Critzer, Rinn

Rinn is a veteran Washington, DC-based actress of classical, musical, and modern American theater. Some of the highlights of her career include singing with the Dave Brubeck Quartet at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, and working under the musical direction of Tony Award nominee Michael John LaChiusa. Also, as a professional theater management volunteer, Rinn received the League of Washington Theaters “Off Stage Award” in 2009. She also plays the roles of Ma Hyter and Hettie Hyter in Shotgun Mythos. Deborah trained at Georgetown Washington University, the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, and the Shakespeare Theatre Company.

D’Ambrosio, Michael Andrew

Michael is well-known for his Fractured Time trilogy and his Space Frontiers series. Recently, his new novel Princess Pain, book one of the new Pain series, was published and released by Blackwyrm Publishing. Michael also writes screenplays, some adapted from his novels. He participates in more than 10 conventions a year around the country. Look for more news and appearances on Michael’s projects at www.fracturedtime.com.

Davis, Rebecca K.

Becca is an avid steampunk prop maker, and all around fan. She has flirted with indie film (the relationship does not appear serious just yet, but there is hope) and is working in a number of projects that aren’t ready to be announced as of this writing.

Current Projects: Live Action Performances with Guardians Performance Group, Production on “Blood / Clan”, writing what she hopes will be able to be a Steampunk Indie Film.

Davroe, A. L.

A.L. Davroe writes speculative fiction for teens and adults. She is the author of City Steam, Salvation Station, and For Your Heart. Her upcoming YA Cyberpunk novel, Nexis, is due for publication in August.

Dearborn, Donna

Donna, a BSFS member and long-time recording secretary of BSFS, is the manager of Balticon’s Hal Haag Memorial Game Room. She is also the host of Games Club of Maryland’s (GCOM’s) Alphabet Soup gaming sessions at BSFS headquarters. A retired Nurse Practitioner, Donna believe that interest in games encourages a healthy brain as you age. Not to mention being great just for fun!

DeCandido, Keith

Keith R.A. DeCandido is launching his short story collection Without a License at Balticon. He has a catapult and everything. Other recent work includes Star Trek: The Klingon Art of War, Sleepy Hollow: Children of the Revolution, Gryphon Precinct, stories in Stargate: Far Horizons, Out of Tune, Bad-Ass Faeries: It’s Elemental, With Great Power, The X-Files: Trust No One, and Buzzy Mag Online, an adventure for the Firefly: Echoes of War RPG, and rewatches of various bits of the Star Trek and Stargate franchises for Tor.com. Find out less at his cheerfully retro web site at DeCandido.net.

Diaz, Ming “Cookie”

Ming has been perpetually interested in storytelling, clowning, facepainting, and costuming for the past 40-some years while actually making an income/playing at being an electronics tech. He has never worked a day in his life. When allowed free rein, he will teach basic communication skills to teens, turning them into presentation critics. You can usually find him in the Fast Track area or follow the tracks of bread crumbs to a panel area during the day.

Dr. SETI®

Dr. SETI® is the stage name of the blatant exhibitionist who inhabits the body of noted author and educator Dr. H. Paul Shuch (rhymes with luck). A cross between Tom Lehrer and Carl Sagan, it is said that Dr. SETI sings like Sagan and lectures like Lehrer. Armed with a laptop computer and an acoustical guitar, Dr. SETI travels the world making the search for life in space accessible to audiences as diverse as humanity itself.

Since the formation of the nonprofit, membership-supported SETI League in 1994, H. Paul Shuch has served as its Executive Director (now emeritus), coordinating its science mission and delivering hundreds of Dr. SETI® presentations to thousands of enthusiasts, in dozens of countries on six continents.
At college campuses, science centers, public lecture halls, and on television and radio, Dr. SETI’s unique mix of science and song seeks to educate as well as entertain. He compels the listener to contemplate a fundamental question, which has haunted humankind since first we realized that the points of light in the night sky are other suns: Are We Alone?>

Ehrlich, Gary

Gary Ehrlich stalks the hallways of Northeast conventions and assorted filk conventions. In mundania he is a mild-mannered structural engineer for a major trade association, representing them on material design standards committees and at building code hearings. At cons he can be found on a stage or in the filk room, offering songs of space flight, lunar colonies and hyperspace hotels. Gary is a three-time chair of Conterpoint, the DC area’s incarnation of NEFilk, the Floating Northeast Filk Con, has filled other roles for Conterpoint and for 1997’s Second Concerto, and is currently Balticon’s Director of Filk and Other Musical Mayhem. In April 2012 Gary was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame for his contributions to the filk community. Gary appears on five collections of convention recordings: “How Many of them Can We Make Die?” (Conterpoint ’96), “The Filk Was Great…” (Conterpoint ’00), and “Millennium Pandemonium, Volume 1” (MilPhil ’01) by Kludge Audio, and USB Productions’ “Triskaidekafilkia” (FilKONtario 13) and “Filk Heroes” (FilKONtario 14).

Peter was first introduced to Euro-style boardgames by Hal Haag at a long-ago Balticon, and has been playing them regularly ever since. He was the first Euro-games champion at the Congress of Gamers event in Rockville, MD, and regularly competes at the Games Club of Maryland’s EuroQuest event. His favorite strategy game is Twixt, and he earned a second place finish in the first (and only) Twixt tournament ever held at BPA’s World Boardgaming Championships. But mostly he plays games for fun, and especially railroad-type board games, having been a train buff since almost his earliest memories. A graduate of MIT, his technical career has focused on software and systems analysis.

