Introduction
In 1998 after selling my first story, The Jewel of Locaria, to the DAW anthology 'Warrior Princesses' (edited by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough and Martin Greenberg) I was suddenly qualified to attend the Milford SF Writers' Conference, held annually in the UK. It was with some trepidation that I presented myself at a small hotel on a lonely clifftop above Torquay on a bleak October Saturday, samples of stories in hand, ready for a week of critiquing with eleven authors, all published. Certainly all more published than me.

I need not have worried. Writers come to Milford to share and exchange ideas and expertise, to solve knotty character problems and noodle plot ideas with other like minded beings. Where else would you go to discuss the gory details of a world-destroying plague over breakfast? I have met many fellow writers at many Milfords since that first one and shared laughter and tears, words, wine and wisdom. Some of those writers are included in this anthology. To single out any one for the quality of their writing would be impossible, but I would like to thank Liz Holliday who told me about Milford in the first place.

I hope you enjoy these stories in my first Milford anthology.

Jacey Bedford

Birdsedge, March 2008