MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL, author of The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky, is a professional puppeteer and voice actor who has performed for LazyTown (CBS), the Center for Puppetry Arts, and Jim Henson Pictures. Her design work has garnered two UNIMA-USA Citations of Excellence, the highest award an American puppeteer can achieve, and was the previous vice-president and secretary of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Mary is an accomplished storyreader and has recorded the audiobooks for most of her novels.