Joel Rosenberg grew up reading Robert A. Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp, Gordon R. Dickson and Rafael Sabatini, and found himself becoming a writer pretty much as a natural outcome of such early influences. He is best known as the author of the Guardians of the Flame fantasy series, although his other science fiction and fantasy -- particularly the Mordred's Heirs series, published by Baen Books -- has been drawing him new fans. Outside of science fiction and fantasy, he's known as a terrific amateur cook, a particularly good firearms instructor and remarkably bad bridge player. He lives in Minneapolis MN, with his wife, two daughters, five cats, and the most useless dog ever born.