FenCon XV - September 21-23, 2018 |

Guests of Honor


Larry Niven Guest of Honor (Wikipedia) (larryniven.net) Larry Niven has written fiction at every length, and speculative articles, speeches, television scripts, graphic novels, and a couple of comic book universes. His interests include science fiction conventions. role playing games, comics, filk singing, yoga, hiking, racquetball, saving civilization, and making a little money. Larry attended Cal Tech but flunked out after discovering a book store jammed with used science fiction magazines. After a summer as a gas station attendant, he applied himself at Washburn University and graduated in 1962 with a B.A. in mathematics with a minor in psychology. Larry's first published story ("The Coldest Place") appeared in Worlds of If in December 1964. His fiction has won the Hugo Award five times, the Nebula for Best Novel, the Ditmar twice, and too many other awards to list here. He met Marilyn Joyce Wisowaty at the New York Worldcon in 1967 and they married on September 6, 1969.
Marian Call Music Guest of Honor (Marian Call) Marian Call’s music has a way of getting its claws in you. Her style, aptly described as “acoustic joy jazz” by one of her fans, pairs folk and rock with classical and gospel influences. The result is an eclectic, warm, wonderfully listenable repertoire bound together by powerful songwriting and personality. Call’s compositions are half study and calculation, half improvisational instinct. The lyrics are full of triple rhymes, twists and turns. Call cites among her influences Joni Mitchell, They Might Be Giants, and Dr. Seuss; her work evokes comparisons to contemporary artists Regina Spektor and Ingrid Michaelson. Call’s songs are funny and light on their feet one moment, tragic and powerfully honest the next, and deeply grounded in the human experience. Often inspired by popular culture, she has written songs about Shark Week, reality shows, TV series like Firefly and Battlestar Galactica, Jane Austen, the Mars Rover, and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. “Great art inspires more art as a response. It always has,” says Call. “So I’m drawn into songs about the popular stories that resonate with our culture. I want to put my finger on why we like them, on what matters about those themes and characters right now.” Call’s live concerts are unlike any other songwriter's, and she is most often compared to other artists noted for their uniqueness and whimsy — songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, Regina Spektor, Ingrid Michaelson, and Amanda Palmer. Marian Call releases music and tours under her own power without label support, and her crew of loyal fans has supported her through ten years of intensive travel and recording.
Aislinn Burrows and Carmen Bryan Fen Guests of Honor (SoonerCon) (Future Society of Central Oklahoma) (Facebook) Carmen Bryan and Aislinn Burrows are the nerd girl pairing of a young Gen-Xer and an old Millennial. You can tell because they both still listen to vinyl and don’t have cable. They stay pretty busy running SoonerCon in Oklahoma City and geeking out with fellow fans. Volunteering is legit fun you guys! They are also pretty deep into their Pathfinder and other RPG campaigns, so it works. Aislinn is the convention chair for SoonerCon and has been volunteering since its reboot in 2006. She holds an associate degree in diversified studies and works in marketing and public relations at Oklahoma City Community College. Her fandoms span a large cross section of SF media and she considers herself a Girl Friday type and NPR junkie. Find her on Facebook, out and about, writing sometimes, or working on con stuff with her crack team of Nerf hoarders. Carmen works in commercial retail and is SoonerCon’s AV Chair. She is one of the original seven founders of the Tornado Alley Roller Girls roller derby team, skating as Homicide #187 from 2007 to 2009. She enjoys composing electronic music in her spare time and is an avid horror fan. She hopes to catch a spaceflight in her lifetime. You can usually find her chilling and coloring somewhere. Aislinn and Carmen were married in 2013. They are proud aunties and like to get out the vote. It is their tremendous honor to be invited as Fan Guests at FenCon this year, because it’s their home-away-from-home con and one of their Horcruxes. They live with their fur family in a small house filled with books, oddities, art, warmth and joy. (Photo: JSJ Photography)
Travis Lewis Artist Guest of Honor (Facebook) Travis Lewis is a multi award winning artist and and illustrator working in the field of Imaginative Realism. His work's breadth includes sci-fi, fantasy and horror art in digital and oil mediums, all with an original and daring eye that transients reality and twists perceptions. He was the recipient of the Chesley Award in 2016 and has been featured in many publications including Spectrum Fantastic Art and Infected by Art. He is also a regular on the sci-fi convention circuit.
Marianne Dyson Science Guest of Honor (Marianne Dyson) Marianne Dyson was one of NASA’s first female flight controllers, the subject of her memoir, A Passion for Space. After NASA, she turned to writing about space for adults and kids. She is currently coauthoring a second children’s book with Buzz Aldrin for NatGeo. Her SF collection, Fly Me to the Moon, includes all her Analog stories except "Europa’s Survivors" (in the March/April 2017 issue). All sales via her website will help her recover from Harvey.
Martha Wells Special Workshop Guest (Martha Wells) Martha Wells has written many fantasy novels, including The Wizard Hunters, Wheel of the Infinite, the Books of the Raksura series (beginning with The Cloud Roads), and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer, as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, and non-fiction. She has had stories in Black Gate, Realms of Fantasy, Stargate Magazine, Lightspeed Magazine, and in the anthologies Elemental, Tales of the Emerald Serpent, The Other Half of the Sky, The Gods of Lovecraft, and Mech: Age of Steel. She has also written media tie-ins for Stargate Atlantis and most recently Star Wars: Razor's Edge. The last book in the Books of the Raksura series, The Harbors of the Sun, was released in July 2017 by Night Shade Books. All Systems Red, the first novella in her SF series The Murderbot Diaries, was released by Tor.com in May 2017 and is a nominee for the Philip K. Dick Award. The next three novellas in the series, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, and Exit Strategy, will be published in 2018.
Timothy Griffin Toastmaster (GriffinEd) Tim Griffin is an award-winning teacher, musician, and storyteller with four albums out and more coming. When not filking or toastmastering, he runs an educational nonprofit called GriffinEd, using music to teach science, math, history, and other subjects to grades K-8th online for free. Laugh and learn with fun, effective (really!) songs about bugs, boogers, and particle physics at www.GriffinEd.org. Tim lives in La Cañada, California with a strong woman, a boy genius, and a large tribe of animals.

