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Arisia 2010 Program Participant Bios
Generated: Wed Jan 13 11:21:43 EST 2010
Award-winning author Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for over fifteen years. Her works include the urban fantasies, Yesterday's Dreams, Tomorrow's Memories, and The Halfling's Court: A Bad-Ass Faerie Tale. She has edited the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, and No Longer Dreams, and has contributed to numerous other anthologies and collections, including Dark Furies, Breach the Hull, So It Begins, Space Pirates, Barbarians at the Jumpgate, and New Blood. She is a member of The Garden State Horror Writers and Broad Universe, a writer's organization focusing on promoting the works of women authors in the speculative genres. Danielle lives somewhere in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail, mother-in-law Teresa, and three extremely spoiled cats. She can be found on LiveJournal (damcphail), Facebook (Danielle Ackley-McPhail), and Twitter (DMcPhail). To learn more about her work, visit www.sidhenadaire.com.
Martha Adams at age 78 realizes some successes are not survivable, and retirement is one of these. She is developing a large Web page, named Adra, at www.mhada.info. The Web work is mostly text. Its topic is settlements in space. From time to time she brings up the Venice Beach camera in her computer to look at its image while wondering what she is doing here in Boston with the Winter coming on…
Kythryne Aisling is a full-time artist and the owner of Wyrding Studios (wyrdingstudios.com). Her work involves fire and pretty rocks and hitting things with hammers, and is frequently interstitial. She lives in Concord NH with a spouse of indeterminate gender, two dogs, three cats, and a lot of books and yarn.
Dawn Albright
Mark L. Amidon first read Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall" in 1971, and has been heavily involved in science fiction ever since. He has been attending Arisia since 1991, and with his wife since 1992. He works as a software engineer now designing and programming robots, which is well ahead of the schedule that Dr. Asimov foresaw. Both of his daughters read genre fiction.
Michael Anderson is a First Amendment lawyer. After he takes off his tie, he talks to audiences in ways they don't allow in federal court. He started in the San Francisco spoken word scene in 1990. He performed in slacker coffeehouses and actual grownup venues.In 1999, he moved to Boston, where he brought his manic, political style to storytelling. He wrote and performed Free-Style Shakespeare (2003) and Soccer Nightmares, Soccer Dreams (2007) at Jimmy Tingle's Off-Broadway Theater. Next to his wife and son, he loves the essays of George Orwell, the Queen's Gambit attack in chess, and the first two Clash albums. He thinks: there's no such thing as free speech if you don't use it.
Julie Andrews
Melanie Arzt
Lisa A. Ashton is a Master-level costumer from Maryalnd.She has won Best In Show in the Arisia Masquerade in the past with "Home Improvement", "The Standing Stone" (with Diane Seiler), and "Mary Gothins—Perfectly Evil". Last year she was "The Invasion". She lives for costuming, beads and hunting, and in mundane life is an Emergency PA (scarier than her time at Castle Blood!).
Richard B. Auffrey
John Bacon
Stephen R. Balzac
Lindsay Barbieri
E. J. Barnes is a cartoonist and comic-book artist, having seen publication in Fortean Times, Funny Times, The Journal of Irreproducible Results, and Gauntlet. Her comic books, including those adapting the short stories of "Blaster" Al Ackerman, are sold across the country.
Becky Baron
Howard G. Beatman—I have been interested in comic books since 1959, science fiction since 1966, and have been going to conventions since 1974. I have attended all the Arisias and have been taking my nephew to Arisia starting in 2007—the next generation of nerds is well in hand.
Andrea Berman stumbled into her love of writing by accident at the age of ten with a creative writing assignment for her science class. The end result was a science fiction comedy featuring numerous puns regarding vegetables. Currently available is the Dark Moon series including award-winning Blood of the Dark Moon featuring vampires, magick, secret societies, and romance, and The Oath, a BDSM/paranormal erotica series. Adrianne's works were previously published through Aphrodite's Apples Press and are now published through Freya's Bower and Love You Divine. In addition, she is a member of EPIC, Infinite Worlds of Fantasy Authors, the Midnight Seductions Authors group, and is an alumnus member of Kappa Gamma Psi, a co-ed national professional performing arts fraternity. The author resides in Boston, Massachusetts with two cats and a car she has aptly named "the TARDIS." She assures her readers that people tell her it looks bigger on the inside.
Roxanne Bland
William Ian Blanton—A native of Phoenix, AZ who long ago decided he preferred actual seasons in Boston, Ian has been spending the last decade or so focusing on homeschooling his daughter while being gainfully employed as a Macintosh consultant. His previous life interests include western martial arts, historical re-enactment, and flinching whenever a "re-imagined" move/show is announced. His current project is building a Bronze Age GURPS Campaign for his daughter and her friends, which is rapidly spiraling out of control.
Michael Bonet—I am one of the hosts of the Ninja vs Pirates Podcast, one of the designers of Ninja vs Pirates the card game, and Shenanigans the card game (as well as Hammers, Lasers, Mirrors) and currently a graduate student to become an English teacher.
Aimee Bouchard is a bi, poly, kinky, geeky, hippie, girly sort of gal. As a solo attorney practicing in Western MA she focuses on child welfare and domestic relations, and has published on same-sex estate planning. Her interests include protecting and creating rights for polyamorous relationships, the legalities of Kink and BDSM, and GLBT rights. Aimee lives in Springfield where she is on the board of the Western Mass Power Exchange, is an avid geocacher, and lives in a large poly, co-housing home.
Angela K. Bowen
John Bowker's stories have appeared in several anthologies and magazines. He is an associate editor at the online magazine http://www.ideomancer.com
Juliet Bowler
Anna R. Bradley is an avid LARPer, SCAdian and all around geek. She has been involved with the running of Intercon, the all-LARP New England convention for many years, and has been both playing LAPRs and writing them fro even longer. She is also involved in table-top RP as well as all sorts of Medieval Recreation.
A native of MA, Cheryl Braverman has been attending cons for over 25 years in multiple states and countries. She's also been involved with the Rocky Horror Picture Show for as many years, experiencing it not only from an audience member's perspective, but also as a participant. Most recently as a member of the RHIS (Rocky Horror Internet Show). Legally disabled, she hopes she can impart some knowledge and perspective to those dealing with managing their health problems, while participating in fandom. She can be seen around Arisia volunteering as a Heinlein Society "Naughty Nurse."
Peter Breton
Kristian Brevik
Nat Budin co-founded Alleged Entertainment in 2003 and has written and run over a dozen LARPs with the group since then, including two award-winning games. He also served as con chair of Intercon I in 2009, and the first three Festival of the LARPs conventions at Brandeis University.
Liz Cademy Pfeffer
D. Cameron Calkins has been active in the SF/F community since the early 1980's. He has been creating art in the genre and displaying it at conventions since Noreascon 3. He has won numerous awards, and been published from time to time. His art appeared most recently in Need for Magic by Joseph Swopes. Cameron speaks on a variety of topics and is frequently in the company of Dagnir, his dragon.
Calliope is a former English teacher and casual student of science fiction who blames Robert Heinlein for first introducing her to open relationships. She enjoys balancing a June Cleaver-esque love of cooking from scratch and household management with a kinky/poly lifestyle all while holding down a job, taking classes and being involved in the larger community in ways she adores. As a former freshman English teacher, she has a keen understanding of power dynamics! Together with Darkteddybear, she has recently taught at numerous conferences and meetings, including Floating World, Western Mass Power Exchange and Conversio Virium and looks forward to the chance to share new ideas and perspectives and hear those of others about the overlap of sexuality and science fiction/fantasy.
James L. Cambias is a science fiction writer and game designer based in western Massachusetts. His fiction has appeared in F&SF, Shimmer, Nature, and various original anthologies. He has written more than a dozen game books for Steve Jackson Games and HERO Games. In 2004 he became a partner in Zygote Games, a small game company which produces science and nature based card and board games.
Andrew Campbell
Colleen Campbell wrote bad poetry, worse novels, decent short stories, some good plays (two of them produced), and a bunch of movies which she couldn't get Hollywood to look at, before finding what was clearly her niche: the lesbian fairytale musical. A longtime fan of both musicals and the postmodern/deconstructed/fractured fairytale, she was thrilled to find herself writing Never After, in which princesses fall in love with each other and fabulous bandits sing of being Very Merry Men.
Vonnie Carts-Powell is the author of the popular science book, "The Science of Heroes" (published by Berkeley Press, 2008), and well over 1000 articles about science and technology. She is also an SF/F fan and a Morris dancer.
Born in Cleveland in 1949, Jeffrey A. Carver lived for most of his growing years in Huron, Ohio, on the shores of Lake Erie, where he was a pretty decent high school wrestler and an annoyingly dedicated student. He is graduate of Brown University and earned a Master of Marine Affairs degree from the University of Rhode Island. At various times he has been a scuba diving instructor, a quahog diver, a UPS sorter, a word-processing consultant, a private pilot, and a stay-at-home dad. Jeffrey lives with his family in the Boston area, where he divides his shrinking time between home duties and writing (both fiction and freelance technical and web-content writing). He is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and The Authors Guild. He was also the host of an educational television series, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing, aimed at teaching junior high school students the basics of science-fiction writing. That material later grew into the online course "Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy," originally published by MathSoft, Inc., and aimed primarily (but not exclusively) at younger aspiring writers. Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy is now online and free to the public at WriteSF.com.
Hugh Casey is a writer, blogger, actor, filmmaker, convention promoter, financial specialist, geek, and fan. He currently lives in King of Prussia, PA. He is the founder of "Parents Basement Productions", and has produced, directed, written, and performed in two short films: "Teddy's Big Escape", and "Young Geeks In Love". Both are on YouTube. Hugh has been a long-time fan of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and has been part of fandom for many years. He has served as the president and vice-president of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society (PSFS), as well as on it's board of directors. He was chairman of the Society's annual conference, PHILCON, in 2003, and vice-chairman in 2002. He has served as a committee member in other years. He attends, and is often a panelist at, many cons and events, such as Arisia, Balticon, and Wicked Faire. In 2010 he will be the "Guest of Awesome" at 5 Pi-Con, in Enfield, CT. You can read his blog at his website: www.hughcasey.com
Susan Casper
Ann Catelli
Mary Catelli is a writer whose work has appeared in Sword and Sorceress anthologies and Weird Tales. She lives in Connecticut, where she daylights as a computer programmer.
Jeanne Cavelos began her professional career as an astrophysicist at NASA. Her love of SF led her to earn her MFA in creative writing and move into publishing. She was a senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell, where she ran the SF/F/H programs and won the World Fantasy Award. Jeanne left publishing to write. Her seven books include the best-selling Passing of the Techno-Mages trilogy, The Science of Star Wars, and The Science of the X-Files. Her work has twice been nominated for the Stoker Award. Jeanne is director of Odyssey, widely considered one of the best workshops for writers of SF/F/H, held each summer in Manchester, NH. (www.jeannecavelos.com)
Dr. Amy Chused is a physician at Weill Cornell Medical Center in the Division of Hospital Medicine. She also works in data mining to evaluate efficiency and quality measures for the Hospitalist Division. In her free time, she reads SF & F and fanfic, plays boardgames and computer games, debates medical ethics, and slaves away on the Arisia Dealers Row.
