Catherine Asaro is author of 14 novels as well as short fiction (published and upcoming) and is acclaimed for her multiple award-winning Skolian Empire series, which combines adventure, hard science, romance, fast-paced action and themes that challenge the status quo. Her standalone novel The Quantam Rose won the 2001 Nebula Award. Her October 2003 novel, Skyfall, was honored with the Romantic Times Book Club award for “Best Science Fiction Novel.” Asaro’s novella “Moonglow,” in Charmed Destinies (November 2003), was followed by her fantasy novel The Charmed Sphere (February 2004), part of the Luna Books launch. Also published in February 2004 was Irresistable Forces, a six-author anthology for NAL, edited by Asaro and including stories by Lois McMaster Bujold and Catherine, among other award-winning, bestselling authors. Sunrise Alley, her next novel, is due out in August 2004, and Triad, the latest in the Skolian Empire Series, will be published in December 2004. Asaro has a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard.