< Back Patches Music Filk Patches has taught dance at many science fiction conventions and Society of Creative Anachronisms events. She loves bringing dance to new people. She has also taught many to hula hoop. Other Socials

< Back Pat Bahn Science Scientist Pat Bahn is the CEO of TGV Rockets a small R&D firm working on liquid propulsion and low cost aerospace systems. Other Socials

< Back How to Prepare for Time Travelers in the Workplace A quirky set of safety guidelines for encountering time-traveling infiltrators in your workplace, presented by the Organization for Time Travel Oversight. A quirky set of safety guidelines for encountering time-traveling infiltrators in your workplace, presented by the Organization for Time Travel Oversight. Previous Next

< Back Mary G. Thompson Literary Author Mary G. Thompson is the author of the sci-fi novella One Level Down (Tachyon, 2025). She is also the author of The Word, Flicker and Mist, and other novels for children and young adults. Her contemporary thriller Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee (Penguin, 2016) was a winner of the 2017 Westchester Fiction Award and a finalist for the 2018-2019 Missouri Gateway award. Her short fiction has appeared in Dark Matter Magazine, Apex Magazine, and others. Mary is originally from Eugene, Oregon, where she attended the University of Oregon School of Law. She practiced law for seven years, including five years in the US Navy JAGC, and now works as a law librarian. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children from The New School and completed the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television's Professional Program in Screenwriting. She lives in Washington, DC. Other Socials

< Back Philip K. Booker Literary Author Philip K. Booker is an author and editor with a head full of Mind Squirrels and a gnarly case of resting-bitch-face—but he's actually really friendly. He writes stories across all genres, with a focus on Urban Fantasy and Science Fiction. His works are often littered with humor, snark, and pop culture references, and he is a regularly contributor to Three Ravens Publishing's annual horror-comedy anthology "It Came From The Trailer Park". When not writing or hunting the fabled full-night’s sleep, he loves plays exploring Hyrule and catching Pokemon while juggling his water tankard and coffee mug. A boardgame geek, he loves to gather around a table to play rounds of Munchkin, Splendor and Pandemic with friends and family. Other Socials

< Back Sarah Avery Literary Author Sarah Avery's first book, Tales from Rugosa Coven, won the 2015 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Nowa Fantastyka, Space and Time, Fantasy Scroll, and Black Gate, where she was also a regular contributor on series fantasy and teaching fantasy literature. With David Sklar, she coedited the Trafficking in Magic, Magicking in Traffic anthology. Thanks to a hundred-odd (and perhaps also just plain odd) Kickstarter backers, you can read her novella, The Imlen Brat. Grants from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County helped her to design and release much of her short fiction backlist in ebook form. An escaped academic, she lives in Maryland. Other Socials

