Program Participants
(Updated May 5, 2008)
Also Attending: (as of 5/5/08)
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| Allison Stein is a Kansas City artist and author with a dark Southern streak. Her most recent credits include the short story “Curious George Visits the Solar J AstroPort Diner” in the Houston: We’ve Got Bubbas anthology from Yard Dog Press. She also provided cover art for “Tick Hill” and “Diva” and a short story in “Flush Fiction”, also from Yard Dog Press. When she’s not painting, writing, hanging out in abandoned cemeteries, or scaring young children, she’s a marketing communications specialist in the software industry. She specializes in translating technobabble into Plain English. |
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| When she is not writing, Amanda Gannon can be found in her studio swearing a blue streak over other art forms (though she would argue swearing is an art all its own). Her erotica has appeared in The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica Vol. 4 and Vol. 6, and her art is showcased at www.morningstarhall.com. She shares her Tulsa home with a husband, Paul Batteiger; three imitation cats; and more snakes than is probably sane. |
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| Angeline Hawkes received a B.A. in Composite English Language Arts in 1991 from Texas A&M-Commerce and was appointed 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 entitled: Tales of the Barbarian Kabar of El Hazzar [various publishers]. Dead Letter Press published Blood Coven, co-written with husband, 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 35+ anthologies, several collections, and short fiction in various publications. She is an Active member of HWA and REHupa. Visit her websites at www.angelinehawkes.com and www.fulbrightandhawkes.com. |
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| Many of Bennie Grezlik’s stories are published by Yard Dog Press, especially the infamous “Bubbas of the Apocalypse” anthology series. His Young Adult story “Gravity Well” was selected Best of Issue in The Martian Wave and was reprinted in an anthology called Wondrous Web Worlds from Sam’s Dot Publishing. His first published novel is a fantasy called “The Ark of Arianna” from StoneGarden.net, also available from Amazon. Imagine a land whose queen bequeaths to her people an artifact that sustains protective magic for hundreds of years. But the magic grows weaker. Then a cruel tyrant steals the Ark. . . |
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| Beverly A. Hale writes stories, tells stories, makes up stories. When not engaged in that, she tutors in English/ESL/Writing, and collects more wonderful people to add to her extended family. She has been published in Novels, Short stories, comics and gaming. Her latest works: “Pest Control” (appearing in Houston! We Have Bubbas, YDP 2007 and coming in 2008 in a Best of Bubbas anthology from Ben Bella Books), and “Keeping It in the Family” (appearing in Big Ol Face Full of Monsters vol. 5). She currently lives in Oklahoma City with her Husband, 2 Dogs and over 10,000 books. |
Bob Aanonsen, Royal Gauntlet Birds of Prey
Animal Rescue & Education
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| The Royal Gauntlet Rehabilitation center is permited by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation to provide care and rehabilitation of sick or injured wildlife. This program is in its 12th year and is directed by Bob Aanonsen, Master Falconer. |
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| Bradley Denton is the author of the novels BUDDY HOLLY IS ALIVE AND WELL ON GANYMEDE, BLACKBURN, LUNATICS, and LAUGHIN’ BOY — and of the short-story collections ONE DAY CLOSER TO DEATH, A CONFLAGRATION ARTIST, and THE CALVIN COOLIDGE HOME FOR DEAD COMEDIANS. His work has been honored with the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the World Fantasy Award. A new paperback edition of BLACKBURN is now available from Picador USA, and the first paperback edition of LAUGHIN’ BOY will be available from Wheatland Press by the time Conestoga rolls around. When not writing fiction, Brad blogs at www.EatOurBrains.com and manages the career of Bland Lemon Denton, the World’s Oldest (and Worst) Bluesman. Free fiction — as well as Bland Lemon Denton mp3 files — can be found online at www.bradleydenton.net. |
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| Bradley H. Sinor has seen his short stories published in numerous anthologies, such as KNIGHT FANTASTIC, DRACULA IN LONDON, BUBBAS OF THE APOCOLYPSE, MERLIN, MEN WRITING SF AS WOMEN, Haunted Holidays, ON CRUSADE, GATEWAYS, SMALL BITES, ALL HELL BREAKING LOOSE, SPACE CADETS, THE GRANTVILLE GAZETTE, PLACES TO GO, PEOPLE TO KILL, RING OF FIRE 2 and HOUSTON WE GOT BUBBSA (written with his wife Sue).. Three collections of his short fiction have been released by Yard Dog Press, DARK AND STORMY NIGHTS, IN THE SHADOWS, and PLAYING WITH SECRETS (which also features two stories by his wife Sue Sinor.)
