Balticon, Maryland Regional Science Fiction Convention Web Page

How do I get to be a program participant?

Who's Coming

We are still accepting program participant requests for Balticon 45. Please read our Participant Policy first, then contact our program coordinator, Mike Rafferty, to request an invitation. Mention your areas of interest/expertise so that he will know which department to forward your request to. Thank you!

Click below for brief biographical information for program participants.

Click the links in the bios for the latest exploits of our program participants.

Abbott, JoAnn W.

Ackley-McPhail, Danielle

Adler-Golden, Lisa

Anealio, John

Bailey, Marc "Grailwolf"

Balder, Rob

Ballantine, Philippa Jane

Barrientos, Brick

Bland, Roxanne

Brahen, Mattie

Bryant, Peter Blix

Chrapcynski, William D.

Cipra, Carl

Coleman, Doc

Cox, Caroline

Crist, Vonnie Winslow

D'Alessio, Charlene Taylor

Davis, Becca

Endrey, Thomas A

Fleischer, Eric "Dr. Gandalf"

Fleischer, Halla

Fleming, Judi

Forbes, David

Fortuner, Kimberly A.

Fratz, Doug

Frechette, Laura N.

Gailunas, Laurie

Gannon, Charles E.

Gant, Giselle LeBleu

Garthright, Bing

Garwood, Tara

Gay, Dr. Pamela L.

Gendron, Darren "Dern" J.

Gideon, Thomas "cmdln"

Giunta, Phil

Grace, Gwendolyn

Greenman, Irina

Griswold-Ford, Valerie

Harknell

Hartstein, Onezumi

Hemry, John (Jack Campbell)

Holderman, Daniel-Gary

Holloman, Jeannette

Hrab, George

Hutcherson, Victor G.

Hykes, Muriel

Impink, Christopher

Insane Ian

Izenberg, Noam

Jaxton, Paulette

Kaplan, Amy L.

Katsu, Alma

Kenlin, Eric

Kim the Comic Book Goddess

Kimball, Eric

Kimmel, Daniel

King, Timothy R.

Kondo, Dr. Yoji

Kotani, Eric

Kovalcin, Diane S.

Larson, Grig "Punkie"

Livengood, ScienceTim

Love, Andy

Lurie, Perrianne

Mascia, James

McLean, Patrick E.

Onezumi

Oszko, Lance

Poretsky, Jeff

Puccia, Vinnie

Radack, Jmaes

Reinert, Katherine

Rivera, Danny G.

Robbins, Chris

Robinson, Ron

Roche, Donald Scott

Rogow, Roberta

Rosin, Zan

Ross, James Daniel

Rossi, Phil

Roy, Kevin

Saunders, Dr. James A.

Schubert, Chooch

Schulman, Eric

Schweitzer, Darrell C.

Smith, Jennifer Zyren

Love, Persis Thorndike

Trotman, C. Spike

Ventrella, Michael A.

Warner, Brent

Weinstein, Diane M.

White, Renee

White, Steve

Whitestar, Alanna

Wilson, D.C.

If you would like to become a Balticon program participant, contact the department head in your area of interest or send your inquiry to our Programming mailbox. See the Contact Us page for some email links.

What is expected of program participants?

We ask Balticon program participants to:

You can look at the official Balticon Particpipant Complimentary Membership Policy here if you want to, or the following includes the basic points.

Commit, if possible, to at least 2 program hours (a program hour is 50 minutes) per day of convention attendance. (There are, of course exceptions. If you are preparing an extensive workshop, a one-critter lecture, a dance or other event that requires significant amounts of advance preparation, you may not have time or energy for anything else!);

Let us know if there are technical requirements for your presentation such as a projection screen, a 40-inch monitor, or a sound system;

Show up where scheduled to appear a few minutes early and be ready to start on time when the door closes;

End appearances at scheduled times to facilitate getting attendees and other participants into and out of the rooms with a minimum of chaos;

Bear in mind that everyone (including all staff and BSFS officers) who works at Balticon is a volunteer and be kind -- they are working hard to make this event a success for everyone!

What's in it for me?

Program participants:

Receive a complimentary membership to Balticon;

Can purchase a membership for one SO, life partner, or traveling companion for one half the lowest published membership rate for the Balticon to be attended. [$25 for B45];

Can purchase children's memberships for the participant's eligible minor children at one half the lowest published children's membership membership rate for the Balticon to be attended. [$13 for B45], or for your children aged 13 to 21, who live with you, at one half the lowest published adult membership rate;

Are invited to rest, recoup, snack and meet other participants as well as our Guests of Honor in the Balticon Green Room;

Are invited to have us schedule a time for you to do a reading of your work

Are invited to have us schedule a time for your autograph session shared with one or 2 other professionals.

Will have an opportunity to meet and greet other participants, Guests of Honor and Balticon attendees during "Friday Face Time" on Friday evening at "Meet the Artists" in the Art Show, "Meet the Guests" in Frankie and Vinnie's (the Con Suite) and "Meet the Scientists" in Salon A (the Science Program room);

Acquire fame, adoration and undying devotion from Balticon attendees;

And can filch homemade chocolate chip cookies and other home baked goodies from the volunteer desk.

Participant Biographical Information

Index of Participant Biographical Information.
Biographical info is indexed alphabetically by Guest's last name.

XYZ


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Abbott, JoAnn W

JoAnn Abbott has been making costumes since she was 7, and competing with them since she was 20. She dabbles in a wide variety of art, including quilting, embroidery, drawing, watercolor and acrylic painting, sculpture, and jewelry, as well as creating original songs for on line competitions. This, sadly, leaves her with little to no time to clean house. Gee, darn.

Ackley-McPhail, Danielle

Award-winning author Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for over fifteen years. Her works include the urban fantasies, Yesterday's Dreams, Tomorrow's Memories, and The Halflings Court: A Bad-Ass Faerie Tale, and the non-fiction writers guide, The Literary Handyman. She has edited the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, and Dragons Lure, and has contributed to numerous other anthologies and collections, including Dark Furies, Breach the Hull, So It Begins, Space Pirates, Barbarians at the Jumpgate, and New Blood.

She is a member of The Garden State Horror Writers, the New Jersey Authors Network, and Broad Universe, a writers organization focusing on promoting the works of women authors in the speculative genres.

Danielle lives somewhere in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail, mother-in-law Teresa, and three extremely spoiled cats. She can be found on LiveJournal (damcphail, badassfaeries, darkquestbooks, lit_handyman), Facebook (Danielle Ackley-McPhail), and Twitter (DMcPhail).

Addams, Jhada Rogue

Jhada Addams - AKA Rogue, is a 43 year old punk chick that's into Kali, Combat Submission Wrestling, Muay Thai and Roller Derby. She also sings, howls at the moon, writes fiction (erotic horror/paranormal romance/paranormal erotica) and music. She's also the creator and driving force behind Rogues Podcast of Iniquity and Ill Fitting Trousers. You can listen to the podcast on her blog, and her first novel, It Never Ends, is available on amazon.com in paperback and for the kindle.

Podcast Blog

Adler-Golden, Lisa

Lisa Adler-Golden has been distracted by many things, but is really a scientist at heart. She spends far too long on the internet and enjoys all things fannish, up to and including Harry Potter legal cases.

Alexander, Tristan

I am a profesional freelance artist, I live with my husband Don and our 6 cats. You can see my work here and on my website. I have done cover art for Circlet Press and other small press companies and have done work for the SCA.

Andrews, Scott H.

Scott H. Andrews's short fiction has appeared in venues such as Weird Tales and Space and Time and is forthcoming from On Spec. He is Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of the pro-rate fantasy e-zine Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which was Runner-Up for storySouth's Million Writers Award for Best New Online Magazine of 2008. He lives in Virginia with his wife, two cats, nine guitars, a dozen overflowing bookcases, and hundreds of beer bottles from all over the world.

Anealio, John

With little more than an alternate-tuned acoustic guitar and a dog-eared copy of The Hobbit, Sci-Fi Songwriter John Anealio composes and performs geeky anthems for writers, librarians, lovers of Science Fiction, Best Buy customers, and robots. His music sounds like John Mayer, Weezer, and James Taylor playing Dungeons and Dragons together on their iPhones.

John is Wired Magazines GeekDad Guitar Teacher and the co-host of The Functional Nerds Podcast, where he interviews lots of cool Science Fiction and Fantasy authors every week.

Johns songs have been published in releases by Pyr/Prometheus Books and Subterranean Press and have been played on a number of shows including Wired Magazines Geek Dad Podcast, Tech News Today, Seattle Geekly, The Sword & Laser, The Force-Cast, I Should Be Writing, & Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing.

Ashmead, John

John Ashmead has BA in physics from Harvard, summa cum laude, and a masters in physics from Princeton. For several years he was an assistant editor for Asimov's SF Magazine.

Currently he is a computer consultant, making sure you get your bills & TV commercials on time. No thanks necessary; the work is its own reward.

And he is also finishing up a Ph.D. dissertation, Quantum Time, doing occasional talks at SF conventions, and building a website to help you build interesting maps on the internet. His lifetime goal is to build a really practical time machine.

Ashton, Lisa

Lisa Ashton is a Maryland costumer who has been active in the Costuming Community for over 20 years. Recent costume presentations include "What If?", a Victorian vampire, "The Elder Days", a Pacific Northwest themed Snow Queen, "Got Sushi?", a malicious mermaid, and "Victorian Lady's Hunting Costume". Although she loves most aspects of costuming, she has a special fondness for beads and textured fabrics, and is currently in the throes of a Victorian era. In mundane life, Lisa is an Emergency Medicine PA, and is very proud of her two adult children and new grandson.

Axelrod, Jared

Jared Axelrod is the writer and co-creator of the graphic novel The Battle of Blood and Ink, and the accompanying podcast, Fables of the Flying City. He is also the writer of the webcomic All Write! for the website I Should Be Writing. His written work has been published in the anthologies Podthology: The Pod Complex, as well as The Sovereign Era: Year One, Salt and End Of Time, as well as Neometropolis and Escape Pod magazines. He was a founding writer for 365 Tomorrows. His illustration work can be seen on the cover of the novel Brave Men Run, and accompanying the original audio version of the novels Playing For Keeps and Cybrosis. He currently resides in Philadelphia with his immensely talented wife.

He is not domestic, he is a luxury. And in that sense, necessary.


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Bagby, D. Renee

'Home is where my stuff is'. That's Rene�'s motto... one of many.

An Air Force brat born and raised, Rene� has traveled all of her life. She was born in the Netherlands and raised in Japan, Texas, Florida, and finally Virginia.

Her travels didn't stop once high school ended. She attended college in North Carolina at Elon University, graduating with a B.A. in International Studies and a minor in Asian Studies, Japanese concentration. And after graduation, she returned to Texas to start her life with her husband and rejoin the ranks of Air Force living as a military spouse. From Texas, it was off to California for four years where she finished her first manuscript.

It wasn't until she, her husband, and their two cats moved to Maryland -- where they currently reside -- that she submitted said manuscript to Samhain Publishing, Ltd. and received a contract.

Given her upbringing and the military tendency of traveling, Rene� knows a lot about adapting to new locales and being 'the new kid'. It's no wonder the majority of her stories tend to be 'fish out of water' stories.

Unlike many authors who said they had a love of reading and writing since a very young age, Rene� used to hate reading and writing wasn't even a thought. If it wasn't on TV then it didn't interest her.

All that changed when her elementary school held a reading contest. A gold medal was waiting for all the students who read a certain number of books and Renee was determined to be one of them. She received her gold medal and a love of reading. From YA Romance to Mainstream Romance, Rene� discovered an addiction to the happily-ever-after endings the romantic genres offered.

She didn't start writing until high school. Back then, her stories were a way to pass the time in class so the teachers thought she was taking notes. It wasn't until another contest, a literary contest, surfaced that she considered writing a story with a definite beginning, middle, and end.

While she didn't finish the story in time for the competition and thus didn't get a chance to submit it for consideration, her English teacher at the time -- her very first beta reader -- gave her the encouragement needed to keep at it.

It took a few years and many, many rough drafts but Adrienne was eventually born. And, as clich� as it sounds, that was the beginning of the end.

Rene� loves reading (romances and manga) when she has the time but finds she loves writing even more. Her imagination entertains her far more than anything she could find on television, though it is a lovely distraction at times. And, the writing community has introduced her to good friends who are just as crazy and out-there as she is.

Bailey, Marc "Grailwolf"

Marc Bailey (aka "Grailwolf") is the host of the Grailwolf's Geek Life podcast, in which he discusses science fiction, fantasy, horror, gadgets, and other aspects of the current Geek Renaissance. He is also an editor and forum moderator for TV.com and has done voice acting for the podcast dramas Metamor City, Morevi Remastered, and The Empress Sword, and has appeared in episodes of Form Letter Rejection Theatre and Transmissions From Beyond. He has been on sabbatical for most of 2009 due to the birth of his son, the Grailpup, who is quickly becoming more well known than he is.

Ballantine, Philippa

Philippa Ballantine is a writer and podcaster from Wellington, New Zealand. She has had two books published with DragonMoon Press - Chasing the Bard and Digital Magic.Chasing the Bard in its podcast version won a Sir Julius Vogel award. She is also the host of Erotica a la Carte, a speculative fiction erotica podcast that was Short listed for best anthology in the 2009 Parsecs. Pip recently signed a two book deal with Ace, and the first of which Geist, is coming November 2010.

Bova, Ben

Ben Bova is the author of nearly 125 futuristic novels and nonfiction books about science and high technology.

In his various writings, Dr. Bova has predicted the Space Race of the 1960s, solar power satellites, the discovery of or-ganic chemicals in interstellar space, virtual reality, human cloning, the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), the ad-vent of international peacekeeping forces, the discovery of ice on the Moon, electronic book publishing and zero-gravity sex.

Dr. Bova received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, for fueling mankinds imagination regarding the wonders of outer space. His 2006 novel TITAN received the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year, and he received the 2008 Robert A. Heinlein Award for his outstanding body of work in the field of literature.

Dr. Bova has been involved in science and high technology since the very beginnings of the space age. President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of Science-fiction Writers of America, Dr. Bova was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has been a member of the Arizona Astronomy Board.

He is a columnist for the Naples Daily News and a widely-popular lecturer. Earlier in his career, he was an award-winning editor and an executive in the aerospace industry. He has worked with film makers and television producers such as Woody Allen, George Lucas, and Gene Roddenberry.

His Grand Tour novels including his award-winning TI-TAN - show how the human race will expand through the solar system, opening a new era of wealth and opportunity and con-flict. His nonfiction books, such as IMMORTALITY and FAINT ECHOES, DISTANT STARS have been honored by organizations such as the American Librarians Association and the American Asso-ciation for the Advancement of Science. He has won six Science Fiction Achievement Awards (Hugos) and many other awards for writing.

Brahen, Mattie

Marilyn "Mattie" Brahen has published stories in England and America. Her first novel, Claiming Her, was published by Wildside Press in 2003. Her second novel, Reforming Hell, published in 2009, is its sequel and completes the tale, and this year, 2011, her first mystery, a police procedural, Baby Boy Blue, came out in January, both published by Wildside Press. She is currently working on a children's book. Mattie also reviews for The New York Review of Science Fiction, has articles in the nonfiction Neil Gaiman Reader (Wildside Press), and enjoys singing, playing guitar, and performing her own and others' songs. She lives in Philadelphia, PA with her husband, author and editor Darrell Schweitzer, and their three literary cats, Lovecraft, Tolkien and Galadriel.

Brauer, Nancy

A geologist turned web programmer turned writer and graphic artist, Nancy Brauer has yet to decide what she wants to be when she grows up. Shes been writing, drawing, and cracking open rocks for as long as she can remember. Nancy divides her time between freelance web and graphic design, writing assorted web serials, and creating book covers at Hello Cover! Her latest works are the sci-fi/action serial Strandline, the sci-fi/romance Strange Little Band and the paranormal thriller Toris Row.

Nancy lives in southwestern Virginia with her partner, a dog whos allergic to nearly everything, and two allergy-free cats.

Brio, Alessia

Alessia Brio is the sultry, erotica-writing alter ego of a frumpy Appalachian soccer mom. In addition to writing naughty stories, she is the art director for Torquere Press, a freelance graphic artist, editor of the Coming Together charity series, unapologetic self-publisher, ebook enthusiast, and all-purpose rabble rouser.

Ms. Brio lives in the mountains near Pittsburgh and is barefoot as much as life allows. She has an obsessive aversion to "to be" verbs in her prose and gets aroused by creative enjambment in her poetry. Her fetishes include SuDoku, rare steak, stainless steel, and office supplies. You can visit her on Facebook (alessia.brio) and via her publishing label, Purple Prosaic.

Bryant, Peter Blix

Blix has been developing free gaming material via Studio187 for over 10 years. In the past several years he has begun developing professional material for art and design. He has done artwork for R. Talsorian Games, Tri Tac Games, Dilly Green Bean Games, and Chapter 13 Press. He is currently on the design team for the Savage Worlds edition of Fringeworthy and is one of the hosts of the Tri Tac Podcast. He is also in development of Mythic Steel, a pulp fantasy setting using his BoxCar system.

Burke, Stephanie "Flash"

Stephanie "Flash" Burke is a multi award-winning author known for original characters, world building, odd situations, and undeniable sense of humor. Stephanie is a guest speaker and lecturer at many conventions, especially on languages and world building. Find her at Flashycat2004@aol.com or TheFlashCat.Net where there are links to her many works in Progress.

