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Preliminary Program Schedule
Confirmed Program Participants
Participant Bios
On the spur of the moment, Joseph Abbott went to AggieCon for a day in 2001 to meet some online acquaintances. This led circuitously to a trip that fall to the Ohio Valley Filk Festival in Columbus, Ohio, where he became thoroughly hooked on filk and has been trying to spread the music back home in Texas ever since. Toward that end, he is webmaster for the Texas Filk Page (http://www.texasfilk.org). This is he first con of any sort for which he has been asked to write about himself in the third person for the program book. His day job (actually his afternoon and evening job) is as a copy editor for the Waco Tribune-Herald.
Dr. Paul Abell is a planetary scientist assigned to the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Directorate at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He is also a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona. Paul has been studying potentially hazardous asteroids and near-Earth objects for over 8 years. He was a telemetry officer for the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIS) team and is a member of the science team for the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRS) on the Japanese Hayabusa mission. Paul, his wife Amy Sisson, and their feline friends have lived in the Houston area since December 2003
Sanford Allen is a writer, blogger and musician from San Antonio, Texas. His dark fantasy and horror stories have appeared in Necrotic Tissue, Innsmouth Free Press, Big Pulp and 52 Stitches, among other magazines and anthologies. He’s also one of the editors of MissionsUnknown.com, a blog covering the fantastic arts in San Antonio. His band, Boxcar Satan, recently released its fifth full-length CD, after doing a brief stint as the house band in R’lyeh.
Aaron Allston is a writer, game designer, filmmaker, public speaker, and writing instructor who lives in the Greater Austin area. He was Toastmaster at ArmadilloCon 25. His Doc Sidhe novels offer lots of action-packed fun. Recently Aaron's been spending a lot of time working in universes created by James Cameron and George Lucas. Aaron's latest book is Star Wars: Fate of The Jedi: Backlash, published in March 2010.
David Lee Anderson is a science fiction and fantasy illustrator. He’s shown paintings at more than 440 convention art shows since 1980. He’s been the Artist Guest of Honor for twenty-three conventions, Toastmaster four times and Fan Guest of Honor once. He's worked for Tor Books, Baen Books, Tomorrow SF Magazine, Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine, Mayfair Games, Bethesda Softworks, Yard Dog Books and independent publishers and record labels. David Lee is best known for his science fiction and space paintings. One of his paintings was used in the opening credits for Gentlemen Broncos from Fox Searchlight Pictures, directed by Jared Hess, the creator of Napoleon Dynamite.
Lou Antonelli is a long-time newspaper editor who started writing SF and fantasy in 2003 when he was 45. After seven years he's had 49 short stories published in the U.S., Canada, Australia and the U.K. in magazines such as Asimov's, Baen's Universe, Dark Recesses and Andromeda Spaceways. He has had ten honorable mentions in The Year's Best Science Fiction published by St. Martin's Press. His Texas-themed short story collection Fantastic Texas has been published by Fantastic Books. He lives in Mount Pleasant, Texas, where he is the managing editor of The Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune, with wife Patricia and one and a half Labs, Millie and Sugar.
Renee Babcock has been active in Central Texas fandom since 1998. She has chaired or co-chaired four ArmadilloCons and the 2006 World Fantasy Convention. In addition, she has been treasurer, guest liaison and charity auction maven for several other ArmadilloCons. Renee, an avid reader, can be seen most mornings on the bus to downtown Austin with her nose buried in a book.
Neal Barrett, Jr. has written somewhere over 50 novels, numerous short stories, articles, and columns. 2009 is his 51st year of publication. He has a lot to say, but promised that he wouldn’t.
Paul Benjamin is a writer, editor, supermodel and video game writer/producer based in Austin, Texas. His comic book and graphic novel work ranges from his original manga series Pantheon High to Marvel Adventures Hulk and Marvel Adventures Spider-Man. His stories have appeared in numerous Marvel titles as well as Tokyopop’s Star Trek: The Manga and Starcraft: Frontline series. Paul’s video game writing and producing credits include Activision’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Electronic Arts’ G.I. JOE: The Rise of COBRA, Sega’s The Incredible Hulk, and Activision’s Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. And, of course, everyone in the world is familiar with Paul’s long list of credits as a supermodel. For more info, go to http://www.thepaulbenjamin.com.
Robert Jackson Bennett was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He later attended the University of Texas at Austin and, like a lot of its alumni, was unable to leave the charms of the city and resides there currently. His first novel, Mr. Shivers, was published in January 2010, and his second, The Company Man, will be published in February of 2011.
Carol Berg is a writer of epic fantasy novels. Amazingly, she majored in math at Rice University so she wouldn't have to write papers. She worked as software engineer at HP, and then left to become a writer. Her first book, Transformation, was published in 2000. Since then she's had written and published ten more books. Her latest book is The Spirit Lens.
Katharine Beutner is a writer and a graduate student in the English department at UT Austin, where she earned an MA in creative writing. Her fiction has appeared in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet and her first novel Alcestis—a historical fantasy adaptation of the Greek myth—is available from Soho Press. She is currently at work on a historical novel set in 1890s New England and is finishing a dissertation on antagonistic relationships between early eighteenth-century British women writers.
