Your experience at Philcon will be even more enjoyable
when you learn more about our panelists.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Clicking an above link will scroll the page to the panelists listings by last name.

Award-winning author Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for nearly fifteen years. Her works include the urban fantasies, Yesterday's Dreams, its sequel, Tomorrow's Memories, and the novella, The Halfling's Court: A Bad-Ass Faerie Tale; the anthologies, Bad-Ass Faeries, Bad-Ass Faeries 2: Just Plain Bad, and No Longer Dreams, all of which she co-edited, and contributions to numerous anthologies and collections, including Dark Furies, Breach the Hull, Space Pirates, and the upcoming science fiction anthologies So It Begins and Barbarians at the Jumpgate. Her non-fiction works include a chapter on writer's groups for Dragon Moon Press's The Complete Fantasy Writer's Guide: The Author's Grimoire, a single-author writing volume The Elements of Fantasy: Magic, and a standing column, If We'd Words Enough and Time, for the sadly defunct website, Fictionauts. Danielle is a member of The Garden State Horror Writers, the electronic publishing organization EPIC, and Broad Universe, a writer's organization focusing on promoting the works of women authors in the speculative genres. Danielle lives somewhere in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail, mother-in-law Teresa, and three extremely spoiled cats. To learn more about her work, visit www.sidhenadaire.com.

Walter Amos first developed an interest in Japanese animation with the premiere of Star Blazers in 1979 on WTAF TV 29 in Philadelphia, after already succumbing to science fiction in general. He attempted to catch a movie version of this series at Philcon 1984, but missed it and instead was introduced to the amazing work of Hayao Miyazaki in Lupin III Castle Cagliostro. Unknown to many anime fans, the Japan 2007 Worldcon committee is comprised of many top anime creators who got their start in Japanese literary SF. Walter hosted several panels at the 2001 Worldcon, the Millennium Philcon, about one of the finest SF anime series around based on a popular Japanese SF anthology, along with the producer of the series who is on the 2007 Worldcon staff. He hopes in the future to bring greater understanding between literary and anime SF fans by emphasizing how many well known anime shows began life as Japanese prose SF. Walter's education is in physics and for most of the last seven years worked on trajectory server software for the Space Shuttle Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas. He is currently back in the Northeast working with orbital GPS satellite software.

A transplant from sunny California to the chilly hills of Ohio, Camille Anthony is the author of numerous paranormal erotica novels including: AOEM Dinner for 3; Tales of the Quiet Kitty books 1 thru 4; Women of Steel series; Swept Off Her Feet, Light on Her Toes, Werewulf Journals 1 - 6; The Bunny Tails Series 1-3; Food for the Gods. Camille has been writing almost as long as she has been reading. Her stories contain the heat of real life romance that doesn't stop at the bedroom door. Her favorite authors are Lois McMaster Bujold, Angela Knight, MaryJanice Davidson, Jim Butcher (Yay, Harry Dresden!) and David Weber. She loves imagining what life and love will be like in mankind's future.

John Ashmead has worked as an assistant editor for Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine and been involved with local SF for many many lunar time units. He works as a computer consultant, making sure you get your bills and commercials on time (no thanks necessary: the work is its own reward). He is currently working on getting his doctorate in physics: his thesis is on the role of time in quantum mechanics. His life's ambition: to create a really practical time machine.

The board games presented by Role Interactive are the creative works of Keith D. Atkins. From creation and design to writing and artwork, Mr. Atkins has delivered. Out of the 25+ years of gaming experience, Mr. Atkins has spent 11 years in a game master role designing and writing adventures and campaigns for players ranging from ages 13 to 40. Holding two degrees in engineering, Mr. Atkins naturally applied his analytical thinking and ingenuity toward established board games to identify their strengths and weaknesses. The application of his research is the creation of a better gaming experience. "My imagination is the size of Texas," Keith D. Atkins often says. "Let me show you what I see."

Eric Avedissian is a writer and game designer who first started playing roleplaying games during the early 1980s. He designed Ravaged Earth: The World of High Powered Pulp, published by Reality Blurs in 2008 for the Savage Worlds gaming system. Avedissian has a BA in Journalism from Glassboro State College and is an award-winning reporter for a New Jersey weekly newspaper where he covers politics and local government.

Jared Axelrod is a freelance author and illustrator. His written work has been published in the anthologies Sovereign Summer, Salt, End Of Time and the upcoming No Subscription Necessary, as well as Neometropolis and Escape Pod magazines. He was a founding writer for 365tomorrows.com, a website that publishes a new work of fiction every day. He was the writer and producer of the popular podcast The Voice of Free Planet X, that ran for three years and 160 episodes. His second podcast, Aliens You Will Meet, has met with similar success, both in its original audio form and as live puppet performances. His illustration work can be seen on the cover the novel Brave Men Run, and accompanying the original audio version of the novel Playing For Keeps. He is not domestic, he is a luxury, and in that sense, necessary.

Dave Axler is a long-time convention fan who's been a Philcon regular since the early seventies, when he came to his first Philcon to interview GoH John Brunner for local radio station WXPN. In the years since then, he has written an M.A. thesis entitled 'Fandom Is A Way of Life': A Folkloristic Ethnography of Science Fiction Fandom, designed the gaming weather system for TSR's "Greyhawk" campaign, arranged for Frank Herbert to be a speaker at Philadelphia's first Earth Day celebration, ushered at six Hugo Awards Ceremonies, served as DJ for three consecutive Disclave "Senior Prom" dances, was awarded the coveted "Stud Muffin" ribbon by the 1996 Los Angeles Worldcon Committee, and is known as "Lord DaveAx" in the Brotherhood Without Banners. In so-called real life, he is a bit-herder, a collector of books, music, and art, a member of the Zipper Club, and an avid oenophile. He also hosts the infamous annual "Alphabetical Hallowe'en Party."

Rob Balder is a professional cartoonist, singer/songwriter, game designer and web entrepreneur. The title track from Rob's first CD, Rich Fantasy Lives, was co-written with Filk Hall of Famer Tom Smith, and won the Pegasus award for Best Filk Song of 2007. Rob's songs have often been heard on the syndicated Doctor Demento Show. In January 2006, he co-founded The Funny Music Project, which won the 2009 Parsec Award for Best Speculative Fiction Music Podcast. Rob is the creator of the clip-art comic strip PartiallyClips. A book collection of the strip, Suffering for my Clip Art: the Best of PartiallyClips, Volume 1 was published in 2005.

He is the Associate Editor of Nth Degree, a popular fanzine covering genre fiction, gaming, comics, fandom and more. Rob also teamed up with Pete Abrams of Sluggy Freelance to create Get Nifty, a stand-alone card game which debuted in stores in 2006. His current major project is a full-color Fantasy webcomic called Erfworld, co-created with illustrator Jamie Noguchi. Time Magazine named Erfworld one of its Top Ten Graphic Novels of 2007.

Alan F. Beck has been an artist, designer and illustrator for over 30 years doing work for many major corporations including book covers and magazine illustrations in Space & Time and Nth Degree magazines. His work has been exhibited in art shows and Science Fiction/Fantasy conventions all across the country. He has won numerous awards and honors including two Chesley award nominations and a Hugo award nomination, and received a "Body of Work" Award at LA Con IV WorldCon Art Show, Anaheim, CA. His paintings and prints can be found in collections in the US, Canada and Europe. Art influences include N.C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, Salvador Dali, René Magritte, Wojtek Siudmak, Richard Powers, and Chesley Bonestell. Alan's work tends to be realistic, surrealistic and frequently humorous. Artwork and concepts are produced using acrylics, watercolor, pastels, 3-D modeling and image manipulation programs. Current projects include the "Mouseopolitan Museum of Art" series, and he has just released a children's book The Adventures of Nogard and Jackpot. See more at www.alanfbeck.com

Matt Black is a fan, just like you, except that he is a glutton for punishment. His love of Star Trek led to managing regional fan clubs and planning national fandom events. His love of Star Wars led to film school and running conventions with Galactic Entertainment. Matt's latest love, that for the space western Firefly/Serenity, has immersed him in the Browncoat (Firefly fan) community. As a member of the Pennsylvania Browncoats (www.pabrowncoats.com), he has organized several "shindigs" including a Bedlam Bards concert, a Serenity charity screening for Equality Now and the 2007 Browncoat Ball in Philadelphia, PA. When it comes to organizing fandom events, Matt Black is a repeat offender. We repeat, he will offend again.

J.R. Blackwell is a writer, photographer and performance artist who lives in Philadelphia. She is one of the founding members of 365tomorrows.com which produces a new piece of science fiction daily. Her stories have been published by Aoife's Kiss, Kaleidotrope, Bewildering Stories, Static Movement Magazine, EMG Magazine, HeavyGlow Magazine and Escape Pod. Her essay "Evidence of a Baker" was published in The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. J.R. has produced the covers to the novels Playing for Keeps, The Case of the Singing Swor" and The Case of the Pitchers Pendant. Her photography has been featured in SubLit Magazine and Flames Rising. She holds a Master's of Liberal Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.

Taylor Blanchard is primarily self taught. He received a Bachelors degree in Astrophysical Sciences from Princeton University in 1977 and an MFA in stage design from NYU 1980. He has been working as a Science Fiction and Fantasy illustrator since 1984. His work has appeared on the covers of books, magazines, games and CD's in the United States, Germany and Italy. Although he continues to work as Art Director and Primary Artist for Science Fiction publisher FoxAcre Press, Taylor has recently changed his primary focus to Wildlife and Nature art. Taylor is married and resides in Ewing NJ with his wife Kathei and cat Agate. He loves wolves, skiing, chocolate, motorcycles, the Grand Canyon, more skiing and the color red. His website is http://www.ntaylorblanchard.com/.

Tina Blanco-Finan has been in fandom since the early 80's, a Dr.Who fan a little longer than that, and she's been Costuming and Sewing even longer than that. She's been a professional costumer for two years. Now she spends her time at Pearl Art and Craft, running the frame shop. When asked, her husband Tony would sum up her "bio" by saying "I can do it in just one word, FREAK!"

Desirina Boskovich graduated from Emory University in 2005, with a degree in creative writing. In 2007, she attended the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Workshop. Her work has been published in Realms of Fantasy and Clarkesworld Magazine, and is forthcoming in Fantasy Magazine, along with Last Drink Bird Head and The Leonardo Variations, edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer.

Marilyn "Mattie" Brahen has published fiction in magazines such as Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, Space & Time, Scheherazade (in Great Britain) and others, as well as in the anthologies Crafty Cat Crimes and The Ultimate Halloween. Her first novel, Claiming Her, received good reviews, and her second novel, Reforming Hell, a sequel published earlier this year, was also well-received. She has had reviews in the New York Review of Science Fiction, and two essays appeared in the Neil Gaiman Reader from Wildside Press. Mattie also enjoys art and making music, as a guitarist and a singer-songwriter. She lives with her husband, editor and author Darrell Schweitzer, and their three cats, Lovecraft, Tolkien and Galadriel, in Northeast Philadelphia.

While at MIT, J.J. Brannon studied biophysics and molecular biology/genetics. He works in the R&D department of a thinlayer chromatography manufacturer in Newark, DE, where he designed a TLC/DNAgram reader and helped revise Delaware's paternity testing laws. He owns nearly 20,000 comics and is unsure whether Harv Bennett fashioned the "Kobayashi Maru" test in "Wrath of Khan" from JJ's outwitting the Star Trek "impossible survival" scenario in MIT's computer labs. In 1986 he collaborated on the unsold screenplay "Lord Greystoke's Detective" with Richard B. Stout. His round-robin message-board collaboration was incorporated by Michael F. Flynn as part of Flynn's 2007 Hugo-nominated "The Dawn, the Sunset, and All the Colours of the Earth" novelette.

Steve Brinich has been involved in fandom for about twenty-five years, mostly active in filk and gaming and an interested onlooker in a lot of other areas. He chaired Conterpoint Four, the eleventh East Coast Filk Con, which was held in Rockville, Maryland the weekend of 22-24 June 2001. He's currently on the concom for Conterpoint 2010, to be held at the same site next June.

Stephanie Burke, known to friends and readers as Flash, has a warped, twisted sense of humor, and she isn't afraid to let it show. From pregnant men to six-foot cockroaches, she's covered the gamut of the weird, the unusual, and the just plain strange. She has about five million books currently in publication with one house or another, all under the name of Stephanie Burke. She says she won't use a pen name -- she'd have to learn how to spell it. Stephanie is the co-founder of the charity organization Write 4 Hope where she is hoping to help make a difference, not just talk about it... though talking is what she does best. Visit her website at www.theflashcat.net and be sure to join Flash's 'Flame Keeper' loop at Yahoo Groups -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlameKeeper/join.

Laura A. Burns is contract engineer on NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission and worked on the James Webb Space Telescope for 11 years. She spent the summer of 2007 in Beijing, China at the International Space University. She is an avid scifi/fantasy fan and has contributed to several podcasts. She is also the head of the Parsec Awards Steering Committee.