Larry Niven

Guest of Honor

(Wikipedia) (larryniven.net) Larry Niven has written fiction at every length, and speculative articles, speeches, television scripts, graphic novels, and a couple of comic book universes. His interests include science fiction conventions. role playing games, comics, filk singing, yoga, hiking, racquetball, saving civilization, and making a little money. Larry attended Cal Tech but flunked out after discovering a book store jammed with used science fiction magazines. After a summer as a gas station attendant, he applied himself at Washburn University and graduated in 1962 with a B.A. in mathematics with a minor in psychology. Larry's first published story ("The Coldest Place") appeared in Worlds of If in December 1964. His fiction has won the Hugo Award five times, the Nebula for Best Novel, the Ditmar twice, and too many other awards to list here. He met Marilyn Joyce Wisowaty at the New York Worldcon in 1967 and they married on September 6, 1969.

Marian Call

Music Guest of Honor

(Marian Call) Marian Call’s music has a way of getting its claws in you. Her style, aptly described as “acoustic joy jazz” by one of her fans, pairs folk and rock with classical and gospel influences. The result is an eclectic, warm, wonderfully listenable repertoire bound together by powerful songwriting and personality.

Call’s compositions are half study and calculation, half improvisational instinct. The lyrics are full of triple rhymes, twists and turns. Call cites among her influences Joni Mitchell, They Might Be Giants, and Dr. Seuss; her work evokes comparisons to contemporary artists Regina Spektor and Ingrid Michaelson. Call’s songs are funny and light on their feet one moment, tragic and powerfully honest the next, and deeply grounded in the human experience.

Often inspired by popular culture, she has written songs about Shark Week, reality shows, TV series like Firefly and Battlestar Galactica, Jane Austen, the Mars Rover, and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. “Great art inspires more art as a response. It always has,” says Call. “So I’m drawn into songs about the popular stories that resonate with our culture. I want to put my finger on why we like them, on what matters about those themes and characters right now.”

Call’s live concerts are unlike any other songwriter's, and she is most often compared to other artists noted for their uniqueness and whimsy — songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, Regina Spektor, Ingrid Michaelson, and Amanda Palmer. Marian Call releases music and tours under her own power without label support, and her crew of loyal fans has supported her through ten years of intensive travel and recording.

Aislinn Burrows and Carmen Bryan

Fen Guests of Honor

(SoonerCon) (Future Society of Central Oklahoma) (Facebook) Carmen Bryan and Aislinn Burrows are the nerd girl pairing of a young Gen-Xer and an old Millennial. You can tell because they both still listen to vinyl and don’t have cable. They stay pretty busy running SoonerCon in Oklahoma City and geeking out with fellow fans. Volunteering is legit fun you guys! They are also pretty deep into their Pathfinder and other RPG campaigns, so it works.

Aislinn is the convention chair for SoonerCon and has been volunteering since its reboot in 2006. She holds an associate degree in diversified studies and works in marketing and public relations at Oklahoma City Community College. Her fandoms span a large cross section of SF media and she considers herself a Girl Friday type and NPR junkie. Find her on Facebook, out and about, writing sometimes, or working on con stuff with her crack team of Nerf hoarders.

Carmen works in commercial retail and is SoonerCon’s AV Chair. She is one of the original seven founders of the Tornado Alley Roller Girls roller derby team, skating as Homicide #187 from 2007 to 2009. She enjoys composing electronic music in her spare time and is an avid horror fan. She hopes to catch a spaceflight in her lifetime. You can usually find her chilling and coloring somewhere.

Aislinn and Carmen were married in 2013. They are proud aunties and like to get out the vote. It is their tremendous honor to be invited as Fan Guests at FenCon this year, because it’s their home-away-from-home con and one of their Horcruxes. They live with their fur family in a small house filled with books, oddities, art, warmth and joy.