Stephanie Clarkson
Sarah Clemens is the Arisia 2010 Artist Guest of Honor. Read all about her in the Souvenir Book and at www.clemensart.com
Hugh Colston
Jerome C. Conner
John Costello has an MA in archaeology and has dug in Kenya, Sardinia, PA, MA, and NH. The sale of four stories (not since repeated) got him SFWA membership; from the late 80s onward he translated articles on Russian SF for Locus, and two books by Kir Bulychev. Hopefully the (authorized) collection of Murray Leinster's non-SF short fiction he edited will be out by the time of the convention.
Katherine Crighton is the coauthor of SALT AND SILVER (Tor, May '09), under the name Anna Katherine. Her day job is as a production editor at a nonfiction publisher; she is currently a Massachusetts local, with her wife, daughter, housemate, and several pet rats.
Susan Hanniford Crowley writes science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal romance, is a member of SFWA and RWA, and an associate editor with Space and Time magazine. Susan's fantasy work appeared in Sword & Sorceress anthologies. Her science fiction story "She Came to Sing" appeared in (Jan. 2009) Beyond Centauri magazine. Her paranormal vampire romance novel THE STORMY LOVE LIFE OF LAURA CORDELAIS, published by Tease Publishing LLC, as well as two novellas: WHEN LOVE SURVIVES and A VAMPIRE FOR CHRISTMAS are available at http://www.allromanceebooks.com Her website is http://www.susanhannifordcrowley.com and her blogs are http://nightsofpassion.wordpress.com and http://thewritinghouse.blogspot.com Her Twitter name is onlyladyknight.
Ctein is not the average photographer. Artist, artisan, and scientist, Ctein's 30+-year career has established him as a world-renowned expert in photographic arts and technologies and one of the premier photographic printers alive. He is a Contributing Editor of Photo Techniques magazine and regular columnist for The Online Photographer, with 30 years experience writing on such topics as photography, display and printer technologies, electro-optics, web-publishing and computers. His books include Post-Exposure—Advanced Techniques for the Photographic Printer and Digital Restoration from Start to Finish.
Tony Cuozo
Leah Cypess used to be a practicing lawyer in NY, and is now a full-time writer in Boston, where she lives with her husband and two young children. She is an Active member of SFWA, and had her first professional short fiction publication while in high school. Since then she has published short fiction in several professional publications, including Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, Odyssey, Strange Horizons, and Sword & Sorceress. Her young adult high fantasy novel, Mistwood, about an ancient shapeshifter trapped in the form of a human girl, will be published by Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins) in May 2010.
Charlene Taylor D'Alessio has been a F&SF illustrator for over 25 years. She is known for her exquisite painted Ties, humorous Fantasy paintings of Cats, Hamsters, Dragons, Owls, and miniature astronomical pieces. Her latest published piece is Merlin's Dilemma. Currently she is also illustrating a Children's Book. Look for Charlene's Artwork at most SciFi Con artshows.
Garen Daly
Loren Damewood has been creating intricate decorative knots in precious metal for over 28 years, and recently retired from a career in the aerospace industry ("Not exactly rocket science… more like rocket tech.") to teach workshops on his methods full time. He taught himself the techniques he uses, by trial and error, and delights in helping others to bypass the painful and tedious stages and go right to the shiny stuff.
Darkteddybear is an ordained minister and lifelong geek, who found his first theological insights from Star Wars, and first learned the mental aspects of BDSM from David Bowie in Labyrinth. He has spent many years examining interconnections of sexuality, religion, polyamory and kink, particularly in regard to science fiction and fantasy, and has taught previously in both kink and vanilla settings, particularly on what it means to be a feminist male kinkster. If left alone with a guitar, he is liable to break out into renditions of songs from Jonathon Coulton or the Whedonverse.
Brendan Davis
Christopher K. Davis has been reading science fiction for longer than he can remember, and going to conventions for longer than he wants to think about. He's worked as a sysadmin for both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and part of the Human Genome Project, and feels fortunate to have arrived at just the right time for such opportunities. He's given up on looking for technological predictions from SF; too many lunar bases, not enough globe-spanning computer networks. (He's still glad food pills never came along, though.)
Katarine Davis
A freelance writer for such entertainment publications as "The Hollywood Reporter," "The Los Angeles Times" and "Moving Pictures Magazine," Randee Dawn recently had her first zombie story published in the "Well-Told Tales" podcast, where she also serves as a submissions editor. She was also a co-author (with Susan Green) of "The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion," which published in September 2009. She will write for food.
Susan de Guardiola (http://www.blank.org/susan) is best-known for her role as a masquerade emcee at the 1997 and 2004 worldcons as well as numerous east coast local and regional conventions. She is a social dance historian who may often be found in musty library stacks researching dance from the 16th to the early 20th century, which she teaches at workshops and dance events across the United States. She has spent over two decades in fandom. Susan also makes costumes and blogs about both dance history (at Capering and Kickery, http://www.kickery.com) and the rest of her life (at Rixosous, http://www.rixosous.com). In her spare time, she herds medical students, plays high-speed online Scrabble, and reviews fiction for Publisher's Weekly.
Chris DeKalb
Lori Del Genis (weegoddess on LJ) had been coming to Arisia for years until she was spirited away to Merry Olde England to live at Hogwarts (actually not kidding). She's back in the US now with a bouncing baby business and is very glad to be able to spell words again without extraneous 'u's. She currently spends her time creating eco-friendly/ethical wedding attire and saving the world through pretty pretty dresses. Lori currently lives in State College, PA with her spoose Jonathan but can be seen lurking around the Boston area whenever possible.
Daniel P. Dern (www.dern.com) is a freelance technology writer, and a very amateur magician. His science fiction stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies including Analog, F&SF, World of IF, and New Dimensions. Having finished his first science fiction novel, "Dragons Don't Eat Jesters"), which includes a minimum of "one dragon, two princesses, four dogs, a lot of riddles, some explosions, and a lot of really weird stuff," he's written over 50 short-short "Dern Grim Children's Short Bedtime Stories intended to be Morally Instructive to the Listener and Cathartically Therapeutic for the Reader," plus other children's stories. If you have at least 45 seconds to spare, ask to hear one if you see him and he's not otherwise busy!
Mario Di Giacomo has an MS in mathematics, and a PhD in geeky minutae, having read, watched, and otherwise enjoyed science fiction, fantasy, anime & comics for the better part of four decades. He's still waiting for his jetpack.
Dan Diamond has organized Realms events at Vericon, and helped to run the Realms activities Arisia 2008 and 2009. Dan has been LARPing since 1990, SCA shortly thereafter, and tabletop gaming since he was eight. Science fiction caught his interest when as a kid he discovered his dad's books and hasn't looked back since.
Karen Diamond
Domingo Diaz
Samantha Dings—Attending her 20th Arisia, she's brought along her husband and daughter for the past couple years. Currently Arisia's Corporate President, you'll definitely be able to find her at the Corporate Meeting Sunday afternoon, since she's running it.
dkap—See also previous year's biography
Michael Dlott
Scott Dorsey
Debra Doyle was born in Florida and educated in Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and Pennsylvania—the last at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her doctorate in English, concentrating on Old English poetry. While in Philadelphia, she met and married James D. Macdonald, who was then serving in the US Navy, and subsequently traveled with him to Virginia, California, and the Republic of Panama. Doyle and Macdonald left the Navy and Panama in 1988 in order to write full-time. Since then they have lived in Colebrook, New Hampshire, where they write science fiction and fantasy for children, teenagers, and adults.
Gardner Dozois is the Arisia 2010 Writer/Editor Guest of Honor. Read all about him in the Souvenir Book and at www.sfsite.com/11b/gd93.htm
Dr.Chris—Chris Denmead runs a horror themed radio show, Dr. Chris Radio of Horror, on 91.3FM WCUW (Worcester, MA).
Michelle Driscoll is poly, kinky, pansexual, and proud to have recently served as a co-chair of the 2009 Transcending Boundaries Conference. A former university instructor of Gender Studies and English, Michelle runs a monthly polyamory/BDSM discussion group for The Society in Hartford, CT. She lives in Springfield MA with her wife and two boyfriends, their 4 cats and a dog.
Bera Dunau
Honey Suckle Duvet holds a B.S. in Theatre, Dance, and Human Services. Her heart lies in using Burlesque to inspire students to gain confidence, feel more comfortable with their bodies, and release their inner siren. She was a featured dancer in the runaway hit The Slutcracker a parody of the Nutcracker. As an avid fan of Doctor Who (…and Torchwood and SJA) and other Sci-Fi Television shows she is proud to let her geek flag fly.
Jill Eastlake has been involved is SF conventions for almost 40 years, which is amazing because she doesn't even feel that old! She's proud to be a Master costumer in SF costuming, has chaired a couple of conventions including Arisia '09, worked on many World SF Conventions including the upcoming Renovation in 2011, and hung around a lot with thousands of people, many of whom she is happy to call friends. Look for her fabric art in the Art Show here as well. FIAWOL (ask her what that means!).
Genevieve Iseult Eldredge is the kind of girl you don't want to meet in a dark alley. Five foot nothing and red-haired with a temper to match, she holds a black belt in Goju-Ryu Karate and can craft words faster than a ninja throws shuriken. A former panelist at Arisia, PhilCon, and 3Pi-Con, she writes high fantasy and also erotica (under a pseudonym so her mom doesn't disown her). She is currently pursuing her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Her publications as "Kierstin Cherry, Semi-shy Erotica Writer" include the erotic vampire stories: "Taken" featured in Blood Surrender by Blue Moon Books, "Enslaved," appearing in the Circlet Press ebook Like Crimson Droplets and "Graced" featured in the October 2009 release of Women of the Bite by Circlet Press ebooks and in print by Alyson Books.
Paul Estin—"Happy Fun Paul" is a long-time SF fan with a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and an affinity for extremely silly music. Becoming a filker was inevitable; he sings and plays guitar for his "band", Dr. Snark. Ingredients of Happy Fun Paul include an unknown glowing substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space. Do not taunt Happy Fun Paul.
Fabrisse
Kate Farb-Johnson is an all-around geek, especially interested in filk, gaming, mathematics, literary SF and other geeks. Lately, she has taken to volunteering at SF cons, including running the Music track at Arisia this year.
Fiona Fawkes is an amateur costumer from Kansas City with taste for recreating sci-fi/fantasy characters. A medical technologist by day, it's the crafty endeavors that make life more fun. She's never read the instruction manual that came with the sewing machine and can't make herself follow a the instructions of a pattern or recipe to save her life. There's also a very unhealthy obsession with puff paint, but we don't talk about that.
Dr. Alexander Feinman hacks hackers for a living: he designs collaborative software development environments. His hobbies include all but one of the following: audio production, carpentry, glass-blowing, leather-working, miniatures gaming, music, role-playing, sociology, and writing a little SF on the side. His novella, "Duplicate", is for sale at Arisia and online.