Burns, Laura

Laura A. Burns has been a space enthusiast her entire life. She has worked as an engineer with various NASA contractors for over a decade. She worked on the James Webb Space Telescope and the Landsat Data Continuity Mission. During the summer of 2007, she spent 9 weeks in Beijing, China at the International Space University. She regularly attends space conferences and enjoys speaking to the public on space related topics. She tweets about space and science. In addition to her interest in space, she is a long time science fiction and fantasy fan, podcast listener, dancer, board game player, knitter, and an avid book collector. Laura has contributed to several podcasts and is currently the head of the Parsec Awards Steering Committee.

Teanna L. Byerts

is an illustrator primarily interested in YA literature, myth, fantasy, and connecting people to the natural world. She hasn't quit her day job. She tells us:

"From a young age, other people's stories; in books, on film, in pictures, inspired me to imagine worlds beyond the one limited by the tidy farms and wooded hills of southcentral Pennsylvania. They also inspired me to go out and have a few real, grungy, sweaty, mosquito-bit, saddle-sored, paddle-blistered, tiger-noshed, owl-taloned, my-air-tank-is-redlining-at-ninety-feet adventures of my own. Flipper, Sea Hunt and Jaques Cousteau led me learn to dive. Fury of Broken Wheel Ranch, The Black Stallion, and Tornado (Zorro's trusty steed) led me to train my own wild black horse. J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings inspired me to learn swordfighting, archery, camp rolled up in a wool cloak, and teach my patient half-Arabian gelding to work without saddle or bridle. Wrestling a (very small) tiger and extracting a recalcitrant barn owl named Barney from under a wildlife rehabber's fridge happened to me because Mowgli and Tarzan made living in the jungle look like so much fun. Even as an adult, Pirates of the Caribbean led me to spending Halloween on a pirate ship (technically, a privateer), and taking the helm (and painting the gun doors, and checking the bilges), watched over by a young sailor woman who had walked the same planks as Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom (on the Lady Washington). I hope my own stories, fiction or fact, illustrated or written, might inspire someone to have their own adventure, their own learning experience, and to reconnect with the world of wind, water, earth, and fire and other living things. That's why we're here."


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Chambers, James

James Chambers is the author of the short story collections Resurrection House, published by Dark Regions Press, and The Midnight Hour: Saint Lawn Hill and Other Tales. His tales of crime, horror, fantasy, and science fiction have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including Allen Ks Inhuman; Bad Cop, No Donut; Bad-Ass Faeries (volume 1-3); Bare Bone; Breach the Hull; Cthulhu Sex; Dark Furies; The Dead Walk; The Domino Lady: Sex as a Weapon; Dragons Lure; The Green Hornet Chronicles; New Blood; So It Begins; Warfear; and Weird Trails. He wrote the comic book series Leonard Nimoys Primortals and The Revenant in Shadow House and is currently writing comic book stories for The Domino Lady (Moonstone Books) and The Midnight Hour. His collection of Lovecraftian novellas, The Engines of Sacrifice is forthcoming in 2011.

Chrapcynski, William D.

William Chrapcynski is the creator of Binary Souls / Other Dimensions, a online 3D sci-fi comic that's been appearing since late 2007. He is also the head of his company, Pure Shift Productions, which supplies original music and 3D graphic art to various media outlets.

Cipra, Carl

Carl started reading F&SF in his pre-teen years and has been hooked ever since. He became involved with Fandom back in the 1970s (by way of the SCA in Southern California) and is one of the founding members of Lambda Sci-Fi: DC Area Gaylaxians. He really enjoys moderating discussion panels at conventions and is looking forward to all the fascinating discussions at Balticon this year. Mundanely, Carl is the program manager for instructor-training in a much-maligned, three-letter Government agency.

Cmar, John

John Cmar, MD, has been long enthralled with horrible infections that could spell doom for humankind, as well as sanity and skepticism in the practice of medicine. He is currently an Instructor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and an Infectious Diseases specialist at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. In his role as Associate Program Director for the Johns Hopkins Internal Medicine residency program at Sinai, he teaches an annual course series in Evidence-Based Medicine, among many other duties. He also does Infectious Diseases outreach in Baltimore television and print media. John is a science fiction and fantasy fan, avid gamer, and podcast enthusiast. He has made contributions to many podcast projects including Escape Pod and Mur Lafferty's The Takeover, and can be currently heard as "The Bad Doctor" on The Secret Lair.

Cole, Myke

Myke Cole is the author of the military fantasy SHADOW OPS series. The first novel, CONTROL POINT, is coming from Ace (Penguin-Putnam) in February 2012.

As a security contractor, government civilian and military officer, Myke's career has run the gamut from Counterterrorism to Cyber Warfare to Federal Law Enforcement. Hes done three tours in Iraq and was recalled to serve during the Deep water Horizon oil spill. All that conflict can wear a guy out. Thank good ness for fantasy novels, comic books, late night games of Dungeons and Dragons and lots of angst fueled writing.

Coleman, Doc

Doc Coleman is a new face on the New Media scene, but he has dived in with both feet. Doc started on February 1st of 2010 with The Nifty Tech Blog, a technology review blog focusing on the best of consumer technology. In August of 2010, Doc made his on mic debut on Tee Morris podcast Bird House Rules, doing a six part series of reviews as part of a Bird House Rules/Nifty Tech Blog joint project on Twitter clients for the iPad. On September 25th, 2010, Doc appeared as a guest on Flying Island Press The Galley Table Podcast, and has returned to become a regular part of the Galley Table crew. On December 19th, 2010, Doc started his own podcast, The Shrinking Man Project, a weekly journal documenting his personal weight loss journey. Doc has also written three episodes for the podcast Every Photo Tells and continues to work on expanding his body of fiction. Doc can also be heard voice acting on the Pirates Cove production of A Midsummer Nights Dream and in the Scriveners Circles production of Absolution.

Collins, Helen F.

Helen Collins was born in New London, Connecticut, lived there and in Middletown, and attended the University of Connecticut where she majored in English. As an undergraduate, she spent a year in Herrsching am Amersee near Munich studying language, drawing and sculpting. Returning to the United States, she earned a M.A. in English at UConn, specializing in 18th and 19th century English Literature. Next, she took advanced courses at the University of Rhode Island, lived in Manhattan and taught English at Brooklyn College. She has been a Professor in the English Department at Nassau Community College, where her teaching included Women Writers and Science Fiction. Her first novel, Mutagenesis, was published by Tor Press and her second, Egret by Haworth Press.

Cooley, Paul Elard

Paul Elard Cooley, AKA The FiendMaster, is a writer, podcaster, and software developer from The Woodlands, Texas. He has been twice nominated for Parsec Awards and the podcast of his novella Tattoo was a Parsec Award Finalist. He writes dark and twisted fiction and doesn't believe in happy endings.

The limited edition hard cover version of his debut story collection, Fiends: Vol 1, was published earlier this year by Blue Moose Press. The paperback and e-book versions are currently on sale.

Corvidae, Elaine

Elaine Corvidae has been telling stories about faeries, elves, and dragons since she was a small child. Her dark fantasy novels have won numerous awards, including multiple Eppie Awards and Dream Realm Awards for Best Fantasy Novel. When she isn't wandering the worlds of her imagination, she live in Harrisburg, NC with her husband and several cats.

Crispin, A. C.

A.C. Crispin is the author of the bestselling Star Wars novels The Paradise Snare, The Hutt Gambit, and Rebel Dawn. She's also written four top-selling Star Trek novels: Yesterday's Son, Time for Yesterday, The Eyes of the Beholders and Sarek.

Ms. Crispin's most famous genre work was writing the 1984 novelization of the television miniseries V. She also writes books in her own universes, including her seven-book Starbridge series. Crispin and SFWA Grand Master Andre Norton collaborated on two Witch World novels.

A.C. Crispin has been active in SFWA since soon after joining the organization in 1983. She served as Eastern Regional Director for almost 10 years, and then served as Vice President for two terms. Ms. Crispin and Victoria Strauss created SFWA's "scam watchdog" committee, Writer Beware, in 1998. As Chair of this active volunteer group, Crispin has a busy second life as a scam-hunter. Writer Beware is the only professionally sponsored group that warns aspiring writers about the numerous scam agents and publishers that infest the internet these days. Crispin and Strauss have assisted law enforcement in bringing several infamous con artists to justice.

Ms. Crispin has taught many writing workshops since becoming a full time professional in 1983. Her teaching credits include a semester-long "Writing for Profit" course at Charles County Community College, two two-day writing workshops for Harrisburg Area Community College, a two-day writing seminar at Towson University, and numerous mini-workshops at science-fiction and Star Trek conventions, where she is a frequent guest. She currently teaches writing workshops at Anne Arundel Community College, Shore Leave in Maryland, and Dragoncon in Atlanta.

Ms. Crispin has taught writing workshops and courses at a number of colleges, including the College of Southern Maryland, Towson University and Harrisburg Area Community College, in addition to workshops at many writing conferences and science fiction conventions. She currently teaches writing workshops at Anne Arundel Community College, Shore Leave in Towson, Maryland, and Dragoncon in Atlanta.

A.C. Crispins next release will be the first full-length Pirates of the Caribbean novel written for an adult audience. She's written the prequel to Pirates of the Caribbean in a book titled Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom. The book will be released May 17, 2011. This novel novel chronicles how Disney's infamous film pirate first became a pirate captain. Ms. Crispin will be reading from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom at Balticon, as well as signing copies.

Balticon will be hosting a book launch party for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom.

Crist, Vonnie Winslow

Vonnie Winslow Crist MS Professional Writing, BS Art-Ed, Towson University, is a contributor to "Faerie Magazine," a columnist for "Harford's Heart Magazine," an illustrator for "The Vegetarian Journal," and editor of "The Gunpowder Review." This spring, her new fantasy short story collection, "The Greener Forest," was published by Cold Moon Press. Her fiction has recently appeared in: "Potter's Field 4," "Sideshow 2," "Shelter of Daylight," "Dragons' Lure," "Tales of the Talisman," "Cemetary Moon," "Aoife's Kiss," "Dia de los Muertos," "While the Morning Stars Sing," "Ensorcelled Magazine," spacewesterns.com (item #25), and other periodicals. A former creative writing instructor, Vonnie is author-illustrator of 2 poetry collections, "Essential Fables" and "River of Stars," a children's book, "Leprechaun Cake & Other Tales," and 3 sf/f shorts available at Amazon. Among her editorial projects are the anthologies "Lower Than the Angels" and "Through a Glass Darkly" (Lite Circle Books) and "Late Knocking-The Poe Issue." Follow her online at her blog, Whimsical Words.


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D'Ambrosio, Mike

Michael D'Ambrosio has been writing for eleven years now with the successful Fractured Time Trilogy, The Space Frontiers Series and a dark horror tale titled Night Creeps. In addition to novels, Michael is now writing screenplays, some which are based on his novels. He is currently working on the last novel in the Space Frontiers series titled Galaxy of the Damned. Michael frequently participates in 10 to 14 sci-fi conventions a year all over the country.

D'Alessio, Charlene Taylor

Charlene Taylor D'Alessio has been illustrating the fantasy and science fiction genre for over 25 years. She is known for her exquisite painted ties, humorous fantasy paintings of cats, dragons, owls and hamsters, and miniature astronomical pieces. Her latest published piece is "Merlin's Dilemma", pubished as a 1000-piece puzzle. Currently she is illustrating a children's book in progress. Look for Charlene's artwork at most sci-fi con art shows.

Dee, Sheila

It took Sheila several years to figure out what she was meant to do in this world. All of her prior experiences led to a decision to teach. She has taught for 6 years in a regular education classroom with 1st and 7th grade students. She currently teaches and writes curriculum for a university.

She has been married for 20 plus years to a wonderful man, Evo Terra, and has one perfect child, NJ. Although she has lived a great many places at the present time she calls Tempe, AZ home. Her hobbies include a love of bugs and nature, reading, photography, skiing, hockey, white water rafting, and hiking. She has taken up jewelry making. She absolutely loves to travel and see all the different cultures throughout this wonderful world.

de Guardiola, Susan

Susan de Guardiola is a social dance historian and teacher who may often be found in musty library stacks researching dance from the 16th to the 20th centuries in between teaching workshops across the United States and running dance events. She reviews F&SF, historical and paranormal romance, and historical fiction for Publishers Weekly and is best-known in fandom as a masquerade emcee at the 1997 and 2004 worldcons as well as numerous east coast local and regional conventions. Susan also makes costumes and blogs about both dance history (at Capering and Kickery) and the rest of her life (at Rixosous). In her spare time, she plays high-speed online Scrabble.

Delany, Shannon

Shannon Delany has toyed with writing for years and finally got serious after winning the first-ever cell phone novel contest in the western world for her debut novel, 13 to Life (St. Martin's Press, 2010). Her single novel grew into the 13 to Life series (Secrets and Shadows, February 2011; Bargains and Betrayals, August 2011; untitled books 4 and 5 in 2012) with books being released approximately every six months. When Shannon's not writing, revising or promoting her books or presenting to aspiring authors she can be found dealing with oddly independent sheep on her small heritage breeds farm in upstate New York.

DeLuca, Michael J.

Michael J. DeLuca lives in Boston, surrounded by civil war era graveyards and ramshackle taverns as far as the eye can see. He brews beer, bakes bread, hugs trees, builds websites, and operates WeightlessBooks.com, a fledgling indie ebook site. His short fiction has appeared, among other places, in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Interfictions, Murky Depths, and most recently in the premiere issue of the new French webzine Onirismes.

Doyle, Tom

Tom Doyle writes in a spooky turret in Washington, DC. His novelette, The Wizard of Macatawa (Paradox Magazine #11), received the 2008 WSFA Small Press Award. His stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Futurismic, Aeon, and Ideomancer. He has recently finished a contemporary fantasy novel.

Dr. SETI

Dr. H. Paul Shuch (AKA Dr. SETI), now Executive Director Emeritus of the grassroots, nonprofit SETI League (which he helped to found seventeen years go), is a commercial pilot, flight instructor, and distinguished engineering professor credited with designing the world's first commercial home satellite TV receiver. Thrice retired, he last year founded AvSport of Lock Haven, a flight school on the Piper Memorial Airport. A member of the International Academy of Astronautics, Fellow of the European Radio Astronomy Club, Fellow of the Radio Club of America, Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, and SETI subject editor for JBIS, he is the author of nearly 600 publications, and has received numerous honors and awards. He lives on a radio-quiet hilltop in northern Pennsylvania with his biologist wife, three of their seven recombinant DNA experiments, ten networked computers, four motorcycles, three radio telescopes, an antique MG-TD roadster, and a modern Pontiac Solstice convertable. His airplane doesn't live with them, but is hangared in nearby Lock Haven PA.

Dukas, Bernard

The Spanish Gatekeeper Empire of the Ulfair (a 2011 Compton Crook Award finalist), is the debut science fiction fantasy adventure novel by Bernard Dukas, a military historian by profession. Dukas's love for history is apparent from his old-school (or retro) style, reflecting the influence of both H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, and moreover, the epic tales of H. Rider Haggard. While the science that defines him as an author of speculative fiction is undoubtedly present in his writing, the adventure plays out first and foremost, buoyed along by many richly crafted and memorable characters. Dukas firmly believes that science fiction should accomplish two objectives: (1) transport the reader (to another world, more often than not), and (2) cause us to reflect on our own planet and social condition. Dukas was born in Canada and served for many years in the Canadian military. He presently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. Book II in The Spanish Gatekeeper series (Gwellems Hitch) and Book III (Ogyre War) are scheduled for release by Kaladar Books later this year.

Durham, James

James Durham, composer and Parsec-award-winning podcaster of FETIDUS (The Foundation for the Ethical Treatment of the Innocently Damned, Undead and Supernatural), lives in the DC area patiently awaiting a major zombie apocalypse. His music has played at venues like the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, to wide acclaim on the radio, in indie-film, video and dance productions. You can find out more about him online at JamesDurham and Fetidus.


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Edelman, Scott

Scott Edelman has published more than 75 short stories in magazines such as Postscripts, The Twilight Zone, Absolute Magnitude, Science Fiction Review and Fantasy Book, and in anthologies such as The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Crossroads, MetaHorror, Once Upon a Galaxy, Moon Shots, Mars Probes, and Forbidden Planets. He has been a Stoker Award finalist four times, in the categories of both Short Story and Long Fiction. Additionally, Edelman currently works for the SYFY Channel as the Features Editor for SCI FI Wire. He was the founding editor of Science Fiction Age, which he edited during its entire eight-year run. He has been a four-time Hugo Award finalist for Best Editor. His collection of zombie short fiction, What Will Come After, has just been released by PS Publishing.

Ellis, Christiana

Christiana Ellis is an award-winning writer and podcaster, currently living in Cary, North Carolina. Her podcast novel, Nina Kimberly the Merciless was both an inaugural nominee for the 2006 Parsec Award for Best Speculative Fiction: Long Form, as well as a finalist for a 2006 Podcast Peer Award. On May 15th, 2009, Nina Kimberly the Merciless is coming to print from Dragon Moon Press.

Christiana is also the writer, producer and star of Space Casey, a 10-part audiodrama miniseries which won the Gold Mark Time Award for Best Science Fiction Audio Production by the American Society for Science Fiction Audio and the 2008 Parsec Award for Best Science Fiction Audio Drama.