(Photo: JSJ Photography)

Travis Lewis

Artist Guest of Honor

(Facebook) Travis Lewis is a multi award winning artist and and illustrator working in the field of Imaginative Realism. His work's breadth includes sci-fi, fantasy and horror art in digital and oil mediums, all with an original and daring eye that transients reality and twists perceptions.

He was the recipient of the Chesley Award in 2016 and has been featured in many publications including Spectrum Fantastic Art and Infected by Art. He is also a regular on the sci-fi convention circuit.

Marianne Dyson

Science Guest of Honor

(Marianne Dyson) Marianne Dyson was one of NASA’s first female flight controllers, the subject of her memoir, A Passion for Space. After NASA, she turned to writing about space for adults and kids. She is currently coauthoring a second children’s book with Buzz Aldrin for NatGeo. Her SF collection, Fly Me to the Moon, includes all her Analog stories except "Europa’s Survivors" (in the March/April 2017 issue). All sales via her website will help her recover from Harvey.

Martha Wells

Special Workshop Guest

(Martha Wells) Martha Wells has written many fantasy novels, including The Wizard Hunters, Wheel of the Infinite, the Books of the Raksura series (beginning with The Cloud Roads), and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer, as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, and non-fiction. She has had stories in Black Gate, Realms of Fantasy, Stargate Magazine, Lightspeed Magazine, and in the anthologies Elemental, Tales of the Emerald Serpent, The Other Half of the Sky, The Gods of Lovecraft, and Mech: Age of Steel. She has also written media tie-ins for Stargate Atlantis and most recently Star Wars: Razor's Edge. The last book in the Books of the Raksura series, The Harbors of the Sun, was released in July 2017 by Night Shade Books. All Systems Red, the first novella in her SF series The Murderbot Diaries, was released by Tor.com in May 2017 and is a nominee for the Philip K. Dick Award. The next three novellas in the series, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, and Exit Strategy, will be published in 2018.

Timothy Griffin

Toastmaster

(GriffinEd) Tim Griffin is an award-winning teacher, musician, and storyteller with four albums out and more coming. When not filking or toastmastering, he runs an educational nonprofit called GriffinEd, using music to teach science, math, history, and other subjects to grades K-8th online for free. Laugh and learn with fun, effective (really!) songs about bugs, boogers, and particle physics at www.GriffinEd.org. Tim lives in La Cañada, California with a strong woman, a boy genius, and a large tribe of animals.