Matthew Bey is a writer, editor, and blogger living in Austin. He publishes Space Squid and contributes to RevolutionSF.com. His short fiction is widely available in publications such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Pseudopod, Black Gate, Drabblecast, and many others. On his blog, Zombie Lapdance, Matthew Bey brags about his accomplishments and describes all the weird things he puts in his mouth. Matthew Bey has just announced his campaign to become the least deserving Campbell Award winner in history.
Jayme Lynn Blaschke's fiction has appeared in Interzone, Fast Ships, Black Sails and Cross Plains Universe, among other places. He's the former fiction editor of RevolutionSF.com, and is currently the media director for Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. A collected volume of his SF-themed interviews, Voices of Vision: Creators of Science Fiction and Fantasy Speak, is available from the University of Nebraska Press. Blaschke lives in New Braunfels where he is working feverishly on a non-fiction book about the infamous La Grange Chicken Ranch.
Michael Bracken is the author of 11 books, including All White Girls, Canvas Bleeding, and Psi Cops, and more than 800 short stories published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Espionage Magazine, Fantastic, Flesh & Blood: Guilty as Sin, Hot Blood: Strange Bedfellows, The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 4, Midnight, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Northern Horror, Oui, Pirate Writings, Sun, True Story, Young World, and in many other anthologies and periodicals.
Steven Brust, fantasy author, lives in Central Texas. He's best known for the Vlad Taltos series.
Elizabeth Burton is an author, editor and co-owner of Zumaya Publications, an independent trade book publisher based in Austin. She foolishly volunteered to co-chair ArmadilloCon 32, which turned out to be less scary than she’d anticipated, and has been a director for the Fandom Association of Central Texas for...well, she forgets how long. You know how time flies when you’re having fun.
A. T. Campbell, III discovered ArmadilloCon the week he moved to Austin to attend the University of Texas, via a television commercial during a Star Trek rerun. He went to that year’s convention, liked what he saw, and has been attending conventions regularly since. He has helped run many conventions including ArmadilloCon, OwlCon, WesterCon, WorldCon, and World Fantasy. Since 1994, he has been involved with the FACT SF/F Reading Group, which he’s organized for most of its existence. He lives in Austin and writes graphics software professionally.
Matt Cardin is a horror writer, independent scholar, and college teacher living in Central Texas. He is the author of the fiction-and-nonfiction collection Dark Awakenings (2010) and the weird fiction collection Divinations of the Deep (2002). His short fiction, essays, reviews, and interviews have appeared in Icons of Horror and the Supernatural, Cemetery Dance, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Cthulhu's Reign, The Thomas Ligotti Reader, Lovecraft Annual, and elsewhere. He has a master's degree in religious studies and resides near Waco, where he teaches English and works in the Writing Center at a community college. You can find him on the Web at his official website, www.mattcardin.com, or at www.demonmuse.com, his blog about the muse/daemon/genius model of creativity.
The fourth book in Lillian Stewart Carl's Fairbairn/Cameron mystery series, The Charm Stone, appeared in November 2009, and the fifth, The Blue Hackle, is scheduled for November 2010. Her next short story (co-authored with Sylvia Kelso) will appear in Love and Rockets (December 2010). Eleven stories are collected in Along the Rim of Time and thirteen in The Muse and Other Stories of History, Mystery, and Myth. Most of her work, short stories as well as sixteen novels in different genres, is available in various electronic forms, including Fictionwise and Kindle. Lillian is the co-editor (with John Helfers) of The Vorkosigan Companion, a non-fiction hardcover about the sf work of Lois McMaster Bujold. The book was nominated for a Hugo in 2009 and will soon appear in paperback. Her web site is www.lillianstewartcarl.com
Dave Chang is an experienced designer and writer with a strong background in corporate communications and electronic entertainment. He has won recognition for both his creative writing (Gioia Award, Sequoia) and his game design efforts (two Star Performer awards, 3DO). He's one of the editors of the reprehensible sci-fi/humor rag Space Squid (spacesquid.com). In the game industry, he has performed design and production work on nine different SKUs and is currently writing for a webgame from a major automaker. His blog is videogamewriter.com.
J. Kathleen Cheney is a former teacher and has taught mathematics ranging from 7th grade to Calculus, with a brief stint as a Gifted and Talented Specialist. She is a member of SFWA, Broad Universe, and The Oklahoma Speculative Fiction Syndicate. Her works have been published in Jim Baen's Universe, Writers of the Future XXIV, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Fantasy Magazine, among others. Her website can be found at www.jkathleencheney.com.
Rosemary Clement-Moore is the author of award-winning supernatural mystery novels for young (and not so young) adults. Her books range from snarky and funny (the Maggie Quinn: Girl versus Evil series) to spooky and romantic (The Splendor Falls). A recovering thespian, she loves dogs, history, Jane Austen, archeology, Rock Band, Gilbert and Sullivan, BBC America, Science Fiction movies, and working in her pajamas. You can visit her webpage at www.rosemaryclementmoore.com.