He has also seen his non-fiction appear in a variety of magazines and anthologies. His latest essays can be found in STEPPING THROUGH THE STARGATE ,THE CHERRYH ODESSEY and HOUSE UNAUTHERIZED. |
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| Carrie Jones writes young adult novels. Her first, TIPS ON HAVING A GAY(Ex) Boyfriend was released in 2007. Bloomsbury will publish, NEED, her first fantasy in January 2009. |
Cary Osborne
Author
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| Cary Osborne lives in Norman, Oklahoma, and is the author of 5 science fiction novels published under her own name, and a fantasy novel, Winter Queen, under the pseudonym Devin Cary. She has completed a second fantasy novel titled When God Was Stolen, and has started another, titled Below Streets. Also completed is an alternate history, Cross Over the River and a suspense novel titled Checkout. The Fountain and Other Stories, was published by Yard Dog Press. In the meantime, two small bits have been published in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Most of her published short stories have been in the horror genre. One of her passions is American history from 1750 through the Civil War; another, her cat Nefertari. She graduated in 2007 from the University of Oklahoma with an MLIS (Master’s in Library & Information Studies). She is currently seeking an agent after this long hiatus from submitting. |
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| New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cheyenne McCray has been writing ever since she can remember. She always knew one day she would write novels, hoping her readers would get lost in the worlds she created, as she did in her favorites. For St. Martin’s Press, Chey writes the bestselling Magic” series, most recently Shadow Magic and the upcoming Dark Magic. Cheyenne is married to her college sweetheart, has three sons, three dogs, two kittens, a messy house, and she will do anything to get out of cleaning which may be why she writes so much. |
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| Craig Wolf took up a literary career upon retiring from Claire Chennault’s Flying Tigers (not a British glam band.) Some saw chances of success as slim, but a series of stories centered on sentient sea slugs cemented Wolf’s reputation. Recently, his stories have cropped up in venues such as Farthing, TRANSVERSIONS, Down In The Cellar, and others. |
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| Christopher Fulbright is a journalist turned technical writer, with short stories published in magazines and anthologies of the science fiction, fantasy, and horror varieties. He is the recipient of the Horror Writers Association’s 2007 Richard Laymon President’s Award, and is married to writer Angeline Hawkes, with whom he collaborates on occasion. Their recent books include THEN COMES THE CHILD and BLOOD COVEN, and his story collection WHEN IT RAINS was released least year by Doorways Publications. His horror novel OF WOLF AND MAN will be released by Lachesis Publishing in Canada in 2009. |
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| Dakota Cassidy loves to laugh–and she wants to infect you with that laughter via her zany, paranormal comedies. Dakota writes full time, and lives in Texas with more animals than the local animal shelter–her two teenage sons, and has a boyfriend to rival any romance novel hero. |
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| For over fifteen years, Dean Lorey wrote for Film and TV (ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, among others). Now, he’s writing novels full time and loving it. The first book in his series NIGHTMARE ACADEMY is on store shelves now, with the second book due to follow in late Summer ‘08. The series will be published in over 20 countries worldwide and a movie version is currently in development for Universal Studios. |
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| Deborah Chester’s latest fantasy is THE PEARLS, published by Ace Books. Its sequel, THE CROWN, will be published in November 2008. The internationally published author of nearly 40 novels, mostly in fantasy and science fiction, Deborah has also written an award-winning young adult book, a handful of Regency romances, and a smidgen of historical fiction. When not writing, she’s the John Crain Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma, where she teaches short story and novel writing in the College of Journalism. |
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| 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. Deborah’s unique experiences, enthusiasm, and high-energy level make her a much sought after speaker at writers’ conferences across the nation. She also takes her passion for literacy and a powerful ability to motivate to high schools around the country. 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. In 2004, Deborah created the LeBlanc Literacy Challenge, an annual, national campaign designed to encourage more people to read, and soon after founded Literacy Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting illiteracy in America. Her most recent novels are: FAMILY INHERITANCE, GRAVE INTENT, A HOUSE DIVIDED, and MORBID CURIOSITY. Deborah’s next release, WATER WITCH, is scheduled to be on bookstore shelves in October ‘08. |
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| Deborah Millitello sold her first story in 1989 to MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY’S FANTASY MAGAZINE. Since then, she’s sold numerous short stories, including the third place Caldron winner Do Virgins Taste Better?”, to magazines and anthologies. Her first book, THIEF’S LUCK, a young adult fantasy mystery, is out from Double Dragon Publishing. She lives in southern Illinois with her husband Carl, had three children, and ten grandchildren. She works at a doctor’s answering service and is a member of the Alternate Historians writers group. |
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| Devon Monk has one husband, two sons, and a dog named Mojo. Surrounded by colorful and numerous family members, she lives in Oregon. She has sold over fifty short stories to fantasy, science fiction, horror, humor, and young adult magazines and anthologies. She has been published in five countries and included in a Year’s Best Fantasy collection. MAGIC TO THE BONE, the first book in the Allie Beckstrom urban fantasy series published by Roc, will be on bookstore shelves in November 2008. |