Fleischer, Eric “Dr. Gandalf”

Along with his wife Halla (Balticon 35’s Artist Guest of Honor), Dr G. has been attending Balticon well over 25 years. After winning first place master costumer at Balticon 16 in 1982, he decided to quit costuming while he was ahead and moved into other aspects of the convention. He has been the art show auctioneer for many years, and more recently has also been the BSFS Books for Kids auctioneer.
Dr G. also works on the technical side of Balticon, recording the Masquerade, Parody Plays, Guest of Honor speeches and other events in the convention’s main tent, doing the post production on the videos, and creating DVDs of the events. The DVDs are available for purchase. The proceeds from the sales help support Balticon and BSFS.

Flynnstress

Flynnstress brings a sultry, feminine voice to Geek Radio Daily.‘s sometimes weekly podcast, GRDsWeekly. She is originally from Maryland, and went to school at George Mason University and University of Phoenix. When Flynnstress is not co-hosting GRD, she helps teachers integrate 21st century skills in the classroom with inspiring Ed Tech, as an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher. She loves WordPress and graphic design, and she is slowly but surely teaching herself coding. You can also likely find her playing roller derby with the River City Rollergirls (derby name Thistle Hurt) or snuggled up with a book. She loves Doctor Who, Firefly, steampunk, Star Trek, The Matrix, partying with her friends, being a Grammar Nerd, and meeting new people. Flynnstress also loves to travel, watches way too much TV, and admits to being addicted to Facebook.

French, John L.

John L. French is a crime scene supervisor with a major East Coast crime laboratory. As a break from the realities of his job he writes science fiction, pulp, horror, fantasy and, of course, crime fiction. His books include The Devil of Harbor City, Souls on Fire, Past Sins, Here There be Monsters, Paradise Denied and (with Patrick Thomas) The Assassins’ Ball. He is the editor of Mermaids 13: Tales from the Sea; Bad Cop, No Donut (which features tales of police behaving badly) and To Hell in a Fast Car (which features stories of everyone else behaving badly).

Gannon, Charles E.

Dr. Charles E. Gannon’s novel Nebula-nominated novel, Fire With Fire, won the 2014 Compton Crook Award and was a national bestseller. The next volume in this hard sf interstellar epic, Trial By Fire, was a summer 2014 title, as iwas Gannon’s next Ring of Fire collaboration with Eric Flint, 1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies. Their 1635: The Papal Stakes, was a Wall Street Journal Best Seller, and their 2014 The Aethers of Mars—a short novel comprised of two braided novellas, one by each author—is the first book in the Steam, Aether, Empire steampunk universe. Gannon’s other work includes the Starfire novel Extremis (w/ Steve White), stories in various shared universes (Honorverse, Man-Kzin, War-World), and novellas in anthologies such as Going Interstellar and magazines such as Analog. His forthcoming novels include Raising Caine (the third book in the Caine Riordan/Fire With Fire series), Imperative (the next Starfire novel with Steve White) and 1636: The Vatican Sanction (with Eric Flint).

Along with approximately 45 other SF writers (including Niven, Pournelle, Benford, Bova and Balticon regulars Catherine Asaro, John Hemry, Ed Lerner, and Bud Sparhawk), Dr. Gannon is a member of SIGMA, the “SF think-tank.” In that role, he has advised various intelligence and defense organizations since 2008, including The Department of Homeland Security, Pentagon, Air Force, Army, NATO, NRO, NASA, DARPA, and several agencies which may not be disclosed. Occasionally, an agency’s interest is centered directly on his fiction: the first public reading from the final manuscript of Fire With Fire was as part of his presentation to the annual Tech Forum conference held by the National Reconnaissance Office.

During his time as a Distinguished Professor at St. Bonaventure University and a Senior Fulbright Specialist (2004-2009), Dr. Gannon was a Fulbright Fellow at Liverpool University, Palacky University [Czech Republic], and the University of Dundee. He also received Fulbright and Embassy Travel grants to these countries as well as to The Netherlands, Slovakia, England, and Italy. He published extensively on the interaction of fiction, technology (particularly military and space), and political influence. His work of non-fiction, Rumors of War and Infernal Machines: Technomilitary Agenda Setting in American and British Speculative Fiction, won the 2006 American Library Association Choice Award for Outstanding Book.

is earlier credits include routine writing and editing for several award winning games from Game Designers Workshop (Traveller, 2300 AD), as well as film/TV writing and production in NYC for clients as diverse as the UN, WHO, PBS, others. More recently, he has been on the other side of the camera and microphone, appearing in a number of national radio and TV venues, including The Discover Channel’s “Curiosity” and NPR.

Gay, Dr. Pamela L.

Dr. Pamela L. Gay is an astronomer, writer, and podcaster focused on using new media to engage people in science and technology. Through “CosmoQuest Virtual Research Facility,”, she works to engage people in both learning and doing science. Join her project, CosmoQuest, to map our solar system in unprecedented detail through citizen science projects, and to learn astronomy through media productions such as Astronomy Cast. Through this weekly podcast, Fraser Cain and Dr. Gay take you on a facts-based journey through our cosmos, exploring not only what we know, but how we know it. In addition to podcasting, she also works to communicate astronomy to the public through her blog StarStryder.com, and through frequent public talks, and mass media. Her writing has appeared in Astronomy, Sky and Telescope, and Lightspeed magazines, and she has appeared in episodes of “The Universe” and “National Geographic’s Top Secrets”.