Bill Crider, thanks to having a story in an anthology edited by Charlaine Harris, is now a New York Times Bestselling Author. To help him get there on his own, buy his latest Sheriff Dan Rhodes novel, Murder in Four Parts, copies of which are no doubt available in the Dealers’ Room. It has a great cover. Bill lives and writes in scenic Alvin, Texas, humidity capital of the known universe, where he and his wife, Judy, are bossed around by three cats.
Scott A. Cupp lives and writes in San Antonio. He has attended every Armadillocon and has been a dealer, writer, and panelist. He has been a professional writer since 1989 and has appeared in anthologies such as Razored Saddles, Obsessions, South from Midnight, Weird Business, and others. With Joe R. Landsale, he edited the World Fantasy nominated Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard (2006, FACT/Monkeybrain Books). He does only short fiction and infrequently at that. His most recent published story is “Johnny Cannabis and Tony the Purple Paisley (Sometimes) Colored White Lab Rate” at RevolutionSF.com with “Love Story” forthcoming in the fall in Damned Near Dead 2, edited by Bill Crider (Busted Flush Press, November).
Madeleine Rose Dimond's most recent publication is "Stabat Mater" in editor Karina Fabian's Infinite Space, Infinite God, an anthology of Catholic-themed science fiction. A professional cellist for many years, she has taken up writing, floral design, sewing wearable art, and rescuing cats since her retirement. See her fabric and floral art in the Dealers' Room.
Amanda Downum lives near Austin, Texas, in a house with a spooky attic. When not writing she can be found working in a used bookstore, or falling off perfectly good rocks. Her short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, and Weird Tales. The Drowning City, first of the Necromancer Chronicles, is available from Orbit Books; the second volume, The Bone Palace, is forthcoming in December 2010. For more information on Amanda or her writing, visit www.amandadownum.com.
Rhonda Eudaly lives in Arlington, Texas where she's worked in offices, banking, radio, and education to support her writing. She's married with a step dog and a rapidly growing rubber duck collection. She likes to spend time with friends and family, movies, and reading. Her two passions are writing and music. Rhonda has fiction and non-fiction stories published in anthologies, magazines, and websites. Check out her website - www.RhondaEudaly.com - for her latest publications and downloads.
Gabrielle S. Faust is best known for her acclaimed dark fantasy vampire series Eternal Vigilance. She is a contributing journalist for the websites SciFi Wire, Examiner and Fear Zone. A professional member of the Horror Writers Association, Faust is to be appointed the Chair of the Texas Chapter of the HWA at the end of 2009. The Guest of Honor at the Anne Rice Vampire Ball in 2008, she was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Vampire Film Festival in 2009. She is currently at work on the third installment of the Eternal Vigilance series and recently completed the screenplay adaptation of the first two novels. More information about Gabrielle S. Faust can be found on her website: www.gabriellefaust.com.
Sara Felix is a fan, artist, and former bookseller from Austin.
Mark Finn is the author of two books of fiction; Blood and Thunder: the Life and Art of Robert E. Howard, (which was nominated for a World Fantasy award); as well as hundreds of articles, essays, reviews, and short stories for RevolutionSF.com, Dark Horse Comics, Wildside Press, Monkeybrain Books, and others. He’s currently working on two books, a revised edition of his REH biography and has some upcoming comics work that he can’t talk about yet.
Michael Ashleigh Finn is a short story author trying his hand at novel writing. In addition, he’s a thematic consultant for Dynamite Entertainment on the Hugo-nominated Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files, a moderator for www.jimbutcheronline.com, and was chief editor for the Backspace and CHUDStories Internet anthologies. He also runs a media review site on Stuff That Entertains Him: www.coyote-reviews.livejournal.com. He took 1st & 3rd in FenCon's first short fiction contest, which forced new rules to be devised. He’s weirdly proud of that. His work has also appeared on Mind's Eye Fiction, alongside notables Stephen King, Fred Saberhagen, and Harlan Ellison.
Melanie Fletcher is an expatriate Chicagoan who 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” appeared 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.
Brad W. Foster is an artist/publisher who's won the Fan Artist Hugo, picked up a Chesley award, and turned some self-publishing started 30
years ago into the Jabberwocky Graphix publishing empire. Aside from thousands of bits of fannish artwork, he's had work in a variety of magazines, ranging through Cat Fancy, Gent, Amazing SF Stories, Cricket and more. He had his own comic book series Mechthings, was the Big Background Artist on Shadowhawk, and has recently completed covers for Yard Dog, Zumaya and Dark Star Press.
Local software analyst, sf fan & author, and volunteer speaker for NASA’s JPL space missions, John K. Gibbons would probably get more writing done if he didn’t have so many hobbies.
Writer Beverly A. Hale collects things: people, books, curses in various languages, cookbooks, dictionaries, experiences, etc. She has skied in Colorado (she wasn't good at it), snorkled in Hawaii, swum with dolphins in the Bahamas, climbed a mountain in Austria and a climbing wall in Utah, milked a goat in Arkansas, mushed sled dogs in Alaska, hiked in the rain forest in Puerto Rico, and played with green monkeys in Barbados. In her spare time she writes (or searches for clock gears to make Steampunk accessories). Visit her web site, Facebook, or LiveJournal.
