FenCon XVI - September 20-22, 2019 |

Guests of Honor


Trevor Quachri Guest of Honor Before taking the reigns of ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION AND FACT as editor in 2012, Trevor Quachri started off as an editorial assistant in 1999 and worked his way up the ladder at ANALOG and ASIMOV’S SCIENCE FICTION, under Stanley Schmidt, Sheila Williams, and Gardner Dozois, respectively. On top of that, he’s also been a Broadway stagehand, collected data for museums, and executive produced a science fiction pilot for a basic cable channel. He lives in New Jersey with his fiancee, daughter, and way, way too many comic books.(photo credit: Che Ryback)
The Doubleclicks Music Guest of Honor (The Doubleclicks) The Doubleclicks are a folk-pop sibling duo, featuring clever lyrics about dinosaurs, literature, love and the Internet—with a cello, guitar, and meowing kitten keyboard. Their latest CD “Love Problems" debuted at number one on the Billboard comedy albums chart, and they’ve toured the world, playing at conventions, comedy festivals, living rooms and one time in a circus in Australia. Their songs and YouTube videos have been viewed over 4 million times and are frequently featured on BoingBoing, io9, and NPR.
Helen Montgomery Fen Guest of Honor Helen Montgomery is a Chicago fan who recently relocated to Seattle. She is currently a co-chair of the Chicago in 2022 Worldcon Bid, the Division Head for Events for Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon, and an Area Head for Capricon in Chicago. Helen has been active in Chicago fandom since 2000, holding many roles for Capricon, including Conchair (twice) and serving on their Board of Directors (twice). She has worked on six Worldcons and three NASFiCs, including Chicon 7 in 2012, when she was one of three “Chairman’s Flying Monkees” (Vice Chairs). She also chaired Smofcon 2016 in Chicago. Additionally, she is the President of the Science Fiction Outreach Project, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that promotes literacy and fandom through the reading of science fiction and fantasy.
Peri Charlifu Artist Guest of Honor (Aegean Goods) (Facebook) Working out of Colorado, Peri has sold his work professionally for over 38 years. He has won dozens of awards and is founder and Guild Primus for Convention Artists Guild. He is a full time artist and participates in about 40-45 Science Fiction convention art shows a year, all over the country! His work is exhibited and sold all over the United States as well as several countries. To date he has produced over 42,000 pieces. His work is available for limited special order and at art shows only. Peri works mainly in a High Density mix of Porcelain and White Stoneware. He mixes his own glaze and his work is food, oven and Microwave safe. All the design work is hand painted and or carved and he mixes all his own stains and colors. He is also a graphic artist and his prints and original works can be seen on his website!
Julie Czerneda Science Guest of Honor (Julie Czerneda) For over twenty years, Canadian author/ former biologist Julie E. Czerneda has shared her curiosity about living things through her science fiction, published by DAW Books, NY. Julie’s written fantasy too, the first installments of her Night’s Edge series (DAW) A Turn of Light and A Play of Shadow, winning consecutive Aurora Awards (Canada’s Hugo) for Best English Novel. Having completed her Clan Chronicles series with To Guard Against the Dark, Julie’s latest SF novel is Search Image, Book #1 of her new SF series, The Web Shifter’s Library, bringing back her beloved character Esen the Dear Little Blob. Julie’s edited/co-edited numerous award-winning anthologies of SF/F, including SFWA’s 2017 Nebula Award Showcase, but nothing prepared her for the sheer joy of opening her Clan Chronicles to fans of the series to produce Tales from Plexis, out December 2018. What’s coming next? Her new fantasy standalone, The Gossamer Mage, out August 2019, and so much more.
Orlando Sanchez Toastmaster (Orlando Sanchez) Orlando has been writing ever since his teens when he was immersed in creating scenarios for playing Dungeon and Dragons with his friends every weekend. An avid reader, his influences are too numerous to list here. Some of the most prominent are: J.R.R. Tolkien, Jim Butcher, Kat Richardson, Terry Brooks, Piers Anthony, Lee Child, George Lucas, Andrew Vachss, and Barry Eisler to name a few in no particular order. The worlds of his books are urban settings with a twist of the paranormal lurking just behind the scenes and generous doses of magic, martial arts, and mayhem. He currently resides in Queens, NY with his wife and children and can often be found in the local coffee shop where most of his writing is done.
Angie Hodapp Special Workshop Guest Angie Hodapp is the Director of Literary Development at Nelson Literary Agency. She holds a BA in English and secondary education and an MA in English and communication development, and she is a graduate of the Denver Publishing Institute at the University of Denver. She has worked in publishing and professional writing and editing for the better part of the last two decades and is the author of Do You Need a Literary Agent?: The Writer-in-the-Know Guide to a Literary Agent’s Role in the Publishing Industry (January 2019). A veteran teacher and speaker, she loves helping authors hone their craft and learn about the ever-changing business of publishing.

Trevor Quachri

Guest of Honor

Before taking the reigns of ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION AND FACT as editor in 2012, Trevor Quachri started off as an editorial assistant in 1999 and worked his way up the ladder at ANALOG and ASIMOV’S SCIENCE FICTION, under Stanley Schmidt, Sheila Williams, and Gardner Dozois, respectively. On top of that, he’s also been a Broadway stagehand, collected data for museums, and executive produced a science fiction pilot for a basic cable channel. He lives in New Jersey with his fiancee, daughter, and way, way too many comic books.(photo credit: Che Ryback)

The Doubleclicks

Music Guest of Honor

(The Doubleclicks) The Doubleclicks are a folk-pop sibling duo, featuring clever lyrics about dinosaurs, literature, love and the Internet—with a cello, guitar, and meowing kitten keyboard. Their latest CD “Love Problems" debuted at number one on the Billboard comedy albums chart, and they’ve toured the world, playing at conventions, comedy festivals, living rooms and one time in a circus in Australia. Their songs and YouTube videos have been viewed over 4 million times and are frequently featured on BoingBoing, io9, and NPR.

Helen Montgomery

Fen Guest of Honor

Helen Montgomery is a Chicago fan who recently relocated to Seattle. She is currently a co-chair of the Chicago in 2022 Worldcon Bid, the Division Head for Events for Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon, and an Area Head for Capricon in Chicago.

Helen has been active in Chicago fandom since 2000, holding many roles for Capricon, including Conchair (twice) and serving on their Board of Directors (twice). She has worked on six Worldcons and three NASFiCs, including Chicon 7 in 2012, when she was one of three “Chairman’s Flying Monkees” (Vice Chairs). She also chaired Smofcon 2016 in Chicago.

Additionally, she is the President of the Science Fiction Outreach Project, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that promotes literacy and fandom through the reading of science fiction and fantasy.

Peri Charlifu

Artist Guest of Honor

(Aegean Goods) (Facebook) Working out of Colorado, Peri has sold his work professionally for over 38 years. He has won dozens of awards and is founder and Guild Primus for Convention Artists Guild. He is a full time artist and participates in about 40-45 Science Fiction convention art shows a year, all over the country! His work is exhibited and sold all over the United States as well as several countries. To date he has produced over 42,000 pieces. His work is available for limited special order and at art shows only. Peri works mainly in a High Density mix of Porcelain and White Stoneware. He mixes his own glaze and his work is food, oven and Microwave safe. All the design work is hand painted and or carved and he mixes all his own stains and colors. He is also a graphic artist and his prints and original works can be seen on his website!

Julie Czerneda

Science Guest of Honor

(Julie Czerneda) For over twenty years, Canadian author/ former biologist Julie E. Czerneda has shared her curiosity about living things through her science fiction, published by DAW Books, NY. Julie’s written fantasy too, the first installments of her Night’s Edge series (DAW) A Turn of Light and A Play of Shadow, winning consecutive Aurora Awards (Canada’s Hugo) for Best English Novel. Having completed her Clan Chronicles series with To Guard Against the Dark, Julie’s latest SF novel is Search Image, Book #1 of her new SF series, The Web Shifter’s Library, bringing back her beloved character Esen the Dear Little Blob. Julie’s edited/co-edited numerous award-winning anthologies of SF/F, including SFWA’s 2017 Nebula Award Showcase, but nothing prepared her for the sheer joy of opening her Clan Chronicles to fans of the series to produce Tales from Plexis, out December 2018. What’s coming next? Her new fantasy standalone, The Gossamer Mage, out August 2019, and so much more.

Orlando Sanchez

Toastmaster

(Orlando Sanchez) Orlando has been writing ever since his teens when he was immersed in creating scenarios for playing Dungeon and Dragons with his friends every weekend. An avid reader, his influences are too numerous to list here. Some of the most prominent are: J.R.R. Tolkien, Jim Butcher, Kat Richardson, Terry Brooks, Piers Anthony, Lee Child, George Lucas, Andrew Vachss, and Barry Eisler to name a few in no particular order. The worlds of his books are urban settings with a twist of the paranormal lurking just behind the scenes and generous doses of magic, martial arts, and mayhem. He currently resides in Queens, NY with his wife and children and can often be found in the local coffee shop where most of his writing is done.

Angie Hodapp

Special Workshop Guest

Angie Hodapp is the Director of Literary Development at Nelson Literary Agency. She holds a BA in English and secondary education and an MA in English and communication development, and she is a graduate of the Denver Publishing Institute at the University of Denver. She has worked in publishing and professional writing and editing for the better part of the last two decades and is the author of Do You Need a Literary Agent?: The Writer-in-the-Know Guide to a Literary Agent’s Role in the Publishing Industry (January 2019). A veteran teacher and speaker, she loves helping authors hone their craft and learn about the ever-changing business of publishing.

