Panel Participant Bios
Courtney Black
Courtney Black is an aspiring model and actress who made her film debut in The Villikon Chronicles-Mystere and the Disciples of Dido as the Wiccan Huntress, Delicia. She is interested in all aspects of the movie making process and is currently working toward obtaining a degree in costuming. Even her hobbies are geared toward honing her talents as an actress including fencing (foil, epee, and saber) and belly dancing. She also enjoys sewing, painting, and drawing. Courtney is the lovely model on the cover of CopperCon 25’s Program Book. She will be appearing at Mark Greenawalt’s Saturday panel and will be happy to autograph your book.
Debe Branning
Debe Branning resides in Mesa, AZ and has been the director of the paranormal team---The MVD Ghostchasers---since 1995. She investigates haunted historical locations in Arizona. She is a guest speaker at Ottawa University on the subject of ghost photography and ghost hunting. She organizes spirit photography workshops in various haunted establishments around the state. She has been on local radio talk shows, statewide TV news reports on haunted sites, and featured on an international Telemundo broadcast about a haunted hotel in Douglas, Arizona. Debe has been ghost hunting with some of the top paranormal investigators in the US. She has been the subject of several newspaper and magazine stories on various ghost sightings. She is also the writer of a new book titled “Sleeping With Ghosts--A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Arizona’s Haunted Hotels and Inns”---published by Golden West Publishing 2004. www.mvdghostchasers.iwarp.com
Summer Brooks
Summer Brooks is a writer, reader, and newly licensed massage therapist who first stepped into the realms of speculative fiction by reading Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels in high school. She's been a fan of the genres ever since. Prior to her arrival in Arizona, Summer spent much of her time divining the ailments of Unix servers for large, faceless corporations in exchange for hard currency. She also spent years competing in amateur full contact kickboxing matches in order to relieve the stresses induced by the 24x7 care and feeding of those servers, but it may have been the voracious, yet never satisfied requests for "more" from the suits who were just finding out about this "new web thing" which eventually caused her to run screaming to the desert to find something different to do. Now, between her role as Producer for the family of Dragon Page Radio talk shows, her writing assignments, and an addiction to books and movies, she doesn't have much free time... but she's working on that. http://www.dragonpage.com/
Cynthia Bullock
Elizabeth Burnham
Elizabeth Burnham, a fixture in filk fandom, has performed as a member of "The Duras Sisters" on the albums "Masquarading as Human" and "Rubenesque." She is now a member of "The Harmony Heifers," who just released their long anticipated album "Harmony Heifers." She is an expert on filk history and has
forgotten more songs than most performers know. She founded the Phoenix Filk Circle in 1989 and has been an adamant supporter of filk at Arizona conventions.
She shares her home with two retired greyhounds, Desi and Tanna.
Frances Burns
Frances Burns has been active in costuming for over 15 years. It is rumored that she popped into this world naked, clutching a portable sewing machine and proceeded to design her own diapers. Frances has been altering and fitting patterns for family and friends since grade school, perfecting the art of clothing making for the less than perfect body for over 30 years. Frances was mentored by her neighborhood seamstress who was trained in French Quebec, this impressed her with an eye for detail construction, fit, and quality. She approaches the design and production of costumes as actual clothing – not props to be used once or twice. This has made her popular as a dressmaker for individuals who wear costume attire as everyday clothing, including Ren-Fair participants and gypsy fortune-tellers.
Rachel Butts
Rachel Butts is a very talented fiber artist and Part Time Tarot Reader. Rachel is busy working on her next project on the arts. She is very active with Starfleet international chapter the USS Angelfire. Rachel lives in Phoenix along with her husband and two children. Rachel will be more than happy to provide reading for anyone at the convention free of charge.
Kitty Carroll
Kitty Carroll is a palmistry and tarot expert. She started reading palms 10 years ago and tarot 6 years ago. Kitty is now reading at the Astrology Store in Glendale, AZ and has a private practice. She has a degree in Anthropology/ Archaeology from the University of Alabama. She has been living in Phoenix for two years.
Sarah Clemens
The artwork Sarah Clemens most enjoys doing is fantasy and science fiction, and she has been going to conventions since the late seventies. She is gratified at the response of con-goers to her paintings of Magnus & Loki, which have been the most fun of all. She is a photo-real artist exhibiting her mainstream work in galleries in Boca Raton, Scottsdale and Beverly Hills. She is also a medical illustrator and has worked for prominent attorneys for 17 years. She has published short stories with Asimov's magazine and Ellen Datlow anthologies. In her checkered past, she also wrote movie reviews for USA Today's phone-in line and bogus horoscopes for a 900 number that will remain nameless. She is a passionate skeptic and has written and produced planetarium shows disproving the claim that UFOs exist. http://www.clemensart.com/fantasy.htm
Carolyn Clink
Carolyn's poetry has appeared in Analog, Northern Frights (all five volumes), Tesseracts (volumes 4 and 7), Packing Fraction, On-Spec, TransVersions, Star*Line, and Tales of the Unanticipated. She is a member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and the Algonquin Square Table poetry workshop. (She’s also married to our GoH Robert Sawyer.)