Stuart Ferguson
Tony Finan is a scarred veteran of many a decade of con running, including spending over a decade running the film program at Philcon. He is also active with the Philadelphia Film Festival and Cinefest. He is an avid film and media fan specializing in Asian and British science fiction and horror.
Kristina Finan—I have been sewing and costuming since 1982. Been a Dr.Who fan since 1979. Been a Science Fiction fan since I saw the first Man walk on the moon, live. Now I attemped to write it, as I keep a full-time job running the Custom Framing Dept. at a Fine Art Store, and a part-time job keeping a husband.
Richard Fine
Leadie Flowers
Jeffery Forgeng
Rose Fox
Terry Franklin, an activist for libertarian causes, worked on Massachusetts Questions One and Two in the recent election. (Q2 won big time!) He was campaign chairman for fellow geek and fan, Keith McCormic, in his race for the State Senate as well. A writer of science fiction of the "hard" variety—space exploration, biotech, etc.—he also does occasional reporting on science fact for newspapers and magazines.
Mare Freed
Esther Friesner—2010 brings SPHINX'S QUEEN and THREADS AND FLAMES, my latest YA historical novels, as well as the third and final witches/werewolves/vampires-in-Suburbia anthology. Still enjoying family, writing, travel (Alaska!), bears (Alaska!), chocolate, and housecritters.
Ed Fuqua is a Young Adult Librarian as well as being a writer, a poet and a swordsman. He has spent many years running comic book stores and has qualified for the National Poetry Slam Championships four times. In September and October he can be found at King Richard's Faire in Carver MA.
Shana Fuqua has a BA in music. She is an eight year veteran of King Richard's Faire where she has become assistant apprentice music director. She is an experienced gamer, both video games and tabletop RPGs. Her many skills include knitting, crocheting, spinning and candlemaking.
Ken Gale
Jaime Garmendia is a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable, where he writes, produces, publicizes, and markets independent comics of all genres. His most recent work includes Outbound, the sci-fi comics anthology, and "The Great Molasses Flood", a story from Inbound 4, the Boston history issue.
Martin Gear is a past Arisia fan guest of honor. He has been making, wearing and competing costumes, running costume competitions, judging costumes, & M/Cing convention masquerades for more years than he likes to count. Along the way he has also run a few Costume Cons. In between costume "stuff" he reads Science Fiction helps run S-F cons, and does tech. He pays for all this con stuff by negotiating contracts with the Federal Government
Candra Gill
Greer Gilman's new book, Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter's Tales, is set in the Northern mythscape of her much-praised novel, Moonwise. Her Cloudish tales have won a World Fantasy Award and a Crawford Award, and have been nominated for the Nebula, Tiptree, and Mythopoeic Fantasy awards. Her love of British lore and landscape, of its rituals and ballads, is a constant in her work; her love of language at its roots. Her books are written for the ear, as much as for the understanding. Besides her two books, she has published other short work, poetry, and criticism. Her chapter on "The Languages of the Fantastic" will appear in The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature. Ms. Gilman has been a Guest of Honor at Readercon 20 and at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. She was a John W. Campbell finalist for 1992. A sometime forensic librarian, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her work does everything James Joyce's does, but backward and in high heels.
Poet, teacher, and journalist Ethan Gilsdorf played Dungeons & Dragons religiously in the 1970s and 1980s. Now based in Somerville, Massachusetts, he publishes travel, arts, and pop culture stories regularly in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Christian Science Monitor, as well as National Geographic Traveler, Psychology Today, and the Washington Post. His blog "Geek Pride" is seen regularly on PsychologyToday.com and he has also been a guest on talk radio as a fantasy and escapism expert. Follow Ethan's adventures at http://www.ethangilsdorf.com.
Sarah Goodman is an anthropologist by training, a gentlewoman by profession, a retired bureaucrat to the Census Bureau, and a reader/actress/costumer/hostess/SMOFlette/grandmother by avocation. Sarah, or one of her myriad personae, are likely to pop up anywhere on the space-time continuum, studying humankind and other semi-sapient and sapient races with the professed purpose of learning that which is necessary to increase the general satisfaction level of the multiverse. A fan since the late mimeocene, she is also active in various trans-temporal re-creation activities including her current claim to fame as costumer of the (semi-) nude theatrical extravaganza, Saucy French Postcards, at the Dickens Fair. When not otherwise caught up in saving the galaxy, or investigating other centuries, she pursues her interests in law, culture, religion, dance, clothing, how and why people do what they do, and cats at Tranquility Base, her Beaux-Arts-and-Crafts bungalow in Oakland, California.
Jack Graham is a writer and game designer for Eclipse Phase, a transhuman sci-fi/horror/conspiracy RPG published in 2009.
Justine Graykin lives with 1 husband, 2 kids, 3 dogs, 7 cats and a flock of chickens on 50 acres in New Hampshire. When she isn't writing, she assists in herding the books at the local library and catalogues letters and documents from people's attics for the Historical Society. An enthusiastic performer, Justine takes an occasional role in community theater and never misses a chance to read her various works of speculative fiction aloud. She is a member of Broad Universe and the NH Writer's Project, and has had several pieces of short fiction published, as well as one science fiction novel, Awake Chimera. Podcasts of the first chapters of her latest novel, Archimedes Nesselrode, can be heard on her website, JustineGraykin.com. She and her husband, composer Larry Graykin, recently launched the ArtSpider project in New Hampshire (ArtSpider.net), a website linking artists, art venues, businesses, and arts organizations in the state.
Lauren Grover is a long-time gamer, both LARP and tabletop, polyamorous pervert, SCAdian, rabid reader, sex educator, and one of the world's foremost henna researchers, all cleverly disguised as a typical suburban soccer mom.
Abby Hafer
Robert Hafner is involved in numerous projects—he has been both a panelist and a staff member for Pi-Con (shameless plug), is involved in developing the first open source table-top RPG (ask for details), and is a proponent of civil liberties, especially in how they relate to technology (ask me about the EFF). He is currently a web developer and consultant in Western Massachusetts while he focuses on his new company.
Andrea Hairston was a math/physics major in college until she did special effects for a show and then she ran off to the theatre and became an artist. She is the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre and has created original productions with music, dance, and masks for over twenty-five years. She is also a Professor of Theatre and Afro-American Studies at Smith College. Her plays have been produced at Yale Rep, Rites and Reason, the Kennedy Center, StageWest, and on Public Radio and Television. She has translated plays by Michael Ende and Kaca Celan from German to English. Her novel, MINDSCAPE, published by Aqueduct Press was shortlisted for the Phillip K Dick Award and on the Tiptree Honor list. "Griots of the Galaxy," a short story, appears in SO LONG BEEN DREAMING: POSTCOLONIAL VISIONS OF THE FUTURE, edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan. ARCHANGELS OF FUNK, a collection of her SF&F essays and plays will be published by Aqueduct in 2011.
Melissa Hamilton
Susan Hamilton
Steven Hammond
James Harknell has been working with Onezumi (of the webcomics Stupid and Insane Defenders Against Chaos, and My Annoying Life) for over 11 years. After noticing that there was very little online to help artists, he decided to do something about it. Harknell customized his first art-centric Content Management System in 2003. Today he releases Wordpress plugins at AWSOM.org and serves as a webmaster and guide for the online comic and blogging industry. His most recent accomplishments include custom website installs for Stupid and Insane Defenders Against Chaos and Erfworld. Harknell is best known for his easy to understand way of helping artist get their websites up and running. He has been a recurring guest speaker at places like XM Satellite Radio, Katsucon (http://www.katsucon.org), Ubercon (http://www.Ubercon.com), Balticon (http://www.balticon.org), Otakon (http://www.Otakon.com) and others. Today he lives in New Jersey with Onezumi and way too many computers.
Jeff Hecht is a free-lance science and technology writer, a correspondent for the weekly New Scientist and a contributing editor to Laser Focus World. His short fiction has appeared in Analog, Asimov's, Interzone, Odyssey, Nature, Twilight Zone, and several anthologies including Year's Best Horror Stories and Great American Ghost Stories. His nonfiction has appeared in many other magazines, including Optics & Photonics News, Omni, Earth, Analog, Cosmos, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Technology Review. His books include Beam: the Race to Make the Laser and City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics (both Oxford Univerity Press), and Understanding Fiber Optics (Pearson/Prentice Hall); and Understanding Lasers (IEEE Press/Wiley). He holds a B.S. in electronic engineering from the California Institute of Technology.
Both science and SF have been core passions of Karl G. Heinemann's since early childhood. And his bio-family nurtured strong habits of analyzing and predicting "the world around him" and "thinking for himself". These traits led Karl to formal education in physics, astronomy, and epistemology. Other interests include modeling and simulation of economic and social systems, history, SF-based gaming, and mythology viewed as both entertainment and as a cultural attribute and psychological drive,. "Coming of age" during the 1960s-and 1970s, Karl also developed a strong affinity for the humanistic and playful social agendas of those times. This exposure and his general skepticism led Karl to a 26-year involvement with the culture and practices of polyamory. During this time, he's led many presentations and mini-workshops in this field, including a monthly Poly Support Group at Boston's Fenway Community Health Center. Karl also has been living in a successful open marriage for the past 13 years.
James T. Henderson Jr
Andy Hicks
Woodrow "asim" Hill is one the few male Raqs Sharqi artists—better known as "belly" dancers—in the world, having started over 20 years ago. His day job as a programmer with a focus on security issues gives him a oddly optimistic view of the future, one fueled by his very first memory—watching STAR TREK on an Black and White TV set. This reality-beaten optimism also leaks into his strong political activism, having been invested in Civil Rights, Feminist, and related issues as well as working for politicians as varied as Strom Thurmond and Barack Obama (the latter of which he likes much more!) He also looks back into the past as a member of the Society of Creative Anachronism, specializing on researching Medieval Era "belly dance" and 15th Century Ottoman culture, and into the future via interests in broader layperson science activites, focusing on Evolutionary issues.
James Hinsey—I'm a life long lover of Science Fiction, Fantasy, books, movies, tv-shows, anime, 80s music, women, root beer, chocolate, Hawaii, Japan and family. I am half-Japanese, a reader, Trekker, Browncoat, Costumer, book-collector, model-maker, videographer, publicator, con-goer, RISFC member, Psi Upsilon brother, RPI alum, former naval officer, brother, son, uncle, husband, and father of two girls. I am SamuraiX47.
Steven Hirsch has been going to Arisia for five years. Since last year he has been part of the program - a rewarding and maddening experience. This year his school of Medieval Combat will be running lessons on the Longsword. He would like to thank the Higgins Armoury Sword Guild for getting him started on this fascinating study.
John Hodges has organized all Arisia's blood drives for the Heinlein Society. He's a donor himself, having given away 38 gallons of his own blood and a kidney. He's a public representative to the board of directors of the United Network for Organ Sharing. He hopes to once again be gainfully employed as a climate scientist by now.
Merav Hoffman is a New York based songwriter and performer. She is a founding member of the band Lady Mondegreen and is also an administrator for the Live Filk project. Merav will be chairing the NEFilk convention, Contata in July of 2011. When she's not wearing her filker hat she edits manuscripts, crochets, and hosts NYC area house concerts.