Program Participants

Joe Abbott Joseph Abbott, aka Fax Paladin, has been filking for basically as long as FenCon has been around and was the very first Friend of the Fen. He’s still trying to work out what he wants to be when he grows up, especially now that “newspaperman” has been taken off the table.
C. Dean Andersson (C. Dean Andersson) (Wikipedia) C. Dean Andersson’s I Am Dracula was honored with a cameo in Amy Hesketh's vampire film, Olalla. Dean’s novels are available in new editions from Crossroad Press. Works in progress include a novel of Swords, Sorcery, and Showbiz, Valkyries from Hel, and part 2 of his Dracula Saga, I Am the Witch.
Kimm Antell (ChickGeek) (Facebook) (GooglePlus) Kimm Antell is an artist and writer from Pflugerville, TX. She also has a husband, 5 cats, 1,500 books, 1 house, 5 friends (she lost one to Portland,) 400 comic books, 2,795 ancestors, and 1 white lie to FenCon. Favorite sci-fi movie is Ghostbusters (Original.) Favorite horror movie is From Dusk ‘Til Dawn. Favorite fantasy movie is The Adventures of Baron von Munchausen. Favorite mystery is The Fugitive. Least favorite president is Donald Dum-Dum.
Lou Antonelli (Lou Antonelli) (Twitter) Lou Antonelli has had 124 original short stories published in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Brazil, India, and Portugal in venues such as Asimov's Science Fiction, Jim Baen's Universe, Tales of the Talisman, Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine, Greatest Uncommon Denominator (GUD), Daily Science Fiction, Buzzy Mag, and Omni Reboot, among many others. His debut novel, the retro-futurist alternate history “Another Girl, Another Planet”, was a finalist for the Dragon Award for Alternate History in 2017.
Julie Barrett (Stately Barrett Manor) (Steamcat) (Facebook) Julie Barrett is a writer, photographer, and maker of interesting things from Plano, TX. She is also a founding member of The Generic Radio Workshop, member of the Dallas Future Society board, and sells photography and art through SteamCat.net. Julie writes short stories, radio plays, and whatever else helps pay the bills. She hates the bills. Find her at Stately Barrett Manor or on Facebook.
Paul Barrett Amongst Paul's many pastimes, a favorite is creating, finding, and programming the sound effects for Generic Radio Workshop productions. As with the other GRW founders, he's done so many of these shows, he's no longer sure if this is reality, or if he's living in an episode of Dimension X. Other hobbies are prop-building and 3D printing--he has been known to demonstrate all the ways this can go wrong.
Mitch Bentley Artist Mitchell Davidson Bentley spent the last 20 years moving physically from place to place and artistically from traditional oils to cyber compositions. Trained in the traditional medium of oil by his mother, and inspired by his grandfather’s love of science fiction, Bentley began his career as a full-time science fiction artist in 1989 from his home base in Tulsa. While actively involved in the science fiction art world, Bentley also moved from Tulsa to Austin to Central Pennsylvania where his search for knowledge earned him bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Penn State University. Over the same period of time, Bentley shifted from the more traditional oil painting to airbrushed acrylics, and since 2004 has been working exclusively in electronic media.
Paul Black (Paul Black) (Wikipedia) (Facebook) Paul Black always wanted to make movies, but a career in advertising sidetracked him. He's the international award-winning author of The Tels, Soulware, Nexus Point, The Presence, The Samsara Effect, Cool Brain, and Dark Slide. He has twice won each the Independent Publishers Book Award, London and the New York Book Festival. He has also been on the Barnes & Noble Regional Best Seller list, has won the Writer’s Digest Book Award for Genre Fiction, and was optioned for television.
Bland Lemon Denton and the Lemon-Aides Over the past twelve years, Bland Lemon Denton, "The World's Oldest (and Worst) Bluesman," has played guitar and harmonica at conventions throughout the Midwest and South. For FenCon XV, he'll be joined by the Lemon-Aides: Caroline "Honey Badger" Spector (bass), Bob "Thumper" Yeager (percussion), David Lee "Psychobot" Anderson (guitar), and Sherri "Monkey Queen" Dean (backing vocals). They invite all y'all to come get the Blues, too.
Karen Bogen (Facebook) Karen is a self-confessed knit-and-yarn-aholic. She spends many hours either knitting something, inventorying her stash, or fondling yarn at any shop within driving range. Interesting? Depends on your point of view. She likes to cook and enjoys reading forensic anthropology books. Occasionally at the same time. In January 2012, she got talked into taking a full-time+ job. It was really eating into her knitting time. Fortunately, she was laid off in 2015. Swan dive into the yarn stash!
Aislinn Burrows Aislinn Burrows is an old Millennial keeping busy as a full-time student and creative media projects consultant. Plus, she helps run SoonerCon in Oklahoma City. She’s passionate about nerd culture, connecting communities, karaoke, and considers herself a geek Girl Friday-type and NPR junkie. She and her wife Carmen live with their fur family in a small house filled with books, oddities, art, warmth, and joy. Fen friends can find her on Facebook! (Photo: @SquirrelyJediPhotography)
Lillian Stewart Carl (Lillian Stewart Carl) (Facebook) Lillian Stewart Carl’s work features plots based on mythology, history, and archaeology, often with paranormal aspects. She’s published twenty novels, including the Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron mysteries--the most recent is The Avalon Chanter. Her twenty-five published short stories have been reprinted in Along the Rim of Time and The Muse: Stories of History, Mystery, and Myth. With John Helfers, she was nominated for a Hugo for The Vorkosigan Companion, a retrospective on Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan books.
J. Kathleen Cheney (J. Kathleen Cheney) J. Kathleen Cheney taught mathematics ranging from 7th grade to Calculus, but gave it all up for a chance to write stories. Her novella "Iron Shoes" was a 2010 Nebula Award finalist. Her novel, The Golden City, was a finalist for the 2014 Locus Awards (Best First Novel). Dreaming Death (Feb 2016) is the first in a new world, with The Horn coming out in 2017, and the books of The King’s Daughter and sequels to Dreaming Death in 2018/2019.
Deborah L. Davitt (Deborah L. Davitt) Deborah L. Davitt was raised in Nevada, but currently lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and son. She’s worked as a technical writer on contracts involving nuclear submarines, NASA, and computer manufacturing. Her poetry has received Rhysling, Dwarf Star, and Pushcart nominations; her short fiction has appeared in InterGalactic Medicine Show, Compelling Science Fiction, and Pseudopod. For more about her work, including her Edda-Earth novels and her forthcoming poetry collection, The Gates of Never, please see her website.
Aaron de Orive (Aaron de Orive) Aaron de Orive was a writer/designer on several video games, including Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, Tabula Rasa, Anarchy Online, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. He co-authored the middle-grade fantasy novel Blade Singer with Martha Wells, and created the tabletop role-playing game Shard: World of the False Dawn. He’s also the founder and co-host of The Gentlemen Nerds podcast. Aaron lives in Austin with his precocious daughter and an incredibly spoiled Yorkie.
Sherri Dean (Facebook) (Twitter) Sherri Dean, yr Feisty Mistress of Fear, is a jack-o-lantern of all trades and a monster of none! In addition to being a published author and artist (Yard Dog Press) she is also an editor, costumer, judge, emcee, and sings as the Monkey Queen with convention favorites Bland Lemon and the Lemonades. Ask for your Monkey Minion button and visit her on Facebook for more feisty fear!
John DeLaughter (WordHerd) John DeLaughter is a planetologist living on a sailboat with Nimrod the cat. His work has taken him to all seven continents where he always meets the nicest people. Among the stories he’s had published is description of money in Hell (in Strange Economics). Right now, John is working with Mel. White on new Duncan & Mallory stories; their latest, Tangled Up in Clues: A Sadie and Bilgewater adventure, is available on Amazon.
Charlayne Denney (Charlayne Denney) (Facebook) (Twitter) (Goodreads) Given Charlayne's habit of checking people for fangs and living in the dark, she discovered her own vampires and Lilly, Marcus, and the rest of the gang living in the Fangs & Halos series she writes. When not hanging with vampires, she is a WoW gnome mage, Rubyrose. She's the crazy lady in the wheelchair with the Werepup. She found her husband, Bruce, through a want-ad in the program book for ConTroll 93. She's done conventions in Texas since 1979.
Bradley Denton (Bradley Denton) (Bland Lemon Denton) Four Bradley Denton titles are in new formats for 2015: Novels Blackburn and Lunatics, plus story collection One Day Closer to Death, are now available as ebooks. And Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede is now an audiobook -- complete with cover art from FenCon Artist GoH Mitch Bentley. Meanwhile, Brad’s 2014 collection Sergeant Chip and Other Novellas is still in print, and he still manages the career of Bland Lemon Denton, the World’s Oldest (and Worst) Bluesman.
Chris Donahue Chris Donahue is an electrical engineer living in the Dallas area with his wife and fellow-author, Linda. A former member of a Joe Bob Briggs' Drive In Review committee, he served the public by counting rolling heads, types of Fu, and exposed breasts in committee films. Outside of that, he has been a Navy Avionics tech, brewer, and writes sci-fi, military fiction, horror, humor, and combinations of those themes. His first novel, Death's Paladin, is now available.
Linda L. Donahue (Linda L. Donahue) Linda has degrees in computer science, Russian studies, Earth science education, and electrical engineering. Additionally, she teaches tai chi and belly dancing, can borrow moon rock samples, and is a certified commercial instrument pilot, advanced ground instructor, and SCUBA diver. Her latest short stories have appeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #25 and Chicks and Balances. Her novel, Jaguar Moon, is available from Yard Dog Press. She lives with her husband and pet rabbits, sugar gliders, and cats in Garland, Texas.
Carole Nelson Douglas (Carole Nelson Douglas) Carole Nelson Douglas’s Vegas feline Sam Spade and Noir narrator, Midnight Louie, has finished his 28-book alphabet title series. His new Cafe Noir series also features her urban fantasy heroine, Delilah Street. Absinthe Without Leave is “Twisty, riveting, and intriguing; zingy humor and powerful emotions.” RT Book Reviews. Brandi Alexander on the Rocks arrives in November, 2019. Carole will reissue her Probe SF thrillers and bestselling Irissa/Kendric high fantasies. She also designs book covers and rescues cats in Fort Worth.
Rhonda Eudaly (Rhonda Eudaly) Rhonda Eudaly lives in Arlington, Texas where she's ventured into several industries and occupations for a wide variety of experience. She's married with dogs and a rapidly growing Minion© army. Her two passions are writing and music, which is evident in her increasing horde of writing instruments. Rhonda has a well-rounded publication history in fiction, non-fiction, and script writing. Check out her website for her latest publications and downloads. (Photo by Bobby Hitt)
Sara Felix (Sara Felix) Sara Felix is a Texas conrunner and artist living in Austin. She started working on conventions after working with Willie Siros at the bookstore Adventures in Crime and Space. While wearing her artist hat she makes jewelry and small clay robot sculptures that she sells at art shows, and was once featured on HGTV's Crafters Coast to Coast where she crafted a flying pig. She has designed Hugo award bases for MidAmericon 2 and for Worldcon 76 with Vincent Villafranca.