Program Participants

Joe Abbott Joseph Abbott is a longtime Texas filker, a sometime science writer, and the very first Fencon member (as in “oh, crap, someone’s given us money--now we have to put it on”). He currently resides in Houston.
C. Dean Andersson (Bloodsong! Helx3) (Wikipedia) (Facebook) (Twitter) C. Dean Andersson’s HelX3, available from Baen ebooks, contains expanded author’s cut editions of his heroic fantasy trilogy: Warrior Witch of Hel, Death Riders of Hel, and Werebeasts of Hel. He is preparing expanded editions of I am Dracula and Raw Pain Max. A new Hel novel in progress features Viking warriors and a K-Pop idol turned swordswoman. If you mention K-Pop to him, be prepared to discuss T-ARA and name your bias: Jiyeon? Hyomin? Eunjung? Soyeon? Qri? or Boram?
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'll be demonstrating all the ways this can go wrong.
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!
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 two collections. With John Helfers, she was nominated for a Hugo for The Vorkosigan Companion, a retrospective on Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan books.
Peri Charlifu (Aegean Goods) (Facebook) Peri Charlifu is a full-time Colorado artist who has been selling his work professionally for over 36 years and produced over 41,000 pieces. He has won dozens of awards and is founder and guild master of the Arts and Artisans of Colorado artists guild. He works mainly in a High Density mix of Porcelain and White Stoneware. Also his design work is hand painted and carved; food, oven, and microwave safe; and he mixes all his own stains and colors.
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 (2016) is the first in a new setting, the Palace of Dreams novels, with her novels of The Horn trilogy coming out in 2017.
Dantzel Cherry (Dantzel Cherry) (Facebook) (Twitter) Dantzel Cherry teaches Pilates and raises her daughter by day. By night and naptime, she writes. Her baking hours follow no rhyme or reason. Her short stories have appeared in Fireside, InterGalactic Medicine Show, Galaxy's Edge, and other magazines and anthologies.
Lys Childs-Wiley Melyssa “Lys” Childs-Wiley grew up in Western New York. She began reading at the age of four to escape watching apple trees grow, and hasn’t stopped. Lys brought home as many books as the librarian allowed. When she wandered out of the children’s section into the main room, she discovered strands of Thread falling from the sky, to be destroyed by Dragonriders. This was when Lys realized that imagination is limitless. She has been writing, acting, and roleplaying ever since.
Dominick D'Aunno Dominick D’Aunno, MD, a writer of speculative fiction, is an Internal Medicine physician with a subspecialty in Space Medicine and Physiology. His NASA research includes cardiovascular adaptation to microgravity, immune system alterations in extreme environments, and musculoskeletal alterations to variable gravities. Dr. D’Aunno’s clinical practice focuses on the medical needs of patients with psychiatric illnesses, autism, developmental disabilities, and adolescents in Child Protective Services. Dominick works with writers to increase the use of medicine and physiology in speculative fiction.
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, Weredragon’s Dare 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.
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.
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) Done: 25 years of crime, social issues, and pop culture writing. Las Vegas feline Sam Spade, Midnight Louie, finished his 28-book series. Enter: a new Louie series and human partner...urban fantasy heroine, Delilah Street, in Absinthe Without Leave in October, 2018. Even Carole’s “New York Times Notable” Sherlockian ground-breaker, Irene Adler, diva-detective, might pop up. In the wings: Carole’s national bestselling Irissa/Kendric high fantasies. When not suffering multi-protagonist syndrome, Carole 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 Science Fiction and Mystery bookstore Adventures in Crime and Space. Since then she has worked many different sized conventions from ArmadilloCon, World Fantasy to WorldCons. While wearing her artist hat she makes jewelry and small clay robot sculptures that she sells at art shows. Always a fan of clay she was featured on Crafters Coast to Coast on HGTV a number of years ago where she crafted a flying pig.
Michael Ashleigh Finn (LiveJournal) (The Gentlemen Nerds) (The Lobot Lounge) (Dirty Magick: LA) (Amazon) Mickey is 1/4 of the The Gentlemen Nerds podcast, as well as the editor and accidental co-producer. He is short story author expanding into novels, and a thematic consultant for Dynamite Entertainment on Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files. His latest Wormwood story, "All the Pretty Little Horses," is available in the anthology Dirty Magick: New Orleans (Lucky Mojo Press).
Melanie Fletcher (Melanie Fletcher) Melanie Fletcher likes to write, preferably for money. Her most recent publications include “The Groom Wore Wings” (Debris and Detritus: The Lesser Greek Gods Running Amok, Story Spring Publishing LLC) and “Lost in Whitby” (A Lone Star in the Sky: A Future Classics Anthology, Volume Two, Belaurient Press). When not writing humorous short SF, she’s writing SF and fantasy romance as Nicola Cameron. Or herding cats. Or designing covers. Let’s just say that she does a lot of stuff.
Karl 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 USAF officer, and selected orbits for government and commercial satellites. His novels Torchship and Torchship Pilot are working-class hard SF adventures, available on Amazon and Audible. Karl lives in Saginaw, TX with his family.
Generic Radio Workshop (Generic Radio Workshop) Generic Radio Workshop has been around longer than the Golden Age of Radio lasted -- a little over thirty years. They started with the Texas Broadcast Museum and have performed at festivals, conventions, and yes, on the radio. They use as much vintage equipment as possible for that "old time radio" feel. Plus, many of their sound effects devices are hand-built, following period designs. While they've made a few concessions to modern technology, their core practices follow radio's Golden Age.
Kristi Hutson (KHP at GooglePages) Born in Texas, but educated on both coasts, Hutson did time as a DoD contractor and now slings education at 6th graders. Hutson has been the LETS (Law Enforcement Teaching Students) liaison, a Krav Maga student and instructor, and a Texas Defensive Shooters club member. So far these facts remain mutually exclusive. Occasionally Hutson writes fiction instead of grading papers: "An Undercover Haunting" appears in the Strange Afterlives anthology, and the novella Bound by Ink is available at Amazon.
Lee Killough (Lee Killough) (Coffee Shop Writers) Lee Killough became hooked on SF, fantasy, and Mysteries at age eleven. The result: her novels usually combine genres...SF/mystery, mystery/supernatural/urban fantasy. She shares her lakeside home with a Schnauzer and walls of books. Her older books are republishing as e-books, revised and updated since science has overrun the 70's fictional science. They are available at Amazon and other e-book sites. Also see her original space opera Ancient Enemy and its new cover at the Yard Dog Press table.
William Ledbetter (William Ledbetter) William Ledbetter is a 2016 Nebula Award winner, with fiction published in Analog, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, Baen.com, EscapePod, Writers of the Future, Yard Dog Press, and many others. He is an unapologetic space geek, an associate editor at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, and runs the annual Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award contest for Baen Books and the National Space Society.
Steve Liptak Steve Liptak is a retired pilot who has been involved in fantasy/SciFi and costuming for over 30 years. He has earned costume awards from DragonCon, AllCon, and Fencon. Over the last few years he has lectured on prop fabrication at conventions such as AKon, SoonerCon, and FenCon. He enjoys working in metal, leather, and plastics, and uses a kit-built 3D printer to speed prototyping. His last few projects have been lathed metal sonic screwdrivers, featured at Tardisbuilders.com in the UK.