Balticon 60 memberships are available for purchase now! Book your hotel stay to enjoy the convention all weekend long without the drive, and get the best rate with our room block. Registration & Hotel Balticon 60 Memberships are available for purchase now, through our Registration portal. Buy Badges Full Weekend Memberships Adult (25+) Young Adult (13 - 24) Child (12 and under) Winter Rate (Through Feb 28) $75 $38 Always free Early Bird Rate (March 1 - April 15) $80 $40 Advance Rate (April 16 - May 15) $85 $43 Full Weekend (May 16 - At The Door) $89 $45 Friday $40 $20 Saturday $50 $25 Sun/Mon $60 $30 Sunday $45 $23 Monday $30 $15 Virtual Only $30 *Age is of the first day of the con. ** Virtual Memberships are included with ALL memberships *** Active Duty military and their family receive $30 off ANY membership ($15 for Young Adults) at the door with valid ID Renaissance Harborplace Hotel Balticon will be held at The Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel , 202 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21202, USA, inside the Baltimore Inner Harbor Entertainment District. Multiple shops, restaurants and entertainment venues are adjacent to the hotel. Public Transportation: Routes and schedules for bus and light rail are available on the MTA website. Room Parties: I f you wish to host a party in your room, please contact the party coordinator at Party@Balticon.org for party guidelines and how to reserve a room on the party floor. Hotel Registration Frequently asked questions Registration Accessibility Balticon Anywhere General Questions Am I registered yet? We know how hard it is to keep track of a tiny receipt for an entire year! If you want to check on the status of your registration, you can always visit https://reg.balticon.org/checkReg.php . If you do not want your name to appear on the site at all, please contact registration@balticon.org and ask to be removed from the Am I Registered Yet? feature. Please note that if you opt out, the only way to check the status of your registration will be to email us at registration@balticon.org and have our volunteers check manually. How do I get my badge? All badges will be at Balticon Registration, on the 5th floor of the hotel, in the Maryland Foyer. When you arrive at the hotel, take the elevators or stairs up to the 5th floor, then follow the signs. We are NOT in the same location as Hotel Registration. Which line do I stand in? For pickup of ALL badge types, start at the Check-in line. If you are not pre-registered and are purchasing your badge at the door, you will then head to the Cashier to finish payment. If you are pre-registering for next year and have ALREADY picked up your badge, you can go straight to the Cashier line. What payment methods do you accept? For online registration, we accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express. You can also pay by check or money order through our mail-in registration. At the door, we accept cash, check or money orders, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express. Are there any discounts available? Yes! We have discounts for: Young Adult category, for our members ages 13-25, Children under 12 are free! All children must be accompanied at all times by an adult. Active Duty Military and their family can receive $30 ($15 for Young Adult) off any membership at the door with valid ID. What about one-day memberships? Our early registration pricing is a really great deal if you might want to stay a second day, and a full-weekend membership is cheaper than two single days combined. However, if you really only have one day available, one-day memberships are available for purchase at the door, as well as upgrades from one-day to full-weekend. What if I'm attending with young children? Children 12 and under are free! We provide registration for Child badges along with your online registration, or they can be added at the door. When you arrive, we will provide a wristband with your phone number for your child to wear as well as their badge, since we understand that small children frequently remove their badges (for older children, it’s up to you whether you want one or not). Maryland state law requires that children under age 8 be accompanied by an adult at all times. We have a Children’s Programming track with activities for our youngest fans, including an option for short-term drop off, and the convention space is very stroller-friendly. Can I pick up my spouse/girlfriend/child's membership as well as my own? Maybe! You can pick up someone else’s membership IF one of the following is true: The two memberships share a last name. The two memberships share an address. The two memberships were purchased on the same transaction. You have ID for both memberships. Please double check badge names with the rest of your party before arriving. Do I have to use my real name? Yes and no. We use ID to match up the registration with the person who purchased the badge, so the “legal name” field on your registration does need to match some form of ID that you carry. The legal name field is only visible to Registration staff and is not used in any other capacity. You can use your preferred name for the rest of the registration, and your badge can say anything you want! (We currently cannot print special characters or emojis, and we request that you keep your Badge Name within the realm of good taste.) Do I have to show ID? No. You are more than welcome to pay cash for a badge at the door. However, if you purchased a badge, we would like to make sure that no one else picks up your badge, and that only you get the badge you paid for. We are very reasonable about what we consider valid ID, and your ID information is never stored anywhere; we just need to know the badge is going to the right person. You may also bring your receipt as proof of purchase, either printed or electronically. What happens to my email address if I give it to you? We will email you a copy of your receipt, if you register online or request an emailed receipt in person. We will email your personalized login link to access Balticon Anywhere and our virtual convention. We may use it to contact you individually if we need to (i.e. we found something with your name on it in our Lost & Found, you purchased a piece of artwork, there’s a question about your registration, etc). Our Publicity team will send out an informative email just before the convention to remind you about parking and where to pick up your badge, and we will subscribe you to our email newsletter (with an easy unsubscribe button at the bottom of every email), but we NEVER share your information without your explicit permission. What happens to my phone number if I give it to you? We may use it to contact you individually if we need to (i.e. we found something with your name on it in our Lost & Found, you purchased a piece of artwork, there’s a question about your registration, etc). We NEVER share your information without your explicit permission.