Gigiere, Veronica R.

Veronica “V.” Giguere is a narrator, author, and educator. In love with her microphone for nearly nine years, she has voiced spoiled supervillains, tempting demons, Communist metahumans, fierce pirates, anxious technomancers, secret agent archaeologists, suspicious journalists, foxling pirates, enchanted princesses, and a young woman facing an odd spider infestation. She is a coauthor of the Secret World Chronicles podcast novel series and her other writings include inner-city cyberpunk, psychological thrillers, and zombies. When she isn’t telling you your favorite stories, Veronica masquerades as a mild-mannered academic whose specialties include time management and academic resource instruction.

Gossard, James L.

James L Gossard is a Maryland screenwriter, playwright, and fiction writer. He has received multiple awards in the humanities and for writing. StoryPros named his screenplay, “White Dust,” in its Top Ten Action-Thrillers for 2014. Gossard’s other screenplays have also placed in the Final Draft Screenwriters competitions, among others. His stage plays have been produced and have received multiple awards, including the Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award for “September Moon.”

He is currently working with his co-writer, Gabe Fremuth, to develop the five issue “Mobtown” graphic novel series. Other current projects include his new sci-fi screenplay, “Greenskin,” and a new stage play, “Oysters.”

James earned his M.A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins University.

Follow James on Twitter @jamesLgossard

Granade, Stephen
Stephen Granade is a physicist who specializes in sensors for robotic vehicles. He has worked on devices that can read your fingerprint from 10 feet away, systems that let unpiloted helicopters land automatically, and a video-based sensor that helped guide the Space Shuttle to the Hubble Space Telescope. If you’re afraid of the robot revolution, Dr. Granade is probably someone to watch out for. He also worked with NASA on the Advanced Video Guidance Sensor (AVGS), which measures the distance from a spacecraft to a target satellite so that the spacecraft can dock gently with the satellite. When AVGS was first tested on orbit as part of the Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology mission, the sensor guided the spacecraft right to the satellite, where the two promptly collided. This worried NASA but made the Department of Defense very interested. He is a podcaster and can currently be heard on the “Disasterpiece Theatre” podcast, where he and his co-host Alex White pitch terrible movie ideas that Hollywood might still make. He is involved with DragonCon TV, and his scientific commentary has appeared on “Jalopnik,” “FoxNews.com,” and CBS “Marketwatch.”

Granoff, Matthew

Matt is a member of Sassafrass!<

Grant, April
April Grant lives in Western Massachusetts, where she writes poetry and short fiction. Her humorous writing has appeared in The Living Tradition, and her poetry in Strange Horizons, Mythic Delirium, and Rose Lemberg’s anthology The Moment of Change. One of her ambitions is to fill the empty pages of her new passport. Her literary influences include Christina Rossetti, Henry Austin Dobson, Freddy the Pig, Edith Nesbit, archy the cockroach and Phyllis McGinley.

Bob Greenberger has worked for Starlog Press, DC

Eta Hack

Eta, a mild-mannered home daycare mother, currently works with the Shore Leave, Farpoint and Balticon conventions as the Children’s, Teen, and/or Youth tracks coordinator. She acknowledges that she may have some issues, but she loves what she is doing. Feel free to contact her if you want to be part of Children’s or Teen programming!

Halpern, Paul H.
Paul Halpern is Professor of Physics at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. A prolific author, he has written more than a dozen science books and numerous articles. His interests range from space, time and higher dimensions to cultural aspects of science. He has appeared on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the PBS series “Future Quest,” and “The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special.”

Halpern’s books include Time Journeys, Cosmic Wormholes, The Cyclical Serpent, Faraway Worlds, The Great Beyond, Brave New Universe, What’s Science Ever Done for Us?, Collider, What’s the Matter with Pluto?, Edge of the Universe and: “Einstein’s Dice and Schrödinger’s Cat: How Two Great Minds Battled Quantum Randomness to Create a Unified Theory of Physics.

Dr. Halpern was the recipient of a prestigious 2002 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship Award. He was among 184 artists, scholars and scientists nationally selected to receive a fellowship from more than 2,800 applicants for awards totaling $6,750,000. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. He used the fellowship award to examine the history of the notion of higher dimensions in science, as well as the impact of this idea upon popular culture. His research, “The Concept of Dimensionality in Science,” covered the period from the mid-19th century, when the idea of the fourth dimension was first introduced, until the late 20th century, when scientists developed 10 and 11 dimensional models of the universe.

A recipient of the Athenaeum Society Literary Award, he has published numerous research articles in the fields of general relativity, cosmology, chaos theory and complexity. In 1996, he was a Fulbright Scholar to Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, where he studied evolutionary algorithms.

Eric freely admits that he creates because it is cheaper and more effective than therapy, or shock treatment. He resides in central Pennsylvania with his wife and daughter, but was born and raised in New England. After many years in commercial architectural firms, he shifted his focus and is now an application engineer with a software company that works with architecture and engineering firms. He is a fan, author and artist—usually in that order. He has been part of the team running the Watch The Skies science fiction and fantasy group and publishing the Watch The Skies fanzine for the past 14 years. When not working on a project, he enjoys board games, the occasional video game, and is an old school role player. Find him at The Pretend Blog (www.ehardenbrook.com).

Haring,P.C.