Diana Gabaldon
Guest of Honor
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| Diana Gabaldon holds a master’s degree in marine biology and a Ph.D. in ecology, and spent a dozen years as a university professor before turning to write fiction full-time. Her previous publishing history includes scholarly articles and comic book stories for Walt Disney, as well as the award-winning novels Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, and Voyager. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with her husband, three children, and a large number of animals. |
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| My name is E. C. Apperson and I resided in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
I have two short stories published and I am working on my second novel. My two short stories are, Special Forces and Edsel to the Stars. I have many short stories completed and will submit them soon. My first novel, Beyond Hell is mostly about life after death, but has science fiction in it to. My second novel, The Wizard is manly for younger readers. It’s not what what it seems, but most stories have great hooks or twists anyway. |
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| Eric is a songwriter/singer who lives in Ames Iowa. Anything else that he says about himself should be considered suspect. He is as frequently seen onstage with funny music people as he is in filk rooms, even though he writes very little that could be called Filk, and a good half of his stuff is serious. He hates writing 100-150 word blurbs about himself, but he loves writing about himself in the 3rd person. |
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| Gary Jonas is the author of the novel One Way Ticket to Midnight (Yard Dog Press). He’s had short stories published in various anthologies and magazines including Robert Bloch’s Psychos, Sword and Sorceress VII, Prom Night, It Came from the Drive-In, the Bubbas of the Apocalypse series and many others. He’s had screenplays optioned out in Hollywood and while one is currently optioned, his focus has returned to novels. He recently completed Modern Sorcery, a fantasy novel set in present day Denver, CO (geared to be the first in a series) and is working on another novel titled Terrible Things. He has another project that is constantly moving forward and still has a long way to go. It’s a huge database of fiction, both novels and short stories–think the Internet Movie Database only for prose. It’s at www.fictiondatabase.com and authors interested in being included sooner rather than later are welcome to submit their complete bibliography to Gary via e-mail. See him at the con and get his business card. The project will grow slowly at first, but he has plans to recruit some helpers soon. |
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| New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Gena Showalter has been praised for her sizzling page-turners” and “utterly spellbinding stories.” The author of more than seventeen novels and anthologies, Showalter is celebrated in a wide variety of genres for her breathtaking romances featuring dark, seductive heroes and strong, appealing heroines. Readers can’t get enough of her trademark wit and singular imagination, whether she’s writing paranormal stories about vampires, nymphs and superheroes, white-hot contemporary romance or alien huntress books. Her newest series, Lords of the Underworld, promises to be her sexiest and most addictive yet. Don’t miss this intoxicating blend of dangerous passion, demons and other supernatural forces, and immortal men who are hotter than hell! |
Glen Cook
Author
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| Glen Cook began to write while working for General Motors at an auto assembly plant. Cook claims that his job was simple enough to leave him ample time to write while at work; in fact, Cook admits to having written as many as three books per year while working at the plant. He is author of The Black Company, a gritty fantasy series that follows an elite mercenary unit through several decades of their history. The series, currently 10 novels long, has become something of a cult classic, especially among current and former members of the military. Cook is also well known for his Garrett P.I. series, which tells the haphazard adventures of hardboiled detective Garrett, and his Dread Empire series, which highlights Cook’s earlier published work. Cook is currently retired from his job at GM, living with his wife, Carol, in St. Louis, Missouri. |
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| Glenn Sixbury is an author, father, and co-owner of a software development firm. He lives in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a madding crowd comprised of wife, children, a large herd of cats, and a solitary dog. For the past couple years he’s been striving for a sense of normalcy in his life but has given up on this idea and has chosen instead to accept his fate, interesting though nerve-wracking it may be. His first published novel, Earth Final Conflict:Legacy, is one of the few media tie-in novels that can be enjoyed by anyone and has officially become a collector’s item. His latest published story appears in the International House of Bubbas. His latest unpublished story appears in Juli Mandala’s star-studded yet ethereal Anthology from Hell, which is, without a doubt, the funniest and most interesting collection of short stories not yet published. |
Gordon Van Gelder
Toast Master
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| Gordon Van Gelder has been the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction since the beginning of 1997. He became the magazine’s publisher in 2000. Through the 1990s, he worked as an editor for St. Martin’s Press, where he worked on a variety of fiction and nonfiction titles (including mysteries, sf, fantasy, nonfiction, and unclassifiable books). He was an editor (and occasional reviewer) for the New York Review of Science Fiction from 1988 to 1994. He lives in Hoboken, New Jersey. F&SF has a web site at www.fsfmag.com.