Tobias Cabral is a clinical psychologist, whose private practice (Serenity Psychology Services) is located in Langhorne, PA. He completed his undergraduate work at New York University and his Doctoral studies at Widener University's Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology. A lifetime fan of Speculative Fiction as well as an aviation and space enthusiast, Dr Cabral has endeavored to incorporate these interests into his practice. He strives to create a "fan-friendly" environment for clients who may be accustomed to the negative judgments and misunderstandings of 'mundanes,' and so to help them harness the boundless imagination and hope and creativity of thought which SF embodies.

James Cambias was born and raised in New Orleans, and still thinks of it as home, despite a 20 year absence. He earned an A.B. in History of Science at the University of Chicago (class of 1988). After college he worked briefly for two book publishers, but has been a full-time writer since 1991. His published work includes more than a dozen roleplaying supplements, and 16 short stories -- mostly in F&SF or anthologies. His story "Balancing Accounts" is in this year's Year's Best SF collection. He lives in western Massachusetts, where he writes, plays roleplaying games, and cooks. Since 2004 Mr. Cambias has been a partner in Zygote Games, a company specializing in science-based card and board games. As with most writers, the most interesting things in his life happen inside his head.

Hugh Casey has been involved with organized fandom for a number of years, and is known far and wide throughout the lands as a "Big Geek". This is a title that he wears proudly. He has served as Vice President and President of The Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, Vice-Chair for Philcon in 2002, and Chairman of Philcon in 2003. Since running Philcon, he has been seen gibbering in a corner, eating flies and spiders that happen to come his way. He is also the founder of Parents' Basement Productions, a motion picture production company specializing in no- to low-budget short films for the Internet. They have currently released two films online: Teddy's Big Escape and Young Geeks In Love. Both can be viewed online at YouTube.com. Hugh can be visited online at his website, www.hughcasey.com.

Kyle Cassidy is the author of the acclaimed photo documentary book Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes, which was named one of the 100 best books of 2007 and one of the 10 best art books of that year by the editors of Amazon.com. Most recently, he worked on Who Killed Amanda Palmer? with Neil Gaiman, who wrote charming stories to illustrate some of Kyle's ghastly and whimsical portraits of musician Amanda Palmer. You can get that from www.whokilledamandapalmer.com. For more portraits from the Where I Write series, go to www.whereiwrite.org and to follow along on the adventure as it continues, you can find Kyle's blog at www.kylecassidy.com.

James Chambers is the author of more than forty published short stories of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. His short story collection, Resurrection House, was recently published by Dark Regions Press. In August 2005 Die Monster Die Books published his first short story collection, The Midnight Hour: Saint Lawn Hill and Other Tales, created in collaboration with illustrator Jason Whitley. His work has appeared in the anthologies Crypto-Critters (Volume 1), Dark Furies, The Dead Walk, Hardboiled Cthulhu, Hear Them Roar, Lost Worlds of Space and Time (Volume 1), No Longer Dreams, Sick: An Anthology of Illness, Weird Trails, and Warfear; the chapbook Mooncat Jack; and the magazines Bare Bone, Cthulhu Sex, and Allen K's Inhuman His tale "A Wandering Blackness," one of two published in Lin Carter's Doctor Anton Zarnak, Occult Detective, received an honorable mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Sixteenth Annual Collection. He has also written numerous comic books including Leonard Nimoy's Primortals, the critically acclaimed 'The Revenant' in Shadow House, and most recently a Midnight Hour story for the comics anthology Negative Burn. He also edits reference books on subjects such as careers, crime, medicine and health, and the paranormal. He lives in New York with his wife, two children, and a Boston Terrier. His website is www.jameschambersonline.com.

D. E. Christman says: "I'm an artist that simply wants to scare the hell out of you. And I take great pleasure in doing so. I've been creating my darkened images for as long as I can remember. My work has been described as "Twisted, demented and wonderfully creepy", a description I take great pride in.

"I make my living through my company Grendel's Den Design Studio, producing art and design for print and web. I'm also the owner of Zombie Monkey Projects (a blog of odd things for odd people) and Philly Frights (covering all things spooky in Philadelphia), a club DJ (under the name Dave Ghoul) when time permits, the co-founder of the Philly Zombie Crawl and Philly Zombie Prom, co-organizer of the Philly Pirate Cruise, Art Show Assistant for the HorrorFind Weekend Art Show, Prepress and Graphics Manager for Dancing Ferret Discs, and am also regarded as one of Philadelphia's premier zombie experts.

"Today I live in Philadelphia with my lovely ass-kicking wife Stephanie, our 8 lbs. terror of a terrier Pepper and the monkey on my back called coffee. Please visit www.GrendelsDen.net for more about me and my company Grendel's Den Design Studio."

Ariel Cinii (pronounced "SIN-eye") has been part of science-fiction fandom for over 30 years as a fan, filker, artist and apa-hack. Familiar filk favorites include "Droozlin' Through the Cosmos", "Flying Stone" and "The Alternate Side" (about parking in New York City). She's on committee for CONTATA; New York's iteration of the Floating Northeast Filk Con; writes as Sodyera on LiveJournal and for APA-NYU (once in print, now on-line). She now seeks representation for her science-fantasy novels.

Neil Clarke is the editor and publisher of Clarkesworld, a Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominated online magazine. In 2007, he opened Wyrm Publishing and resurrected Jeff VanderMeer's award-winning Ministry of Whimsy Press. He has also been online bookseller and has worked for over twenty years as an educational technologist in various schools and universities. He currently lives in Stirling, New Jersey with his wife and two children. Clarkesworld and Wyrm can be found online at www.clarkesworldmagazine.com and www.wyrmpublishing.com, respectively.

John Cmar, M.D., has been long enthralled with horrible infections that could spell doom for humankind, as well as sanity and skepticism in the practice of medicine. He is currently an Instructor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and an Infectious Diseases specialist at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. In his role as Associate Program Director for the Johns Hopkins Internal Medicine residency program at Sinai, he teaches an annual course series in Evidence-Based Medicine, among many other duties. He also does Infectious Diseases outreach in Baltimore television and print media. John is also a science fiction and fantasy fan, avid gamer, and podcast enthusiast. He has made contributions to many podcast projects, and can be currently heard as "The Bad Doctor" on The Secret Lair (http://www.thesecretlair.com/).

Nikki Cohen has been working in the often bizarre world of costuming and theatre for nearly 20 years. With her company, MayFaire Moon, she specializes now in corsetry, with frequent forays into fantasy and specialty wedding gowns and period costumes. She has studied graduate costume design at the University of Massachusetts, and at Carnegie Mellon University. She lives in Philadelphia with her three psychotic cats, an irrepressible blue collie, and a ghost named Marianne. She is an avid geek, and is working on her first novel. She can usually be found at her shop at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire (where she's also Local Madame of the International Wenches Guild, Local #9), or online at www.MayFaireMoon.com. She also finds writing about herself in the third person disturbingly amusing.

We presume that Sue Ellen Colter is very modest.

Byron Connell, a long-time SF 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 best-in-show entry, when he does enter, he does so in the Master division. Byron has run masquerades at several Costume-Cons and Philcons, but he was shocked when it was suggested that he direct the Anticipation masquerade. He is a member of the Sick Pups (the New Jersey-New York Costumers' Guild), the SLUTs, (St. Louis Ubiquitous Tailoring Society), and the Armed Costumers' Guild; this 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 still doesn't know why.) He likes hard SF, alternate history, alternate worlds, and fantasy (not necessarily in that order).

Tina Connell has been reading SF for over 50 years, and has been active in SF fandom for at least 30. She and her husband collect SF books and art, and costume as a hobby. She is usually found backstage, presiding over the Masquerade Green Room Repair Table. Her costumes have appeared at several regional and CostumeCons, and in two winning WorldCon masquerade groups, at TorCon and LA Con 4.

Caroline Cox is a Ph.D. astronomer and currently teaches high school physics and astrophysics. She has taught at the University of Virginia and has worked as an Education Specialist for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. She has written a number of science humor pieces for the Annals of Improbable Research with her husband, Eric Schulman.

Patricia M. Cryan is, by turns, a retailer who never sleeps, a walking library of children's literature, a fan of hard science, harder science fiction, and literary horror tales, and a freelance editor who makes strong folk cry at regular intervals. She serves as General Partner for Mike's Comics (http://www.mikescomics.com), a mail order and Internet company which carries books, audio productions, toys, comics, and other collectibles in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mystery, as well as roleplaying game supplies, fantasy greeting cards, and much, much more. She and her partner Michael A. Salvo are the authorized North American distributors for the new Blake's 7 audio adventures series produced in conjunction with The Sci Fi Channel. and are actively working with the producers to get a new Blake's 7 television series back on the airwaves. Patricia is a member of The New England Children's Bookselling Advisory Council. Her most current literary project involves editorial work on The Edgecliff Storybook; an excerpt can be found at http://www.edgecliffabbey.com.

Charlene Taylor D'Alessio has been illustrating in the Fantasy and Science Fiction genre for over 25 years. She is known for her exquisite painted Ties, whimsical, colorful and humorous fantasy paintings of Cats, Dragons, Owls, & Hamsters and miniature astronomical pieces. A graduate of Syracuse University College of Art, she taught art for many years. Now she paints full time and exhibits her artwork at over 30 SF cons a year and attends eight. Charlene also takes portrait commissions and special requests by F&SF fans. Her most recent published piece is "Merlin's Dilemma" published as a puzzle by SunsOut. She is also illustrating a children's book. Her wonderful husband Angelo (also a SF fan) is very patient and supportive of her artwork.

Michael D'Ambrosio is best known as the author of the Fractured Time Trilogy (Fractured Time, Twisted Fate and Dark Horizon); his new Space Frontiers series with The Eye of Icarus and Dangerous Liaisons from Helm Publishing; and a new adult horror novel entitled Night Creeps. Michael worked for several years as a nuclear field engineer, traveling throughout the United States and Europe on a regular basis. Currently, he is employed at the Salem Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey as a controls technician. He served several tours in the Middle East as a member of the Pa. Air National Guard and attributes some of his experiences there as inspiration for many of the scenes in his books. Michael is currently working on The Devil's Playground, his fifth book and the second in his new Space Frontiers series. Look for more information about Michael at www.fracturedtime.com.

Susan de Guardiola (http://www.blank.org/susan) is best-known for her role as a masquerade emcee at the 1997 and 2004 Worldcons as well as numerous East Coast local and regional conventions. She is a social dance historian who may often be found in musty library stacks researching dance from the 16th to the early 20th century, which she teaches at workshops and dance events across the United States. Susan also makes costumes and blogs about both dance history (at Capering and Kickery, http://www.kickery.com) and the rest of her life (at Rixosous, http://www.rixosous.com). In her spare time, she herds students, reviews fiction for Publisher's Weekly, and plays high-speed online Scrabble.

Ef Deal publishes fantasy, SF, and horror, mostly in small doses, and teaches writing in South Jersey. Her work has been published in Eternity Online, the Fortean Bureau, Flashshots: Daily Genre Fiction, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Keith R.A. DeCandido is the author of more than 40 novels, most of them in the media universes of Star Trek, Farscape, Supernatural, StarCraft, World of Warcraft, CSI: NY, Resident Evil, and a ton more. This year, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers.

Tony DiGerolamo is a New Jersey screenwriter, novelist, comic book writer, game designer, improv comic and actor. He is best known for his work on The Simpsons and Bart Simpson comic books and The Simpsons Books of Wisdom, but his biggest credit is as a joke writer for Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Tony has written the award-winning short film, Ten Cents a Minute, as well as the features The Evil Within and Mafioso: The Father, The Son starring Leo Rossi. His novels, Fix in Overtime and The Undercover Dragon are available through Padwolf Publishing (www.padwolf.com). After publishing his own comic books (Jersey Devil, The Travelers and The Fix) with SJRP (www.thefixsite.com), he eventually got a publishing deal with Kenzer & Company. Kenzer published The Travelers. Tony also wrote Everknights (another Kenzer comic book), as well as the Hacklopedia of Beasts (Volumes 1 thru 8) and Slaughterhouse Indigo (an adventure for the Hackmaster RPG). Currently, Tony writes "Lookin? at Comics," the comics review column for Knights of the Dinner Table magazine. His current game project is called Tony DiGerolamo's Complete Mafia for d20, now available in stores. Tony directs the Philadelphia long-form improv group, the Ninjas. Tony is the official biographer for Lambda Sigma Rho and the web strip Super Frat at www.superfrat.com. Tony has also launched his own web TV show called "Zombie Country" at www.zombiecountry.com.

The Denebian Slime Devils (Regina DeSimone, Cathy Dougherty, Melissa James, Denise Masters, and Kathy Scrimger) are filkers out of Baltimore, MD, who've been writing and performing song parodies since the late '70's. Inspired by the likes of Stan Freberg, Tom Lehrer and Spike Jones, they started writing filk around the cafeteria table in high school and haven't stopped since. They draw their inspiration from just about anything, from Star Wars and Battlestar Galatica to cell phones and the Internet, but mostly from Classic Star Trek and its many incarnations. The Slimes have performed at many local conventions, including August Party, Far Point, Balticon, every Shore Leave since the second one (now 31 and counting!) and at least one Bar Mitzvah party. To find out more about the Slimes and to download their songs, check out their website at www.slimdevils.net.