Award winning author and podcaster P.C. Haring made his debut on 01/01/10 with Cybrosis. This Cyberpunk adventure propelled to number four on the Podiobooks.com top ten list when it was re-launched there that October. He has written for several short story anthologies including “Hamzah Haring” (The Crypt: Book 1 — The Crew, edited by Scott Sigler), “The First Day” (Chronicles of the Order edited by Philippa Ballantine), and “The Seven” (Tales from the Archives co-edited by Tee Morris and Philippa Ballantine) the latter of which earned him the 2012 Parsec award in the best large cast category. When he’s not writing, podcasting, driving himself mad with CPA studies, or preparing for the day his robot army takes over the world, P.C. puts his Degree in Accounting and his MBA to good use as an accountant for a company in suburban Chicago. He also works as both the Accountant and Publisher for Escape Artists Incorporated where he helps to oversee the weekly podcast publications of Escape Pod, as well as its sister magazines Pseudopod and Pod Castle.

Harmon, Kelly A.

Kelly A. Harmon used to be a newspaper reporter. She found reporting to be by turns exciting (for example, covering a murder trial) and excruciatingly boring (for example, covering itty-bitty town council meetings). Most other stories managed to fall between those extremes on a sliding scale of interesting. Eventually, she moved away from full-time reporting and editing owing to the extreme boredom of the routine. 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 not crazed with the need to freelance, she writes fantasy and dark fantasy with the occasional science fiction piece. Her story “Lies” was short-listed for the 2008 Aeon Award. Her novella Blood Soup won the July 2008 Fantasy Gazetteers Novella Contest and was published in 2009. It’s been reissued electronically by Pole to Pole Publishing as both an ebook and audio book. The print version will be available soon. Ms. Harmon’s new novel, Stoned in Charm City, is available now.

Harris, Lauren

Lauren “Scribe” Harris is a fantasy writer, voice actress, and the fantasy review columnist for Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show magazine. She is the co-creator of 2012 Parsec Finalist, Pendragon Variety Podcast for aspiring writers of genre fiction, where she is known as “Scribe.” Her voice acting can be heard on Audible.com as well as fiction podcasts such as EscapePod, The Guild of the Cowry Catchers, The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, and The Drabblecast. Though she spent three years living in Tokyo, she currently resides in a renovated tobacco shed in rural North Carolina, where she is pleased to have running water, wifi, and all her teeth.

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, they’ve 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 Crist’s collection, Owl Light. Visit Cold Moon Press online.

Harvey, J.P .

J.P. is a husband, father and career military officer. He’s a life-long science fiction fan and geek, and is doing his best to raise his son to be the same.

Melissa Hayden

Melissa is a fantasy reader and blogger working through the mundane life undercover as a bookkeeper during the day. By night, she enjoys journeying through fantasy worlds created by others and herself. She reviews and posts at her blog, My World, in words and pages.

Hemry, John G.

John G. Hemry is the author, under the pen name Jack Campbell, of the New York Times national best-selling “Lost Fleet” series (Dauntless, Fearless, Courageous, Valiant, Relentless and Victorious). His most recent book is Guardian, the latest in the “Lost Fleet — Beyond the Frontier” series (which also includes Dreadnaught and Invincible). His next book will be Perilous Shield, the sequel to Tarnished Knight in the “Lost Stars” series. He is also the author of the “Stark’s War” and “Sinclair/JAG in space” series. His short fiction has appeared in places as varied as the last Chicks in Chainmail anthology and Analog magazine (most recently “The War of the Worlds — Chapter Eighteen” in the January/February 2013 issue). His alternate American Civil War novella The Last Full Measure is being published by Subterranean. He also has stories in the anthologies Breach the Hull, So it Begins, By Other Means and Armor, as well as the essay “Liberating the Future” in Teenagers From the Future (about the Legion of Super Heroes). After retiring from the US Navy and settling in Maryland, John began writing. John lives with his wife (the indomitable S) and three great kids. His children are all on the autistic spectrum.

Henderson, C. J.

CJ Henderson is the creator of creator of the first supernatural detective, author of some 70 books/and or novels, plus hundreds and hundreds of short stories and comics. This witty, charming, cancer-surviving man-about-village is one of the most beloved rascals of our age. We know this is true because he told us so himself.

Herberth, Reesa

Reesa Herberth grew up in Hawaii, and had passing acquaintance with Nevada, California, and Arizona before settling in northern Virginia. She spends her days solving problems at a non-profit, and her nights and weekends making trouble in alternate realities. With her partner, Michelle Moore, she is the author of the award-winning Ylendrian Empire series, the most recent of which is In Discretion, a charming romp through a dying space station filled with not!zombies. Her next book, Peripheral People, a sci-fi thriller about psychic cops, serial killers, and squishy feelings, will be released in June of 2014. You can find Reesa on Twitter as @reesah, and read about her ongoing adventures with art and writing at: www.michelleandreesawrite.com.

Heyer,Inge

Inge Heyer was born and raised in Berlin, Germany. She completed her secondary education there, after which she accepted a scholarship to study martial arts and the Japanese language at Tenri University in Tenri, Japan. She then decided to follow her interest in astronomy (fueled by watching way too much Star Trek) and came to the U.S. to pursue a B.A. in physics and astronomy at Smith College in Massachusetts. Following this, Inge obtained a master’s degree in astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, after which she accepted a job as data analyst for the Hubble Space Telescope. Fourteen years later Inge moved back to Hawaii to lead the science education and outreach efforts for the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hilo. After five years and a short stay in Wyoming to obtain her doctoral degree in Science Education, she moved back to Baltimore to be a visiting assistant professor in the physics department of Loyola University Maryland, teaching astronomy and physics. Since 2012 she is also a guest science blogger on StarTrek.com. And in case you were wondering how the Hubble images got into episodes of Babylon-5 and Star Trek, you’re looking at the trouble-maker who instigated this…

Hill, Sharon A.

