Gasp!

Kelly J. Erickson lives in Oakland, California with a pair of huge and hugely spoiled pit bulls, a fluffy orange cat, and a slow, but steady turtle. Ms. Erickson has worked as a professional reader, an ideal job for someone who claims to be addicted to words. She reads anything-"as long as it's in a language I understand." But her favorite books are action, adventure, science-fiction, steampunk, and epic fantasy. Kelly's earliest memory of reading was when she figured out what those magic black marks on the pages of her favorite books meant. At three years old, she was reading books to her fellow preschool classmates, and she hasn't stopped reading since Even now, she still considers those little black marks to be magic. Kelly's favorite childhood book is 20,000 Leagues Under The Seabecause it introduced her to science fiction- a genre where anything can happen . . . including dragons Ryan Forquer has been fascinated by science and space since he learned to read. Currently a high school student, he hopes to study astrobiology. His curiosity about extraterrestrial life led to him writing Virus when he was ten years old.