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.
Marshall Ryan Maresca (Marshall Ryan Maresca) Marshall Ryan Maresca is a fantasy and science-fiction writer, as well as a playwright, living in South Austin with his wife and son. He is the author of the Maradaine Novels: The Thorn of Dentonhill, A Murder of Mages, The Alchemy of Chaos, An Import of Intrigue, The Holver Alley Crew, and the upcoming The Imposters of Aventil. His work also appeared in Norton Anthology of Hint Fiction and Rayguns Over Texas. He also has had several short plays produced.
Kip McMurray Clifford R. McMurray (AKA “Kip”) is a space advocate, writer, singer, and science fiction devotee with extensive knowledge of the politics, history, and current progress of space exploration. A former National Space Society vice-president and Board of Directors member, he yearly publishes at least four space-related articles. Cliff attended both the first and last space shuttle launches, as well the last Apollo launch, and in the evenings can be found telling jokes at parties or singing along at a filk.
Dawn Mennear
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. She now lives in Starkville MS, where she roots for the Mississippi State Bulldogs except when they play either the Arkansas Razorbacks or the Texas A&M Aggies. In between sporting events and science fiction conventions, she quilts and collects songs about aviation and the space program.
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 StarLine, 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 he worked several years in TV/Film/Radio. More than two dozen of his stories and poems have been published spanning speculative fiction, historical fiction, comedy, and young adult by publishers such as Yard Dog Press, Skelos Press, 4 Star Stories, Pro Se Press, Alban Lake Publishing and more. Two of his short story collections have recently been published: Of Monsters & Madmen and The Undead Ate My Head.
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 Oliver can be a great asset during any multi language movie experience, able to translate some Spanish and Japanese when it's splattered without warning or subtitles at your screen. She also likes to dabble at movie reviews, which she posts on her blog every Friday. A small press author, her latest work is a gender swap fantasy novel entitled Jewel of the Gods. For sample chapters, free fiction, 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. Like to shop online? She’s the editor-in-chief of AdoptAShelter.com, a free shop-to-donate website that benefits animal charities. She’s written numerous books and thousands of articles on cat care, behavior, and animal hauntings.
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.
Rob Rogers (Rob Rogers) Rob’s first novel, Devil's Cape, a superhero thriller set in Louisiana, was a Pop Matters pick and HeroPress book of the year. Rob’s stories have appeared in Comets and Criminals magazine and the anthologies The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Triumph Over Tragedy, and This Mutant Life, plus an upcoming Pro Se Productions anthology. Rob lives in Richardson, Texas, where he writes about superheroes, pirates, aliens, mad cultists, dragons, interdimensional rifts, carnival freaks, and cowboys, often in the same stories.
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.
Ken Ruffin (National Space Society of North Texas) (Facebook) A lifelong Trekkie, space enthusiast, and former Aerospace Engineering student, Ken has been elected to the Board of Directors of the National Space Society (NSS). He’s also served five years as chapter president of NSS of North Texas: the 2014 and 2016 NSS Chapter of the Year! During local public events and monthly meetings, Ken presents "the latest and greatest information in space travel and space development" and advocates using technologies, energy, and materials from space to benefit humanity.
Patrice Sarath (Patrice Sarath) (Facebook) (Twitter) Patrice Sarath is an author and editor living in Austin, Texas. Her novels include the fantasy series Books of the Gordath (Gordath Wood, Red Gold Bridge, and The Crow God’s Girl) and the romance The Unexpected Miss Bennet. She has been published by Penguin and Robert Hale Ltd. Her short stories have appeared in Weird Tales, Black Gate, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and many other magazines and anthologies. Follow her at her website, Facebook, or on Twitter.
Brad Sinor (Brad Sinor) (Facebook) (LiveJournal) Bradley H. Sinor has written many short stories, published in a variety of anthologies, and three short story collections. His Holmsian collection The Game’s Afoot: A Sherlock Holmes Miscellany, published by Pro Se Productions, is available on Amazon. He also has a new joint collection with his wife, Sue Sinor, called Of Two Minds, published by YardDog Press. He lives in Tulsa, OK.
Sue Sinor (Facebook) Sue Sinor started writing at the urging of her husband, Brad. She has solo stories, as-well-as several collaborations with Brad, in Yard Dog Press publications. They have collaborative stories in Grantville Gazette IV and the antho Rotten Relations. She and Brad also have a joint collection, Of Two Minds, from Yard Dog Press. They live in Tulsa, OK.
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.
Seth Skorkowsky (Seth Skorkowsky) (Facebook) (YouTube) Raised in the swamps and pine forests of East Texas, Seth Skorkowsky gravitated to the darker sides of fantasy, preferring horror and pulp heroes over knights in shining armor. He has published four Urban Fantasy novels with his Valducan series, and two pulpy Sword and Sorcery collections. He's a two-time Audie Award finalist and an active YouTube creator. When not writing, Seth enjoys cheesy movies, tabletop role-playing games, and traveling the world with his wife.
Libby A. Smith Libby A. Smith is a frequent contributor to 4starstories. Other works have appeared in the anthology Avast, Ye Airships, several Caliber Comics, Atomic Mouse, and in other publications. An adaptation of The Story of the Rainbow Bridge was adapted into counted cross stitch by Sue Hillis. Libby lives in Central Arkansas with three fat and sassy cats. She also acts on stage and in films, including The Hanging of David O Dodd which aired on the Arkansas PBS station.
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam) (Short Story Review) (Twitter) Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam’s fiction and poetry has appeared in over 40 magazines and anthologies such as Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Her novelette “The Orangery” was a finalist for the 2016 Nebula Award. In 2015 she released a collaborative fiction-jazz album Strange Monsters. She also created and coordinates the annual Art & Words Collaborative Show in Fort Worth, Texas.
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. Mel's newest project is a trivia/adventure board game called First: the Game of Knowledge and Discovery. The game is in final beta testing, headed for a Kickstarter launch the week of Fencon.
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, and The Anthology From Hell with Yard Dog Press, 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 clerks for a local library and loves old movies, baking, and coming up with weird story ideas--mainly fueled with caffeine and chocolate.
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.
Shado Wiley (Twitter) Shado blames his belief that imaginary reality is better than actual reality on George Lucas, E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, two weird uncles, and the eternal struggle between Autobots and Decepticons. He somehow manages to keep his amazingly talented, beautiful, and loving wife from beating him to death with one of his many TRANSFORMER action figures despite his inability to change light bulbs or clean the litter boxes in a timely fashion.