Books as editor: (with Edward L. Ferman) The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction: The Fiftieth Anniversary Anthology (New York: Tor Books, 1999), One Lamp: Alternate History Stories from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003), In Lands That Never Were: Tales of Swords and Sorcery from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2004), Fourth Planet from the Sun: Tales of Mars from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2005). |
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| Greg Lower has been active in Oklahoma Science Fiction Writers as a fan and writer for nearly 20 years, and has actually published three short stories. In mundane life, he authors for the Independence (Kans.) Daily Reporter. |
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| J. Kathleen Cheney is an author of Speculative Fiction whose works have appeared in Jim Baen’s Universe, Shimmer, and The Sword Review. She is also a winner of the 2007 Writers of the Future Contest, whose story Taking a Mile” will appear in WOTF Anthology XXIV. She was born and raised in Texas, but she now lives in Oklahoma and is a founding member of the Oklahoma Spec-Fic Synidcate. |
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| Jaci Burton is a National Bestselling author of contemporary erotic romance and paranormal romance. She writes for four publishers, so her life is spent juggling deadlines and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Jaci is an award winning author of over 35 books, and has won the Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Award as well as The Romance Studio’s Cupid and Psyche Awards. Jaci makes her home in Oklahoma with her husband Charlie and more dogs than she can count. |
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| A multi-instrumentalist, James “Cedric” Hazlerig, of the legendary renfaire/filk group the Bedlam Bards, comes to performances armed with two fiddles, a mandola, and a strong, manly voice. His philosophy of performance stresses passion before perfection, death before dishonor, and whiskey before breakfast.
For over ten years, Cedric has been performing at renaissance festivals and science-fiction conventions from coast-to-coast, including the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival, Dragon*Con, and the Browncoat Backup Bash.
After releasing their third album, entitled On the Drift: Music Inspired by Firefly and Serenity, the Bedlam Bards have become the premier bards of the Browncoat movement. Several of Cedric’s songs were featured in the documentary Done the Impossible. Besides appearing at the Browncoat Ball and the Browncoat Cruise, Cedric led fans in song as they picketed in support of the Writers Guild of America strike in front of Fox Studios in Los Angeles. |
James Hollaman
Artist, Author
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| James art work has been seen on the covers of the bubba chronicles, marking the signs, half the art on the bubbas of the apocalypse card game. he has also had a gallery showing for his precocious moments art at the AKA art gallery in OKC. His writings can be found in International house of bubbas and Houston we have bubbas (both from the bubbas of the apocalypse series) and Flush Fiction. He is also going to be in the best of the bubbas of the apocalypse book out some time in 2008. (may be out now) He can usually be seen wearing his jacket… |
Jaye Wells
Author
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| Jaye Wells spent years as a magazine editor and freelance writer before she decided to leave boring facts behind and indulge her overactive imagination in fiction. Her debut novel, Red-Headed Stepchild, will be published by Orbit Books in 2009. |
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| Jeaniene Frost is the urban fantasy romance author of the New York Times bestselling NIGHT HUNTRESS series featuring half-vampire heroine Cat Crawfield. Jeaniene lives in Florida with her husband Matthew and their very spoiled dog. Aside from writing, Jeaniene enjoys reading, poetry, watching movies with her husband, exploring old cemeteries, spelunking, and traveling - by car. Airplanes, children, and cookbooks frighten her. Please visit www.jeanienefrost.com for news and upcoming release dates on future NIGHT HUNTRESS novels.
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| Jeanne Stein’s first novel, THE BECOMING, was a Barnes & Noble national best seller for December 2006 as well as a local bestseller in San Diego and Denver. It was published first by ImaJinn Books, a small Colorado publisher, then picked up by Berkley. She now lives in Colorado, but was raised and educated in San Diego, which is the setting for her contemporary vampire fantasy. BLOOD DRIVE, the second in the Anna Strong series, was released by Berkley in June 2007 and WATCHER, the third, in December 2007. She also has a story in an anthology entitled MANY BLOODY RETURNS, edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner, which debuted at #30 on the NYT bestseller list in September 2007. She is currently at work on books 4 and 5 of the Anna Strong Chronicles. |
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| Jeffrey Turner lives in Fort Worth with his wife and two daughters. In addition to his novel and short story publications, he has sold six feature film screenplays. When not writing he enjoys geocaching, magic, and juggling. |
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| Jennifer Lynn Barnes is a Fulbright Scholar and an author of urban fantasy and science fiction for teens. She wrote her first novel, Golden- which follows an aura seer dealing with high school cliques- when she was still a teenager herself. Jennifer graduated from Yale University in 2006 with a degree in cognitive science and from Cambridge in 2007 with a masters in psychiatry. Her books include Golden, Platinum, Tattoo, The Squad: Perfect Cover, The Squad: Killer Spirit, and the forthcoming Fate. Jennifer is currently a full-time student working on a PhD in Developmental Psychology. She lives and writes in New Haven, Connecticut. |
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| Jeri Smith-Ready has been writing fiction since the night she had her first double esPresso. She holds a master’s degree in environmental policy and lives in Maryland with her husband, cat, and the world’s goofiest greyhound. She fosters shelter dogs for Tails of Hope Sanctuary, a mid-Atlantic animal rescue organization.