In between major projects, Christiana is also the creator and talent of many other podcast productions including Talking About Survivor, Hey, Want to Watch a Movie? and Christiana's Shallow Thoughts. She has also recently become a new co-host of sketch-comedy podcast Requiem of the Outcast.

Endrey, Thomas A

I am an older hungarian, reading SF+F since early childhood.

I am an avid boardgamer, playing boardgames in convention Gaming Rooms since 1987. Also interested in alternative and esoteric sciences and enthusiastic about alternative ideas.

I also love and collect fantasy and gaming art.


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Fischer, Barb (Studio Unseen)

Studio Unseen is made up of two carbon-based creatures: Chris Impink and Barb Fischer. They recently celebrated one year of their newest project, Sledgebunny: a sports-anime-inspired comic that takes place in the fast-paced world of flat track roller derby. On December 30, 2009, they closed the book on Fragile Gravity, a strip that featured independent comics, conventions, and (in an earlier arc) an invasionary force of penguins. Oh, and an extra-bitter stoat.

Chris Impink does the artwork and web design; he has been featured in Antarctic Press and did much of the graphic work for The Babylon Project role-playing game. Additionally, his work has been featured at various conventions such as Katsucon, Intervention, and Rising Star. He is also mildly notorious for co-founding Katsucon, though his team of spin doctors has kept that under wraps for many years. In his rare moments of free time, Chris works with the crew from Super Art Fight, running the Wheel of Death and notching up wins on the championship belt.

Barb Fischer does the writing as well as merchandise assembly and convention spotting; when not plotting out the nuts and bolts of Sledgebunny, she takes care of her ten-year-old son which gives her just enough time in the day to take one or two breaths before plunging back into the fray. At some point, shes hoping to find the time to use up the boxes and boxes of fabric she owns.

Fleming, Judi

Judi Fleming works as a training specialist and instructional designer for the federal government in her day job and thus much of her writing is of the non-exciting technical sort. She is a graduate of Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction Masters Program.

Forbes, David

David Forbes is the author of the epic fantasy series THE OSSERIAN SAGA, published by HarperCollins, which began with THE AMBER WIZARD in 2006, followed by sequels THE WORDS OF MAKING and THE COMMANDING STONE. The goal of the books was to write a fantasy series chronicling the rise of monotheism in a polytheistic world and how religious belief can both unite different social and ethnic groups, as well as be used as a weapon to conquer others. As with most early writing goals, this one didnt survive much beyond the first draft, and the tattered remnants that remained were drastically changed from the original concepts. Which is maybe a little too much info about this particular sausage making, but Forbes is nothing if not scrupulously honest and direct about his writing, except of course where such scrupulousness might affect him adversely, and then all bets are off. However, the original goals did begin to peek back in to varied degrees in the second and third volumes, so all was not lost.

The Saga also includes a large and varied cast of characters, some unique world building, and, of course, lots of fighting, magic, and an assortment of gargantuan action set pieces where lots of things are destroyed in spectacular ways in order to satisfy the authors lifelong fascination with explosions, mayhem, and destruction.

The third volume was published in the fall of 2009, after which Forbes switched from large scale fantasy to young adult and urban fantasy novels. Two YA novels are currently being shopped around by his agent. EVERWHEN is about a war between factions of angels arguing over Gods plan for the world and the fifteen-year-old boy caught in the crossfire because he has something both sides want. THE SAPPHIRE EYE concerns a teenage girl who gets caught in the machinations of an immortal empress out to enslave mankind. The teenager has to fend off attacks from demons and undead soldiers while keeping up her grades in high school and coming to terms with the discovery that the guy of her dreams is actually a witch.

Forbes also just handed over to his agent his first urban fantasy novel, THE RUTHLESS DEAD, about a half-angel security consultant who becomes the target of a Dutch wizard and Greek vampire who plan to crack open an alternate dimension known as the Abyss and release unspeakable horrors not only upon this world but all of the Celestial realms as well, including the one we think of as Heaven.

He maintains a website where readers can find the usual excerpts of his work, as well as daily updates on topics that include writing, technology, film, entertainment, and anything else that catches his ADD-ish attention.

Fortuner, Kimberly A.

(See Kim the Comic Book Goddess)

Fratz, D. Douglas

Doug Fratz has, for over 35 years, been known in the science fiction and fantasy field as a book reviewer. He most recently wrote for Sci-Fi Wire, on the SyFy Channel's web site, and is currently writing for SF Site. His work has also appeared in Science Fiction Age, Science Fiction Eye, Fantasy Review, The Washington Post, and other magazines. As publisher and editor of Thrust/Quantum (1973-1993), he was nominated for five Hugo Awards. Doug began his fannish career in comics fandom in 1966, and published several well-known comics fanzines in the late 1960s and early 1970's.

In real life, Doug has been an environmental scientist serving as Vice President of Scientific and Technical Affairs for the Consumer Specialty Products Association in Washington, DC for over 30 years. He received his B.S. degree in chemistry from University of Maryland in 1974, and his M.S. degree in Environmental Science from George Washington University in 1983. He lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland, with his wife, and has two children still in college.

Frechette, Laura N.

Laura Frechette is the author the podcasts of Absolution, Stargazers, and co-author for Prisoners of the Alliance; editor and voice actor for Flying Island Press; voice actor for hundreds of audio dramas. Laura is a diverse ball of creativity with a smile and far too much creativity to keep to herself.


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Gailunas, Laurie

Laurie Gailunas spent her earlier years living in Mexico and traveling in Spain. She likes to think shes settled down, but isnt fooling anyone. Shes lived with her husband in the same house in Ann Arbor, Michigan for many years, but uses it as a base from which to travel the Caribbean, Israel and Palestine, England and Spain again, and parts of the U.S.

Her travels and work are fueled by a deep interest in the universal aspects of the human condition. Laurie is a two-time Finalist in Writers of the Future and author of non-fiction articles in professional nursing journals. Her sf short story, In the Middle of Nowhere, will be released in May 2011 in Defending the Future, Volume 4, No Mans Land.

She's worked as a nurse, church administrator, spiritual counselor, office manager, and, toughest of them all, wife and mother of three.

Gannon, Charles E.

Dr. Charles E. Gannon is a Distinguished Professor of English (St. Bonaventure U.), was a Fulbright Senior Specialist in American Lit & Culture (2004-20o9), and is a member of the SIGMA SF think-tank. Dr. Gannon's most recent novel is "Extremis" (Baen, w/ S. White, May; 2011) and his next forthcoming is "1635: The Papal Stakes" (Baen, w/ Eric Flint, early 2012). He has also had many novellas published in various anthologies and in Analog SF Magazine. Along with 45 other SF writers, he is a member of SIGMA, the "SF think-tank" which has advised various intelligence and defense agencies over the past four years He also worked as author and editor for GDW, and was a routine contributor to both the scientific/technical content and story-line in the award-winning games Traveller, and 2300 AD.

A Fulbright Senior Specialist from 2004 to 2009, Dr. Gannons most recent non-fiction book is "Rumors of War and Infernal Machines: Technomilitary Agenda Setting in American and British Speculative Fiction." Now in second edition, it won the 2006 American Library Association Award for Outstanding Book, and was the topic of discussion when he was interviewed by NPR (Morning Edition).

Dr. Gannon has been a Fulbright Fellow at Liverpool University, Palacky University (Czech Republic), and the University of Dundee, and received Fulbright and Embassy Travel grants to these countries as well as The Netherlands, Slovakia, England, and Italy. Holding degrees from degrees Brown (BA), Syracuse (MS), and Fordham (MA,PhD), he has published extensively on the interaction of fiction, technology (particularly military and space), and political influence.

Prior to his academic career, Dr. Gannon worked as a scriptwriter and producer in New York City, where his clients included the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and The President's Council on Physical Fitness.

Garthright, Bing

Bing Garthright is a retired biostatistician and former amateur volunteer UFO investigator now inquiring into potentially unsafe uses of dowsing to locate gas lines. He is a long-time member and board member of National Capital Area Skeptics.

Tara Garwood

Tara Garwood is an actor and filmmaker, born and raised in the DC area. Her production company, Tarakata Films, is dedicated to producing affecting, character driven, and often quirky films. As an actor, Tara has been seen in several Hollywood films, including "The Invasion" with Nicole Kidman, "My One and Only" with Renee Zellweger, and John Waters' "Cecil B. DeMented". She has also worked on many industrials and independent films, including "Women's Studies", a wonderfully campy horror movie in which she plays a homicidal psycho with a feminist agenda.

Gay, Dr. Pamela L.

Dr. Pamela L. Gay received a B.S. in Astrophysis from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Texas. She currently teaches at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Focused on using new media to engage people in science and technology, Pamela's Astronomy Cast, is entering its 5th year. A 2005 project, Slacker Astronomy, combined off-beat humor with hard-core science. They produced the first peer-reviewed papers on making a podcast and finding out who is listening. (Astronomy Cast and collaborators have followed up with three more papers.)

Pamela communicates astronomy to the public through StarStryder.com, public talks, popular articles (in Astronomy and Sky and Telescope), and has appeared on The Universe and Nova. She serves on the council of the American Association of Variable Star Astronomers. As part of the Galaxy Zoo collaboration, she works with an amazing team of students helping write software and education content for the Zoo.

Gendron, Darren "Dern" J.

Darren J. Gendron has a plan. He wants to ride a triceratops in the World Championship of Jousting. The easy part will be genetically cloning dinosaurs back to life. I mean, Samuel L. Jackson once helped people do that. The hard part will be making jousting a relevant sport again.

To that end, he has become the Dern of Dernwerks, a writer, artist and known scallywag. He's the writer of Hello With Cheese and the manager of Commissioned Comic. You can also hear him on the Cheese Cast.

If you come in contact with dern in the wild, you can calm him and draw his attention with the traditional call of Ey yo dern! Be warned that he may still be hostile to you if you are a hobo or a clown. Oddly, hobo clowns are not threatening to him.

Gideon, Thomas "cmdln"

Thomas Gideon is a self-described hacker, eccentric and hacktivist. He produces and hosts The Command Line, a twice weekly podcast that covers the practice and profession of programming drawing on well over a decade of professional experience and a lifetime spent hacking, the intersection of politics and society with technology and anything else clever, elegant or funny that catches his mind as a die hard technology geek. He is an advocate and activist for free software and free culture having spoken at numerous events on various aspects of both subjects. He is also the co-host of the Living Proof Brew Cast where he and John Taylor Williams discuss all aspects of the craft and culture of brewing, the place of brewing in our shared cultural heritage, and of course the ongoing quest for the novel and sublime in the ever expanding offerings of craft and micro breweries.

Giunta, Phil

Phil Giunta graduated from Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia with a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems. Since then, he has obtained both Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and Cisco Certified Network Associate. After all that trouble and expense, it wasn't long before he realized his desperation to escape from corporate America and do something cool like write novels or open a bait shop.

Phil's first novel, a paranormal mystery called Testing the Prisoner, debuted in March 2010 but his venture into writing truly began in the early '90s when he began writing fan fiction based on characters from Star Trek, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and more, including a MacGyver story that was written in octopus ink through a pen fashioned from a drinking straw while stranded at sea on a raft made from recycled AOL and Yanni CDs (hey, it was the 90s!).

In 1995, Phil was a top competitor in a short story contest sponsored by Farpoint SF media convention. During the con, he met Steven H. Wilson, co-founder of Farpoint, who encouraged Phil to continue writing and now, fifteen years later, Phil is more than proud to be published through Steven's Firebringer Press. Phil lives in Pennsylvania where he is working on his second novel and several short stories. The audio version of Testing the Prisoner can be heard at Prometheus Radio Theatre.

Blog Website Audio

Goldstrom, Jean

I read somewhere recently that all respectable online publishers identify themselves -- that is, they tell people who they are. Well, I have been publishing for something like 12 years now, and nobody has ever asked me who I am...but, nonetheless, we are nothing if not respectable,(at least theoretically) so here goes.

In case you're curious..."we" is actually me, Jean Goldstrom. I am a retired newspaper reporter, editor and publisher. My main stint was with The Baltimore News American (circulation 180,000 daily, 230,000 Sunday) but after The News American folded (along with most other afternoon dailies across the US) I worked for a number of other publications.

My favorite, of course, was my very own newspaper, The Knoxville-Mt.Oliver American, which covered the two communities where I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. During its five year existence, The American grew to fit the somewhat pretentious title of The South Hills Communities American, as it covered more communities. It was a monthly, and circulation ranged from 15,000 to 20,000, depending on how many ads I could sell. (You sell the ads to pay the printer, so if you sell more ads, you can order more copies of the paper.)

After folding the dear old American when I moved from my native Pittsburgh PA to Florida, I just could not stop publishing things, thus Whortleberry Press.

The odd name resulted from the first couple of books I published. They were about Clan Mackintosh, the Scottish Highland Clan into which my father was born. The clan's symbol was the red whortleberry, which looks something like a holly berry. I figured nobody else would name their press anything so...um...silly, which is a good thing, because you don't want to have the same name as some other press. (They make you change it.)

We publish primarily science fiction, fantasy, horror and mystery, although we've done some non-fiction and mainstream fiction and we're open to all kinds of suggestions. Have any? Let us know.

As to royalties: Well, we don't make enough money to give our beloved authors an advance, or to pay our wonderful authors what their work is really worth. On the other hand, we do not charge you anything to publish your book. (Please don't deal with anyone who does -- there are a lot of honest indy publishers out there besides us who will be straight with you and

Grace, Gwendolyn

Lee C. Hillman has a diverse background, from theatre performance to conference and event planning, project management, podcasting, editing, and even a little writing now and then. While she looks for work, she has been working on a CD of her songs, learning the guitar and harp, and a few other projects. As Gwendolyn Grace, she is one of the founding administrators at FictionAlley, a Harry Potter archive and forum, and President Emeritus of HP Education Fanon, Inc., the premier event-planning corporation for Harry Potter conferences. She is also active in the Society for Creative Anachronism, the Organization for Transformative Works, and online in several other fandoms. She currently lives in the Boston area.

Griswold-Ford, Val

Born in South Carolina, and raised in New England, Val Griswold-Ford inherited several things from her bibliophile parents: a love of books, and a talent for telling stories. Both contributed to an early start to her writing career.

After writing short fiction and her first novel in high school, Val switched to journalism in college. She covered several political beats, wrote a weekly column and rose to associate managing editor of The Daily Campus, the fifth largest daily newspaper in Connecticut.

Post-college is when she began writing in earnest. After her first chapter in The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy, Val co-edited The Fantasy Writers Companion with Tee Morris. She released her first solo novel, Not Your Fathers Horseman, at Westercon 58 in Calgary in July 2005, and the sequel, Dark Moon Seasons, at Ravencon in April 2009.

Val writes dark fantasy, horror, paranormal romance and urban fantasy, in addition to her nonfiction works. She is currently co-editing the third book in the Complete Guide series with Lai Zhao, entitled The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy: the Authors Grimoire. Val lives with her husband and three kittens in Concord, New Hampshire.


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Hall, Wayne Arthur

Wayne Hall is the host for the Wayne's Comics weekly podcast as well as one of the hosts for the SFP-Now weekly podcast. He also serves as co-editor and news writer for the SciFiPulse.Net website. He currently writes recaps for Fox's Bones and Syfy's Warehouse 13 programs for monstersandcritics.com. Recently, he also began a weekly recap article on comics called "A Comics Odyssey," in which he includes reviews, news and opinions about the universes that make up comics.

Hammond, Elektra

Elektra Hammond has worked in the back end of publishing as a copyeditor and proofreader since the mid-90s, working in fiction and non-fiction for both large and small press. She recently started doing book reviews, writing short fiction and turning the gears of Sparkito Press, an imprint of Dark Quest Books. Look for her first published story in the anthology In An Iron Cage: The Magic of Steampunk.

Elektra recently relocated to Delaware where she lives with her husband, Mike, and the twenty-some cats of BlueBlaze cattery. When shes not freelancing, she travels the world judging cat shows. She can be found on LiveJournal (elektra_h), Facebook (Elektra Hammond), and Twitter (elektraUM).

Hanson, Michael H.

Michael H. Hanson, the son of a U.S. Army Sergeant and a Nurse, was born in Potsdam, NY, amidst the icy climes of New York States Northcountry. He spent the first ten years of his life as an Army Brat, one of five, living in such disparate locales as: Taipei, Taiwan; Munich, Germany; Camp Drum, NY; and Fort Huachuca, AZ, before finally settling down in his mothers home town of Massena, NY. He began writing his first poems and short stories at the age of 15. He graduated from Massena Central High School and spent a short stint in the U.S. Air Force. Michael went on to become a Film Production major at Syracuse University, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1989.

Michael created, and co-wrote, the first two books in the ShaDaa shared-world anthology series (ShaDaa: Tales of The Apocalypse and ShaDaa: Last Call both published by Altered Dimensions Press). He also has two collections of poetry in print (Autumn Blush published by YaYe Books and Jubilant Whispers published by Diminuendo Press). In the upcoming year Michael will not only be overseeing the writing of two new ShaDaa anthologies, but his short story The Register has been accepted for publication in the 2011 anthology LAWYERS IN HELL, for Janet E. Morriss recently resurrected Heroes in Hell (HIH) shared-world anthology series. Michael is currently writing more stories for future HIH volumes.

Michael is also the Founder of the international writers club, THE FICTIONEERS, a non-profit organization created in 2007 to encourage the writing of sci fi, fantasy, and horror, and the creative interaction of fledgling writers with more experienced professionals. The Fictioneers is loosely modeled after those fun childrens clubs of mid-20th Century radio fame (Captain Midnight, Little Orphan Annie, etc.).

