysteria, Asimov's, and The MacGuffin, as well as in several anthologies. She has recently completed a comic novel and is at work on another. With Nina Kiriki Hoffman, she is the co-director of the Writers On Rugs photography studio. About the story, she writes: ' `Chain of Command' is a complete fabrication, a fanciful collaboration between two like-minded pranksters, and any resemblance to real life has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I'm the mother of two teenagers.'
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