“For 28 years of the last millennium, I taught English,” Joan Upton Hall says. Now a full-time freelance writer and editor, she conducts writing classes. Her writing manual and articles have helped hundreds of writers. She has published short stories from Roswell, NM to Maine and articles in magazines as diverse as Texas Highways and American Jails. If you think that indicates a split personality, her book credits run from historical nonfiction to the paranormal and her urban fantasy trilogy, Excalibur Regained: Arturo el Rey, Shadow of Excalibur, and Book 3 coming in 2011. Read sample chapters at: http://www.joanuptonhall.com/books.htm . CANCELED
Nancy Holzner is the author of the Deadtown urban fantasy series, published by Ace. A recovering academic, she's worked as a medievalist, English teacher, corporate trainer, and freelance editor. She lives in Ithaca, NY with her husband Steve, where they both write from home without getting on each other's nerves.
Kenneth Mark Hoover has sold almost fifty short stories and articles. He is a member of SFWA and HWA. His first novel, Fevreblau, was published by Five Star in 2005. His recent sales have been to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, the anthology Destination: Future, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. He is currently working and selling stories about Haxan, New Mexico, a mythological town in the Old West, and a Marshal who may, or may not, be human. Mark has two degrees, an associate in journalism and a bachelor's in physics. He taught high school physics and chemistry for seven years. He is a full-time professional writer, an amateur astronomer, and a fan of baseball. You can reach him at his website: kennethmarkhoover.com
Al Jackson started out as a SF fan in Dallas in 1954 with the first SF club in Texas, the Dallas Futurians, which had an adventurous life for 6 years. The DFS held the first SF convention in Texas, in Dallas, August 1968. He also was a member of the Houston Science Fiction Society from sometime around 1966….. till forever, ……..after all the HSFS never officially disbanded! (Unlike the Dallas club.) He re-founded the University of Texas SF club.. 1970-197?..... During the time when he was getting my PhD in Physics. Heck been in and around SF fandom (by the by NOT SCI-FI fandom for around 50 years now, an official SF geezer!) He has spent most of his years (from 1966) at the Johnson Space Center, doing all kinds of things from training astronauts during Apollo to computing where space debris will be and go, to assorted engineering. Kind of fulfilling a childhood space cadet's dream! You can see his technical publications here! www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/jackson/
Derek Johnson's critical work has appeared on SF Site, SF Signal, and Revolution SF. His monthly column “Watching the Future” appears on SF Site. He lives in Central Texas with a Goddess.
Pauline Baird Jones is the award-winning author of nine novels of science fiction romance, action-adventure, suspense, romantic suspense and comedy-mystery. Her latest release is Girl Gone Nova. Tangled in Time will be published in 2010. She's written two non-fiction books,Adapting Your Novel for Film and Made-up Mayhem, and she co-wrote Managing Your Book Writing Business with Jamie Engle. She also has short stories in several anthologies. Originally from Wyoming, she and her family moved from New Orleans to Texas before Katrina.
Rocky Kelley is an award-winning artist whose paintings have appeared in magazines, galleries, conventions, and even on the David Letterman Show. Rocky received the Director's Award at the 2006 World Fantasy Art Show. Kelley's works include: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Pre-Raphaelite, Surrealism, and more. His Dark Fantasy works are created under the pseudonym of Ashen Gray and he is the founder of the Dark Rose Alliance. Current projects include illustrating graphic novels.
Praised by Publishers Weekly as an author with a "flair for dialogue and eccentric characterizations," Julie Kenner's books have sold in multiple countries, and have hit lists as varied as USA Today, Waldenbooks, Barnes & Noble, and Locus Magazine. She writes across a range of genres, frequently delving into the paranormal. In 2005 she tapped into a new genre, paranormal mommy lit, with Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom, which is in development as a feature film with 1492 Pictures. As J.K. Beck, Julie returns to paranormal romance with the Shadow Keeper series. Visit Julie at www.juliekenner.com or www.jkbeck.com.
Katharine Eliska Kimbriel has been nominated for the Campbell and has watched three imprints die under her feet. In other words, she's ready to try success. Currently out from Yard Dog Press is Wings of Morning. She's working on a new Alfreda novel, an urban fantasy about speakeasies and shamans, a quest fantasy that won't die, and a manga about American dragons. She's also converting the Nuala books to e-books. Stop by her LiveJournal sometime (she's Alfreda89). Her web site is www.KatharineEliskaKimbriel.com
Phoebe Kitanidis is the author of the YA novel Whisper (Harper Collins 2010). Her very first publication was in The Unspeakable Oath, a Call of Cthulhu fanzine. Now a full-time novelist, she lives in Seattle with her partner Robert and reaps the productivity benefits of living in a place where you’re not tempted to go outside. She is currently at work on a second teen paranormal, titled Summer Falls.
Professional reviewer, geek maven, and optimistic curmudgeon, Rick Klaw has supplied countless reviews, essays, and fiction for a variety of publications including The Austin Chronicle, The San Antonio Current, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Moving Pictures, RevolutionSF, Electric Velocipede, Cross Plains Universe, and Steampunk. MonkeyBrain Books published the collection of his essays, reviews, and other things Klaw, Geek Confidential: Echoes From the 21st Century. Along with Mark London Williams, he writes the popular graphic novel column Nexus Graphica for SF Site. He can often be found pontificating on Twitter and over at The Geek Curmudgeon.
