Introduction
This anthology collects stories by my friends, also by friends of my friends.

Within these pages you will find tales of dragons and goblins, alternate histories and hard SF futures, plus the most remarkable use of a postal service you'll ever come across -- and much else besides. The writers range from rising stars to seasoned veterans.

How did I select the authors? Well, everything stems from One Step Beyond, a teaching workshop run by Liz Holliday in 1998, which is where I met Jaine Fenn and Mike Lewis. The One Step Beyond writers' group formed shortly afterwards. Having made my first professional sale in 2002, I then attended the Milford Conference in North Wales in 2004, 2005 and 2007. It was there that I met Chris Butler, David Redd, Merrie Haskell and Jim Anderson.

My on-line friends include Sarah Edwards, Aliette de Bodard, Matthew Rotundo and Christopher Kastensmidt. All are active on Live Journal, as are Merrie and Chris Butler.

So now we come to the friends of friends.

Chris Butler met Colin P. Davies at Milford and regularly workshops with Stephen Gaskell. Mike Lewis also knows Chris, having met him at Milford. Colin is also a friend of David Redd.

Merrie Haskell worked with Dave Klecha's sister for several years without knowing that her brother was a writer; now they workshop together. Jaine and Mike met Merrie at (you guessed it) Milford in 2005.

Matthew Rotundo critiqued David Walton's story some years ago and told him it would sell; both are members of the Codex on-line workshop.

Sarah Edwards knows Steven Utley from the Asimov's forum.

And finally, Justin Stanchfield is a friend of Liz Holliday's. He owns a ranch in Montana, so I guess he can legitimately be called a cowboy. Incidentally, Liz published Slices of Life, the story that opens this anthology, while editing 3SF.

You see, everyone (and everything) is connected.

Before I close, I must thank Nancy Fulda for devising AnthologyBuilder. I hope this anthology goes some way to doing justice to her brilliant concept.

Note added for 2nd edition: It turns out that the original version of this anthology was over the 350 pages length limit. Despite this impediment, it sold quite well. For this edition, I've replaced my own story 'Slices of Life' with 'Sons of the Earth, also Jaine Fenn's 'Path to the Sun' with her equally excellent, if a lot shorter, 'Paying for Rain'. That should fix it...

Vaughan Stanger

March 2008 & August 2009