Michael is a Staff Editor at The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He currently lives in New Jersey where he spends his free time spinning introspective verse, and tales of the fantastic, in his small but cozy garden apartment.

YouTube Channel: NorthCountryPoet

Facebook Name: Michael H. Hanson

Harbowy, Gabrielle

GABRIELLE HARBOWY (twitter: @gabrielle_h) is an editor, writer, and small press publisher. She has worked in the publishing industry for over a decadeas a third generation reader of fantasy and science fiction, a passion for books is in her blood. She edited books for author clients including Philippa Ballantine, and publisher clients including Pyr Books, and has worked on novels that have become finalists and winners of literary awards, including the Sir Julius Vogel award, ForeWord Book of the Year, and the Bram Stoker award. As a writer, she has published short stories in anthologies from Cleis Press and Dagan Books, and online in podcast anthologies including Philippa Ballantine's "Chronicles of the Order" series, set in the world of Ballantines novel GEIST (Ace Books). Her short story Swimming Lessons was a 2010 finalist for a Parsec award for excellence in speculative fiction podcasting. She is currently editor and Associate Publisher at Dragon Moon Press, where the horrors of the slushpile and the thrill of bringing new and talented writers to print only reinforce her love of the genre, and a staff proofreader for Lambda Literary. Her latest project, the anthology When the Hero Comes Home, co-edited with fantasy legend Ed Greenwood, is forthcoming from Dragon Moon Press in August 2011. She lives in San Francisco with two cats who are named after chocolate, and a significant other who is not.

Harknell

Harknell is the webmaster and tech-guru of the Onezumi Studios family of websites, but fans know him best for his literary contributions to the Onezumi.com blog and the Harknell.com support community for artists. He occasionally contributes ideas to Onezumi's popular webcomic, and implemented the Harknell.com community. This includes a web-based online drawing program that members of the community use for free. He is currently developing AWSOM (Artist Website Simple One-shot Multi-installer), which will be a free program that sets up an art or comic portfolio website without forcing the artist to learn programming languages. He currently lives near New Brunswick, NJ, where he shares an art studio with Onezumi and a lot of old video games.

Harmon, Kelly A.

Kelly A. Harmon used to be a newspaper reporter. She found reporting to be by turns exciting (covering murder trials) and excruciatingly boring (writing about itty-bitty town council meetings). Most other news managed to fall in between those extremes on a sliding scale of interesting. Eventually, she moved away from full-time reporting and editing. Stories were still interesting, but the rote mechanics of the job became anathema. Nonetheless, she still writes non-fiction... because she can't seem to leave it alone.

When she's not crazed with the need to freelance, she writes fantasy and dark fantasy with the occasional science fiction piece. Her short story, Lies, short-listed for the 2008 Aeon Award and her novella, Blood Soup, won the July 2008 Fantasy Gazetteers Novella Contest. Eternal Press published Blood Soup in print and Ebook in September 2009.

Ms. Harmon's fiction can also be found in Black Dragon, White Dragon, Triangulation: Dark Glass and the upcoming, Bad Ass Fairies 3: In All Their Glory.

Hartlove, Katie

Katie Hartlove (MS Professional Writing) has been actively involved in many aspects of the writing and publication process. Her poems and short stories have appeared magazines and anthologies; most recently, theyve appeared in The Gunpowder Review and Dia de los Muertos. She has been editing for about seven years, including co-editing the 2011 release, Potters Field 4. In 2009, she began Book Mark It Promotions and provides marketing solutions to authors around the country. In 2010, she opened Cold Moon Press, which recently released Vonnie Winslow Crists short story collection, The Greener Forest. Cold Moon Press will be accepting submissions for a winter night themed anthology in spring 2011.

Hemry, John (Jack Campbell)

John G. Hemry is the author, under the pen name Jack Campbell, of the New York Times and USA Today national best-selling Lost Fleet series, of which the newest volume Victorious will be released in April, 2010. John will soon begin two new series: The Lost Fleet — Beyond the Frontier and The Phoenix Stars . Under his own name, John is the author of the JAG in Space series and the Stark�s War series. His short fiction has appeared in periodicals and anthologies and his Small Moments in Time was nominated for a Nebula Award. His humorous short story As You Know Bob was selected for Year�s Best SF 13. John's nonfiction has appeared in Analog and in several BenBella books, and in the Teenagers from the Future anthology. John lived on Midway Island during the 1960s. After attending the US Naval Academy, he served in a variety of jobs during his Naval service. After retiring from the US Navy and settling in Maryland, John began writing. He lives with his long-suffering wife (the incomparable S) and three great kids. His daughter and two sons are diagnosed on the autistic spectrum.

Henderson, C. J.

CJ Henderson is the creator of the Piers Knight supernatural investigator series and the author of Steam-Powered Love, only one of the seventy books he has written. He has also written several hundred short stories, scores of comics and thousands of non-fiction pieces. Published in some thirteen countries now, this sage and venerable personality is by far and away the leading author on his block. Those who bring fine cigars or bacon to his table risk making a friend for life.

Herberth, Reesa

S. Reesa Herberth grew up in Hawaii, tried Arizona for a few years, and eventually settled in the D.C. area, where they have trees and rain.

She's held a variety of crazy writer jobs, including book and video store manager for a defunct chain of music shops, office goddess for an artisan ice cream maker, cheese-cup scrubber at an organic goat dairy, high school secretary, and dye-stained proprietress of a small yarn and fiber business.

When not writing, she can usually be found reading, gardening, cooking, or spinning yarns of another sort entirely. She often resents her need for sleep.

Reesa lives in a house that is eclipsed by the cherry tree out front, where the cats and chinchillas officially outnumber the humans, with a family of her own design.

Hill, Sharon A.

Sharon Hill is a professional geologist specializing in the public understanding of science. In 2006, she began her blog Doubtful to discuss topics relating to paranormal happenings, cryptozoology, anomalous natural phenomena, science & society and general skeptical goodness. She also created the website Seeking Spooks and Monsters for beginning critical thinkers to investigate monsters and ghosts. In fulfillment of a Masters degree in Education, she completed research on amateur paranormal investigation groups. Entitled Being scientifical: Popularity, Purpose and Promotion of Amateur Research and Investigation Groups in the U.S. this study examined ghost hunters, UFO seekers and monster trackers and their use of science and scientific methods. Ms. Hill's other writings were published in The Single Best Idea Ever: Darwin Day Collection One, The Anomalist No. 13, Skeptical Briefs and currently on SheThought.com. In 2010, she founded the Keystone Society for Rational Inquiry to address paranormal and pseudoscience issues in Pennsylvania.

Hillman, Lee C.

Hodgson, William J.

WJ Bill Hodgson has been writing and illustrating professionally since grade school. He has completed over 1,000 professional projects, including many illustrations for games and books (the latter including hundreds of romance novel covers). He lives with his wife (a veterinarian) and 3 kids on a wiener-dog ranch in a suburb of Oklahoma City. He drove all the way out here to hang out and hang some reverse-painted astronomicals (and other tid-bits) in the art show, so please check them out and say "Hi!"

Holderman, Daniel-Gary

Daniel-Gary Holderman was born in Perth Amboy, NJ in August 1976. Though he credits Sayreville, NJ as his hometown, Daniel-Gary actually spent the first 12 years of his life in Orrville, OH, a town surrounded by forests and farms. With little to do in the small town, Daniel-Gary spent much of his time alone, developing his fertile imagination. Studying Theatre and Playwriting during high school, as well as Architecture during college gave Daniel-Gary additional skills such as and understanding of character/setting interactions and working within criterion and space/void awareness.

Using his knowledge, experiences and vivid imagination, Daniel-Gary created the world of Terra, which he introduced us to in December, 2004 with The Heritage of Terra: The Endeavor. Since that time, he has taken great pride in giving back to the people and institutions that helped him to develop both as a person, and an artist. He has created and taught two on-going courses in Creative Writing for Mercer County Community College and has taught at Middlesex and Monmouth Counties Arts Middle Schools.

Holloman, Jeannette

D. Jeannette Holloman is a part of the Greater Columbia Fantasy Costuming Guild, and is part of the "Ron and Jeannette" costuming team. Both she and Ron Robinson are master costumers in both Historical and Fantasy costuming.

Holodak, Kristin

Kristin Holodak has been drawn to image making ever since she was a child and begged her dad to let her hold the family camera while on vacation and then snuck a picture after being explicitly told not to touch any of the buttons. She has spent most of her career creating educational videos, most recently about the arts for the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. While she truly believes in the mission of making the arts accessible and understandable to the general public, it doesn't quite use up all of her creative juices.

Holyfield, P. G.

P.G. Holyfield's love of comparative religion, mythology, mystery and role-playing games let to the creation of the fantasy setting "The Land of Caern." It is a world where gods choose to be born and live mortal lives in order to directly affect events in the world. Murder at Avedon Hill, a cross-genre murder mystery/fantasy, was his first full length work set in this world.

The podcast version of Murder at Avedon Hill began in June of 2007; it quickly transformed from straight read into an audio drama, with over 40 guests adding their voices to the podcast. With over 20,000 listeners since the podcast began (42 episodes over 22 months), MaAH was a finalist for both Podcast Peer (2008, Best Podcast Production and Best Podcast Novel) and Parsec Awards (2009, Best Long Form Audio Drama).

In 2009 P.G. began his second Caern-related project called Tales of the Children. It is an anthology podcast, with short stories written by some of the best writers in New Media today. Also that year P.G.s first published story, Every Breath you Take, appeared in Matthew Wayne Selznicks The Sovereign Era: Year One.

In 2010 Murder at Avedon Hill was published by Dragon Moon Press. The novel was well-received: Midwest Book Review gave MaAH a five-star review, and though not primarily a vampire novel, Murder at Avedon Hill is a finalist for the Dr. John William Polidori Award for Best Vampire Novel of 2010.

P.G.s most recent project was the launching of SpecFicMedia.com, a website focusing on Speculative Fiction media both from around the internet and created specifically for the site, including news, book trailers, author interviews and readings. The SpecFicMedia video podcast, focusing on site content and user-generated videos, begins in April of 2011.

Honeck, Butch

Butch has been a full-time sculptor for almost forty years. He began with welded steel, and now works in bronze, using the lost wax method. He loves motorcycles, and still rides as much as the Michigan climate allows. He also does custom orders, putting your idea into bronze, which lasts forever.

Hooper, Heidi

Heidi Hooper is the Dryer Lint Lady -- Believe it of Not. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University's sculpture department, she later studied for her master's at the University of California Long Beach and the Massachusetts College of Art. After cancer ate most of her upper arm, she has tried to find new ways of making art and has become perhaps the nation's leading dryer lint artist. Her work has recently been purchased by Ripley's Believe It Or Not where it is showing at their museums around the world, and Heidi was featured in their book released in 2010. Her work is also currently showing in galleries in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Heidi is, along with her husband Michael A. Ventrella, one of the founders of NERO and currently runs the Alliance LARP.

Huchton, Starla

Starla currently lives in Monterey, California with her husband and three children and is pursuing a degree in Graphic Design. Her first novel, "The Dreamer's Thread", was completed in late 2008. The Dreamer's Thread was released as a full cast podiobook beginning in August 2009, and was a finalist for a Parsec Award in 2010.

Her other work includes voice acting for other podcasts (Weiner Blut, Erotica a la Carte, Gypsy Audio's Stargazers, Tales of the Scorned Lady, etc), written contributions to the Erotica a la Carte podcast and the Farrago Anthology, and providing the musical side of her voice for podcasts (The Gearheart, Erotica a la Carte). She is also a contributing author for the Ministry of Peculiar Occurences: Phoenix Rising podcast anthology.

Hunt, Walter H.

Walter H. Hunt is a science fiction and historical fiction writer. He has four published military/alien contact novels in the 'Dark Wing' series; his most recent novel was 'A Song In Stone', which deals with Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland and the Order of the Temple. He is currently working on a novel about mesmerism as well as a book in the acclaimed '1632' alternate-history series from Baen Books. A baseball fan and Freemason, he lives in Massachusetts with his wife and teenage daughter.

Hykes, Muriel

Muriel Hykes is known on the net as Dr. Mom for her honorary hard-won Ph.D. in child-rearing. She and her husband, Paul Shuch (aka. Dr. SETI) raised 7 children, all with special needs. She is the listowner for the largest ADHD group at Yahoo. Sick her whole life, she became an adherent of alternative medicine and spends a lot of time telling people what to do when medicine has no answers. Don't her about your problems unless you really want advice. Or, she'll be happy to tell you about the latest computer she built to play Everquest on.


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Impink, Christopher


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Jaxton, Paulette

Paulette Jaxton began writing prose and poetry in high school, but was encouraged to focus on math and science instead by well meaning teachers. A world famous poet once praised a verse she wrote about butterflies, until the women noticed a spelling error and pronounced the poem a piece of crap.

In the 1970s, Paulette left college to pursue a career in computer programming at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center. Later she went on to work for Digital Equipment Corporation developing telecommunications software and advanced user interfaces.

She kept her writings to herself until 2008 when she produced Form Letter Rejection Theatre, a podcast anthology of her short speculative fiction. The Empress Sword, her first novel, has just been published by Dragon Moon Press.

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Katsu, Alma

Alma Katsu is a writer living in the Washington, DC area with her husband, musician Bruce Katsu. She graduated from Brandeis University, where she studied writing with novelist John Irving and children's book author Margaret Rey, and received her MA in Fiction from the Johns Hopkins University. The Taker is her first novel and is published by Gallery Books/Simon and Schuster.

Kim the Comic Book Goddess is a musician and podcaster from near Scranton PA. Geek Pantheon and Your Moment of Kim, was a 2009 Parsec finalist for Best Speculative Fiction Comedy or Parody Podcast. She started in Podcasting on Four Color Heroines, the podcast for Girl-Wonder.Org, a site for feminist comic book fans. She's contributed to When Fangirls Attack, a link-blog once described as "Ground Zero for the controversy over the treatment of women in comics." She's worked on the 9th Heroescast and has read, acted or composed and recorded music for over 15 other podcasts. She's also a multi-instrumentalist who has worked on projects ranging from opera to heavy meta to middle-eastern inspired avant garde. She's learned many neat things: songs in several languages, how to sing harmony with oneself, that playing in a metal band can lead to managing an electronics store and how to fake a role in a one act opera. You can also visit her online at ComicBookGoddess.

Kimball, Eric

Eric is the writer for a number of online comics including Exiern, Blade Bunny and Legacy. He also started a company that publishes comics on the web by other authors such as Knit Princess.

Sounds impressive but to be perfectly honest Eric is just a guy playing around on the web to see what he can do. He loves telling stories and the joy of sharing them with others is what drives hims. Call him silly. Call him determined. But do not call him a professional.

Kimmel, Daniel

Daniel M. Kimmel is past president of the Boston Society of Film Critics. His reviews appeared in the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram and Gazette for 25 years and can now be found at Northshoremovies.net. He is Boston correspondent for Variety, the Movie Maven for the Jewish Advocate and teaches film at Suffolk University. He writes on classic science fiction films for Clarkesworld and Space and Time magazine. His book on the history of FOX TV, The Fourth Network, received the Cable Center Book Award. Other books include a history of DreamWorks, The Dream Team, and Ill Have What Shes Having: Behind the Scenes of the Great Romantic Comedies. His latest is Jar Jar Binks Must Die and other observations about science fiction movies.

Knight, Jonah

After years of writing songs and playing in bands that went nowhere, Jonah Knight had enough. He put down his guitar and got a real job, a stable respectable job. He became a playwright.

Six years later, he stopped writing plays and went back to music with a new approach to songwriting, performing, and the music industry.

Gone are his old songs about bars, girls, and the long, lonely road. He no longer thinks of himself as an Alt 90s angsty hold-out. He is now a pioneer of Paranormal Modern Folk. He doesn't play love songs (unless a ghost is involved), and he doesn't sing about distance affecting his relationships (except when caused by the apocalypse).

His EP Ghosts Don't Disappear examines what it means to be haunted by ghosts, relationships, and the dead. His follow-up The Exploration of Dangerous Places looks at supernatural threats: clone armies, evil Gods, and unknown horrors turn up in almost every song.

While he does have the occasional purely humorous piece, when he writes about haunted houses, self-loathing superheroes, and Lovecraftian monsters he treats the subject matter seriously, as a playwright or a novelist would. In fact, his fourth album is a soundtrack to a novel. Nobody Gets The Girl: Songs for the novel by James Maxey, based on the superhero book, examines the darkness in the human condition of the ghost-like protagonist.

Knight is currently working on a Steampunk album as for a late 2011 release.

Koscienski, Brian

Fortress Publishing, Inc. presents the unholy dichotomy between the blistering writing style of Brian Koscienski, who resembles Sasquatch with mange, and the dynamic gothic world of Chris Pisano, the last known Cro-Magnon man. When angry villagers wielding torches and pitchforks arent chasing them, Brian and Chris make the world a better place through comics, stories, articles, novels and even bawdy haiku. They once plagued the internet under the guise of The Drunken Comic Book Monkeys, a column that allowed them to break the confines of reality and spread their unique views of the world through articles, essays, rants and reviews. With books, comics, magazines, original art, t-shirts, and pint glasses, theres something for everyone to show that Fortress Publishing, Inc. is the coffee stain on the tapestry of life.