Kim G. Kofmel is a Canadian writer and scholar currently living in Houston. In the interests of survival, she is involved in Texas fandom as costumer, group facilitator, 501(c)(3) officer, and conrunner, notably as chair of ApolloCon 2009 and ApolloCon 2010. She has published short fiction, poetry, reviews, and academic papers, almost all related to science fiction, fantasy, and/or fandom.
Joe R. Lansdale is the author of nearly thirty award winning novels and numerous award winning short stories. His work has been adapted for film or television, including his novella Bubba Ho Tep and his short story “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road.” In addition to his other awards, Joe R. Lansdale received a Bram Stoker award for editing Retro Pulp Tales and the Grand Master Award at the World Horror Convention 2007. He was the Toastmaster of the 2008 Nebulas. His latest novel is Leather Maiden.
With the completion of her 3rd EP, tentatively titled Never Say Never, Kasey Lansdale is as focused as she is excited, which is no small feat considering how many irons this ambitious 24 year old Texas native has in the fire. Whether juggling international tour dates, recording in Nashville, or writing songs as the newest staff writer for Music Row publishing house, Spoon’s Tunes, Lansdale approaches all of her ventures with a determination and comfort that belies her years. Lansdale manages to showcase her vocal versatility with moments ranging from classic country phrasing that is evocative of an early Reba to powerful bluesy chops with a soulfulness that make it easy to forget how young she is.
Alexis Glynn Latner's science fiction novel Hurricane Moon was published by Pyr in 2007. Her stories have appeared in the magazines Analog, Amazing and Sorcerous Signals and in fantasy, horror, mystery and science fiction anthologies. She lives in Houston, works in the Rice University library, and teaches creative writing through Rice University's Glasscock School of Continuing Studies. For fun and real-life adventure, she flies sailplanes.
William Ledbetter lives near Dallas with his family and too many animals. His great love, after his wife of course, is reading and writing speculative fiction. He is also a sometimes editor, currently helping out at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly and Quantum Kiss ezines, and he runs the annual Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest for Baen Books and the National Space Society.
One wouldn't know it to look at her, but Stina Leicht is famous for singing too loud to punk music in her car, reading too much, taking photographs almost no one has seen, making things out of wooden cigar boxes and baking homemade apple pie from scratch. Her fascination with recent Irish history combined with an over-active imagination resulted in her first historical urban fantasy novel titled Of Blood and Honey – the story of a young working class Catholic named Liam who is sucked into The Troubles and becomes a wheelman for the IRA . Haunted by inexplicable events, Liam suspects he’s mad but eventually discovers that his real father is not only a member of the legendary Fíanna but also a shape-shifter -- a púca. While conducting her research, Stina has driven really fast in rally races, taken Irish language lessons, studied Northern Irish politics and learned more about Black Taxis, the Other Crowd (Irish fairies) and fallen angels than she ever knew before. She is currently a Marketing Editor for Apex Books and spends her evenings listening to Irish punk music while working on her next novel which is partially set in the Belfast punk scene. Thanks to the Irish language lessons, she spends entirely too much time searching for the computer key combination which consistently produces a fada. Of Blood and Honey and its sequel are being published by Night Shade Books. Her website and blog can be found at www.csleicht.com. Of Blood and Honey will be available in stores March 17, 2011.
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1978, Scott Lynch is the author of The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, and the forthcoming The Republic of Thieves, as well as the online serial novel Queen of the Iron Sands. His work has been translated into more than 15 languages in 20 different countries. A World Fantasy Award finalist for his first novel, he was Armadillocon's guest of honor in 2009. He currently lives in Wisconsin and moonlights as a volunteer firefighter. CANCELED
Ex-rocket scientist, house-dad of five, novelist, and occasional middle school science teacher Bob Mahoney can’t decide what he wants to do when he grows up. After teaching astronauts to fly the shuttle for nearly ten years, he returned to Austin to try space thriller writing, which in turn landed some freelance editing work. He’s published numerous essays in The Space Review and other publications and just signed on to develop and edit the Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome Foundation newsletter. He now realizes that the primary purpose of his inexplicable passion for spaceflight was to get him to Texas to meet his wife.
Tess Mallory is the author of nine paranormal romance novels and is currently working on a vampire/urban fantasy and a pararnormal YA novel. Tess is a Texas native and has been an SF/Fantasy fan since her father read her I, Robot when she was four years old. She teaches writing workshops and leads a writers critique group in the Texas Hill Country.
Ari Marmell has an extensive history of writing for role-playing games, and is working on building up a fiction library to match. His published novels to date includes The Conqueror’s Shadow (Spectra), and Agents of Artifice (Wizards of the Coast), with additional novels scheduled in 2011 and 2012 from both Spectra and Pyr Books. Ari currently lives in an apartment that’s almost as cluttered as his subconscious, which he shares (the apartment, not the subconscious, though sometimes it seems like it) with his wife, George, and two cats who really need some form of volume control installed.