Mark Finn (Mark Finn) (The Gentlemen Nerds) (Skelos Press) (Twitter) Mark Finn is an author, an editor, and a pop culture critic. He is a nationally-recognized authority on Robert E. Howard and has written extensively about the Texas author. He is a managing editor for Skelos Press, and he podcasts with The Gentlemen Nerds. When he is not waxing eloquent about popular culture, he writes comics and fiction, performs community theater, and runs a movie theater in North Texas with his long-suffering wife and their gregarious pit bull, Sonya.
Michael Ashleigh Finn (Amazon) Mickey is a thematic consultant, film critic and wordmonger with specialities in genre and comparative mythologies. He's worked on everything from Shadowrun to the Dresden Files comic, floated a few Hollywood adaptations, and even performed CPR on a few scripts. He's dipped his hands into podcasting, anthology editing, synth music, foley, odd digital art and puppet consulting. Despite all this, he's never managed to crack writing a novel. He maintains this is due to never having been a short-order cook.
Melanie Fletcher (Melanie Fletcher) When she’s not writing science fiction, Melanie Fletcher writes SF, fantasy, and paranormal romance as Nicola M. Cameron, and cares not who knows it. The fourth entry in her Two Thrones series, King of Blades, was released in July, and the second entry in her Pacifica Rising series, Uncertainty Principle, was released in September. When not writing or fabricating sterling silver jewelry, she’s usually riding herd on her cats (aka the J Crew) or spending time with her husband.
Brad W. Foster (Brad W. Foster) (Jabberwocky Graphix) Hugo-award winning artist Brad W Foster lives to draw, and draws to live, and still loves to see his artwork in that so-last-century thing called "print". Over the decades his work has appeared in hundreds of publications, large and small, and he hopes to add a few thousand more to that list. You can learn more than you would probably care to just by spending a few hours wandering around his website, Jabberwocky Graphix.
Bill Frank Bill Frank was one of the first members of the International Space Center Mission Control team. He happily gave up night and weekend work to move into spaceflight training as a Chief Training Officer--he leads the team that creates problems for astronauts and mission controllers during training events. His voice can be heard in the movies Gravity, The Martian, and Transformers: The Last Knight.
Karl Gallagher (Karl K. Gallagher) Karl K. Gallagher is a systems engineer, currently performing data analysis for a major aerospace company. In the past he calculated trajectories for a commercial launch rocket start-up, operated satellites as a US Air Force officer, and selected orbits for government and commercial satellites. Karl lives in Saginaw, TX withhis family. He writes both science fiction (the Torchship trilogy) and fantasy (The Lost War). His books are available on Amazon and Audible.
Ben Gibbs (The Gentlemen Nerds) Ben Gibbs has been producing music and sound for various projects including three bands and fourteen albums, a live theater project, a podcast, and a legislative update, over the course of almost twenty years. He provides the music, mixing, and intentional production for the Gentlemen Nerds podcast. In his spare time, Ben practices law, enjoys time with his family, and tolerates a small dog.
C. Stuart Hardwick (C Stuart Hardwick) (Twitter) (Facebook) C. Stuart Hardwick has won Writers of the Future and the Jim Baen Award, and is a regular in Analog Science Fiction & Fact. He leans toward hard scifi, but also writes YA & fantasy, and has been called “Bradbury meets Heinlein, with the poetry of Ursula K. Le Guin.” He’s built ill-conceived flying machines, married an aquanaut, and has been known to wear a cape. Check out his website for free sample stories.
Teddy Harvia Teddy Harvia is the well-known pen name of David Thayer. He has drawn scores of wild beasts, strange BEMs, and big-nosed whiz kids from a world far from Earth who use short words to make fun of all kinds of things in scores of toons and fan art for flyers, zines, and con pubs since 1967. He lives with wife Diana and five fat cats in Dallas, Texas. To earn his keep, he works with words at a high-tech firm.
Lee Killough (Lee Killough) (Coffee Shop Writers) Lee Killough began storytelling at age five, making up her own bedtime stories. At age eleven these became SF/Fantasy and Mysteries when she discovered the genres in her hometown library, and led to her first publication, a short story in Analog. Seven older novels have been revised and published as e-books (on Amazon and Kobo). Currently in print with Yard Dog Press are: The Leopard’s Daughter, space opera Ancient Enemy, and a writer’s world-building aid: Checking On Culture.
William Ledbetter (William Ledbetter) William Ledbetter is a Nebula Award winning author, with fiction published in Analog, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's, The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, Yard Dog Press, and many others. He is an unapologetic space geek and runs the annual Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award contest for Baen Books and the National Space Society. The audio version of his best-selling science fiction thriller novel Level Five is available from Audible Originals.
Julia S. Mandala (Julia S. Mandala) Julia S. Mandala holds a BA in history from Kansas State University and a JD in law from Tulane University. In addition to being editor of The Fantasy Writers Asylum, an imprint of Yard Dog Press, she is a scuba diver and belly dancer. She lives in Plano, TX with her husband Larry and two very demanding, but adorable cats. She is best known as a co-author of the Four Redheads of the Apocalypse series and the Corimar series.
A. Lee Martinez (A. Lee Martinez) A. Lee Martinez is best known for his sparkling wit, incredible good looks, and his ability to endlessly debate the Superman VS. Batman dilemma. (Correct answer: Tarzan) Also, he's written 10 fantasy novels and managed to get paid for it. If you would like to read random thoughts from him, you can go to his website, or check him out on Twitter or Facebook.
Wil McCarthy (Wil McCarthy) Wil McCarthy is a WIRED former contributing editor, SyFy channel science columnist, and two-time AnLab award winner. Discover magazine rated his world “P2” one of the 10 best science fiction planets of all time, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog, Asimov's, WIRED, and SF Age. His novels include the New York Times Notable Bloom, Amazon "Best of Y2K" The Collapsium, and the upcoming Antediluvian. Previously an aerospace engineer and tech startup founder, McCarthy holds 31 issued U.S. patents.
Dawn Mennear Dawn comes from Des Moines, IA, and she has been coming to FenCon since FenCon II and considers it one of the best run conventions, with some of the friendliest people around. She doesn't write but she reads voraciously and considers that an excellent reason to attend. She is 54, Rubenesque, and nosy in a good way. Loves to crochet and will often be seen in corners crocheting away.
Margaret Middleton Filker Margaret Middleton is retired from 25 years of “designing piles of dirt and holes in the ground” for the Arkansas Highway Department and now lives in Starkville, MS. In between science fiction conventions, she quilts and collects songs about aviation and the space program. She also builds model rockets, both with the Civil Air Patrol cadets and on her own hook. She made it to both EAA Air Venture and NARAM's annual event this just-past July.
Michelle Muenzler (Michelle Muenzler) (Facebook) Michelle Muenzler, also known at local conventions as "The Cookie Lady", writes fiction both dark and strange to counterbalance the sweetness of her baking. Her fiction and poetry have been published in magazines such as Fireside, Daily Science Fiction, and Apex Magazine, and she takes immense joy in crinkling words like little foil puppets.
Ethan Nahté (Ethan Nahté) (Facebook) (Live ‘N’ Loud) Ethan Nahté is an author, journalist, screenwriter, photographer, musician, and has several years of experience working in TV/Film/Radio. He has over thirty published stories and poems spanning speculative fiction, historical fiction, comedy, pulp, and young adult. He has two story collections: Of Monsters & Madmen and The Undead Ate My Head plus the novellas The Savage Caged and Wings of Mercury and the novelette The Mansion on Champagnolle.
Kathleen O'Brien (Vintage Fashion Explained) (Victorian Smoking Caps) Kathleen M. O'Brien began sewing at age 4, learning traditional techniques from her mother and grandmother. She collects and studies vintage clothing to decipher mysteries of drape and fit found in previous eras. Her costumes include both original designs and reproductions, utilizing many historical techniques. She enjoys sharing both these skills and her collection with others and has published her first e-book Victorian Smoking Caps. Check out her website at Vintage Fashion Explained. Photo ©2012, Carol Schiraldi
Gloria Oliver (Gloria Oliver) Expert party wallflower, Gloria loves manga and anime. Movies, too. Darn right. Books, oh yeah. Her 8th novel Alien Redemption will see publication in 2019 from Zumaya Publications. For sample chapters and more, please visit her website.
Stephen Patrick (Films) Stephen Patrick believes that Texas is the perfect state for writers and aspires to be part of the rich history of Texas storytellers including those included in Road Kill: Texas Horror by Texas Writers, Vol 1 and 2. Drawing from the diverse literary palette that ranges from the panhandle to the coast, the desert to the big city, and every genre in between, he never tires of telling or hearing stories from his home state.
Teresa Patterson (Event Horizon EBooks) (Facebook) Teresa Patterson’s work includes, The World of Shannara with Terry Brooks, The World of the Wheel of Time with Robert Jordan, No Quarter with Robert Asprin, Combat Corpsman with Navy SEAL Greg McPartlin, numerous short stories, and humorous history essays. Her newest work, with Navy SEAL Craig Marley, is No Lifeguard on Duty. When not writing she works as a balloon sculptor, kayak instructor, show horse trainer, and managing The Armory at DragonCon. She also loves to sing and entertain.
Alan J. Porter (Alan J. Porter) (Twitter) Writer, and award-winning editor, Alan J. Porter, has written adventures featuring Sherlock Holmes, Allan Quatermain, Houdini, and private eye Rick Ruby; as well as his own New Pulp adventurers, The Raven and The Lotus Ronin. His pop-culture non-fiction work has featured properties such as Batman, Star Trek, The Beatles, and James Bond. He has also written comics for Tokyopop, BOOM Studios, Marvel, Disney, and Kid Domino.
Trakena Prevost Trakena Prevost is from the great state of Texas, where everything IS bigger. She spends time running after her young son, trying to annoy her husband to distraction, and being completely obsessed with reading. She also happens to write the fantastic stories in her head--mostly to quiet the voices there. When not writing, Trakena works in HR and spends time with family.
Dusty Rainbolt (Dusty Rainbolt) Dusty Rainbolt swears she was raised by aliens after being abandoned on Earth by grays who abhorred the TransGalactic School System. She’s the author of the new Yard Dog Press paranormal mystery, Death Under the Crescent Moon, and coauthor of The Four Redheads of the Apocalypse series. She’s the editor of Stupid Gravity Press. Her latest release is Ghost Cats: Human Encounters with Feline Spirits. She's written numerous books and thousands of articles on cat care, behavior, and animal hauntings.
