Mark Powers has been making up ridiculous stories since primary school and is slightly shocked to find that people now pay him to do it.

As a child he always daydreamed that his teddy bear went off on top secret missions when he was at school, so a team of toys recruited as spies seemed a great idea for a story.

He grew up in north Wales and now lives in Manchester. His favourite animals are the binturong, the aye-aye and the dodo.

Jim Butcher is the author of the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera and the Cinder Spires series. His resume includes a laundry list of skills which were useful a couple of centuries ago, and he plays guitar quite badly. An avid gamer, Jim plays tabletop games in varying systems, a variety of video games and LARPs whenever he can make time for it. He currently resides mostly inside his own head, but his head can generally be found in his home town of Independence, Missouri.