A. Lee Martinez was born on Earth (despite his best efforts) and has devoted most of his energy toward becoming a cyborg and/or mastering the art of teleportation. In his spare time, he writes (7 books so far) and has managed to get paid for it. That’s pretty cool, but he’d give it all up for a functional utility belt and the ability to shapeshift. Also, he really likes Manimal.
Joe McKinney is a homicide detective for the San Antonio Police Department who has been writing professionally since 2006. He is the Bram Stoker-nominated author of Dead City, Quarantined, Dodging Bullets and Dead Set. His upcoming books include Apocalypse of the Dead, The Ninth Plague, The Zombie King, Lost Girl of the Lake, and The Red Empire. As a police officer, he’s received training in disaster mitigation, forensics, and homicide investigation techniques, some of which finds its way into his stories. He lives in the Texas Hill Country north of San Antonio. Visit him at joemckinney.wordpress.com for news and updates.
Karen Meschke is an avid reader and behind the scenes organizer. She also enjoys almost all kinds of music, adores the Alamo Drafthouse, and enjoys spending time in her garden when the weather is cooler.
Mark Nelson is a professional artist who has worked in comics, games, and book illustration. He is Lead Concept Artist for Pi Studios, a Houston-based video game developer. He’s done illustrations for several Joe R. Lansdale books. Some of Mark’s best work can be seen in the books From Pencils to Inks: The Art of Mark A. Nelson and Visual Dialogues.
Nancy Jane Moore writes everything from flash fiction to novels. She is one of the founding members of Book View Café, the online writers’ cooperative (http://www.bookviewcafe.com/). Her books include the collection Conscientious Inconsistencies, published by PS Publishing, and the novella Changeling from Aqueduct Press. Her short fiction can be found in various print and online magazines, numerous print anthologies, and three recent ebook anthologies from Book View Café. After living for many years in Washington, D.C., she returned to her native Texas in 2008, and now lives in Austin.
Chris Nakashima-Brown writes fiction and criticism from his home in Austin, recent work in Fast Forward 2, Spicy Slipstream Stories, and weekly brain bombs on the group blog No Fear of the Future (with Jayme Blaschke, Jess Nevins, Alexis Glynn Latner, and Stephen Dedman).
Jess Nevins is a reference librarian and the author of two books annotating Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He is also the author of The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana and The Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes.
Gloria Oliver, slave to her feline masters, lives in Texas. She is the author of four fantasy and YA fantasy novels - In the Service of Samurai, Vassal of El, Willing Sacrifice, and her latest, Cross-eyed Dragon Troubles. She also has a handful of short stories in several anthologies. For sample chapters and other info please visit www.gloriaoliver.com. She is a member in good standing with both EPIC and Broad Universe though has yet to work her way into the top list of Cat Slaves R Us. CANCELED
Cary Osborne currently lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico, after living in Oklahoma for eighteen years. She 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. Also completed is a suspense novel titled Checkout. The Fountain and Other Stories, was published by Yard Dog Press in 2006. Two small pieces were published in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Most of her published short stories have been in the horror genre. She graduated in 2007 from the University of Oklahoma with an MLIS (Master’s in Library & Information Studies). She is currently working mostly on short fiction after this long hiatus from fiction writing.
Lawrence Person is a science fiction writer living in Austin, Texas. His most recent story is “Gabe’s Globster” in Asimov's. His short fiction has also appeared in Analog, Postscripts, Jim Baen's Universe, Fear, and several anthologies, including Cross Plains Universe, The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction, and The Mammoth Book of Extreme Fantasy, while his non-fiction has appeared in National Review, Reason, Whole Earth Review, Locus Online, The Freeman, The World & I, Science Fiction Eye, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and Slashdot.org. He is also the once-and-future editor of the Hugo-nominated SF critical magazine Nova Express.
Publishing software executive by day, freelance writer and editor by night, Alan J. Porter blames it all on Tom Swift, Stanley Kubrick and Adam West. In the space of a few short months in the late 60’s he borrowed Tom Swift and the Cosmic Astronauts from the local library, not longer after he watched 2001 at the movies, and thanks to Adam West and the Batman TV show discovered comic books! Since then he's managed to publish a few books; and had magazine articles on comics, music and the movies published in Europe, Australia , Canada and the US . Recently he's done work for Titan Books, BenBella Books, Greenwood World Publishing and TwoMorrows; as well as the online manga GOD SHOP from Tokyopop, and JAMES BOND: A History of the Illustrated 007 from Hermes Press.
Doug Potter is a freelance commercial artist and illustrator in Austin, Texas. He has written and drawn comics for various publishers, most notably Dark Horse Comics, Kitchen Sink Press and Mojo Press and did political cartoons and editorial art for the Austin Chronicle weekly until 2009. His illustrations have appeared in books for Wildside Press and Subterranean Press. More of his political cartoons can be found online at www.vjmovement.com.
Jessica Reisman has been published in Interzone, Realms of Fantasy, Scifiction, and in many other magazines. Her stories have appeared in anthologies such as Cross Plains Universe, Passing for Human, and Otherworldly Maine. Five Star Speculative Fiction published her first novel, The Z Radiant, in 2004. She lives in Austin, Texas and likes a Mexican martini with extra olives. You can find out more at www.storyrain.com.