John Randall (Zyvex Labs) (NanoRetina) (Teliatry) John Randall is the President of Zyvex Labs, Executive VP of NanoRetina, VP of Teliatry, Adjunct Professor at UTDallas, and a proud former Science GoH at FenCon. John has spent his entire career as a nanofabricator, which might mean that he tells small lies. He plans world domination with Atomically Precise Manufacturing, is an amateur saxophone player, has built robots that make fine art paintings, is working to heal the blind, and loves his wife and kids.
Ravenar Ravenar (Amora, Linda Donahue, and Julia Mandala) performs traditional and SF/Fantasy-themed belly dance. They have appeared at several World Cons and at regional conventions in the Midwest and South.
M. T. Reiten (M. T. Reiten) (Facebook) M. T. Reiten has been absent from FenCon for a number of years, but is happy to be back. He is a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, practices aidkido, and lives in New Mexico with his beautiful wife and daughter. He is a Writers of the Future winner and has published short stories with Yard Dog Press, World Weaver Press, and in S.M. Stirling's Change anthology. His latest story is "The Post-Apocalyptic Tourist Guide: Santa Fe and Los Alamos."
Rook Riley (Rook Riley) Rook Riley was once a military linguist, burlesque-show bouncer, Krav Maga instructor, and Department of Defense contractor. Current job titles are: Army vet, middle-school history teacher, parent, and short-story author. TL;DR: Combat vet, writer, game enthusiast, and linguistic badass.
Rob Rogers (Rob Rogers) Rob Rogers is the author of Devil’s Cape, a superhero thriller set in Louisiana. Devil’s Cape was a Pop Matters pick and a HeroPress book of the year. His short stories have also appeared in the anthologies The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, This Mutant Life, and Origins & Endings. Rob lives in Texas, where he continues to write about superheroes, pirates, aliens, mad cultists, dragons, interdimensional rifts, carnival freaks, and cowboys, often in the same stories.
Rie Sheridan Rose (Rie Sheridan Rose) (The Conn-Man Chronicles) Rie's short stories appear in numerous anthologies, including Killing It Softly, Nightmare Stalkers and Dream Walkers Vols. 1 and 2, Avast Ye Airships, and In the Bloodstream as well as Yard Dog Press' A Bubba in Time Saves None. Mocha Memoirs has the short story collection RieTales. Online, she has appeared in Cease, Cows, Lorelei Signal, and Four Star Stories. She is also the author of nine novels (4 in The Conn Mann Chronicles) and six poetry chapbooks.
Selina Rosen (Selina Rosen) (Yard Dog Press) (Castle Farms) (Facebook) Selina Rosen is the author of over twenty-five novels including Sword Masters and Strange Robby, and she has had dozens of short stories published in professional venues including Thieves World and Impossible Monsters. As editor-in-chief of Yard Dog Press she has edited ten anthologies including Bubbas of the Apocalypse. She is married, owns a small farm, and has kids and grandkids. She is a carpenter, a rock mason, a sword fighter, and an all-around swell gal.
Amber Royer (Amber Royer) (Twitter) Amber Royer writes fun science fiction involving chocolate, aliens, lovesick AIs, time travel, VR, and more. She's the author of the Chocoverse series (Book 2, Pure Chocolate, coming March 2019 from Angry Robot Books). She's also the co-author of two cookbooks (one of which is all about chocolate). She teaches creative writing in North Texas.
Ken Ruffin (National Space Society of North Texas) (Facebook) A Trekkie and a former Aerospace Engineering student, Ken served a two-year term on the Board of Directors of the National Space Society (NSS) after having served five years as chapter president of the award-winning NSS of North Texas (NSS-NT). Ken has been the VP of NSS-NT since 2016. Across the DFW Metroplex, Ken gives presentations to inform and inspire the public about "the latest and greatest information in space travel and space development".
Patrice Sarath (Patrice Sarath) (Facebook) (Twitter) Patrice Sarath is an author and editor living in Austin, Texas. Her novels include the fantasy books The Sisters Mederos and Fog Season (Books I and II of the Tales of Port Saint Frey), the Gordath Wood series (Gordath Wood, Red Gold Bridge, and The Crow God’s Girl), and the romance The Unexpected Miss Bennet. You can find more about Patrice and her work at her website.
Martin L. Shoemaker (Martin L. Shoemaker) (Facebook) Martin L. Shoemaker is a programmer who writes on the side…or maybe the other way around. Programming pays the bills, but a second place in the Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest earned him lunch with Buzz Aldrin! His Clarkesworld story "Today I Am Paul" won the 2016 WSFA Small Press Award and also appeared in four year’s best anthologies and seven international editions. The story will continue in Today I Am Carey, a novel coming from Baen in March 2019.
Adrian Simmons (Heroic Fantasy Quarterly) (Heroic Quarterly Fantasy Facebook) (Facebook) Adrian Simmons lives in Norman, Oklahoma. He has hoofed the Ouachita and Ozark Highlands trails, the England coast to coast trail, and the Camino de Santiago in Spain. His nonfiction has appeared in Black Gate and Strange Horizons. His fiction has been in Lackington’s, Strange Constellations, Giganotosaurus, and the anthologies Apotheosis and No Sh!t There I Was. In 2009 he founded the webzine Heroicfantasyquarterly.com and currently serves as 1/3 of its editorial staff.
Brad Sinor (Brad Sinor) (Facebook) (LiveJournal) Bradley H. Sinor has many short stories published in a variety of anthologies. He has several collections: a Holmesian collection, The Game’s Afoot: A Sherlock Holmes Miscellany, published by Pro Se Productions and a collaborated novel with his wife, Sue, in the Ring of Fire universe, called The Hunt for the Red Cardinal, are available on Amazon. Also his short story collection, including stories by Sue, called Of Two Minds is available from Yard Dog Press.
Sue Sinor (Facebook) Sue Sinor started writing at the urging of her husband, Brad. She has stories in several Yard Dog Press publications, as well as others. Sue and Brad have collaborative stories in the anthology Rotten Relations and in Grantville Gazette 4, as well as several for Yard Dog Press. Most recently they have a joint collection, Of Two Minds, and a novel in the Ring of Fire universe titled The Hunt For The Red Cardinal, both available on Amazon.
Amy Sisson (Amy Sisson) (LibraryThing) Amy Sisson is a writer, reviewer, librarian, Trekkie, and crazy cat lady. Her recent short story publications include "Places We Call Home" in Perihelion and "Jackpot Time" in Devilfish Review.
Libby A. Smith Libby A. Smith’s works have appeared in the anthologies Avast, Ye Airships and Haunted Holidays as well as 4 Star Stories, several Caliber Comics, Atomic Mouse, and in other publications. An adaptation of The Story of the Rainbow Bridge was designed for counted cross stitch by Sue Hillis. Libby lives in Central Arkansas with two sassy cats. She also acts on stage and in films, including The Hanging of David O Dodd which has aired on the Arkansas PBS station.
Tiffany Smith Tiffany Smith has degrees in both biology and education. Within the field of biology, she is most interested in limnology, oceanography, and astrobiology. She has recently switched gears to pursue a writing career, fulfilling a lifelong dream to write science fiction; this past year, she was a finalist for the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award. She lives in Austin with her husband, daughter, and an ever-increasing number of pet fish.
Caroline Spector (Caroline Spector) Caroline Spector has written and edited in both the SF/F and gaming worlds. For the last ten years, she’s been a contributor to the Wild Cards series, appearing most recently in High Stakes, Knaves over Queens, and the upcoming Texas Hold 'Em. Her Wild Card novella, “Lies My Mother Told Me,” appeared in the critically acclaimed anthology Dangerous Women. Her story "The Flight of Morpho Girl” (co-authored with Bradley Denton) is on Tor.com.
Mike Stewart (Save for Half Podcast) (Victorious RPG) (Victorious RPG Facebook) Mike Stewart has participated in the Role Playing Game industry for the past fifteen years. His recent work, the Steampunk Superhero RPG Victorious was the 2017 winner of the Three Castles RPG Award. His other writing runs the gamut from RPG and wargaming writing to fiction and nonfiction academic work as a professor of Victorian history. He and his wife Liz host the Save for Half podcast, a show about Old School RPGs and the modern games inspired by them.
Kathryn Sullivan (Kathryn Sullivan) (Facebook) Kathryn Sullivan writes young adult science fiction and fantasy. Any place and any object is at risk of appearing in her stories--the river bluffs surrounding Winona, MN, where she lives, can become the windswept cliffs of an alien planet or the deep mysterious woods of a fantasy tale. She is owned by a large cockatoo, who graciously allows her to write about other animals, as well as birdlike aliens.
Shanna Swendson (Shanna Swendson) (Wikipedia) Shanna Swendson is best known as the author of the Enchanted, Inc. series from Ballantine Books, the YA steampunk fantasy Rebel Mechanics, and a variety of geeky pop-culture essays published by BenBella Books. She can occasionally be lured out of her writing cave by movies, promises of Doctor Who episodes, conventions, or new books calling to her from the library or bookstore. Or tea or chocolate (or tea and chocolate, but not chocolate tea).
Mel Tatum (Mel Tatum) (Benefit CD for Parkinson's Research) Mel writes songs, short stories, essays, and assorted academic articles. Her short stories can be found in Yard Dog Press anthologies and her songs online, in filk circles, and on the CATH Benefit CD. For those desperately seeking an insomnia cure, her academic articles are also available online.
Tex Thompson (The Tex Files) (Children of the Drought) (DFW Writers Conference) (WORD) Arianne "Tex" Thompson is a ‘rural fantasy’ author, egregiously enthusiastic speaker, and professional ruckus-raiser. She is the author of the Children of the Drought epic fantasy Western trilogy, an instructor for the Writers Path at SMU, and ‘chief instigator’ of WORD--Writers Organizations ‘Round Dallas.
Katherine Turski Kathy Turski writes the way she looks--short and funny. She’s published in Flush Fiction, A Bubba in Time Saves None, The Anthology From Hell, and Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. Her humor essay, "My Inner Fat Girl", is in You & Me Magazine. Kathy lives in North Texas with her husband. She’s retired after clerking for a local library for 32 years and loves old movies, baking, and coming up with weird story ideas--mainly fueled with caffeine and chocolate.
Laura J. Underwood (Laura J. Underwood) (Facebook) Laura J. Underwood is that strange librarian who writes, draws, plays harp, and collects bjds. She mostly writes epic fantasy but occasionally delves into darker elements like bubbas versus zombies and old folklore. Her latest novel is Angels of Mercy, the story of a small town librarian fighting dark elves and bogies in East Tennessee. She is best known for her Ard-Taebh Chronicles available from Yard Dog Press and her gonzo mystery collaborations with Selina Rosen.
Melanie Unruh (Facebook) Melanie Unruh is a Denver-area artist and maker, specializing in decorative and functional pottery and fantasy and historical sartorial arts. A life-long fan of science fiction and fantasy literature, alternate worlds influence the styles and themes of her art. Currently, Melanie is focused on Steampunk themes and is an instigator for the Denver Victorian & Steampunk Society.
Mel. White (Facebook) (Twitter) Known to her kids as "Indiana Mom", Mel. has gone back to school to become "Dr. Indiana Mom." She still works on fossils for the Museum of Nature and Science, and is now a volunteer educator at Trinity River Audubon Center as well as a Texas Master Naturalist. She's also a proud member of the Yard Dog Press gang, with a story in A Bubba in Time Saves None.

