Elaine Isaak is the author of the fantasy novel The Singer's Crown (Eos, 2005), its sequel The Eunuch's Heir (Eos, 2006), and The Bastard Queen (Swimming Kangaroo, 2010). "The Princess, the Witch and the Watchmaker's Heart" appeared in Escape Clause: A Speculative Fiction Annual (ed. Clelie Rich, Ink Oink Press, 2009). "The Disenchantment of Kivron Ox-master," was reprinted in Prime Codex (ed. Schoen, Paper Golem, 2008). Her story "Joenna's Ax" in Clash of Steel Book 3: Demon (ed. Armand Rosamilia, Carnifex Press, 2006) is set in the same world as novella "Winning the Gallows Field" (Elysian Fiction, 2002) and both are available as part of any DIY anthology at AnthologyBuilder.com. Elaine's latest publications are "My Mother's People" in the charity anthology Breaking Waves, available at www.bookviewcafe.com, with proceeds to support the Gulf oil spill cleanup, and "Memento Mori," in Live Free or Undead (ed. Rick Broussard, Plaidswede, 2010). She is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, and her short stories have received honorable mentions from the Boskone Short Fiction Contest and the Ray Bradbury Short Story Award. Elaine lives in New Hampshire with two lovely children and a very supportive spouse. She creates wearable art clothing when she isn't climbing the walls at the rock gym, and has finally found an instrument she loves to play: taiko.