Paige E. Roberts has published stories in the US and UK in a variety of genres, ranging from erotic vampire tales to superhero stories, swords and horses fantasy to space opera. See Roberts’ work currently in Bare Throat, Naked Hunger erotic vampire anthology, a sexy sci fi story in Best Erotic Fantasy and Science Fiction, and a genre bending story coming soon in Space and Time Magazine. Current projects are the shared world superhero anthology tentatively titled The Protectors and a fantasy trilogy. She lives in Austin, TX with her husband, kids, cats, a dog and a small dragon.
Rie Sheridan Rose is a poet and novelist with 5 poetry collections and 4 novels under her belt, as well as 3 short story collections and pieces in several anthologies. She writes mostly fantasy, but dabbles in science fiction, light horror and romance. Her most recent publication is a story in Yard Dog Press's A Bubba in Time Saves None.
Josh Rountree wishes he could write novels like Larry McMurtry and songs like Paul Westerberg, but everything he writes falls somewhere in between. His short stories have been published in cool places like Realms of Fantasy, Polyphony 6 and The Lone Star Stories Reader, and received honorable mention in both The Year's Best Science Fiction and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. His short fiction collection, Can't Buy Me Faded Love, is available from Wheatland Press.
Patrice Sarath is the Austin-based author of the adventure fantasy Gordath Wood and its sequel, Red Gold Bridge, published by Ace. Her short stories have appeared in Weird Tales, Black Gate, Realms of Fantasy, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Year's Best Fantasy 3, and other magazines and anthologies.
Adrian Simmons is a Norman, Oklahoma, based reader and writer. His essays, reviews, and interviews have appeared in Internet Review of Science Fiction, and Coyote Wild. His short fiction has popped up in Allegory Ezine, Revolution SF, and Coyote Wild. An avid backpacker, he has hiked over 700 miles. He is famous on the Internet (in a good way). He is looking forward to living in a center-left nation.
Willie Siros, who has forgotten more about science fiction than most of us ever learn, was instrumental in starting ArmadilloCon, FACT, LoneStarCon and Adventures in Crime & Space Books. You can find him in the Dealers’ Room selling books and ranting, uh, muttering about the good old days, etc.
Jack Skillingstead's professional writing career began in August of 2002 when Gardner Dozois bought "Dead Worlds" for Asimov’s Science Fiction. It appeared in the June 2003 issue, made the Sturgeon Award short list, and was reprinted in Dozois’s Year’s Best Science Fiction, Twenty-First Edition. Since then Jack has sold around thirty short stories that have appeared in Asimov's, F&SF, Realms of Fantasy, Fast Forward 2, and The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, as well as assorted Year's Best anthologies. In September 2009 Fairwood Press published Jack's novel, Harbinger, and the following month Golden Gryphon brought out Are You There and Other Stories.
Nate Southard’s books include the novellas Just Like Hell, He Stepped Through, This Little Light of Mine, and the collection Broken Skin. His work has appeared in such places as Cemetery Dance, Thuglit, Shroud, and the anthologies Dead Set and Darkness on the Edge. He lives in Austin, where he shares a house with his girlfriend and a quartet of lazy pets.
William Browning Spencer is a novelist and short story writer. His last 3 books received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly. He won the International Horror Critics Award for Best Novel (Résumé With Monsters) and he has been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Bram Stoker Award. He has written a script based on his novelette, “Looking Out for Eleanor” (which appeared in his short story collection The Return of Count Electric & Other Stories), and that script has been optioned by local production company, Lucky Rabbit Films.
Matthew Sturges is the author of the novels Midwinter and The Office of Shadow. He has also written a number of comics for DC Comics, including Justice Society of America, Blue Beetle, House of Mystery, and is the co-writer of the Eisner-nominated Jack of Fables. He was a founding member of the Clockwork Storybook writer’s collective, along with Bill Willingham, Chris Roberson, and Mark Finn.
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. Visit her web site at www.shannaswendson.com.
Lee Thomas is the Bram Stoker Award and the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Stained, Parish Damned, and The Dust Of Wonderland. In addition to numerous magazines, his short fiction has appeared in the anthologies A Walk On The Darkside (Roc), Unspeakable Horror (Dark Scribe), Wilde Stories (2008 & 2009 volumes), The Best of the Year’s Gay Speculative Fiction (Lethe Press), and Inferno (Tor), among others. Dark Scribe Press published his short story collection In The Closet, Under The Bed in 2009. You can find him on the web at www.leethomasauthor.com
Dan Tolliver is one of the co-chairs of ArmadilloCon 32. An avid reader from an early age, he “discovered” science fiction when his mother bought him F & SF, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Presents to keep him quiet. He became active in fandom after joining MSC Cepheid Variable at Texas A&M University, where he met his lovely wife Wendy. His first conventions were OtherCon, AggieCon and ArmadilloCon 2. He served in a variety of capacities at conventions, including Officer In Charge of Irrelevant Non-Sequiturs at AggieCon, before becoming active in FACT.