Kovacs, A B

A B Kovacs is the Director of D��m at Dark �verlord Media, a publishing company she co-founded with author Scott Sigler. They publish the Galactic Football League series (THE ROOKIE and THE STARTER, with THE ALL-PRO coming in 2011) as well as other stories from the Siglerverse.

Additionally, she is a contributing blogger Skepchick.org, promoting science, skepticism and critical thinking.

Currently an event planner and Sigler-wrangler by day, former lives include medicinal chemist, voice actor, roadie, and Director of Operations at the James Randi Educational Foundation.

A is a rabid movie geek, Doctor Who fan, and science nerd. She volunteers in several women-forward and science-oriented organizations in San Diego where she lives.

Kovalcin, Diane S.

Diane Kovalcin is a long-time costumer, competing in both Science Fiction and Historical masquerades, a quilter and fan fiction writer. She also loves Star Wars and the new BBC show, Merlin - just ask her (or better not since she'll never stop talking about it).

Kovalcin, Laura E.

Laura Kovalcin is a lifelong nerd thanks to the help of her family, who guaranteed that she would be a fan and costumer from birth. Now she can't help but illustrate, create cosplay, and enjoy fandom...perhaps more than she should.


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Lafferty, Mur

Mur Lafferty is a podcasting pioneer, having been behind the mic since 2004. She has produced award winning podcasts such as I Should Be Writing, Playing For Keeps, and the Afterlife Series. She currently is the editor of Escape Pod and is the producer of the Angry Robot Books podcast.

Lampi, Ruth

Ruth Lampi is the author and illustrator of The Blackfeather Chronicles, a series of web novellas updating weekly. Books 1 and 2, the Alarna Affair and The Germhacht Episode, are now available in print form. Ruth earned a BFA in Fine Art from Moore College of Art and Design, where she created figurative and architectural sculptures in clay, paper, wax, and welded steel. Her illustration credits include character portraits for White Silver Publishings Chronicles of Ramlar, interior art for Maschine Zeit, and for the two BadAss Fairies anthologies. For the RPG publisher Goodman Games, she has written several adventure modules and co-authored Heroes Handbook: Eladrin. Most recently, her writing has appeared in Foreshadows: The Ghost of Zero.

Lamplighter, Jagi

L. Jagi Lamplighter is a fantasy author. She has published numerous articles on Japanese animation and appears in several short story anthologies, including BEST OF DREAMS OF DECADENCE, NO LONGER DREAMS, BAD-ASS FAERIES, and the Science Fiction Book Clubs DONT OPEN THIS BOOK. She recently sold her first trilogy, PROSPEROS DAUGHTER, to Tor. The first two volumes: PROSPERO LOST and PROSPERO IN HELL are currently in stores. The last volume, PROSPERO REGAINED comes out in September of 2011

When not writing, she switches to her secret identity as wife and stay-home mom in Centreville, VA, where she lives with her dashing husband, author John C. Wright, and their four darling children, Orville, Ping-Ping, Roland Wilbur, and Justinian Oberon.

Blog

Larson, Grig "Punkie"

Grig "Punkie" Larson has been writing for over 25 years, and been a staple in DC/Baltimore science fiction fandom for as long as he admits to remembering Best know as the author of, "The Saga of Punk Walrus" series of works, his dedication to the craft and the people who love it has ranged from comedy to horror, from stage to film, from the Internet and in person. Grig is currently working for the science fiction themed Balticon Podcast and is Vice Chairman for the anime venue, Katsucon Entertainment, Inc. Grig has been a guest panelist and moderator at many conventions, and he currently lives in Northern Virginia, where he promotes Open Source, Linux, geekery, art, and general fannish shenanigans with his inspirational wife Christine, their grown son Christopher, and the usual gang of cats authors seem to collect.

Leacock, Dina

Writing under the name Diane Arrelle, Dina A. Leacock has sold more than 150 short stories and has 2 published books, Just A Drop In The Cup and Elements Of The Short Story. Dina lives on the edge of the Pine Barrens (home of the Jersey Devil) in Southern New Jersey with her husband, two sons and cat. She was one of the founding members as well as the second president of the Garden State Horror Writers and is also the past president of the Philadelphia Writers Conference.

Many of her stories have won awards including Best Horror Story of the year published in Strange Weird and Wonderful Magazine, and first place in the 2009 Garden State Horror Writers Short Story Contest as well as a finalist in the first annual Micro Fiction award. Her story, To The farm was nominated for a Derringer Award.

To support her writing habit, she has held a wide variety of jobs including Teacher, School Bus Driver, Waitress, Sales Clerk, Mystery Shopper, Newspaper Correspondent, Tutor, Freelance Writer, Senior Citizen Center Director and she was also that person who stood around in a department store burning vanilla tinged milk and cooking tasteless crepes to sell nonstick pots and pans.

Leider, R. Allen

Film reviewer/screenwriter R. Allen Leider's career began in 1970 as copy boy for The Walter Cronkite News. In 1973, he became features writer for The Monster Times and went on to work at Show, Celebrity and Glitter magazines. His photojournalistic work has been syndicated worldwide. He lives in Manhattan with wife Barbara, a professional photographer. In 1984, he created the original story and screenplay for The Oracle, and hosted his own radio show Cinemascene on WWFM.

He writes and edits the online magazine Black Cat Review. His current project is the Wicca Girl Quadrilogy, a magical fantasy action-adventure series following Druscilla Marie d'Lambert from her Medieval childhood thru her transformation to Witch Queen and her modern day assignments as a supernatual MI-6 agent. Together with her BFF Satan's teenage daughter Cheralyn Rose Moscowitz, Druscilla fights the evil supernatural crime syndicate UMBRA run by her medieval nemeses Jocelyn and Maximillian Von Hagen.

Leider also edits the Wicca Girl companion anthology trilogy The Hellfire Lounge. You can find the Wicca Girl Fan site on Facebook.

Lester, Chris

A self-proclaimed mad scientist in training, Chris credits a writing contest in elementary school for introducing him to his muse. His METAMOR CITY PODCAST, a science fiction/fantasy/noir genre mash-up, has won two Parsec Awards for Outstanding Speculative Fiction Podcasting. Chris earned a master's degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of California-Santa Cruz, and is now working as a science teacher at a charter school in Oakland, CA. When he isnt writing or planning lessons, he enjoys role-playing games, swing dancing, and hiking in the Oakland hills.

Levchenko, Andre

Dr. Andre Levchenko is an expert in the area of thermal analysis and calorimetry of organic-inorganic composites, inorganic materials, and nanophases. He finished his PhD in condensed matter physics in 2002 studying liquid crystalline polymers at the Russian Academy of Sciences. He won a Russian Presidential scholarship to continue his advanced studies in materials science at University of California � Davis. He also worked at Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz and Dresden (Germany) while studying for his PhD thesis. Before joining Setaram Inc. Dr. Levchenko was a researcher in the Peter A. Rock Thermochemistry Laboratory led by Prof. Alexandra Navrotsky (University of California at Davis). The Peter A. Rock Thermochemistry Laboratory renowned worldwide for its unique custom-build high temperature calorimeters and cutting edge research in thermodynamics of high temperature materials. He has published more than 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Levin, Neal

Neal Levin is a game designer, author, and publisher. His work in game design includes credits with: Ambient Games, Bastion Press, Dark Quest Games, EN Publishing, Mystic Eye Games and Top Fashion Games. He is a member of the Garden State Horror Writers, EPIC, and SFWA. He also is the publisher of Dark Quest Books. As a short story author he has work in anthologies from many publishers. His known 2010 list includes: Bad Ass Faeries 3, Barbarians at the Jumpgate, Cat Dreamspell, Dreams & Screams, New Blood, Vampire Dreamspell, Wolfology, and Zombonauts.

Lively, Kathryn

Kathryn Lively is an award-winning writer and editor, and executive editor of Phaze Books. She is an EPIC Award nominee and has edited EPIC Award nominated titles for Phaze Books, Whiskey Creek Press, and FrancisIsidore ePress. She also maintains a pen name, Leigh Ellwood, for her romance work.

Kathryn assists businesses with Virginia Beach social media services, and also works as a freelance writer.

When Kathryn isn't busy writing or editing other authors, she maintains a blog of chocolate reviews called Odd Chocolates, blogs random thoughts and tweets.

Livengood, ScienceTim

Tim Livengood caught the science bug as a child, in the traditional way — by reading about dinosaurs. Eventually, he was swayed towards space science by the coolness of Apollo and the Viking unmanned missions combined with limited aptitude for geology and biology. Since then, he has fallen into the one thing he was sure he wouldn't be doing as a scientist: spectroscopy of planetary atmospheres. He now works with the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, adding to his scientific research activities with education and public outreach work, currently as Deputy EPO Lead for NASA's EPOXI mission. He lives in Maryland with his wife, two kids, and a surfeit of pets (particularly cats). You can find where he spends entirely too much time on-line by searching for his pseudonym ScienceTim. In addition to his main pursuits in scientific research and education, Tim also performs occasionally as a professional storyteller and has been known to tell stories as a way to illustrate central truths from the world of science and exploration.

Love, Andy

Andrew Love has Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics and works as an engineer specializing in the analysis of inertial submarine navigation for the Johns Hopkins Universitys Applied Physics laboratory. He has given talks about the science of science fiction, reasoning skills, the likelihood of alien life and other topics to a wide range of audiences. Two of his articles about Ringworld were recently published on Tor.com. He lives with his wife, Pamela, the author of "A Loon Alone" and other children's books, and their 12-year old son.

Lowell, Nathan

Nathan Lowell is a long time reader of science fiction who broke into the genre with his award winning Trader's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper. He started his writing career in 2007 with the podcast versions of his novels. In January of 2010 he signed with Ridan Publishing to produce his books in text formats. He currently has eight novels in audio, and two in print (book three is due in April, 2010).

You can find his work at Podiobooks.com, on the iTunes Music Store, Amazon, and in the Ridan Publishing catalog.

Lurie, Perrianne

Perrianne Lurie is a physician with the Division of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Pennsylvania Department of Health. She has been active in fandom for over 30 year in SF clubs, cons, filking, writing con reviews, etc. She was a member of the Baltimore in 1998 bid committee. She served as deputy division director for programming at BucCONeer, assistant to the director of the Millennium Philcon Hugo Awards Ceremony, and director of the Torcon 3 Hugo Awards Ceremony. She is also active in the Central Pennsylvania (European boardgame) Game Club. She has run the Balticon Green Room for WAY too many years and is a life member of BSFS.


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Madden, Helen E. H.

Helen E. H. Madden, also known as Cynical Woman, is a writer and artist who quit her lucrative day job years ago with no idea what she might do next. In the last three years, shes written 165 short stories for the Heat Flash Erotica Podcast. Recently, she has begun writing in other genres, especially horror and science fiction. She is currently podcasting her second novel, The Little Death, a tale about telepathy, government conspiracies, and the dangers of the human touch.

Helens other works include her webcomics, The Adventures of Cynical Woman and Rats! She also runs the Very Scary online gallery, home to childrens artwork about scary stuff. She is very much in love with zombies right now, but thats probably because she is one, and could someone please explain the concept of sleep to her? Because shes never experienced it herself.

Madden, Paco José

Paco José Madden is a graduate from Catholic University of America with a B.A. in Drama. He has received five DC Larry Neal Writer�s Awards and a Young Artists Grant and Artist Fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He his plays, The Fifth Musketeer (July 2009) and 1001 Days (July 2010), premiered at the Capital Fringe Festival. Who Killed Captain Kirk? will premiere on July 8, 2011. His one woman show, Zombie Girl, will premiere at Vignettes of the Apocalypse V produced by EndTimes Productions in NYC in June 2011.

Martin, Gail Z.

Gail Z. Martin is the author of The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven and Dark Ladys Chosen (The Chronicles of The Necromancer series). A new series set in her world of the Winter Kingdoms, The Fallen Kings Cycle, debuts from Orbit Books in 2011 with Book One: The Sworn and Book Two: The Dread.

Gail is the host of the Ghost in the Machine Fantasy Podcast , and you can find her on MySpace, Facebook, GoodReads, BookTour, BookMarketing.ning, Shelfari and Twitter. She is also the author two non-fiction series. The Thrifty Authors Guide series (Comfort Publishing) includes Launching Your Book Without Losing Your Mind and Author Web Sites that Wow Readers and Impress Reporters. The 30 Day Guide Series (Career Press) includes 30 Days to Social Media Success and 30 Days to Online PR Success. Gails short fiction has been featured in two anthologies: Rum and Runestones from Dragon Moon Press and The Bitten Word from New Con Press.

Mascia, James

Originally from New York, James Mascia got his Bachelor's degree in Creative Writing from SUNY New Paltz, he then went on to obtain his Masters Degree in Education with a concentration in Literature and Writing from Dowling College.

Right on the coattails of his short stories published in A Thousand Faces about Christine and her friends, High School Heroes expands on the universe he created in those stories. A full length novel and webcomic, High Shool Heroes is entertaining to all ages.

James currently resides in Maryland with his beautiful and loving wife, Shelley who tolerates his seemingly endless collection of comic books. James is an English Teacher, currently teaching at the high school and post-secondary levels.

McLean, Patrick E.

Patrick is the creator of the good words (right order) method of professional writing instruction.

He is also the author of the Parsec-Award Winning, How to Succeed in Evil.

And he writes and produces the Seanachai Podcast

In the morning he writes a thousand words. In the afternoon, he does ad work or teaches professionals how to improve their writing. And this life is working out surprisingly well. After taking some hard hits in the advertising business throughout his career (whaddya want, it's a full-contact kind of industry) he's finally found a way to have a few really good clients, have some fun at work and not stress so much about it.

As the saying goes, "Living well is the best revenge".

McPhail, Mike

Mike McPhail is a member of the Military Writers Society of America, and is best known as the Anthologist for the award-winning military science fiction anthology series, Defending The Future (DTF) currently published by Dark Quest Books. DTFI Breach The Hull (2007/2009), DTFII So It Begins (2009), DTFIII By Other Means (2011), and currently working on DTFIV No Mans Land (for May 2011).

He is also the author of the science fiction series the Alliance Archives (AllArc), and the creator of its related Martial Role-Playing Game (MRPG) system.

Mojzes, Bernie

Bernie Mojzes is the author of "The Evil Gazebo," a short, illustrated book that is being rebirthed as a stage production later this year. He is also responsible for a passle of short stories in various anthologies and magazines, including "Dead Souls," "Dragon's Lure," "Crossed Genres" and the Bad-Ass Faeries Series. Although he has on occasion been accused of committing Publick Acts of Music and Philosophy, no charges were ever filed.

Moore, Michelle

Michelle Moore is a fourth-generation Washington, DC native, definitely a rarity in this day and age. She has a well-documented obsession with travel, television, Frappuccinos, and flamingos. All of these, however, come in a distant second to her love of both writing and teaching. Her days are pretty evenly divided between her classroom, where she teaches elementary special education, and huddling over her laptop at the local Starbucks. What few hours left in the day are spent serving the needs of the household menagerie that currently includes cats (one with cerebellar hypoplasia), chinchillas, a bird, and a geriatric guinea pig. Now that she has achieved her goal of becoming a published author, she's ready to start working toward her second lifelong dream Living the life of a snow bird with summers in Maine and winters in the Caribbean.

Moon, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Moon has published twenty-three novels, including two co-authored with Anne McCaffrey. The Speed of Dark won the Nebula in 2004; Remnant Population was a Hugo nominee in 1997. Her first published book, Sheepfarmer's Daughter (first volume of The Deed of Paksenarrion) won the Compton Crook award in 1989. Her other novels include military SF/space opera crossover in both the "Familias Regnant" and "Vatta's War" series, and epic fantasy in the "Paksworld" books. She's returned to Paksenarrion's universe with Oath of Fealty in 2010 and Kings of the North in March, 2011; Echoes of Betrayal will be released in spring 2012 and the fourth book (of five) is well on the way.

Moon has had over thirty shorter works published in magazines, anthologies, and online, spanning the range from comedic fantasy (in the Chicks anthologies from Baen) through stories relating to the novels, hard SF, YA, and anything else that bubbles up from her all-too-fertile imagination. Her most recent fiction collection was Moon Flights (Nightshade, 2007.)

Since anything a writer does can be considered "research," Moon pushes that to the hilt, especially when it comes to swords (she's a founding member of the SFWA Musketeers.) Creaky knees and bifocals have merely slowed the relentless pursuit of new information and skills. Horses, music, fencing, wildlife management, autism issues, history, knitting, cooking, and photography are only some of the long-time interests that have lured her away from the computer, but everything gives way to the next deadline.

Moon lives in central Texas with her husband and two aging horses (nicknamed Bananaface and Drama Queen), Cleo the cat, and a tractor named Bombadil.

Morris, Tee

Tee Morris began his writing career at Balticon, premiering his historical epic fantasy, MOREVI The Chronicles of Rafe & Askana in 2002. In 2005 Tee took MOREVI into the then-unknown podosphere, making his novel the first book podcast in its entirety. That experience led to the founding of Podiobooks.com and collaborating with Evo Terra and Chuck Tomasi on Podcasting for Dummies and its follow-up, Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies. He also went on to win acclaim and accolades for his cross-genre fantasy-detective Billibub Baddings Mysteries, the podcast of The Case of the Singing Sword winning him the 2008 Parsec Award for Best Audio Drama. Along with those full-length novels, Tee has written articles and short stories for BenBella Bookss Farscape Forever: Sex, Drugs, and Killer Muppets, the podcast anthology VOICES: New Media Fiction, BenBella Books So Say We All: Collected Thoughts and Opinions of Battlestar Galactica, and Dragon Moon Press Podthology: The Pod Complex. At Balticon 44, Tee announced alongside NZ author Philippa Ballantine that the steampunk title he had been working on with Pip, Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, had just sold to Harper Voyager. He plans to throw a (tea) party at Balticon 45 to celebrate.

