Landon Cary Dalton("A Private Anecdote") was born on August 7, 1963, in the city of Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he still resides. He graduated from Western Kentucky University in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in religious studies. He is extensively involved in local church work and is an avid comic book collector.

Keith L. Davis("The Last Tribble"), forty, is a family physician currently residing in Wellington, Ohio, with his wife, Lori, and their two children. He attributes his interest in writing to his educators at Fairview High School and Hiram College. He is presently working on novels within and outside theStar Trekuniverse.

Phaedra M. Weldon("The Lights in the Sky") has worked in the printing industry for over thirteen years. Seventy percent of her weekly life is spent in front of a Mac, whether at work or, in the evenings, writing. The other thirty percent is divided between reading and Colin, with Colin getting first dibs.

Dayton Ward("Reflections"), a Florida native, was transplanted to Kansas City during his career with the Marine Corps. Now he's a computer systems engineer there, living with his wife, Michi, along with a cat that thinks she's a dog and a dog that thinks he's human.

Dylan Otto Krider("What Went Through Data's Mind 0.68 Seconds Before the Satellite Hit") has been a promotion assistant for a TV station, a movie theater spy, and owner of a video movie and arcade game distribution business. He currently works as a promotions manager at the University of Chicago Press.

Jerry M. Wolfe("The Naked Truth"), a longtime Trek fan, lives in Eugene, Oregon, where he writes science fiction and fantasy when not teaching mathematics at the University of Oregon. He is also a "Wordo," a member of the Eugene Professional Writer's workshop.Star Trek: The Next Generation:"The Naked Truth" is his second published story.

Peg Robinson("The First") is forty. She has a wonderful husband and daughter, and four pushy cats. She was born in the former Panama Canal Zone and has lived in too many places since. She does the housewife thing, some amateur theater, reads, and works on her writing. The rest is silence....

Kathy Oltion("See Spot Run") became aStar Trekfan as a child in Rock Springs, Wyoming. She met her husband, author Jerry Oltion, in a creative writing class in college. They now live in Eugene, Oregon, where Kathy works in a medical laboratory and writes. She has also sold fiction toAnalogmagazine.

Bobbie Benton Hull("Together Again, for the First Time") was born, raised, and currently lives in rural Yakima, Washington, with her husband and two daughters. She attended West Valley High School (1977) and has a bachelor's degree in soil science. She enjoys landscaping, her AOL True Trekker friends, performing in the Yakima Symphony Chorus, and is a 4-H volunteer.

Alara Rogers("Civil Disobedience") has been writing since the age of four, and intends to be a household name by the age of forty, or at the very least have a Nebula or two. She has a background in psychobiology, has studied Japanese, assembles computers and plays with the Internet in her spare time, and has a job that calls for none of these skills, except maybe the Internet, occasionally. This is her second professional short-story tale. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Franklin Thatcher("Of Cabbages and Kings") is a software developer by vocation, a writer by avocation, and bishop in the Mormon church by dedication. Though he has sold several planetarium starshows, he prefers to write science fiction and fantasy. He and his wife, Laura, live in Orem, Utah.

Christina F. York("Life's Lessons"), aspiring writer, self-published at the age of ten, then retired. After raising a family, she returned to writing non-fiction. "Too old" for the original series, she quickly became a fan ofStar Trek: The Next Generation.She lives in Eugene, Oregon, with her husband, SF writer J. Steven York.

Vince Bonasso("Where I Fell Before My Enemy") lives in Memphis, Tennessee, where he flies jets for Federal Express. He enjoys traveling and spends most of his free time in southern California. He is a Clarion West 1992 graduate.

Patrick Cumby("Good Night,Voyager") lives with his wife, kids, dog, cat, and fish in the 'burbs of Atlanta, where he manages a team of tech writers and Web developers. When asked to sum up his life in fifty words or less, he ceases his furious typing, looks up from his keyboard, and wonders, "Does that count include punctuation?"

J. A. (Joe) Rosales("Ambassador at Large") is a freelance comic book artist living in San Antonio, Texas. He is a fan of many media and genres. In his free time he enjoys reading about the Victorian era, trying to figure out what happened to the Andorians, and looking for inside jokes in science fiction.

jaQ Andrews("Fiction"), nineteen, is studying creative writing at Simon's Rock College of Bard in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. His current career whim is to become a fiction- and songwriter as a side art to a janitorship at a yet-to-be-determined elementary school.

Jackee Crowell("I, Voyager") was born with a love of science fiction, especiallyStar Trek.Being a writer has been a dream since age eight, when she "penned" her first story. These days she's a busy wife and mother of three, but finds time to visit with fellow pond members.

Craig D. B. Patton("Monthuglu") grew up a science fiction fan in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. After a stunningly short-lived career as a filmmaker, he sought refuge (read "income") in the computer industry, where he found success as a marketer. "Monthuglu," his first published story, marks his return to the creative arts.

Copyright © 1998 by Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved.

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Excerpted from Strange New Worlds Star Trek by Dean Wesley Smith
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.