Jeri’s 2006 epic fantasy EYES OF CROW won the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Fantasy.
In May 2008, Jeri began a new urban fantasy series with WICKED GAME, about a cadre of vampire DJs and the con artist trying to save their lives.” For excerpts and free tie-in short stories, visit www.jerismithready.com. |
Julia S. Mandala
Author
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| Julia S. Mandala is a Kansas City native, now living in Plano, TX. She has a B.A. in History from Kansas State University and a law degree from Tulane University. Her hobbies include scuba diving, middle-eastern dance, costuming and music.
Her chapbooks, Four Redheads of the Apocalypse, co-authored with Linda Donahue, Dusty Rainbolt and Rhonda Eudaly (for which she was the Photoshop artist and one of the cover models), and Dracula’s Lawyer, are available from Yard Dog Press. She also has stories in YDP’s International House of Bubbas, Houston, We’ve Got Bubbas and Flush Fiction. Her other short stories have appeared in The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy II, MZB’s Fantasy Magazine and Adventures of Sword & Sorcery. |
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| Justin Gustainis, a 2008 graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, is a college professor living in upstate New York. In addition to short fiction, he is author of THE HADES PROJECT (2003) and the “Quincey Morris Supernatural Investigations” series, which began with BLACK MAGIC WOMAN (2008) and continues with EVIL WAYS (2009) and SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL (2010). In earlier incarnations, he was a busboy, soldier, speechwriter, and professional bodyguard. To balance his karma, he collects teddy bears. |
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| Justine Musk is the author of the dark-fantasy novels BLOODANGEL and LORD OF BONES, and the YA supernatural thriller UNINVITED. She was born in Ontario, Canada, where she graduated with honors from Queen’s University and got a black belt in taekwondo before seeking the life that is elsewhere. After living in Australia as an exchange student and Japan as an ESL teacher, she settled in Los Angeles with her husband Elon Musk and their five sons. She loves to blog, which family and friends sometimes find disconcerting. She is deeply fond of a good caipirinhia and bartenders who know how to make them. |
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| Kristin Cast co-authors with her mother, P.C. Cast, the bestselling paranormal young adult series The House of Night (St. Martin’s Griffin). Currently she attends the University of Tulsa as a biology major. |
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| Laura J. Underwood’s short work has appeared in everything from BUBBAS OF THE APOCALYPSE to TURN THE OTHER CHICK. Her novels include ARD MAGISTER, DRAGON’S TONGUE, HOUNDS OF ARDAGH, BAD LANDS (with Selina Rosen). Forthcoming titles include ANGELS OF MERCY from Five Star Press in May 2009 and THE GREEN WOMEN from Sam’s Dot Publishing in January 2008. When not writing, she dispenses information for the Knox County Public Library System, plays harp, and clashes steel while trading quips with other members of the SFWA Musketeers. She lives in East Tennessee. |
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| Lee lives in Kansas with her book dealer significant other Denny Riordan, a Miniature Schnauzer, several thousand books…and a lake view to die for. Her first short story, science fiction, appeared in 1970, her first novel in 1979. Having discovered both mysteries and science fiction at age eleven and fallen in love with both genres, it has always been a problem choosing which kind of story to write. So she solved the dilemma by writing both at the same time…science fiction and fantasy with mystery elements and supernatural detectives. Her most recent books are an African fantasy, The Leopard’s Daughter, and a revised edition of Checking On Culture, an aid to building story backgrounds…both published by Yard Dog Press. Currently she is working on an urban fantasy. |
Linda Donahue
Author
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| Linda Donahue grew up an Air Force brat. She has degrees in computer science, Russian studies, and a Masters in Earth science education, along with a commercial instrument pilot’s certification, a SCUBA certification, and is certified by NASA to borrow moon rock samples. Currently, she’s teaching tai chi and belly dance when not writing. Find Linda’s stories in anthologies published by Yard Dog Press, Fantasist Enterprises, From the Asylum Books, Elder Signs Press, Permuted Press, Ricasso Press, and soon from BenBella Books and Carnifex Press. Upcoming releases include half a double dog, Jaguar Moon, from Yard Dog, and a story co-authored with Mike Resnick in Future Americas from DAW. Linda has also published a non-fiction article in the 2007 Rabbits USA Annual. She is married to Chris Donahue. They live in Texas and have rabbits, sugar gliders, and a cat for pets. |
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| M. H Bonham is a multiple award winning author of 27 books, including four science fiction and fantasy novels, Lachlei, Runestone of Teiwas, Prophecy of Swords and Howling Dead. Her work has appeared in various anthologies and magazines including the Four Bubbas of the Apocalypse, Houston, We’ve got Bubbas, Tales of the Talisman, Kidvisions, Small Bites, Flush Fiction, Lorelei Signal, A Time to… and Amazon Shorts. She’s a sled dog racer, a pet expert, podcaster, and full time author. |
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| Marie Brennan holds a joint B.A. in anthropology (archaeology) and folklore & mythology from Harvard University. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in anthropology and folklore. She’s been writing fantasy since she was nine or ten years old, and blames this fact on Diana Wynne Jones. |
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| Mark Del Franco is the author of UNSHAPELY THINGS and UNQUIET DREAMS, the first two installments of an urban fantasy series featuring Connor Grey, a powerless druid detective who is learning to make his way in an alternate Boston, where the realm of Faerie has merged with current reality. |
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| MARK HENRY recently traded a career in the helping profession to scar minds with his fiction. He attributes his ideas to premature exposure to horror movies, and/or witnessing adult cocktail parties in the ’70s. His development has been further skewed by surviving earthquakes, typhoons, and two volcanic eruptions. Despite being disaster prone, he somehow continues to live and breathe, residing in the oft maligned, yet not nearly as soggy as you’d think, Pacific Northwest, with his wife and two furry monsters that think they’re children.
