Blamed along with the other witches of the mountain for everything that goes wrong in the kingdom of Dalibor, the widow Kassia finds a chance for escape from Master Sorcerer Lukusha at his school of arcane learning.
Maya became addicted to science fiction when her dad let her stay up late to watch "The Day the Earth Stood Still". Mom was horrified. Dad was unrepentant. Maya slept with a night-light in her room until she was 15.
She started her writing career sketching science fiction comic books in the last row of her third grade classroom. She was never apprehended. Since then her short fiction has been published in Analog, Amazing Stories, Century, Realms of Fantasy, Interzone, Paradox and Jim Baen's Universe. Look for her British Science Fiction Award finalist "The White Dog" along with a variety of her short fiction on the Café shelves.
Her debut novel, "The Meri" (Baen), was a Locus Magazine 1992 Best First Novel nominee (now available as a trade paperback from Sense of Wonder Press). Since, she has published five more speculative fiction novels, the latest of which, "Mr. Twilight" (Del Rey) was co-written with Michael Reaves. She also worked with Michael on "Star Wars - Coruscant Nights III: Patterns of Force". The duo is releasing a new Star Wars novel entitled "Shadow Games" this fall.
Maya lives in San Jose where she writes, performs, and records original and parody (filk) music with her husband and awesome musician and music producer, Chef Jeff Vader, All-Powerful God of Biscuits. The couple frequently serves as Guest of Honor at science fiction/fantasy conventions and at filk music gatherings, and has been honored with Pegasus Awards for Best Parody and Best Performer. They've produced five music albums: "RetroRocket Science", "Aliens Ate My Homework" and "Grated Hits" (parody), and the original music CDs "Manhattan Sleeps" and "Mobius Street". Their albums are available on CDBaby and from iTunes.
To top it off, they've also produced three musical children: Alex, Avery, and Amanda.