When he is not writing, Tee enjoys life in Virginia alongside Philippa Ballantine, his daughter, and five cats (3 female, 2 males). Considering the male-to-female ratio in his house, Tee understands how General Custer felt near his end.

Muse, Vivid

Viv has two podcasts - "Into The Blender" is co-hosted by Viv and her husband Chooch and is about their adventures in a blended family. Viv also hosts the "Girls Rules" Podcast, with a rotating panel of women giving their opinions and experiences on various topics.

She has been a participant at Balticon 43, Balticon 44 and Dragon*Con 2009 by appearing on new media panels. COHPodcast was a podcast about the MMORPG City of Heroes, and was a Finalist in both the 2008 and 2009 Parsec Awards. Viv has also lent her voice to many other audio projects in the podcasting world.

Viv greatly enjoys dessert hacking and was featured in a Wall Street Journal article for her cherpumple exploits.

She participated in the 2008 and 2009 NaNoWriMo, and won in 2009. Viv is beginning work to create a compilation of works from contributing authors to raise money for breast cancer research.

She and her husband Chooch are looking forward to new projects and new adventures with their family and friends in the coming year.


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Onezumi

Onezumi "Oni" Hartstein was born in New York City but raised in Pittsburgh, PA. where she experienced the positive effects of art on young people. After moving to New Jersey, she worked professionally in animation for The Disney Channel before leaving to start Onezumi Studios, LLC.

"I wanted to do this myself because I believe that art saves lives... It is important to me to put forth a positive voice and to motivate people to discover their own power." -- Onezumi

See Onezumi's rather unconventional Lovecraftian horror comic at Onezumi.com, her "cute and scary" art portfolio and media blog at Onezumiverse and her helpful art tutorials at Drawpocalypse. She has a fiercely loyal online fan base, a vocal off-line following, and has been a guest speaker at XM Satellite Radio and many conventions.

Onezumi has a B.A. in Sociology/Psychology specializing in Gender Studies, and studied classical art in a University for over 6 years on two merit-based full scholarships for intensive art courses prior to her freshman year in college. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and a lot of coffee beans.


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Parish-Philp, GK

GK Parish-Philp has extensive expertise in building online digital media communities and brands. He was instrumental in taking MP3.com and DivX Inc. from start-ups to successful IPOs by managing their online product strategies with a focus on developing powerful, engaged communities around their brands.

Pavlina

Pavlina has many talents and interests. She is an absorber of very cool things. You'll mainly notice her costumes she creates and wears. She is a designer of original costumes, but loves recreation as well. In her spare time she is a scientist, non-mad, weird type. She truly believes in better living through Chemistry. At her home on the web she will occasionally post about her latest project. Don't be afraid if she corners you and asks many questions about your garb, she is mostly harmless.

Pease, Marianne

Marianne became fully addicted to costuming when she competed at the Balticon masquerade in 2008 and somehow took home a couple of awards. She's a member of the GCFCG and has been enthusiastically pursuing a career of total costuming geekdom since then. Most recently she won Best in Class (Master) for Historical Dress and Best in Show: Workmanship at Costume Con 29. She enjoys poofy things, pretty things, fantasy and YA novels, and has now sworn off ruffles and tiny pleats and three separate occasions.

Perkins, TJ

TJ Perkins is a gifted and well-respected author in the mystery/suspense genre. A member of the Maryland Writers Association and Sisters In Crime, her short stories for young readers have appeared in the Ohio State 6th Grade Proficiency Test Preparation Book, Kids Highway Magazine, and Webzine New Works Review with illustrations provided by Dennis Anfuso, just to name a few. Shes placed four times in the CNW/FFWA chapter book competition.

Finished works of her young readers chapter books are entitled: The Fire and the Falcon (which won two chapter book awards), Wound Too Tight, Mystery of the Attic, and On Forbidden Ground. Published books in the Kim & Kelly Mystery Series include: Fantasies Are Murder, The Secret in Phantom Forest, Trade Secret, Image in the Tapestry (which won a chapter book award) and In the Grand Scheme of Things (all with GumShoe Press 2006).

Art of the Ninja: Earth is the first installment of a 5 book series, Shadow Legacy, by publisher Silver Leaf Books, May 2011.

Pielke, Robert G.

Robert Pielke, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, now lives in Claremont, California. He earned a B.A. in History at the University of Maryland, an M. Div. in Systematic Theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, and a Ph. D. in Social Ethics from the Claremont Graduate School.

He taught on ground and online for countless years at George Mason University in Virginia, El Camino College in California and online for the University of Phoenix. Now happily retired from the job, he is doing what he always wanted to do since he wrote his first novel at ten in elementary school. It was one paragraph, three pages long and, although he didnt know it at the time, it was alternate history. Since then, in addition to his academic writings in ethics, logic, and popular culture, he has published short stories, feature articles, film reviews, a non-fiction analysis of rock music, You Say You Want a Revolution: Rock Music in American Culture, a boring academic treatise, Critiquing Moral Arguments, a savagely satirical novel on America and its foibles, proclivities and propensities, Hitler the Cat Goes West, and an alternate history, science fiction novel, The Mission.

Most recently, he has updated and revised his book on rock music and it is being republished by McFarland & Co. Alternate Dimensions Press has published A New Birth of Freedom: The Visitor, the first book of an alternate history/time-travel/first-contact science-fiction trilogy. The second of the three, The Translator, is already underway.

He swims daily, skis occasionally, cooks as an avocation, watches innumerable movies, collects rock and roll concert films, is an avid devotee of Maryland crabs and maintains a rarely visited blog filled with his social and political ravings. His favorite film is the original Hairspray; his favorite song is A Day in the Life; his favorite pizza is from the original Ledo Restaurant in College Park, MD; and he is a firm believer in the efficacy of "sex, drugs and rock and roll." Somehow his family and friends put up with him.

Pisano, Chris

Brian Koscienski & Chris Pisano reside in south, central Pennsylvania where Brian is often chased by angry villagers wielding pitchforks and torches due to his uncanny resemblance to Sasquatch while Chris can often be found in newspapers and magazines under the headline "Cro-Magnon Man Found." Their obsession with writing is pretty thorough; their compositions range from stories to articles to comic books to novels and even haiku. They even went so far as to start their own small press publishing company called Fortress Publishing, Inc.

Plotkin, Andrew

Andrew Plotkin was born when computers were scary remote machines that whirled tape drives manacingly in TV shows. Conveniently, they turned into friendly beeping home boxes just in time for him to start playing with them. Today real computers look like 2001 monoliths, and TV computers look like Summer Glau, but Andrew still plays with them. (The real ones.) His taste in games got stuck on 1980, mind you.

Prellwitz, Pete

Peter Prellwitz is the IT Director for a precious metals refining company located in Philadelphia. Peter has been writing stories, plays and skits since the fifth grade. As a child and young adult, Peter saw limited publication/production of three plays and two series of childrens puppet skits.

Presently, Pete has a total of nine novels published in trade paperback and ebook, all by Double Dragon Publishing (DDP). His novel Horizons was selected by Mike Resnick as Best Science Fiction and awarded DDPs 2003 Draco Award. Four of his short stories appear in the anthology Twisted Tails, which won the 2006 Dream Realms Award. Peter also has short stories in By Other Means (Dark Quest, LLC) and Twisted Tails VI (DDP). He continues writing novels and short stories, as well as dabbling in web comics.

Together with more than three dozen short stories located on his site, Peters novels help weave a tapestry of mankinds exploration and settling of the galaxy over the next two and half millennia.

A native Arizonan, Peter has also lived in Wisconsin, California, Hawaii, New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, where he now lives with his wife, Bethlynne, and four of their five sons. In addition to writing, Peter enjoys history, backpacking, and languages.


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Quill, Robert

Robert Quill is an illustrator who specializes in custom work for individual clients such as portraiture, character sketches, glamour images, pretty much anything the client can imagine. After 20 years he's built up quite a fascinating portfolio. Come browse the work, and maybe order a custom drawing of your very own!


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Reclusado, Larry

Larry Reclusado is the host of the Nova Comic Book Show on Fairfax Public Access. He has been a comic collector for over 40 years and has been a manager of the Nova Comics and Games in Springfield Virginia for 5 years.

He also plays the recurring character Cap'n Swag on the Horror show Monster Madhouse and is currently developing the new public access show Cap'n Swags

Reed, Nobilis

A few years ago Nobilis Reed decided to start sharing the naughty little stories he scribbled out in hidden notebooks. To his surprise, people actually liked them! Now, he cant stop. The poor man is addicted. His wife, teenage children, and even the cats just look on this wretch of a man, hunched over his computer and shake their heads. Clearly, there is no hope for him. The best that can be hoped for is to just make him as comfortable as his condition will allow. Symptoms of his condition include a novel, several novellas, numerous short stories, and the longest-running erotica podcast in the history of the world.

Ridenour, Ray

Ray Ridenour, local science fiction "Personality" has been stalking the halls and scaring the horses since 1966.

A professional artist, although not in the SF field as of yet, he produces computer graphics, large acrylic inkblots, and stained glass windows as well as work in other media.

An amateur actor, he has appeared in two low-budget horror films, as well as many fannish and non-fannish stage productions. His two severed heads from his first movie have gone on to illustrious film careers in Japan.

Moderately funny and marginally charming, he has appeared on many panels on many subjects over the years, unencumbered by expertise or anecdotes germane.

Robbins, Chris

Christen is an amateur astronomer, sci-fi fan, avid reader and web comic artist. Her current project, a web comic titled "Caf-Fiends," is a romantic comedy with a sci-fi twist featuring giant robots, assorted monsters, mad scientists and the occasional elder god.

Robinson, Ron

Ron Robinson is a part of the Greater Columbia Fantasy Costuming Guild, and is part of the "Ron and Jeannette" costuming team. Both he and Jeannette Holloman are master costumers in both Historical and Fantasy costuming.

Roche, Donald Scott

A military brat, fan of horror and occult fiction at an embarrassingly (for my parents anyway) young age, and a seeker of the true reality beyond that which we see every day, I try and include as much life experience in my writing as I can. Every story I write combines these elements into something that I hope you will not only enjoy, but tell all of your friends about. I am active in the podcast fiction sphere and am a contributing editor at Flying Island Press and a managing editor for Abattoir.

Rogow, Roberta

Roberta Rogow is a long-time Fan, noted as a Filker and Costumer. She is the author of four mysteries featuring Lewis Carroll and A. Conan Doyle as detectives. Her most recent book is The Root of the Matter, a mystery set in New York City in 1870.

Rosin, Zan

For years I have been lurking on the outskirts of fandom. Then one day I blinked, said yes to a friend and suddenly just with the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society (PSFS) and Philcon, I found myself serving as President, Vice-President, Treasurer, One Year Director, Co-Chair Programming Committee, Vice-Chair of Philcon, Head of Information along with being active on the various committees of both organizations. Lately I have gafiated to further my education. I am a Pennsylvania Browncoat, Stargate and Eureka Fan. BBC America is my sci-fi channel.

Ross, James Daniel

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, James Daniel Ross has been an actor, computer tech support operator, historic infotainment tour guide, armed self defense retailer, automotive petrol attendant, youth entertainment stock replacement specialist, mass market Italian chef, low priority courier, monthly printed media retailer, automotive industry miscellaneous task facilitator, and ditch digger.

The Radiation Angels: The Chimerium Gambit is his first novel and is followed by The "Radiation Angels: The Key to Damocles".

James Daniel Ross shares a Dream Realm Award with the other others in Breach the Hull, and an EPPIE award with the others appearing in Bad Ass Faeries 2. Most people are begging him to go back to ditch digging.

Rossi, Phil

Phil Rossi -- writer, a musician, and an embracer of "new media" -- has a passion for story-telling matched only by the pleasure he derives from keeping his fans awake at night. Crescent, Rossi's debut novel, was originally released as a podcast in 2007 and has since lured 20,000 listeners into a dark, twisted world of nightmares and things that go bump in the night. Phil Rossi's writing has been paralleled to Stephen King, Philip K. Dick, and HP Lovecraft. He has a flair for vivid and often chilling imagery that lends itself to engrossing narratives and an undertone of inescapable, creeping dread. Phil Rossi is a professional singer-songwriter in the Washington DC metropolitan area. His unique brand of Alt-Country/Rock and Roll, combines influences from 80's New Wave to Blue Grass. In 2003, he was nominated by the Washington Area Music Association for Best New Artist. Phil lives in outside of Washington, DC in Virginia with his wife, daughter, and menagerie of rescued animals. He believes the need for sleep is a myth.

Roy, Kevin

Kevin is the Writer of the online comic Caf-Fiends, a tale about Giant Robots, Super Heros, and Elder Gods, oh and coffee, can't forget the coffee.


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Schubert, Chooch

Chooch is an IT Manager for 'The Man' by day. Musician, writer, and technology geek the rest of the time. He lives in the Washington DC area with his wife. Combined they have 3 sons, and a golden retriever. On most social networks he goes by "Choochus", so trying that on any of your favorite sites is a good bet. or you can check out Random Acts of Chooch.

Schweitzer, Darrell C.

Darrell Schweitzer is the author of over 300 short stories, plus three novels, THE WHITE ISLE, THE SHATTERED GODDESS, and THE MASK OF THE SORCERER, and the Shirley Jackson Award nominee novella LIVING WITH THE DEAD. Some of his story collections include WE ARE ALL LEGENDS, TOM O'BEDLAM'S NIGHT OUT, TRANSIENTS, NIGHTSCAPES, REFUGEES FROM AN IMAGINARY COUNTRY, THE GREAT WORLD AND THE SMALL, and SEKENRE: THE BOOK OF THE SORCERER. His most recent one is a mystery collection, DEADLY THINGS. He has also published poetry, essays, interviews, reviews, etc. and has many non-fiction titles, including THE FANTASTIC HORIZON, WINDOWS OF THE IMAGINATION, DISCOVERING H.P. LOVECRAFT, THE ROBERT E. HOWARD READER etc. He has edited anthologies (recently CTHULHU'S REIGN from DAW and FULL MOON CITY, with Martin Greenberg, from Garland), and was co-editor of WEIRD TALES for 19 years. He has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award four times and won it once. Yes, he really did condense THE LORD OF THE RINGS into a limerick.

Sergi, Joe

Joe lives outside of Washington, DC with his wife, Yee, and daughter, Elizabeth. He has published short prose stories, comics and articles in the romance, horror, science fiction, and super hero genres. His first novel, Sky Girl: Rebirth was released in March, 2010. Joe works as an editor and runs the Cup of Geek website. When not writing, Joe works for an unnamed government agency.

Sherman, David

David Sherman is probably best known as co-author (with Dan Cragg) of the Starfist military SF series and its spinoff, Starfist: Force Recon. On his own, he has written the DemonTech series and a stand-alone vampire novel, The Hunt. He began his literary career writing about US Marines in Vietnam, a topic he knows from personal experience. Of his nine published VN novels, only one is in print. He has come all the way from sunny South Florida to be here this weekend. Please return the favor by visiting his Novelier website.

Sherman, Norm

Norm Sherman is the chief editor and charismatic host of the podcast phenomenon The Drabblecast, a weekly speculative fiction podcast featuring Strange Stories for Strange Listeners, as well as the co-host of the science fiction podcast Escapepod. His eponymous CD, featuring bluegrass folk songs of whale milking, chupacabres, Jesus cloning and mob torture gone awry debuted in 2007 and earned Mr. Sherman 3rd Place in the Indie International Song Writing Competition, won CDbaby.coms Editors Choice Award, and is still frequently requested and played on the Dr. Demento show. Mr. Sherman lives in Baltimore, Maryland where he performs regularly with his 2 piece bluegrass-comedy duo The Skidmarx.

Sigler, Scott

New York Times best-selling novelist Scott Sigler is the author of ANCESTOR, INFECTED and CONTAGIOUS, hardcover thrillers from Crown Publishing.

Before he was published, Scott built a large online following by giving away his self-recorded audiobooks as free, serialized podcasts. His innovative use of technology puts him at the forefront of modern-day publishing and has garnered brand-name exposure among hundreds of thousands of fiction fans and technology buffs.

His loyal fans, who named themselves Junkies, have downloaded over eight million individual episodes of his stories and interact daily with Scott and each other in the social media space.

In 2009, Scott co-founded Dark �verlord Media to publish his Galactic Football League series (THE ROOKIE and THE STARTER, with THE ALL-PRO coming in 2011,) as well as other stories from the Siglerverse.

He's been covered in Time Magazine, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, The Huffington Post, Business Week and Fangoria. He still records his own audiobooks and gives away every story for free to his Junkies.

Silverman, David

David Silverman is President of American Atheists has been an atheist since he was 6 years old. Following a traditional Jewish education (including a Bar Mitzvah), he attended Brandeis University, where he completed his Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science while honing his debating skills with theists in numerous informal debates. After earning his MBA from Penn State, he married one of the Brandeis theistic debate opponents. They currently have a 20-year "mixed marriage" and a daughter, who is following in Dad's atheist footsteps.