Pat Connors
Longtime fan, Patrick Connors, has been a tech writer, actor, archer, trebuchet crewman, cartoonist, con chair, songwriter, dealer, filker, kayak instructor and all-around troublemaker. Currently he's a blogger (chatworthy.blogspot.com), 3-D artist, unpublished sf and romance writer, kitten wrangler, and Browncoat (which is just a synonym for all-around troublemaker). Next week, who knows? To pay for all this fun, he's an Oracle database programmer. http://www.patrickconnors.org
Rick Cook
Eric Craig
Peri Craig
Mike D’Ambrosio
Michael D’Ambrosio was born in Philadelphia and resided most of his life in Delaware County, Pa. He graduated from Delaware County Community College with an A.A.S. in Electronic Technology. As a member of the Pa. Air National Guard, he graduated from the Air Force Community College with as A.A.S. in Aircraft Systems. Later, Michael graduated from Widener University with a B.S. in Technical & Industrial Education, a, A.A.A. in Liberal Arts and an A.A.S. in General Education. He 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 for 22 years as a member of the Pa. Air National Guard before retiring in 2002. He served several tours in the Middle East and attributes some of his experiences there as his inspiration to write. Michael enjoys traveling and attends many of the science fiction conventions. He believes that the best thing about being an author is the ability to encourage young people to read and write. His ultimate goal is to see his novels become motion pictures. Michael is currently working on a new series of books entitled Space Frontiers. The first book in the series is entitled The Eye of Icarus. Details will be available soon on its release. Michael has recently completed screenplays for Fractured Time, Twisted Fate and Dark Horizon. In addition, he has written a 10 episode TV series to follow the Fractured Time screenplay and a seven episode TV series to follow the Twisted Fate screenplay. Motion picture companies have expressed interest in the project. www.fracturedtime.com
Chris Dickensen
Chris Dickenson is a longtime science fiction fan. She was a contributing author and editor for several Star Trek Fanzines and many of her short stories are still available via numerous fanzine websites. She is also a filk singer, formerly with The Duras Sisters and now as a Harmony Heifer. The Heifers new album,
"Harmony Heifers" was released this spring through Mystic fig productions. Chris shares her home with her fiance, Patrick Connors, three cats and one kitten, Hermione, who just passed her apparation test with flying colors.
Doranna Durgin
Doranna Durgin was born writing (she scribbled on the womb instead of kicking) and never quit, although it took some time for the world to understand what she was up to. She grew up attached to college-rule notebooks and resisted all attempts at separation. Eventually she got a college degree (Wildlife Illustration) and had grand adventures on horseback in the Appalachians before turning full-time writer and ending up in the Southwestern high country with her laptop, dogs, horse, and uncontrollable imagination. Doranna writes eclectically and across genres, with backlist in fantasy, tie-in, SF/F anthologies, and the new women's fiction Bombshell line (action-adventure/romance). You can find a complete bibliography at www.doranna.net, along with scoops about new projects, lots of silly photos, and contact info. And just for kicks, Connery Beagle has a LiveJournal (connerybeagle) presenting his unique view of life--drop by and say hello! www.doranna.net
Mary Erickson
Rev. Mary Branum Erickson, DD has practiced in the field of regression therapy for 22 years. Her book, Reincarnation Redefined, Pre-Existence from a Regression Therapist Viewpoint is currently in publication. You can find out more about regression therapy, reincarnation & other questions of pre-existence or contact her at www.reincarnationredefined.com.
J Alan Erwine
J Alan Erwine was born in Ohio, but escaped to the majesty of the Rocky Mountains early in life...well just outside of Denver, actually. There he works at a "real" job that is too dreadful to mention, so we won't. He has published roughly three dozen short stories with various small press publishers, as well as a novel and two short story collections, the second of which should be coming out just about the time that CopperCon starts. In addition, he also is an editor for Sam's Dot Publishing, editing two on-line zines, THE FIFTH DI..., and THE MARTIAN WAVE. He also edits an occasional anthology for them. http://www.jalanerwine.com
ElizaBeth “Lace” Gilligan
ElizaBeth Gilligan delights in her 23-year marriage, her near-adult children, the house full of pets and, particularly, in her overwhelming compulsion to cover every mite of paper with words. She is the author of DAW's Silken Magic series Magic Silken Snare (2003), The Silken Shroud (2004), and Sovereign Silk (~2006) and a number of SF/F/DF short stories. She studied Journalism and English as a dual major with a minor in Philosophy at Kent State University and won a William Randolph Hearst Award for Investigative News Journalism while still a Freshman. In her copious free-time (HA!), ElizaBeth sews, knits, crochets, dyes silk, beads and toys with just about anything to keep her hands busy. ElizaBeth leads a Yahoo! List, TheJoysOfResearch, for writers and interested parties to share their knowledge and connections to create better fiction.