< Back JT Thomas Music Filk JT Thomas is a filker, SCAdian, and general gigantic nerd. Most of his free time is spent writing, researching, adding patches to his jacket, and training his service dog. JT was dragged into staffing the music track not quite kicking and screaming, and is probably an adult ... ish. Other Socials

< Back Sally Wiener Grotta Literary Author Sally Wiener Grotta is an award-winning writer, photographer and speaker, whose 100s of articles, essays and stories have appeared in scores of publications. The author of numerous books, her newest are OF BEING WOMAN, a collection of feminist science fiction (NobleFusion Press) and DAUGHTERS OF EVE, an essay discussion workbook and journaling guide that mines the tales of biblical matriarchs to explore modern lives, concerns and crises (Bayit Publishing). As a journalist, Sally traveled throughout the world, covering a wide diversity of cultures and traditions. Her experiences flavor her work with a sense of wonder, appreciation for human potential, and a healthy dose of common sense. As a speaker, Sally inspires her audiences to ask themselves questions they might not have considered previously, to listen to each other with respect, and to seek creative solutions together. Sally is a member of The Authors Guild, the Association of Jewish Libraries and SFWA. (SallyWienerGrotta.com) Other Socials

< Back Ty McNeer Maker Technician I make things... Other Socials

Short Film Presentations A Bear Named Wojtek Displaced by World War II, a troop of Polish soldiers find an inseparable bond with an orphaned brown bear they name Wojtek. Read more Bear Portrait A music video for the Shipmate’s Music song, Bear Portrait. Read more Beyond the Score When a conductor of the stars tries to enforce order, an innovative star leads him to discover the beauty of creativity within structure. Read more Give My Regards A Starship Crew with a fondness for Musical Theatre is in danger. Read more Star Quest! An aging actor (Patrick Bergin) in hospice reflecting on his favorite role of Starship Captain meets a 9 year old cancer patient who is a faithful fan. Read more Help Me Tom Set in a small town in the future, a military robot is transformed into a human service robot Tom. But the war is still coming, and the robot Tom must make a choice. Read more How to Prepare for Time Travelers in the Workplace A quirky set of safety guidelines for encountering time-traveling infiltrators in your workplace, presented by the Organization for Time Travel Oversight. Read more Life On Mars The first human landing on Mars does not go as expected Read more The Lights Above Months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a series of unidentified aircraft sightings over Los Angeles lead a determined journalist to reluctantly pair up with a Japanese American photographer to prevent another attack. Read more Terra Luna A scientist working alone finds herself in a situation...something is not right... Read more Love_Proxy A love story in a world where a person can stay in many places at the same time thanks to a new invention of a robot-doppeller. Read more Sleep|Walking In a Dystopian Earth 600 years in the future a lone Sleeper awakens to a now unpopulated earth and with the help of the last working orbital AI satellite... Read more The Beneath A mystery begins in a young woman's garden; something is alive and running amuck. Read more The Visitor A failing actress is haunted by a silent double that seems intent on taking her place—forcing her to confront what it means to be seen, remembered, or erased. Read more Pearls Tony and Linda are struggling to grow their family. When Tony is forced to face his fertility issues, he turns to a mysterious oyster dealer. Read more Are You A Human Being Lucie and Jean-Michel grapple with an existential crisis and a computer crash. In this dark comedy blending poetry and artificial intelligence, they search for meaning. Read more Weird to Be Human The year is 2194. Transfers between the digital and physical worlds are routine. In specialized facilities, bodies are cultivated for artificial intelligences seeking human form. At one such facility, an officer from the Department of Embodiments arrives to speak with a being completing its transformation. Read more The Ugly Chickens Upon learning that the supposedly extinct dodo bird might still exist, ornithology professor Paula Linberl sets out on a cross-country expedition to unravel the mystery. Read more Honorable Mention "Snow Bear" Hand drawn animation. (This film will not be shown in the Film Festival.) Read more

< Back Neil Ottenstein Fan Fan Neil Ottenstein obtained a PhD in theoretical nuclear physics in 1990 and since then has been workingin flight dynamics for one of two NASA Goddard Space Flight Center contractors. He is currently the contractor flight dynamics lead for the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. He has been reading science fiction and fantasy most of his life, and going to science fiction conventions since 1980 (and a couple of comic book conventions before that). Babylon 5 is his favorite television program. Other Socials