Dave became an activist at in 1996, and soon became NJ State Director. He also founded the Alliance of Lucent and AT&T Atheists and Secularists, the first employee club of its kind. He was tapped to be the National Spokesperson in 2004, and then was named Vice President in 2008. The Board of Directors elected Dave as President in September of 2010.

Mr. Silverman has appeared on most major news programs including The O'Reilly Factor, Scarborough Country, The Situation with Wolf Blitzer, CNN' Paula Zahn NOW, Nick News, Hannity and Colmes, Fox and Friends, CN8's It's Your Call, and NPR's All Things Considered. David runs the NoGodBlog and hosts the Atheist Viewpoint TV show.

Dave served as a professional inventor at Bell Labs for 8 years (74 issued patents) and a Marketing Director for Natural Microsystems.

Silverman, Hildy

Hildy Silverman is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Space and Time Magazine. She is the author of several works of short fiction, including Picky (Dark Territories; Garden State Horror Writers), The Darren (Witch Way to the Mall?; Baen Books), and Damned Inspiration (Bad-Ass Fairies; Mundania Press). She is also the vice-president of the Garden State Horror Writers.

Smith, Jennifer Zyren

Jennifer Zyren Smith is an author and artist residing in Maryland. Ever since she discovered ElfQuest at the age of twelve, she has been telling stories through comics and has an entire file cabinet filled with character designs and comics from the last twenty years. Her current graphic novel, LaSalle's Legacy is a fantasy story about the adventures of the crew of the Laughing Panda. When she isn't making art, she is playing video games and failing in her duties as cat slave.

Snyder, Maria V.

Maria V. Snyder switched careers from meteorologist to fantasy novelist when she began writing the New York Times best-selling Study Series (Poison Study, Magic Study and Fire Study) about a young woman who becomes a poison taster. Born in Philadelphia, Maria dreamed of chasing tornados and even earned a BS degree in Meteorology from Penn State University. Unfortunately, she lacked the necessary forecasting skills. Writing, however, lets Maria control the weather, which she gleefully does in her Glass Series (Storm Glass, Sea Glass, and Spy Glass). Maria returned to school and earned a MA in Writing from Seton Hill University where she is currently one of the teachers and mentors for the MFA program. Her latest novel, Outside In follows her debut young adult novel, Inside Out. Maria is also blogging about her writing adventures.

Sparhawk, Bud

Bud Sparhawk is a short story writer who has sold numerous science fiction stories to ANALOG, Asimovs, several Best of anthologies, and other print, audio, and on-line media both in the United States and overseas. He has also written articles appearing in various books and magazines.

He has two print collections (Sam Boone: Front to Back and Dancing with Dragons,) a mass market paperback (VIXEN,) and one eNovel (Distant Seas.) He has been a three-time Nebula novella finalist. Some of his works are available at Fictionwise and through Kindle.

Bud is currently the Eastern Regional Director of SFWA, a member of SIGMA, and now a full-time writer.

Sprunk, Jon

Jon Sprunk is the author of Shadow's Son and the upcoming sequel, Shadow's Lure. He lives in central Pennsylvania with his family. When not writing, he enjoys travel, collecting medieval and ancient weaponry, and pro football.

Stevens, Anthony

Anthony Stevens is the pen name of a gentleman who has written and published alternate history, urban fantasy and paranormal romances stories. He considers himself a bit of a bard and can usually be talked into sharing a tale or two at the drop of a hat.

He often refers to himself as a technogeek olde pharte with a wide variety of life experiences. Although currently employed as an electronic security analyst, he's worked in a variety of industries including stints teaching computer history at the Florida Institute of Technology, teaching English in a business college in Mexico City and as a technical writer and graphic designer for several high-technology firms.

Besides writing, his interests include photography, space exploration, model railroads, steam engines of all types, history and computer graphics. He's been reading one or two novels a week since elementary school.

Anthony is also a huge fan of Free and Open Source Software since he hates the idea of putting any more money into the pockets of either Bill Gates or Steven Jobs.

Strock, Ian Randal

Ian Randal Strock is the publisher of Fantastic Books (which publishes both reprint and new science fiction, fantasy, and related books), and the editor and publisher of SFScope.com (the news of the speculative fiction fields). He has had a long editorial career, working for Analog, Asimov's, Realms of Fantasy, Science Fiction Chronicle, and publishing Artemis Magazine. As a writer, most of his fiction has appeared in Analog (from which he won two AnLab Awards) and Nature. Random House published his first non-fiction book, The Presidential Book of Lists, in 2008.

Sullivan, Michael J.

Born in 1961 in Detroit, Michigan Michael Sullivan began his writing career when he was just ten-years-old. After falling in love with The Lord of the Rings, he sat down at his sister's manual typewriter to create a similar tale and wrote seven novels in his youth. Serious writing began in 1985 as a creative outlet while raising his family in rural Vermont. Over the next ten years, he wrote six-novels in various genres from mystery to literary fiction but obtained no traction in the publishing world. Disheartened with the process, he quit writing for nearly ten years.

Michael's writing spark re-ignited in 2004 when he read Harry Potter with his dyslexic daughter. He fell in love with the story and decided to write something "just for fun" with no intention of publishing. Drawn to the concept of a multi-book series with an overarching story, he started what would later become the Riyria Revelations.

Finding the project compelling and rewarding, he sold his successful advertising agency in 2006 to pursue writing fulltime. He finished all six-books before seeking publication, allowing him to weave multiple story lines told as episodes, each containing its own conflict and resolution.

Originally signing with small press publishers, Michael's first book, "The Crown Conspiracy", sold out in fourteen months. Later he received contracts from traditional publishers including a 3-book, six-figure contract with Orbit (a member of the Hachette Book Group), and a multiple book foreign rights sale to the Czech Republic. A screenplay adaption of The Crown Conspiracy is currently under development by Jamie Reidy (Love and Other Drugs).

Sullivan, Robin

Robin Sullivan is the president and founder of Ridan Publishing, an indie press dedicated to bringing to the market talented authors in Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror. She is also publicist and business manager (recently placed a 3-book six-figure advance to Orbit) for Michael J. Sullivan, award winning and Amazon bestselling author of The Riyria Revelations. Robin conducts free monthly lectures to a group of 500 authors in the Washington DC area on the business side of writing covering topics such as: Publishing 101, how to find an agent, ebook publishing, crossing the chasm from self-pub to traditional pub, writing winning query letters, and what you need o know when negotiating a publishing contract. Ridan publishing currently has 20 released titles from authors including: Michael J. Sullivan, Nathan Lowell, Marshall S. Thomas, Leslie Ann Moore, Todd Fonseca, and new works in production from Eric Knapp and Steven Whibley. Robin is currently editing her own book on publishing entiled: Write2Publish: A Novel Approach to Book Success.

Surber, Travis L.

Travis Surber is the creator of the webcomic Hainted Holler, which follows Southern Geeks living in a Redneck Town. While it started out as a slice of life bio-comic based on Travis, his wife, and the small town they lived in it quickly morphed into something else entirely. Now the cast includes rednecks, a baboon, a villanous clown, and Biscuit Pete the worlds only biscuit flinging superhero.

Travis is a self-taught cartoonist who lives in Bassett, Va with his wife and 2 cats. Last year he published "Beware The Boon" collecting the first 200 Hainted Holler strips and this year he's published Hainted Holler 2:Redneck Boogaloo collecting the next 250 strips. He also began work on his first novel, which he hopes to self publish next year.

Surrette, Gayle

I'm infinitely curious. I hardly ever manage to open a dictionary or encyclopedia (paper or online) without spending an inordinate amount of time following links to other things or being diverted by a new shiny idea, philosophy, technique, or whatever to learn about. Despite my disappointment in finding schools were really places where you polished and smoothed the edges on what you already knew, I managed to get a degree in psychology and a job as a computer programmer — thus introducing the concept of human user interfaces to geeks, management, and support staff as I ended up translating techie talk to English.

An avid reader from a very early age, I also love books — the binding, the paper, the typography, writing of, writing about, editing, proofing, copyediting, and talking about... So, when the chance came to work with Ernest Lilley on SFRevu, Gum Shoe Review, and TechRevu — how could a girl resist. Now, with a tremendous pile of books needing to be read and several venues to talk about books, authors, and idea — I'm happily learning and learning and learning...

Sutton, Bill and Brenda

Balticon 45's Music/Filk Guests of Honor Bill and Brenda Sutton met in 1984 on Compuserve's SF forum, back when it was a new and novel thing for people to actually meet and strike up close friendships with total strangers on a computer network. They chatted online for more than a year before accidentally meeting each other at Bay Filk III. In all their many online conversations, the topic of filking had never come up. Even after talking together for several hours in a hall filk (where Larry Niven was schmoozin' Brenda, and Bill was schmoozin' Larry Niven), they didn't realize that they were old Compuserve buddies until Brenda stood up to leave, whereupon Bill noticed her name badge for the first time. "Hey, I know you!" "Right, I know you!" They've been pretty much inseparable ever since.

These talented singer/songwriters started performing together in filk and folk circles right away. They have recorded 4 solo albums (Bill - Past Due, Shake the Dust Off, Passing Through; Brenda - Strangers No More) and one combination album (Owling at the Moon), as well as numerous individual performances recorded on over 20 compilation albums. In 1989, the Suttons branched out into Irish pub music as the duo Bed & Breakfast. Brenda joined up with Teresa Powell and Gwen Knighton to form the award-winning trio Three Weird Sisters in 2000. TWS's first two CDs, Rite the First Time and Hair of the Frog (released by Bill's publishing company Bedlam House), receives international airplay and is one of the better selling folk/acoustic albums on the small press market. Brenda is back in the studio recording the group's third CD, Third Thyme�s a Charm.

Bill is accomplished on guitar, mandolin, flute, penny whistle, and he's working on the violin. Brenda also plays guitar, but her fort� is the Irish frame drum, the bodhr�n, which she plays with an innovative style all her own. Bill won Pegasus Awards for Best Male Filker in 1986 and Best Techie Song for �Do It Yourself� in 1989, as well as nominations in several other categories. Brenda garnered her share of Pegasus nominations, winning awards for Best Song for �Strangers No More� in 2001, Best Spine-Chilling Song in 2002 for �In a Gown Too Blue.� She shares a Best Performer award with her band mates from Three Weird Sisters.

Bill is Vice President and a Director for Interfilk, a philanthropic organization that funds cross cultural music by sending talented though largely unknown filkers to music conventions they wouldn't ordinarily be able to attend. Brenda is Interfilk�s co-treasurer and maintains the organization�s web site. Together they also helped found and still run GAFilk, the relaxafilk convention held in Atlanta the first week of January every year.

The Suttons were inducted into the Filking Hall of Fame in March 2001. Quoting from the induction award, "Their easy relationships and comfort with many different kinds of people from all walks of life is an inspiration. They support local filks and often seem more interested in hearing what other people are doing than in showing off what they've been doing... You can't ask for better advisors on music, lyrics, presentation, arrangement, and any number of other things. They make people feel good just by being around."

Bill and Brenda have raised five children and are enjoying being grandparents. Bill is a Senior Consultant for telecommunications networking with Hewlett-Packard. Until they stunned their friends and family by picking up and moving from Atlanta to Danville, Indiana, Brenda ran the office and website, edited and published Mythic Passages, the e-zine of Mythic Imagination Institute. Now she works as Office Manager for St. Mark�s Episcopal Church and publishes Soup�s On, a periodical for the Interfaith Hunger Initiative.

Swanwick, Michael

Michael Swanwick is one of the most acclaimed and prolific science fiction and fantasy writers of his generation. He has received a Hugo Award for fiction in an unprecedented five out of six years and has been honored with the Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy Awards as well as receiving nominations for the British Science Fiction Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Michaels new novel, DANCING WITH BEARS, featuring post-Utopian confidence artists Darger and Surplus, has just this month been published by Night Shade Books.


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Talbot, Thomas Brett

Thomas "Brett" Talbot, MD, MS, FAAP, is the director and founder of the Armed Forces Simulation Institute for Medicine (AFSIM). He is portfolio manager of medical modeling, simulation and training portfolio at the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) at Fort Detrick, Maryland where he oversees research and development.

As a pediatrician, scientist and futurist, Dr. Talbot endeavors to develop concepts that will advance the state of the art in medical education and patient care. Areas of interest include natural user interfaces, virtual and augmented reality, interactive technologies and robots. He envisions a future where clinician education is a daily experience and where technology is employed to better connect to and engage patients.

He is a newly minted veteran of the US Army and has served abroad in Honduras and Iraq. He was also teacher of the Medical Management of Chemical and Biological Casualties Course (MCBC) at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD) where he was a subject expert on cyanide and nerve agents.

Dr. Talbot has more than 14 years experience as a developer. Recent software products include Nerve Academy, SIMapse 3.0 Nerve Agent Laboratory, the TOXIC scripting language, and Chem Squares. Hardware development includes the Contestobot 400 and Contestobot 200 response devices. Major Talbot has deployed to Iraq as a battalion surgeon and is a practicing pediatrician.

Dr. Talbot has been an avid reader of science fiction for many years and particularly enjoys classic and hard science fiction.

Tay, Nguyen

Tay Nguyen co-founded DivX Inc., an Internet video company that grew from a small cult of technologists into a major consumer electronics brand by harnessing the power of the online community. His latest company, BackMyBook.com, helps writers use proven entrepreneurial and online strategies to build effective brands and an engaged readership.

Terra, Evo

Evo Terra is the co-founder of Podiobooks.com and the co-author of Podcasting for Dummies. When he's not drinking too much craft beer, he helps plan out digital strategies, is a professional public speaker, and looks for interesting problems to solve.

Terry, Robert E.

Robert E. Terry received the B.S. degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, followed by the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, in 1968, 1975, and 1978, respectively. He is currently a senior research physicist with Enig Associates of Bethesda, MD.

From 1985 to 2007, Dr. Terry worked with the Radiation Hydrodynamics Branch of the Plasma Physics Division, Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). From 1979 to 1984 he worked with the theoretical physics division of Jaycor, Inc in Alexandria, VA. Joining NRL in 1985, he has worked on plasma radiation source (PRS) dynamics, power flow, plasma flow and reflex triode switches, magnetic interlayer pinches, gyrokinetic flows and microturbulence, RF discharge theory, plasma chemistry, and specialized wire z-pinch models. His current research interests include novel fluid particle models, polywell fusion schemes, in-situ fuel production for Mars, and Mars sample return missions. He is the Principal Investigator on a DARPA sponsored research effort in high altitude heat rejection.

A charter member of the Mars Society, he works as the Director of Aerospace Education for the Maryland Wing of the Civil Air Patrol. Dr. Terry maintains a local web discussion list focused on Mars exploration.

Thomas, Marshall S.

Marshall S Thomas is a retired U.S. Government official who served in East Asia for most of his career. Marshall attended the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, the University of New Mexico and the University of Miami with a major in Government/ International Affairs and a minor in History.

Marshall is the author of the six-book Soldier of the Legion science fiction series, set in the far future. The series is now complete with publication of the last volume, Curse of the Legion. Titles in the series include Soldier of the Legion, March of the Legion, Slave of the Legion, Secret of the Legion, Cross of the Legion and Curse of the Legion. The series follows the adventures of a squad of young troopers assigned to the ConFree Legion, serving the people of the Confederation of Free Worlds. ConFree has plenty of formidable and merciless enemies, both human and alien, and as the troopers of Squad Beta face the shock and terror of combat, the dead begin to outnumber the living. As they continue into the dark they realize that all they really have is themselves.

Marshall currently lives in Williamsburg, Virginia with his wife Kim Lien and youngest son Alexander, 20, now in university. His eldest son Christopher is a graduate of Radford University who studied art and graphics design. Marshall loves to write science fiction but has also written on East Asian subjects including Lotus, the story of a refugee. He is a member of the Chesapeake Bay Writers group.

Thomas, Patrick

Patrick Thomas is the author of 150+ short stories and 20 books including the popular fantasy humor series Murphys Lore (which includes Tales From Bulfinches Pub, Fools Day, Through The Drinking Glass, Shadow Of The Wolf, Redemption Road, Bartender Of The Gods, Nightcaps and Empty Graves) as well as the After Hours spin offs Fairy With A Gun, Dead To Rites and Lore & Dysorder. His Mystic Investigators series has grown to include the books Bullets & Brimstone and From The Shadows both with John L. French and Once More Upon A Time and the upcoming Partners In Crime both with Diane Raetz. He has co-edited two anthologies - the vampire themed New Blood and Hear Them Roar. Patricks syndicated humorous advice column Dear Cthulhu has been collected in Have A Dark Day and Good Advice For Bad People. A number of his books are part of the set and props department at the CSI television show. As an artist his work has graced covers for Dark Quest, Padwolf and Marietta, interiors and a cover for Space & Time magazine, and comic covers for Ghostman.

Trakhtenberg, Izolda

Born in Moldova in the former Soviet Union, Izolda grew up steeped in the rich heritage of Eastern Europe. She spent her first years listening to her great-Grandmother talk about subjects as diverse as plants, stones, the weather, people, and music. When she was six, her family immigrated to the USA. During the year-plus immigration process, they lived in Israel and Italy where Izolda soaked up those cultures and languages. The family settled in Michigan where Izolda received a BA in English from the University of Michigan.