Joe Abbott

Joseph Abbott is a longtime Texas filker, a sometime science writer, and the very first Fencon member (as in “oh, crap, someone’s given us money--now we have to put it on”). He currently resides in Houston.

C. Dean Andersson

(Bloodsong! Helx3) (Wikipedia) (Facebook) (Twitter) C. Dean Andersson’s HelX3, available from Baen ebooks, contains expanded author’s cut editions of his heroic fantasy trilogy: Warrior Witch of Hel, Death Riders of Hel, and Werebeasts of Hel. He is preparing expanded editions of I am Dracula and Raw Pain Max. A new Hel novel in progress features Viking warriors and a K-Pop idol turned swordswoman. If you mention K-Pop to him, be prepared to discuss T-ARA and name your bias: Jiyeon? Hyomin? Eunjung? Soyeon? Qri? or Boram?

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'll be demonstrating all the ways this can go wrong.

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!

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 two collections. With John Helfers, she was nominated for a Hugo for The Vorkosigan Companion, a retrospective on Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan books.

Peri Charlifu

(Aegean Goods) (Facebook) Peri Charlifu is a full-time Colorado artist who has been selling his work professionally for over 36 years and produced over 41,000 pieces. He has won dozens of awards and is founder and guild master of the Arts and Artisans of Colorado artists guild. He works mainly in a High Density mix of Porcelain and White Stoneware. Also his design work is hand painted and carved; food, oven, and microwave safe; and he mixes all his own stains and colors.

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 (2016) is the first in a new setting, the Palace of Dreams novels, with her novels of The Horn trilogy coming out in 2017.

Dantzel Cherry

(Dantzel Cherry) (Facebook) (Twitter) Dantzel Cherry teaches Pilates and raises her daughter by day. By night and naptime, she writes. Her baking hours follow no rhyme or reason. Her short stories have appeared in Fireside, InterGalactic Medicine Show, Galaxy's Edge, and other magazines and anthologies.

Lys Childs-Wiley

Melyssa “Lys” Childs-Wiley grew up in Western New York. She began reading at the age of four to escape watching apple trees grow, and hasn’t stopped.

Lys brought home as many books as the librarian allowed. When she wandered out of the children’s section into the main room, she discovered strands of Thread falling from the sky, to be destroyed by Dragonriders. This was when Lys realized that imagination is limitless. She has been writing, acting, and roleplaying ever since.

Dominick D'Aunno

Dominick D’Aunno, MD, a writer of speculative fiction, is an Internal Medicine physician with a subspecialty in Space Medicine and Physiology. His NASA research includes cardiovascular adaptation to microgravity, immune system alterations in extreme environments, and musculoskeletal alterations to variable gravities. Dr. D’Aunno’s clinical practice focuses on the medical needs of patients with psychiatric illnesses, autism, developmental disabilities, and adolescents in Child Protective Services. Dominick works with writers to increase the use of medicine and physiology in speculative fiction.

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, Weredragon’s Dare 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.

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.

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) Done: 25 years of crime, social issues, and pop culture writing. Las Vegas feline Sam Spade, Midnight Louie, finished his 28-book series. Enter: a new Louie series and human partner...urban fantasy heroine, Delilah Street, in Absinthe Without Leave in October, 2018. Even Carole’s “New York Times Notable” Sherlockian ground-breaker, Irene Adler, diva-detective, might pop up. In the wings: Carole’s national bestselling Irissa/Kendric high fantasies. When not suffering multi-protagonist syndrome, Carole 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 Science Fiction and Mystery bookstore Adventures in Crime and Space. Since then she has worked many different sized conventions from ArmadilloCon, World Fantasy to WorldCons. While wearing her artist hat she makes jewelry and small clay robot sculptures that she sells at art shows. Always a fan of clay she was featured on Crafters Coast to Coast on HGTV a number of years ago where she crafted a flying pig.