Mikal Trimm is a short story writer whose work has appeared in numerous places, including Realms Of Fantasy, Black Gate, Postscripts, and the Polyphony series. He resides outside of Austin in the Barbecue Capitol of The World.
Melissa Tyler entered the world of writing through the computer game industry. Officially a non-fiction writer, she wrote more and more fiction over the years, both for game content and for the strategy guides. Eventually, the strategy guide company she co-owned for five years gave a go at magazine publishing, and she got a taste of what it was like to put a magazine on the stands ... something every writer could use. Twenty-odd books later she left that fun but grueling field, and she’s had to flog her stories the old-fashioned way. It’s much harder, but she’s still managing to get published every once in a while, such as in Aeon Speculative Fiction and Austin’s own Space Squid.
Thomas M. Wagner (Martin to his friends) has written around 650 SF and fantasy book reviews for his website SFReviews.net, online since 2001. Wagner’s reviewing style has been favorably compared to Roger Ebert, and this marks the third year in which he has been an instructor at the Armadillocon writers' workshop. His more prominent reviews include Guy Gavriel Kay’s Under Heaven, quoted in a theatrically distributed book trailer from Penguin Canada, and his pans of John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids and Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. Professionally, Wagner works in the local film and television industry, and most recently served as 2nd assistant director on the independent feature Open Gate (shot in northeast Texas). He is still researching his documentary Bloody Work and forming plans for an audio-drama series in the vein of classic radio.
Howard Waldrop has been a professional writer for 37 years. His groundbreaking fiction is frequently nominated for major awards, and his story "The Ugly Chickens" won both the Nebula and World Fantasy awards. Howard has been called a “National Treasure” by Gardner Dozois. His ArmadilloCon-closing reading on Sunday is sure to be a highlight of the convention. Howard lives in Austin, Texas.
Don Webb teaches Creative Writing for UCLA (classes in villain design and SF), has 12 physical books, an I Ching e-book, and is an expert on the Magical Papyri. He always is dejected when told any of his 400 pieces of writing are not in his “Top 100” Writes quickly and well both fiction and non-fiction. Born on April 30, which probably exaplins his whole occult thing.
Steven E. Wedel is a life-long Oklahoman best known for The Werewolf Saga books. His next scheduled release is Ghost Sickness, co-authored with Carrie Jones (Bloomsbury, spring 2011), followed by The Prometheus Syndrome (Bad Moon Books, fall 2011). Steve has held many jobs but is currently a high school English teacher. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Oklahoma. Steve lives in central Oklahoma with his wife and four children.
Martha Wells is the author of nine fantasy novels, including The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, The Gate of Gods, The Element of Fire, and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer. Her next two novels, The Cloud Roads and The Serpent Sea, will be published by Night Shade Books in 2011 and 2012. She has had short stories in the magazines Black Gate, Realms of Fantasy, Lone Star Stories, and Stargate Magazine, and in the Tsunami Relief anthology Elemental and in The Year's Best Fantasy #7. She has essays in the nonfiction anthologies Farscape Forever and Mapping the World of Harry Potter from BenBella Books. She has also written two media-tie-in novels, Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary and Stargate Atlantis: Entanglement. Her books have been published in eight languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian, and Dutch, and her web site is www.marthawells.com.
Skyler White’s debut vampire/neuroscience novel, and Falling, Fly, hit best-seller lists in Fantasy/SciFi in March of 2010 and garnered praise ranging from Library Journal’s starred review of “outstanding debut” to Fantasy Literature’s “Wow, what a mindf*ck.” Her second novel, In Dreams Begin (November 2010), is a dark time-travel romance/horror woven between contemporary Portland, the Victorian occult, an ad agency, WB Yeats, and the Irish Sidhe fairies. The research for both books involved travel in rural Ireland and extensive study of mythology, superstition and the occult. Find her on the web at http://www.skylerwhite.com
George Wilhite—also known as Dr. Wright Gooder or Prof. Steampunk—has made his living with writing for more than 30 years. He was a professional journalist, writer, photographer, editor, and publisher for nearly 20 years, then returned to school to become a college writing instructor. He is now Chair of the English Department at Texas State Technical College in Waco. He has written short fiction for print and internet anthologies, published a novel, and taught fiction writing workshops throughout Texas. He is also a former rodeo clown, bullfighter, bull rider, and bronc rider. His new love is his motorcycle with a sidecar (a hack) and making all sorts of steampunk contraptions.
Mark L. Williams becomes a semi-official Texan once each summer with his traditional trip to ArmadilloCon. The rest of the time, he's mostly a Californian, a mode in which he's written the Danger Boy time travel series, a couple of recent historical essays for anthologies, numerous columns on economies and politics for LA papers, plays, comics, and reviews. He also teaches workshops on the history (and possible futures) of storytelling at a film studio. As for other possible futures, he just finished a Southern California-set apocalypse for young readers.
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Steve Wilson designs and co-edits Space Squid. He also co-edits the fiction section of RevolutionSF.com. His fiction has appeared in The Moron's Guide to the Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse, Opium Magazine and Parageography. His non-fiction about speculative matters has appeared in GQ, The Village Voice, Salon and Reading the Slayer: The Unofficial Critical Companion to Buffy and Angel.
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