His first novel, HAPPY HOUR OF THE DAMNED, explores the mysterious and comical world of sentient zombies. |
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| I won first place, third quarter, of the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future in 2004, with my long, long short story, Sunrunners. Despite the name, it’s about a young man’s adventure on the Lunar frontier. Thanks to R. A. H., I was a wannabe writer from the sixth grade until that moment, and now I’m a wannabe PRO writer. Until then, I creatively carry the mail in Ada. |
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Known affectionately by her kids as “Indiana Mom”, student anthropologist Mel. White has renounced the Dilbert-In-Cube-Land existence of a computer programmer for a life of adventure, books, and lots and lots of homework in graduate school. She drew and coauthored a series of graphic novels with Robert Asprin, authored a number of papers on Internet culture including a chapter in DIGITAL GAMING CULTURES and a chapter in BATTLE FOR AZEROTH about the anthropology of World of Warcraft. She’s also a volunteer fossil preparator for the Dallas Museum of Science and Nature and is working on a vertebra of the largest dinosaur in Texas. She vows to finish the work before she finishes her dissertation.
She has been known to commit the occasional World of Warcraft filk in addition to inflicting other musical horrors on the unsuspecting public. |
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| Melanie Fletcher is an expatriate Chicagoan who currently lives in North Dallas with her husband the Bodacious Brit(tm) 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. Melanie’s short story “Lusts of the Cat Queen: A Dash Manning Adventure” will appear in the July 2008 issue of Helix SF , and her novella SABRE DANCE is half of Double Dog #4 from Yard Dog Press . She is currently editing two novels (UNDERCOVER GODMOTHER and WHITE KNIGHT, QUEEN ALICE) and working on a third. |
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| Melissa grew up believing in faeries, ghosts, and various other creatures. After teaching college lit for a decade, she applied her fascination with folklore to writing. Wicked Lovely, the first novel, was simultaneously released in the US and UK by HarperCollins in 2007 (with translation rights also sold in seven countries). It debuted as a NY Times Bestseller. Critical responses both here and abroad have been positive. Ink Exchange, the second novel, releases in Summer 2008. Currently, Melissa lives in the DC area, writes full time, and still believes in faeries and ghosts. |
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| Award-winning, nationally bestselling author Michele Bardsley lives in Oklahoma with her family. She escapes the drudgery of housework by writing stories about vampire moms, demon hunters, interfering goddesses, cursed wizards, and numerous other characters living in worlds of magic and mayhem. The fourth novel in her Broken Heart vampire series, WAIT TILL YOUR VAMPIRE GETS HOME, comes out in November 2008. |
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| P.C. Cast is the bestselling, award-winning author of the popular Goddess Summoning Series for Berkley and the epic fantasy Partholon books for LUNA. She is also co-author with her daughter, Kristin, of the bestselling paranormal young adult House of Night Books (St. Martin’s Griffin). She lives and teaches and writes and writes and writes in Tulsa. |
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| Born and raised in the Southeast, award-winning author Patrice Michelle gave up her financial calculator for a keyboard and never looked back. Thanks to an open-minded family, who taught her that life isn’t as black and white as we’re conditioned to believe, she sets her action-adventure, romantic novels in dark paranormal worlds with various shades of gray. |
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| Peter Bradley is the son of two english refugee’s who fled home due to utter boredom. So, despite any probable wish to the contrary, he became a world traveller before he could fully walk. This being contradicted by his parents statement that he ran the entire distance from Australia to America at the age of 3. Or at least it seemed so to the harried flight attendants. It’s probably just as well the family flew, since Peter has yet to learn how to swim.
