Amazon.com description: Product Description: Book I of The Trade Pact Universe Author's Note: This was my first novel, both in terms of the first piece of fiction I ever finished and the first I sold. It started as just one of many stories I was playing with as a hobby, never thinking to see copies in the hands of readers, certainly never planning to send it out to a publisher. I'm very happy I did, but I do confess my first thought after the fateful phone call was "Oh no! What have I done!?" because by then, I knew I could do better. I harboured dark suspicions readers would take one look and say "She thinks she can write?" Fortunately, my editor had the confidence I lacked and readers kindly took a chance on an unknown. I'm proud to be able to say this book has been a bestseller, was recommended by Locus, made Editor's Choice for the Science Fiction Book Club, spawned a series, started my partnership with the talented Luis Royo, and has been reprinted several times. It was also responsible for my nomination for the John Campbell Award for Best New Writer of 1999. I expected none of this -- and I still pinch myself every time I look at it. Who knew? But I'll always have a special place in my heart for the first story of Sira and Morgan.