Joe Abbott

Joseph Abbott, aka Fax Paladin, has been filking for basically as long as FenCon has been around and was the very first Friend of the Fen. He’s still trying to work out what he wants to be when he grows up, especially now that “newspaperman” has been taken off the table.

C. Dean Andersson

(C. Dean Andersson) (Wikipedia) C. Dean Andersson’s I Am Dracula was honored with a cameo in Amy Hesketh's vampire film, Olalla. Dean’s novels are available in new editions from Crossroad Press. Works in progress include a novel of Swords, Sorcery, and Showbiz, Valkyries from Hel, and part 2 of his Dracula Saga, I Am the Witch.

Kimm Antell

(ChickGeek) (Facebook) (GooglePlus) Kimm Antell is an artist and writer from Pflugerville, TX. She also has a husband, 5 cats, 1,500 books, 1 house, 5 friends (she lost one to Portland,) 400 comic books, 2,795 ancestors, and 1 white lie to FenCon. Favorite sci-fi movie is Ghostbusters (Original.) Favorite horror movie is From Dusk ‘Til Dawn. Favorite fantasy movie is The Adventures of Baron von Munchausen. Favorite mystery is The Fugitive. Least favorite president is Donald Dum-Dum.

Lou Antonelli

(Lou Antonelli) (Twitter) Lou Antonelli has had 124 original short stories published in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Brazil, India, and Portugal in venues such as Asimov's Science Fiction, Jim Baen's Universe, Tales of the Talisman, Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine, Greatest Uncommon Denominator (GUD), Daily Science Fiction, Buzzy Mag, and Omni Reboot, among many others.

His debut novel, the retro-futurist alternate history “Another Girl, Another Planet”, was a finalist for the Dragon Award for Alternate History in 2017.

Julie Barrett

(Stately Barrett Manor) (Steamcat) (Facebook) Julie Barrett is a writer, photographer, and maker of interesting things from Plano, TX. She is also a founding member of The Generic Radio Workshop, member of the Dallas Future Society board, and sells photography and art through SteamCat.net. Julie writes short stories, radio plays, and whatever else helps pay the bills. She hates the bills. Find her at Stately Barrett Manor or on Facebook.

Paul Barrett

Amongst Paul's many pastimes, a favorite is creating, finding, and programming the sound effects for Generic Radio Workshop productions. As with the other GRW founders, he's done so many of these shows, he's no longer sure if this is reality, or if he's living in an episode of Dimension X. Other hobbies are prop-building and 3D printing--he has been known to demonstrate all the ways this can go wrong.

Mitch Bentley

Artist Mitchell Davidson Bentley spent the last 20 years moving physically from place to place and artistically from traditional oils to cyber compositions. Trained in the traditional medium of oil by his mother, and inspired by his grandfather’s love of science fiction, Bentley began his career as a full-time science fiction artist in 1989 from his home base in Tulsa. While actively involved in the science fiction art world, Bentley also moved from Tulsa to Austin to Central Pennsylvania where his search for knowledge earned him bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Penn State University. Over the same period of time, Bentley shifted from the more traditional oil painting to airbrushed acrylics, and since 2004 has been working exclusively in electronic media.

Paul Black

(Paul Black) (Wikipedia) (Facebook) Paul Black always wanted to make movies, but a career in advertising sidetracked him. He's the international award-winning author of The Tels, Soulware, Nexus Point, The Presence, The Samsara Effect, Cool Brain, and Dark Slide. He has twice won each the Independent Publishers Book Award, London and the New York Book Festival. He has also been on the Barnes & Noble Regional Best Seller list, has won the Writer’s Digest Book Award for Genre Fiction, and was optioned for television.

Bland Lemon Denton and the Lemon-Aides

Over the past twelve years, Bland Lemon Denton, "The World's Oldest (and Worst) Bluesman," has played guitar and harmonica at conventions throughout the Midwest and South. For FenCon XV, he'll be joined by the Lemon-Aides: Caroline "Honey Badger" Spector (bass), Bob "Thumper" Yeager (percussion), David Lee "Psychobot" Anderson (guitar), and Sherri "Monkey Queen" Dean (backing vocals). They invite all y'all to come get the Blues, too.

Karen Bogen

(Facebook) Karen is a self-confessed knit-and-yarn-aholic. She spends many hours either knitting something, inventorying her stash, or fondling yarn at any shop within driving range. Interesting? Depends on your point of view. She likes to cook and enjoys reading forensic anthropology books. Occasionally at the same time. In January 2012, she got talked into taking a full-time+ job. It was really eating into her knitting time. Fortunately, she was laid off in 2015. Swan dive into the yarn stash!

Aislinn Burrows

Aislinn Burrows is an old Millennial keeping busy as a full-time student and creative media projects consultant. Plus, she helps run SoonerCon in Oklahoma City. She’s passionate about nerd culture, connecting communities, karaoke, and considers herself a geek Girl Friday-type and NPR junkie. She and her wife Carmen live with their fur family in a small house filled with books, oddities, art, warmth, and joy. Fen friends can find her on Facebook!