Peter started drawing at an early age, inspired by a barely remembered TV series called Auto man, and has been drawing steadily for the last 20 years or so. Such variety of work included many a logo design for various sorts of people, including a badge design for the San Diego Sheriff’s department. One of his first professional commissions, a political satire cartoon strip, was at the age of 14 or so to a local news paper. He once nurtured ambitions of becoming a comic book artist, but as his current employers know, it takes him forever to finish anything, so comic deadlines are clearly not for him. Much of his current line of work can be found on the Troll Lord Games website. But some cover works can be found at Yard Dog Press as well as some works for a new Deadlands book release. Next year looks just as busy, for despite any desire for fame, others fully intend to see work by him appear in publications by other companies. Current projects include a massive amount of work for Gary Gygax’s Castle Zagyg dungeon and nearby City of Yggsburgh, available in various stages at www.trolllord.com |
Queen’s Gambit (Bruce, Susi, Becky, Nikki)
Musicians
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| Queen’s Gambit performs, in costume and in character, Celtic (Irish and Scottish) Traditional Folk music, with a side order of Renaissance Dance music with focus on entertainment of the Patron. Listeners of all ages enjoy our music and the on-stage banter, which flows naturally between the seasoned improv performers of the group. Our goal is to touch each and every member of our audience, interacting with them individually and as a group. They leave our shows touched by the deep and passionate feeling in the four-part harmonies of the gentle ballads, and uplifted by the rousing tempos of the jigs and reels that we play. |
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| Cat arrives from Arlington - that’s Texas, not the national cemetery, although his puns can be deadly and have reportedly jeopardized his allotted nine lives. (Actually, he’s recently moved to Fort Worth, but close enough … wherever he’s from, just pretend he’s a famous dead artist and purchase his paintings accordingly.)
Currently, in addition to being an award-winning painter and cunning linguist, Cat is making broad brushstrokes as a popular speaker and auctioneer, and continues to gain prominence as a fan entertainer. He has been a featured auctioneer at numerous conventions throughout the Southwest, including the famed five and a half hour marathon auction of WorldCon 51. |
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| Rachel Caine is the author of the popular Weather Warden series (Ill Wind, Heat Stroke, Chill Factor, Windfall, Firestorm, and Thin Air). Her seventh Weather Warden novel, Gale Force, will be released in the fall of 2008.
She also writes the Morganville Vampires series (Glass Houses, The Dead Girls’ Dance, and Midnight Alley). Glass Houses was recently named to the 2008-2009 Texas Library Association’s Tayshas reading list for high schools. The four book, Feast of Fools, is being released in June 2008.
She is currently at work on a third series, Outcast Season. The first book, Undone, will be released in late 2008.
She has also written paranormal romantic action/adventure for the Silhouette Bombshell line, including Devil’s Bargain, Devil’s Due, and Athena Force: Line of Sight. |
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| Urban fantasy author Rachel Vincent is an Oklahoma native and resident with two books in print and four more under contract. Rachel loves good chocolate, comfortable jeans, and serial commas. She has an honest-to-goodness phobia of large cats, and considers writing her werecat series to be therapeutic. She’s older than she looks - seriously - and younger than she feels, but remains convinced that for every day she spends writing, one more day will be added to her lifespan. |
Randi Eldevik
Associate Professor of English, OSU
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| Randi Eldevik, a Minnesota “Scandahoovian” by birth, joined the English faculty at OSU in 1987, the same year she completed her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at Harvard University. In love with the past, she at first was attracted to science fiction because of its time-travel stories, and time travel is still her favorite SF subgenre. If not for her exposure to “Star Trek” as a child, she might never have become interested in futuristic SF; she personally has trouble with every technological advance of the last few decades, and is afraid of cell phones. Professor Eldevik has taught special topics courses at OSU on Alternative History and on Tolkien. Her most recently published article combines classical, medieval, and Renaissance literature with superhero comic books, “Star Wars,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and “Angel.” Her newest enthusiasm is the BBC’s “Torchwood. |
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| Randy Farran was born in Kansas, but was abandoned in the wild as a small child and raised by the local fauna. He might have gone down in history like Mowgli or Tarzan had the local fauna been wolves or apes, but the aforementioned wilderness was Turkey Mountain, Tulsa, where the local fauna is raccoons. This explains his tendencies to dig through trash cans and wash his food before eating it. In his late teens, he discovered SF fandom, where such behaviors hardly raise an eyebrow, and has been deeply involved (read; mired) in it ever since. He currently resides in Tulsa with his wife Barbara and two cartoon dogs and has resigned himself to the fact that he will likely go down in history as that guy who wrote THE DRAGON SONG and drew a lot of penguins”, but he figures that it could be worse; history might forget about the penguins. |
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| I’ve been writing short stories for 20 years now. My first sale was to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine in 1990. Since then I’ve sold work to The Fifth Di…, Tales of the Talisman (and Hadrosaur Tales before that), SpaceWesterns.com., Sorcerous Signals, and so on; about 80 sales so far.
My first novel, Expert Assistance,” came out early in 2007 by Asylett Press. My second novel, “Lisa’s Way,” is due out this spring from eTreasures Publishing. Both are science-fiction novels.