Sharon Hill is a geologist and has a Ed.M. focusing on Science and the Public. She has been an advocate for science and critical thinking for over 20 years, and has published pieces for Skeptical Inquirer, Skeptical Briefs, Skeptic, and Fortean Times. Her main effort is running the popular critical thinking news blog Doubtful News (doubtfulnews.com), but she also writes a monthly column for the Skeptical Inquirer web site called “Sounds Sciencey.” She is also a scientific consultant for the Center for Inquiry. The paranormal, cryptozoology and anomalous natural phenomena are particularly fun subject areas that Ms. Hill has researched and loves to discuss. She is currently working on a book about paranormal investigators.

Hillman, Lee C.

Lee C. Hillman died at the age of 13 months. Since her suspicious return to life, she has been busy conquering worlds too numerous to mention. She has published short stories in the Bad-Ass Faeries and Defending the Future series and in the anthology TV Gods. She also writes fanfiction under the penname Gwendolyn Grace. Lee, or her alter-egos Gwen or Gwenly, is also an actor, singer, and songwriter. She also remains on the board of HPEF, an educational non-profit that produced Harry Potter conventions. For the past six years, her major online project has been writing in and moderating the shared fanfiction-role-playing game “HP Alternity,”” found on Dreamwidth.

Hilton, Abigail

Abigail Hilton is the author of more than ten novels and short story collections, including the Guild of the Cowry Catchers series. She has produced and podcast much of her own work, including five novels with a full voice cast. She co-hosts the Parsec-winning Fullcast Podcast with Bryan Lincoln—a show on fullcast production. Her fiction podcasts have generated well over a million downloads.

Hodges, Larry

Larry Hodges‘ first novel, Sorcerers in Space, came out in November 2013 from Class Act Books. A resident of Germantown, MD, Larry is an active member of Science Fiction Writers of America with over 70 short story sales. He’s a graduate of the six-week 2006 Odyssey Writing Workshop and the 2008 Taos Toolbox writers’ workshop. He’s a full-time writer, with eight books and over 1500 published articles in over 140 different publications. He also writes about and coaches the Olympic sport of table tennis, is a member of the USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame (Google it!), and once beat someone using an ice cube as a racket.

Holloman, Jeannette

Jeannette Holloman is a member of the Greater Columbia Fantasy Costuming Guild. Her costumes have been featured in Threads magazine and The Costume Makers Art. She has participated in several WorldCon, CostumeCon and Malice Domestic award-winning costumes. She is a voice-over artist. She is married to author, costumer and technocrat Ron Robinson.

Holtz, Dr. Thomas

Dr. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr., is a dinosaur paleontologist specializing in the origin, evolution, adaptations, and paleobiology of carnivorous dinosaurs (especially Tyrannosaurus and its kin). He is a faculty member of the Department of Geology at the University of Maryland, College Park, a research associate of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, and is on the Scientific Council of the Maryland Science Center. In addition to his technical publications, Dr. Holtz has written several books for the general audience (such as Dinosaurs: The Most Up-To-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of all Ages), and has been a consultant on numerous TV documentaries. Dr. Holtz is the Faculty Director of the College Park Scholars–Science and Global Change Program (www.geol.umd.edu/sgc/). He lives in Upper Marlboro, MD with his wife (long-time Balticon costumer Sue Shambaugh), a trio of cats, and the Inland bearded dragon Dr. Emilio Lizardo.

Holyfield, Patrick

P.G. Holyfield is the creator of SpecFicMedia.com and hosts several podcasts through the site, including Beyond the Wall: A Game of Thrones podcast, SFM.com Presents: Consumption, and SFM.com Presents: Tintin Forever. P.G. is also the author of the award-winning novel Murder at Avedon Hill, and has finally gotten around to working on a sequel. P.G. got his start in new media with the award-nominated audio drama of MaAH, and the follow-up short story anthology, Tales of the Children. P.G. lives in North Carolina with too many animals (children included) to name in the space provided here.

Huchton, Starla

A geek of all trades, Starla Huchton has been crafting stories in various genres since 2007. Her first novel, The Dreamer’s Thread, was released as a full cast audiobook podcast, becoming a double-nominee and finalist for the 2010 Parsec Awards. After releasing short fiction of steampunk, noir fantasy, and other varieties, she released the first three books of the Sci-Fi Romance Endure series in 2013. All three books of the Evolution series will be released in 2014, as well as a Steampunk Fantasy novel, Master of Myth (the Antigone’s Wrath series, Book 1), which was the first-place winner of the Crested Butte Writers’ contest, The Sandy, in 2012. When not writing, Starla trains three Minions, a black lab, and a military husband while designing book covers for independent authors and publishers at designedbystarla.com.

Hunt, Walter H.

Walter H. Hunt has been writing for most of his life and was Arisia Author GoH in 2009. His first four Dark Wing novels were published by Tor Books and are now available from Baen as eBooks. His novel A Song In Stone deals with Rosslyn Chapel and the Templars. Current projects include 1632 novels with Eric Flint, an 18th century alternate history novel, and the forthcoming Elements of Mind from Spencer Hill Press. He has a background in history, with a B.A. degree from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, and he speaks two other languages (German and Spanish). A member of the Masonic Fraternity, Walter has served as Master of two different Lodges in Massachusetts. He is a devoted baseball fan and board gamer; his first published game was published in 2011 by Rio Grande Games. He has been married for more than half of his life, and he and his wife have one daughter who is a product of their affection and unusual joint sense of humor.