Melissa Honig maintains a calendar of sci-fi and fantasy events in New England on her blog, http://nescifievents.org/. She is also the list administrator for the New England Browncoats. She enjoys costuming, weird crafts, and watching old TV shows from her childhood via Netflix.
Michael A. Horne
Wil Howitt
Crystal Huff spends her time saving the world and chasing down conventioneers. Officially, she is the conchair for Arisia 2011. Alignment: Chaotic Good Ninja.
Walter Hunt has been writing for most of his life. His first four "Dark Wing" novels were published by Tor Books. His novel A Song In Stone appeared in 2008, dealing with the mystery of Rosslyn Chapel and the Templars. Current projects include an 18th century alternate history novel, a book on mesmerism in the Victorian age, and a sequel to A Song In Stone that will answer some questions and ask some others. He has a background in history, with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and he speaks two other languages (German and Spanish). A member of the Masonic Fraternity, Walter H. Hunt has served as Master of two different Lodges in Massachusetts. He is a devoted baseball fan and board gamer; his first published game is scheduled for a 2010 release by Rio Grande Games. He has been married for more than half of his life, and he and his wife have one daughter who is a product of their affection and their unusual joint sense of humor.
Jennifer Hunter, 38, is a professional organizer in the Boston area. Once a writer and editor, with four books on NeoPaganism to her credit, she decided to make a career out of what she did for fun on her writing breaks. She specializes in working with creative people, helping them learn that creative does not have to mean disorganized. Jen understands that most of her clients do not necessarily share her zeal for sorting and labeling; for them, being organized is not an end in itself, but a means to a goal of a smoother, more satisfying life. Jen is also a collage artist, using mostly pictures from castoff magazines, and has exhibited in several shows. She lives in Medford, Massachusetts with her housemates, boyfriend, nine-year-old daughter, and a matching ginger cat and dog. Her website is at www.findyourfloor.org.
Elaine Isaak dropped out of art school to found Curious Characters, designing original stuffed animals and small-scale sculptures, and to follow her bliss: writing. Her short story, "The Princess, the Witch and the Watchmaker's Heart" is in the new Escape Clause anthology. In addition, She is the author of The Singer's Crown (Eos, 2005), and sequel The Eunuch's Heir (Eos, 2006). The Bastard Queen is finally forthcoming in January 2010. Check out her bi-monthly fantasy fiction column at www.AlienSkinmag.com. Visit www.ElaineIsaak.com to read sample chapters and find out why you do not want to be her hero.
Felicitas Ivey is the pen name of a very frazzled helpdesk drone at a Boston area University. She's an eternal student even with a BA in Anthropology and History, since free classes are part of the benefits. Felicitas' writes Urban Fantasy and Horror of a Lovecraftian nature, monsters beyond space and time that think that humans are the tastiest things in the multiverse. Felicitas lives in Boston with her beloved husband, known to all as The Husband, and her cat Smaugu, whom the husband swears is a demon. The husband also is worried about Felicitas' anime habit, her extensive collection of manga and Gundam Wing doujinshi, which has turned her library into a Very Scary Place for him.
Alexander Jablokov—Alex's most recent novel is Brain Thief, a fast-paced AI-hunting adventure, out from Tor January 2010. His most recent story, "Blind Cat Dance", will be in the March issue of Asimov's. He is the author of five other novels, including Carve The Sky, Nimbus, and Deepdrive, and a number of short stories. He lives in Cambridge, Mass.
Tara Jacob
Evan Jamieson—Freelance author who has written in the gaming industry of the last twenty years. Done everything from scenarios to system design, and written for smaller publishers to large corporations like Wizards of the Coast. My most recent project is a players book for the Eclipse Phase RPG published by Catalyst Labs.
Victoria Janssen's second novel, The Moonlight Mistress (Dec. 2009), is set during the early days of WWI and includes paranormal elements. She's also the author of The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover (Dec. 2008). She's recently sold two more novels to Harlequin Spice, a trade paperback line of erotic novels. Find out more at http://www.victoriajanssen.com. She blogs on writing, reading, and genre here: http://victoriajanssen.blogspot.com/ and twitters here: http://twitter.com/victoriajanssen.
Renee Johnson
Michael Kabongo is a literary agent who enjoys a good laugh, a great steak and an excellent book. His love of science fiction and fantasy is both strong and varied, honored places on his book shelf are held by books like Fahrenheit 451, The Chronicles of Narnia, and several more recent works. He has the great pleasure of being the agent for two writers he liked before he started his agency Dave Freer and Irene Radford, as well as newer faces like James Enge.
Steve Kanaras is the publisher of Free Lunch Comics, and serves as a writer and editor as well. His works include Only in Whispers, Pork N' Beans, Beyond the Kuiper Belt, and the upcoming Hostile Universe.
Catherine Kane is a professional psychic, published author, Reiki master/teacher, bard, artist, enthusiastic student of the Universe, maker of very bad puns, songwrite and overachiever (amongst other things…). She loves empowering people to have their best lives possible. Visit Catherine and her husband, Starwolf as Foresight on Facebook, at www.ForesightYourPsychic.com, and at www.ForesightYourCtPsychic.wordpress.com.
Jeff Keller
Daniel M. Kimmel is a film critic and author. His reviews can be found at NorthShoreMovies.net, the Jewish Advocate and the Internet Review of Science Fiction. He teaches film at Suffolk University. His most recent book is "I'll Have What She's Having." He will also be a prop in his daughter's masquerade presentation.
Born in 1967, Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein has not yet managed to shuffle off the coil mortal, though not for want of trying, apparently. She writes (fiction, music, poetry, recipes, and the occasional political rant), draws, paints, sings, dances, cooks, builds and repairs houses, and occasionally makes an outright fool of herself when confronted with her intellectual heroes. She also has Opinions. No, wait! Don't run!
Ken Kingsgrave-Ernstein is absolutely not the Super Hero Common Sense Man. He does not spend his days saving various portions of Corporate America from itself. He also does not recover data structures in need. He does however enjoy reading Science Fiction and the occasional foray into Fantasy. He also enjoys speculating on how to survive the Zombie Apocalypse with skills he learned surviving the cold war.
Mike Kitchenman
Rebecca L. Kletnieks
Richard Kovalcik
Ellen Kranzer has been attending science fiction conventions for over 30 years and making music even longer. Filk lets her mix the two hobbies. Ellen is a founding member of M.A.S.S. F.I.L.C. and the club's current treasurer. She has been involved in planning numerous conventions both in and out of fandom.
Adam Krellenstein
David Larochelle grew up in the D.C. area but moved up to Cambridge in 2004 where he currently resides. His involvement with fandom began when he joined the William & Mary Science Fiction and Fantasy Club (SKIFFY). He served as Vice President and was named Senator for Life upon gradation. He's worked extensively in information security, and is the coauthor of Splint, an Open Source tool for detecting security vulnerabilities in C programs. However, more recently he's focused on understanding and building the Internet, rather than attacking and defending it. He currently works for the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
Toni Lay is a member of the New Jersey-New York Costumers Guild (aka The Sick Pups), and the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), which gives her plenty of opportunity to costume. Toni was Program Director for Costume Con 5, and Historical Masquerade Director for Costume Cons 16 and 22. She has also been a Hall Costume Awards judge, Den Mom, Presentation Judge's clerk, Workmanship Judge's clerk, Presentation Judge, Masquerade MC, and an Arisia Greenroom Director. Her other fannish interests include Star Trek, Stargate, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Merlin, Britcoms, alternate history novels, Harry Potter, Pern and the Didius Falco and Gordianus the Finder mysteries. When she's not watching DVDs, reading or making costumes, Toni is a secretary for the New York City Department of Design and Construction.
Jacob Lefton
Scott Lefton makes and sells artwork in media including metal, wood, glass and Photoshop, is occasionally serious about photography, and works as a freelance mechanical design consultant and patent agent. He lives in a big old Victorian house in Melrose, MA with his wife Rachel, whichever of their 3 kids happen to be in residence, and a cat.
Bill Levay—I was born in Rome, Italy and emigrated to the US with my parents when seven years old. Spent my tender years in Honolulu, attended Tulane University majoring in Mechanical Engineering and spent six years active duty in the US Navy. After leaving the Navy I worked for 21 years as an Electrical Engineer for various DoD contractors. Then, I finally grew up… since 1995 I have worked in the games industry as Producer and Executive Producer at The Avalon Hill Game Company (pre-Hasbro acquisition) and at Hasbro Interactive which was bought by Infogrames and years later renamed to Atari. My proudest accomplishment was being the Executive Producer for Civilization III. At age eleven I was bitten (severly, mind you) by the Science Fiction bug when I accidentally cast my eyes on "A Princess of Mars" at the school library, and immediately fell in love with John Carter, Dejah Thoris, and Barsoom. I live in Rockport, MA, and am married to the incomparable Trish Wilson. We have two children, Jim and Mike.
Brenna Levitin is a sixteen year old homeschooled geek from Massachusetts. She reads sci-fi and fantasy voraciously, and enjoys such TV series as Doctor Who, Dollhouse, Castle, and The IT Crowd. She reads nearly twenty webcomics, and is interested in the role gender plays in fandom.
Benjamin Levy has been a science fiction fan for most of his life. He went to his first science fiction convention when he was 10 years-old. He has been involved with Arisia since its inception. In the past he has worked for Arisia as a gopher, Dealers Room Liaison, Division Head of Fixed Functions. Currently he is the Arisia Corporate Treasurer and one of the Assistant Convention Chairs for A'10.
Suford Lewis is an long time fan and a longer time reader. She has been a member of LASFS & MITSFS, & a founding member of NESFA and of Regency fandom. She is a Master Costumer, an inveterate con com member having been part of the committees of all the Boston worldcons, many Boskones, 2 Costumecons, a few others, and even an Arisia or so, and in 2008 was given the Big Heart Award. She also finds time to play a little Dominion, see some anime, and, with luck, even filk a bit. Mostly retired from software system building, she still occasionally helps some people out with computers. She is the Bujold editor for NESFA Press, now on book 8. She is married to Tony Lewis, is owned currently by 2 cats, and is the proud mother of Alice.
Shariann Lewitt is the author of 17 science fiction and fantasy books. One of her more recent pseudonyms is Nina Harper for SUCCUBUS IN THE CITY and SUCCUBUS TAKES MANHATTAN. She lives in the Boston area.
Paula Lieberman went to her first convention, which was a worldcon, and college the same weekend. Since then she's been to a bunch more conventions, many of which she's worked on, including Arisia, and has had more career changes than she can remember—military officer, systems engineer, analyst, tech writer, test engineer, market researcher, consultant… She's more likely to be around at 1 AM filking, than at a 9 AM panel, and usually helps out at art show sales. On-line she one's of the community at Making Light (http://www.nielsenhayden.com/makinglight) prone to spontaneously posting in verse (ballad form mostly).