Tom Doyle writes in a spooky turret in Washington, DC. His novelette, "The Wizard of Macatawa" (Paradox Magazine #11), won last year's WSFA Small Press Award. His stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Futurismic, Aeon, and Ideomancer. He has recently finished a science fiction novel and a contemporary fantasy novel. The text and audio of many of his stories are available at his website: www.tomdoylewriter.com.

Gardner Dozois was the editor of Asimov's Science Fiction for almost twenty years, and is still the editor of the annual anthology series The Year's Best Science Fiction, now in its twenty-sixth annual collection. He has won an unprecedented 15 Hugo Awards as the Year's Best Editor, as well as two Nebula Awards for his own writing. He is the author or editor of over 100 books, the most recent of which are the anthologies The Dragon Book (with Jack Dann), The New Space Opera 2 (with Jonathan Strahan), and Songs of the Dying Earth (a Jack Vance Tribute Anthology, edited with George R.R. Martin). Coming up is the anthology Warriors, also edited with George R.R. Martin.

For the past ten years, Ty Drago has been the editor/publisher of Allegory (www.allegoryezine.com), one of the premier online paying markets for online SF, Fantasy and Horror. As a writer, his short stories have appeared in numerous publications, both print and online, including Space And Time, Haunts, After Hours, Pandora, and Midnight Zoo. He recently appeared as the Grand Master in the Fortress Publishing anthology Yesterday, I Will. On the novel front, his first SF/Mystery, Phobos, was published by Tor Books in 2004. He makes his home in Cherry Hill, NJ, with his wife and son.

Oz Drummond writes linked short stories in several science fiction and fantasy universes. She blogs about her chickens and writing at http://birdhousefrog.livejournal.com. Her latest story is "Re\Creation" in Analog, which was translated into Russian and reprinted in Esli in 5/09.

Donna Dube is a Master Class Costumer and jewelry designer. She is currently in the process of starting her own jewelry business. In real life, Donna works part-time as a costume maker. She lives in Massachusetts with her long-time partner and several cats.

David Louis Edelman is the author of Infoquake (www.infoquake.net) and Multireal (www.multireal.net), which have been described as "the love child of Donald Trump and Vernor Vinge." Infoquake was named Barnes & Noble's Top SF Novel of 2006 and nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best Novel, while Multireal was named one of the best novels of 2008 by io9 and Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, among others. The concluding novel of the Jump 225 trilogy, Geosynchron (www.geosynchron.net) will be published in February of 2010 by Pyr. David was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2008. In addition to writing novels, Edelman has programmed websites for the U.S. Army, the FBI and Rolls-Royce, taught software to the U.S. Congress and the World Bank, written articles for the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun, and directed the marketing departments of biometric and e-commerce companies.

Chris Logan Edwards has been a bookseller for 25 years, and is the publisher of Tigereyes Press, which published a World Fantasy Award nominated collection by Michael Swanwick and, in spring 2006, published Hit Head On, a collection by Pennsylvania poet Keith Ward. More recently, he edited the souvenir book for the 2007 World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs.

Gary Ehrlich stalks the hallways of Northeast conventions and assorted filk conventions. A mild-mannered structural engineer in mundania, at cons he can be found on stage or in the filk room offering songs of space flight, lunar colonies and hyperspace hotels.

Genevieve Iseult Eldredge is the kind of girl you don't want to meet in a dark alley. Five foot nothing and red-haired with a temper to match, she holds a black belt in Goju-Ryu Karate and can craft words faster than a ninja throws shuriken. A former panelist at Arisia, Philcon, and 3Pi-Con, she writes high fantasy and also erotica (under a pseudonym so her mom doesn't disown her). Her publications as "Kierstin Cherry, Semi-shy Erotica Writer" include the vampire stories: "Taken" featured in Blood Surrender by Blue Moon Books, "Enslaved," appearing in the Circlet Press ebook Like Crimson Droplets and "Graced" featured in the upcoming Women of the Bite by Circlet Press ebooks and in print by Alyson Books.

A founding member of The Patient Creatures, Andrew C. Ely has been portraying the Grim Reaper since 1985. As an actor and film-maker he has found an outlet for what some would consider to be his darker side, and has appeared in Time Warp Films Dead Hunt, Sealed Fates and will appear in the upcoming films The Tolltaker and Even From Darkness.

A founding member of The Patient Creatures, Nina Ely has been portraying Kuzibah the devil since 1994. A storyteller, actress, filmmaker, costumer, and writer, her work with the Creatures has allowed her to indulge all her passions. Recently, she has taken a leadership role in the eastern branch of the group.

Gary Feldbaum: Overworked fan, voracious reader.

Robert Fenelon walked into a room party at Philcon 1981 and was introduced to the wonderful world of VHS tape trading, Japanese pen-pals and Anime. He's spent the next 28 years sharing that experience by writing, editing and publishing about anime, and screening anime at convention video rooms and film programs. And of course, by speaking at panels, like the several he's speaking over this weekend.

Tony Finan suffers from photophobia caused by prolonged servitude in the Philcon film room, which he had run for over 15 years. He is an avid fan of the science fiction and horror film genres, specializing in British and Asian films. In his spare time, he sits in his basement and plans for the oncoming zombie apocalypse.

Greg R. Fishbone an author of books and stories for children and penguins of all ages. Greg's Philadelphia roots go back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, when he wrote for and edited Event Horizon, the University of Pennsylvania's speculative fiction magazine. During Greg's tenure, members of Event Horizon also released a shared-world anthology called Starship Alethea about a gigantic spaceship that was part scientific research vessel, part military flagship, part cruise ship, and entirely insane. Greg afterward participated in the legendary superhero parody project, Superguy. One of those stories formed the basis of Greg's first published novel, The Penguins of Doom. Greg is active in the children's literature community, serving since 2001 as Webmaster and Assistant Regional Coordinator for the three New England regions of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. He currently resides in the Boston area with his wife and daughter.

Michael Flynn is the author of ten novels and two story collections, most recently the Hugo nominee, Eifelheim, and The January Dancer. Recent short fiction includes the Hugo nominee "Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth," and the alternate history, "Quaestiones super caelo et mundo." He has received the Robert A. Heinlein Award for his body of work, and the Sturgeon prize for his story "House of Dreams." He holds a master's degree in mathematics and, as a consultant in quality management and applied statistics, has worked with clients on five continents. His next novel is Up Jim River, the second in his Stories of the Spiral Arm. A native Pennsylvanian, he lives in Easton.

Joseph Foering is a long time SF enthusiast, gamer, and devotee of Japanese animation (anime). Joe has worked for the anime convention Otakon (www.otakon.com) since its inception in 1994, including a stint as its convention Chairman in 2003. Joe is a graduate of Penn State University, where he served as Secretary of the Penn State Science Fiction Society, the organization that ultimately gave birth to Otakon. He currently resides in the Philadelphia area.

A former president of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and six-time chair of Philcon, Oz Fontecchio has held virtually every position of responsibility in The Philadelphia Science Fiction Society. Currently he spends his fannish time doing programming for Philcon and other conventions including last year's World Fantasy Con and Philadelphia Fantastic. As a full time trial lawyer, he has added representation of authors to his bag of tricks.

Gary Frank is the author of Forever Will You Suffer, a supernatural, time-shifting tale of unrequited love gone horribly wrong. His next novel, Institutional Memory, is a terrifying tale of Corporate America and is out now from Medallion Press. His writing has been compared to Richard Laymon and early Graham Masterton. Gary is a member of the Horror Writers Association, the Garden State Horror Writers, the International Thriller Writers, and Liberty States Fiction Writers.

Gregory Frost is a writer of fantasy, thrillers, and science fiction who has been publishing steadily for more than two decades. His latest work, the compelling fantasy duology, Shadowbridge and Lord Tophet was voted one of the four best fantasy novels of the year by the American Library Association. It was a finalist this year for the James Tiptree Award.

His previous novel, Fitcher's Brides, was a historical thriller that set the fairy tale of Bluebeard in 19th century New York State. Fitcher's Brides was a finalist for both the World Fantasy Award and the International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel. Other novels include Tain, Lyrec, and Nebula-nominated sf work The Pure Cold Light. His short story collection, Attack of the Jazz Giants and Other Stories was given a starred review by Publishers Weekly, which called it "one of the best fantasy collections of the year." The collection includes James Tiptree Award, Nebula Award, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and Hugo Award finalist fiction. His latest short story can be found in Poe, edited by Ellen Datlow. He is a Fiction Writing Workshop Director at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA. His web site is www.gregoryfrost.com. He's on Facebook as Gregory Frost; on Twitter as gregory_frost; and his LJ blog, "Frostbites" is at http://frostokovich.livejournal.com.

Dr. Charles E. Gannon, a distinguished Professor of English at St. Bonaventure University, is also a Fulbright Senior Specialist and a member of the SIGMA SF think-tank. He is the collaborator on the next Starfire novel (Baen), has forthcoming fiction in Analog, Pournelle's War World series, and the Defending the Future anthologies, and has authored and edited for GDW's award-winning games Traveller and 2300 A.D. His most recent non-fiction book Rumors of War and Infernal Machines: Technomilitary Agenda Setting in American and British Speculative Fiction won the 2006 American Library Association Award for Outstanding Book. A member of SIGMA, Dr. Gannon also spent five years as a Fulbright Senior Specialist in American Literature and Culture and has been a Fulbright Fellow (or visiting scholar)at Liverpool, Vancouver, Dundee, Rome, Cork (Ireland), Olomouc/Prague [Czech Republic], Stettin (Poland), and Nitra (Slovakia). Prior to his academic career, Dr. Gannon worked eight years as a scriptwriter and producer in New York City, where his clients included the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and The President's Council on Physical Fitness.

The NJ Ghostbusters are a fan group franchise of Ghostheads based out of the Southern NJ area. Our group strives to recreate, modernize, and invent quality and realistic Ghostbusters props and costumes. With our custom uniforms, proton packs, and modernized Ectomobile, we strive to support local charities, and take every opportunity we can to put a smile on someone's face.

Joseph A. Gervasi cracked out of his kosmische egg in 1971. He's spent his entire adult life living in fine, filthy Philadelphia. After years of booking hardcore punk shows in the NJ and Philly as a founder of the Cabbage Collective, he co-founded Exhumed Films (www.ExhumedFilms.com) in 1997. He co-owns the planet's finest DVD business, Diabolik DVD (www.DiabolikDVD), with Jesse Nelson. When not working working working on his business and projects, he runs six miles a day in Fairmount Park, drinks tea with his cats (four legs good, two legs bad) and keeps his house ever so clean, cleaner than the top of the washing machine. Given the opportunity, he'd transform into a rat and leave this world behind.

Alexis Gilliland may be less permanent than the Appalachians, but he has been floating around the firmament of Science Fiction for mumble-mumble years, during which time he has run cons, presided over WSFA meetings, published novels, drawn more cartoons than he can conveniently enumerate, and served as co-host for WSFA since the first Friday of November 1967.

Lee Gilliland has been in and around SF and SF cons for the last 30 mumble years. Her other interests include the Titanic, Sherlock Holmes, Richard III, and ancient Egypt, which she will talk to you about, extensively, should you ask. You were warned.

Best-known for her six "Retriever" urban fantasy novels for Luna, Laura Anne Gilman is also the author of Flesh And Fire: Book 1 of The Vineart War, which Library Journal called "one of the most original approaches to fantasy adventure; highly recommended." A former book editor, she also runs d.y.m.k. productions, an editorial services company. Her official website is http://lauraannegilman.net. Follow her on Twitter as @LAGilman.

David Goldberg is Professor of Physics at Drexel University, and author of the upcoming A User's Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty to be published by Wiley in March, 2010.

John Grant is author of some seventy books, of which about twenty-five are fiction, including novels like The World, The Hundredfold Problem, The Far-Enough Window and most recently The Dragons of Manhattan and Leaving Fortusa. His "book-length fiction" Dragonhenge, illustrated by Bob Eggleton, was shortlisted for a Hugo Award in 2003; its successor was The Stardragons. His first story collection, Take No Prisoners, appeared in 2004. He is editor of the recent anthology New Writings in the Fantastic, which was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award. His novella The City in These Pages is shortly to appear from PS Publishing. In nonfiction, he wrote The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters, Discarded Science, Corrupted Science, Bogus Science, and coedited with John Clute The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. He is currently working on a big book about film noir, a small book about the end of the world, and "a cute rhyming book for kids about a velociraptor." He has received two Hugo Awards, the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, and a number of other international literary awards. Under his real name, Paul Barnett, he has written a few books (like the space operas Strider's Galaxy and Strider's Universe) and for a number of years ran the world-famous fantasy-artbook imprint Paper Tiger, earning a Chesley Award and a nomination for the World Fantasy Award. His website is http://www.johngrantpaulbarnett.com.