(Photo: @SquirrelyJediPhotography)

Lillian Stewart Carl

(Lillian Stewart Carl) (Facebook) Lillian Stewart Carl’s work features plots based on mythology, history, and archaeology, often with paranormal aspects. She’s published twenty novels, including the Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron mysteries--the most recent is The Avalon Chanter. Her twenty-five published short stories have been reprinted in Along the Rim of Time and The Muse: Stories of History, Mystery, and Myth. With John Helfers, she was nominated for a Hugo for The Vorkosigan Companion, a retrospective on Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan books.

J. Kathleen Cheney

(J. Kathleen Cheney) J. Kathleen Cheney taught mathematics ranging from 7th grade to Calculus, but gave it all up for a chance to write stories. Her novella "Iron Shoes" was a 2010 Nebula Award finalist. Her novel, The Golden City, was a finalist for the 2014 Locus Awards (Best First Novel). Dreaming Death (Feb 2016) is the first in a new world, with The Horn coming out in 2017, and the books of The King’s Daughter and sequels to Dreaming Death in 2018/2019.

Deborah L. Davitt

(Deborah L. Davitt) Deborah L. Davitt was raised in Nevada, but currently lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and son. She’s worked as a technical writer on contracts involving nuclear submarines, NASA, and computer manufacturing. Her poetry has received Rhysling, Dwarf Star, and Pushcart nominations; her short fiction has appeared in InterGalactic Medicine Show, Compelling Science Fiction, and Pseudopod. For more about her work, including her Edda-Earth novels and her forthcoming poetry collection, The Gates of Never, please see her website.

Aaron de Orive

(Aaron de Orive) Aaron de Orive was a writer/designer on several video games, including Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, Tabula Rasa, Anarchy Online, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. He co-authored the middle-grade fantasy novel Blade Singer with Martha Wells, and created the tabletop role-playing game Shard: World of the False Dawn. He’s also the founder and co-host of The Gentlemen Nerds podcast. Aaron lives in Austin with his precocious daughter and an incredibly spoiled Yorkie.

Sherri Dean

(Facebook) (Twitter) Sherri Dean, yr Feisty Mistress of Fear, is a jack-o-lantern of all trades and a monster of none! In addition to being a published author and artist (Yard Dog Press) she is also an editor, costumer, judge, emcee, and sings as the Monkey Queen with convention favorites Bland Lemon and the Lemonades. Ask for your Monkey Minion button and visit her on Facebook for more feisty fear!

John DeLaughter

(WordHerd) John DeLaughter is a planetologist living on a sailboat with Nimrod the cat. His work has taken him to all seven continents where he always meets the nicest people. Among the stories he’s had published is description of money in Hell (in Strange Economics). Right now, John is working with Mel. White on new Duncan & Mallory stories; their latest, Tangled Up in Clues: A Sadie and Bilgewater adventure, is available on Amazon.

Charlayne Denney

(Charlayne Denney) (Facebook) (Twitter) (Goodreads) Given Charlayne's habit of checking people for fangs and living in the dark, she discovered her own vampires and Lilly, Marcus, and the rest of the gang living in the Fangs & Halos series she writes. When not hanging with vampires, she is a WoW gnome mage, Rubyrose. She's the crazy lady in the wheelchair with the Werepup. She found her husband, Bruce, through a want-ad in the program book for ConTroll 93. She's done conventions in Texas since 1979.

Bradley Denton

(Bradley Denton) (Bland Lemon Denton) Four Bradley Denton titles are in new formats for 2015: Novels Blackburn and Lunatics, plus story collection One Day Closer to Death, are now available as ebooks. And Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede is now an audiobook -- complete with cover art from FenCon Artist GoH Mitch Bentley. Meanwhile, Brad’s 2014 collection Sergeant Chip and Other Novellas is still in print, and he still manages the career of Bland Lemon Denton, the World’s Oldest (and Worst) Bluesman.

Chris Donahue

Chris Donahue is an electrical engineer living in the Dallas area with his wife and fellow-author, Linda. A former member of a Joe Bob Briggs' Drive In Review committee, he served the public by counting rolling heads, types of Fu, and exposed breasts in committee films. Outside of that, he has been a Navy Avionics tech, brewer, and writes sci-fi, military fiction, horror, humor, and combinations of those themes. His first novel, Death's Paladin, is now available.

Linda L. Donahue

(Linda L. Donahue) Linda has degrees in computer science, Russian studies, Earth science education, and electrical engineering. Additionally, she teaches tai chi and belly dancing, can borrow moon rock samples, and is a certified commercial instrument pilot, advanced ground instructor, and SCUBA diver. Her latest short stories have appeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #25 and Chicks and Balances. Her novel, Jaguar Moon, is available from Yard Dog Press. She lives with her husband and pet rabbits, sugar gliders, and cats in Garland, Texas.

Carole Nelson Douglas

(Carole Nelson Douglas) Carole Nelson Douglas’s Vegas feline Sam Spade and Noir narrator, Midnight Louie, has finished his 28-book alphabet title series. His new Cafe Noir series also features her urban fantasy heroine, Delilah Street. Absinthe Without Leave is “Twisty, riveting, and intriguing; zingy humor and powerful emotions.” RT Book Reviews. Brandi Alexander on the Rocks arrives in November, 2019. Carole will reissue her Probe SF thrillers and bestselling Irissa/Kendric high fantasies. She also designs book covers and rescues cats in Fort Worth.

Rhonda Eudaly

(Rhonda Eudaly) Rhonda Eudaly lives in Arlington, Texas where she's ventured into several industries and occupations for a wide variety of experience. She's married with dogs and a rapidly growing Minion© army. Her two passions are writing and music, which is evident in her increasing horde of writing instruments.

Rhonda has a well-rounded publication history in fiction, non-fiction, and script writing. Check out her website for her latest publications and downloads.

(Photo by Bobby Hitt)

Sara Felix

(Sara Felix) Sara Felix is a Texas conrunner and artist living in Austin. She started working on conventions after working with Willie Siros at the bookstore Adventures in Crime and Space. While wearing her artist hat she makes jewelry and small clay robot sculptures that she sells at art shows, and was once featured on HGTV's Crafters Coast to Coast where she crafted a flying pig. She has designed Hugo award bases for MidAmericon 2 and for Worldcon 76 with Vincent Villafranca.

Mark Finn

(Mark Finn) (The Gentlemen Nerds) (Skelos Press) (Twitter) Mark Finn is an author, an editor, and a pop culture critic. He is a nationally-recognized authority on Robert E. Howard and has written extensively about the Texas author. He is a managing editor for Skelos Press, and he podcasts with The Gentlemen Nerds. When he is not waxing eloquent about popular culture, he writes comics and fiction, performs community theater, and runs a movie theater in North Texas with his long-suffering wife and their gregarious pit bull, Sonya.

Michael Ashleigh Finn

(Amazon) Mickey is a thematic consultant, film critic and wordmonger with specialities in genre and comparative mythologies. He's worked on everything from Shadowrun to the Dresden Files comic, floated a few Hollywood adaptations, and even performed CPR on a few scripts. He's dipped his hands into podcasting, anthology editing, synth music, foley, odd digital art and puppet consulting.

Despite all this, he's never managed to crack writing a novel.

He maintains this is due to never having been a short-order cook.

Melanie Fletcher

(Melanie Fletcher) When she’s not writing science fiction, Melanie Fletcher writes SF, fantasy, and paranormal romance as Nicola M. Cameron, and cares not who knows it. The fourth entry in her Two Thrones series, King of Blades, was released in July, and the second entry in her Pacifica Rising series, Uncertainty Principle, was released in September. When not writing or fabricating sterling silver jewelry, she’s usually riding herd on her cats (aka the J Crew) or spending time with her husband.

Brad W. Foster

(Brad W. Foster) (Jabberwocky Graphix) Hugo-award winning artist Brad W Foster lives to draw, and draws to live, and still loves to see his artwork in that so-last-century thing called "print". Over the decades his work has appeared in hundreds of publications, large and small, and he hopes to add a few thousand more to that list. You can learn more than you would probably care to just by spending a few hours wandering around his website, Jabberwocky Graphix.

Bill Frank

Bill Frank was one of the first members of the International Space Center Mission Control team. He happily gave up night and weekend work to move into spaceflight training as a Chief Training Officer--he leads the team that creates problems for astronauts and mission controllers during training events. His voice can be heard in the movies Gravity, The Martian, and Transformers: The Last Knight.

Karl Gallagher

(Karl K. Gallagher) Karl K. Gallagher is a systems engineer, currently performing data analysis for a major aerospace company. In the past he calculated trajectories for a commercial launch rocket start-up, operated satellites as a US Air Force officer, and selected orbits for government and commercial satellites. Karl lives in Saginaw, TX withhis family.
He writes both science fiction (the Torchship trilogy) and fantasy (The Lost War). His books are available on Amazon and Audible.

Ben Gibbs

(The Gentlemen Nerds) Ben Gibbs has been producing music and sound for various projects including three bands and fourteen albums, a live theater project, a podcast, and a legislative update, over the course of almost twenty years. He provides the music, mixing, and intentional production for the Gentlemen Nerds podcast. In his spare time, Ben practices law, enjoys time with his family, and tolerates a small dog.

C. Stuart Hardwick

(C Stuart Hardwick) (Twitter) (Facebook) C. Stuart Hardwick has won Writers of the Future and the Jim Baen Award, and is a regular in Analog Science Fiction & Fact. He leans toward hard scifi, but also writes YA & fantasy, and has been called “Bradbury meets Heinlein, with the poetry of Ursula K. Le Guin.” He’s built ill-conceived flying machines, married an aquanaut, and has been known to wear a cape. Check out his website for free sample stories.