Michelle Hymowitz

Michelle has been playing strategy board games and card games for as long as she can remember, but really started getting into German board games in 1990.

Nancy Janda

Rarely mistaken for a mundane, Nancy Janda has been attending science fiction conventions with her partner Larisa Van Winkle since Paracon in 1982. She has illustrated for fanzines since the 1980s, and exhibits her artwork at convention art shows. You’ll see her at conventions, usually giving workshops on such topics as Amber Polishing, Electric Origami, and whatever other creative topic has caught and held her fancy.

Mark Jeffrey was one of the very first people ever to podcast an MP3 audiobook novel online. His first podcast novel, Max Quick: The Pocket and The Pendant, was released in 2005 and has received over 2.5 million downloads to date. It was published in hardcover by Harper Collins in 2011. Mark is the author of Prisoner of Glass (2014), Age of Aether (2013) and the Armand Ptolemy series.

Mark co-founded Glossi.com, a site where anyone can easily create digital magazines suitable for tablets and other devices. He has been named one of “50 to Watch” by Variety magazine, a “Hero of Multimedia” by Entertainment Weekly and was a featured speaker at the very first Harvard Conference on The Internet and Society. Mark holds a B.S. in computer science from the University of New Hampshire.

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Johnston, Leslie

Leslie Johnston has been costuming since the 1970’s. She has made more hall and competitions costumes than she can remember and works with a variety of materials and techniques and loves to experiment. She has won awards competing at WorldCon, CostumeCon, Balticon, Westercon, and Baycon. In her professional life she works in digital preservation for cultural organizations, and can talk about that for hours at a time.

Jordan, Paula S.

Paula S. Jordan is the author of three Analog stories, including Vooorh (Jul/Aug 2014), a novellette. That story and her prior Analog entry “Two Look At Two” (April 2011), are adaptations from a present-day alien-contact novel in progress. Her first professional publication, “The Gift of Unbinding” (May, 2001), also appeared in Analog. She is now at work on more short stories as well as the novel

After degrees in history and speech and several years as a freelance writer, Paula earned a BS in physics and worked thirteen years as an orbit analyst for NASA and NOAA. She supported 30+ unmanned science and weather missions including the lunar-orbiting Clementine mission that first detected water on the moon.

Paula blogs regularly at her web site and on the collaborative sf/f book blog at Dark Cargo.

Kalirai, Jason

Dr. Jason Kalirai is a research astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD. He obtained his PhD in astrophysics in 2004 from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. His research interests include studying the formation and evolution of stars and nearby galaxies using both ground and space based telescopes. Dr. Kalirai is also the Deputy Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope. Follow Jason on twitter at @JasonKalirai.

Amy Kaplan

A.L. Kaplan’s love of books started at an early age and sparked a creative imagination. It wasn’t until late in high school that she began to write down the many stories in her head. She holds an M.F.A. in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art and spent several years teaching art in the public school system. When not writing or indulging in her fascination with wolves, she works as the props manager for a local dinner theatre. She is also the secretary of the Maryland Writers Association’s Howard County Chapter. The proud mother of two wonderful young adult daughters, she lives in Maryland with her husband and dog. To keep up with A. L.’s writing, visit her blog.

Katsu, Alma

Alma Katsu is the author of The Taker trilogy, a highly acclaimed epic supernatural love story. The third book, The Descent, was published in January 2014 (Gallery Books). She has an M.A. in fiction from Johns Hopkins University. She is a former career intelligence officer and currently works for a think tank. Find out more about her work at her website.

Kennedy, William

In his professional life, William Kennedy is a Social Worker with the Department of Children and Families in Weymouth, MA. By night he is a costume designer and works for several professional Haunted Attractions creating costumes and sets to terrify. William is currently employed by Haunted Overload located in Lee NH. Haunted Overload was recently voted in the top 5 Halloween Haunts by the Weather Channel 2012 as well as Top Haunts Magazine Top 13 in the World. His altereago Tickles the Klown can be found on Facebook under Tickles for President in 2016. William is currently a Craftsman level costumer and has won several awards for workmanship and presentation at the Balticon, Luncan and Arisia masquerades.

Kilfoil, Mark

Mark “The Encaffeinated ONE” Kilfoil is a podcaster, software developer, audio editor, radio host, pen-and-paper gamer, geek and nerd. Since the mid 90s, he has hosted two radio shows on campus radio, and in 2006 transformed one of them into the award-winning podcast The WEIRD Show, which captured a Parsec award for “Best Infotainment” in 2008. As that show continues into its eighth year and nearly 300 episodes of strange news, odd ideas and weird views, he has participated in a handful of other podcasts, including being one of the principal hosts of The 9th HeroesCast. He’s worked on audio drama projects both big and small, from single-person parodies (“Brink In A Box”) to mid-cast short comedy (“Wasted Tape”) to large-cast series (audio editor/voice actor for Buffy Between the Lines and Angel Between the Lines). He’s written a handful of short stories, and his novelette, Tainted Roses, was transformed into a 2013 Parsec-nominated podiobook. He currently works as the program director of CHSR-FM, a campus/community radio station in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.

