Guest of Honor: Gregory Benford

(GregoryBenford.com) (Wikipedia) Dr. Gregory Benford is our Guest of Honor for 2008. Along with his distinguished careers in science and science fiction, Dr. Benford was one of the organizers of the July 1958 "Southwestercon 6", the first science fiction convention in Texas.

Music Guest of Honor: Three Weird Sisters

(ThreeWeirdSisters.com) (Wikipedia) Three Weird Sisters are our Music Guest of Honor for 2008. Brenda Sutton, Teresa Powell and Dr. Mary Crowell make up the current performing incarnation of the band. (Sponsored in part by Panda*Monium.)

Artist Guest of Honor: Real Musgrave

(Wikipedia) Real Musgrave is our Artist Guest of Honor for 2008. He is best known for creating "Pocket Dragons". A complete bio and a photo are coming soon.

Fen Guest of Honor: Gerald Burton

Gerald Burton is our Fen Guest of Honor for 2008. His nickname is "Cap'n Coconut." He is a former chair of the original SoonerCon.

Toastmaster: Howard Waldrop

(Wikipedia) Howard Waldrop is our Toastmaster for 2008. He is best known for his novels Then Bones and The Texas-Israel War: 1999. A complete bio and a photo are coming soon.

Special Guest: Jay Lake

(JLake.com) (Wikipedia) Jay Lake is our Special Guest for 2008 and he will be conducting our 2008 Writers Workshop. In 2004 he won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction. He was recently profiled by John Scalzi.

ORAC Special Guest: Doris Egan

(Doris Egan at sff.net) (LiveJournal) (Wikipedia) Doris Egan is a Special Guest for 2008 sponsored by the Organized Rebel Adventurers Club, a long-running Dallas/Fort Worth science fiction fan club. Doris is a novelist, short story author, essayist, and writer of television and feature scripts. She claims she can do all this because she "has no personal life to speak of." Among her many current projects is serving as co-executive producer on the hit television series House.

David Lee Anderson:

(DavidLeeAnderson.com - Robot City) David is an artist.

C. Dean Andersson:

(CDeanAndersson.com) Dean is the author of short stories such as the 2007 HWA Stoker Award-recommended "The Death Wagon Rolls on By", eight horror novels including I Am Dracula and Raw Pain Max, and the heroic fantasy trilogy, Warrior Witch, Warrior Rebel, and Warrior Beast, Scandinavian mythos adventures of Bloodsong, a warrior woman created ten years B.X. (Before Xena), from Warner/Questar with Boris Vallejo covers, reprinted by Hawk in 2000, then by Alpha-Kniga in Russian Language hardbacks. Dean has degrees in astrophysics and art and has worked in T.V., music, programming, and technical writing.

Lou Antonelli:

(Sentinel Science Fiction) (Wikipedia) Lou is a writer.

Paul Black:

(PaulBlackBooks.com) Paul is a writer.

Maggie Bonham:

(ShadowHelm.net) Maggie Bonham.

Rachel Caine:

(RachelCaine.com) (Wikipedia) Rachel is the author of the popular "Weather Warden" series, the young adult "Morganville Vampires" series, and several other best-selling novels.

Rosemary Clement-Moore:

(RosemaryClementMoore.com) Rosemary loves dogs and dinosaurs, military history, Battlestar Galactica, and Guitar Hero.  She can tap dance, sail a boat, make balloon animals,  and she once sang the "Star Spangled Banner" at a Texas Rangers game. Now she mostly writes smart and funny supernatural mysteries for young adults of all ages. The "Maggie Quinn: Girl vs. Evil" series includes Prom Dates from Hell, Hell Week, and Highway to Hell (which comes out next year).

Jerry J. Davis:

(JJDavis.net) Jerry is a writer and a publisher.

Brad Denton:

(BradleyDenton.net) (Wikipedia) Bradley’s novel Laughin' Boy has just been published in paperback by Wheatland Press, and his Campbell Award-winning novel Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well On Ganymede will soon be available free online at his website. (The Sturgeon Award-winning novella "Sergeant Chip" is there, too.)  Brad is also the author of the novels Lunatics and Blackburn and of the World Fantasy Award-winning story collections A Conflagration Artist and The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians.  Brad lives in Manchaca, Texas, with his spouse Barbara and their dogs Lucy, Linus, and Tillie. His hobbies include eating barbecue, drinking Shiner, and playing the blues.

Chris Donahue:

() Chris is a writer.

Linda Donahue:

Linda is a writer and a Redhead of the Apocalypse.

Pat Elrod:

(VampWriter.com) (Wikipedia) Pat is a writer and a best-selling editor.

Rhonda Eudaly:

(RhondaEudaly.com) Rhonda lives in Texas where she's worked in various industries to support her writing habit and her cat, Dixon. She is married with a step dog. Her passions are writing and music (mutually exclusive), and she enjoys reading, movies, friends, and family. She loves all things writing related including unusual writing instruments and notebooks. Her smiley face collection has recently been slowly forced out by some persistent and precocious Rubber Ducks.

Melanie Fletcher:

(Hoosier Red's Joint) Melanie is an expatriate Chicagoan who currently lives in North Dallas with her husband the Bodacious Brit and their two fabulous furbags JJ and Jordan. JJ is a cat who thinks he's a dog, and Jordan is a cat who thinks he's Anna Nicole Smith. At night, Melanie turns into SF Writer Girl, and has the SFWA membership card to prove it. Her short story "The Padre, the Rabbi and the Devil His Own Self" is on the 2007 Nebula Preliminary Ballot, and her novella "Sabre Dance" forms half of Double Dog #4 from Yard Dog Press. She is currently finishing her YA fantasy novel Undercover Godmother and editing her SF novel White Knight, Queen Alice. In related activities, she fences with the SFWA Musketeers and performs with the Feral Chihuahuas in Yard Dog Road Shows at SF conventions around the country.

Chris Fulbright:

(FulbrightAndHawkes.com) Chris Fulbright is an author and former journalist.

David L. Gray:

(DavidLGray.com) David writes science fiction radio plays and short stories. His "Buzz Blaster, Space Entrepreneur" radio plays have been read at Dallas science fiction conventions and at MidSouthCon in Memphis. He specializes in near-future military science fiction. "Collateral Damage", his first published short story, appeared in the May 15, 2007 issue of "Sentinel Science Fiction". When he is not writing science fiction, he is a technical writer in the aerospace industry..

Bev Hale:

(BevHale.com) Bev is a collector--of people, stories, recipes, dictionaries, books. She has written novels, short stories, a children's book, comic scripts, gaming modules, and even an IndoPak cookbook. Her recent sales include "Keeping It In the Family" in Volume 5 of Big Ole Face Full Of Monster and "Pest Control" in Yard Dog Press' Houston: We've Got Bubbas!. Bev has mushed dogs in Alaska, swum with dolphins in the Bahamas, milked a goat in Arkansas, taught English and ESL in Oklahoma, learned at least a little of 7 or 8 languages, been an insurance rater and an IRS auditor, hatched and raised baby ducks, skied (badly), snorkeled, learned to cook and cater. Bev says she writes because she has to, because she wants to, because she needs to.

Teddy Harvia:

(Teddy Harvia's official site) (Wikipedia) Teddy is a four-time winner of the Hugo for Best Fan Artist. A native of Oklahoma, he grew up in the Dallas area and he lives here today. While Teddy fills his days as a technical writer his art has filled the pages of hundreds of publications.

Angeline Hawkes:

(AngelineHawkes.com) Angeline received a B.A. from Texas A&M-Commerce and was named 2007 Alumni Ambassador for the Literature Department. She has publication credits dating from 1981. Angeline's collection The Commandments received a 2006 Bram Stoker Award nomination. Her newest fantasy series is "Tales of the Barbarian Kabar of El Hazzar." She co-wrote Blood Coven with her husband and FenCon guest, Christopher Fulbright. Her story, “In Waters Black the Lost Ones Sleep”, appears in Chaosium’s anthology, Frontier Cthulhu. Angeline has seen the publication of her novels, novellas, fiction in 30+ anthologies, several collections, and short fiction in various publications. She is a member of HWA and REHupa.

Kevin Hopkins:

() Kevin is an artist.

Dr. Albert Jackson:

(LPI) (History) Dr. Jackson was one of the organizers of the July 1958 "Southwestercon 6", the first science fiction convention in Texas. He has spent a fair portion of the intervening years working for NASA in Houston.

Deborah LeBlanc:

(DeborahLeBlanc.com) (Wikipedia) Deborah LeBlanc is an award-winning author from Lafayette, Louisiana. She is also a business owner, a licensed death scene investigator, and an active member of two national paranormal investigation teams. She is the president of the Horror Writers Association, president of the Writers' Guild of Acadiana, president of Mystery Writers of America's Southwest Chapter, and an active member of Sisters in Crime, the National Association of Women Writers, and International Thriller Writers Inc. Her most recent novels are Family Inheritance, Grave Intent, A House Divided, and Morbid Curiosity. Deborah's next release, Water Witch, should be out in December.

