James "Jim" Ray Hines (born September 10, 1946) is a former American track and field athlete, who held the 100 m world record for 15 years. He was the first sprinter to officially break the 10-second barrier in the 100 meters, running an electronically timed 9.95 to win the 1968 Olympics at altitude in Mexico City.

Born in Dumas, Arkansas, Hines was raised in Oakland, California and graduated from McClymonds High School in 1964. He was a baseball player in his younger years, until he was spotted by a track coach as a running talent and became a sprinter. At the 1968 US national championships in Sacramento, California, Hines became the first man to break the ten second barrier in the 100 meter race, setting 9.9 (manual timing), with a real time of 10.03 - two other athletes, Ronnie Ray Smith behind him (real time 10.13) and Charles Greene on the other semi-final (real time 10.09) having got the same official clocking. That evening of June 20, 1968 at Hughes Stadium has been dubbed by track and field historians as the "Night of Speed." Hines attended Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas. He was a member of the Texas Southern University Tigers track team.

Joseph E. Lake, Jr. (born June 6, 1964) is a science fiction and fantasy writer. In 2003 he was a quarterly first place winner in the Writers of the Future contest. In 2004 he won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction. He lives in Portland, Oregon and currently works as a product manager for a voice services company. When appearing at conventions he usually wears a Hawaiian shirt.

Jay has appeared in numerous publications, including Postscripts, Realms of Fantasy, Interzone, Strange Horizons, Asimov's Science Fiction, Nemonymous, and the Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. He is an editor for the Polyphony anthology series from Wheatland Press, and was also a contributor for the Internet Review of Science Fiction.

Jay Lake was born in Taiwan (his father is foreign service officer Joseph Edward Lake) and grew up there and in Nigeria. He graduated from the University of Texas in 1986.

In addition to these three novels there are at least two more stories set in the City Imperishable: