< List of Vendors Magical Mysteries-Fairy Hair Sparkles Artist Alley Meet Karen, Faerie Grandmother As a life long fiber artist, Karen fell in love with the magical, Sparkling, silk Fairy Hair strands the minute she saw them in the long, luxurious hair of Dancing Hands, the Fairy Goddess Mother who brought Fhairy Hair to America. In 2013, Karen began incorporating Fairy Hair into her existing fiber business, eventually making Fairy Hair her full time passion. For the past 11 years, Karen has Sparkled thousands of people and trained others to do the same. She is the owner and creator of Magical Mysteries-Silk Sparkle Strands, the original Fairy hair business in Maryland. You may know her from various events, fairs, shows, conventions and festivals as Faerie Grandmother! Fairy Hair-Silk Sparkle Strands are delicate strands of Sparkling Thai Silk which are hand-tied to individual hairs. https://magical-mysteries.com/

< Back Jayrod P. Garrett Literary Author Jayrod P. Garrett works to build a world where all of us can feel we belong. They are a storytelling educator with a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Nevada, Reno. As a child, they came to Utah on a three-week vacation that became more than forty years. During that time, they transitioned from being a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints into a nonbinary, Black, atheist, U.S. Veteran with PTSD and ADHD. Currently they are a ghostwriter with Super Huemann Creative, an educator for RISE Virtual Academy where they teach Black students about Black history, a storyteller with the Nubian Storytellers of Utah Leadership, a Game Master running role playing games at Salt Lake City's Legendarium, and the Belonging Coordinator of Superstars Writing Seminars. They live in northern Utah with their spouse and three children. You can find more on their stories, poetry, and where they are teaching at jayrodpgarrett.com. Other Socials https://jayrodpgarrett.com/

< Back Larry Hodges Literary Author Larry Hodges is an active member of SFWA with over 220 short story sales, with 56 "pro" sales, including ones to Analog, Escape Pod (2), Daily Science Fiction (3), Dark Matter (2), and 19 to Galaxy’s Edge. He also has four novels. He's a graduate of the six-week 2006 Odyssey Writers Workshop, the two-week 2008 Taos Toolbox Writers Workshop, and a member of Codexwriters.com. In the world of non-fiction, he has 22 books and over 2300 published articles in over 200 different publications. He's also a professional table tennis coach (it's an Olympic Sport!), and claims to be the best science fiction writer in USA Table Tennis and the best table tennis player in SFWA! Visit him at larryhodges.com. Other Socials

< Back Lisa Ashton Costuming Costumer Lisa Ashton is a master division costumer for whom Balticon is home. From Isis in "Magic of the Ancients", Rainbows & Unicorns, alien brides, Bad Harem Day, Urban Legends, a Tequila Sunrise, Kali and various pirates, to the "Sweet Sixteens", as well as 2019's BIS "Mystic Legacy" (with Alanna Whitestar), her Balticon masquerade costumes have been many and varied. She also is a quilter and beader, and restores antique parasols, quilts and Victorian clothing. She is the Founder of Miss Lizzy's Traveling Historical Fashion Show, a 501 (3)(c) organization. In 2016 she was awarded the ICG "Lifetime Achievement Award" at Costume Con. Teaching beadwork, costuming and sewing techniques is another part of her Balticon experience. She loves coffee and is generally considered friendly at cons. Other Socials

< Back D.A. Xiaolin Spires Literary Author D. A. Xiaolin Spires steps into portals and reappears in sites such as Hawai’i, NY, various parts of Asia and elsewhere, with her keyboard appendage attached. Besides Eye to the Telescope, her work appears in publications such as Clarkesworld, Analog, Nature, Terraform, Fireside, Star*Line, Liquid Imagination, and anthologies such as Make Shift, Ride the Star Wind, Sharp and Sugar Tooth, Deep Signal, and Battling in All Her Finery. Select stories can be read in German, Spanish, Vietnamese, Estonian, French and Japanese translation--and have been selected for The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories Year's, The Year’s Top Tales of Space and Time, Year's Best Hardcore Horror, and The Year's Best Issue for Andromeda Spaceways Magazine. Her poetry has been nominated for the Dwarf Star, Rhysling, Best of the Net and Pushcart Awards. Other Socials http://daxiaolinspires.wordpress.com

< Back Friday Night Filk Circle TBA TBA The filk circles are your chance to share a favorite song or two. All songs are welcome: filk, folk, Celtic, SCA, and more. Or bring an instrument and play along. Join us to sing the night away, or just stop by for a listen!

