Mark Phillips (author)

Together they authored several humorous short novels in the so-called "Psi-Power" series: Brain Twister (1962), The Impossibles (1963), and Supermind (1963).

Though his first published work was a short story in Cosmos magazine in 1953, his career as a writer can be said to have started in 1959 when he began writing for Astounding and Galaxy Science Fiction.

In the early 1960s Janifer teamed with Randall Garrett, a prolific contributor to Astounding and other science fiction magazines who is today best known for the Lord Darcy books.

All of the stories were novella length and were subsequently reprinted in 1962 and 1963 by Pyramid Books under different titles ("That Sweet Little Old Lady" as Brain Twister, "Out Like a Light" as The Impossibles, and "Occasion for Disaster" as Supermind).

"That Sweet Little Old Lady" (Brain Twister) was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960 but lost out to Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein.