Program Participant Bios
Generated: Wed Jan 16 12:13:32 EST 2013
Marc Abrahams is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. The prizes, awarded each year since 1991, honor achievements that make people laugh, then think. He is also editor and co-founder of the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, a weekly columnist for The Guardian newspaper, and the author of several books. His web site and blog are at www.improbable.com
Samantha Acampora
At age 81, Martha Adams realizes that some successes are not survivable, and retirement is one of these. She is developing a large webpage titled Adra at www.mhada.info, the work of which is mostly text about 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… And she finds her science fiction reading, since about the summer of 1944, very helpful for coping with today's disturbed economics and politics.
Heather Albano is the author of the novel Timepiece (a steampunk time-travel adventure about a girl, a pocket watch, Frankenstein's monster, the Battle of Waterloo, and giant clockwork robots taking over London) and its sequel Timekeeper. She also works as a game designer for Choice of Games, co-writing (among others) the award-winning Choice of Broadsides and Choice of Zombies. Her short fiction has appeared in Electric Velocipede, Aoife's Kiss, the More Scary Kisses anthology from Ticonderoga Publications, and others. She is a member of the Cambridge Science Fiction Workshop, a member of Women in Games (Boston), and a graduate of the Clarion Writers' Workshop.
Dawn Albright is involved in many different areas of fandom. She's a short story writer, editor of anthologies (New Altars and Vision Quest), a dollmaker and costumer. Her most recent project is a web journal called Polu Texni which can be found at http://www.polutexni.com. Her dollmaking site is www.dollmaking.org.
Laura Amazeen-LaPlante—I'm an artist and teacher. I love photography, pottery, and mix-media. I have been teaching art for the last four years. I'm also a frequent con-goer with a love of Steampunk, web comics, and costumes!
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 lives in the future, right now. Both of his daughters read genre fiction. His cats remain aloof.
Thomas A. Amoroso, MD, MPH is a practicing emergency physician, health policy analyst, and has been a fan of fantasy and science fiction since his junior high librarian pointed him to Harry Harrison after he found Andre Norton on his own. After that, he devoured everything he could find in the limited libraries available in Europe for English language SF. Despite all of that, it took him way too many years to find the rest of organized fandom. He firmly believes in the power of human thinking to get us through crises; he just wishes we'd use some of it to avoid crises instead. He cannot wait for the autodoc so he can stop being a doctor because what he really wants to do is direct. All other aspects of science are just as fascinating, and he's fully prepared to expound on the scientific method, the uses and limits of statistics, and why most people aren't able to adequately judge scientific issues, even though it just isn't that hard.
Casey Amos
Taken broadly, Erik Amundsen has had an interesting life; he's been a baker, an itinerant schoolteacher, worked for two governments, and gotten in bar fights overseas. He now lives at the foot of a cemetery in central Connecticut where he writes nasty little stories and poems that shuffle around in the night when he's not looking. Or at least he hopes it's them; something's got to be making those noises and it's not the furnace. A few of them have made it to Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine, Goblin Fruit, Three Crow Press, and Cabinet des Fees.
Marion Anderson
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 that there's no such thing as free speech if you don't use it.
Andrew Anselmo has been creating and folding origami for over 20 years, and has been a street performer for over 10 years at Waterfire (Providence, RI) as well as at Faneuil Hall, Boston Common, and many other venues. He also has taught origami at local libraries and museums throughout New England. www.flappingbird.com.
Cindy Arias
Inanna Arthen is an artist, speaker and author of The Vampires of New England Series (http://vampiresofnewengland.com): Mortal Touch (2007), The Longer the Fall (2010) and All the Shadows of the Rainbow (2012). Inanna is a lifelong scholar of vampire folklore, fiction and fact, and runs By Light Unseen Media (http://bylightunseenmedia.com), an independent press dedicated to publishing vampire fiction and nonfiction. She is a member of Broad Universe, New England Horror Writers, Horror Writers Association, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE). She holds an M.Div degree from Harvard and is an outspoken advocate for the Pagan and LGBT communities.
Dash—I am an attorney, editor, linguist, and social justice activist. I am the founder and editor-in-chief of Expanded Horizons, a monthly online speculative fiction magazine whose mission is to increase diversity in speculative fiction and to create a venue for the authentic expression of under-represented voices in the genre. In all my work, I try to use my skills, talents, sensitivities, and awarenesses to bring people together to prevent and solve problems and to promote social justice. I want to fight the "fear of the other" with every tool at my disposal, and to show people that there is nothing so esoteric as cannot also be completely normal.
Lisa A. Ashton is a Master-level costumer from Maryland. 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's entry was "Victorian Tiki Calypso", which almost caused her to fall over upon wining Best In Show. She lives for costuming, beads, and hunting, and in mundane life is an Emergency PA. Current interests include collecting Victorian photo cards and researching clothing of the period. She is a frequent contributor to "The Virtual Costumer" with articles about Victorian clothing research, and did the best she has ever done with her quilts in the Montgomery County Fair this past summer.
Erika Attaya
John Bacon bio
Kaylee Baglezz
Krista Baker
Joe Ball
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. She is an active member of the Boston Comics Roundtable. Her comic books are sold across the country. She teaches Basic Cartooning at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.
Steven Barnes
Richard E. Bartlett
Howard G. Beatman—I have been interested in comic books since 1959, science fiction since 1966, and going to conventions since 1974. I have attended all the Arisias and took my nephew to Arisia for four consecutive years—the next generation of nerds is well in hand!
Shonna Beckett
Gabrielle Belisle
Jessie Belisle—Sci-Fi/Sword & Sorcery Geek, garb maven, cosplayer, Haute Couture intermediate, Shutterbug, Poet, published online writer, beginner gamer, and proud studier of things that make it difficult for her to sleep at night. Pagan ala Carte, and Student of Life.
Marc Belisle
Kevin Benoit
Nick Bento
Greta Biedermann
Caroline Bigelow
Tamsyn Bindal
Elizabeth Birdsall
Manuela Birner
Laura Blake
W. "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/eastern martial arts, LARPs and costuming, Gaming (video & RPG), historical re-enactment, and flinching whenever a "re-imagined" movie/TV show is announced. His current project is running a Bronze Age/Fantasy GURPS Campaign for his daughter and her friends, which is rapidly spiraling out of control.
Jenn Bliss
Corey Blumenthal—Hello folks! This is my second year participating at Arisia. I'm a writer, horse trainer, collector of BJDs, and a stained glass artist. Stained glass has been a hobby of mine since I was nine years old and had to stand on a bucket to reach the table, and BJDs are a more recent interest that has my wallet in tears but my addiction to character creation sated (almost). I write mostly in the fantasy/science-fiction genre and hope to become published sometime in the near future.
Matt Bosse
Aimee Bouchard is a bi, poly, kinky, geeky, hippie, crafty, girly sort of gal.
Thomas Boutilier's awesomosity is unparalleled. I read science fiction and adventure stories. I have lead panels here at Arisia and run entire tracks at other conventions. The farthest I have traveled for a convention is from Boston to Vancouver, B.C. for Creation's Stargate conventions.
Angela K. Bowen—After the first Arisia I attended, I was hooked. I had so much fun that I had to come back, and I have not missed a year since. I am a costume person; I learned to sew by working a bit in a sweatshop factory in Mississippi, sewing my little heart out. I ran into the SCA in Montana (my home state) and put those sewing skills to work. (Yep, I joined so I would have a place to wear a costume… ) When I moved to the Boston area I took up belly dancing (more costuming with beads) which led to drumming; I play a mid-eastern drum called a Doumbek and a frame drum called a Tar. I have volunteered in many areas at Arisia, a little bit here and there. I have helped with the period dances for a few years and most recently the Friday night drum and dance session.
John Bowker has a history of writing things, editing things, and occasionally talking about things, all of which combine to prove the old chestnut that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Reports that he wears a spandex uniform under his clothing are greatly exaggerated; but the tall buildings/speeding bullet thing? Totally true.
Bridget Joyce Boyle has held many positions from gopher to div. head at many types of cons. As a transplanted Philadelphian, she makes her home in Merrimack, NH. A mother of 3 girls, an Artist and a dreamer, she has instructed Computer Literacy and Graphics Programs for years. She avidly supports sexual orientation equality for all people and firmly believes all citizens deserve equal rights. She enjoys her first Life and Second Life, and SF across the mediascape.
Anna R. Bradley is a gamer, LARPer, costumer, and volunteering junkie. This year she is also co-divhead for StaffServices here at Arisia.
James Bredt—I was one of two technical founders of Z Corporation, which makes 3D Printers, and hold over 20 issued patents in 3DP technology. I have taught numerous courses at MIT, from freshman chemistry to capstone lab classes in materials science. Presently I work for Viridis3D developing engineering ceramic materials for 3D Printing. I published a cartoon introduction to classical thermodynamics, and I am presently working on a sequel covering introductory quantum mechanics.
Adrianne Brennan 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. Adrianne's works were previously published through Aphrodite's Apples Press and are now published through Freya's Bower, Love You Divine, Running Press/Constable & Robinson, and Torquere Press. In addition, she is a member of EPIC, Infinite Worlds of Fantasy Authors, the Midnight Seductions Authors group, and 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.
Linda Brennan
Kate Brick is a fan with a fan husband and three fan kids who like to do crafts. In her professional life she is a metaphorical cat herder. In Fastrack that counts for something, right?
Darrell Brown
Kendra Brown
Tristan Brown
Charlene Brusso has worked as a physicist, astronomer, and scientific programmer, as well as a janitor, baker, writing teacher, and museum curator's assistant. Her fiction, published in Fantasy Magazine, Amazing Stories, and other places, has been recommended for the Nebula. Her articles, reviews, and interviews have appeared in Publishers Weekly, Ad Astra,Scholastic Science, ASK and Appleseeds magazines, Space.com, Black Gate, and others. Currently she juggles writing with wrangling a very active 11-year-old son.
Nat Budin plays guitar, cello, and sings with the band Stranger Ways. He has also written and run over a dozen LARPs, has served as con chair of Intercon I in 2009 and the first three Festival of the LARPs conventions at Brandeis University, and writes open source software in the Ruby on Rails community. Basically, Nat does all the things.
Michael Lee Budlong
Liz Cademy is a Professional Polymath, specializing in nothing at all. In a previous life, Liz sat in a small, padded cubicle under a nameplate that read "Financial Analyst". Now, she is designated driver to a teen and a preteen, runs a web and graphic design business, Polymath Solution, writes ebooks, designs and sells t-shirts (as Cartesian Bear Industries), sews, knits (and designs patterns for both), makes chain mail, and works at science fiction cons. She lives in the woods with her two kids and a cat who hasn't chosen itself yet.
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 on the cover of Roberta Rogow's 1800's murder mystries. Cameron speaks on a variety of topics and is frequently in the company of Dagnir, his dragon.
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. His most recent work includes the story "Object Three" in the November/December 2011 issue of F&SF, and the forthcoming game sourcebook Weird War I, from Pinnacle Entertainment. His novel A Darkling Sea, from Tor Books, is due out in 2013.
Kara Cancelliere
Jon Cannon
Karin Carlson
Grant Carrington—Website: grantcarrington.freeyellow.com; Associate Editor, Amazing, Fantastic, 1971–74; Contributing Editor, Eternity, 1978–79. 20–30 SF stories published, 1970–2011. Nebula finalist, 1976. One novel, Time's Fool, Doubleday, 1981. 2 CDs—Songs Without Wisdom, 2001; Ancient Laughter, 2011 (available at CD Baby). 5 plays produced in Baltimore. Computer Programmer—NASA, 1962–68; Savannah River Ecology Lab, 1977–80.
Eric Carter
Jeffrey A. Carver was a Nebula Award finalist for his novel Eternity's End. He also wrote Battlestar Galactica, a novelization of the acclaimed television miniseries. His novels combine thought-provoking characters with engaging storytelling, and range from the adventures of the Star Rigger universe (Star Rigger's Way, Dragons in the Stars, and others) to the character-driven hard SF of The Chaos Chronicles (beginning with Neptune Crossing). All his books and stories are available in ebook format. A native of Huron, Ohio, Carver lives with his family in the Boston area. He has taught writing in a variety of settings, from educational television to conferences for young writers to MIT, as well as his occasional Ultimate Science Fiction Workshop with Craig Shaw Gardner. He has created a free web site for aspiring authors of all ages at www.writesf.com. Learn more about the author and his work at www.starrigger.net.
Hugh Casey is a writer, actor, filmmaker, photographer, and event promoter living in King of Prussia, PA. He's 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 on YouTube.com. Hugh is a longtime fan of science fiction and fantasy, and has been part of fandom for many years. He has been the president and vice-president of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society (PSFS), as well as on the board of directors. He was chairman of the Society's annual conference, PHILCON, in 2003, and vice-chairman in 2002. He is currently the head of programming for Philcon. He attends, and is often a panelist at, many cons and events, such as Arisia, Balticon, and Wicked Faire. In 2010 he was the "Guest of Awesome" at 5 Pi-Con. You can find him online at http://www.hughcasey.com, or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Hugh.A.Casey.
Ann Catelli is member of the local chapter of the International Costumers Guild, Northern Lights Costumers Guild. She competes at the master level in F&SF and Historic Masquerades, and plays with cloth, string, and dolls.
Mary Catelli is a writer whose work has appeared in Sword and Sorceress anthologies and Weird Tales, and is forthcoming in Black Gate. 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 the Odyssey Writing Workshops Charitable Trust, which offers a highly regarded summer in-person workshop in NH and winter online classes for writers of SF/F/H. (www.jeannecavelos.com)
Aurora Celeste is a costume dabbler with more than 10 years of experience. Her costuming interests are all over, but her passion is reproducing costumes; mostly sci-fi and fantasy movies, tv shows, anime, manga, and Joseph Michael Linsner's Dawn. She gives panels and enters masquerades all over the country, has won Best in Show at Costume Con 24, and is currently serving as Vice President of the International Costumers' Guild Board of Directors. Outside of costuming, Aurora can often be seen running conventions. She has served as staff on many conventions, including DragonCon in Atlanta and a con head at Naka-Kon Anime Convention in Kansas City. Visit her costuming blog at www.dramaticthreads.com.
Laura Ceredona
Sandy Charron
Eve Chaussee
Brian Chin
Bob Chipman—Creator, producer and host of Escape to The Movies and The Big Picture on escapistmagazine.com; and The Game OverThinker on screwattack.com
Karen Christians
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 her division. In her free time, she raises her infant twins, reads SF & F and fanfic, plays boardgames and computer games, debates medical ethics, and slaves away on the Arisia Dealers Row.
Vikki Ciaffone is a senior editor for Spencer Hill Press and the Editor-in-Chief of Spence City. She has been reading and writing since she was tall enough to see over the coffee table. Now that she can see over the kitchen counters, she still loves both, and now edits as well. She is personally responsible for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (she apologizes, but all the salacious gossip was untrue, and the populace was obsessed with Pictionary and Charades, two games Vikki abhors). She then turned her attention to Troy and, once again, engineered its downfall in her quest to burn out the Pictionary Plague. She claims no responsibility for Pompeii or the Fall of Rome, though she might possibly have had something to do with the sun setting on the British Empire. In her spare time, Vikki has been known to shoot craps with the Fates and the Valkyries for shiny trinkets.
Matt Cicero
Stephanie Clarkson (smc@stephanieclarkson.com), sometimes called thespian, has been attending Arisia since 1992. Though she has lived in Toronto; Rockville, MD; Arlington, VA; Raleigh, NC; and Atlanta, GA; she always feels compelled to get to Arisia. Fortunately, she now lives in the Boston area. A web developer, puppeteer & creator, journalist/copywriter, and most recently a bartender, she is free to hire or flirt with. http://stephanieclarkson.com
Byron P. Connell, a longtime SF and costuming fan, is a historian by training. He likes to help at masquerades rather than entering them—entering once a decade is about right! However, since being part of the Torcon III best-in-show entry, when he does enter, he does so in the Master division. Byron has run masquerades at the 2002 Arisia, several Costume-Cons and Philcons, as well as the Anticipation and Chicon 7 masquerades. He is a member of the Sick Pups (New Jersey-New York Costumers' Guild), the SLUTs (St. Louis Ubiquitous Tailoring Society), and the Armed Costumers' Guild; that makes him an Armed SLUT Puppy! Byron is a past President of the International Costumers' Guild, which honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. He likes hard SF, alternate history, alternate worlds, and fantasy (not necessarily in that order).
Tina Connell has been a SF reader for over 50 years, although she didn't discover conventions until 20 years later. She is mostly active in costume fandom, assisting backstage in the contestants' Green Room, occasionally as a judge and infrequently as a contestant. She has won costume awards at regional conventions, WorldCons and Costume-Cons, and competes as a Master. Her SF tastes are eclectic, although she is especially fond of alternate history and military SF. She and her husband also collect SF art, although their many bookcases limit the available wall space to display it.
Patrick Connelly
Emily Coombs is both a scientist and slightly mad, some days more than others.
C.S.E. Cooney is a writer and performer based in Westerly, Rhode Island. Last May she appeared at the National Arts Centre of Canada in a stage adaptation of her novella "Braiding the Ghosts" for the Ottawa Storytellers Association. Her fiction can be found in Rich Horton's Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy (2011 and 2012), Clockwork Phoenix 3, SteamPowered 2, at Apex, Subterranean, Strange Horizons, Podcastle, and Ideomancer. Her novella Jack o' the Hills and her poetry collection How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes are available for purchase on Amazon through Papaveria Press. She was the recipient of the Rhysling Award in 2011.
Tom Courtney
Sandy Coyne
Sandy Cronin-Tassi
A life-long fan of science fiction and fantasy literature, Morgan Crooks is currently looking for agents to represent his completed novel Slant Space. A history teacher for a local middle school, Morgan is fascinated by speculative fiction's power to make far-off worlds and distant times familiar and the present seem radically weird.
Ainsley-Aude Croteau
Susan Hanniford Crowley, science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal romance author, is a member of SFWA and RWA, and an associate editor with Space and Time Magazine. Susan's fantasy work appeared in Sword and Sorceress anthologies, and her science fiction story "She Came to Sing" appeared in (Jan. 2009) Beyond Centauri Magazine. In addition, Susan is the founder of the Nights of Passion blog and the author of the Vampires in Manhattan series. Her releases from Tease Publishing LLC are the 4th in the series, Vampire in the Basement; her mythology romance, Poseidon's Catch; and her steampunk romance, Mrs. Bright's Tea Room. The Stormy Love Life of Laura Cordelais, Poseidon's Catch, and Mrs. Bright's Tea Room are now available in print. All her current work is available in Kindle. Her website is http://www.susanhannifordcrowley.com, her twitter name is SHCrowley, and her Facebook name is Susan Hanniford Crowley.
Elaine Cunningham is a New York Times best-selling fantasy author, best known for her work in licensed settings such as the Forgotten Realms, Star Wars, and Pathfinder Tales. Her publications include twenty-five books, three dozen short stories, and a graphic novel. In addition to her continuing work in traditional publishing, she ventured into the world of digital publishing with her e-riginal fantasy series Tales of Sevrin. Other digital originals include MOONCAST SHADOW, which continues the story begun in her Changeling Detective novels (published by Tor Books), and PAYBACK'S A WITCH, the first in a new urban fantasy series that chronicles the misadventures of "bad witch" Finola Green.
Lauren Czaplyski
Michelle D'Entremont—Mijan has been active as a fan writer, costumer, and convention geek since 2003. Primary fandoms include Star Trek, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. As a self-identified queer person, Mijan has a particular interest in GLBTQ issues as they relate to fan activities, particularly issues of gender identity and gender expression in social structures, writing, and fandom itself. Serving seven years in the Army under DADT has given Mijan a unique insight into certain aspects of social justice and civil liberties. Despite being a student of world religions and active in a UU congregation, Mijan is a scientist, skeptic, and social secularist who feels that this is an essential perspective too often ignored in the political arena. In real life (what's real?), Mijan is a biologist who has worked in biomedical research in positions ranging from HAZMAT to laboratory management, and is now persuing a career in EMS and while writing original queer fiction on the side.
Evie Da Rosa
Garen Daly has been in the dark for more years than acceptable. First as an award winning film booker and exhibitor then as a movie industry analyst and commentator. He is a regular contributor to WGBH, NH Public Radio and several other medai outlets. Perhaps he is best known as the producer of The Boston Science Fiction Film Festival. Now in its 38th year, the sci-fi fest runs Feb. 8–18, 2013 at the Somerville Theatre. It's 9 days of sci-fi films submitted from around the world all ending on with a 24 hour film marathon on Feb 17. Visit the web site, BostonSci-fi.com for ticket and submission info. Because he's lazy and needs to stay out of bars, Garen is spending his free time by making a movie. It's a documentary on the legendary Orson Welles Cinema Complex. If you have an OWC story and want to be in the film, track him down and chat him up.
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.
Alexander C. Danner is a writer of comics and co-author of the textbook Character Design for Graphic Novels. He teaches "Writing the Graphic Novel" at Emerson College. His comics can be found online at TwentySevenLetters.com (experiments) and PictureStoryTheater.com (fables and fairy tales).
Brandy Danner is the Head of Teen Services at the Wilmington Memorial Library in Wilmington, MA. She has experience developing child- and teen-friendly graphic novel collections in public libraries. Her first book, Dark Futures: A Genre Guide to Dystopian, Apocalyptic, and Post-Apocalyptic Teen Books and Media, was published by VOYA Press in 2012.
Jim Dattolo
Charlie Davidson
Evan Davidson
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.)
Kelly Davis
Ken Davis
T. Christopher Davis—An avid gamer (role-playing and miniatures) and reader (Sci-Fi and fantasy, mainly) since early adolescence, Chris is now an amateur game designer and writer, as the love for the written word has grabbed hold and taken control of his soul. Now he only hopes to find a buyer for what he loves to write so that he may do much more of it.
A freelance writer for such entertainment publications as Variety, The Los Angeles Times, and Moving Pictures Magazine, Randee Dawn recently published "Home for the Holidays," her first collection of short stories. The collection—which runs the gamut from speculative fiction to memoir—includes her first zombie story, originally podcast by "Well-Told Tales." She is also a co-author (with Susan Green) of The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion, which published in September 2009, and produces for the Web at sites including MSNBC.com. She will write in exchange for bacon.
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 and recently as director of the 2012 Hugo Award Ceremony. Susan is a reviewer for Publishers Weekly and a social dance historian. She 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 and in Russia. 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 plays high-speed online Scrabble.
Freyja Dean
Roger Dean
Keith R. A. DeCandido
Chris DeKalb
Patrick Delahanty is best known as the creator of AnimeCons.com, the largest source of anime convention information on the Internet. The site has expanded into FanCons.com to cover more than just anime cons. Patrick is also the founder and host of The Chibi Project where he conducts experiments on toys for fun and amusement, and publishes those experiments as a podcast. Patrick is big fan of conventions. He has attended over 100 of them in the last 10 years, at most of which he has cosplayed. He is one of the founders of both Anime Boston and Providence Anime Conference. Patrick has hosted his popular improv comedy event, Anime Unscripted, more than 30 times at 11 different conventions in 2 countries and 4 time zones. Additionally, Patrick is also the voice of the fighter pilots in the award-winning game Escape Velocity, and its sequel, EV: Override. You should follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/pdelahanty.
Chris Denmead runs a horror-themed radio show on WCUW 91.3 FM called the Dr.Chris Radio of Horror program. He has broadcast over 325 episodes as of Arisia 2013, covering horror and sci-fi films and interviews of various stars of genre fiction. Some of his past guests include Malcolm McDowell, Doug Jones, Dee Wallace Stone, Steve Niles, Doug Bradley, and Adam Green. He just published his first book, a Childrens Halloween picture book Give Me Something Good to Eat.
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 60 short stories—Dern Grim Children's Short Bedtime Stories (Few of Which End Well), intended to be Morally Instructive to the Listener and Cathartically Therapeutic for the Reader (www.DernGrim.com)—plus Jewish-themed YA urban fantasies and 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—Gentleman Scholar, has been studying the weird and the fantastic (or, to use the term he coined, "Memetic Archaeology") for nearly four decades, and enjoys speaking about his studies at conventions across Southern New England.
Alexa Dickman—A law student and blogger who runs the Ladies Making Comics tumblr (http://ladiesmakingcomics.tumblr.com). Also a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable and an avid comics historian who runs the Women in Comics Wiki (http://womenincomics.wikia.com).
Mimi Dietrich-Wu
Amanda Dings
Samantha Dings—Tech Division Events Liaison for Arisia '13. Past President of Arisia Corporation. Fan of Doctor Who, enjoys online Who fandom, and a fan of Star Trek, original and Next Gen.
Sara Dion
Sean Dixon-Gumm—I'm a former-current-quasi professional historian with a penchant for homebrew, Irish music, punk rock, and living history. If it goes boom in the night, or if it was commonplace over 100 years ago, chances are I either know about it, want to know about it, or have tried to make it work. Oh, and I like sewing things.
Ira Domnitz "The Texas Quilt" Domnitz is an IP attorney practicing in Houston, Texas, or wherever needs be. He is self-proclaimed Old School Doctor Who expert, Pre-80's comic fan, Peanuts and Popeye funny paper aficionado, and science fiction and fantasy fan. Ira wrote a 400+ page vampire novel while a senior in college "because he was bored." Professionally, Ira has worked with his clients in the field of entertainment in vetting scripts and obtaining funding, movie contracts, copyright and trademark protections. The proud father of two "nerdlings" who won the costume contest at Apollocon 2010 as Dr. Who Jr. and Leela Jr. (age 4.5 and 3 respectively), Ira is proud to be a participant in this year's events. Ira is also the drummer for "$.50 Drink Night Featuring the Velvet Jus," a cover band in Houston. Ira says, "If you don't like what I am saying, blame Danny Miller."
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.
Michelle Driscoll lives in Western MA with her three partners, their son, a dog and four cats. She has hosted relationship discussion groups of many sorts and has been involved in the leadership of Transcending Boundaries, Inc.
Becca Driver
Joev Dubach
Alison Duda
Tananarive Due
Jan Dumas—A retired Occupational Safety Engineer who reads hard SF to see if they got the science right, and always looking for ways to make conventions safer and more accessible to all. Her driving skills and accent give away her Boston roots. She reads more nonfiction than fiction, but tries her best to read the good stuff. Her service dog Lord Byron passed away in May, so please help us make sure she paces herself. Jan has SEVERE food allergies, so please be careful around her; she would like to spend the weekend at the con, not in a hospital.
A Western states native (Utah, California), Mary Dumas moved to New England in 2003. She chaired the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fantasy convention, Cauldron Con in 2005; co-founded the Anime Kaiju Experience section of the United Fan Con's New England Fan Experience in 2008; in 2009 she was the Chairman of New England Fan Experience, welcoming Leonard Nimoy and hosting the Mayor's Leonard Nimoy Day; has joined the staff of Anime Boston and Nauticon; and is on the Bid Committee for the ORLANDO in 2015 Worldcon. Mary is a member of the N.E.R.D.S. (New England Resin Doll Society) and founder of the D.O.L.L. (Dirty Old Lady's League). Her hobbies include collecting Japanese manga and Asian ball-jointed dolls, and her interests are in media-SF fandom. She is a stained glass artist, known at Arisia for her 2012 Peoples Award piece 'Dodging Time'.
Dawn-Marie Dunn
Jeni Rae Duschak—Jeni has spent the last decade of her life immersed in the convention scene on both as Staff and Attendee (but mostly as Staff…). She's served as Executive Staff of Anime Boston, Department Chair of PortConMaine, and was involved with Providence Anime Conference, the first-ever "21-and-Over" convention, as well as Nauticon, also a 21+ convention. Jeni also has 10 years experience with Personality Type Theory, particularly the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. She has published articles on the topic, and her comics have been seen via Keirsey Personality Zone and Team Technology UK.
Jill Eastlake is a Master Costumer and ICG Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Although she costumes infrequently, she has a penchant for working in winning costuming groups. Jill is the current President of the Northern Lights Costumers' Guild, a chapter of the International Costumers' Guild. She's well known as a great recruiter, so if you have any spare time, watch out! You won't after Jill and her friends have inspired you.
Brandon Easton is a writer for the new Warner Bros. Animation series THUNDERCATS and a writer for the TRANSFORMERS: RESCUE BOTS for The Hub Network. In January 2012, Brandon's first creator-owned graphic novel SHADOWLAW was released to a nationwide sell-out and widespread acclaim with positive reviews from USA Today, Forbes, Wired, Ain't It Cool News and other major publications. In 2013, his next graphic novel property DOMINION'S LIGHT (an epic sci-fi/fantasy hybrid) will be released as well as his semi-autobiographical webcomic RETAILIATION. Brandon continues to produce his "Writing for Rookies" advice podcast for aspiring comic book and sci-fi writers. Brandon recently signed a 6-book deal with LION FORGE ENTERTAINMENT, a new transmedia company based out of St. Louis, MO. He splits his time between Los Angeles, New York City and Baltimore, Md. www.shadowlawonline.com
Nicole Edgecomb
Eve Marie Eells
Nine time Hugo Winner Bob Eggleton has worked on the films Sphere (1997), Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius(2001), The Any Bully (2006), and the indpendent film The iDol (2007), and designed visual effects for Star Trek in 1996. He is the author or co-author of seven books, the most current of which is Dragon's Domain: The Ultimate Dragon Painting Book from Impact Books.
Laura Eisener
Dave Eisenstadter
Genevieve Iseult Eldredge used to keep her fantasies to herself until they grew wings (and swords, spears, and other medieval weaponry) and broke free. Now, she balances the romantic with the perilous in real life and in her writing. In real life, she dropped out of med school, married the girl of her dreams, and dedicated herself to writing epic fantasy. She has a BA in English Lit, an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction, and a black belt in karate. In her writing, GIE tortures her characters with all manner of romantic peril—from desire to unrequited love, to showdowns and epic battles—including the dreaded incarnation of both: fightsex. As Kierstin Cherry, she puts the romance back into necromancy with erotic vampire stories such as "Graced," from the Lambda-nominated Women of the Bite from Circlet Press ebooks and in print from Alyson Books. Her first full-length erotic romance, Blood Bound & Beautiful, was released last November from Loose Id.
Amy Englesberg
Anna Erishkigal is an attorney who writes fantasy fiction under a pen-name so her colleagues don't question whether her legal pleadings are fantasy fiction as well. Much of law, it turns out, -is- fantasy fiction. Lawyers just prefer to call it 'zealously representing your client.' Seeing the dark underbelly of life makes for some interesting fictional characters. The kind you either want to incarcerate, or run home and write about. In fiction, you can fudge facts without worrying too much about the truth. In legal pleadings, if your client lies to you, you look stupid in front of the judge. At least in fiction, if a character becomes troublesome, you can always kill them off. Anna is creator of the 'Divorce Bootcamp' legal self-help lecture series and book under her -real- name, which Shalt-Not-Be-Named lest the judge question whether that colorful legal pleading is the manuscript for her latest fantasy novel. She is also founder of Seraphim Press.
Paul Estin (a.k.a. "Happy Fun Paul") is a longtime SF fan with a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and an affinity for silly music. Becoming a filker was inevitable—he sings and plays guitar and other instruments; sometimes solo and sometimes in the bands "Dr. Snark" and "Don't Fret the Small Stuff". Among Paul's other interests (in alphabetical order) are 80's music, Andrew Sullivan, astronomy, bicycling, books, cats, cognitive science, comics, complexity, dynamism, folk music, freedom, maps, market solutions, modern fairy tales, movies, mu*ing, natural history, Neil Gaiman, non-fiction, nonstandard categories, reading, rock music, RPGs, science, surreality, Unitarian Universalism, and xenobiology. Ingredients of Happy Fun Paul include an unknown glowing substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space. DO NOT TAUNT HAPPY FUN PAUL!!!
Rhea Ewing is an illustrator and comic artist. Her work has appeared on band posters, book covers, and album art. She is the artistic mind behind "Urban Fey" and "Clip!" comics. Her current project "FINE: a comic about gender" is a nonfiction graphic novel exploring gender identity and fluidity in the Midwest. She is available for hire at http://www.RheaEwing.com
Fabrisse is a fanfiction writer who lives in Washington, DC. (It's one way to put her BA in English to good use.) In addition, she is an elected official in the District and has been arrested while protesting for District representation in Congress. She has been attending Arisia for over a decade, and is this year's Guest of Honor Liaison.
Kate Farb-Johnson is an all-around geek, especially interested in filk, gaming, mathematics, literary SF and other geeks.
Meg Farmer
James Fedora—EMT, Founder and Chairman of Operation Hammond. He has spent the past 5 years as an EMT in the UK and USA. He is an avid safety advocate for the convention, pop culture and fan community. He founded Operation Hammond, the only non-profit organization dedicated to the unique medical and safety needs of pop culture conventions and events. Over the past 10 years he has been a frequent staff member of many anime and pop culture conventions around the world, and has fulfilled many roles ranging from security, medical care, operations and public relations. To date he has staffed over 60 conventions in the UK, Japan and USA. He has been an operations, emergency management and safety adviser to many other pop culture conventions in the UK and USA.
Dr. Alex Feinman hacks hackers for a living; he gathers requirements for and designs software to help other programmers develop, build, and test MATLAB. His hobbies include all but one of the following: audio production, carpentry, glass-blowing, leather-working, painting miniatures, music, role-playing, sociology, and writing science fiction. His novel "Duplicate" is available for sale online and at Arisia; he is currently finishing up "We Were Gods", his next science fiction novel.
Kels Ferguson
Stuart Ferguson is a math teacher at a school for students with above average intelligence and emotional differences. He is also a youth sword instructor, so please ask him if you want your children to learn the knightly art of the sword, and a storyteller with 21 years' experience, although some would say the first ten years don't count because he wasn't over 18 yet.
Bob Field
Anthony Finan—Tony is a scarred veteran of many a decade of con running, including spending over a decade running the film program at Philcon. He is an avid film and media fan specializing in Asian and British science fiction and horror. When not in meatspace, he is often found in Second Life, role-playing and DJing.
Kristina Finan—I have been sewing and costuming since 1982, a Doctor Who fan since 1979, and a Science Fiction fan since I saw the first man walk on the moon, live. Now I attempt to write about it. Don't get me wrong, I still sew, keep a full-time job as a Custom Framer, and a part-time job keeping a husband.
Greg R. Fishbone is an author of galactic fiction for young readers, including the Galaxy Games series of humorous middle grade sci-fi novels from the Tu Books imprint at Lee & Low Books, which focuses exclusively on multicultural genre fiction for children and teens. Greg also serves as an Assistant Regional Advisor for the New England regions of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, is a two-time NESCBWI conference co-director, and founder of the Class of 2k7 debut author group. In 2011, he participated in the NASA and NSF-funded Launch Pad program at the University of Wyoming, intended to provide authors with better knowledge of astronomy and theories of science literacy. Visit his website at gfishbone.com for more information.
Ginger Fitzsimmons
Jeffery Forgeng
George Foster
William Frank, aka "scifantasy," is a geek and lawyer, in roughly that order. Professionally, he specializes in intellectual property law, has interned for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Creative Commons, and was a computer programmer before he turned to evil—err, law. Fannishly, he has interests in pretty much everything, but the filk-room would be a good first place to look for him. Will was also on the reality television show Beauty and the Geek in 2007. (Guess which one he was.) This is Will's fourth Arisia, his second as a panelist.
Bill Frankenfield—On top of being a special effects Makeup Artist, Propsman, and Costumer/Cosplayer, Raven Stormbringer is also a dancer and ballroom dancer instructor. Raven studied Art, Architecture, and theatre at various universities, graduating in '82 from William Paterson University. An avid costumer and prosthetics makeup artist, Raven is the owner of Raven Design/Ram FX Studios in New Jersey (http://ravendesigngroup.com) which does custom work and welcomes commissions. Raven Design welcomes Emily "crafty puppy" Jobes as they introduce a new line specifically designed for cosplayers, Larpers and, of course, Zombies. Raven has worked with such notable figures as Mr. T, James Earl Jones, Danny Filth, Sam Rockwell and Tim McGraw in commercials and print film, and is currently working on several projects including commercials, theater and short film. (Yeah, ZOMBIES, of course.) New film makers are always welcome!
Terry Franklin is a writer of science fiction and fact. Living in Western Mass, he also gets himself caught up in Libertarian politics from time to time.
Dakota Freeman
William Frisbee
Adam Fromm is a writer, musician, published crossword constructor, game developer, and multiple-year recipient of the prestigious "Guy Most Likely To Apologize Unnecessarily for Stuff" trophy. He has recently relocated from upstate New York to the Boston area, where he can be found in close proximity to his guitar, an overworked MacBook and that novel that he really is going to finish one of these days, honest.
Ed Fuqua is a Young Adult Librarian as well as being a writer, poet and swordsman. He has spent many years running comic book stores and has qualified for the National Poetry Slam Championships four times. His short story "Familiar Places" appears in the anthology Bites of Passion and his latest book is The Viscountess Investigates being published by Circlet Press under his pen name Cameron Quintain. He is a performer and director at King Richard's Faire in Carver, MA.
Shana Fuqua has a BA in music. She is an eleven-year veteran of King Richard's Faire where she spent one year as assistant apprentice music director and three years as an administrative assistant to the apprentice program. She has been involved in the BDSM scene for roughly twenty years. She is an experienced gamer, both video games and tabletop RPGs. Her many skills include knitting, crocheting, spinning, candlemaking, and balancing a stick on her head.
Amanda Fuvich
Rachel Gabriel
Ken Gale's writing career started with sales to DC Comics and Warren Publishing in the 70's. He's editor and co-publisher of Dangerous Times and New Frontiers for Evolution Comics, a producer and host for two radio shows on WBAI-FM in NYC; one on the environment and one on comic books. He does miscellaneous arts and public affairs shows at many different time slots. He was a member of the Board of the Celtic League American Branch and a former math textbook writer. He wrote an environmental horror comic book story for Psychosis! #2 and is a long-time environmental activist. www.comicbookradioshow.com
Dr. Charles E. Gannon: Distinguished Professor (SBU); Fulbright Senior Specialist 2004–2009. Current novels: "Extremis" & "1635: The Papal Stakes" (both Baen); next forthcoming: "Fire With Fire" (Baen, April 2013). Novellas: in var. series/magazines; e.g. Ring of Fire/1632, War World, Man-Kzin Wars, Analog, and (forthcoming) the Honorverse. Visit his worlds at www.charlesegannon.com. Member of SIGMA (the "SF think-tank") that advises intelligence and defense agencies (cf. www.sigmaforum.org). Wrote/designed games ("Traveller," "2300 AD," more); scriptwriter/producer in NYC (for United Nations, World Health Organization, more). Non-fiction book, "Rumors of War and Infernal Machines," won the 2006 ALA Choice Award for Outstanding Book. Degrees from Brown, Syracuse, and Fordham; Fulbright Fellow in England, Scotland, and the Czech Republic; received Fulbright and Embassy Travel grants to same, plus Netherlands, Slovakia, England, and Italy.
Jeana Garcia
Craig Shaw Gardner
Sara Garland
Cristina Garmendia is currently pursuing her graduate degree in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she is a Fellow at the Taubman Center for State and Local Government. She is a co-founder of OpportunitySpace, a start-up that advises city governments on the potential for open data for supporting city revitalization efforts.
Jaime Garmendia is a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable where he writes, produces, publicizes, and markets independent comics of all genres. His first published game, the Wuxing Empire expansion for Your Move Games' Battleground, is hot off the presses. He is also the Programming Division Head this year.
Lila Garrott is a founding member of the a cappella group Sassafrass, and a staff reviewer at Strange Horizons. She has published short fiction, criticism, and poetry, and been nominated for the BSFA and the Rhysling. Her hair is blue.
Mia Gaulin
Marty Gear is a past Arisia Fan Guest of Honor. On top of making and wearing costumes, he has been competing, running, and judging costume competitions, as well as 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 and plays various vampires at Castle Blood, a haunted attraction in Western Pennsylvania. He pays for all this con stuff by negotiating contracts with the Federal Government for small and mid-sized companies. He really loves Arisia because he doesn't have to help run it, and he is really, really happy to be M/C for the Arisia 2013 Masquerade.
Jess Gerrior
Jeremy Giannetti
Michael Gibson
Clyde Gilbert has been a faithful fan of SF conventions for over 30 years. As a member of Emerald Rose, he has been instrumental in establishing the presence of Celtic music as a favorite genre of fandom. As a professional jeweler and gem cutter, Clyde is the founder of GreenWood Studio and has been featured on the Travel Channel's "Cash and Treasures" program. Clyde also works as a subject matter expert and writer for Agate Publishing, specializing in college textbook research and course design. A father to two daughters and a son, he enjoys home life and traveling with his family. Clyde is currently working on his first full-length SF novel.
Greer Gilman's Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter's Tales won the 2010 Tiptree Award. Like her earlier novel Moonwise, it's set in a Northern mythscape, in a world where women turn the sky. Her Cloudish tales have also won a World Fantasy Award, a Crawford Award, and have been shortlisted for the Nebula and Mythopoeic Fantasy awards. Besides her two books, she has published other short work, poetry, and criticism. Her essay on "The Languages of the Fantastic" appears in The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature. She likes to say she does everything James Joyce ever did, only backward and in high heels.
The Comiku Girls, Akiko Meigetsu and Li Izumi, are celebrating their 10-year anniversary attending the convention circuit along the eastern seaboard and beyond. Each has had a pencil (or brush) in their hand since they could hold one, and have been telling stories since they could talk. At conventions, they are artists, cosplayers, and Japanese cultural panelists. In 2004, they debuted their popular Japanese Tea Ceremony Panel, and have continued to create unique panel options in the decade since. Akiko is an artist, working in both digital and traditional media (watercolor and Asian Brushpainting). Li has studied Japanese language and culture for over a decade, including a semester in Akita, Japan. She has a B.A. in East Asian Studies and a Master's degree in Classical Japanese Language and Literature from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Melissa Glick
Cassia Gordon
Deborah Goss
Sarah Goss
AJ Gould
Anabel Graetz began performing as a teenager in Omaha, NE. She is half of the Victorian duo, The Proper Ladies; the creator and director of The Festival of Light & Song; and founded and directed the all-woman ensemble Laduvane in the 70's. She has appeared off off Broadway in The Drunkard and on several Boston stages; studied vocal folk styles extensively; was a Fulbright Scholar in 1987–88; developed and taught the perennially popular course "Song for Non-Singers" at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education; and is honored to have recently played Rebecca Nurse in "Salem: Unmasking the Devil" on the National Geographic Channel. Anabel currently teaches at the Lau Lapides Studio in Wellesley, MA. She can be seen in "Spirit of Salem," now showing in Salem, MA and in the soon to be released internet film "I Fell Silent."
Lauren Gray
Justine Graykin is a freelance philosopher who writes undark, anti-dystopian speculative fiction and essays, and is sustained by her deep and abiding faith in Science and Humanity (well, Science, anyway), as well as the belief that humor is the best anti-gravity device. She lives with 1 husband, 2 kids, 2 dogs, too many cats and a flock of chickens on 50 acres in New Hampshire. Boasting six degrees of separation from Harvard, Cornell and Dartmouth, she writes for the local newspaper and has a new book impending from Double Dragon Publishing (Archimedes Nesselrode, release date TBA). She also produces the BroadPod podcast for Broad Universe. Find her at justinegraykin.com. Science fiction doesn't have to be cold to be hard.
Melina M.Gunnett—After traveling around the country, Melina has temporarily settled in Portland Oregon where she is currently holding down a day job as a Mad Scientist. When she is not plotting to take over the world you can find her at http://melinagunnett.wordpress.com/.
Dr. Abby Hafer was born at Cape Canaveral, where her father was part of the U.S. space program. She grew up living lots of places in the U.S., experiencing the South, Midwest, Washington D.C., and New England before age 10. She graduated in biology at Swarthmore College and got a D.Phil. in zoology from Oxford University. During this time she also briefly worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service on a Japanese fishing ship in the Bering Sea. While on board, she won a push-ups contest with the ship's officers. After Oxford, she did research on sleep and circadian rhythms, then took a job at Curry College where she teaches Human Anatomy & Physiology. She has also done research on respiratory physiology at Harvard School of Public Health. She enjoys outdoor sports and has traveled widely, including recent trips to Transylvania, Alaska, and China. She is married, has two children, and lives in Bedford, Massachusetts.
David Hahn
Andrea Hairston is author of Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the 2011 Tiptree Award and Mindscape, shortlisted for the Phillip K Dick and Tiptree Awards, and winner of the Carl Brandon Parallax Award. A performer, playwright, and artistic director of Chrysalis Theatre, her plays have been produced at Yale Rep, Rites and Reason, the Kennedy Center, StageWest, and on Public Radio and Television. In her spare time she is the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Afro-American Studies at Smith College. She has received the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts Distinguished Scholarship Award for outstanding contributions to the criticism of the fantastic. She bikes at night year round, meeting bears, multi-legged creatures of light and breath, and the occasional shooting star.
Cody Hall
Steven Hammond—Communities of all kinds are important to Steve, from the patients at patientslikeme.com, where Steve is the Director of Engineering, to the Town of Holden, where Steve serves on the School Board and volunteers as a space educator in local schools. Steve supports community, open source software development, and patronizes Kobold Quarterly's community game development. Steve has years of game mastering experience and was recently a top 10 finalist in Kobold Quarterly's "King of the Monster" contest.
Forest Handford is a fire artist from Newport, Rhode Island. Forest works as a supervisor at a medical software company. While not at work, he's bringing his family to corn mazes, conventions, and Burning Man events. His website is EastCoastGames.com where he publishes video and writing about various topics. He is a member of the board of directors for Firefly Arts Collective, Inc. He is also on the board of the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of Rhode Island.
Nicole Hanscom
Andrew Harrington
Buzz Harris is a fanboy, former Arisia conchair, former Regional Development Director for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), former field organizer for National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), and a general all-around troublemaker. He is a published author in the nonprofit fundraising field, and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Development Resource Center, an organization that trains nonprofits and NGO's in fundraising, board service, and management. He loves SF, fantasy, and some horror. He has cats, but will not tell you about them.
Regina Harrison
Kelly Hashway—I'm the author of the Touch of Death series published by Spencer Hill Press and the Into the Fire series coming in 2014 through Month9Books. I love all things related to paranormal, fantasy, and sci-fi.
Ashley Haslam
Glenn Hauman has twenty years of experience in publishing, including work for DC Comics, Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Apple Comics, and has worked as a writer, graphic designer, editor, photo retoucher, web site producer, story consultant for films, comic book colorist, and radio show host. His latest Star Trek e-book, Creative Couplings, got international press coverage for its portrayal of the first Klingon-Jewish wedding. He's written other licensed tie-in works for X-Men and Farscape, and urban fantasy for Baen Books. An e-publishing pioneer with BiblioBytes, he's now part of e-publishers ComicMix (http://www.comicmix.com) and Crazy 8 Press (http://www.crazy8press). He also webmasters for PeterDavid.net, BobGreenberger.com, and EstherFriesner.com. You can find out more at http://www.glennhauman.com.
Ryan Heady
William Hebard—Forensic Scientist since 1984, before the FBI had a DNA databank, when nobody knew what was a Forensic Scientists. Processed hundreds of crime scenes of all types. Managed forensic laboratory sections (Toxicology, Drug Identification and Quality assurance). Qualified as an expert witness in state and federal courts.
Jeff Hecht is a freelance 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, Daily Science Fiction and several anthologies including Year's Best Horror Stories and Great American Ghost Stories. His non-fiction 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 Understanding Fiber Optics (Pearson/Prentice Hall), Understanding Lasers (IEEE Press/Wiley), Beam: the Race to Make the Laser and City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics (both Oxford University Press). He holds a B.S. in electronic engineering from the California Institute of Technology.
Karl G. Heinemann—Both science and SF have been core passions of Karl'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, polyamory, and mythology viewed as entertainment, a cultural attribute, and psychological drive. During this period of economic uncertainty and transition, Karl questions the viability/sustainability of "The Great American Dream," and celebrates the SF community as a place to articulate and examine possible paths and visions for adjustment and improvement.
Hunter Heinlen
Shana Heller
James T. Henderson Jr—An avid reader of science fiction and fantasy since the age of 7 and a rabid gamer since the age of 10, Jimmy has been a gamer and fan for most of his life. As an adult, Jimmy pursued a career in Mechanical and Structural Engineering, but is dedicated to the upbringing of the next generation of Fan (his daughter). He remains a Wargamer, costumer, modeler, roleplayer, LARPer, and most of all a reader. He attempts to divide his time to enjoy both Parenthood and the insanity called Fandom, and mostly succeeds.
Stefan Herlitz
Lisa Hertel—I am an amateur artist from a long line of artists. I usually work in clay—because it's harder for me. I also am a mother, pharmacist, and SMoF.
Andy Hicks is a Boston-based musician, director, actor, and radio producer. He co-wrote and composed the music for 2010: Our Hideous Future—The Musical!, a cyberpunk satire/romantic comedy which recently toured the New England and NYC area, and which you might have seen a couple of years ago at this very con. He's a former WBCN DJ, currently works as a Radio Producer for WGBH radio, and just completed work on A Christmas Celtic Sojourn's 10th Anniversary special. Andy's also a theatrical sound designer, and a total and complete Doctor Who geek. Seriously. Old and new series. Ask him anything.
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 a 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 liked significantly 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 activities, focusing on issues around Evolution.
Arthur Hinds
James Hinsey—I'm a lifelong lover of Science Fiction, Fantasy, books, movies, tv-shows, anime, 80's music, women, root beer, chocolate, Hawaii, Japan, and family. I am half-Japanese, a reader, Potterhead, Trekker, Browncoat, Costumer, book-collector, model-maker, videographer, publicator, con-goer, RISFC member, Sci-Fi Journal co-host, Psi Upsilon brother, RPI alum, former naval officer, brother, son, uncle, husband, and father of two girls. I am SamuraiX47.
Steven Hirsch has been playing swords for 5 years now, first with the Higgins and now teaching at his own school Kunstbruder, the Brotherhood of the Art of Defense. Since he started playing with swords he has stopped having other hobbies, just variations on playing with swords like making Medieval clothes and armour or researching Medieval Combat. He is also studying to be a nurse—which may be useful given his hobby.
John C. F. Hodges has organized all Arisia's blood drives as a Heinlein Society volunteer. He's a donor himself, having given away 46 gallons of his own blood and his left kidney. This year he also joins the PMRP as Klaatu in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" on Saturday night. His newest volunteer gig is as the Heinlein Society Blood Drive Chair, organizing and supporting drives at conventions worldwide. He's also helped develop US national policy on organ transplantation on the board of directors of the OPTN/UNOS, and been paid to tutor gifted students in math & science, used satellite observations of Earth for climate science, roamed New England appraising real estate, and doodlebugged Tennessee as a petroleum exploration geophysicist (we blow things up). He's been a fan since reading Farmer in the Sky when he was 8, and thanks the Naughty Nurses and Arisia for ten years of great blood drives!
Merav Hoffman is a New York-based songwriter and performer. She is a founding member of the band Lady Mondegreen and in her spare time she edits books, musicals and poetry, as well as writing her own. She works in publishing and IT, and occasionally produces albums and DVDs for her various musical projects.
Dave Hollinsworth
Jeremy Holstein
Kay Holt
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 steampunk, costuming, weird crafts, and watching old TV shows from her childhood via Netflix.
Heidi Hooper, Believe it or Not, is also known as "The Dryer Lint Lady" for her whimsical art, which can be seen in galleries around the country as well as in Ripley's Museums and books. Last year, she was nominated for the prestigious Niche Award as one of the top five artists in the country for fiber arts. Heidi received her bachelor's in sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University and her master's in metalsmithing at Massachusetts College of Art. Once cancer took most of her right arm, she had to find new ways to express herself and found clay and dryer lint (not together), which you may view on her web page is www.HeidiHooper.com. With her husband Michael A. Ventrella, she helped found modern live action fantasy roleplaying games in America and currently runs the Alliance LARP (www.AllianceLARP.com). She has been a masquerade judge at Worldcon, Ravencon, and Balticon. She loves the pitter patter of little feet (she has four cats).
Henry Houh
Crystal Huff spends her time saving the world and chasing down conventioneers. She was convention chair of Arisia 2011, Readercon 2012, and will be convention chair for Readercon 2013. Alignment: Chaotic Good.
Steve Huff
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 a novel in the 1632 universe with Eric Flint, an 18th century alternate history novel, a book on mesmerism in the Victorian age, and a sequel to A Song In Stone. 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 was published in 2011 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 unusual joint sense of humor.
Kara Hurvitz is an advocate, social worker, and performer who hails from the Boston area. By day, Kara advocates for folks with disabilities and substance abuse issues within the Massachusetts criminal justice system. By night, Kara is the musical director for the Boston chapter of Sassafrass, a folk fantasy vocal group that likes to sing about Norse guys. In her spare time, Kara likes pina coladas and getting caught in the rain. She's not too into yoga, though.
Alissa Innamorati
Dan Innamorati
David Innamorati
Sandie Innamorati
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. She is the author of The Singer's Crown (Eos, 2005) and sequels, The Eunuch's Heir (Eos, 2006) and The Bastard Queen (Swimming Kangaroo, 2010). Her epic fantasy novellas, The Tales of Bladesend, are available online now! A mother of two, Elaine also enjoys rock climbing, taiko (Japanese drumming), weaving and exotic cooking—when she can scrape the time together. 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, Classical Studies 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 humans are the tastiest things in the multiverse—that is passing as MalexMale Romance. She divides her free time between writing and slowly working her way through her yarn stash, even as she adds more to it periodically.
The Comiku Girls, Akiko Meigetsu and Li Izumi, has had a pencil (or brush) in their hand since they could hold one, and have been telling stories since they could talk. At conventions, they are artists, cosplayers, and Japanese cultural panelists. In 2004, we debuted our popular Japanese Tea Ceremony Panel, and have continued to create unique panel options in the decade since. Akiko is an artist, working in both digital and traditional media (watercolor and Asian Brushpainting). Li has studied Japanese language and culture for over a decade, including a semester in Akita, Japan.
Alexander Jablokov—Alex's most recent novel is Brain Thief, a fast-paced AI-hunting adventure, now out in paperback. His most recent story, "Feral Moon," will appear in Asimov's. He is the author of five other novels, including Carve The Sky, Nimbus, and Deepdrive, and a number of short stories. He is currently finishing up a YA alternate history adventure. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Audrey Jackson
Samantha Jacobus
Victoria Janssen can frequently be found blogging about romance at Heroes & Heartbreakers and mysteries at The Criminal Element. Her novel-length erotica includes The Duke and the Pirate Queen; The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover; and The Moonlight Mistress, set during her favorite historical time period, World War One; its electronic-only sequel is titled "Under Her Uniform." Her erotic short stories are available in numerous anthologies and as e-books. She also reviews for Publishers Weekly. Find out more at http://www.victoriajanssen.com.
Alex Jarvis has written for Wired's "Geekdad," is a former editor for The Consumerist, and writes for the Chronicle of Higher Education's "ProfHacker." He is currently the Editor in Chief of Spandexless.com, and the author of several comic books that you can read if you ask him really, really nicely. He wants to write comics and graphic novels professionally one day and hates vowels.
Reese Jordan is a not-so-mad scientist, with a B.S. in chemistry, an MSc in forensic science with a concentration in biological criminalistics, and an all round fan of science. She most recently has been seen attempting to keep the world safe from bad toxicology at work and will hold herself back from yelling at those who ask if her job is anything like CSI. Just for good measure, she also has a B.A. in theatre and figures all the science degrees were probably because she was better at chemistry than she was at tapdancing. She's also an avid runner, sci-fi junkie, really terrible vegan, and will occasionally be seen just yelling out "SCIENCE" because, really, science is awesome.
David Jubinski
Nicole Jurkowski—As an artist herself, Nicole places a high value on client education as to their rights when it comes to federal Copyright and Trademark law, as well as the business of making a client's art more than a private passion. She is an advocate for encouraging artists to making that great next step into commerce, including content licensing and the incorporation of small business ventures.
Rachel Kadel-Garcia is a bookbinder and book and paper conservator in private practice in Medford, MA. She holds an MA in Conservation Studies from the University of Sussex and a postgraduate diploma in Conservation of Books and Library Materials from West Dean College.
Vylar Kaftan is a Nebula-nominated author who has published about forty stories in places such as Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Realms of Fantasy. She has an alternate history novella about the Incan Empire out in the current Asimov's. She's the founder of FOGcon, a new literary SF/F convention in the San Francisco area, and she blogs at www.vylarkaftan.net. Her hobbies include cooperative board games, disaster preparation, and slaying tiny animated monsters.
Agnes Kamasi
Catherine Kane is a professional psychic, published author, Reiki master/teacher, bard, artist, enthusiastic student of the Universe, maker of very bad puns, songwriter and overachiever, amongst other things… She loves empowering people to have their best lives possible. Visit Catherine and her husband, Starwolf, at Foresight on Facebook, www.ForesightYourPsychic.com, and www.ForesightYourCtPsychic.wordpress.com.
Sean Kane—Witch, Shaman, Professional Psychic, Metaphysical Engineer, and Reiki Master. Starwolf posses a vast, ecclectic store of knowledge, both Esoteric and Exoteric.
Melissa Kaplan is a longtime attendee of cons, gamer, watcher and reader of sci-fi/fantasy, and general geek. Past endeavors include two blogathons, one nanowrimo, and participating in panels at Pi-con and Arisia. She spends far too much of her disposable income on steampunk costume pieces, wirework jewelry, and books. She freely admits that her qualifications as a panelist are restricted to love of sci-fi/fantasy and her ability to ramble semi-intelligently about geeky topics on command.
Jeff Kaufman is a musician, gamer, and singer living in Somerville, MA. He writes a blog (www.jefftk.com) and plays contra dance music with the Free Raisins (FreeRaisins.com).
Kate Kaynak was born in New Jersey but was able to escape. Her degree from Yale says she was a psych major, but her true senior project was a bawdy songbook for the Marching Band. After serving a 5-year sentence in graduate school, she started teaching psychology around the world for the University of Maryland. While in Turkey, she started up a conversation with a handsome stranger in an airport—and ended up marrying him. Kaynak now lives in New Hampshire, where she enjoys reading, writing, and fighting crime with her amazing superpowers. Her YA paranormal series—the Ganzfield books—start with MINDER and tell the story of Maddie, a 16-year-old telepath training at a secret facility. It's not exactly a nurturing place. Every social interaction carries the threat of mind-control; a stray thought can burn a building to the ground, and people's nightmares don't always stay in their own heads. It's still better than New Jersey. www.Ganzfield.com
Jeff Keller—I'm a Boston-area song session leader and occasional filker. I've run the Arisia chantey sing from its inception and various one-off sessions. I'm also a vintage dancer, the founder of the local vintage dance band (the Ad Hoc Quadrille and Dance Band), and a sometime member of the Arisia technical crew and Music Track head.
Mikki Kendall is also known as Karnythia or that broad that curses out the internet.
Paul Kenworthy
Angela Kessler's longstanding interests include morris dance, Kalevala, cheesemaking, singing and other enjoyment of trad music, sewing (esp. historical and wedding gowns), crochet, and learning about how the world works. Passing whims include canning, gardening, soapmaking, and food sculpture. Someday there will be goats.
David Kessler—Co-Producer and Stage Manger of the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Writer, Logistician, and professional Generalist, studying odd ideas and skills, from calligraphy to juggling, sailing to fire eating, Taichi to Lewis Carroll, and whisky to singing. (www.ouphrontis.com)
Jeremy H. Kessler lives in Greater Boston where he is an instigator. He is also a singer, morris dancer, musician, cheesemaker, drinker, and co-developer of the only known kosher boar's head anywhere. As a singer, he has been deeply involved in local sings of various traditional sorts, including chantey sings and pub sings. As a morris dancer, he dances with the Newtowne Morris Men, is the musician for Pipe Dream Morris, and is the squire of the only Greater Boston morris team to dance the AntiMorris. He has danced the AntiMorris for Terry Pratchett himself, and is quite proud that said author described it—in Wintersmith's author's note—as "a bit creepy".
Mike Kichenman
Andrew Kilgore
Daniel M. Kimmel is a Hugo-nominated film critic and author. His reviews and essays can be found at NorthShoreMovies.net, the Jewish Advocate, the Sci-Fi Movie Page, and Space and Time Magazine. He is a master lecturer at Suffolk University. His latest book is Shh! It's a Secret: a novel about Aliens, Hollywood and the Bartender's Guide. It will be launching at Arisia.
Don Kindsvatter
Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein—Born in 1967, she has not yet managed to shuffle off the mortal coil, though not for want of trying, apparently. Catt Kingsgrave 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. He also spends spare time (ha, what's that?) with his camera.
Amanda Kirk
Andrew Kirschbaum—Author of Monday and the Murdered Man and the iPhone multiple-choice, steampunk adventure "Verdigris," as well as the author and GM of over 100 LARPs. A 30-year veteran tabletop gamer, Co-Owner of 3 Trolls Games & Puzzles, and nerd-about-town.
Audrey Knuth
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.
Paul Kraus started working with Theater and Entertainment Technology in 1979 and has not stopped since. In the mid 1980's he combined Tech with Conventions by working Tech Support at Boskones and Noreascon 3. Since 1995 he has attended and worked on all but one Arisia. His WorldCon experience includes working Sound for Bucconeer in 1998, Deputy TD for the Millennium Philcon in 2001, Video for ConJose in 2002, Sound for Torcon 3 in 2003, Technical Director for Noreascon 4 in 2004, and he is currently Deputy Technical Director for LoneStarCon 3 in 2013. He is Sound Designer for Arisia 2013, his second year in a row in that role.
Amy Kreines
Bob Kuhn is a professional voiceover artist. Speculative fiction and science credits include audiobook titles by Mike Resnick, Carl Sagan, YA author William Sleator, Jeff Carver, and Thomas Burnett Swann. (Plus audiobooks of history and historical fiction, true crime and mystery.) Bob has also provided fantasy MMORP NPC game voices for Dungeons and Dragons Online, the ill-starred 38 Studios, and a soon-to-be-released dark fantasy out of Singapore. As an expatriate Australian, Bob has done readings at North American Cons for antipodean authors unable to attend. He is the co-inventor of both serious (Master of Disaster) and fun (ChronoCollisions, Artifactual) games and gameshows, many of which he has hosted at various world and regional cons. Visit bkvoice.com for more information. He is also a higher education I.T. management consultant.
Bettina Kurkoski—Bettina M. Kurkoski is the creator/writer/artist of My Cat Loki, published by TOKYOPOP Inc. In 2003 she entered TOKYOPOP's Rising Stars of Manga Vol. 2 competition, placing as a runner-up, her work "Axis Lumen" published in the winners' compilation. My Cat Loki—volumes 1 & 2 now available from TOKYOPOP—is Bettina's first professionally published series. She has also contributed the convention exclusive cover for Star Trek: TOS Manga Vol. 1, cover and story art for Star Trek: TOS Manga Vol. 2, story art for Star Trek: The Next Generation Vol. 1, story and art for the Princess Ai/My Cat Loki crossover story in Princess Ai: Encounters, and cover and story art for Warriors: Rise of Scourge and Seekers manga series based on the best-selling novel series; all available from TOKYOPOP and Harper Collins. You can see more of her artwork at www.dreamworldstudio.net.
David Axel Kurtz is a business consultant specializing in startups and nonprofits. He is also a blacksmith, a woodturner, and a writer. Somewhere between Myst and Riven there is an Age for him. You can see his makings and read his novels at davekov.com.
Alisa Kwitney Sheckley—Alisa Kwitney is the multi-published author of adult and YA novels, graphic novels and non-fiction. She also writes SF/fantasy as Alisa Sheckley. A former editor at Vertigo/DC Comics, Alisa has an MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia and has taught graphic novel writing at Fordham University. Her latest novel is The New Avengers: Breakout, based on the Brian Bendis comic series. You can visit her website at www.alisakwitney.com.
Amy Lake
Dan Landers
Marcy Laraway-Canterbury
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 co-author 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.
Pam "Izumi" Larson—A dedicated fan of Duran Duran, as seen in the documentary There's Something You Should Know, avid cosplayer, and Neil Gaiman Fangirl, Pam has dedicated what little free time she has from her television directing job to becoming the best fan she can be. Helping out her fellow fans by staffing and volunteering at many cons, she makes sure a good time is had by all. Her Personal Motto is, "All Nite Parties, Cocktail Bars and Smiles… It's more than a lyric, it's a way of life."
laurel is a geeky, bi/queer, poly, kinky, little dead girl with a penchant for finding trouble, or, as she would prefer to put it, Adventure. When she's not at her day job as an environmental engineer, she can be found working on the Transcending Boundaries Conference. The rest of the time she plays with chainmail, reads comic books, and pretends to be domestic. She lives in central Connecticut with her husband and their tail-less cat.
Arthur Laurie
Chris Lawrence
Toni Lay is a member of the New Jersey-New York Costumers Guild (aka The Sick Pups) and a Deputy Chatelaine for the Crown Province of Ostgardr in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), which gives her plenty of opportunity to costume. Toni was Program Director for Costume Con 5, a Historical Masquerade Director for Costume Cons 16 and 22, a Historical Judge for Costume Con 28, and a Presentation Judge at Renovation, the Reno Worldcon. Her other fannish interests include Torchwood, Merlin, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Britcoms, alternate history novels, Harry Potter, Dragonriders of Pern, Marcus Didius Falco, and Roma Sub Rosa mysteries. When she is not watching DVDs, reading, or making costumes, Toni is a secretary for the New York City Department of Design and Construction.
Vanessa Layne, M.Ed. is a psychotherapist; before she became a therapist, she was a computer programmer. She plans to open a private practice in 2012 serving engineers, scientists, geeks, hackers, and anybody with a logical or mathematical muse. Presently, she treats the general public at a community clinic in Boston. Additionally, she treats prison inmates, leading to a particular and urgent interest in the psychology of morality and ethics. A Renaissance woman, in ways literal as well as figurative, she is better known to many Arisians for her work as an amateur musician-historian with a particular focus on the popular music of the 16th century.
Elizabeth Leclerc
Michael Lee—I've been involved with CONvergence in Minneapolis for over a decade in a variety of roles, including head of programming and on the board of directors. My top three interests tend to be comics, conrunning, and Doctor Who.
Jacob Lefton is an artist blacksmith currently living in Amherst, Massachusetts. He studied creative writing, art, and education at Hampshire College. Following brief adventures with the circus, he spent six months in Europe as a journeyman blacksmith. Since then he has been supporting himself with artisan metalwork. Visit www.jacoblefton.com to see more of his work.
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.
Bart Leib
Allie Lesniak
PJ Letersky has been cosplaying for decades and has been a fixture at the FUNimation booths in New York and Boston for the past 5 years. He is both a professional actor and musician, having been the music instructor on the first season of Fox TV's "Fringe", and acting in numerous television shows and movies. Being based out of Connecticut makes it very easy to get to all the location shoots across New York and New England. With the wealth of tv and filming in the area, he is more than willing to give out the information he has learned over the years to folks who want to get into acting and cosplaying.
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 Liaison, Fixed Functions Division Head, and Assistant Con Chair. Currently, he is the Arisia Corporate Treasurer and an Assistant Con Chair for A13.
Emily Lewis is a Classicist with quite a bit of teaching experience, as well as lots of art and archaeology experience. She's also a history geek, especially for ancient history. She loves anything education and is very, very interested in gaming and education. In her copious spare time, she works with a group called The Pericles Group (www.practomime.com) to develop a game called Operation LAPIS. The game objectives are the same as the learning objectives, and students have had lots of success with it. When she is not teaching or helping build Operation LAPIS, she is a singer, specifically with the group Sassafrass, a dancer of all styles, and an ice hockey player. Her musical background, as well as her history background, also allows her to find fantastic historical songs to use with her students.
Suford Lewis is a longtime fan and a longer-time reader. She has been a member of LASFS and MITSFS, and a founding member of NESFA and 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, two 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 9. She is married to Tony Lewis, is owned currently by 2 cats, and is the proud mother of Alice.
Brian Liberge is a father of one, living in Boston, MA. As a freelancer he's worked on the Call to Assembly, Kobold Quarterly, 3 Generations After The End (campaign setting), and was one of the designers of the Midgard Bestiary for 4th edition. He can also be found blogging on StufferShack.com and Podcasting on RPGCircus. He loves home-brewed ideas, is honest to a fault, and loves converting content between systems. He's currently working on some new products with the Gamer Assembly, Raging Swan Press, and his own system Pulp!.
Derek D. Lichter
Alex Lidell is a YA fantasy writer and author of ABNA Finalist THE CADET OF TILDOR (Penguin, 2013). Alex started writing at 2 am, for that is when the night turns to introspection and dorm-room conversations flourish to life. The ones where you ask "what if"—realizing that if an answer seems obvious, then you don't know the whole story. The ones where you sketch plans for your next project, your future business, your quest for peace in the Middle East—or for teaching kids to read—and you know that you can succeed. If you just try hard enough. Alex's 2 am project was her book. THE CADET OF TILDOR—2010 finalist in Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards (under the title SERVICE OF THE CROWN)—tells the story of sixteen-year-old Renee who struggles to keep up with her male classmates at a grueling military academy while facing a friend's forbidden magic and her mentor's shadowy past. CADET was released from Dial Books for Young Readers (Penguin) on January 10, 2013.
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. She's been spending way too much time on the Internet, and is a backup moderator on an online live chat with authors forum.
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; and front man for Saboteur Tiger, a 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, and was also the animation columnist for SMRT-TV.com. He has published hundreds of horror movie reviews at his own blog, http://yendi.livejournal.com, and has also published essays in Salem Press's Critical Survey of Graphic Novels. His day job involves educational technology, heutagogy, library research, and assistive technology services. Adam lives in the suburbs of Boston with his wife, daughter, and two moderately psychotic felines.
Shira Lipkin has managed to convince Apex Magazine, Stone Telling, Chizine, Interfictions 2, Mythic Delirium, and other otherwise-sensible magazines and anthologies to publish her work; two of her stories have been recognized as Million Writers Award Notable Stories, and she has won the Rhysling Award for best short poem. She credits luck, glitter eyeliner, and tenacity. She lives in Boston with her family and the requisite cats, most of whom also write. She also fights crime with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, does six impossible things before breakfast, and would like a nap now.
Ian Waner Lippincott
Kimberley Long-Ewing writes sci-fi and fantasy stories. She was raised in Indiana where she learned to see the laws of thermodynamics in cornfields. She then moved to New Mexico for graduate school and adventuring where she met the love of her life, explored ancient pueblo ruins, and climbed mountains. She now lives in Wisconsin where she explores the bluffs and lakes in search of unusual images to pin down in photographs. When not homeschooling her son, she collaborates with her daughter on graphic novels and with her husband on educational projects. You may follow her work at MysticSheepStudios.com or on twitter (@kimlongewing).
Stephen Lu
Michael Lunapiena
Ted Lynch
Alan M. is a poly activist who has run the Polyamory in the News site for the last seven years, reporting on more than 1,200 media treatments of the subject. He gave the keynote speech at Loving More's Poly Living 2012, has spoken at Poly Pride in NYC and Transcending Boundaries, and is a founding member of the Polyamory Leadership Network. He's devoted to making the world aware that polyamory can be an ethical, happy option for some people, one that taps aspects of human nature few know exist. He has happily lived both poly and mono for long stretches of life since 1968.
James D. Macdonald—James Douglas 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 Absolute Write.com and Making Light.
Glenn MacWilliams—Business Director for the past 18 plus years of The Teseracte Players of Boston, New England's Premier Traveling Shadowcast, performing The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and others. Webpage: teseracte.com. Teseracte is always available for charity and fund raising events, and is the General Manager of Magic Dragon Comics in Arlington MA, THE place for new comics.
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. Longtime 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.
Alexan Mardigian
Daniel Marsh—Grim is a member of the Society of Creative Anarchism (as Grim the Skald); even his wife calls him "Grim," so there's that. He considers himself knowledgeable in the following things, in order of how much he knows: Norse Poetry, Norse Culture, Alliterative Poetry in general (particularly Old English and 14th Century), Medieval costuming (though he prefers the word "garb" as its built to last), Medieval combat, and Victorian costuming. Seriously, if you want to know about alliterative poetry, he'll talk your ear off.
Shelley Marsh—Rocket scientist by day; cook, knitter, spinner, seamstress, actress, model, singer, runner, and weaver by night. Yes, she sleeps; she just has a messy house.
Neil Marsh—Co-Founder and Artistic Director of The Post-Meridian Radio Players, this is the eighth year in a row that Neil's group has performed at Arisia. The group returns this year as Parsec Award winners for their dark fantasy/horror miniseries, "The Mask of Inanna".
David Marshall has been making, researching and teaching comics for more than 20 years. He's been published by Fantagraphics Books, SpiderBaby Graphix, FantaCo Enterprises, The Boston Comics Roundtable and Riverbird Studios. Check out his free web comics on Inky Stories (www.inkystories.com). Short, self-contained stories include wholesome memoir "Six-Year-Old Horse Thief", raunchy comedy "Window of Opportunity", science fiction action "The Null Device", neurotic horror "The Bleeding Mirror" and Boston murder mystery "Zip's Last Day". Art of the Comic Book (www.artofthecomicbook.com) is David's college-level studio workshop for making comics with traditional ink-on-paper media. He frequently participates in 24-Hour Comics Day, Free Comic Book Day, Arisia, Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo and Boston ComicCon.
Brennan Martin—I have painted miniatures since a teen and after a college/life hiatus have jumped back into miniatures even to the extent of even playing a few games with the little things. Also, in the last few years I was a game rep for Z-Man until last Summer when I had less time after the arrival of my daughter (my favorite miniature!).
Gail Z. Martin is the author of The Chronicles of the Necromancer Series (The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven, and Dark Lady's Chosen) and The Fallen Kings Cycle series ( The Sworn and The Dread). Her new Ascendant Kingdoms Saga series debuts for Orbit Books in January 2013 with Ice Forged. For book updates, tour information, and contact details, visit www.ChroniclesOfTheNecromancer.com. Gail hosts GhostInTheMachinePodcast.com and blogs at DisquietingVisions.com, and you can find her on Facebook (WinterKingdoms), GoodReads, Shelfari, Pinterest, and Twitter. She is also the author of The Thrifty Author series on book marketing, including Social Media and Mobile Apps for Authors. Gail's short fiction has been featured in US and UK anthologies: Rum and Runestones, Spells and Swashbucklers,, The Bitten Word, Magic, and The Mammoth Book of Women's Ghost Stories.
Samara Martin—In real life Samara is a tribal fusion bellydancer, living statue and consummate theatre geek (primarily acting, directing, and costuming), and is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Theatre Education. Her "geek cred" includes ten years of tabletop gaming (mainly Dungeons and Dragons), five years of LARPing including two and counting on staff at the New Hampshire chapter of Alliance, minor obsessions with Doctor Who and Neil Gaiman and a blossoming interest in steampunk under the alter ago Abigail Mycroft of the Wandering Legion of the Thomas Tew. For more information, find her online at http://www.facebook.com/samara.dancing.frozen/.
Donna Martinez is a freelance artist originally from New Mexico and has been a resident of Boston for 13 years. She's continually working on something, be it clever ideas for fan art or short stories for various comics. Donna is also a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable and has contributed to Inbound and Hellbound respectively. More of her work can be found on donnamartinez.net and auntiedrawsstuff.tumblr.com. She's also lucky enough to have fellow cartoonist and BCR member Joey Peters as her husband.
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 a currently an employed (!) web apps developer. I'm no scientist, but I've consumed a steady diet of science books/media as long as I can recall. The first 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, Gaylaxicon, Balticon, Equicon, Filmcon, Albacon, Fantasmacon, Boskone and Arisia.
Michael McAfee is an actor, writer, director and managing director for the Post Meridian Radio Players. His poetry has appeared in Space and Time Magazine. He has been on panels dealing with a variety of topics at Arisia and other conventions since the mid-1990s. He has been active in all aspects of fandom since 1990, particularly in the SCA, LARPing and filking. Feel free to talk with him about future projects.
Hope McChesney—RN, Vice President Operation Hammond. She has spent the last year working as a Nurse for the VA. She is veteran of the convention scene, staffing many of Boston's largest and most celebrated pop culture conventions, including positions in logistics, operations, public relations and attendee services. She is a vital and instrumental member of Operation Hammond, serving with distinction as the Vice President since its incorporation. When she is not working with Operation Hammond she is a avid marathon runner and leads a healthy lifestyle. She is an advocate of teaching people that attend pop culture conventions/events how to eat right and take care of themselves.
Dennis McCunney is a longtime SF fan, and has been helping to run cons like Arisia since the 1970's. For the past ten years he's been a member of Arisia's Hotel Liaison Staff, and for five of those years he edited and designed the Arisia Souvenir Book. He's been involved on one level or another with Arisia, Capclave, Lunacon, Philcon, WorldCon, and World Fantasy, and in the process has come to know a lot of the folks involved in writing, illustrating, and editing SF. When he isn't working on cons he has variously been a graphic designer, iron worker, museum exhibit builder, alternative energy worker, system/network/telecom administrator, and web journalist and moderator. He currently spends too much time on Google+.
John G. McDaid's fiction has appeared in Asimov's and F&SF, where his most recent work, "Umbrella Men," was the January 2012 cover story. He attended Clarion in 1993 and sold his first story, the Sturgeon Award-winning "Jigoku no mokushiroku", in 1995. A webmaster by day, he lives in Portsmouth, RI where he juggles writing, work, and citizen journalism. For downloads and blog visit http://www.torvex.com/jmcdaid.
Maggie McFee
Little Mel is a writer (her current book, "The Eclectic Honey Bee" is available on lulu.com), model, go-go dancer (at the Attic in Boston), shadow cast actor (currently with RKO Army), comic book collector, hula-hooper, empath, Whovian (Ten and Rose forever!), and all around fun and geeky lady! She is also the Marketing Admin for ipmnation.com, an internet station featuring various political, talk, and other webcasts and podcasts. On Sundays at 9:30pm she guest-hosts the station's only mature talk show, Verbal Ejaculation. This is Mel's 5 year Arisaversary, and she is super excited to once again be attending and participating in this awesome convention!
Bobby Menard
Daryn Merchant
Penelope Messier—Self acknowledged geek and couch potato Penny never seems to find enough time in the day for the latter. Between work, hanging with friends, drumming, kite flying, movie going and other various activities, Penny's couch is extremely lonely. In an exclusive interview with said couch, "Arisia bio" found a very disgruntled sofa: she's always gone! She used to spend all day with me but now it's an hour to work and back, and the same to see friends on the weekend, her driver's seat gets more attention then I do! Then she takes time out of work and heads to Arisia while I languish here alone. That's it, the waterbed and I are going on strike. Hi, my name is Penny and I would like to apologize for my couch; it's normally a very nice sofa but lately it gone a bit flat. I think I need to buy some new foam for it. Anyways this is me quirky but fun!!!
Katrina Meyer
Dale Meyer-Curley has been an Arisia attendee, volunteer, panelist, and participant since 2004, when her now-husband Erik brought her to her first con. Her fannish interests touch all forms of media, including Discworld, Doctor Who, and comics. She incorporates her geekiness into her crafting hobbies of knitting and making unique shirts. She is now trying to make the con a family affair by having the "geeky playdates," a place for her one-year-old daughter to enjoy Arisia.
Erik J. Meyer-Curley—I am Erik all the time. I am Erik everywhere I go. Whether or not I am the Erik you are looking for is to be determined. I have been attending cons in Boston environs since about 1980. My interests are varied and my affiliations numerous.
Maddy Meyers
Daniel Miller is a local attorney, gamer, comics aficionado, and SF/F fan (not necessarily in that order) who keeps coming back to Arisia because he enjoys it. He has been "living this lifestyle" since high school, and lives it in eastern Massachusetts. He recently completed his first manuscript, even if it is utterly unpublishable at the moment, and is working on another one. He continues to like alternate histories, humorous SF/F, and rollicking good adventures with good worldbuilding. He once tickled a man in Reno just to watch him laugh, turned the tap dance into his crusade, and is always looking to proselytize the uninitiated into the worlds of assorted geekery. (Or, at least get them to come to a team trivia event. Either way.)
Mark Millman
Troy Minkowsky is a published comicbook writer, stand up comedian, and director. His current project is a web-series "Super Life" for which he is a writer, director, and producer for Rhino Crate productions.
Ray Mitchell
James Mobius is a multimedia artist and multi-instrumental musician. A licensed Tattoo artist and published comic book artist/writer/colourist/inker, he has degrees in music and electronics; so he fixes houses for a living. He plays 6 string bass and Chapman Stick with Mojoceratops, is a former chocolatier, a Luthier, has lived in Japan and currently has 0.2 cats. Oh, he also does theatrical lighting for Rocky Horror and more. If you need a handyman, a tattoo, murals, portraits or progressive music, please visit his site (he made that too, from scratch) mobiusbandwidth.com.
Ken Mondschein
Josephine Monreal
Lindsay Moore has written and published several comics with the Boston Comics Roundtable. Her interests include comic books, horror movies, kittens, fanfiction, and things that are nerdy. She once ran a web show about bad fanfiction.
Dan Morris was born June 3rd, 1982. He grew up in Charlotte, NC on a steady diet of comic books, loud music, and Legend of Zelda games. He earned a degree from Savannah College of Art and Design. It was there that he met his future wife Christa Newman who continues to encourage him to just be him. Today, he continues to enjoy comics, loud music, and Legend of Zelda games. To date he's made several self-published mini comics and continues to make comics in his spare time.
Larry Morris
Rachel Morris—Having barely escaped with her sanity questionably intact after more than 8 years as owner of NERO Mass/Ravenholt, the founding chapter of NERO International LARP, Rachel is finally able to enjoy PCing again. She's been LARPing for 15 years—a natural extension of her theater background—and has been a science fiction fan since childhood, thanks to her father introducing her to Analog at an early age. She makes her living as a productivity consultant, doing data analysis, training, and custom software development. She writes when inspiration strikes and both creates jewelry and teaches silversmithing in her (imagined) spare time.
Sarah "Tashari" Morrison is an aspiring fantasy and children's book illustrator, currently building up her portfolio. In her "spare time," she sews gowns with hoop skirts. Find her work at Tashari.Org.
Tom Murphy got tagged with his nickname in '85 and it has stuck ever since. 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, Weber, 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.
Maddy Myers is a journalist for the Boston Phoenix; she reviews video games, writes geek culture pieces, and is a regular contributor to the Phoenix's geek blog, "Laser Orgy." She has also been published in the video game magazine Kill Screen. She plays keytar and sings in a nerdcore synth pop band called the Robot Knights.
Thomas Nackid—I am a graphic designer and illustrator who lives in Bethel, Connecticut with my fannish wife Terri and my raised-in-fandom children Alex (17) and Emma (14). Over the years I have created illustrations and layout design for various publishers including Terrific Science Press, Scholastic Books, Sumner Communications, Firewheel Editions, Cynterpubs Information Resources and I recently created cover art for the Mundania Press's re-release of the best-selling Bad-Ass Fairies anthology series. I also recently completed a cover for Dragon Lure, the first book in a new anthology series from Dark Quest Books. I am a regular contributor of artwork to Space and Time Magazine as well. When not working with publishers, I design various marketing and informational materials for businesses and organizations. You can always find me at www.tomnackidart.com or look for me on Facebook.
Kyle Nadeau
Thomas Natoli
Lawrence "LORDLNYC" Nelson—Larry Nelson, known as LORDLNYC online, is a long time member of the leather/queer/poly communities as well as a longtime queer/kinky/poly rights activist. He attended his first science fiction convention (Lunacon) in 1984 where he went on to help run gaming from 1991–2003. In 2006 he attended his first Arisia where he put in over 30 hours helping out in the con suite. In 2007 he put his longtime activism to good use and stated doing panels at Arisia, Lunacon, and The Eulenspiegel Society (TES) [a major leather group in NYC]. He lives in Queens, NYC where he runs the Queens BDSM group and, when he can, their munch (which he started).
Resa Nelson is the author of the Dragonslayer series, a 4-book series 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 (Book 1) was Nominated for the Nebula Award and was an EPPIE Award Finalist for Best Fantasy Novel. The Dragon's Egg (Book 4) has just been published. Nelson also has a standalone novel about a modern-day society based on ancient Egypt called Our Lady of the Absolute. 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. She has also sold over 200 magazine articles. She was the TV/movie columnist for Realms of Fantasy for 13 years. Visit her website at http://www.resanelson.com.
Peter G. Nelson Jr.
Kate Nepveu was born in South Korea and raised in New England. She now lives in upstate New York where she is practicing law, raising a family, and (in her copious free time) writing at her Dreamwidth account (kate_nepveu), a booklog (steelypips.org/weblog), and at Tor.com, where she has returned to re-reading Tolkien one chapter at a time, this time with The Hobbit.
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 men's 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.com), a former comic book writer and capo comico of i Sebastiani (the Greatest commedia dell'arte troupe on Earth), gamer and LARP author (he was one of the play-testers for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons). He has been involved in Arisia in various aspects for many years.
Christa Newman received a Bachelors in Fine Arts for Animation from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2009. Along with her love of animation, she has been a member for the costuming community since 2002 as Sweet-Pea. Completing over 100 costumes for herself and others in her 9 years of participating in the hobby, she has also judged craftsmanship for local conventions in the past few years. After graduation she has become a professional catalog photographer and also branched out into costume photography using her film degree to create images with narrative depth.
Mark Nickerson
Abby Noyce is a doctoral student in cognitive neuroscience, a knitter, and a theatre geek.
Mimi Noyes—Convinced as a child that she was left on this planet by aliens and picked off the street by a kind lady who became her mother, Mimi has always been a bit different. Naturally drawn to the bizarre, the fantastic, and the unordinary, she has grown up (physically, if not mentally) to be an artist, muralist, film buff, and movie reviewer, amongst other odd and less desirable career choices. Both running her own mural company and working for such illustrious film sources as SIFF and Scarecrow Video, Mimi spends an inordinate amount of time being silly and adding sound effects to every day life. Approach at your own risk.
Rob Noyes
David Nurenberg, Ph.D. just does too much stuff. He's a freelance writer for White Wolf, a self-published novelist, a high school English teacher and an occasional adjunct professor. That explains all the twitching. He's been a GM for 22 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.
John O'Brien
Elizabeth O'Malley is a longtime video game and anime fan, and avid costumer, and she attends far more conventions every year than she should. She is part of AnimeCons.com, the leading web site dedicated to news and information about anime conventions, contributing to both their website and AnimeCons TV. She is also the Vice President of the Northern Lights chapter of the International Costumers Guild.
Emily O'Neil
Briavael O'Reilly
Z. Quinn Ochs Thomas
Jennifer Old is an amateur costumer with a taste for recreating sci-fi/fantasy characters and historical dress (particularly Victorian). A medical technologist by day, it's the fannish 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. Jennifer lives in Kansas City with her wife and furry four-legged children.
Daniel José Older is a writer, composer and paramedic living in Brooklyn, New York. Salsa Nocturna, Daniel's debut ghost noir collection, was hailed as "striking and original" by Publisher's Weekly. He has facilitated workshops on music and anti-oppression organizing at public schools, religious houses, universities, and prisons. His soul band Ghost Star performs original multimedia theater productions about New York history around the city. His short stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Flash Fiction, Crossed Genres, and The Innsmouth Free Press, among other publications. Daniel is currently working towards his MFA in Creative Writing at Antioch University, Los Angeles. You can find his thoughts on writing, read his ridiculous ambulance adventures and hear his music at http://ghoststar.net.
Ken Olum is a research professor in the Tufts Institute of Cosmology, where he studies cosmic strings, the possibility of time travel in general relativity, and philosophical issues in cosmology. He lives in Sharon, MA with his partners, Valerie White and Judy Anderson, and his children, Jocelyn and Perry.
Sheila M. Oranch has been involved in fandom since 1979 when she innocently volunteered for NE2. Sheila has been known as Con Mom and Tarot Talk moderator, served as A95 conchair, and many other positions. Current interests include energetic healing, memetics, sustainability, psycho-social communications, how tech changes daily life, and… more. Sheila and Bill operate Coppertoppe Inn & Retreat Center overlooking Newfound Lake in Hebron, NH with the help of good friends, two cats, and a changing cast of diligent teens and contractors.
Ana Ortega
Kevin Osborn
Chris Palagi
Suzanne Palmer—SF/F Author and artist, active member of SFWA.
Richard E. Parker—I am a 15+ year Arisia dweller living near Boston, MA. Back in the Park Plaza era, I used to help out in the Security department. I fell in love with the Drum Circle, so much so that last year and this year I am co-running it with 2 friends on Friday night!
Jennifer Pelland is a Boston-area science fiction writer, bellydancer, and occasional radio theater performer. She's published several dozen short stories, two of which have been Nebula finalists, and her debut novel Machine was released at the end of 2011 from Apex Publications. For more info, visit www.jenniferpelland.com.
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. Currently she writes for the website, www.goodtobeageek.com, and Carpe Nocturne Magazine. 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 a Tech Support rep for the area's largest cable company. Current favorite quote is, "We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty," by Joss Whedon.
Percival—A longtime GM, participating and running games since 1978, including long-running games. Has worked with many table-top and LARP systems over the years. On the cutting edge of computer research, having been involved with the development of computers from the old Mainframe days through the micro-embedded systems of today. Also, a longtime presenter and kinkster; practicing for almost 40 years and teaching for almost a quarter century, both nationally and internationally. Involved in the local BDSM group NELA (http://www.nelaonline.org) as Program and Education Director. Want to learn more? Ask me.
Joey Peters is a writer, cartoonist and beauty contest champion from Boston. His work has appeared in Hellbound III, the Boston Phoenix, Leftovers of the Living Dead, Inbound: Comics from Boston and all across the internet. Visit his website at tacolicious.net
Jessa Phillips is Editor-in-Chief of Goodtobeageek.com, a website which indulges in all manner of geek. Articles penned by Ms. Phillips have been featured on Rocket Llama, Game Tyrant, Geek Girls Network, Action Flick Chick, Hour 42 and SciFi Mafia. In addition to her editorial duties, Ms. Phillips is also a producer with a number of podcasts to her credit, including Good To Be A Gamer, a video game news show which she also co-hosts. She has also been a guest on many other podcasts, including The Earth Station One podcast and RevolutionSF RevCast. Ms. Phillips has also appeared on panels at other science fiction and gaming conventions, lending her expertise in a myriad of topics from B movies to video games to web entertainment.
Ecco Pierce
Allie Pixie
Steve E. Popkes, his wife, son, and cat breed turtles on two acres in Massachusetts.
Dr. James Prego, ND practices on L. I., NY. Dr. Prego is a recipient of the NYANP's Physician of the Year award. He is also a Biology professor at Molly College and New York College of Health Professions. Dr. Prego is a longtime fan of science fiction and has been a guest at various conventions, 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 the New York Delegate to the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, and spent 6 years as a board member of the NY association of Naturopathic Physicians. 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
Sarah Privler
Robert Pruyn-Bush
Antonia Pugliese is a girl of may talents. She once went for 125 days of school wearing a different costume each day and never repeating. She has costumed two productions for the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert & Sullivan Players, demonstrates 18th smallsword with the Higgins Museum Sword Guild, and teaches vintage dance and performs with the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers.
Barbara M. Pugliese is a historian of both clothing and dance. She is an intrepid guide for time-travelers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. She is active in steampunk in the Boston area.
Julia Pugliese
Jessi Pysz
J. Chris Quint
Christine Raboin
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
Richard Ralston—Rick Ralston has been a fan of science fiction and anime since the late 60's. Rick has been staffing conventions the past 10 years on the local and regional level. Rick is also the organizer of the local anime group in Albany, NY. Rick brings a unique point of view to the fandom community.
Robert V.S. Redick—I'm the author of The Chathrand Voyage Quartet. Book IV in this epic fantasy cycle appeared January 15, 2013 from Del Rey. Forthcoming stories in various anthologies. At work on a new epic fantasy.
Deirdre Rees
Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert writes speculative fiction from her little corner of Massachusetts. Her poetry has been published in Tales of the Zombie War, Strong Verse, Eternal Haunted Summer, Pagan Edge and High Coup Journal. Her first published short story "Essie" appeared in Luna Station Quarterly, and she self-published her poem/short story Interview with the Faerie. She's currently writing a novel about the teenage embodiment of the Goddess Kwan Yin. She owns Seed Media Consulting, a social media consulting and content creation business. Suzanne is blessed with a tolerant husband, two mischievous black cats, and two amazing kids. Although she has spent most of her life writing (in her head, if not on paper), she's earned degrees in Communication and Sociology in lieu of anything "literary." She is a lifelong speculative fiction and sci-fi fan and science geek. Find her online: http://suzannereynoldsalpert.blogspot.com/
Virginia Richards-Taylor—I am an artist, writer, and healer. A student of history—especially the European Dark Ages, healing, psychic phenomena, magick and divination, and ancient and neo-pagan religions. I also have skills in sustainable self-sufficiency. I teach everything from Divination to Dressing small game. I am willing to work with kids, but not to the exclusion of other activities.
Julia Rios writes speculative prose and poetry. She's also the staff interviewer for Stone Telling: The Magazine of Boundary-Crossing Poetry, and hosts the Outer Alliance Podcast (celebrating LGBTQIA content in speculative fiction). She's half-Mexican, but her (fairly dreadful) French is better than her Spanish. She has blue hair and brown eyes, though these things are subject to change without notice. Visit her online at http://www.juliarios.com.
Sparr Risher—At Arisia in order to feed his girlfriend's mad scientist fetish.
Santiago Rivas is currently celebrating 30 years as a sci-fi enthusiast, ever since his exposure to works like Tron, Empire Strikes Back, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. However, it was his time at MIT that he became an avid film, theatre, and gamer geek. He has been involved with the Theatre@First acting troupe for over seven years and the Heinlein Society Naughty Nurses for five years. In his copious spare time, when he's not blogging, acting, writing short stories, writing one-act plays involving lightsabers, spending time with his Fabulous Redheaded wife, raising their advanced male prototype, and going out with hot Goths, he takes every opportunity to indulge in RPGs, Steve Jackson/Rio Grande games, and anything related to Star Wars, Star Trek or Final Fantasy.
Marcio Roberto
Nicole Robinson
Margaret Ronald is the author of Spiral Hunt, Wild Hunt, and Soul Hunt, as well as a number of short stories. Originally from rural Indiana, she now lives outside Boston.
Genna Rose
Ian Cooper Rose is the Chairperson of the 2012 Transcending Boundaries Conference. He is a bi, poly, kinky activist focusing on the education within 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 in the process.
Andy Rosequist is a player of pen-and-paper, role-playing, tabletop, and video games.
A. Joseph Ross has been in fandom since the 1960's. In 1964, he founded the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) 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 1970's. 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.
Dan Rossetti
Robert J. Rossi
Roy Rossi
Molly Rubenstein
Jenn Sagotsky
Jon Sagotsky
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.
Kiini Ibura Salaam is a writer, painter, and traveler from New Orleans, Louisiana. Kiini's work is rooted in eroticism, speculative events, and women's perspectives. Her fiction has been anthologized in such collections as Dark Matter, Mojo: Conjure Stories, and Dark Eros. Her nonfiction has been published in Ms. Magazine, Essence magazine, and Utne Reader. Her KIS.list e-report chronicles the ups and downs of the writing life and encourages readers to follow their dreams. Her book Ancient, Ancient collects sensual tales of the fantastic, the dark, and the magical.
Elizabeth Salazar
Carol Salemi costumes at the Master level and has been involved in all aspects of costuming for over 30 years, trying her hand at everything from teaching, creating, and competing to judging and masquerade directing. Each competition costume usually involves some new, fun, or challenging technique that keeps it fresh. While best known for Media recreations and Native American clothing, her most recent headpiece was seen on "My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding". Carol has enjoyed working as a medical massage therapist for 23 years, works part time for Regal Cinemas, Disney/Mosaic and Sondra Celli Designs with seasonal jobs in the Haunt Industry. She now has a growing interest in Steampunk accessories and fashion…so check out her jewelry in the art show!
Tyler Santinelli
Karen Sarao
Steve Sawicki—Writer and screenwriter. His short fiction has been featured in Future Washington, Transversions, and Electric Velocipide, and a novella in Absolute Magnitude. Reviewer of books, movies, and small press, and the Creator of the Damn Aliens, Steve currently has two screenplays under option and negotiating a reality television series with production companies. His reviews appear in SFRevu and Gumshoe.
Seth Sawyer
Ian Schleifer—Ian Keville Schleifer is the author of a space-related blog called Schleifernaut (http://schleifernaut.net). He works at the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory at Brandeis University. He is a bachelor of the sciences with a major in computer science and a minor in mathematics. Ian has a passion for figuring out how things work and he loves to share it.
Joe Schlesinger
Micah Schneider—Micah joined the Programming Staff for Arisia five years ago. This is his first year as the Assistant Programming Division Head. A longtime activist, he has worked with many different types of organizations in the past. He is currently the Director of Fundraising for Transcending Boundaries, a regional GLBT conference. Micah completed his Masters degree in history and public history from UMass Amherst in 2012, and works as a freelance writer and mental health counselor. In his free time, Micah enjoys all kinds of gaming, geocaching and highpointing, and being polyamorous as often as possible. He lives in Western Massachusetts with his family of choice and a small coterie of animal companions.
Ken Schneyer, at one time or another, has joined the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, the Project Management Institute, the American Association of Variable Star Observers, the Cambridge Science Fiction Workshop, the American Indoor Archery Association, the Society for Humanistic Judaism, the Alpha Delta Phi Society, Phi Beta Kappa, Codex Writers, the American Association of Individual Investors, the Planetary Society, the Heinlein Society, the Democratic Party, and Mensa. He still belongs to some of these, but can't remember which ones. His stories appear in Analog, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Abyss & Apex, Clockwork Phoenix 3 & 4, Daily Science Fiction, The Pedestal, Bull Spec, The Drabblecast, Ideomancer, Escape Pod, and elsewhere. He attended Clarion in 2009. He blogs, sort of, at http://ken-schneyer.livejournal.com.
Meredith Schwartz's short fiction appeared in Strange Horizons, Reflection's Edge, and Sleeping Beauty, Indeed. She edited Alleys & Doorways, an anthology of homoerotic urban fantasy, available from Lethe Press. She is running program for Lunacon, is a screenwriter for Accidental Heroes and other CSquared Pictures projects, has been known to commit fanfiction, and ran Buffycon once upon a time.
Dave Scott
Selkiechick has been lurking around the edges of fandom and the SCA for just over 20 years, dabbling in costuming and cooking and fanfiction, among many other things. Her day job is create accessible electronic texts for college students with disabilities. She is also currently an active advocate for better access services at conventions!
Jude Shabry (aka peacefrog) found Arisia in 1994 and hasn't been able to stay away since. She has attended as an artist, vendor, techie, panelist, yoga teacher, climbing guide, bride, and more. Last year she was thrilled to add mama to the list.
Lily Shafer
Lauren Shamitz-Crooks
David G. Shaw was a World Fantasy Award finalist (Special Award—Non-Professional) for 2009, for his two decades of work with Readercon. In his non-Readercon life he has managed to change careers from research biochemist to college multimedia publisher to founder of Belm Design, a graphic and web design company. Somehow he found the time to marry She Who Must Be Obeyed (B. Diane Martin) and have a son, He Who Will Not Be Ignored (Miles). His scientific research has been published in various academic journals, while his articles about interactive gaming have appeared in The Whole Earth Review and the proceedings of the Computer Game Developer's Conference. In his spare time he cooks and blogs (blog.belm.com) about cooking. He lives and works in Somerville, MA.
Judah Sher has wanted to be an inventor since he was little. With a degree in industrial design under his belt, he's decided to fulfill his dreams by starting Sindrian Arts, a business that not only lets him bring his inventions to life but help others to do the same!
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 currently lives in the western suburbs of Philadelphia.
Cynthia A. Shettle-Meleedy—I play Kingdom of Loathing daily. Old favorite shows include Heroes, Angel, Highlander, and Misfits of Science. I roleplay with the Western Avenue Irregulars.
Rachel L. Silber has been volunteering for Arisia for many years. She's excited and proud to be conchair for Arisia 2013.
Richard A. Silva has been involved in small press publishing since his college days. He published and edited Kinships Magazine. Along with his wife Gynn, Rick is a partner in Dandelion Studios (www.dandelionstudios.com), a small press comic book company. Rick co-writes the Dandelion Studios comics Zephyr & Reginald: Minions for Hire, Stone, Kaeli & Rebecca, and Perils of Picorna. He publishes his own 'zine, Caravan, and he was a featured contributor for six years at the fiction webzine The Edge of Propinquity (www.edgeofpropinquity.net). Rick's prose short stories have appeared in the anthologies Close Encounters of the Urban Kind from Apex Books and Space Tramps from Flying Pen Press. Rick Silva grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, attended Cornell University, and currently teaches chemistry at a high school on Cape Cod, where he resides with his wife and son, and three cats.
Hildy Silverman is the publisher of Space and Time, a four-decade-old magazine featuring fantasy, horror, and science fiction. She is also the author of several works of short fiction, including "The Vampire Escalator of the Passaic Promenade" (2010, New Blood, Thomas, ed.), "The Darren" (2009, Witch Way to the Mall?, Friesner, ed), "Sappy Meals" (2010, Fangs for the Mammaries, Friesner, ed), and "Black Market Magic" (2012, Apocalypse 13, Raetz, ed.). She is the Co-President of the Garden State Speculative Fiction Writers. In the "real" world, she is a senior Social Media Specialist at LexisNexis.
Labels, labels everywhere! Some of those that fit Mistress Simone: sadist, pervert, fetishist, published author, professional dominatrix, Wiccan High Priestess specializing in BDSM sacred rituals,comic geek, lifestyle educator, geek lover, Doctor Who aficionado, Battlestar watcher and old sci-fi lover. Leather title holder of International Ms. Olympus 2009. Mistress Simone has been a lifestyle and professional Domina for 20 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
Jamila Sisco is an award-winning costumer with a specialization in Anime costumes. She has worked on costumes for over 6 years and is a member of the Northern Lights chapter of the International Costumers' Guild.
Alyssa May Smith
Brad Smith is a professional Linux nerd by day, and does musical theater, voice acting, LARP, drumming, and just about any other kind of performance he can get involved with by night. He currently does vocals and percussion in the folk group Stranger Ways, and has recently performed on stage as Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar and Jake in Evil Dead: The Musical, both with the MIT Musical Theater Guild. He is the technical producer of and principle voice cast in the online audio theater podcast, Second Shift (http://www.secondshiftpodcast.com). Occasionally, he sleeps.
Chris Smith
Sarah Smith's first YA, The Other Side of Dark (ghosts, interracial romance, and a secret from slavery times) won the Agatha (for best mystery) and the Massachusetts Book Award. She has 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. "The Boys Go Fishing" appears in NY Times best-selling Death's Excellent Vacation (ed. Charlaine Harris and Toni Kelner). Two of her books are being made into plays. She is still working on that Titanic book, and has recently published the nonfictional A New Shakespeare Poem? Visit her at www.sarahsmith.com, Facebook, Twitter, and www.bookviewcafe.com, where a lot of her stories are free for the reading.
Elayna Jade Smolowitz—I am a writer, singer, actress, and second-generation geek. I'm a video game geek, music geek, and literature geek, and have a certain passion for musicals.
Everett Soares is the creator and writer of the steampunk comic book series, Sky Pirates of Valendor. Publishing his first mini-series within the world of Valendor through Free Lunch Comics, Everett has traveled the country promoting his series for the last four years. Beginning in 2011, Everett has taken on publishing duties of Sky Pirates of Valendor under the Jolly Rogue Studios label. Everett is also a staff writer for DarkBrain.com.
SJS Comic Promotions is owned and operated by Promotions Consultant, Susan Soares. Opening its doors officially in 2009, Soares has been working in the comic book industry since 2007 as a part of Jolly Rogue Studios. The purpose of SJS Comic Promotions is to provide support and guidance to comic book creators in the areas of marketing and promotions of their properties. Currently SJS Comic Promotions represents Dandelion Studios, Fallenmage Productions, Big Bone Studios, Mustard Seed Comics, Dark Brain Comics, Jolly Rogue Studios and Three J Productions LLC. Soares is also a novice comic book writer.
Tili Sokolov
Bevin Victoria Solmon
Jacob Sommer
Merg Spreadbury
Brandon Stafford
Richard Stallman—Founder of the Free Software Movement in 1983, a movement for software users' freedom; and launched development of the GNU operating system (gnu.org), often mislabeled as "Linux" and attributed to someone else. President of the Free Software Foundation (fsf.org).
Ben Stanfield
Lisa J. Steele is a criminal defense attorney and author based in Massachusetts. She represents clients accused of crimes ranging from minor traffic offenses to capital murder. Ms. Steele is the author of several legal articles about criminal defense, two Cumberland Games source books: Fief and Town (available at www222.pair.com/sjohn/fief.htm), GURPS: Cops and GURPS: Mysteries (both available from e23.sjgames.com). She was a contributing author to White Wolf's Dark Ages: Europe and Dark Ages: Spoils of War. She is currently working on a project with Evil Hat (the publishers of the Dresden Files RPG).
Lauren Stern
Chris Stevens
Matt Stewart
David Stokes
Ian Randal Strock is the editor and publisher of SFScope.com and the publisher and owner of Fantastic Books (www.FantasticBooks.biz), which publishes new and reprint SF in both print and electronic editions (including the Hugo nominee Jar Jar Binks Must Die). Random House published his first book, The Presidential Book of Lists, in 2008, and his short fiction has appeared in Nature and Analog (from which he won two AnLabs). Previous publishing positions have included stints at Analog, Asimov's, Science Fiction Chronicle, Baen Books, The Daily Free Press, and more. Outside of SF, he's been a tour guide at Niagara Falls, worked on Wall Street and at several start-up companies, and started four businesses himself.
Brian Sullivan hails from the wilds of Western Kentucky where he began playing music about the same time he discovered Justice League, D & D, and Ultraman. Raised on garage rock and comic books, he moved to Florida to get a degree in anthropology and archaeology, excavating at Mayan sites in Yucatan and Belize. A brush with Celtic music and a move to Georgia were enough to instigate the Emerald Rose project with his longtime gaming buddies. Today Brian is a Licensed Massage Therapist and owns Starbridge Sanctuary, a 50 acre nature retreat near Dahlonega, Georgia.
Maura Sullivan
Sandy Sutherland's geekiness trends toward games, books, music, and nature. She's been coming to Arisia since 2005, and can often be found helping set up the Art Show.
Tori Sviokla
Sonya Taaffe's short stories and poems have appeared in such venues as Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction; The Moment of Change: An Anthology of Feminist Speculative Poetry; Here, We Cross: A Collection of Queer and Genderfluid Poetry from Stone Telling; People of the Book: A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction & Fantasy; Last Drink Bird Head; The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror; The Alchemy of Stars: Rhysling Award Winners Showcase; and The Best of Not One of Us. Her work can be found in the collections Postcards from the Province of Hyphens and Singing Innocence and Experience (Prime Books) and A Mayse-Bikhl (Papaveria Press). She is currently on the editorial staff of Strange Horizons; she holds master's degrees in Classics from Brandeis and Yale and once named a Kuiper belt object.
Cecilia Tan is "science fiction's premiere pornographer," according to Walter Jon Williams, and "one of the most important writers, editors, and innovators in contemporary American erotic literature" according to Susie Bright. She is the author of many books that combine the erotic with the fantastic, including the novels of the Magic University series, Mind Games, and The Velderet, the collections of short stories Edge Plays, White Flames, Black Feathers, and Telepaths Don't Need Safewords, and the web serial The Prince's Boy. 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, Masquerade Books, and others. Her short stories have appeared everywhere from Asimov's to Ms. Magazine. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or http://blog.ceciliatan.com.
Amanda Taylor
Timothy J. Tero—I have been attending Arisia cons for about 11 years now. I'm a painter and photographer, and have traveled extensively; I have been to Europe about a dozen times and Japan 3 times. I'm an assistant organizer for an international arthouse film meetup group in the Boston area. I would say my special interest would be the culture of Japan (old and new)—Japanese Sci-fi/horror films and some anime (especially old Anime). Also, I have a keen interest in European Sci-fi films.
Joye Thaller
Peter L. Thomas—This will be the thirteenth consecutive Arisia for Pete "Happy" Thomas and his son Quinn, age 12. Happy supports polyamory, gay marriage, group marriage, line marriage, and term marriage; he is traditionally married to Pam Ochs. Though a libertarian, Pete works as a systems architect for a federal contractor. While he's a militant agnostic, he's perfectly happy dancing in a drum circle with neo-pagans or in deep contemplation with Unitarian Universalists. An Eagle Scout, he refuses to support today's BSA on moral grounds. Though Happy's undergraduate degree is in Aerospace Engineering, his M.S. is in Computer Science. He has been unable to kick his hard SF habit, acquired at an early age. Though there are some that only know him as "Happy," he has suffered from depression. Feel free to friend him on LiveJournal, Flickr, Facebook, Digg, Twitter, MySpace, Blogger, and Live.com; be warned that he rarely posts anything of substance on any of them.
Alexandra Thorn—I received a PhD in Biology from Tufts University in 2012, and am a postdoctoral researcher at UNH, working on global biogeochemistry modeling. I have an informal affiliation with the Harvard Program on Science Technology and Society (STS). My general interests include civil liberties, agricultural sustainability, urban planning, societal resilience, and how a sense of awe and wonder in shapes our values. I host two monthly events at my house: "Reading Nights" where people take turns reading aloud from pieces of their own choosing; and "Big Ideas" gatherings focused on bringing together people interested in discussing a variety of topics including politics, science, communication, and philosophy. I have extensive martial arts experience (most recently Jujitsu), and have some training in survivalism and primitive skills. I have participated in demonstrations by the Higgins Armory Museum.
Persis L. Thorndike—As the mother of an accomplished 17-year-old Novice costumer and filker, I am busy sharing my sewing machines, singing (with the NCFO), playing music, worksharing on my local CSA and Fish Share, cooking good food for my extended family, and homeschooling my child. Oh, I am also holding down several part time 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, and love good food and wine. I have experience in fannish and music publishing, run non-profit charity auctions for Interfilk (a filk fan fund), 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? Over-committed? 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.)
Monique Todd
Mike Toole writes about anime all the time. He's written for the likes of Anime Insider, Sci-Fi Magazine, Otaku USA, and URB Magazine. Currently, he's a biweekly columnist and occasional onscreen host for Anime News Network, for whom he churns out about 100,000 words per year.
Thomas Traina is an attorney practicing law in Massachusetts. He has experience in the areas of labor law and business law, and practices in an area he likes to call "fandom law": legal issues of special interest to fandom, conventions, and event hosts. Academically, he also focuses on civil liberties, constitutional law, speculative bioethics, and comparative law and 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.
S. Tulchinsky—The bare bones description: poly, kinky, multilingual, and perpetually dancing college girl with distinctive hair and a penchant for toe socks and handstands.
Damien Turi
Liz Turi
Jeff Turk
Kim Turk
Bonnie Barlow Turner has a Masters in Counseling and is a certified high school Biology teacher. She is currently doing research psychology in personality. Bonnie has worked in biotech and tutored ESOL students. She met James Turner at Arisia 1 and has been married to him for 20 years.
Born in a log cabin he built with his own hands, Carsten Turner expects to have it finished any day now; certainly by the time he's finished reinventing himself (again). In 2004, he chaired Arisia, and then went on to serve as president. He has been, and remains, an EMT, teacher, artist, hacker, and student.
James "Coder Brony" Turner, contributing editor for oreilly.com, is a freelance journalist who has written for publications as diverse as the Christian Science Monitor, IEEE Spectrum 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). Recently, he has also started writing semi-regular DIY columns for IEEE Spectrum (anyone for a homemade projection TV?). In addition, he has spent more than 30 years as a software engineer, 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. Recently, he has been infected by the Pony Plague, and now serves as President and Chairman of the Board of the Brony Thank You Fund, Incorporated. He is an open water diver and instrument-rated private pilot.
Julie Vallimont
Mercy E. Van Vlack has been a comics pro since 1980, including working as a writer for Richie Rich; an artist on Green Ghost & Lotus (set in Boston), creator of Miranda for Leg Show and Puritan magazines; inker for DC, Malibu, and others; illustrator for numerous fanzines, APAs, anthropomorphics, and SF cons; and artist of many Celtic Calendars and the Celtic Coloring Book. She also draws for private collections, bakes Gluten-Free cookies and cakes that taste good, and makes Celtic jewelry.
Andrew Van Zandt—Drew Van Zandt is an engineer, roboticist, and general geek. He's also the Electronics & Robotics Craft Lead at the Artisan's Asylum, a hacker/makerspace in Somerville, MA. Drew is happiest when he's teaching you to make something or making things himself.
JoSelle Vanderhooft is a poet, author, and editor of several anthologies of fantasy stories—most of them having to do with lesbians. These include the well-received Steam-Powered series (lesbian steampunk) as well as Bitten by Moonlight, Sleeping Beauty, Indeed, (with Catherine Lundoff) Hellebore & Rue, and (with Steve Berman) Heiresses of Russ, a collection of the best lesbian spec fic published in 2010. Her poetry collection Death Masks is forthcoming from Papaveria Press and her second novel, Ebenezer, a lesbian re-telling of A Christmas Carol, was released from Zumaya Publications in 2012. She lives in South Florida with her partner and one gloriously orange cat.
Carolyn VanEseltine has been fascinated by interactive narrative since playing Colossal Cave Adventure at age six, which helps explain why she now works professionally in the video games industry (Harmonix Music Systems) and writes text adventures on the side. In her spare time, she reads voraciously and pursues a long list of kaleidoscopically changing hobbies.
Michael A. Ventrella's second fantasy novel The Axes of Evil (a sequel to Arch Enemies) was released in 2010. He is editor of the Tales from Fortannis anthologies, and his pirate short stories have appeared in the anthologies Rum and Runestones and Cutlass and Musket: Tales of Piratical Skulduggery. He's currently working on a novel about a vampire who runs for President. Michael is one of the founders of the biggest fantasy medieval live action roleplaying group in North America and currently runs the Alliance LARP. His Rule Books and Players Guides are available in all formats. He is also the founder of Animato which was the first major magazine dedicated to animated films. He has been quoted as an animation expert in Entertainment Weekly and in various books. His blog (www.MichaelAVentrella.com) interviews other authors, editors, agents, and publishers to get advice for the starting author. In his spare time, he is a lawyer.
Amanda Vetelino
Cecilia Villero
Andy Volpe
Timothy Volpe
Angelina Vono
Sabrina Vourvoulias was born in Bangkok, Thailand—the daughter of a Mexican-Guatemalan artist and an American businessman. She grew up in Guatemala and moved to the United States when she was fifteen. She is the managing editor of Al DÃa News, Philadelphia's Spanish-language newspaper. Her editorials and columns appear in Spanish and English. Her blog, Following the Lede, was nominated for a Latinos in Social Media award in 2011. In addition to journalism, she writes speculative poetry and fiction. Her poetry has appeared in Dappled Things, Graham House Review, Scheherezade's Bequest at Cabinet des Fées, La Bloga's Floricanto, Poets Respond to SB 1070, and upcoming in Bull Spec. Her fiction has appeared in Crossed Genres Issue 24, in the Crossed Genres Year Two and Fat Girl in a Strange Land anthologies, and upcoming in Strange Horizons, GUD magazine and the Menial: Skilled Labor in SF anthology. Her novel, Ink, was published by Crossed Genres Publications in Oct. 2012.
Mark "Justin du Coeur" Waks is a rapidly moving particle. If one pins down his position enough (and doesn't worry about his velocity), one finds him focusing on programming, SCA, fandom, LARP, and Freemasonry. He is currently working on building Querki, a new system for Keeping Track of Your Stuff, and is likely to burble at you about it if you give him even the slightest opening—be warned.
Cheryl Wallace—A native of MA, Cheryl has been attending cons for 30 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). She has interests in cult movies, trivia, gaming, crafts and improv comedy. She can be seen around Arisia volunteering as a Heinlein Society "Naughty Nurse."
JeffWarner is; a professor of autodidactism, a not-recently-published writer, an associate member of first fandom, a 7th level ninja-smof with a lawful/good alignment, available for cheap dates, a co-founder of 3 sf conventions and a utility infielder for others, a freelance blurb-ologist and a philosophical entertainer. "Geek, Nerd, AND Dork? I'm a Triple Threat!"
Ket Melissa Waters is a Scottish and Cape Breton fiddler, but may be better known as a costumer, cosplayer, jeweller, or simply "that blue-haired girl". In the past she has been a volunteer, truck-unloader, writer, artist, and maker-of-another-convention's-badges (she did not, however, add a scratch and sniff). She has recently released her first EP, and thinks you should ask her for a copy. At Arisia, she teaches chainmail classes, makes costumes on a budget, and drinks too much coffee.
John C. Watson—A longtime fan of SF/F, Mr. Watson was infected with the anime and manga bug in the early 1990s, and remains a virulent carrier of all three.
A. J. Watts
Abigail Weiner has many pseudonyms, most of which start with M.
Michele Weinstein—I have been a fan since 1976. I am an East coast con-goer and perpetual volunteer. My geeky husband and I have managed to raise two geeky children, although our son is going into the non-geeky profession of firefighting. My daughter and I have been involved in costuming at regional masquerades and we even won awards at one Worldcon masquerade. We haven't quite gotten the energy together for another entry! When I am not attending conventions I am usually found in the lower level of my local library, running the used book room.
Sara Weinstein—I'm a second generation fan whose first convention was at age seven and has been seeing conventions as a second home ever since. Being involved in cons has always been a family affair, whether it be tech crew with dad, costuming with mom, or simply making a family amongst my friends. Other than sci-fi and fantasy, my main interest has been music. I play a plethora of instruments ranging from the harp to the trombone, and have now taken music to be my career studying music therapy. Go cons!
Syd Weinstein was a mentor at the American Film Institute Digital Content Lab and is video designer for Arisia and many Worldcons. He has more than 15 years' experience teaching television production techniques to both children and adults. He has directed countless productions and produced several documentaries. He has been part of Techno-Fandom since 2001.
Ruth Wejksnora-Garrott—Ruth Garrott is a licensed psychologist and psychotherapist working in Somerville, specializing in working with people from various counterculture groups—geeks and goths and pagans, otaku and kinksters and poly folk and anyone else who's looking for a therapist who will work with them on the problems actually bothering them, and won't look askance at all these perfectly reasonable aspects of their lives. She's been singing with Sassafrass for the past four years, and is greatly looking forward to their debut of the Sundown play this May at Balticon.
Jesse Wertheimer
Amy West
Meg Westfox—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 poly lifestyle. A recently graduated nurse, she is sorry to say that none of her uniforms are made of latex.
Joanna Weston
Nathan Weston
Alan Wexelblat is a poly parent, an amateur photographer, a long-time tabletop RPG and online MMO gamer, and a writer on intellectual property issues.
Michelle Wexelblat—If Michelle began her life with the date she started going to conventions, she'd be old enough to vote and drink. Given that she started attending them when she was old enough to drive… Besides attending cons, Michelle is a mother, wife, friend, extrovert, clinical social worker, poi spinner, and has the ability to see any problem from all sides, all at once. Her brain is a very busy place, and she's happy for distractions, so talk to her.
Bryan Wexler
Nightwing Whitehead was born in 1958. The Barbie doll was "born" in 1959; so for a year she had nothing to do. Since then, she's been making up for lost time by dressing anyone and anything that comes within her reach. She's worked for several theaters, dressed some stars, done some teaching, and has her own business designing and creating costumes for life.
Scott Wilhelm is a licensed biology, physics, and general science teacher with more than 10 years of experience, mostly with high-school-aged learners with learning disabilities and severe behavioral problems. He combines deeply analytical lessons with fun activities to meet high expectations with no tears for a very wide range of ages and abilities.
Hailed for his innovative use of laser pointers in subduing the Kzinti, Stephen R. Wilk continues to work in Optics and to be a Contributing editor for Optics and Photonics News. This year will see the publication of Light Work by Oxford University Press, as well as his follow-up to Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon. His story "The Ipswich Abhorrence" is being published by Roar and Thunder. He is also looking into making small light sabres to use as letter openers.
Sandry Wilkie is an IT professional, largely because she didn't want to pursue a career as a penniless orchestral flutist. Originally hailing from New York, she's now a stout Boston advocate who spends spare time singing/playing/composing with Stranger Ways, singing with Sassafrass, and making sarcastic commentary.
Connie Wilkins's (sacchigreen@gmail.com) first love was writing fantasy and science fiction for publications like Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine and Strange Horizons. Then her alter-ego, Sacchi Green, was seduced by the erotic side of the force, where she's published scores of stories and edited or co-edited nine anthologies. One of them, Lesbian Cowboys: Erotic Adventures, was a Lambda Literary Award winner. She returned to her specfic roots as editor of Time Well Bent: Queer Alternative Histories from Lethe Press, and has just co-edited Heiresses of Russ 2012: the Year's Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction with Steve Berman for Lethe. Her work also appears in several Circlet Press books, including Fantastic Erotica.
Angela Wimmer
Scott Winchester
Jason Winslade
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.
Bobbi "Bey" Woodward—Bey is proud to say she's completed a decade in fandom and hasn't been eaten by an encephalopod yet. She is part of the Boston area Poly and Kink communities and has been a member of the Naughty Nurses since their inception in 2005. Bey is married to gaming book author, Jonathan L. Woodward, and together with their partner Zeph are raising their daughter "Roo." Go to her website, TasksAtBey.com, to see what else she does.
Jonathan Woodward is the author or co-author of over a dozen role-playing game books, including the Hellboy RPG, Trinity, and GURPS Banestorm. This convention marks his 20th year as an Arisia panelist. He lives near Boston with his wife and daughter.
Trisha Wooldridge is the current president of Broad Universe (www.broaduniverse.org), as well as a member of New England Horror Writers and the Worcester Writers Collaborative. She is a senior editor Spencer Hill Press and co-produced the UNCONVENTIONAL anthology. Her writing can be found in the EPIC award-winning BAD-ASS FAERIES anthologies; New England Horror Writer's 2011 EPITAPHS anthology; CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY? from Damnation Press, and POETRY LOCKSMITH. She also gets paid to review food, play with horses, and interview chefs, bands, and people who make movies. www.anovelfriend.com
Phoebe Wray has a futurist novel in print JEMMA7729, and the sequel J2, will be released in early 2012. A third volume is in the works, plus stories in Farthing, Andromeda Spaceways, and the anthologies No Man's Land, All About Eve, and Backless, Strapless & Slit to the Throat, online at Fables.org and ChiZine. She serves on the Advisory Board of Broad Universe and lives in Massachusetts.
Brianna Wu—Brianna Spacekat Wu is head of development at Giant Spacekat Productions, where she is writing and directing the upcoming videogame "Revolution 60". This game, which will be released for iOS next year, is a fully 3D-animated game about girls in space who kick ass, and features professional voice actors such as Amanda-Winn-Lee. Brianna is also a frequent contributor to science fiction fanzines. She's known for her high-energy art style featuring tall, skinny women. Wu is six foot two, and a dedicated marathoner. She runs over 55 miles every week, and almost 3,000 miles per year. She is married to four-time Hugo-award-winner Frank Wu.
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. He is also chief spaceship designer for the videogame "Revolution 60" being developed by Brianna Spacekat Wu, which is set for released on iOS devices (iPad, iPad mini, iPhone, etc.) later this year.
Alexander Wurst
Karl Wurst
Nicholas Karl Wurst
Kevin Wynott
Tom Wysmuller forecasted weather at Amsterdam's Royal Dutch Weather Bureau after studying meteorology at NYU and Stanford. Selected for a NASA internship, he worked throughout NASA before, during, and after the moon landings. He worked at Pratt and Whitney and held insurance industry executive positions. The Polynomial Regression mathematics, algorithms, or code he personally produced after leaving NASA finds use by almost every climate scientist on the planet, in their models, or used in their analysis. He lectures worldwide on the SCIENCE needed to understand Global Warming, and his "Toucan Equations" for predicting Sea-Level rise/fall are still within range. In 2012, Tom (as a Meteorologist, was asked to be among those who) joined the "NASA 49," a group of Astronauts, Scientists, Engineers, and NASA Field Center Directors publicly requesting improvement in NASA's handling of climate pronouncements. His http://www.colderside.com/Colderside/Temp_%26_CO2.html has gone viral.
Amy Yampanis
Keith Yampanis
Bill "Dr. Crash" Yerazunis is a professional mad scientist, working on things like virtual reality, LEDs as pollution sensors, spam filters, reversible fuel cells, wireless power, and sharks with frickin' lasers on their heads. In his spare time, he plays "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" on a huge synthesizer and laughs like a… well, like a mad scientist.
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.
Guillermo Zeballos—A child of the space race, I have always been fascinated by fantastic vehicles and stories of space, real and fictional. I am active in designing and building spaceships out of paper and researching their designs. I am also a great fan of spaceship and futuristic art and illustration, as well as those of the more familiar hero ships of film and television. I love to see how these "futuristic" designs over the last 100 years ties in with what I know from real hardware and my background in computer human interaction.
Eric Zuckerman is not a real talk show host, but he played one on TV. His fannish semi-improv comedy project, "Eric in the Elevator" has screened at regional West Coast conventions, several WorldCons, Arisia (where he was 2008 Fan Performer GoH), and LunaCon (where he was 2011 Special Guest). Among his many other nerdly pursuits, he's a geocacher, a gamer, an armchair "fanthropologist", and a compulsive ribbon collector/trader.
Carl z! Zwanzig z! has been attending SF&F conventions since the mid 1970's and started fiddling with the mics and wires shortly thereafter. One thing leads to another- being Balticon's Technical Director through most of the 1980's, the TD for three Worldcons and Senior staff for a few more. This life is supported by $DayJob, messing around with computers, which he's been doing since having 16 bits was a luxury.