William Ledbetter:

(WilliamLedbetter.com) William lives near Dallas with his wife, two of his three kids and way too many animals. His science fiction and fantasy short stories have been published by Jim Baen's Universe, Fantasist Enterprises for their "Sails & Sorcery" anthology, and several Yard Dog Press anthologies including Houston, We've Got Bubbas. He also leads a Dallas writers group called Future Classics and is an active member of the local National Space Society chapter.

Julia Mandala:

Julia Mandala is a writer, a reformed lawyer, and a Redhead of the Apocalypse.

Lee Martindale:

(HarpHaven.net) Lee believes in enjoying life, making a difference, and writing good stories. Evidence that she does all three can be found in numerous published works. She's edited a groundbreaking anthology (Such a Pretty Face), released a CD of original filk music (The Ladies of Trade Town) and an audiochapbook. Her latest works are Prejudice by the Pound, a collection of essays and editorials, and "Old Age & Sorcery", a short story in Catopolis from DAW. When not slinging fiction, Lee is a Named Bard, Lifetime Active Member of SFWA, a fencing member of the SFWA Musketeers, and a member of the SCA. She and her husband George live in Plano.

J.M. McDermott:

() J.M. is a writer.

Margaret Middleton:

(M-Cubed Ventures) Margaret is a writer and a musician.

Muff Musgrave:

() Muff is an artist and the wife of Artist GoH Real Musgrave.

Gloria Oliver:

(GloriaOliver.com) Gloria lives in Texas with her husband, daughter, and three cats. She is the author of fantasy novels In the Service of Samurai, Vassal of El, and Willing Sacrifice. Two of the novels were finalists in the EPPIES. Cross-eyed Dragon Troubles is due for release in 2008 and Price of Mercy around 2010. She also has stories in the Four Bubbas of the Apocalypse, Houston: We’ve Got Bubbas, Small Bites, and Fundamentally Challenged anthologies. She is a proud member of both EPIC and Broad Universe. When not busy working with numbers at work, she enjoys reading, writing, watching movies, and Japanese Anime.

K. Hutson Price:

(KHP at GooglePages) K. Hutson Price is a writer.

Libby Smith Singleton:

(Tandra.com) Libby Libby Smith Singleton first started attending conventions in 1982 as a 17-year-old intent on being a published writer. Her stories have appeared in Caliber Comic's Negative Burn and Dominique: Protect and Serve, Hanthercraft Publications' "Tandra" and "Dragonroc" universe comics and website, and Shanda Fantasy Art's Atomic Mouse. She is also a two-time winner of the Little Rock Free Press' Literary Contest. Besides writing, she is also a stage actor in the Little Rock area, including two times with The Weekend Theater productions of The Rocky Horror Show. By day, she is an administrative assistant for the state of Arkansas. She lives in Little Rock with her three cats.

Bradley Sinor:

(Zette's World) Brad is a writer who has seen his short stories published in numerous anthologies, including Knight Fantastic, International House of Bubbas, and The Grantville Gazette. Three collections of his short fiction have been released by Yard Dog Press: Dark and Stormy Nights, In the Shadows, and Playing With Secrets. His latest stories may be found in Places to Go, People to Kill and Houston, We Got Bubbas. Brad's non-fiction appears in a variety of magazines and anthologies, including House Unauthorized.

Sue Sinor:

Sue started writing somewhat late in life at the urging of her husband, Brad. She also is involved with community theatre, both on and off stage. Together, she and Brad are the caretakers and household staff for two cats, Pewter and Ashe. She has stories in several Yard Dog Press publications: International House of Bubbas, Flush Fiction, Houston, We Got Bubbas, and, in collaboration with her husband, the chapbook Playing With Secrets. Sue also has two stories in the charity anthology Small Bites.

Shanna Swendson:

(ShannaSwendson.com) (Wikipedia) Shanna is a writer.

T.M. Wagner:

(SFReviews.net) T.M. is the publisher of SFReviews.net where he reviews science fiction novels and nothing but.

Steven E. Wedel:

(StevenEWedel.com) Steve is a life-long Oklahoman, but not really a werewolf. Don’t ask him to bite you ... his wife doesn’t approve of that. Steve is best known for "The Werewolf Saga" books from Scrybe Press. His other books include Darkscapes and Seven Days in Benevolence. His upcoming releases include Little Graveyard on the Prairie, coming in 2009 from Bad Moon Books. Steve has published numerous pieces of short fiction, several how-to articles for writers, literary criticism, and has taught courses in horror writing. He holds a master’s degree in liberal studies, creative writing emphasis, from the University of Oklahoma, and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma. He works as a high school English teacher now. Steve lives in central Oklahoma with his wife and four children.