< Back Andrew McDowell Literary Author Andrew McDowell is the author of the fantasy novels Mystical Greenwood and Beneath the Deep Wave, the former of which was a finalist in the 2019 American Fiction Awards, won the 2021 Maryland Writers’ Association Novel Contest, and was an honorable mention in the 2021 Top Shelf Magazine contest. He studied at St. Mary’s College and the University of Maryland, College Park. Andrew has had poetry, short stories, and essays featured in anthologies and literary journals. He has Asperger Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. https://andrewmcdowellauthor.com https://www.facebook.com/AndrewMcDowellAuthor/ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3175924.Andrew_McDowell https://www.amazon.com/stores/Andrew-McDowell/author/B08MVFN9TL https://bsky.app/profile/ammcdow.bsky.social https://www.youtube.com/@andrewmcdowellauthor https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/andrew_mcdowell https://books2read.com/rl/AndrewMcDowell/ Other Socials https://andrewmcdowellauthor.com

< Back Aaron M. Roth Literary Author Aaron M. Roth is a science fiction author and leader in artificial intelligence. He has led research teams studying robotics, artificial intelligence, reinforcement learning, and explainable AI in government and academic research labs including Carnegie Mellon University and University of Maryland. He was most recently leading a team at a company creating autonomous maritime vessels, and is currently working on a secret AI startup. He has published science fiction and academic papers and given talks on science and science fiction around the the world. You can sign up for his mailing list on his website. Other Socials http://www.aaronmroth.com.

< Back Scott Edelman Literary Author Scott Edelman has published more than 125 short stories in magazines such as Analog, Apex, Lightspeed, and The Twilight Zone, and in anthologies such as Why New Yorkers Smoke, Crossroads: Southern Tales of the Fantastic, and MetaHorror. Many of these have been collected in the books These Words Are Haunted, What Will Come After (a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Memorial Award), What We Still Talk About. and Tell Me Like You Done Before (and Other Stories Written on the Shoulders of Giants). His most recent collection is Things That Never Happened. He has been a Stoker Award finalist eight times. Edelman also worked for the Syfy Channel for 13+ years as editor of Science Fiction Weekly, SCI FI Wire, and Blastr. 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. He has also been the host of the Eating the Fantastic podcast since February 2016 Other Socials

< Back Alan Smale Literary Author Alan Smale writes alternate history, historical fantasy, and hard SF. His novella of a Roman invasion of ancient America, “A Clash of Eagles”, won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, and his novels set in the same universe, Clash of Eagles, Eagle in Exile, and Eagle and Empire (2015-2017), are available from Del Rey. His “Roman baseball” collaboration with Rick Wilber, The Wandering Warriors, came out from WordFire Press in 2020, and Hot Moon, his alternate-Apollo thriller set entirely on and around the Moon, was launched by CAEZIK SF & Fantasy in July 2022, with sequel Radiant Sky released in November 2024. Alan has sold 50+ pieces of short fiction to Asimov’s, Galaxy’s Edge, Abyss & Apex, and numerous other magazines and original anthologies, and his non-fiction essays have appeared in Lightspeed, Journey Planet, and Galaxy's Edge. Check out his Web site or follow him on social media. Other Socials https://www.alansmale.com

< List of Vendors Wendra Colleen Dealer's Room YOUR WEIRDNESS IS YOUR SUPER POWER. How do I know? 'Cuz I'm a weirdo too! I have a PhD in experimental psychology, deployed to Iraq as a civilian, and value rescue dogs even more than writing. Come one and all and enter my STRANGE STORY WORLDS of the unique, the unusual, and the unconventional. You can also explore resources for writing and learn how to empower yourself. Modern fantasy author: books, short stories, and screenplays http://www.wendracolleen.com

< Back Randee Dawn Literary Author Randee Dawn is a Brooklyn-based SFF/H author at night and an entertainment journalist during the day for publications including Today.com, NBCNews.com, Variety, The Los Angeles Times, Gold Derby.com and Emmy Magazine. Her humorous pop culture fantasy debut, Tune in Tomorrow, was published in 2022 by Solaris/Rebellion and reissued in 2024 with additional content by Solaris Nova. She has three books scheduled to publish in 2025: dark rock 'n roll fantasies The Only Song Worth Singing (April) and Leave No Trace (August), both from Arc Manor/Caezik; and We Interrupt This Program (a follow-up to Tune, from Solaris Nova). Her short fiction has appeared in magazines, podcasts and anthologies over the years, including most recently Dark Spores: Stories We Tell After Midnight, Vol. 4. She is the co-author of The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion. Originally from Maryland, Randee now lives with her husband, a lot of books and never enough mangoes in New York. Other Socials