Michael Ashleigh Finn

(LiveJournal) (The Gentlemen Nerds) (The Lobot Lounge) (Dirty Magick: LA) (Amazon) Mickey is 1/4 of the The Gentlemen Nerds podcast, as well as the editor and accidental co-producer. He is short story author expanding into novels, and a thematic consultant for Dynamite Entertainment on Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files.

His latest Wormwood story, "All the Pretty Little Horses," is available in the anthology Dirty Magick: New Orleans (Lucky Mojo Press).

Melanie Fletcher

(Melanie Fletcher) Melanie Fletcher likes to write, preferably for money. Her most recent publications include “The Groom Wore Wings” (Debris and Detritus: The Lesser Greek Gods Running Amok, Story Spring Publishing LLC) and “Lost in Whitby” (A Lone Star in the Sky: A Future Classics Anthology, Volume Two, Belaurient Press). When not writing humorous short SF, she’s writing SF and fantasy romance as Nicola Cameron. Or herding cats. Or designing covers. Let’s just say that she does a lot of stuff.

Karl 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 USAF officer, and selected orbits for government and commercial satellites. His novels Torchship and Torchship Pilot are working-class hard SF adventures, available on Amazon and Audible. Karl lives in Saginaw, TX with his family.

Generic Radio Workshop

(Generic Radio Workshop) Generic Radio Workshop has been around longer than the Golden Age of Radio lasted -- a little over thirty years. They started with the Texas Broadcast Museum and have performed at festivals, conventions, and yes, on the radio. They use as much vintage equipment as possible for that "old time radio" feel. Plus, many of their sound effects devices are hand-built, following period designs. While they've made a few concessions to modern technology, their core practices follow radio's Golden Age.

Kristi Hutson

(KHP at GooglePages) Born in Texas, but educated on both coasts, Hutson did time as a DoD contractor and now slings education at 6th graders. Hutson has been the LETS (Law Enforcement Teaching Students) liaison, a Krav Maga student and instructor, and a Texas Defensive Shooters club member. So far these facts remain mutually exclusive. Occasionally Hutson writes fiction instead of grading papers: "An Undercover Haunting" appears in the Strange Afterlives anthology, and the novella Bound by Ink is available at Amazon.

Lee Killough

(Lee Killough) (Coffee Shop Writers) Lee Killough became hooked on SF, fantasy, and Mysteries at age eleven. The result: her novels usually combine genres...SF/mystery, mystery/supernatural/urban fantasy. She shares her lakeside home with a Schnauzer and walls of books. Her older books are republishing as e-books, revised and updated since science has overrun the 70's fictional science. They are available at Amazon and other e-book sites. Also see her original space opera Ancient Enemy and its new cover at the Yard Dog Press table.

William Ledbetter

(William Ledbetter) William Ledbetter is a 2016 Nebula Award winner, with fiction published in Analog, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, Baen.com, EscapePod, Writers of the Future, Yard Dog Press, and many others. He is an unapologetic space geek, an associate editor at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, and runs the annual Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award contest for Baen Books and the National Space Society.

Steve Liptak

Steve Liptak is a retired pilot who has been involved in fantasy/SciFi and costuming for over 30 years. He has earned costume awards from DragonCon, AllCon, and Fencon. Over the last few years he has lectured on prop fabrication at conventions such as AKon, SoonerCon, and FenCon. He enjoys working in metal, leather, and plastics, and uses a kit-built 3D printer to speed prototyping. His last few projects have been lathed metal sonic screwdrivers, featured at Tardisbuilders.com in the UK.

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.

Marshall Ryan Maresca

(Marshall Ryan Maresca) Marshall Ryan Maresca is a fantasy and science-fiction writer, as well as a playwright, living in South Austin with his wife and son. He is the author of the Maradaine Novels: The Thorn of Dentonhill, A Murder of Mages, The Alchemy of Chaos, An Import of Intrigue, The Holver Alley Crew, and the upcoming The Imposters of Aventil. His work also appeared in Norton Anthology of Hint Fiction and Rayguns Over Texas. He also has had several short plays produced.

Kip McMurray

Clifford R. McMurray (AKA “Kip”) is a space advocate, writer, singer, and science fiction devotee with extensive knowledge of the politics, history, and current progress of space exploration. A former National Space Society vice-president and Board of Directors member, he yearly publishes at least four space-related articles. Cliff attended both the first and last space shuttle launches, as well the last Apollo launch, and in the evenings can be found telling jokes at parties or singing along at a filk.

Dawn Mennear

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. She now lives in Starkville MS, where she roots for the Mississippi State Bulldogs except when they play either the Arkansas Razorbacks or the Texas A&M Aggies. In between sporting events and science fiction conventions, she quilts and collects songs about aviation and the space program.

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 Star*Line, 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 he worked several years in TV/Film/Radio. More than two dozen of his stories and poems have been published spanning speculative fiction, historical fiction, comedy, and young adult by publishers such as Yard Dog Press, Skelos Press, 4 Star Stories, Pro Se Press, Alban Lake Publishing and more. Two of his short story collections have recently been published: Of Monsters & Madmen and The Undead Ate My Head.