After university, she moved to Washington DC. To pursue her interest in environmental education, Izolda moved to the National Geographic Society's (NGS) Educational Media Division. She then moved to NASA where she eventually worked for the GLOBE Program. Envisioned by Vice President Al Gore in his book, Earth In The Balance, the GLOBE Program is a unique international partnership among students, teachers, and scientists where students study the earth and care for the environment. She traveled the world as a GLOBE Master Trainer. This knowledge, these skills and her interest in ancient symbolism and methodologies further developed her insight into human interactions and tendencies. She saw the patterns and relationships among self-direction, self-confidence, and ancient Elemental/environmental symbolism and synthesized them into the Life Elements System. In 2008, she released her first book, Life Elements. Based on the system she developed, the book has inspired people all over the world.

During this time, she pursued her musical interests with the bands Kiva and Folk Nouveau as well as a solo music career. She also taught singing and violin privately. Izolda released her solo CD, Sound the Deep Waters in 2003.

Izolda has also studied the ancient energy and wellness workings of Yoga and Chi energy. She has been a Tai Chi practitioner and teacher for over 18 years. She currently substitute teaches at local yoga studios and teaches yoga privately.

Most recently, she was a guest lecturer at Curry College and the University of Maryland where she discussed historical influences on women and spirituality.

She is an avid fantasy and science fiction fan, and she devours movies like they are pieces of dark chocolate. "The Fiddler's Talisman,"


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Venjean, Daniel

In the confines of his French workshop, Daniel Venjean perpetuates the techniques of Dutch and Flemish Masters such as Van Eyck, Bruegel, Vermeer and Bosch. He is one of the very few artists that still prepare their own pigments out of cooked oils and boiled rabbit skin. For over 45 years, Venjean has applied his in-depth science of painting to illustrate a fantastic universe beyond the limits of the imagination. Joining the ranks of Dali, Magritte and Tanguy, he is hailed worldwide as a major Surrealist artist. Visit www.venjean.com for more info.

Van Name, Mark

Mark L. Van Name is a writer, technologist, and spoken word performer. As a science fiction author, he has published four novels (One Jump Ahead, Slanted Jack, Overthrowing Heaven, and Children No More) as well as an omnibus collection of his first two books (Jump Gate Twist); edited or co-edited three anthologies (Intersections: The Sycamore Hill Anthology, Transhuman, and The Wild Side). His fifth novel, No Going Back, appears in February. He has also written many short stories that have appeared in a wide variety of books and magazines, including Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, many original anthologies, and The Year's Best Science Fiction.

As a technologist, he is the CEO of a fact-based marketing and technology assessment firm, Principled Technologies, Inc., that is based in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. He has worked with computer technology for his entire professional career and has published over a thousand articles in the computer trade press, as well as a broad assortment of essays and reviews.

As a spoken word artist, he has created and performed two shows: Science Magic Sex, and Wake Up Horny, Wake Up Angry. He also frequently leads humor panels at SF conventions.

Ventrella, Michael A.

Michael A. Ventrella's second fantasy novel "The Axes of Evil" (a sequel to "Arch Enemies") was released in 2010, and his pirate short stories are available in the anthologies "Rum and Runestones" and the forthcoming "Cutlass and Musket, Tales of Piratical Skulduggery."

Michael is editor of "Tales of Fortannis: A Bard's Eye View" -- an anthology of short stories which may be released by the time of this convention.

Michael is one of the founders of modern live action fantasy medieval role-playing games in America, having started NERO in 1989. He currently runs the Alliance LARP, which has chapters all over the country. He also founded Animato magazine, wrote for FPS Magazine, and has been quoted as an animation expert in Entertainment Weekly, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and books and webpages. He can be easily found on social networks under his name.

He is married to artist Heidi Hooper. In his spare time, he is a lawyer.

Vivid Muse

Viv co-hosts the Into the Blender podcast with her husband Chooch, about their lives and parenting a blended family. Their previous project, the CoH Podcast, was about the City Of Heroes MMORPG and was a Finalist in both the 2008 and 2009 Parsec Awards, but sadly came home empty handed both years. Both podcasts began in October of 2007 and led to participation on New Media Panels at Balticon 43 and Dragon*Con 2009. Viv participated in the 2008 and 2009 NaNoWriMo, and won in 2009. She has also lent her voice to other audio projects in the podcasting world. Viv and her husband Chooch live in a blended family with their three sons from previous marriages.


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Ward, Jean Marie

Jean Marie Ward's first novel, With Nine You Get Vanyr (written with the late Teri Smith), finaled in both the SF/Fantasy and Humor categories of the 2008 Indie Book Awards. Her short stories have been published in numerous anthologies, including Here Be Dragons: Tales of DragonCon (which featured Robert Asprins last short story). Her latest nonfiction book, Fantasy Art Templates, published by Barrons in March 2010, provides scan-ready templates for one hundred fifty fantasy characters, monsters and gods. She edited the web magazine Crescent Blues for eight years, and her articles have appeared in venues as diverse as Romance Writers Report and Science Fiction Weekly.

Waters, Robert E.

Robert E. Waters is a science fiction and fantasy writer. Since 1994, he has worked in the computer and board gaming industry as technical writer, editor, designer, and producer. His first professional fiction publication came in 2003 with the story The Assassins Retirement Party, Weird Tales, Issue #332. Since then he has sold stories to Nth Degree, Nth Zine, Black Library Publishing (Games Workshop), Dark Quest Books, Padwolf Publishing, Mundania Press, Dragon Moon Press, and Rogue Blades Entertainment. Between the years of 1998 2006, he also served as an assistant editor to Weird Tales, and is still a frequent contributor to Tangent Online, a short fiction review site. Robert currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with his wife Beth, their son Jason, and their cat Buzz.

Watt-Evans, Lawrence

Lawrence Watt-Evans has been writing fantasy for a living for thirty years, with more than forty novels and a hundred short stories to his credit. He won the Hugo for his short story "Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers" in 1988; his novel Dragon Weather was named the best fantasy novel of 1999 by Science Fiction Chronicle. He lives in Takoma Park, Maryland with his wife and an overweight cat.

Weaver, Aisling

Aisling Weaver has been plucking at the threads of dreams for decades but only recently has dared capture the senses with words. She writes from a tiny corner of the world known to few on stolen time and borrowed inspiration. By day chained to a desk when set free she delves the shadowy recesses where desire, need, lust and passion meet the spectrum of emotion.

Her works include Finding Anastasia, Dedication, Ensnared:Volume One of The DreamSpinner's Web as well as Voyeur and Slipping Time(written as Scarlett Greyson). She's also has pieces included in the anthologies Dirtyville and Kinkyville(edited by Sommer Marsden), Eat Me(edited by Alison Tyler) and Hearteater(editing by Monocle).

Weichsel, Brent

Brent Weichsel, is a film director who has worked all over the world. From Australia, Western Soma, and the Caribbean he has shot, directed, edited, and written all forms of film ranging from Music videos, commercials, feature films, short films, and web series.

Weinstein, Diane M.

Diane Weinstein was assistant editor and art director at WEIRD TALES magazine for 15 years. She's also worked for Wildside Press and has been the art editor of SPACE AND TIME magazine for the past 3 years. She is also a well-known party person, having thrown parties for Phrolicon, Magicon, andassisted with Philcon SFWA parties back in the good old days.

Welliver, Heather

Heather Welliver, an accomplished singer and voice actress, co-hosts the media review podcast Grailwolf's Geek Life with her husband Marc Bailey. She is a regular Narrator for podcasts such as Escape Pod and Transmissions from Beyond, and has done guest voices for several podcasts as Chasing The Bard by Philippa Ballantine and Metamor City by Chris Lester and The Empress Sword and Form Letter Rejection Theatre by Paulette Jaxton. She is currently starring as Agent Cyris in the podcast novel Cybrosis by P.C. Haring.

When she recorded with the Shillas, she had no idea how well received her music would be. Their number one hit Faithful is the theme song for Nobilis Erotica and has been featured in several podcasts along with their other hit Don't Even Care. Heather has also done the theme song for the podcast project Pieces.

Heather Looks forward to pursuing both her voice acting and singing careers further and is always looking for a new project. She is rumored to be full of awsome and coated in win.

White, Alex

Alex White is the writer and host of the 2010 Parsec Finalist podcast The Gearheart. Alex's production team, including lovely wife Ren�e White, is responsible for all of the music, voices and photos seen in association with the podcast.

White, Renee

Renee White is the female voice actress for The Gearheart, a podcast novel written by her husband Alex White. She also has her own blog which has been featured on Joystiq, Kotaku, Nintendo Power Magazine, Craftzine, and multiple other websites interested in gamer and geek related crafts.

White, Steve

Steve White was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1946 and served as a Naval Intelligence officer in the Mediterranean and in the Vietnam War Zone. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia Law School and an associate member of the Virginia Bar. In addition to the best-selling Starfire military science fiction series with David Weber, he has written several popular science fiction adventure novels for Baen. They include the trilogy comprising The Disinherited, Legacy and Debt of Ages, which combine fast-paced space opera with Arthurian mythology. He has also written the galaxy-spanning adventure Prince of Sunset, and its sequel Emperor of Dawn, the secret-history science fiction novel The Prometheus Project, the high fantasy novel Demons Gate, and the time travel adventure Blood of the Heroes. His most recent novel is Saint Antonys Fire, an alternate-history fantasy set in Elizabethan times. Extremis, a new novel in the Starfire series, this time in collaboration with Chuck Gannon, is slated for a May release. Steve lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is married and has three daughters, the youngest of whom he and his wife found and adopted in Russia but thats another story.

Whitestar, Alanna

Alanna Whitestar is a Master Costumer and a founding member of the Greater Columbia Fantasy Costumers Guild. She enjoys reading science fiction and fantasy, as well as doing Native American-style beadwork. She lives in Columbia with her sister and three cats.

Williams, John Taylor

John Taylor Williams is a full-time self-employed audio engineer, producer, composer, and sound designer.

He edits and masters The Cory Doctorow Podcast on a weekly basis.

Together with Thomas "cmdln" Gideon, he co-hosts The Living Proof Brewcast.

He makes his living broadcasting, recording, editing and mastering audio for multiple live and in studio events including video, multicasts, webinars, podcasts, public service announcements and town hall presentations.

He has been involved in audio engineering and DIY recording for over twenty years and has learned a few things along the way!

In his free time, he makes beer, jewelry, odd musical instruments and furniture. He likes to meditate, to read and to cook.

Wilson, D.C.

Short story author and podcaster D. C. Wilson has appeared in the Bad-Ass Faeries Anthologies as well as a number of other anthologies. He attended Penn State University where he earned both a bachelor's and master's degree. Currently, he works for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Harrisburg Area Community College. He is also enrolled as a graduate student at the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. He lives in Harrisburg with his wonderful wife Maria and their dog Hayleigh. Rumors that he is actually a radioactive mutant spawned in the coolant towers of Three Mile Island have not been confirmed, but he blogs as thealienwriter.com

Wilson, Steven H.

Steven H. Wilson has interviewed Jonathan Frakes and William Campbell for Starlog, written for DC Comics Star Trek classic and Warlord series, and, most recently, served as principal writer and director for Prometheus Radio Theatre and publisher of Firebringer Press. His original science fiction series, The Arbiter Chronicles, currently boasting nineteen full-cast audio dramas and the novel Taken Liberty, has won the Mark Time Silver Award and the Parsec Award for Best Audio Drama (long form). A second Arbiter Chronicles novel and a new series of episodes are currently in development. His second novel, Peace Lord of the Red Planet, was released in 2010. As a podcaster, besides hosting the Prometheus Radio Theatre podcast, Steve has recorded Lester Del Reys Badge of Infamy for podiobooks.com, multiple roles in J. Daniel Sawyers production of Antithesis, and Nobiliss upcoming presentation of Scouts . Steve entered SF fandom as a fanzine writer in 1984, and worked on the committees and Shore Leave, Clippercon and OktoberTrek before becoming founding co-chairman of Farpoint. Alongside his wife, Renee, he is currently Farpoints Operations Manager.

Wisoker, Leona

Leona Wisoker's writing is fueled equally by coffee and conviction. Addicted to eclectic research and reading since childhood, she often chooses reading material alphabetically rather than by subject or author. This has led her to read about aardvarks, birds, child-warriors, dragons, eggs, and many other random subjects.

Leona's debut series, Children of the Desert, is set in a world which has known neither King Arthur nor Christianity; a world still struggling through a number of basic moral and developmental issues. The final result leaves room not only for serious questions but moments of laughter, and inevitably involves coffee.

World, J. Andrew

When the fanzine Nth Degree went on hiatus, staff artist J. Andrew World wondered how on earth he would occupy himself. This dilemma was quickly solved, however, as he has since done work for various cons such as RavenCon, Capclave, and ReConStruction(2010 NASFiC), designed album covers for the FuMP, and begun work on a personal project called "The Seen". But he still felt he wasn't running himself ragged enough, so he decided to go back to school full time to earn a masters degree in Art Education. Now with Nth Degree back in the form of Nth Zine, J. Andrew has given up sleep to work on his art so he can actually see his wife and kids from time to time. You can visit him online at www.jandrewworld.com or at

Wray, Phoebe

Phoebe Wray's first novel, JEMMA7729, futurist science fiction, was published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. She has a piece in All About Eve, an anthology recently released by Wolfsinger Pubications, and a story forthcoming in May in No Man;s Land, Volume 4 of the Defending the Future series. A horror story, Names, is in Backless, Strapless, and Slit to the Throat: A Femme Fatale Anthology, from Inkspotter Press. Shes had short stories in Farthing, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, fables, and The Garden. Her poetry has been published in Fiddlehead, Cats Magazine, Chronogram, Snow Monkey and chizine.org. She is the President of Broad Universe, the international non-profit promoting women writers of genre fiction. She lives in an old farmhouse in Massachusetts, and teaches in the Theatre Division of The Boston Conservatory.

Wright, John C.

John C. Wright is a retired attorney, newspaperman and newspaper editor, who was only once on the lam and forced to hide from the police who did not admire his newspaper.

In 1987, he graduated from the College and William and Mary's Law School (going from the third oldest to the second oldest school in continuous use in the United States), and was admitted to the practice of law in three jurisdictions (New York, May 1989; Maryland December 1990; DC January 1994). His law practice was unsuccessful enough to drive him into bankruptcy soon thereafter. His stint as a newspaperman for the St. Mary's Today was more rewarding spiritually, but, alas, also a failure financially. He presently works (successfully) as a writer in Virginia, where he lives in fairy-tale-like happiness with his wife, the authoress L. Jagi Lamplighter (Annapolis, class of 1985), and their four children: Evelyn, Orville, Wilbur, and Just Wright.


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Young, Jeff

Jeff Young is a bookseller first and a writer second although he wouldnt mind a reversal of fortune.

He received a Writers of the Future award for the short story Written in Light which appears in the 26th L.Ron Hubbards Writers of the Future Anthology. Jeffs story Blankets is featured in By Other Means, the third volume of the Military Science Fiction series Defending the Future. Hes been published in: Realms, Neuronet, Trail of Indiscretion, Cemetery Moon, Realms Beyond and Carbon14. Jeff has contributed to the upcoming anthologies Clockwork Chaos and In an Iron Cage: The Magic of Steampunk, to be released in 2011. Jeff has led the Watch the Skies SF&F Discussion Group of Camp Hill and Harrisburg, PA for ten years.

Yuter, Alan

Rabbi Emeritus of the Orthodox Congregation Israel of Springfield, NJ, where he served with distinction for 15 years, and Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Touro College for 10 years, Rabbi Yuter was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and completed a Ph.D. in Modern Hebrew Literature at New York University. After leaving the Conservative Movement and being ordained under the auspices of Hebrew Theological College, RIETS, the affiliate of Yeshiva University, and Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yuter joined the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America where he continues to hold membership. Following his retirement as spiritual leader of Congregation Israel in Springfield, NJ, in 2002, Rabbi Yuter joined the faculty of Hillel Yeshiva High School in Ocean, NJ, as well as serving as an adjunct faculty member at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ. Rabbi Yuter has also been rabbi of the Jewish Community Center of Spring Valley, NY and First Hebrew Congregation of Peekskill, NY. In addition to his doctorate, Rabbi Yuter holds a BA in Philosophy from Temple University, a BHL in Bible and Talmud from Gratz College, an MHL in Judaic Studies from The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and an MA in Hebrew Literature and Secondary Education from Hunter College. A prolific author and philosopher who writes on religious themes in Biblical and Jewish law and contemporary Jewish thought, Rabbi Yuter penned Holocaust and Hebrew in 1983. His many scholarly articles and essays have appeared in numerous important prestigious journals including Judaism, Midstream, Jewish Political Studies Review, and others. Rabbi Yuter was also an assistant professor at SUNY in Albany, NY, and from 1974-76 he lived in Baltimore, where he was an assistant professor at the Baltimore Hebrew College. While in Baltimore, Rabbi Yuter conducted the auxiliary High Holiday service for Beth Tfiloh Congregation. He and his wife, Linda, are the parents of a son, who is also a rabbi, and a daughter living with her family in Israel.

Zelkowitz, Marvin

Marvin Zelkowitz is a Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Maryland in College Park. His research interests are in experimental software engineering and technology transfer where he has studied the introduction of new computer technology into organizations such as NASA and the Department of Defense. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE), a Golden Core member of the Computer Society, and has published over 160 conference and journal papers on aspects of computer technology (none intentionally science fiction).

His interests include skepticism where he is president of the National Capital Area Skeptics, bible studies (who wrote those books and why?), and reading science fiction, which he has been doing since he was 12 - several centuries ago. As an aging Geek, he used to totally understand how gadgets like the original IBM PC worked, can still set the clock on his home DVD player, but doesn't understand who or why anyone wants an iPhone.

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