Gordon Linzner—Founder and editor emeritus of Space and Time Magazine; author of several novels and scores of short stories; freelance editor; licensed New York City tour guide; front man for Saboteur Tiger blues & oldies band.
Adam Lipkin is currently a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, covering science fiction, fantasy, horror, and young adult books. He has written reviews for a number of publications, including The Green Man Review and Rambles. He wrote the horror column, "Fear Factor," for Bookslut for two years, and was also the animation columnist for SMRT-TV.com. He has published hundreds of horror movie reviews at his own blog, yendi.livejournal.com. His day job involves educational technology, heutagogy, and library research. Adam lives in the suburbs of Boston with his wife, daughter, and three moderately psychotic felines.
Writer/activist Shira Lipkin sidles up to the most interesting bars, and chats with runaway gods, duty-shirking sphinxes, the Ghost of Purim Past, and apostate cyborgs. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in Interfictions 2, Electric Velocipede, ChiZine, Lone Star Stories, and other wonderful places. Track her movements at shiralipkin.com. She would like a monkey.
Ben Long
Shelley MacAskill
James Macdonald was born in White Plains, New York, the second of three children of W. Douglas Macdonald, a chemical engineer, and Margaret E. Macdonald, a professional artist. After leaving the University of Rochester, where he majored in Medieval Studies, he served in the U. S. Navy. Macdonald left the Navy in 1988 in order to pursue writing full-time. Since then he has lived with his wife and co-author, Debra Doyle, in a big 19th-Century house in Colebrook, New Hampshire, where they write science fiction and fantasy for children, teenagers, and adults. From 1991 through 1993, as Yog Sysop, he ran the Science Fiction and Fantasy RoundTable on the GEnie computer network; after the death of GEnie, he was the managing sysop for SFF-Net. These days, when not writing novels or running as an EMT with the local ambulance squad, he blogs at AbsoluteWrite.com and Making Light.
Bruce Mackenzie is currently working on the Mars Homestead settlement design for the Mars Foundation, and an entrepreneurial venture. Past work included use of rotating space tethers to establish industry on the Moon. Bruce is a software and aerospace engineer. He has held positions in the National Space Society, AIAA, Mars Foundation, & Mars Society.
Glenn MacWilliams
Peter Maranci—Founder and editor of the Interregnum RPG APA (RIP). Winner of a few amateur video prizes at Arisia over the years. Publisher of "Pete's RuneQuest & Roleplaying!" (www.runequest.org/rq.htm), one of the oldest RPG sites online. Long-time Arisia panelist. Sold a story to a semi-pro mag long ago, but it folded before publishing it (or paying for it, unfortunately).
Joy Marchand holds a B.A. in Classical Studies from the University of the Pacific. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts, where she takes photos of odd signage, churchyards and the occasional roadside shrine. Joy's poems and short stories have been featured in Bare Bone, Writers of the Future Volume XX, the Elastic Book of Numbers, Modern Magic, Time for Bedlam, Polyphony 5, Interfictions, Talebones, Apex Digest, and Interzone, among others. Joy is an editor for Shimmer, a small magazine packed with quality short fiction and stunning artwork. She is currently at work on a novel set on Cape Ann, MA.
Brennan Martin
Marlin May—I was born a poor black child. Ok, not exactly poor, more middle class. The child part is true; it was far easier on my mom that way. I'm far closer to a luscious chocolate brown than ebony. I'm no scientist, but I've consumed a steady diet of science books/media as long as I can recall. The 1st book I remember reading was "Man in Space" about Mercury 7. My favorite kids t.v. show? "Mr. Wizard" Lately I've been exploring the promise / problems of transhumanism/post-humanism. I've been reading / watching genre fiction a long, long, time. My first convention was in Feb. 1979; a tiny gathering in Southern California called "Science Fiction Weekend". I wandered into a room where they were screening episodes of "Commando Cody". I was transfixed, hooked, captured… doomed. Since then I've attended many a Westercon, Worldcon, NASFic, Galacticon, Gaylacticon, Balticon, Equicon, Filmcon, Albacon, Fantasmacon, Boskone and Arisia. Never made it back to Science Fiction Weekend, though.
Michael McAfee is an actor and writer for the Post Meridian Radio Players and with i Sebastiani, the greatest commedia dell'arte troupe in the entire world. He has run flirting workshops in a variety of venues, and is a commissionable poet. He has been active in all aspects of fandom since 1990, particularly in LARPing and filking.
Molly McCloud
Matt McFarland
Gary McGath is a writer of filk songs and occasional organizer of filk events.
Mike McPhail is the award winning Author and Anthologist of the military science fiction series Defending The Future (Breach The Hull, So It Begins and in 2010 By Other Means), published by Dark Quest Books. He is a member of the Military Writers Society of America (MWSA), a reviewer for MilSciFi.com, and the creator of the Alliance Archives (All'Arc) series and its related Martial Role-Playing Game (MRPG), a manual-based, percentile system, that realistically portrays the consequences of warfare. www.mcp-concepts.com, www.milscifi.com
Little Mel is a pansexual, poly, kinky, geeky, wiccan, spiritually gender queer girl who grew up in the Boston area and currently lives in western MA. She is a performer for The Come Again Players (A Rocky Horror shadow cast) where she plays Columbia, Janet, Trixie and Rocky and Genetic Imperfection (A Repo! The Genetic Opera shadow cast) where she plays Amber Sweet (New England's first). She has self-published two books of poetry and a book of photography. Little Mel is a member of the Pioneer Valley Gamer Collective which owns Worlds Apart Games in Amherst. She is an avid graphic novel and comic book fan and writes a weekly-ish blog for the Super Angels section of www.gamingangels.com and is also a member of Graphic Novel Addict. This is Little Mel's second Arisia and she looks forward to many more!
Katrina Meyer has been attending SF cons since she was too young to remember, brought by a geeky dad. She became interested in belly dance at Arisia's Masquerade shows, and is gleeful to be able to combine two of her passions into geeky belly dance, and have such a receptive audience.
Daniel Miller is a local attorney, gamer, comics aficionado, and SF/F fan who keeps coming back to Arisia because he enjoys it. He has been "living this lifestyle" since high school, and lives in Brookline with his wife Meredith and his young daughter, whom he hopes—nay, promises!—to indoctrinate into the worlds of SF/F, comics, D&D, and Magic when she just gets a little older…which is all that much easier now that she's already interested…
Kerry Morgan has been dishing up terror for over thirty years, and she still adores it. She has a number of publishing credits in Zines as well as Anthologies. Kerry has a novel called The Astral Avenger and is working on its sequel. Mrs. Morgan's latest published works appear in The Ladies of Horror 2009, which are some of her favorite stories, and features a brand new Angela Mystique adventure. She enjoys posting a continuing story on her blog hosted by myspace, and has attended several conventions. She was recently accepted into Broad Universe and enjoys helping the New England Horror Writer's association. Please visit her sites at www.kerryamorgan.com and her new Ezine http://www.paganimagination.com: myspace/krymrgn
Mitchell Morris—Please use Last year's
William Mui
Tom Murphy—A common man of good will, Merv entered Fandom through Star Trek in '92, discovered there was SO much more to life than 'Trek, and hasn't looked back since. A sometimes-employed career Chemist, Merv highly recommends reading most anything by Ball, Carey, Friesner, Isaak, Lackey, Moon, Pierce, Rowling, Sherman, Shwartz, Snicket, or Weiss. Merv has been an enthusiastic volunteer for Arisia since '94, and has enjoyed it enough to mention it here in the hopes of luring you into volunteering, too.
Larry Nelson, also known as LORDLNYC online, is a long time member of the leather/queer/poly communities as well as a long time queer/kinky/poly rights activist. He attended his 1st con (Lunacon) in '84 where he went on to help run gaming from 91–03. In '06 he attended his first Arisia where he put in over 30 hours helping out in the con suite. In '07 he put his long time activism to good use and stated doing panels at Arisia, Lunacon as well as for TES (a major Leather group in NYC). He lives in Queens, NYC.
Resa Nelson is the author of The Dragonslayer's Sword, a novel based on two short stories published in Science Fiction Age, the first of which ranked 2nd in that magazine's first Readers Top Ten Poll. The Dragonslayer's Sword was a 2009 EPPIE Award Finalist for Best Fantasy Novel and was Recommended for the Nebula Award. Her next novel, Our Lady of the Absolute, is slated for publication in July 2010. She recently finished writing The Iron Maiden, Book 2 in her Dragonslayer series. Her short fiction has been published in Fantasy Magazine, Paradox, Brutarian Quarterly, Science Fiction Age, Aboriginal SF, Tomorrow SF, Oceans of the Mind, and many anthologies. Nelson is a graduate of the Clarion Workshop (1985). She has also sold over 200 magazine articles. She has been the TV/movie columnist for Realms of Fantasy since 1998, and is a regular contributor to SCI FI magazine. Visit her website at http://www.resanelson.com.
Shava Nerad is a polymath autodidact who likes obscure vocabulary, online life, and weird science and social issues. She's been working online since 1982, and has spent most of her career at the intersection of tech and society. She's CEO of an indy game company, Oddfellow Studios (http://oddfellowstudios.com) that has discovered something very much like Snow Crash (for good not evile!) for real life.
The legendary Alex Newman was raised on a parallel Earth where his plane crashed in the Himalayas—er, the parallel Himalayas. Not ours. There he was taught the secret of clouding mens' minds by monks. Parallel monks. Stop laughing. He fought crime for many years until a group of his arch enemies (can you have a "group" of arch enemies?) banded together in a sinister plot to bounce him into a parallel universe. That is, parallel to that one. Which they thought of as the real universe but which you think of as a parallel universe. Unless you're also from there, in which case you think of this one as the parallel… Oh, screw it. Alex Newman is the founder of The Boston Babydolls (www.BostonBabydolls.net) and has been involved in Arisia in various aspects for many years.
Benjamin Newman is a singer-songwriter and mad analogist who has been an SF fan all his life, and active in fandom and especially filk since college. He has written more than 150 songs, on a wide variety of topics from his favorite SF books, movies and video games to science, computers, and religion—or any combination thereof. Ben has also run filk programming at a number of conventions.
Robert Newton
Joshua Nicholson
Scott Norwood
Mimi Noyes has been making art, gaming, reading fantasy and sci-fi, and watching movies/TV of the same since a tender and juicy age. She is an artist for her own company, Sun & Moon Murals, and makes distinctive linoblock prints, monster hats, and other art on the side. She is a published author of film and television reviews and works at Scarecrow Video (the coolest video store in the world) and at the Seattle International Film Festival, where she saw, in 2008, 79 films in one month.
David Nurenberg just does too much stuff. He's a freelance writer for White Wolf, a self-published novelist, a high school English teacher, and a doctoral student just a few months shy of his PhD. That explains all the twitching. He's been a GM for 19 years, which explains the severe twitching. He has traveled to over 30 countries and runs two international exchange programs, which explains how he can twitch in several languages. Do not stare directly at David, as contents are under pressure and may detonate, causing minor to moderate injuries. But David comes in peace, really—at least, that's what he'll insist in court.