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 Oliver can be a great asset during any multi language movie experience, able to translate some Spanish and Japanese when it's splattered without warning or subtitles at your screen. She also likes to dabble at movie reviews, which she posts on her blog every Friday.

A small press author, her latest work is a gender swap fantasy novel entitled Jewel of the Gods. For sample chapters, free fiction, 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. Like to shop online? She’s the editor-in-chief of AdoptAShelter.com, a free shop-to-donate website that benefits animal charities. She’s written numerous books and thousands of articles on cat care, behavior, and animal hauntings.

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.

Rob Rogers

(Rob Rogers) Rob’s first novel, Devil's Cape, a superhero thriller set in Louisiana, was a Pop Matters pick and HeroPress book of the year. Rob’s stories have appeared in Comets and Criminals magazine and the anthologies The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Triumph Over Tragedy, and This Mutant Life, plus an upcoming Pro Se Productions anthology. Rob lives in Richardson, Texas, where he writes about superheroes, pirates, aliens, mad cultists, dragons, interdimensional rifts, carnival freaks, and cowboys, often in the same stories.

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.

Ken Ruffin

(National Space Society of North Texas) (Facebook) A lifelong Trekkie, space enthusiast, and former Aerospace Engineering student, Ken has been elected to the Board of Directors of the National Space Society (NSS). He’s also served five years as chapter president of NSS of North Texas: the 2014 and 2016 NSS Chapter of the Year! During local public events and monthly meetings, Ken presents "the latest and greatest information in space travel and space development" and advocates using technologies, energy, and materials from space to benefit humanity.

Patrice Sarath

(Patrice Sarath) (Facebook) (Twitter) Patrice Sarath is an author and editor living in Austin, Texas. Her novels include the fantasy series Books of the Gordath (Gordath Wood, Red Gold Bridge, and The Crow God’s Girl) and the romance The Unexpected Miss Bennet. She has been published by Penguin and Robert Hale Ltd. Her short stories have appeared in Weird Tales, Black Gate, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and many other magazines and anthologies. Follow her at her website, Facebook, or on Twitter.

Brad Sinor

(Brad Sinor) (Facebook) (LiveJournal) Bradley H. Sinor has written many short stories, published in a variety of anthologies, and three short story collections. His Holmsian collection The Game’s Afoot: A Sherlock Holmes Miscellany, published by Pro Se Productions, is available on Amazon. He also has a new joint collection with his wife, Sue Sinor, called Of Two Minds, published by YardDog Press. He lives in Tulsa, OK.

Sue Sinor

(Facebook) Sue Sinor started writing at the urging of her husband, Brad. She has solo stories, as-well-as several collaborations with Brad, in Yard Dog Press publications. They have collaborative stories in Grantville Gazette IV and the antho Rotten Relations. She and Brad also have a joint collection, Of Two Minds, from Yard Dog Press. They live in Tulsa, OK.

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.

Seth Skorkowsky

(Seth Skorkowsky) (Facebook) (YouTube) Raised in the swamps and pine forests of East Texas, Seth Skorkowsky gravitated to the darker sides of fantasy, preferring horror and pulp heroes over knights in shining armor. He has published four Urban Fantasy novels with his Valducan series, and two pulpy Sword and Sorcery collections. He's a two-time Audie Award finalist and an active YouTube creator. When not writing, Seth enjoys cheesy movies, tabletop role-playing games, and traveling the world with his wife.

Libby A. Smith

Libby A. Smith is a frequent contributor to 4starstories. Other works have appeared in the anthology Avast, Ye Airships, several Caliber Comics, Atomic Mouse, and in other publications. An adaptation of The Story of the Rainbow Bridge was adapted into counted cross stitch by Sue Hillis. Libby lives in Central Arkansas with three fat and sassy cats. She also acts on stage and in films, including The Hanging of David O Dodd which aired on the Arkansas PBS station.

Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

(Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam) (Short Story Review) (Twitter) Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam’s fiction and poetry has appeared in over 40 magazines and anthologies such as Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Her novelette “The Orangery” was a finalist for the 2016 Nebula Award. In 2015 she released a collaborative fiction-jazz album Strange Monsters. She also created and coordinates the annual Art & Words Collaborative Show in Fort Worth, Texas.

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. Mel's newest project is a trivia/adventure board game called First: the Game of Knowledge and Discovery. The game is in final beta testing, headed for a Kickstarter launch the week of Fencon.

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, and The Anthology From Hell with Yard Dog Press, 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 clerks for a local library and loves old movies, baking, and coming up with weird story ideas--mainly fueled with caffeine and chocolate.

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.

Shado Wiley

(Twitter) Shado blames his belief that imaginary reality is better than actual reality on George Lucas, E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, two weird uncles, and the eternal struggle between Autobots and Decepticons. He somehow manages to keep his amazingly talented, beautiful, and loving wife from beating him to death with one of his many TRANSFORMER action figures despite his inability to change light bulbs or clean the litter boxes in a timely fashion.

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.