Kim, Holliann Russell

Holliann R. Kim was the winner of the 2013 BSFS Amateur Writing Contest. She has an M.Phil. in Popular Literature from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and a B.A. in English from Gettysburg College, concentrating her research on folklore and young adult speculative literature. A native of Maryland, she currently resides in Columbia. Her website is www.holliannkim.com.

Kim the Comic Book Goddess

Kim, the Comic Book Goddess is a serial balladier and podcaster from North Eastern Pennsylvania. She records music and essays under the name Comic Book Goddess Productions that is sometimes hard to classify and, frankly, rarely actually mentions comic books any more. Her podcast, Geek Pantheon and Your Moment of Kim, has mostly been on hiatus since being named a finalist for 2009’s Best Speculative Fiction Comedy/Parody Podcast. She’s lent a voice to many of the projects that really should be your favorites and is happy to lend you a few songs at Balticon.

Kimmel, Daniel

Daniel M. Kimmel is past president of the Boston Society of Film Critics and founding co-chair of the Boston Online Film Critics Association. His reviews can be found at Northshoremovies.net. He writes on science fiction films for SciFiMoviePage.com and Space and Time magazine. He was nominated for a Hugo Award for Jar Jar Binks Must DieJar Jar Binks Must Die… and other Observations about Science Fiction Movies. His latest book is his first novel, Shh! It’s a Secret: A novel about Aliens, Hollywood, and the Bartender’s Guide and was a finalist for the 2014 Compton Crook Award. Both of Daniel’s books are available from Fantastic Books.

King, T. Jackson

T. Jackson King writes hard science fiction, anthropological sci-fi, military SF, dark fantasy/horror and contemporary fantasy/magic realism. He has worked as a federal archaeologist in the American Southwest, as a newspaper reporter, and has traveled widely overseas. His newest SF novel, The Memory Singer, is being released at Balticon by Fantastic Books Publisher Ian Strock. While he began reading sci-fi in the fourth grade, Tom didn’t write his first novel until he was 38, and it was rejected. He had better fortune with his second novel, Retread Shop, about a young man orphaned on an Alien-run space station devoted to interstellar trade. Since then he has had 11 more sci-fi/fantasy books published. They are Anarchate Vigilante (2014), Galactic Vigilante (2013), Nebula Vigilante (2013), Galactic Avatar (2013), Stellar Assassin (2013), Speaker to Aliens (2013, Wilder Publications), Star Vigilante (2012), The Gaean Enchantment (2012, Wilder Publications), Little Brother’s World (2010, Fantastic Books), Judgment Day and Other Dreams (2009, Fantastic Books), and Ancestor’s World (1996, Ace Books; with A.C. Crispin; 2012). Tom has 16 stories sold to magazines like Analog and Pulphouse. He loves hiking, overseas travel and ancient history. Tom lives in Los Alamos, NM.

Kolar, Rachel Elizabeth

Rachel Kolar is a graduate of Kenyon College whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Leading Edge, Tales of the Talisman and The Colored Lens. She, her husband, and their two children live in Laurel, MD. When not writing dark fantasy or changing diapers, she enjoys playing complicated board games, hiking, and getting far too excited about Halloween.

Knight, Jonah

Jonah Knight his the Show Runner for Antimatter Press, a small publisher designed around the episodic TV production mode. Antimatter has over a dozen titles in development. He is also the co-host of the Parsec-nominated Pros And Cons podcast, a show about geek music and convention culture. Oh, and he is a four-time musical/filk GoH.

Koscienski, Brian

Brian Koscienski developed his love of writing from countless hours of reading comic books, losing himself in the different worlds and adventures within the colorful pages. He had minor successes early in his career by getting a few short stories published in independent ‘zines, but found more success in partnering with Chris Pisano, with whom he formed Fortress Publishing, Inc.. As a writing team, they have had stories, articles, graphic novels, and poetry published, and most recently their debut novel, The Shattered Visage LiesM, by Post Mortem Press.

Kovacs, A

A Kovacs is the Director of Døøm at Empty Set Entertainment, and a founding partner at Audacity, a San Diego-based management company that builds world class events and manages one-of-a-kind talent. She’s a movie geek, Doctor Who fan, skeptic and science nerd. She doesn’t like chocolate all that much.

Lampi, Ruth

Ruth Lampi is a lady adventurer, writer, illustrator, sculptor and nomadic periwig purveyor. She enjoys starting small businesses, art projects and book series, serializing and socializing online, gaming with friends, and cosplaying at conventions. Her first three books can be found online and in paperback through www.worldofshandor.com. After earning her B.F.A. in Fine Art at Moore College of Art and Design, Ruth has had art and writing published in a number of small press and gaming publications. She has written several adventure modules, and co-authored Hero’s Handbook: Eladrin for Goodman Games with Jessica Van Oort, her frequent accomplice, as well as the story “Unto the Interface,” in the cyberpunk anthology Foreshadows, a collaborative project between writers and composers. Ruth publishes an ongoing web novella series of illustrated adventure novels, including The Alarna Affair, The Germhacht Episode, and The Tembelaka Voyage, coming soon in paperback and eBook formats. She can usually be found about the artist’s alley and art show, and will probably have a new hair and eye color daily to thoroughly confuse matters.