On the nongenre side, I’ve had two biographies published by Pelican, “Jim Lane: Scoundrel, Statesman, Kansan,” and “General James G. Blunt: Tarnished Glory.” I’ve had six railroad books published by South Platte Press. I have a few articles a year appear in Working Writer. I’ve sold nonfiction pieces to Wild West and Territorial. I self-published a series of travel books in the early 1990s and my book “The Race to Indian Territory” in 2005. I have a number of Kansas history books I’m researching at the moment. |
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| Sarah Rees Brennan is an author, born by the sea in Ireland and still living there today, chewing on pens in cafes and occasionally pretending to be American when lost in her own city. Her debut novel, THE DEMON’S LEXICON, is due out from Simon & Schuster in June 2009. It’s a story about moonlight, music, love and romance - and demons, of course. (And family. They often seem like the same thing, of course.) |
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| Paul D Batteiger is much worse than you think. |
Selina Rosen
Author, Editor
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| Selina’s short fiction has appeared in several magazines and anthologies including Sword and Sorceress 16, three of the MZB Fantasy Mags, Turn the Other Chick, both of the newest Thieves World anthologies, and Anthology At the End of the Universe. Look for her new story, The Big Trash,” in the spring issue of HelixOnLine.
Her novels include Queen of Denial, Recycled, Chains of Freedom, Chains of Destruction, Strange Robby, The Host trilogy, Fire & Ice, Hammer Town, Reruns, and novellas entitled The Boatman and Material Things from YDP, and Bad Lands, a gonzo-mystery novel co-written with Laura J. Underwood from Five Star Mystery (Techno Books).
Sword Masters, Selina’s first full-length epic fantasy novel is due out in late February/early March of 2008 from Dragon Moon Press in Canada.
You can contact Selina through her personal website www.selinarosen.com, or just Email her at selinarosen@cox.net. |
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| Shanna Swendson writes humorous contemporary fantasy for Ballantine Books and pop culture essays for BenBella Books. She’s the author of Enchanted, Inc., Once Upon Stilettos, Damsel Under Stress and Don’t Hex with Texas, and has contributed to Flirting With Pride and Prejudice, Welcome to Wisteria Lane, So Say We All and Serenity Found. When she’s not writing, she’s usually discussing books and television on the Internet. She’s a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and Romance Writers of America. |
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| Sherri Dean was born both late AND backwards, which explains a lot. The bulk of her work is available through Yard Dog Press as a writer and cover artist. Her latest story, co-written with Bill D. Allen of YDP fame is “Tinker’s Damn” from the Science Fiction Trails anthology and has been compared to ‘Pygmalian’ meets ‘Steampunk’. Having no shame allows her to perform in the YDP Roadshow and The Merlene Show (think Martha Stewart married Larry the Cable guy.) A long time costumer and active member of Fandom (co-chair of 2, count ‘em 2 ConQuesTs in KC, Mo and no fatalities!) Sherri collects, among other things, non-fiction vampire books, commands armies of flying monkeys and is easily distracted by shiny objects. She likes presents, will autograph almost anything and welcomes emails at conbarbie@hotmail.com |
Stephen Hickman
Artist Guest of Honor
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| Stephen Hickman has been illustrating science fiction and fantasy for three decades. His work is inspired by the masters of fantasy and science fiction writing — J.R.R. Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft, A. Merritt, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Clark Ashton Smith.
His illustrations have been used as cover work for many contemporary writers: Stephen Brust, Hal Colbatch, Tom Cool, Gordon Dickson, David Drake, Harlan Ellison, Robert Heinlein, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, Andre Norton, Jerry Pournelle, and Steve Stirling among others.
Hickman’s work has earned him critical acclaim, including a World Science Fiction Convention’s Hugo Award and 5 Chesley Awards from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists.
Since 1976 Hickman has illustrated over 400 covers for Ace, Baen, Ballantine, Bantam, Berkeley, Dell, Del Rey, Doubleday, Phage Press, Tor, Warren Publications and others. |
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| Steven E. Wedel is as Okie as Okie can get. Born in Stillwater, raised in Enid, he now lives in Moore with his wife and four youngens. He is the author of several books, most notably those of The Werewolf Saga — Murdered by Human Wolves, Shara, Call to the Hunt and Ulrik. His other published books include Darkscapes and Seven Days in Benevolence. He’s worked as a newspaper reporter and columnist, a corporate writer, public relations director and now as an English teacher. |
Sue Sinor
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| Sue Sinor started writing somewhat late in life at the urging of her husband, Brad. She also is involved with community theatre, both on and back 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 and, in collaboration with her husband, the chapbook Playing With Secrets and a story in Houston, We Got Bubbas. They also have a story in the anthology Rotten Relations. She also has two stories in the charity anthology Small Bites.
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Susan Kroupa
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| Susan J. Kroupa is the co-writer, along with Tiffany Trent, of Redemption, Book Nine in the Hallowmere ser | |