Teddy Harvia

Teddy Harvia is the well-known pen name of David Thayer. He has drawn scores of wild beasts, strange BEMs, and big-nosed whiz kids from a world far from Earth who use short words to make fun of all kinds of things in scores of toons and fan art for flyers, zines, and con pubs since 1967. He lives with wife Diana and five fat cats in Dallas, Texas. To earn his keep, he works with words at a high-tech firm.

Lee Killough

(Lee Killough) (Coffee Shop Writers) Lee Killough began storytelling at age five, making up her own bedtime stories. At age eleven these became SF/Fantasy and Mysteries when she discovered the genres in her hometown library, and led to her first publication, a short story in Analog. Seven older novels have been revised and published as e-books (on Amazon and Kobo). Currently in print with Yard Dog Press are: The Leopard’s Daughter, space opera Ancient Enemy, and a writer’s world-building aid: Checking On Culture.

William Ledbetter

(William Ledbetter) William Ledbetter is a Nebula Award winning author, with fiction published in Analog, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's, The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, Yard Dog Press, and many others. He is an unapologetic space geek and runs the annual Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award contest for Baen Books and the National Space Society. The audio version of his best-selling science fiction thriller novel Level Five is available from Audible Originals.

Julia S. Mandala

(Julia S. Mandala) Julia S. Mandala holds a BA in history from Kansas State University and a JD in law from Tulane University. In addition to being editor of The Fantasy Writers Asylum, an imprint of Yard Dog Press, she is a scuba diver and belly dancer. She lives in Plano, TX with her husband Larry and two very demanding, but adorable cats. She is best known as a co-author of the Four Redheads of the Apocalypse series and the Corimar series.

A. Lee Martinez

(A. Lee Martinez) A. Lee Martinez is best known for his sparkling wit, incredible good looks, and his ability to endlessly debate the Superman VS. Batman dilemma. (Correct answer: Tarzan) Also, he's written 10 fantasy novels and managed to get paid for it. If you would like to read random thoughts from him, you can go to his website, or check him out on Twitter or Facebook.

Wil McCarthy

(Wil McCarthy) Wil McCarthy is a WIRED former contributing editor, SyFy channel science columnist, and two-time AnLab award winner. Discover magazine rated his world “P2” one of the 10 best science fiction planets of all time, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog, Asimov's, WIRED, and SF Age. His novels include the New York Times Notable Bloom, Amazon "Best of Y2K" The Collapsium, and the upcoming Antediluvian. Previously an aerospace engineer and tech startup founder, McCarthy holds 31 issued U.S. patents.

Dawn Mennear

Dawn comes from Des Moines, IA, and she has been coming to FenCon since FenCon II and considers it one of the best run conventions, with some of the friendliest people around. She doesn't write but she reads voraciously and considers that an excellent reason to attend. She is 54, Rubenesque, and nosy in a good way. Loves to crochet and will often be seen in corners crocheting away.

Margaret Middleton

Filker Margaret Middleton is retired from 25 years of “designing piles of dirt and holes in the ground” for the Arkansas Highway Department and now lives in Starkville, MS. In between science fiction conventions, she quilts and collects songs about aviation and the space program. She also builds model rockets, both with the Civil Air Patrol cadets and on her own hook. She made it to both EAA Air Venture and NARAM's annual event this just-past July.

Michelle Muenzler

(Michelle Muenzler) (Facebook) Michelle Muenzler, also known at local conventions as "The Cookie Lady", writes fiction both dark and strange to counterbalance the sweetness of her baking. Her fiction and poetry have been published in magazines such as Fireside, Daily Science Fiction, and Apex Magazine, and she takes immense joy in crinkling words like little foil puppets.

Ethan Nahté

(Ethan Nahté) (Facebook) (Live ‘N’ Loud) Ethan Nahté is an author, journalist, screenwriter, photographer, musician, and has several years of experience working in TV/Film/Radio. He has over thirty published stories and poems spanning speculative fiction, historical fiction, comedy, pulp, and young adult. He has two story collections: Of Monsters & Madmen and The Undead Ate My Head plus the novellas The Savage Caged and Wings of Mercury and the novelette The Mansion on Champagnolle.

Kathleen O'Brien

(Vintage Fashion Explained) (Victorian Smoking Caps) Kathleen M. O'Brien began sewing at age 4, learning traditional techniques from her mother and grandmother. She collects and studies vintage clothing to decipher mysteries of drape and fit found in previous eras. Her costumes include both original designs and reproductions, utilizing many historical techniques. She enjoys sharing both these skills and her collection with others and has published her first e-book Victorian Smoking Caps. Check out her website at Vintage Fashion Explained.

Photo ©2012, Carol Schiraldi

Gloria Oliver

(Gloria Oliver) Expert party wallflower, Gloria loves manga and anime. Movies, too. Darn right. Books, oh yeah.

Her 8th novel Alien Redemption will see publication in 2019 from Zumaya Publications. For sample chapters and more, please visit her website.

Stephen Patrick

(Films) Stephen Patrick believes that Texas is the perfect state for writers and aspires to be part of the rich history of Texas storytellers including those included in Road Kill: Texas Horror by Texas Writers, Vol 1 and 2. Drawing from the diverse literary palette that ranges from the panhandle to the coast, the desert to the big city, and every genre in between, he never tires of telling or hearing stories from his home state.

Teresa Patterson

(Event Horizon EBooks) (Facebook) Teresa Patterson’s work includes, The World of Shannara with Terry Brooks, The World of the Wheel of Time with Robert Jordan, No Quarter with Robert Asprin, Combat Corpsman with Navy SEAL Greg McPartlin, numerous short stories, and humorous history essays. Her newest work, with Navy SEAL Craig Marley, is No Lifeguard on Duty. When not writing she works as a balloon sculptor, kayak instructor, show horse trainer, and managing The Armory at DragonCon. She also loves to sing and entertain.

Alan J. Porter

(Alan J. Porter) (Twitter) Writer, and award-winning editor, Alan J. Porter, has written adventures featuring Sherlock Holmes, Allan Quatermain, Houdini, and private eye Rick Ruby; as well as his own New Pulp adventurers, The Raven and The Lotus Ronin. His pop-culture non-fiction work has featured properties such as Batman, Star Trek, The Beatles, and James Bond. He has also written comics for Tokyopop, BOOM Studios, Marvel, Disney, and Kid Domino.

Trakena Prevost

Trakena Prevost is from the great state of Texas, where everything IS bigger. She spends time running after her young son, trying to annoy her husband to distraction, and being completely obsessed with reading. She also happens to write the fantastic stories in her head--mostly to quiet the voices there. When not writing, Trakena works in HR and spends time with family.

Dusty Rainbolt

(Dusty Rainbolt) Dusty Rainbolt swears she was raised by aliens after being abandoned on Earth by grays who abhorred the TransGalactic School System. She’s the author of the new Yard Dog Press paranormal mystery, Death Under the Crescent Moon, and coauthor of The Four Redheads of the Apocalypse series. She’s the editor of Stupid Gravity Press. Her latest release is Ghost Cats: Human Encounters with Feline Spirits. She's written numerous books and thousands of articles on cat care, behavior, and animal hauntings.

John Randall

(Zyvex Labs) (NanoRetina) (Teliatry) John Randall is the President of Zyvex Labs, Executive VP of NanoRetina, VP of Teliatry, Adjunct Professor at UTDallas, and a proud former Science GoH at FenCon. John has spent his entire career as a nanofabricator, which might mean that he tells small lies. He plans world domination with Atomically Precise Manufacturing, is an amateur saxophone player, has built robots that make fine art paintings, is working to heal the blind, and loves his wife and kids.

Ravenar

Ravenar (Amora, Linda Donahue, and Julia Mandala) performs traditional and SF/Fantasy-themed belly dance. They have appeared at several World Cons and at regional conventions in the Midwest and South.

M. T. Reiten

(M. T. Reiten) (Facebook) M. T. Reiten has been absent from FenCon for a number of years, but is happy to be back. He is a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, practices aidkido, and lives in New Mexico with his beautiful wife and daughter. He is a Writers of the Future winner and has published short stories with Yard Dog Press, World Weaver Press, and in S.M. Stirling's Change anthology. His latest story is "The Post-Apocalyptic Tourist Guide: Santa Fe and Los Alamos."

Rook Riley

(Rook Riley) Rook Riley was once a military linguist, burlesque-show bouncer, Krav Maga instructor, and Department of Defense contractor. Current job titles are: Army vet, middle-school history teacher, parent, and short-story author. TL;DR: Combat vet, writer, game enthusiast, and linguistic badass.

Rob Rogers

(Rob Rogers) Rob Rogers is the author of Devil’s Cape, a superhero thriller set in Louisiana. Devil’s Cape was a Pop Matters pick and a HeroPress book of the year. His short stories have also appeared in the anthologies The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, This Mutant Life, and Origins & Endings. Rob lives in Texas, where he continues to write about superheroes, pirates, aliens, mad cultists, dragons, interdimensional rifts, carnival freaks, and cowboys, often in the same stories.

Rie Sheridan Rose

(Rie Sheridan Rose) (The Conn-Man Chronicles) Rie's short stories appear in numerous anthologies, including Killing It Softly, Nightmare Stalkers and Dream Walkers Vols. 1 and 2, Avast Ye Airships, and In the Bloodstream as well as Yard Dog Press' A Bubba in Time Saves None. Mocha Memoirs has the short story collection RieTales. Online, she has appeared in Cease, Cows, Lorelei Signal, and Four Star Stories. She is also the author of nine novels (4 in The Conn Mann Chronicles) and six poetry chapbooks.