Lamplighter, Jagi

L. Jagi Lamplighter is the author of the YA fantasy The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin. She is also the author of the Prospero’s Daughter series: Prospero Lost, Prospero In Hell and Prospero Regained. She has published numerous articles on Japanese animation and appears in several short story anthologies, including Best of Dreams of Decadence, No Longer Dreams, Coliseum Morpheuon, Bad-Ass Faeries anthologies (where she is also an assistant editor) and the Science Fiction Book Club’s Don’t Open This Book. 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 Eve, Roland Wilbur, and Justinian Oberon.

Larson, Grig “Punkie”

Grig “Punkie” Larson (1968-present) was born in Cyprus on British soil, the only son of a pair of Swedish-American descendants. He grew up in Northern Virginia, finding fandom through D&D, FanTek, and Rocky Horror. He works as a systems administrator by day, and by night he’s an author, open source advocate, runs Katsucon, narrates the Balitcon Podcast, and works for the DC Rollergirls. A staple in VA/DC/MD science fiction and anime fandom since the 1980s, he’s been a panelist, moderator, emcee, actor, sketch writer, convention adviser, narrator, and the kind of sub-fame that keeps people from asking, “Hey, how’d HE get in here?” He’s done everything from chair a convention to being the guy who vacuums the staff suite. In no particular order.

In 1993, his first book, The Saga of Punk Walrus, became a cult classic. Since then he’s been published in Gateways, several short story anthologies, and written several sketches and spoofs for various acting venues. You can often see him at Balticon, Katsucon, Anime Mid Atlantic, and DC Rollergirl home bouts. He is a Redditor and also seen posting on the Ars Technica forums. Trolley was his first published steampunk/horror novel in 2011.

Lawrence, Marcus

Marcus started his theater career in avant-garde theater productions such as the often-controversial Cherry Red Productions Kenneth, What is the Frequency? and Cinema Verite and even appeared nude in their popular event Day Old Plays. He then moved into more classic American Theater, appearing in Arsenic and Old Lace and Harvey, as well as stretching his range with VpStart Crow Productions ranging from Steinbeck and Dickens to August Strindberg’s The Ghost Sonata. He would go on to do Greek in Richmond (Agamemnon’s Daughters), Shakespeare in Fredericksburg (Twelfth Night) and most notably Dionysus in The Bacchae at The Capitol Fringe Fest. Marcus also starred in crime noir films Violent Karma and Perspective, as well as numerous short films and commercials. He has shown a more comedic side in Old Virginia Film’s Lily’s Thorn, appearing as Lily’s buffoonish ex-husband, and then as a French bank robber in Old Dominion’s TV Show From the Files of Interpol for the Discovery Channel. He currently stars in the role of Joss Washburn on the series Shotgun Mythos.

Larry Reclusado is a local Director, Actor and producer of independent cable access televison shows which include: The Nova Comic Book Show, Blood Clan, The series, & Swags serial showcase.. He also is considered one of the local areas most knowledgeable comic book historians.

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 can’t 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 three novels, several novellas, numerous short stories, and "Nobilis Erotica: science fiction that doesn’t stop at the airlock door", the longest-running erotica podcast in the history of the world.

Reisse, Mary Alice

(See MAinPA)

Reitz, Sr., Daniel J.

Daniel J. Reitz, Sr. is the President and Publisher of Mundania Press LLC and its imprints, Mundania Press, Awe-Struck Publishing, Phaze Books, New Classics Press, and Hard Shell Word Factory. Mundania currently has close to 500 authors and over 2,000 books published. Dan won the 2005 EPIC Award as Editor of the Best Anthology Beyond the Mundane: Unravelings. He has been Master of Ceremonies at EPICon for two years and has appeared as a speaker at numerous writers conferences.

Render, Angela

Anegela Render has designed and maintained web sites since 1994 and is the founder and owner of Thunderpaw Web Development. She has published a historical fiction novel, a short story in an anthology, and her marketing workbook for writes was released in January 2009. She has a column in Writers’ Journal called "Computer Business" and her work can also be found on Smithsonian Magazine‘s website. Current projects include a YA novel about renegade elephants, a fantasy adventure, and more adult science fiction and fantasy.

Angela teaches at The Writers’ Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and through the Howard County Arts Council. She teaches at-risk middle-school girls through Passion For Learning’s GRRLTech and has been a guest speaker at the Maryland Writers’ Association’s meetings and annual conference, Balticon, and the Bay to Ocean Writers Conference.

She enjoys being girls with her daughter, traveling, working out, cooking, sewing, and gardening. Find her online at her website and at Song of the Lost Clan, on Facebook/Angela-Render and on Twitter/arender.

Ridenour, Ray

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Sarfati, Kat A.

An amateur Anime expert, Sci-Fi geek who works in Jesuit Education. In my spare time I write fanfiction and have participated in the Balticon Art Show for a number of years mostly under the monikers of kateye and katmills. I can also be found working Anime USA and Katsucon.

(WebEditor’s Note: Kat is Balticon’s Anime Room director and Anime Program coordinator.)

Sarfati, Lee

Lee has beeen an anime fan for a looooong time. But his main claim to fame is that he is Kat’s husband! (See hwat happens when you don’t give us a bio? — The Webmasters]

Scaffido, Patrick

Patrick Scaffido is a poet, podcaster, author, and musician currently releasing his surrealistic dark fantasy novel, Storyteller Chronicles: The Horde, as a series of musical podcasts through Podiobooks. He has taught history and English literature. He wanted to major in Psychohistory like in the Foundation novels but had to settle for semiotics and the analysis of trends in popular culture. He blames whichever scapegoat happens to be convenient.

Schiller, Lauren

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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

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