Dragons of the Hourglass Mage

Margaret Weis was a storyteller before she knew how to read. In kindergarten, Weis would sit in front of the class and tell stories to her classmates while her teacher caught up on paperwork. Growing up in a home that valued books and reading, Weis抯 favorite authors were Alexander Dumas, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and later, J.R.R. Tolkien.

Weis graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in English, then worked for 12 years at a small church-owned publishing company as a proofreader, advertising director and eventually, editor梒oncurrently publishing several works of juvenile nonfiction and working on a science fantasy novel.

After learning of Dungeons & Dragons from a Publishers Weekly article, Weis applied for a position at TSR and was hired as editor for a new, ground-breaking project known as Dragonlance. She met lead designer Tracy Hickman and was immediately enthralled with the story line. Together, the duo spent one weekend writing the first chapters of what would become Dragons of Autumn Twilight梩he beginning of an era widely considered to have revolutionized roleplaying games and game-related fiction.

Since that time, Weis has authored or edited dozens of New York Times best-selling novels梬ith Hickman or other collaborators, as well as independently. In addition, Weis is owner and chief officer of Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd., which produced Dragonlance game products until June 2008.

Tracy Hickman was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on November 26th, 1955. He graduated from Provo High School in 1974 where his major interests were in drama, music and Air Force JROTC. In 1975, Tracy began two years of service as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons). His initial posting was for six months in Hawaii before his visa was approved, and he moved on to his final calling in Indonesia. There, he served as a missionary in Surabaya, Djakarta, and the mountain city of Bandung before being released honorably in 1977. As a result, Tracy can still speak conversational Indonesian and occasionally bases his magical phrases on that language.

Tracy married his high school sweetheart, Laura Curtis, within four months of his return to the United States. They are the parents of four children: Angel, Curtis, Tasha and Jarod.

Tracy has worked as a supermarket stockboy, a movie projectionist, a theater manager, a glass worker, a television assistant director and a drill press operator in a genealogy center. It was in 1981梑etween jobs and wanting to buy shoes for his children梩hat he approached TSR about buying two of his modules?and ended up with a job, instead. That job led to his association with Margaret Weis and their first publication together: Dragonlance Chronicles.

Since 1985 they have jointly authored over forty books梐 partnership that continues with their latest Dragonships series. Tracy抯 first two solo novels, Requiem of Stars and The Immortals, were published in the spring of 1996. He also writes with his wife, Laura. Together they have written The Bronze Canticles trilogy, as well as several upcoming new novel projects.

Tracy remains highly active in his church and pursues a number of hobbies including guitar, singing, piano, models, Blu-ray movies (under protest), computer games, television production and animation. He loves to read biographies, histories and popular science books. Tracy currently resides in South Jordan, Utah.