Elizabeth O'Malley is a long time anime fan and avid cosplayer. Attending several anime conventions every year, she is also a writer for AnimeCons.com, the leading web site dedicated to news and information about anime conventions, contributing to both their website and monthly podcast. She is also a member of the Northern Lights chapter of the International Costumers Guild.
Nnedi Okorafor
Fans say that Onezumi is what would happen if Dirty Harry and Weird Al Yankovik had a daughter that loved to draw. Onezumi "Oni" Hartstein was born in New York City to Indian/German/Polish parents, but raised in an economically depressed area in Pittsburgh, PA. After moving to New Jersey, she worked professionally in animation for The Disney Channel before leaving to start Onezumi Studios, LLC, which is the parent company to her family of websites. Onezumi's two Lovecraftian horror comics are located at http://www.Onezumi.com. Her "cute and scary" art portfolio and media blog is located at http://www.Onezumiverse.com. Onezumi has a B.A. in Sociology/Psychology specializing in Gender Studies, and has studied classical art in a University setting for over 6 years, thanks to receiving two full scholarships that took place prior to her freshman year in college. She lives in New Jersey and shares an apartment with her husband and a lot of coffee beans.
Renee Otis is the author of Shades, Ghost Writer and Dead Batteries. She lives and writes in haunted New England and is a member of Broad Universe (a wonderful community of writers supporting women who write paranormal, horror and thriller driven fiction).
Jennifer Pelland is a Boston-area science fiction writer, novice tribal bellydancer, and occasional radio theater performer. Her short story collection Unwelcome Bodies was released in 2008, and contains, among other stories, the Nebula-nominated "Captive Girl." She has stories forthcoming this year in the anthologies The Naked Singularity, Dark Faith, and Close Encounters of the Alien Kind. For more info, visit www.jenniferpelland.com, which contains a full bibliography, as well as links to her various blogs.
Misty Pendragon is the founder of The Legal Assassins,a Repo Shadowcast group, wanting to bring all different types of people together to celebrate the love of the film Repo the Genetic Opera. She is a published writer and editor. She has been doing panels at cons for too many years now, and you would find her on pretty much every Joss Whedon panel! Currently she works in the real life as an Advanced Representative for the area's largest cable company. Current favorite quote is "We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty" by Joss Whedon.
Israel Peskowitz—Izzy is a professional photographer and amateur fan.
Benjamin A. Pew
Michael Piantedosi
Steve E. Popkes was born in 1952, in Santa Monica, California. His father was an aeronautical engineer. Consequently, he moved all over the country from California to Alabama, Seattle, Missouri, and, finally, Massachusetts. Generally, he regards himself as from Missouri since that's where his family is from. In the tradition of most writers, his day job has been what comes immediately to hand: house restorer to morgue tech to software engineer to white water rafting guide. Currently, he is involved in avionics development on the NASA Ares project. He's had two novels published, Caliban Landing (Congdon and Weed, 1987) and Slow Lightning (Tor, 1991) and over thirty pieces of short fiction. He is a founding member of the Cambridge Science Fiction Workshop and was one of the contributors to CSFW's Future Boston.He shares a birthday with John Lennon and was married on the ten-year anniversary of his death. Both were coincidences and discovered after the fact. Over the year his stories have been collected in several anthologies of the year's best, including: The Egg, Years best SF, 1989; Fable for Savior and Reptile, Year's Best Fantasy 3, 2003; Winters Are Hard, Year's Best SF, 2003; The Ice, Years Best SF, 2004; The Great Caruso, Years best SF, 2005. His story, The Color Winter, was a nominee for both a Theodore Sturgeon Memoria Award and a Nebula. Steven, his wife, son and cats, breed turtles on two acres in Massachusetts.
Dr. James Prego, ND practices on L. I., NY. Dr. Prego is the current recipient of the NYANP's Physician of the Year award. He was voted Best Alternative Doctor of 2009 by the LI Press. He is also a Biology professor at Molly College. Dr. Prego is a long-time fan of science fiction and has been a guest at conventions such as I-Con, Philcon, Arisia, Lunacon, Albacon, and Pi-Con, where he has been on panels discussing xenobiology, health in space, life extension, fusions of biology and technology, and how natural ways of healing fit in a sci-fi/high-tech world. Dr. Prego has also been on various fan-related and culture panels. He is a director of Z.E.N., LI's REPO! Shadowcast, in which he also plays Graverobber. Dr. Prego has given talks, written articles, and been a guest on radio and television shows, discussing naturopathic medicine, children's health, detoxification, and other health-related topics. To learn more about Dr. Prego and naturopathic medicine, visit www.doctorprego.com
Peter Prellwitz has been writing science fiction since he was a teenager. Now a published author with Double Dragon Publishing, Peter has ten novels in print, has won the 2003 Draco Award for Best Science Fiction for HORIZONS, the 2007 Dream Realms for TWISTED TAILS (anthology contributor), and is a perennial Eppie Finalist.
Barbara M. Pugliese is a dance historian and a clothing historian. She is an intrepid guide for time travelers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. She is active in steampunk in the Boston area.
Karen Purcell DVM
Victoria Quine
Daniel Rabuzzi—I grew up immersed in fairytale and folklore, and have wandered beyond the fields we know ever since. Chizine Publications launched my novel The Choir Boats at Worldcon 2009 in Montreal. My short fiction and poetry appear in, among others, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Shimmer, Sybil's Garage, Goblin Fruit, Scheherezade's Bequest, and Abyss & Apex. I blog at Lobster & Canary. My website is www.danielrabuzzi.com
Maureen Reddington-Wilde
Thomas F. Restivo
Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert is a Broad Universe member and has been writing poetry and short stories since the second grade. Her love affair with scifi and speculative fiction began even earlier. She has degrees in Communication and Sociology, and currently works as a technical assistance/research associate at a non-profit, where she helps engage underrepresented youth in STEM experiences and researches educational technology. However, her high school yearbook states that she wants to become a writer, so she's decided to get going with that. She gives voice to faeries and wood sprites, reads and dreams about alternate worlds, salivates over anything in the Whedonverse, and writes pagan-themed poetry. She is a con panel virgin, so she begs you to be gentle with her. Read some of her published and unpublished work at:http://suzannereynoldsalpert.blogspot.com/
Jonathan Riedel
Clarence Risher
Kevin Roche (together with his partner Andy Trembley) is the Arisia 2010 Fan Guest of Honor. Read all about him in the Souvenir Book and at www.twistedimage.com
Margaret Ronald is the author of Spiral Hunt and Wild Hunt, as well as a number of short stories. Originally from rural Indiana, she now lives outside Boston.
Ian Cooper Rose was one of the organizers of the Transcending Boundaries Conference 2009. He is a bi, poly, kinky activist focusing on the education with in these communities and the public. Ian currently lives as part of a kinky, poly quad in Springfield, MA where they are discovering on how to run a complex household and documenting the process.
Kristen Rose
Vikki Rose graduated with a degree in History, and minors in lots of fun stuff, like literature, religious studies, theater and more. She has been published in small regional magazines, and has been reading sci fi and fantasy since the age of three. Steampunk and Urban Fantasy/Modern Fantasy are her current literary passions.
Noel Rosenberg has been running conventions for more years than not. He has worked on several major regionals, including Philcon and Balticon, as well as Gaylaxicon and several gaming conventions, and a couple of Worldcons. Arisia is his home convention. Proving he has no friends, he has worked on every Arisia since '90, filled almost every division head position at least once, has held several officer positions in Arisia Corporate, and in a past life was the Conchair. He also chaired the Corporate Hotel Search Committee, and has negotiated hotel contracts for a few conventions.
Gilly Rosenthol
A. Joseph Ross has been in fandom since the 1960s. In 1964, he founded the University of Massachusetts Science Fiction Society, then later became a member of MITSFS and NESFA, serving as Vice President of NESFA from 1970–72. He edited Volume I of the NESFA Hymnal in the late 1970s. He was Clerk of Arisia, Incorporated from 1990–92 and President from 1992–94. He is a practicing attorney and figures that if he practices long enough, he may get good at it.
Brian Lee Rust
Matt Ryan is the President of Free Lunch Comics. He has been a professional illustrator for over a decade. He founded Free Lunch Comics eleven years ago and still writes and draws the flagship title Bigger among other projects. Matt teaches several cartooning courses at the Free Lunch Studio and has in the past run programs and courses for the Farmington Valley Arts Center and the YMCA. Some of his freelance projects include Unhappy Granma and Stupor Powers, as well as various spot illustrations for medical journals and others.
Don Sakers was launched the same month as Sputnik One, so it was perhaps inevitable that he should become a science fiction writer. A Navy brat by birth, he spent his childhood in such far-off lands as Japan, Scotland, Hawaii, and California. In California, rather like a latter-day Mowgli, he was raised by dogs. As a writer and editor, he has explored the thoughts of sapient trees, brought ghosts to life, and beaten the "Cold Equations" scenario. In 2009, Don took up the position of book reviewer for Analog Science Fiction & Fact, where he writes the "Reference Library" column in every issue.
Carol Salemi
Douglas Schaub has been part of Reaper Miniatures' Black Lightning demo program for the past three years, and has run events at numerous area conventions and game stores.
Dori Schendell started to write about the world of Nexus Elements twelves years ago as a creative writing assignment in high school. After the assignment was done she kept writing about this world. She was in the middle of planning three books she would write when she realized she was a whole lot more interested in writing about the world instead of the characters. Coming home from a weekend LARP it hit her; she should write a LARP of her own using the Nexus Elements world. So it began, and after many long years of work she is ready to share her world and game with LARPers like herself.
Ian Schleifer
Mike Schneider joined the Programming Staff for Arisia two years ago. A long time activist, he has worked with many different types of organizations in the past. He was the Co-LC of Western MA Pagan Pride for five years, Hotel Liaison for Pi-Con for two years, and is a current board member of the Western MA Power Exchange. He is a graduate student of History and Public History at UMass Amherst. In his free time, Micah enjoys video and board gaming, geocaching and being polyamorous as often as possible. He lives in Springfield with his family of choice, a small menagerie of pets and far more books than any one person really needs.
Dr. Jason S. Schneiderman has a BS in Psychology from Stony Brook University and PhD in Neuroscience from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Over the last decade he has worked on a variety of research and educational projects sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Space Biomedical Research Institute, and NASA's Space and Life Sciences Directorate. His research has focused on the biological basis of psychiatric disorders, brain imaging techniques, and the effects of microgravity on the nervous system and his research has appeared in scientific journals including The Journal of Vestibular Research, Psychological Medicine, Biological Psychiatry, Neuropsychobiology and Schizophrenia Research. Currently, he is working at the Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School on using diffusion tensor MRI to study the white matter changes in the brain during the early stages of schizophrenia.
Jason Schneiderman has been in the hobby games industry since 1996, working both the creative and retail angles. Published credits include writing and editing for Green Ronin, Dream Pod 9, Malhavoc Press, White Wolf Publishing, and Wizard Entertainment. His involvement with gaming in general stretches back to the mid-80s, which makes him a mini-grognard. He reads. He watches media. He puns. He lives in Cambridge with his family of choice. He drinks copious quantities of coffee. And he spends an unusual amount of time talking back to movie screens.