Selina Rosen

(Selina Rosen) (Yard Dog Press) (Castle Farms) (Facebook) Selina Rosen is the author of over twenty-five novels including Sword Masters and Strange Robby, and she has had dozens of short stories published in professional venues including Thieves World and Impossible Monsters. As editor-in-chief of Yard Dog Press she has edited ten anthologies including Bubbas of the Apocalypse. She is married, owns a small farm, and has kids and grandkids. She is a carpenter, a rock mason, a sword fighter, and an all-around swell gal.

Amber Royer

(Amber Royer) (Twitter) Amber Royer writes fun science fiction involving chocolate, aliens, lovesick AIs, time travel, VR, and more. She's the author of the Chocoverse series (Book 2, Pure Chocolate, coming March 2019 from Angry Robot Books). She's also the co-author of two cookbooks (one of which is all about chocolate). She teaches creative writing in North Texas.

Ken Ruffin

(National Space Society of North Texas) (Facebook) A Trekkie and a former Aerospace Engineering student, Ken served a two-year term on the Board of Directors of the National Space Society (NSS) after having served five years as chapter president of the award-winning NSS of North Texas (NSS-NT). Ken has been the VP of NSS-NT since 2016. Across the DFW Metroplex, Ken gives presentations to inform and inspire the public about "the latest and greatest information in space travel and space development".

Patrice Sarath

(Patrice Sarath) (Facebook) (Twitter) Patrice Sarath is an author and editor living in Austin, Texas. Her novels include the fantasy books The Sisters Mederos and Fog Season (Books I and II of the Tales of Port Saint Frey), the Gordath Wood series (Gordath Wood, Red Gold Bridge, and The Crow God’s Girl), and the romance The Unexpected Miss Bennet. You can find more about Patrice and her work at her website.

Martin L. Shoemaker

(Martin L. Shoemaker) (Facebook) Martin L. Shoemaker is a programmer who writes on the side…or maybe the other way around. Programming pays the bills, but a second place in the Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest earned him lunch with Buzz Aldrin! His Clarkesworld story "Today I Am Paul" won the 2016 WSFA Small Press Award and also appeared in four year’s best anthologies and seven international editions. The story will continue in Today I Am Carey, a novel coming from Baen in March 2019.

Adrian Simmons

(Heroic Fantasy Quarterly) (Heroic Quarterly Fantasy Facebook) (Facebook) Adrian Simmons lives in Norman, Oklahoma. He has hoofed the Ouachita and Ozark Highlands trails, the England coast to coast trail, and the Camino de Santiago in Spain.

His nonfiction has appeared in Black Gate and Strange Horizons. His fiction has been in Lackington’s, Strange Constellations, Giganotosaurus, and the anthologies Apotheosis and No Sh!t There I Was.

In 2009 he founded the webzine Heroicfantasyquarterly.com and currently serves as 1/3 of its editorial staff.

Brad Sinor

(Brad Sinor) (Facebook) (LiveJournal) Bradley H. Sinor has many short stories published in a variety of anthologies. He has several collections: a Holmesian collection, The Game’s Afoot: A Sherlock Holmes Miscellany, published by Pro Se Productions and a collaborated novel with his wife, Sue, in the Ring of Fire universe, called The Hunt for the Red Cardinal, are available on Amazon. Also his short story collection, including stories by Sue, called Of Two Minds is available from Yard Dog Press.

Sue Sinor

(Facebook) Sue Sinor started writing at the urging of her husband, Brad. She has stories in several Yard Dog Press publications, as well as others. Sue and Brad have collaborative stories in the anthology Rotten Relations and in Grantville Gazette 4, as well as several for Yard Dog Press. Most recently they have a joint collection, Of Two Minds, and a novel in the Ring of Fire universe titled The Hunt For The Red Cardinal, both available on Amazon.

Amy Sisson

(Amy Sisson) (LibraryThing) Amy Sisson is a writer, reviewer, librarian, Trekkie, and crazy cat lady. Her recent short story publications include "Places We Call Home" in Perihelion and "Jackpot Time" in Devilfish Review.

Libby A. Smith

Libby A. Smith’s works have appeared in the anthologies Avast, Ye Airships and Haunted Holidays as well as 4 Star Stories, several Caliber Comics, Atomic Mouse, and in other publications. An adaptation of The Story of the Rainbow Bridge was designed for counted cross stitch by Sue Hillis. Libby lives in Central Arkansas with two sassy cats. She also acts on stage and in films, including The Hanging of David O Dodd which has aired on the Arkansas PBS station.

Tiffany Smith

Tiffany Smith has degrees in both biology and education. Within the field of biology, she is most interested in limnology, oceanography, and astrobiology. She has recently switched gears to pursue a writing career, fulfilling a lifelong dream to write science fiction; this past year, she was a finalist for the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award. She lives in Austin with her husband, daughter, and an ever-increasing number of pet fish.

Caroline Spector

(Caroline Spector) Caroline Spector has written and edited in both the SF/F and gaming worlds. For the last ten years, she’s been a contributor to the Wild Cards series, appearing most recently in High Stakes, Knaves over Queens, and the upcoming Texas Hold 'Em. Her Wild Card novella, “Lies My Mother Told Me,” appeared in the critically acclaimed anthology Dangerous Women. Her story "The Flight of Morpho Girl” (co-authored with Bradley Denton) is on Tor.com.

Mike Stewart

(Save for Half Podcast) (Victorious RPG) (Victorious RPG Facebook) Mike Stewart has participated in the Role Playing Game industry for the past fifteen years. His recent work, the Steampunk Superhero RPG Victorious was the 2017 winner of the Three Castles RPG Award. His other writing runs the gamut from RPG and wargaming writing to fiction and nonfiction academic work as a professor of Victorian history. He and his wife Liz host the Save for Half podcast, a show about Old School RPGs and the modern games inspired by them.

Kathryn Sullivan

(Kathryn Sullivan) (Facebook) Kathryn Sullivan writes young adult science fiction and fantasy. Any place and any object is at risk of appearing in her stories--the river bluffs surrounding Winona, MN, where she lives, can become the windswept cliffs of an alien planet or the deep mysterious woods of a fantasy tale. She is owned by a large cockatoo, who graciously allows her to write about other animals, as well as birdlike aliens.

Shanna Swendson

(Shanna Swendson) (Wikipedia) Shanna Swendson is best known as the author of the Enchanted, Inc. series from Ballantine Books, the YA steampunk fantasy Rebel Mechanics, and a variety of geeky pop-culture essays published by BenBella Books. She can occasionally be lured out of her writing cave by movies, promises of Doctor Who episodes, conventions, or new books calling to her from the library or bookstore. Or tea or chocolate (or tea and chocolate, but not chocolate tea).

Mel Tatum

(Mel Tatum) (Benefit CD for Parkinson's Research) Mel writes songs, short stories, essays, and assorted academic articles. Her short stories can be found in Yard Dog Press anthologies and her songs online, in filk circles, and on the CATH Benefit CD. For those desperately seeking an insomnia cure, her academic articles are also available online.

Tex Thompson

(The Tex Files) (Children of the Drought) (DFW Writers Conference) (WORD) Arianne "Tex" Thompson is a ‘rural fantasy’ author, egregiously enthusiastic speaker, and professional ruckus-raiser. She is the author of the Children of the Drought epic fantasy Western trilogy, an instructor for the Writers Path at SMU, and ‘chief instigator’ of WORD--Writers Organizations ‘Round Dallas.

Katherine Turski

Kathy Turski writes the way she looks--short and funny. She’s published in Flush Fiction, A Bubba in Time Saves None, The Anthology From Hell, and Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. Her humor essay, "My Inner Fat Girl", is in You & Me Magazine.

Kathy lives in North Texas with her husband. She’s retired after clerking for a local library for 32 years and loves old movies, baking, and coming up with weird story ideas--mainly fueled with caffeine and chocolate.

Laura J. Underwood

(Laura J. Underwood) (Facebook) Laura J. Underwood is that strange librarian who writes, draws, plays harp, and collects bjds. She mostly writes epic fantasy but occasionally delves into darker elements like bubbas versus zombies and old folklore. Her latest novel is Angels of Mercy, the story of a small town librarian fighting dark elves and bogies in East Tennessee. She is best known for her Ard-Taebh Chronicles available from Yard Dog Press and her gonzo mystery collaborations with Selina Rosen.

Melanie Unruh

(Facebook) Melanie Unruh is a Denver-area artist and maker, specializing in decorative and functional pottery and fantasy and historical sartorial arts. A life-long fan of science fiction and fantasy literature, alternate worlds influence the styles and themes of her art. Currently, Melanie is focused on Steampunk themes and is an instigator for the Denver Victorian & Steampunk Society.

Mel. White

(Facebook) (Twitter) Known to her kids as "Indiana Mom", Mel. has gone back to school to become "Dr. Indiana Mom." She still works on fossils for the Museum of Nature and Science, and is now a volunteer educator at Trinity River Audubon Center as well as a Texas Master Naturalist. She's also a proud member of the Yard Dog Press gang, with a story in A Bubba in Time Saves None.

The following regret they are unable to attend FenCon this year:
Marshall Ryan Maresca
Kip McMurray
Jenn Ravenna

If you are interested in being a participant this year, please read our program participant guidelines before contacting us. We hope it will answer most of your questions. Thanks.