Daniel Grotta wrote the first biography of J.R.R. Tolkien, which has been in continuous publication for over a quarter century, has been translated into numerous languages, and once had the singular distinction of being the most stolen book out of libraries. Daniel has also written seven other non-fiction books (co-authored with his wife Sally Wiener Grotta). As an investigative reporter, war correspondent, book and music critic, technology reviewer, features writer and columnist, he has authored well over 1,500 stories for prominent magazines and newspapers, such as Islands, Philadelphia Inquirer, Reader's Digest, the London Sunday Times magazine, American Heritage, Parade, Saturday Review, PC Magazine, Family PC, Philadelphia Magazine, Lear's Magazine and many others. His short fiction has appeared in Asimov's and Focus Magazine, and his novel is still a work in progress. Recognized as one of the premier experts on digital photography, Daniel is the president of DigitalBenchmarks, the independent digital camera and imaging test lab. He is a member of The Authors Guild, the American Society of Journalists & Authors (ASJA), the Overseas Press Club, the National Book Critics Circle, and SFWA.

Sally Wiener Grotta is a journalist, photographer and author. Her work has appeared in scores of magazines, including Parade, Lear's Magazine, Family PC, The Robb Report, American Heritage, Islands, PC Magazine and many others. Sally is also the co-author (with her husband Daniel Grotta) of seven non-fiction books. Sally's newest fine arts photography project is "American Hands" (www.AmHands.com), for which she has received various grants to mount numerous exhibit through 2010. A former chapter president of American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and member of American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), Sally is an advocate for author's rights and speaks often on the business of writing.

Paul Halpern is a Professor of Physics at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. He is the author of twelve popular science books about space, time and the cosmos. His most recent books include Collider: The Search for the World's Smallest Particles, What's Science Ever Done for Us: What the Simpsons Can Teach Us About Physics, Robots, Life and the Universe, Brave New Universe: Illuminating the Darkest Secrets of the Cosmos, The Great Beyond: Higher Dimensions, Parallel Universes and the Extraordinary Search for a Theory of Everything and Faraway Worlds: Planets Beyond the Solar System.

Harknell has been working with Onezumi for over 11 years. After noticing that there was very little online to help artists, he decided to do something about it. Harknell customized his first art-centric Content Management System in 2003. Today he releases Wordpress plugins at AWSOM.org and serves as a webmaster and guide for the online comic and blogging industry. His most recent accomplishments include custom website installs for Stupid and Insane Defenders Against Chaos and Erfworld. Harknell is best known for his easy-to-understand way of helping artists get their websites up and running. He has been a recurring guest speaker at places like XM Satellite Radio, Katsucon (http://www.katsucon.org), Ubercon (http://www.Ubercon.com), Balticon (http://www.balticon.org), and Otakon (http://www.Otakon.com). Today he lives in New Jersey with Onezumi and way too many computers.

Steve (Maugorn or Maugie) Haug is a full time musician/singer from the DC area. His musical interests and influences run from medieval thru modern and thru many genres as well. His other interests include: chocolate, lechery, bad movies, mad science, good puns, and of course, science fiction. He has hopes that his fifth self-produced CD Beast & Boar will be completed before you read this. But he'll remind you with capitalistic glee that his others are also available.

Orenthal Vance Hawkins is a self-described Pop Culture Fiend who has never really grown up. From B-movies to anime, from Old Time Radio to the Internet, if it has anything to do with pop culture he has an opinion on it. He currently offers this opinion in a commentary segment (appropriately titled "Pop Fiendish") on The Chronic Rift, a podcast dedicated to all things genre related. You can check it out at chronicrift.com. He is also a member of the cast if the audio drama HG World as "Ren Van Hawkins". You can learn more at goodmorningsurvivors.com. He talks a lot, but no one is ever sure if he's saying anything.

CJ Henderson is the author of both the Teddy London supernatural detective series and the Jack Hagee PI novels, as well as the creator of such diverse works as The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies and Baby's First Mythos. He is the author of hundreds of short stories and comics, and thousands of non-fiction pieces which have been printed around the world. He is constantly chained to his keyboard, when not holding court telling outrageous lies at the Gentlemen's Club, or pitching pennies with the local hooligans for lunch money. Learn more about him and his award-winning works at www.cjhenderson.com, then come meet the butterball from Brooklyn in the flesh!

Rob Himmelsbach is a Journeyman level costumer in the ICG; a Master of the Laurel in the SCA; a Health Department Program Manager in Real Life; and a crank and nuisance generally. He has run or helped run Masquerade and Costumer Programming at many Philcons and other cons, and was MC for the Masquerade at Millennium Philcon (2001 Worldcon) and several Philcon and Lunacon masquerades.

Larry Hodges, of Germantown, MD, is an active member of SFWA with 37 short story sales (circa Oct. 2009), over half of them since summer 2008. He's a graduate of the six-week 2006 Odyssey Writers' Workshop, the 2007 Orson Scott Card Literary Boot Camp, and the 2008 Taos Toolbox Writers' Workshop. He's been a full-time writer for many years with three books and over 1200 published articles in 97 different publications. His best work is often humorous, including his recently completed novel, Campaign 2100: Rise of the Moderates, a political satire that will soon be making the rounds at publishers on its way to great glory and/or utter obscurity. He is a member of the USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame (Google it!), and once beat someone using an ice cube as a racket. Visit him at www.larryhodges.org.

Heidi Hooper has a Bachelors in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University and Master's in Metalsmithing from the Mass College of Art. Her work has been seen in many galleries across the country (including A Mano in nearby New Hope) and can be viewed on her web page at www.heidihooper.com and soon in Ripley's Believe it Or Not! Museums around the world. She also has won many costuming awards for her metal armor pieces, including a Best Craftsman award at the Worldcon level. She was a Craftsman Judge at the 2004 Worldcon in Boston. Since a cancerous tumor caused the removal of most of her upper arm, she has had to work primarily in soft clays, and her recent work includes dryer lint! Heidi is also one of the founders of the New England Roleplaying Organization (NERO) along with her husband Michael A. Ventrella. They now run Alliance LARP (www.AllianceLARP.com)

Bob Hranek: "I'm addicted to playing EVEonline.com, running & drinking with Hash House Harriers (HashinPA.com), love playing Wargames (EPGS.org), and as a PT (Professional Thigmophiliast), I give excellent back rubs! I also have an understanding wife and two great teenage kids. I've been a systems engineer for the last two decades after six memorable years in the Air Force. I'm a vocal Space Exploitation Advocate, read hard SF whenever I have time, recruit & give blood six times a year, and judge at Science Fairs. At Philcon, you're likely to see me hanging out in my kilt if I'm not setting up/tearing down the Art Show or moderating a panel. "

Walter H. Hunt is the author of four books published by Tor: The Dark Wing (2001), The Dark Path (2002), The Dark Ascent (2004), and The Dark Crusade (2005). This critically reviewed series deals with the ethics and morality of war, and the relationship between humanity and other intelligent species; they have been compared to the works of Herbert, Card, Weber and Tolkien. His new book, A Song In Stone, is a historical novel about the music encoded in the stones of Rosslyn Chapel and the Order of the Temple. Walter is an active Freemason and a lifelong baseball fan. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and daughter.

A life-long RPG gamer, Owen Hutchins believes that starting kids off young in the hobby can make the SF experience much better,

Muriel Hykes (popularly known as Dr. Mom) is a med school dropout and substitute teacher, who has been raising special-needs kids for over two decades. At Philcon, and elsewhere in East Coast fandom, she participates in panels on nutrition, allergies, education, ADHD, learning disabilities, computers, and the future of just about everything (isn't that what SciFi is really about?) She and her rocket-scientist husband live on a hilltop just north of Williamsport, PA with two remnants of their seven recombinant DNA experiments.

As Mistress Baroness Scheherazade Al-Zahira, the former co-ruler of the SCA Barony of Bhakail as Scheherazade Jackson, she teaches Eastern Belly Dance, Teaching classes on Damascus in the Middle ages, organizes Toys-for-Tots collections, writer of prose, and generally works to create an orderly universe.

Stuart Jaffe has had numerous stories published including "The Curse and the Revenge" for the debut of One-Minute Weird Tales. His stories can also be found in the anthologies Writers for Relief 2 and New Writings in the Fantastic, as well as the forthcoming anthology Under the Rose. With his wife, he co-hosts The Eclectic Review, a podcast in which they discuss science, art, writing, books, movies, and just about anything else that falls in their laps. He resides in North Carolina with his wife, son, numerous fish, three aquatic turtles, one box turtle, two tarantulas, one corn snake, two rabbits, five cats, several mice, and a horse (which, thankfully, resides in a stable). Despite his best efforts, this list of creatures keeps growing.

Victoria Janssen's first novel, a Ruritanian/Alternate Universe fantasy titled The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover, is from Harlequin Spice, a trade paperback line of erotic novels. Her second novel for Spice, Moonlight Mistress, is due out December 2009; it's an erotic historical set during World War One and includes werewolves, crossdressing, spies, muddy shell holes, nuns driving lorries, and a zouave on a motorbike. She's recently sold two more novels to Spice, the first titled The Duke and the Pirate Queen. Under her pseudonym, Elspeth Potter, she's sold over thirty short stories. Find her online at victoriajanssen.com.

Robert T. Jeschonek is an award-winning writer whose fiction, essays, articles, comic books, and podcasts have been published around the world. His young adult urban fantasy novel, My Favorite Band Does Not Exist, is due in 2011 from Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. A collection of his fantasy and science fiction stories, Mad Scientist Meets Cannibal, was released in 2008 by PS Publishing in England. His stories have appeared in Space and Time, Postscripts, Abyss and Apex, and anthologies from DAW and Pocket Books. He has also written Star Trek fiction, winning the grand prize in the national Strange New Worlds contest. Robert is based in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. For more information, check out www.thefictioneer.com.

Lawrence Johnson, Sr. is author of the 2012 Mayan prophecy novel Escape 2 Earth and "Dimensions in Time," the short story of two lost brothers who travel through a time portal. His upcoming novel the sequel to Escape 2 Earth, Return 2 Earth is due to be released in the fall of 2009. In addition Mr. Johnson's first mystery novel Blackout will be released in 2010.

Phil Kahn is a Webcomics Person, and everything that that implies. He is currently co-writing the new hit Fantasy Adventure webcomic, Guilded Age (http://guildedage.net), and the art school-mocking comedy webcomic Sketchies (http://sketchies-comic.com). You may know him from his previous stint as a critic with his blog, I'm Just Saying and The Digital Strips Podcast. He is also a videographer, an audio-visual technician, a robot, a mad scientist, a supervillain, and a rapscallion. And yes, he is the official Philcon Phil Kahn.

Robert F. Kauffmann developed his own artistic style in college, inspired by his background in computer science and mathematics as well as the work of the mathematician B. Mandelbrot, inventor of fractal geometry, and the graphic artist M. C. Escher. He calls this style Mathematical Surrealism. His art has been featured in numerous shows in Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York City, and has won a number of awards. He has also produced a number of animated films including Animated Shorts, The Masque of Ollock, Osama bin Lobster, Food Chain Inversion, Song of the Moon, and Eye Candy. He is currently working on a new film, The Lance of Marmorax. His films have won awards including the CINE Golden Eagle Award. His first published story was The Mask of Ollock (Arx Publishing, 2002) based on his film of the same name. He is at work on a sequel entitled The Curse of Borello, which is currently being serialized in The Tarpeian Rock. Kauffmann has recently published two manga-related books on Lulu: Gokumiru a collection of math-related manga-style cartoons originally published in Hyperseeing, and Read and Study, Please, a collection of useful notes and fun manga for students of Japanese. He currently works as a software engineer for proServices Corporation.

James Patrick Kelly said this about Rebecca Maines's short story collection, Ex Cathedra: "Rebecca Maines is a deeply moral thinker who writes with a storyteller's flair. She's not afraid to pose the Big Questions and rejects all the easy answers; these are stories for grownups." During business hours, she supplies easy answers to big and small questions in her capacity as managing editor at a mid-sized publishing house.

Jon Kilgannon is the author of the webcomics A Miracle of Science and Afterlife Blues, found at afterlifeblues.com. He runs a software consulting firm in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Kim Kindya is a multimedia producer, writer and costumer. She worked on a number of CD-ROMs, including the "Star Trek Encyclopedia," "Farscape: The Game," and the original role-playing computer game "Darkened Skye." She has reviewed SF and Fantasy for Publishers Weekly, as well as written the short story, "Ice Prince," in the anthology X-Men Legends, a Powerpuff Girls "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" style book for kids, and two Looney Tunes books for Scholastic (Roswell Ruckus and Runaway Robot). She is a Craftsman-level costumer and ICG member who has competed at Philcon, Lunacon and WorldCon. A longtime avid fan of comics and animation, she collects Japanese anime and manga as well as American comics and cartoons.

Karl Kofoed is a graphic artist with more than 30 years of commercial advertising and promotional graphic design experience. Over the years his graphic design work has won several design awards while working for ad agencies such as NW Ayer Direct in New York. Today, as owner of Kofoed Design, Karl specializes in antique photo restoration, photo retouching and graphic design. He has done scores of book covers and interior illustrations over the years for magazines like Asimov's SF Magazine. Karl also has two novels, Joko and Deep Ice, both available from BeWrite books. Joko took second place in this year's Dream Realm awards for excellence in e-publishing. Karl is best known for his Galactic Geographic feature which has appeared in Heavy Metal magazine since 1980. He has always regarded this material as a single work; he has single-handedly written, designed, illustrated, and produced the Galactic Geographic Annual 3003, which he describes as "the coffee table book of the future." Signed copies of Karl's book are available in the Dealer's Room at a special convention price. (See "Janet's Jewelry" table). Karl and his wife Janet (a popular jewelry designer whose work is also available in the Dealer's Room) live in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania; a suburb of Philadelphia. They each have a daughter named Lisa, from previous marriages, and two glorious black cats named Mille 'n Nium.

Brian Koscienski is a writer, editor, and publisher.

Eric Kotani is the pseudonym used by an astrophysicist, (Dr.) Yoji Kondo, in writing science fiction. Kotani has published seven novels, the last being Legacy of Prometheus with John Moddox Roberts. His latest short stories, "The Edge World" and "Orbital Base Fear" were published in recent years in the Tekno Book anthologies. He also edited Requiem: New Collected Works by Robert A. Heinlein and Tributes to the Grand Master, a national best seller. Kondo headed the astrophysics laboratory at the Johnson Space Center during the Apollo and Skylab Missions and was director of an international satellite observatory for 15 years at NASA Goddard. He has published over 200 scientific papers and has held professorships at several universities including the University of Pennsylvania. Among a number of honors, he is the recipient of a NASA medal and Isaac Asimov Memorial Award. An asteroid has recently been named Yojikondo.

Lawrence Kramer's professional research investigates how certain proteins control the transport of neurotransmitter receptors in neuronal cells, a process likely important for learning and memory. His life as an active SF fan started when he worked at some of the first Star Trek conventions at the Commodore Hotel in NYC and continued at several Worldcons in the 70's. In 1999 he heard about Philcon and Lunacon, thereby discovering the wonderful world of regional cons. He has since worked on staff at a number of local and Worldcons in the area, but Philcon is still his favorite as the one that re-started his involvement in fandom. He is married with a wonderful wife and three daughters, all on their way to becoming avid readers like their Dad!

Samantha Kwait is the 119th element on the periodic table. Often found spamming the interwubs with her rants on society, she survives on man made sunlight and large cups of tea (one cream, two sugars). Samantha finds it hard to balance the power of being the Kwisatz Haderach with everyday life but knows the spice must flow (preferably rosemary). She recently completed translating The Art of Writing Books About the Art of Something into Lilliputian, Samantha would like to thank the following for their support: Joe Mamma, Joe Sista, and Joe Grandma too!

Ruth Lampi is a writer, sculptor and illustrator. She recently co-authored Heroes Handbook: Eladrin for Goodman Games as well as authoring several gaming modules for that company. Ruth writes and illustrates the ongoing weekly web novella The Alarna Affair, at worldofshandor.com. Her illustrations have appeared in No Longer Dreams, Children of Morpheus, by Danielle Ackley McPhail, Goblin Tales, an anthology from Poison Clan Press, the covers of Knight's Honour and Children of the Orcs, by Stephanie Major, and Allies and Enemies, by White Silver Publishing. Ruth has been drawing from the time she could grip crayons and has been a science fiction and fantasy fan for even longer.

Toni Lay is a member of the New Jersey-New York Costumers Guild (aka The Sick Pups), and the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), which gives her plenty of opportunity to costume. Toni was Program Director for Costume Con 5, and Historical Masquerade Director for Costume Cons 16 and 22. Her other fannish interests include Star Trek, Stargate, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Britcoms, alternate history novels, Harry Potter, and the Didius Falco and Gordianus the Finder mysteries. When she's not reading or making costumes, Toni is a secretary for the New York City Department of Design and Construction.

Dina A. Leacock, who writes under the name Diane Arrelle, has sold more than 100 short stories to anthologies and magazines. She has two published books, Just A Drop In The Cup, a collection of flash fiction and short-short stories and Elements Of The Short Story. She is proud to be a founding member as well as a past president of the Garden State Horror Writers as well as a past president of the Philadelphia Writers' Conference. She lives on the edge of the Pine Barrens (home of the Jersey Devil) in South Jersey with her husband, two sons and cat.

Evelyn Leeper became addicted to science fiction with The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet. She discovered fandom when then-future husband Mark signed her up for the UMass SF Society in 1968. In 1978 they founded the Bell Labs SF Club and their own (soon) weekly fanzine, which has gone through several title changes until it settled down as the MT Void (pronounced "Empty Void") which has had more than 1500 issues! She has been nominated for the Hugo for Best Fan Writer twelve times for her convention reports, travelogues, and book reviews, and is a judge for the Sidewise Awards for alternate history.

A science fiction fan since age 5, Mark Leeper went to the University of Massachusetts where he was active and eventually the president of the science fiction society. In 1978 he and his wife Evelyn founded the company science fiction club at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. What started as the weekly notice for the club has grown into the weekly fanzine for the electronic community, The MT Void, which now has had over 1300 issues! Mark is also the longest continually publishing film reviewer on the Internet. Mark's other hobbies include recreational mathematics, old-time radio, international travel, and origami. He and his wife have been fan guests of honor at Contraption and Westercon.

Neal Levin is a game designer, author, and publisher. His work in game design includes credits with: Ambient Games, Bastion Press, Dark Quest Games, EN Publishing, Mystic Eye Games and Top Fashion Games. He is a member of the Garden State Horror Writers and SFWA. He also is the publisher of Dark Quest Books. As a short story author he has work in anthologies from many publishers. His known 2010 list includes: Vampire Dreamspell, Cat Dreamspell, Barbarians at the Jumpgate, New Blood, and Zombonauts.

Dusti Lewars is a freelance writer specializing in the haunted attraction industry, where she's worked on pretty much every aspect of the field. An active blogger on LiveJournal for 9 years, her fandoms include vampires, Sherlock Holmes, and Doctor Who. Her careers have been varied - zookeeper, data quality analyst, butterfly keeper, retail drone, wildlife rehabber, and while she's not a vampire, she *does* play one on TV's Midnight Monster Hop.

Andre Lieven has been involved with SF conventions for [mumbly, mumbly] years and still loves it as much as in the beginning. His interests start with hard SF from Asimov and Clarke and range out to his old childhood favorites of Star Trek and Thunderbirds. All that lead to connecting with his interests in political science, history, military and aerospace technology and policy, and space flight. He has participated in working in most parts of SF conventions and speaks on panels at various conventions with Worldcon included on both points.

Former copywriter and long-time member of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, Debby Lieven, infiltrated the Northern borders in the pursuit of education and superior snuggles. She has also been a writer and proofreader. Her biggest projest was for the Netbook of Witches and Warlocks for the D20 System. Her life ambition is to be a professional loafer.

N.E. Lilly is the editor of SpaceWesterns.com, Everyday Weirdness, and Thaumatrope. When he isn't reading submissions, he's developing websites for Science Fiction professionals and organizations through GreenTentacles. He has designed artwork for a variety of media and processes, such as stage productions, desktop publishing, and advertising specialties, as well as dynamic and interactive content for the Internet. His current work includes TimWBurke.com, LawrenceMSchoen.com, SpaceWesterns.com, and ParanormalRestrainingOrders.com, as well as websites for Philcon 2002 through Philcon 2006 and the Browncoat Ball 2007.

Jogberd Linkandon has written over twenty novels in several SF and fantasy genres. His epic fantasy Snarl-Clasps of the Tetric Clans won the Best First Try Nebula in 2004, and he hasn't stopped writing since. His books include the Werewolf trilogy (Fang, Claw, and Throat), the Vampyr Annals series (Fang, Eyes, Blood Red), and the ongoing Nondead Necrology series (The Feed, Limbs, Flesh Harvest, Fat Farm). He has recently completed his new Weyrwulf cycle (Swollen Moon, Surges of the Crimson Tide, Painful Month). His current projects include editing an anthology of erotic vampire stories (Slaking the Thirst), a proposed Sword of the Necrostalker Chronicles series for the SyFy Network, and "a series of YA novels about a truant officer for a school of vampires." He lives with his third wife Boothwryn, seven cats, and his recreations include Frankenstein cosplay.

Gordon Linzner is the author of three published novels and dozens of short stories, former publisher and editor in chief of the oldest extant small press science fiction magazine, Space and Time, established in 1966. He also works as a New York City tour guide, a story teller, a sound technician, and front man for the Saboteur Tiger blues/oldies band.

Jeff Lyman attended the 2004 Odyssey Writing School in New Hampshire. He has assisted editing the anthologies "No Longer Dreams", "Bad Ass Fairies", and "Bad Ass Fairies II" with Danielle Ackley-McPhail. His short stories have appeared in several anthologies, including the military science fiction anthologies "Breach the Hull" and "So It Begins". Right now he's trying to figure out how to juggle writing with a one-year-old and a baby on the way.

Jonathan Maberry is a multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author, magazine feature writer, playwright, content creator and writing teacher/lecturer. His novels include Ghost Road Blues, Dead Man's Song, Bad Moon Rising, and Patient Zero, which has been optioned for TV by Sony Pictures. Upcoming novels include The Wolfman, The Dragon Factory, The King of Plagues, Rot & Ruin and Dust & Decay. His nonfiction works include Vampire Universe, and The Cryptopedia (Bram Stoker Award for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction); and Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead (Hinzman and Black Quill Awards) and They Bite! His next nonfiction book will be Vampire Hunters and Other Enemies of Evil. He is also the author of The Vampire Slayers Field Guide to the Undead, written under the pen name of Shane MacDougall. He writes The Black Panther for Marvel Comics, as well as a variety of projects involving Wolverine, Deadpool, The X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Marvel Zombies Return, a limited series with David Wellington Seth Grahame-Smith. Jonathan is the co-creator (with Laura Schrock) of On The Slab, an entertainment news show in development by Stage 9 for ABC Disney / Stage 9. Jonathan's Big Scary Blog (www.jonathanmaberry.com) focuses on the publishing industry. He is a Contributing Editor for The Big Thrill (the newsletter of the International Thriller Writers), and is a member of SFWA, MWA, SCBWI, SFWA and HWA.

Jonathan has been a writing teacher and career counselor for writers for the last two decades. He teaches a highly regard series of classes and workshops including Write Your Novel in Nine Months, Revise & Sell, Experimental Writing for Teens, and others. He also hosts the Writers Coffeehouse, a free three-hour open-agenda networking and discussion session for writers of all genres and levels of skill. The event is held at the Barnes & Noble in Willow Grove Pennsylvania on the last Sunday of every month.

Jeff Mach is the creator of the Wicked Winter Renaissance Faire (www.WickedFaire.com), proprietor of The Steampunk World's Fair (www.steampunkworldsfair.com), and managing director of The Midsummer Magick Faire (www.midsummermagickfaire.com). He's also the author of a book on power exchange ("GIVE: Some explorations of submission"), found at www.deadlychallenge.org. Finally, Jeff has been called a "Metageek", which is his favorite title ever.

Rebecca Marcus has been involved with PSFS and Philcon since the days when the con shared hotel space with the Filipina debutant ball and the American Psychiatric Association banquet. As a self appointed official hostess of Philcon she can be found at parties, panels or just roaming the hallways giving out con presents. The more serious jobs aren't as fun to list. All hail Gorga!

Gail Z. Martin is the author of The Summoner, The Blood King and Dark Haven in The Chronicles of The Necromancer series. Book Four, Dark Lady's Chosen, makes its international debut in early 2010. A new series set in her world of the Winter Kingdoms, The Fallen Kings Cycle, debuts from Orbit Books in 2011 with Book One: The Sworn. For book updates, tour information and contact details, visit www.ChroniclesOfTheNecromancer.com. Gail discovered her passion for science fiction, fantasy and ghost stories in elementary school. The first story she wrote—at age five—was about a vampire. Her favorite TV show as a preschooler was Dark Shadows. At age 14, she decided to become a writer. She enjoys attending science fiction/fantasy conventions, Renaissance fairs and living history sites. She is married and has three children, a Himalayan cat and a golden retriever.

Mike McPhail is the award winning Author and Anthologist of the military science fiction series Defending The Future (Breach The Hull, So It Begins and coming soon By Other Means) published by Dark Quest Books. He is a member of the Military Writers Society of America (MWSA), a reviewer for MilSciFi.com, and the creator of the Alliance Archives (All'Arc) series and its related Martial Role-Playing Game (MRPG), a manual-based, percentile system, that realistically portrays the consequences of warfare. His websites include http://www.mcp-concepts.com and http://www.milscifi.com.

Brent Monahan has his undergraduate degrees in German and Music from Rutgers University and his doctorate in Music from Indiana U., Bloomington. Brent was a dialogue writer for One Life to Live and All My Children in the early 80s. He has 10 novels and numerous anthologized short stories in print. Two of his novels have been made into motion pictures. His The Bell Witch/An American Haunting was released in 2005 as An American Haunting, starring Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek.

David Moore has been an active consumer and evaluator of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGS) since early 2000. Over the years Mr. Moore has had vast experiences with many of today's mainstream MMORPGS as well as some of the more obscure ones, including major leadership and progression roles in several of these games.

John Moore was raised in Doylestown, became a fan in 1977 when bought a subscription to the then new Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and attended Philcon '77. His professional sales include about a dozen short stories and five fantasy novels. By day he's an engineer who lives and works in Houston, Texas.

Andrew C. Murphy is the award-winning Creative Director of Art for BrainWorks Communications, a medical advertising company, and part-time comic book reviewer. He lives in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania with his wife and three children. His novel, Steel Sky, is a cult classic to a very small cult.

Thomas Nickid is a graphic designer and illustrator who lives in Bethel, Connecticut with his fannish wife Terri and raised-in-fandom children Alex (14) and Emma (11). Over the years he has created illustrations and layout design for various publishers including Terrific Science Press, Scholastic Books, Sumner Communications. Firewheel Editions, Cynterpubs Information Resources and he recently created cover art for the Mundania Press re-release of the best-selling Bad Ass Fairies anthology series, and for for Dragon Lure, the first book in a new anthology series from Dark Quest Books. He is a regular contributor of artwork to Space and Time magazine, and when he;s not working with publishers or showing my artwork at cons in the Northeast, he designs various marketing and informational materials for businesses and organizations. Find him at www.tomnackidart.com.

Christine Norris is the author of several novels and short stories for young adults, including the Library of Athena series. When she is not writing, she is hiding behind her secret identity of mild-mannered substitute teacher and graduate student. She also cares for her family of one husband-creature, a son-animal, and two small felines who she swears are secret agents of Chaos. She has also perpetrated several English Adaptations of novels translated from Japanese. This is Christine's fifth Philcon appearance, and she is very happy to return. Please visit http://www.christine-norris.com or at her MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/christinenorris.

Frank O'Brien is a volunteer historian for NASA, primarily as a researcher for the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, and is co-editor of the Apollo Flight Journal. He was responsible for preparing the Lunar Module Mission Simulator and other artifacts for exhibition at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, and is VP of Information Technology at the Infoage Science and Learning Center. Frank frequently lectures on space topics at NASA conferences NASA and computer expositions.

Fans say that Onezumi is what would happen if Dirty Harry and Weird Al Yankovic had a daughter that loved to draw. Onezumi "Oni" Hartstein was born in New York City to Indian/German/Polish parents, but raised in an economically depressed area in Pittsburgh, PA. Here she experienced firsthand the positive effects of art on young people. After moving to New Jersey, she worked professionally in animation for The Disney Channel before leaving to start Onezumi Studios, LLC, which is the parent company to her family of websites, including http://www.Onezumi.com. Her blog is located at http://www.Onezumiverse.com. Onezumi has a B.A. in Sociology/Psychology specializing in Gender Studies, and has studied classical art in a University setting for over 6 years. She lives in New Jersey and shares an apartment with her husband and a lot of coffee beans.

Terri Osborne began her career with forays into the published Star Trek universe. Then it was on to ancient England for a meeting with Boudicca with "Good Queen, Bad Queen, I Queen, You Queen" in the Doctor Who: Short Trips anthology The Quality of Leadership. 2010 will see her finally venture into her original universe with "Love and Other Excuses" in the New Blood anthology coming from Padwolf Publishing. Other projects are cooking on multiple burners, so stay tuned!

Crystal Paul has been a fan and a filker since 1977 and has been on the staff and committee of many cons, both SF and media. She has twice chaired Conterpoint, the Washington DC filk con. Most recently, she was Listener Guest at Contata, the New York filk con. She is a technical writer and worked at Hubble Space Telescope project HQ for 7 years. Possibly her most insane fannish moment was marrying Steve Brinich at Conterpoint 2007 while chairing the con.

Jo Blu Pax has been running a webcomic, Parlor Trick (www.parlortrickcomic.com), with his sister Sally for over a year. When not scribbling on his tablet and cursing at Photoshop, he's perched upon his upright bass slapping out tunes and grooving along with his band Mojo Rocket (www.mojorocket.net). Some would say that routine is boring and variation is the spice of life, but Jo would laugh at this.. because he has an upright bass. And honestly, any boring routine can be made interesting with one of those!

Often accused of being both a catalyst and a muse, Sally Rouge-Pax makes a modest living as an Undercover Rock Star posing as a mild mannered workflow coordinator. She has been primary artist and co-author of a webcomic, Parlor Trick (www.parlortrickcomic.com); is actively lead singer for her band, Mojo Rocket (www.mojorocket.net); and is also Miss September in the 2010 Pinups for Pitbulls calendar (www.pinupsforpitbulls.com). For more info about the woman behind the awesome, check out her site: www.Sally-Rouge.com

Mike Pederson is the publisher/editor/graphic designer responsible for the semiprozine Nth Degree and its e-zine counterpart, NthZine.com. Mike began life as a semi-pro in 1988 when his SF short story, "Dust Storm," won first place in a local writing contest. In the 1990s, he wrote and published the Raven comic book series (with artist R. Craig Enslin) and edited and published Scene, a Virginia-based entertainment magazine. In 2001, Mike was part of the "Best in Class – Master Division" winning presentation (Pre-Emptive Strike) at the Millennium Philcon Masquerade. Shortly after that he started Nth Degree. In 2007, he wrote a chapter on "Writing for Magazines" for Dragon Moon Press' Writing Fantasy: The Author's Grimoire. In 2009, Mike began work as a book reviewer for the California Literary Review. Mike also edited Sir Walter's Salon, the bidzine for the 2010 NASFiC. Mike is also the permanent con chair for RavenCon in Richmond, Virginia and (along with Warren Buff) is chairing ReConStruction, the Raleigh NASFiC in 2010. Yes, Mike is an insanely busy person; if you see him around the con please feed him lots of caffeine and/or beer. When not engaged in geekish pursuits, Mike is a professional graphic designer and lives in Charlotte, NC.

Charles Pellegrino's next book, The Last Train from Hiroshima, bridges the bombings of the two cities with the thirty people who are known to have survived both bombings (in a way, one of them survived a third ground zero when he came to New York wearing his Red Sox hat). The book has been bought by Lightstorm and is intended as an "unflinching" 3-D theatrical release on what these bombs really do. After working forensic archaeology in Ground Zero New York and developing patina fingerprinting methods in the crime lab (for the repatriation of artifacts to museums in the countries from which they were stolen), Charles worked with Jesuits and Franciscan scholars on matters involving the tomb from which the Turin Shroud might have originated, then immersed himself in forensic archaeology in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (work that finally appears to have gotten him formally excommunicated from the Republican Party, with the word, "disgust," in 2008: his father, a Normandy veteran who became a 1950s beatnik and whose son became a Republican while everyone else's sons became hippies, would have been so proud...) In 2009 he served as a scientific consultant on James Cameron's Avatar film. Philcon attendees will immediately recognize the spacecraft in the film, based on the Brookhaven National Laboratory Valkyrie designs (by Pellegrino and Jim Powell), hybridized with Robert L. Forward's designs.

K.T. Pinto couldn't stand where her family had moved once they left Brooklyn, so she started killing people. Once she ran out of room for the bodies, she decided she had to find another outlet for her frustration.

That's when she started writing... For more about KT's life in her own words, go to http://ktpinto.livejournal.com/303483.html or visit her website at www.ktpinto.com. The first two novels in the Books of Insanity series - Celeste and Vanity - are now for sale and the third - Marco - will be out in Oct. 2010.

James Prego, ND is a practicing Naturopathic Doctor on Long Island, NY. He is also an adjunct professor of Biology at Molloy College and a board member of the New York Association of Naturoapthic Doctors. Dr. Prego is a long-time fan of science fiction and has been a guest at conventions, such as Philcon, I-Con, Arisia, NEFE, Albacon, and Pi-Con, where he has been on panels discussing xenobiology, health in space, life extension, fusions of biology and technology, and how natural ways of healing fit in a sci-fi/high-tech world. He has also been on various fan-related and culture panels. Dr. Prego has given talks, written articles, and been a guest on radio shows, discussing naturopathic medicine, children's health, detoxification, and other health-related topics. To learn more about Dr. Prego, and what naturopathic medicine is, you can visit www.doctorprego.com or read his health and wellness blog at drprego.blogspot.com.

Brian T. Price was a founding member of the Atlantic Anime Alliance, staffing Chibicon (the East Coast's first anime conference) and ANIMEast '94 & '95. In recent years has spoken on panels about anime and other sci-fi & fantasy related topics at conventions up and down the East Coast. Currently he keeps himself active in anime fandom as staff at Katsucon, Anime/Video Coordinator for Double Exposure's gaming events and is the head of anime programming at Philcon, the longest running science fiction convention in the world. A certified massage therapist and freelance artist by trade, Brian has also taken a small step into voice acting, lending his voice to the productions of Dragon's Lair Studios and the forthcoming Webmaster Guy animated project.

Tom Purdom started reading science fiction in 1950, when he was fourteen. His first published story appeared in 1957, his latest in the June 2009 Asimov's. His contributions to the science fiction scene include novels, short stories and novelettes, magazine articles, book reviews, an anthology of science writing by leading science fiction writers, two terms as vice president of SFWA, three years as Eastern Regional Director of SFWA, and approximately fifteen years of volunteer work for the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and Philcon. For the last twenty years, he has been writing short fiction, mostly in the novelette length, which has primarily appeared in Asimov's, and anthologies such as the year's best annuals edited by David Hartwell and Gardner Dozois. Outside of science fiction, his output includes magazine articles, essays, science writing, brochures on home decorating, an educational comic book on vocational safety, and twenty years of classical music criticism. He lives in center city Philadelphia where he devotes himself to a continuous round of pleasures and entertainments.

Roman A. Ranieri is a native of Philadelphia, PA. In 1986, he finally took the literary plunge and began sending his work to various editors. Roman eventually became a frequent contributor to many small press magazines such as: Cemetery Dance, Afraid, Horror, and Dead of Night. His spectrum of work for these publications included; fiction, articles, interviews, and book/magazine/audio reviews. The appearance of "The Drifter" in Cold Blood, published in 1991, marked Roman's graduation into professional anthologies. Stories in The Earth Strikes Back, Werewolves, Darkside, The Best of Cemetery Dance, Bad News, and many others, have solidified his reputation as a talented writer of horror, science fiction, and dark suspense.

A struggling and yet-to-be published writer, Ted Rickles is currently at work, researching and writng a book examining the evolution of post-apocalyptic themes in SF television series. His credits include story/art development for an unpublished graphic novel sequel to Gene Roddenberry's Genesis II (1973) and Planet Earth (1974). His book in progress integrates research on Roddenberry's television projects, including Star Trek, with the works of contemporary SF talents including Michael J. Straczynski and Joss Whedon. He has his M.A. in Sociology from Temple University and is currently employed in Sales and Marketing for a local Web Engineer. He is also a Resource and Affairs Coordinator in the United States for the Brazilian Studio, Impacto Quadrinhos, whose illustrators have been published by DC, Marvel, and numerous other comic book publishers.

Ray Ridenour, semi-local science fiction 'Personality', has been stalking the halls and scaring the horses since 1966. A professional artist, although not in the SF field as of yet, he produces computer graphics, inkblot-based paintings, and stained glass windows as well as work in other media. An amateur actor, he has appeared in two low-budget horror films, as well as many fannish and non-fannish stage productions. His two severed heads from his first movie have gone on to illustrious film careers in Japan. Moderately funny and quite often charming, he has appeared on many panels on many subjects over the years, unencumbered by expertise and anecdotes germane.

C.A. "Rock" Robertson II is an Electronic Engineer, DJ, Musician, heart attack survivor and all-around Technophile. A 20-year Philcon regular and current President of PSFS, he remains far ahead on experience points and hopes one day to have a job that doesn't require a top secret clearance.

Born in 1952, author-illustrator Mark E. Rogers is best known for the Samurai Cat books: The Adventures of Samurai Cat, More Adventures of Samurai Cat, Samurai Cat in the Real World, The Sword of Samurai Cat, and Samurai Cat Goes to the Movies. The sixth and final installment in the series, Samurai Cat Goes to Hell, was recently published by TOR. His other books include The Dead, a horror novel about the end of the world, and a number of books set in an alternate universe: Zorachus, its sequel The Nightmare of God, the Blood of the Lamb trilogy The Expected One, The Devouring Void, and The Riddled Man, and most recently, the Zancharthus trilogy, Blood + Pearls, Jagutai and Lilitu, and Night of the Long Knives. One of his novellas, "The Runestone," was made into a movie; and The Dead is presently under development as a feature film -- with a screenplay by Mark – at KNB-FX. Mark's work has been adapted by Marvel comics, and has appeared on the cover of Cricket Magazine; he's published three art portfolios, and a collection of his pin-up paintings, Nothing But A Smile, from Xenophile Books. Mark lives in Newark, Delaware, with his wife Kate, a philosophy professor at the U of D, and their four lovely kids, Sophie, Jeannie, Patrick, and Nick.

Roberta Rogow has been involved in Fandom since 1973 as a Filker, Costumer, Fanzine writer and editor, and Artist (specializing in needlework). She writes historical mysteries; her most recent series is set in New York City in the Gilded Age. Roberta is now retired, after 37 years as a Children's Librarian in various municipalities in New Jersey.

Short version, according to Suzanne Rosin: "Because it's me." Longer Version: "For years I have been lurking on the outskirts of fandom. Then one day I blinked, said yes to a friend and suddenly just with the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society (PSFS) and Philcon, I found myself serving as President, Vice-President, Treasurer, One Year Director, Co-Chair Programming Committee, Vice-Chair of Philcon, Head of Information along with being active on the various committees of both organizations. I am also a Browncoat. Why do all this? Because it's me."

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, James Daniel Ross has been an actor, computer tech support operator, historic infotainment tour guide, armed self defense retailer, automotive petrol attendant, youth entertainment stock replacement specialist, mass market Italian chef, low priority courier, monthly printed media retailer, automotive industry miscellaneous task facilitator, and ditch digger. His credits include The Radiation Angels Series, and he has short stories in Breach the Hull, So It Begins, and Bad Ass Faeries. Most people are begging him to go back to ditch digging. He can be found wandering the convention, giggling madly, signing anything not nailed down.

Tony Ruggiero retired from the United States Navy in 2001 after twenty-three years of service. While continuing to write, Tony teaches at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. He written several novels in the "Declassified Files of the Team of Darkness" series, including Operation Immortal Servitude, Operation Save the Innocent, and Operation Face the Fear. Other novels include Alien Deception and its sequel, Alien Revelation. Tony is also a contributing author to The Fantasy Writers' Companion, Writers for Relief, No Longer Dreams and Breach the Hull. In addition, Tony has a humorous tale called "The Importance of Undergarments at Science Fiction Conventions," which will be appearing in the Writers for Relief Anthology II. Coming in 2010 from Dragon Moon Press, the fourth and final book in his vampire series: Operation Endgame. For more information, please visit www.tonyruggiero.com.

Mike Ryan has been a fan of science fiction ever since the age of six, having fond memories of watching episodes of The Starlost and Star Trek on TV. He was also one of those kids in late 70s and early 80s who rushed home to watch the latest episode of Battle of the Planets, Star Blazers and Robotech. Since then, he's expanded his love of the genre into gaming and is currently an active member of the Philadelphia Area Gaming Enthusiasts (PAGE) gaming club. In 1997, Mike discovered not only that those cartoons he loved as a child were "Japanese animation," but that there was a strong fan community for it. After attending the Japanese animation convention Otakon for the first time in 1997, Mike has since joined its staff and is currently a member of its Board of Directors. Naturally, he sees science fiction, gaming, and anime all as natural extensions of each other.

Kathy Sands had this to say about herself: "My uncles were both hard SF readers. Since neither of them collected, or even read the same book twice, wherever they finished a book, there it lay. By the time I moved away from childrens' fantasy around fifth, I had a small library to indulge in, on the bookshelves of my own home. By the time I left home, I'd read out every library in the county, including the bookmobile HQ. In the mid-70's, I discovered conventions, filk, & media fanfiction, & extended my SF addiction to encompass them. To date, I've produced 4 media fanfiction zines and 2 filk CDs, with more of each in the works.

"I took over Tales from the White Hart, a science fiction bookstore in 1977, and ran it for 17 years, marrying Leo Sands, my favorite customer. Both of our kids grew up there, and at conventions around the country & 2 other continents. Neither has yet run screaming into Mundania (our son was married at a con), so I guess we raised them right.

"Having spent 34 years in fandom, I hope to enjoy at least that many more."

Lawrence Schoen holds a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology, with a special focus in psycholinguistics. He spent ten years as a college professor, and has done extensive research in the areas of human memory and language. He currently works as the director of research and chief compliance officer for a series of mental health and addiction treatment facilities. He's also one of the world's foremost authorities on the Klingon language, having championed the exploration of this constructed tongue and lectured on this unique topic throughout the world. In addition, he's the publisher behind a new speculative fiction small press, Paper Golem, serving the niche of up-and-coming new writers as well as providing a market for novellas.

In 2007, he was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer. He's published more than 50 stories in more than a dozen languages. His first novel, Buffalito Destiny was published last Spring, and a sequel is expected next May. He lives near Philadelphia with his wife, Valerie, who is neither a psychologist nor a Klingon speaker.

Eric Schulman is a Ph.D. astronomer, a member of the editorial board of The Annals of Improbable Research, and the author of the 1999 science humor book A Briefer History of Time.

Darrell Schweitzer has been publishing fantastic fiction since the early 1970s. His books include three novels, The White Isle, The Shattered Goddess, and The Mask of the Sorcerer, plus seven short-story collections. His work, both fiction and non-fiction, has appeared in publications as varied as Postscripts, Interzone, Realms Of Fantasy, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post, and Sci Fi Entertainment. He is a respected critic, a regular contributor to The New York Review of Science Fiction, and is the author of books about H.P. Lovecraft and Lord Dunsany. He has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award three times, twice for Best Collection and once for Best Novella, and won it once as one of the editors of Weird Tales magazine, a position he between 1987 and 2006. He is also an anthologist, who has recently turned in Cthulhu's Reign (DAW, 2010, with Martin H. Greenberg). He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with his wife, the fantasy writer Marilyn Mattie Brahen, and the requisite number of literary cats. He denies that he is best-known for having rhymed "Cthulhu" in a limerick.

Dr. SETI is the name of the blatant exhibitionist who inhabits the body of noted author and educator Dr. H. Paul Shuch. A cross between Tom Lehrer and Carl Sagan, it is said that Dr. SETI sings like Sagan and lectures like Lehrer. Armed with a laptop computer and an acoustical guitar, Dr. SETI serves the nonprofit, membership-supported SETI League as Executive Director Emeritus (all work and no pay makes Jack a poor prof.), coordinating its science mission and delivering hundreds of Dr. SETI (R) presentations since 1994. At college campuses, science centers, public lecture halls, and on television and radio, Dr. SETI's unique mix of science and song seeks to educate as well as entertain. He compels the listener to contemplate a fundamental question, which has haunted humankind since first we realized that the points of light in the night sky are other suns: Are We Alone?

Jed Shumsky has a Ph.D. in Neuropsychopharmacology, teaches Neuroscience to both medical and graduate students, and pursues an active research program. He studies recovery of function from spinal injury as well as models of attentional processing. A longtime F&SF fan, he remains amused and amazed by how much of his work has been predicted within the genre.

Brian Siano has written for the Philadelphia City Paper, In These Times, The Skeptical Inquirer, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, and for two years he was a Senior Editor at The Humanist magazine, writing the "Skeptical Eye" column. He currently makes videos with local community groups, and spends a lot of time working on his house. He likes woodworking, writing essays, design, reading, and movies, none of which makes him an expert on anything so he doesn't make a big deal about it. He also designed the Philcon publications this year. (briansiano.livejournal.com).

David Silverman is the National Spokesperson for American Atheists, the nation's premier nonprofit organization for nonreligious people. In this capacity Mr. Silverman has been a guest on such TV programs as The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity and Colmes, Paula Zahn Now, and Fox and Friends, and has published articles in the New York Times and USA Today, among others. He also authors the NoGodBlog (noGodBlog.com) and decides the winners of the American Atheists College Scholarships.

Hildy Silverman is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Space and Time magazine, a four-decade-old magazine of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. She is also a freelance writer and editor in the fiction, nonfiction, and corporate worlds. Hildy is a member of PSFS and the Garden State Horror Writers. For more information on Space and Time, please visit www.spaceandtimemagazine.com.

Jay Smith is a recovering filmmaker, chronic blogger and a man Harlan Ellison once called "a great scam-man liar or a born writer." Objective sources have yet to determine which is true. He is producer and writer for HG World, the serialized zombie audio drama available at www.goodmorningsurvivors.com. He is also a host and contributor to the online pop culture/speculative fiction podcast The Chronic Rift (www.chronicrift.com) and a member of "The Sleepwalkers" - a writing group that includes award-winning authors Frank Fradella, Jeff Strand, Elizabeth Donald and Kit Tunstall. In the meatverse, Jay has written three books, including the Blue Collar Gods series Sertsa, Erisa, Melmoth, and Vathek and the gaming novel Rise of the Monkey Lord. Jay married up and has four children, each of whom is being trained as a horseman for the coming apocalypse.

Kristyn Souder could be considered an expert on the Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG) genre, having played more than 10 of them for at least a brief period of time (whether this is an accomplishment or not, of course, is up for debate). After the success of her OMG MMORPGS! panel at several local conventions, she is happy to take part in several panels at Philcon examining the genre as a whole, as well as her current addiction, EverQuest 2, in particular. When she isn't playing EverQuest, she acts as a staff member for another local convention - Zenkaikon, and is an active member of the Delaware Anime Society. She also enjoys reading, watching anime, and designing websites.

Tim Souder is a long time fan of science fiction and anime. He has read all of the science fiction novels by Asimov and Clarke, and numerous other series. He has watched over a hundred anime series from the classics (such as Space Battleship Yamoto, Bubblegum Crisis, Cowboy Bebop) to the modern (such as Bleach, Darker than Black, and Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex). In the real world, Tim has his Masters degree in Computer Science from Drexel University. He currently works as a software engineer at Lockheed Martin.

A professional writer since he was 16 years old, Bill Spangler has contributed to Star Wars On Trial, Getting Lost and Farscape Forever, all volumes in the Smart Pop series from BenBella Books. In addition, he had a novelette published in a pulp-tribute anthology called Lance Star, Sky Ranger. He also scripted the Tom Corbett Space Cadet limited series, now available from Bluewater Comics. Before that, he wrote comics for several independent publishers. His credits include original stories based on Quantum Leap, Alien Nation, and Robotech, as well as the original characters Bloodwing and the Argonauts. Bill and his wife Joyce live in Bucks County, where they provide 24-hour valet service for a dog and two ferrets.

Bud Sparhawk writes "hard" short SF stories. He has been a Nebula finalist three times, has appeared in two "Year's Best" anthologies, and has had two collections published. He had sold one novel, Vixen, and more than seventy short stories to print markets at home and abroad, as well as Internet webzines. More information may be obtained from his web site at: http://sff.net/people/bud_sparhawk.

Mary Spila is not your stereotypical, mild-mannered librarian. With interests in clothing/costuming and history, she is has definite penchant for Steampunk, and has been active for over 20 years in the Society for Creative Anachronism. She reads everything within visual range. Current favorites are mixed genre fiction, History, and anything else that catches her eye. She is relatively new to the Con scene, and this will be her debut as a Philcon panelist.

Harold Stein is a computer tech in his day job, but usually can be found in either the art show (setting it up or tearing it down) at most east coast conventions or in the filk room recording the concerts and open filks. Harold was Techno Guest @ the 2009 East Coast Floating Filk convention - Concerino next June. Bio from the Concertino web page - Harold is an energetic figure at Northeastern conventions, recording concerts and open filks and getting people copies of their own performances. Harold's web page: http://www.floatingfilk.com

Luke Stelmaszek is a gradute of duCret School of Art where he recieved a Commercial Art Certificate. He studied under guidance of book and magazine illustrator, Peter Caras, who was a student of Norman Rockwell, and fantasy illustrator Mark Romanoski, the assistant of Tim and Greg Hildebrant. After graduating, he continued his studies in fantasy illustration and digital illustration under supervision of fantasy illustrator William O'Connor. Shortly afterward, he landed his very first published assignments for the game card company, AEG Inc. for the game Legends of the 5 Rings which was published recently back in May 2008. While at duCret, Luke entered many art shows where he won several awards. His winning works were displayed at the Swain's Art Gallery in Plainfield, New Jersey. Right now, he is focusing on his fantasy illustrations, portraits, conventions, film art and commissions as well as 2 comic book series.

Christopher Stout first appeared on the big screen over a decade ago at the Philcon premiere of Learner's Permit to Kill, the first in a series of low budget/high imagination James Bond spoofs made with his father. Since then, he's learned how to make movies with a budget larger than loose couch change, graduating with honors from the University of Southern California's prestigious film program. He's currently represented as a writer/director by Artist International and resides in Delaware where he's in various stages of development and production on several films and television shows.

Richard Stout premiered his trilogy of kid spy movies featuring James Blond, Agent Uh-Oh 7, at Philcon, beginning with 1993's Learner's Permit to Kill. His horror makeup/special FX workshop "Monsters, Aliens, and Spirit Gum" has been popular both here and at I-Con. He and his wife Kathryn run an educational publishing company, and while she is the brains of the operation, she allowed him to co-author Movies As Literature. After publishing more than 30 non-fiction pieces, Richard is currently shopping his first novel, The Moonstone Arabesque, and it is reported that the strange rumbling heard in Baltimore's Westminster Burying Ground is Edgar Allan Poe spinning in his grave.

Jim Stratton is a chameleon. By day, he is a mild-mannered government lawyer specializing in the field of child abuse prosecutions, and lives with his wife and children in southern Delaware. But he's been an avid fan of speculative fiction all his life, and began writing genre fiction 10+ years ago. In recent years he's been forging his dark alter ego of genre fiction author through publication of his tales in venues like Dragons, Knights & Angels Magazine, Ennea (published in Athens, Greece) & Nth Degree Magazine. The appearance of his first foray into the world of poetry in The Broadkill Review is but another step in his master plan. He has danced into the light when his stories appeared in 2008 & 2009 in Tower of Light Online Magazine, Big Pulp E-zine and "Dead Souls" published by Morrigan Books is yet another step in his master plan. His final reveal, the novel Loki's Gambit, is under review for possible publication soon.

Jerome Stueart (Clarion San Diego 2007) has published science fiction and fantasy in Fantasy, Metazen, Strange Horizons, On Spec and two Tesseracts anthologies, and forthcoming in the anthology, Evolve. His story, "Lemmings in the Third Year" was a runner up for the 2005 Fountain Award. Living in the Yukon Territory of Canada, Jerome has helped start two science fiction and fantasy groups, one for adults and one for teens. He writes for magazines, written and produced several radio series for CBC North, and this last summer he worked for the Arctic Institute of North America at the Kluane Lake Research Station.

Michael Swanwick has received the Hugo Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy Awards. His work has been translated and published throughout the world. His novels include Stations of the Tide, Jack Faust, The Iron Dragon's Daughter, Bones of the Earth and The Dragons of Babel. He is currently at work on a novel featuring Postutopian con-men Darger and Surplus. Swanwick lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Marianne Porter.

Now (co-)running the Philcon Children's Program for the seventh year (see also: Deb Lieven), Phillip Thorne exercises his LEGO skills by constructing tiny replicas of intriguing fictional starships, and his organizational skills by fighting against household metastasis of other craft supplies. Interests include anime, computing, nanotechnology, photography, Trek, and a range of written SF. He's an active member of DelVaLUG and PennLUG, two nearby LEGO Users Groups. During the week he manages macroeconomic datasets at Moody's Economy.com, a vocation which nowadays makes Greg Costikyan's novel First Contract seem terrifyingly prescient.

Emily Tullis has been going to Cons since before she could say "No". She now lives in a one bedroom apartment with her husband and 37 cats all named after unused characters from the Silmarillion. Her personal philosophy is "Why listen when you can show off your knitting skills?" Recently committed to Byberry for her fruitless attempts at trying to better the fannish community through good graphic design, she is released once a year to attend Philcon. Her personal file reads "Mostly Harmless."

Michael A. Ventrella's second novel The Axes of Evil, the sequel to Arch Enemies, is due in March 2010. He is one of the founders of the New England Roleplaying Organization (NERO), the largest fantasy medieval live action game in America, and currently runs the The Alliance LARP (www.AllianceLARP.com). His guide books are available at gaming stores with good taste and through Amazon.com and other retailers. He is also an animation historian, and has been quoted in Entertainment Weekly and the Philadelphia inquirer. He founded Animato magazine in the 80s before the animation boom. In his spare time he is a lawyer in the Poconos. He is married to artist Heidi Hooper.

An award-winning writer, film historian, critic, archivist, musicologist and poet, Steve Vertlieb has been writing about motion pictures and symphonic film music in a variety of books and magazines since 1969. He assisted in the preparation of Warner Bros. premiere DVD release of King Kong (1933), was interviewed by the prestigeous Sci-Fantasy web site, The Thunder Child, appears on camera in the new documentary Kreating Karloff, has appeared as a guest speaker at The Philadelphia Art Museum, and both programmed and appeared on stage at the sixtieth anniversary King Kong celebration at Chicago's Gateway Theater in conjunction with Turner Entertainment. His work has appeared in such publications as The Monster Times, Home Viewer Magazine, L'Incroyable Cinema, Cinemacabre, Midnight Marquee, Penny Dreadful, Songs Of Innocence, Outer Darkness, and Scarlet Literary Magazine and has been featured in such books as The Girl in the Hairy Paw, King Kong Cometh, Dracula: The First Hundred Years, Cinematic Hauntings, Memories Of Hammer, My Memories of Mario Lanza, and The Man who Collected Psychos: Critical Essays on Robert Bloch for McFarland Publishers. He wrote the liner notes for a commemorative booklet accompanying the world premiere CD recording of Miklos Rozsa's The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes, and contributes regularly on line to The Thunder Child, Red Hot Planet, and Film Music Review.

Patricia Wake is a singing, songwriting, guitar playing, Sci-Fi/ Fantasy loving, ren-faire going, steampunk SCAdian goth chick fangirl. Patricia writes very serious songs (SRSLY) then presents them with irreverence and inappropriate laughter. Although her major musical influences include Leonard Cohen, P.J. Harvey, Kate Bush, Nick Cave, Tom Waits and Joni Mitchell, she is also influenced by way too much caffeine, crazy cat lady disorder, an obsession with speculative fiction, and a morbid fascination with the concept of entropy. She is frequently joined by violinist Megan Irvine. Patricia has released one diy demo EP, I'll Have the Pathos With a Side of Angst, and is currently working on a second release The Science of Fiction. She appears on Wrapped in the Guise of My Friend, a tribute to UK experimental music pioneers Attrition, and also on the upcoming cancer benefit compilation Electronic Saviors: Industrial Music to Cure Cancer. Of course, music doesn't pay the bills, so Patricia also creates costumery for her fellow chronically challenged clothing enthusiasts. You can hear her music at www.myspace.com/wakepatricia, friend her on www.facebook.com/patriciawake, and buy stuff from her at www.patriciawake.etsy.com

Michael J. Walsh once chaired a Worldcon. He considers himself lucky to have fallen down the rabbit hole called fandom.

David Walton is the author of the novel Terminal Mind, which won this year's Philip K. Dick Award, and the winner of the 2008 Baen Memorial Award for short fiction. He apologizes for destroying Philadelphia in his novel, although his own suburban home is safely outside the crater radius. He lives in Delaware County with his wife, five children (none of whom have reached double digits in age), and one gerbil. By day, he works for a large defense contractor on classified government programs, which not even the gerbil is allowed to know about. The rest of his time he spends storytelling, sword-fighting, tower-building, diaper-juggling, and otherwise taking care of his children. Since he doesn't actually have time to write, he's trained the gerbil to do it for him with a combination of Morse clicks on its drinking bottle and cleverly-arranged pellets. The gerbil has produced quite a few published short stories over the years, which have appeared in Analog, Baen's Universe, Cosmos, and elsewhere. You can find out more about them at www.davidwaltonfiction.com.

Vicki Warren is a costumer who in her day job calculates the risk of breaking nuclear plants and other fun scenarios. She has run local and worldcon level masquerades and competes in them when not running them.

E. F. Watkins specializes in paranormal suspense, and since 2003 has published five novels with Amber Quill Press LLC. Her first, Dance with the Dragon, received a 2004 EPPIE Award from the national organization EPIC (Electronically Published Internet Connection.) as Best Horror Novel. Next came the romantic mystery Ride a Dancing Horse (as "Eileen Watkins"). Her third book, Black Flowers, was a Finalist in the Thriller category for both the 2006 EPPIEs and the 2007 Indie Excellence Book Awards. Her other paranormal thrillers include Paragon and her latest, Danu's Children. F. Paul Wilson, best-selling author of The Keep and The Select, has said "E. F. Watkins is a writer to watch!" She is a member of the Garden State Horror Writers, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America and Broad Universe. For more background, visit her web site at www.efwatkins.com.

Diane Weinstein was assistant editor and art director for Weird Tales magazine for about 15 years. She's also worked for Wildside Press and is currently the art editor for Space & Time magazine. She is also a well-known party person, having thrown parties for Phrolicon, Magicon, and assisted with Philcon SFWA parties back in the good old days.

Christopher Weuve is a wargame designer and naval analyst. After six years at the Center for Naval Analyses as a wargame designer and naval exercise analyst, he joined the research faculty of the US Naval War College in 2005, where he has focused on using wargaming as a research tool. He moderates several SF and wargaming mailing lists (inc. SFConsim-L, NavWarGames and Exordium-L), and spends his spare time pondering the differences between fictional and Real-World(tm) naval forces and combat. He also claims credit as the founder of the Society for the Conservation of Angular Momentum, although he admits that was an accident.

Drew Rhys White has stories in Last Drink Bird Head, the Polluto "Steampunk Orange" issue, and upcoming in the Blood Fruit and Leonardo Variations anthologies. His play, Another Night with the Henriksens, debuted at the Player's Theater in Greenwich Village last fall. Drew is a 2007 Clarion graduate and a fellow of the first Aspen Environmental Forum. He enjoys frot and black cherry wishniak. His blog is Tender Comrade (http://tendercomrade.blogspot.com/)

Dr. Jay L. Wile holds an earned Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in nuclear chemistry and a B.S. in chemistry from the same institution. He has taught at both the university and high school levels and has won several awards for excellence in teaching. He has also published more than 30 articles in nationally-recognized journals and has 9 books to his credit including Reasonable Faith: The Scientific Case For Christianity.

Jennifer Williams is an editor by day and a writer by night. She is currently doing an internship at Circlet Press and has two forthcoming anthologies as editor; Like a Sacred Desire: Tales of Sex Magick and Like Myth Made Flesh. Upcoming original work includes poetry in the collection Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes, a print anthology by Coscom Entertainment, and a short story in Women of the Bite: Lesbian Vampire Erotica edited by Cecilia Tan and being published as a print anthology by Alyson Books later this year. She is an active member of the New England Horror Writers Association.

Alyce Wilson, a Philadelphia area freelance writer and editor, is the co-founder and editor of Wild Violet (wildviolet.net), an online literary quarterly. She has self-published a book of poems, Picturebook of the Martyrs, and an e-book, Stay Out of the Bin! An Editor's Tips on Getting Published in Lit Mags. She is in the midst of writing a non-fiction book, My Wedding, My Way: Real Women, Real Weddings, Real Budgets. More information can be found at her web site (http://www.alycewilson.com).

Amy Howard Wilson: "Born in Detroit on May 28, 1955, I was "bit by the acting bug" in high school. I am a proud graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City - Class of '75. In need of experience with the "business" side of show business, I went to work for a casting/talent payment agency; a composer of music for TV and Radio spots.

"In 1979, I was working in the front office of the Weist-Barron School For TV and Commercial Acting. A director was casting for the English dub of a new Japanese animated series, Star Blazers. I had the honor of being cast to dub the voice of Nova (Mori Yuki) for "Season 1: The Quest For Iscandar" and "Season 2: The Comet Empire."

"In 1998, at Anime Weekend Atlanta, I met the man who would become my husband, David G. Wilson, III, a devotee of anime. We were married on October 14, 2000 and now have a beautiful home in Virginia with 5 fabulous felines.

"Since 2002, I've been recording and producing audio books for an Australian author and good friend, Wendy Laing. I've formed a family friendly, full service audio production company called Studio V.O.I.C.E. Projects include do-recording a book about a Vietnam vets personal experience with the author, and a joint venture with Writers Exchange E-Publishers. http://www.writers-exchange.com.

Nick Wolven attended Clarion 2007 in San Diego. His stories have appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction and Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, among other publications. He lives in New York City.

Mark Wolverton's newest book is A Life in Twilight: The Final Years of J. Robert Oppenheimer, from St. Martin's Press. He is also the author of The Depths of Space: The Story of the Pioneer Planetary Probes and The Science of Superman. He writes about science, space, and history for various publications, including Scientific American, Air & Space Smithsonian, Popular Mechanics, and American Heritage of Invention & Technology. He has also worked with the NASA Ames History Project and Argonne National Laboratory. His SF stage and radio plays have been produced nationwide, and his short fiction has appeared in the late lamented Aboriginal SF magazine. More information at www.markwolverton.com.

If there was ever a time in his life when J. Andrew World did not want to be an artist, neither he nor those who know him can recall it. From attending conventions since childhood to meeting Michael Whelan and seeing a Dave McKean exhibit at the Words and Pictures Museum, there has been a young lifetime's worth of inspiration to guide him on his chosen path. After earning a degree in commercial illustration from Cazenovia College, J. Andrew World has gone on to provide spot and cover illustrations for Nth Degree, design a cd cover and record label logo, create graphic designs for t-shirts, and in his spare time, get married and start a family. He hopes to continue establishing himself as an artist of merit and to someday pass on his love of art to his daughter.

One of the few male writers at Changeling Press, Jonathan Wright enjoys the challenge of writing erotica that appeals to women as well as men. He also enjoys creeping people out, as anyone who has read his stories will attest. He believes himself to be supremely cool, a fantasy which his patient wife and skeptical daughter do not seem to share. His latest non-PC endeavor Shadows in the City is now available.

As a graduate of the Art Institute of Philadelphia, Wayne Zimmerman is currently a periodic freelance artist and web writer, with a twenty year association with Philcon and PSFS.