Meredith Schwartz's short fiction appeared in Strange Horizons, Reflection's Edge, & the anthology Sleeping Beauty, Indeed. She edited Alleys & Doorways, an anthology of homoerotic urban fantasy, forthcoming from Lethe Press. She is screenwriter for Accidental Heroes, has been known to commit fanfiction, & ran Buffycon once upon a time.
Jason Scott
Gregory Seidman
Michael Seidman
Jay Sekora
Jude Shabry (aka peacefrog) attended her first Arisia in 1994 and hasn't been able to stay away since. She returns once more to guide forays up Mt. Arisia, into the labyrinth, and wherever else looks interesting. In her latest attempt to make science fiction a reality, she is preparing for the 2010 Boston Marathon. You can read about and support her training at http://run.peace.net.
Nicholas "phi" Shectman has chaired two each of Arisia and Somerville Open Studios, one of the largest Open Studios weekends in the country. Combining these interests, this is his second year as Arisia's Art Show director.
Hillary Sherwood is a filker, harper, knitter and needlepointer. She has been reading Science Fiction and Fantasy for as long as she can remember, and watching it for nearly as long. She is currently plotting her escape from NJ.
Cynthia A. Shettle—My current obsessions are Heroes and Kingdom of Loathing. Old favorite shows include Angel, Highlander and Misfits of Science. I roleplay with the Western Avenue Irregulars.
Rachel Silber
Michael Simon
Labels, labels everywhere! Some of those that fit Mistress Simone: sadist, pervert, fetishist, polyamorous, professional dominatrix, comic geek, Doctor Who affeciando, Battlestar watcher and old sci-fi lover, lifestyle educator, fetish performer,geek and kinkster. Current title holder of International Ms. Olympus 2009. Mistress Simone has been a lifestyle and professional Domina for seventeen years. Her community service has included the executive directorship of the LRA, Inc., GLLA 2006 and Illinois Leather Sir and boy 2007 judge, LA&M volunteer and giving educational discussions nationwide. Some of the events she has presented at include Kinky Kollege, NELA, Shibaricon, Galleria Domain 2 and DomCon. College lectures include Northwestern University, Loyola and University of Chicago. Seeking to expand her knowledge base, she tries to learn something new from each event, person and encounter she has. www.chicago-mistress.com
Jill R. Singer's earliest memories are of drawing and coloring, and has not stopped making things since. I sew clothes, bags, and quilts; and crochet little animals and hats. I am always doing something, whether it be dan zan ryu ju jitsu, israeli folkdancing, or music. I play flute, guitar, sing, and a little piano. In terms of science fiction and fantasy, I love all things joss whedon (I have seen all his series, and I have read all of his comic books), and am a voracious reader. Recent favorites include Mcmaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series and Scott Westerfelds's Uglies/Pretties/Specials series. When I'm not doing all that stuff, I'm a software engineer; designing and implementing user interfaces at AG Mednet in Boston. Lastly, I am a graduate of MIT; and tried to leave Boston but was drawn back and then promptly met my wonderful husband; I have been living here for the past 7 years.
Jamila Sisco is an award-winning costumer with a specialization in Anime costumes. She has worked on costumes for over 5 years and is a member of the Northern Lights chapter of the International Costumers' Guild.
David Sklar lives in Northern New Jersey with his wife, two kids, and a geriatric cat. His publications include work in Wormwood Review, Paterson Literary Review, and Space & Time, as well as the novella Shadow of the Antlered Bird. He is also coediting the conjoined anthology Trafficking in Magic/Magicking in Traffic for Drollerie Press.
Sarah Sloane is a sexuality & relationships educator from Washington, DC. She also writes and edits for various online magazines & features websites, and runs Equilibrium Consulting, which works with sex-positive educators, entrepreneurs, and others who need assistance to reach their professional goals. She's also thrilled to be at Arisia for her 40th birthday!
Sarah Smith's first YA, THE OTHER SIDE OF DARK, a ghost story about two Boston students on the trail of an enormous treasure, will appear in November from Atheneum/Simon & Schuster. She's also written CHASING SHAKESPEARES, THE VANISHED CHILD and THE KNOWLEDGE OF WATER (both NEW YORK TIMES Notable Books), A CITIZEN OF THE COUNTRY, and horror, SF, and hypertext short stories. She'll have a story in DEATH'S EXCELLENT VACATION (ed. Charlaine Harris and Toni Kelner, August). She is still working on that Titanic book. Visit her at www.sarahsmith.com and www.bookviewcafe.com, where a lot of her stories are free for the reading.
Elayna Jade Smolowitz—I am a second-generation geek, a writer, a singer, and an actress. I have had one short story ("Fire Blessing") published in Teen Ink Magazine. I'm an anime geek, a band geek, and a literature geek, and have a certain passion for musicals. Many of my short stories are stored in my journal on Gaia Online (gaiaonline.com), which is where I get much of my inspiration anyway.
While Everett Soares, the creator of Sky Pirates of Valendor, had been working on this concept for over 2 years, it truly did not come to life until he met Brian Brinlee, penciler for the project. In December 2006, the two were introduced and started working on concept sketches. Before they knew it, Everett's words came to life on Brian's 11 x 17 art boards. Four months and 8 pages later, they stumbled upon the chance of a lifetime, Small Press Idol. What occurred from there was beyond any of their expectations! Sky Pirates of Valendor finished the competition in 2nd Place. Shortly after, Free Lunch Comics extended an offer to publish the series, in a five-issue miniseries followed by a trade paperback. Besides his work on Sky Pirates, Everett is stretching his writing skills through a variety of pending projects, working with a group of talented artists. Everett is an active member of the Comicbook Artists Guild and lives in Rhode Island with his wife and dog.
Rachel Sommer signed up for filking and lifestyle panels because the life of a full-time mom (of two redheads under 5) and part-time admin assistant doesn't leave much time for research, especially as she does like to see her husband once a day. She did manage to write a 2000-word fanfic for yuletidetreasure.org (as tigerbright) during an unusually long nap from her toddler. She welcomes random discussions in elevator lobbies and is generally nice to newbies; look for the boringly-dressed redhead.
Michael Sprague
Julia Starkey is a geeky, mixed race, fat, queer feminist who brings her love of intersectionality to the many groups she is involved with. She is a second generation SFF fan who started watching Star Trek: TOS re-runs with her dad when she was young. She is part of Access staff for WisCon, and assists with programming/cat herding for WinCon. She has essays published in "The WisCon Chronicles" (vol. 3 & vol. 4) and "Lessons from the Fat-o-sphere" Julia is attempting to learn how to not over-commit herself.
Witch, Shaman, Professional Psychic, Metaphysical Engineer, and Reiki Master. Starwolf posses a vast, ecclectic store of knowledge, both Esoteric and Exoteric.
Allen Steele is an award-winning science fiction author, with sixteen novels and five collections to his credit. He is best known for the Coyote series; the latest volume, COYOTE DESTINY, will be published in March. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and dogs.
Lisa J. Steele
Lauren Stern is a sophomore at Sarah Lawrence College. She is co-chair of the college burlesque troupe and works as a producer, choreographer, and performer with the group. She has also been participating in historical dance for the past five years, and makes her own historical costumes as well as costumes for steampunk and movie recreations.
Tyler Stewart—Proud owner of Pandemonium Books & Games, Boston's specialty SF book and game store for over 20 years.
David K. Storrs
Ian Randal Strock
Julia Suggs
Jeremy Sullivan
Sonya Taaffe's poems and short stories have won the Rhysling Award, been shortlisted for the SLF Fountain Award and the Dwarf Stars Award, and been reprinted in such anthologies as The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, The Alchemy of Stars: Rhysling Award Winners Showcase, The Best of Not One of Us, Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2006, Best New Romantic Fantasy 2, and You Have Time for This: Contemporary American Short-Short Stories; a selection of her work can be found in Postcards from the Province of Hyphens and Singing Innocence and Experience (Prime Books). She holds master's degrees in Classics from Brandeis and Yale and recently named a Kuiper belt object.
Cecilia Tan is the author of the MAGIC UNIVERSITY erotic fantasy series, paranormal romance MIND GAMES, plus the books White Flames, Black Feathers, The Velderet, and Telepaths Don't Need Safewords. She is the founder and editor of Circlet Press, erotic science fiction and fantasy, and has edited anthologies for Alyson Books, Thunder's Mouth Press, Carroll & Graf, Ravenous Romance, and others. Her own stories have appeared everywhere from Asimov's to Ms. Magazine. www.ceciliatan.com
Timothy J. Tero—Tim is a painter and photographer and has traveled extensively. He has assisted on "Anime/Video Hell" at Arisia for quite a few years now. He is also an assistant organizer for the Boston International Arthouse Movie Meetup group.
Joye Thaller
Persis L. Thorndike—As the mother of a 14 year old accomplished Novice costumer and filker, I am busy sharing my sewing machines, singing, playing music, cooking good food for my extended family, and homeschooling my child; oh, I am also holding down two jobs ATM. I am not only raising a costumer, but have a background of sewing, organizing, music, and graphics; I collect children's literature; and read avidly. I have experience in fannish and music publishing, run non-profit charity auctions for Interfilk, a filk fan fund, and have been on the ConCom of the local Boston area gen and filk cons, and am currently Tech Mom to Arisia and Balticon. Free time? Overcommitted? Who, me? Don't tell me not to burn the candle at both ends, just tell me where to get more wax! (a Nancy Button in my collection.)
Webcomics pioneer Dirk Tiede is the creator of the graphic novel series, Paradigm Shift. In addition to print collections, he continues to serialize his comics online and is a founding contributor to premiere comics portal Modern Tales. His work is also showcased in the books Toon Art: The Art of Digital Comics and Webcomics, and appears in the documentary Adventures In Digital Comics. Dirk can be found at comic and anime shows around the country promoting his books. He relocated from Chicago to Boston's North Shore in 2008 where he continues to work as a professional cartoonist and freelance illustrator.
Betsy Tinney is S.J Tucker's cellist. She's been performing with SJ since 2006, both as a duo and as part of the trio Tricky Pixie (formed in 2007 with Alexander James Adams). Betsy is also a songwriter, artist, web designer, and part-time pixie.
Bill Todd—A veteran of conventions and games. Gaming manager for Noreascon 4, NEFE 08', and the gaming manager for Boskone. Also the owner of GCIACST, a convention news webcast company.
Michael Toole can't stop watching anime. He's got more than a decade of involvement in the scene under his belt, partaking in both journalistic endeavors (Animerica, Anime Insider, Sci-Fi Magazine to name a few) and doing work in the industry itself for the nascent Geneon Animation. Currently he's a sometime producer and onscreen personality for Anime News Network, the world's #1 anime website, and a regular reviewer and features writer for Otaku USA Magazine.
Thomas Traina is an attorney practicing law in Massachusetts. He has experience in the areas of labor law, business law, and practices in an area he likes to call "fandom law": legal issues of special interest to fandom, conventions & event hosts. Academically, he also focuses on civil liberties, constitutional law, speculative bioethics, and comparative law & government in science fiction. Tom got into science fiction through Star Wars, then Star Trek TNG, and snowballed from there. He is also an avid roleplayer and theatre-style LARP writer. When he can afford it, he also enjoys wargames.
Andy Trembley (together with his partner Kevin Roche) is the Arisia 2010 Fan Guest of Honor. Read all about him in the Souvenir Book and at www.bovil.com
S. J. Tucker, singer of songs and weaver of worlds, travels the United States year-round as leader of ever-evolving band Skinny White Chick. Evoking the Divine Feminine with joy, grace, and downright silliness, this Firebird's Child changes minds, hearts, and lives with her particular blend of music, magic, and mischief.
Bonnie Barlow Turner
James Turner, contributing editor for oreilly.com, is a freelance journalist who has written for publications as diverse as the Christian Science Monitor, Processor, Linuxworld Magazine, Developer.com and WIRED Magazine. In addition to his shorter writing, he has also written two books on Java Web Development ("MySQL & JSP Web Applications" and "Struts: Kick Start"). He is the former Senior Editor of LinuxWorld Magazine and Senior Contributing Editor for Linux Today. He has also spent more than 25 years as a software engineer and system administrator, and currently works as a Senior Software Engineer for a company in the Boston area. He lives in a 200 year old Colonial farmhouse in Derry, NH along with his wife and son. He is an open water diver and instrument-rated private pilot.
Catherynne Valente
Eric M. Van was Program Chair or Chair Emeritus for all 20 Readercons, and has been working on a novel, Imaginary, almost the entire time. His observations on Philip K. Dick have appeared in the New York Review of Science Fiction. At the turn of the millennium he spent four years back at Harvard studying psychology, and has renewed a lifelong interest in theoretical physics (his original major there). He also writes film and rock criticism, online and for local 'zines. In the real world, he is a former statistical consultant for the Boston Red Sox, and lives in Watertown, Mass.
James B. Van Bokkelen
Mark L. Van Name is a writer and technologist. As a science fiction author, he's published three novels—One Jump Ahead, Slanted Jack, and Overthrowing Heaven—edited or co-edited two anthologies—Intersections: The Sycamore Hill Anthology, and Transhuma—and written many short stories. Those stories have appeared in a wide variety of books and magazines, including Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, many original anthologies, and The Year's Best Science Fiction. As a technologist, he's the CEO of a technology assessment company, Principled Technologies, Inc., that's based in the Research Triangle area. He's worked with computer technology for his entire professional career and has published over a thousand articles in the computer trade press, as well as a broad assortment of essays and reviews.
Mercy E. Van Vlack
Alicia "Kestrell" Verlager
Mark Waks
JeffWarner stands accused of: being a President of the SF Forum, of conduct remotely responsible for the death of Lastcon, of inventing "Panel in the Pool" for Pi-con, of running the Nexus at Arisia many times, of not being JeffMach, of accepting 'field promotions' at various WorldCons, of having been a "Special Assistant" to the Shirt & Pants of Lunacon, of being a published writer, and of committing the SMOF Hat Trick of helping start 3 SF conventions. He pleads Insanity.
A longtime fan of SF/F, John C. Watson was infected with the anime and manga bug in the early 1990s, and remains a virulent carrier of all three.
Abigail Weiner
Susan Weiner is a biology Ph.D. student, a LARP writer with Alleged Entertainment, a fiddle player, a songwriter and somehow also manages to date far too many people. She's not exactly sure how she does all that either.
Christopher Weuve is a professional wargame designer and naval analyst. Chris spent the first few years of the 21st century at the Center for Naval Analyses, where supported the US Navy by designing wargames and hunting submarines. Since joining the research faculty of the US Naval War College in 2005, he has specialized in the use of wargaming as a research tool. Chris spends his spare time reading science fiction and history, pondering the differences between science fiction and Real-World(tm) naval forces and combat, and moderating several mailing lists (including SFConsim-L, NavWarGames and Exordium-L). He also claims credit as the founder of the Society for the Conservation of Angular Momentum, although he admits that was an accident.
Alan Wexelblat
Michelle Wexelblat
Nightwing Whitehead
Michael Whitehouse
Kevin Kevin Wiley is S.J. Tucker's flame-slinging, laptop-wielding, mad-tetris-packing partner and companion for her perpetual year-round musical tours. Managing everything from graphic design to event logistics to merchandise development to working the wonders of the world wide web, "K" is SJ's man, Friday through Thursday.
Rejected by both his Morlock and his Eloi playmates, Stephen R. Wilk was banished into the distant past, our present, where it was hoped he would do no harm. Unable to cash in on the results of Chariot Races and Consul Elections he'd memorized, he was forced to work as an Optical Engineer. In his spare time he writes "The Light Touch" for OPN and for The Spectroscope, and produces the occasional book. He has appeared on the History Channel's "Clash of the Gods", but we're hoping no one will notice.
Jennifer Williams is an editor by day and a writer by night. She is currently doing an internship at Circlet Press and has two forthcoming anthologies as editor; Like a Sacred Desire: Tales of Sex Magick and Like Myth Made Flesh. Her work has most recently appeared in Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes, a print anthology by Coscom Entertainment and in Women of the Bite: Lesbian Vampire Erotica edited by Cecilia Tan. She is an active member of the New England Horror Writers Association.
Trish Wilson publishes with the pen name Elizabeth Black. Her erotic fiction has been published by Circlet, Excessica, Xcite (U. K.), Torquere, Romance Divine, Whiskey Creek Press Torrid, Scarlet Magazine (U. K.), Tit-Elation, For The Girls, and Xodtica. Most of her stories are very erotic romantic comedies, but she has a couple of darker erotic paranormal and horror stories under her belt. Newly released: "Feral Heat", a m/m, m/m/f, werewolf erotica published by Romance Divine. Her first book with Whiskey Creek Press Torrid entitled "The Haunting Of The Sandpiper Inn" was released in June, 2009. In August, 2009, Xcite Books in the U. K. published "Ultimate Curves", in which her erotic story "The Beautiful Move In Curves" appeared. In late 2009, Brown Paper Bag Books/Fanny Press will publish her paranormal erotic romance novel "An Unexpected Guest".
Attorney, occasional writer and all around fan, James A. Wolf was known as Dungeon Master Jim on the Toucher and Rich show on WBCN, when there was a WBCN. He is presently shopping novels and plotting trouble.
The Wombat, aka jan howard finder, has been reading SF for more than 60 years & active in SF circles for more than 35. He chaired 7 events. He has been a GoH at a number of cons including CONFRANCISCO, the 1993 Worldcon. He participates in, judged & MC's masquerades, a superb auctioneer & gives the best backrubs. He has been published & has published. He has divers interests, a budding film career & visited Middle-earth & saving the world with SUTs. He is a neat guy. Buy him a Pepsi!
Lisa Wood
Bey Woodward has been invloved in fandom for more than 7 years. She is part of the Boston area Poly and Kink communities, has been a member of the Naughty Nurses since their inception in 2005, and is married to gaming book author, Jonathan L. Woodward.
Jonathan Woodward is the author or co-author of over a dozen roleplaying game books, including the Hellboy RPG, Trinity, and GURPS Banestorm. This convention marks his 17th year as an Arisia panelist. He lives near Boston with his wife, Bey Woodward.
Trisha Wooldridge is a freelance writer, editor and educator from Auburn, MA with experience ranging from Dungeons & Dragons Online to animal rescue public relations. She writes about food, wine, horses, haunted locations, teaching, and she interviews bands like Voltaire, Within Temptation and Nightwish. She is on the Motherboard of Broad Universe, an international organization promoting women writers in speculative fiction, and an active member of the New England Horror Writers and the Editorial Freelancers Association. Additionally, she is an online tutor, course editor and course developer for CODiE Award winning Smarthinking and StraighterLine. You can find her novella, "Mirror of Hearts," at FANTASY GAZETTEER(www.fantasygazetteer.com), and short story, "Party Crashers," co-authored with long time friend Christy Tohara, in the EPPIE Award winning BAD-ASS FAERIES: JUST PLAIN BAD. www.anovelfriend.com
Corvus Woolf
Ray Worley
Phoebe Wray's futurist novel JEMMA7729 was a Top Ten finisher in last year's Preditors&Editors poll and enjoys 5 stars on Amazon. Her stories are in Farthing, Andromeda Spaceways, the anthology "Backless, Strapless & Slit to the Throat," online at Fables.org and chizine. She serves on the Motherboard of Broad Universe and lives in Massachusetts.
Banished into an alternate dimension, Brianna Spacekat Wu spent most of her childhood in the great, great progressive State of Mississippi. She could sometimes hear her mother quietly sobbing, reading books like "Dealing With the Strong-Willed Child." She drew girly-girl art obsessively to the point that her parents sent her to a psychologist. Brianna attended the University of Mississippi and majored in Journalism, with a minor in Political Science. She's never taken an art class of any kind, yet found it was her skills with Adobe that repeatedly kept her employed. "I'm sometimes told I draw unrealistic body types. Too tall and too thin," says Brianna. "But, I'm 6 feet tall and 3 pounds from being clinically underweight. They seem pretty realistic to me."
Frank Wu is an award-winning artist, writer and animator. He's married to fellow artist / costumer / gamer Brianna Spacekat Wu. Frank's art has materialized in many magazines and books. Frank won the Illustrators of the Future Grand Prize and four Hugo Awards. He also has four scientific papers to his credit, along with humor published in The Journal of Irreproducible Results and The Annals of Improbable Research. His current project is Guidolon the Giant Space Chicken, which is a movie about a giant space chicken making a movie about a giant space chicken. When not creating stuff, Frank can be found hanging out with monks, hunting for mastodon bones in New Mexico and dinosaur bones and fish fossils in Wyoming, holding Laura Palmer's diary, riding in banana-shaped mopeds, touching art when the museum guards aren't looking, searching for a river of molten lava to drop keys into, or walking the earth, meeting people, getting into adventures, you know, like Caine in Kung Fu.
Tom Wysmuller—Please use last year's Bio again!
Aimee Yermish
James Zavaglia—I have worked with the media since the age of 15. I currently work at a local university as a media specialist. I have also helped on political campaigns since age 9, and worked on everything from ward councilor to president.
John F. Zmrotchek
Beth Zuckerman is a veteran fan of 27 years, with over two decades of regular con attendance. She is primarily a fan of hard science fiction novels, and is most interested in works that have some sort of moral lesson or social commentary. She has degrees in English and philosophy, and so tends to approach science fiction works from a literary or philosophical standpoint. Beth is a belly dancer, a trapeze dancer, a cyclist, a photographer and a board gamer. She is often found at cons holding cue cards in an elevator.
Eric Zuckerman is not a real talk show host, but he plays one on TV. His fannish semi-improv comedy project, "Eric in the Elevator" has screened at regional West Coast conventions, several WorldCons, and Arisia, where he was 2008 Fan Performer GoH. Among his many other nerdly pursuits, he's a geocacher, a gamer, an armchair "fanthropologist", and a compulsive ribbon collector/trader.