Diane Harris
Diane began her adventures in clothing and costuming like a lot of little girls around the age of 6 by piecing together outfits for her Barbie doll. According to her mother, Diane’s Barbie doll was the best-dressed on the block. From there, Diane costumed herself in school plays and, of course, each and every Halloween (according to some people, she was way too old when she quit costuming on Halloween – but thankfully she has picked up the Halloween costuming again). As an adult in her mid-20’s, Diane began acting on local theater stages. While her acting skills were impressive, her costuming had everyone begging her to do theirs as well. So she began her exploration into the world of costuming again, and now has costumed on literally every stage in the Valley, as well as in New York (a summer theater workshop production that started at ASU West and ended up on 2 stages in the City). Diane has an extraordinary gift for colors and making things “pop”, as well as the ability to translate this into body shape to accent one’s best asset on one’s body. As President of Southwest Costumer’s Guild (SWCG), she hopes to bring new members to this genre. Her personal “fetish” era is the Victorian era – she has over 18 awards for her work and presentations. Diane hosts “A Day in the Life of a Victorian Woman” for clubs, groups and churches where women in those organizations model different stages of clothes throughout a day in that era. It is great fun and a wonderful educational event. In real life, Diane is involved in market research and consulting. She hopes to one day make costuming her business.
Emily Hogan
Emily Devenport had six novels published by ROC: Shade, Larissa, Scorpianne, EggHeads, The Kronos Condition, and GodHeads. Her short stories were published by ASIMOV’S SF MAGAZINE, the FULL SPECTRUM anthology, and ABORIGINAL SF, whose readers voted her a Boomerang Award for most popular story. As Maggy Thomas she wrote Broken Time, published by ROC in the U.S. and URANIA in Italy. Broken Time was nominated for the Philip K. Dick award. As Lee Hogan she wrote Belarus and Enemies, published by ROC in the U.S. and OPUS in Israel. She is currently writing again as Emily Devenport, working on a Fantasy proposal, and co-writing two Young Adult Fantasy proposals with her husband, artist/writer Ernest Hogan.
Ernest Hogan
Ernest Hogan’s three novels, Smoking Mirror Blues, Cortez on Jupiter and High Aztech, have earned him a reputation as an international cult author, though the rumors of cannibalism and human sacrifice have been greatly exaggerated… His short fiction has appeared in ANALOG, AMAZING STORIES, SCIENCE FICTION AGE, SEMIOTEXT(E) SF, ANGEL BODY AND OTHER MAGIC FOR THE SOUL, WITPUNK and many other publications. A film version of his infamous story, “The Frankenstein Penis,” is available as the special feature, “Phallocrat” on the DVD, “Hellchild”, and unauthorized translations keep showing up all over the planet. This century has had him working on a mainstream novel, Walter Quixote: Or, Love in the Time of Terrorism.
Mark Horning
Mark Horning is best known for his "Folk Style" music and songs about space. He works as a physicist at the Air Force Research Lab in Mesa AZ when he is not at ASU working on his Ph.D. He is most often accompanied at conventions by his wife, Jennifer, and their two children. http://www.eskimo.com/~mhorning
Lynne Kitei, M.D.
In 1995, Dr. Lynne was the first witness to the phenomenon known as the Phoenix Lights. She is considered the key witness to the still unexplained mass UFO sighting that took place throughout Arizona on March 13, 1997. After seven years of investigative work, Dr. Lynne came forward for the first time with startling photographic evidence and personal antidotes relating to the Phoenix Lights event and more. Through her meticulous research Dr. Lynne has discovered that we are not alone. www.thephoenixlights.net
Jerome Lamberth
Jerome Lamberth has done a lot with his relatively short life to date and comes to CopperCon 25 with an eclectic skill set. He's been a camera man and technical director for a local Southern California TV studio, a comicbook store clerk, a self-taught web designer and a 3d graphic artist. His current occupation is with Wells Fargo Bank and has spent most of his career with them as a mortgage loan processor/customer service representive. As a 3d graphic artist, Jerome has a fairly extensive art gallery online. When not at work, spending time with his family, or running games he can be found with a copy of Poser 4 or Daz Studio pulled up in front of him rendering his latest image. Jerome is also an avid gamer and has been running or playing in roleplaying games 18+ years. From Marvel Super Heroes to Dungeons and Dragons, Jerome has either read it, played it, or ran a game session with it. Jerome will be running the successful live action roleplaying game called Shadow of the Phoenix on Friday and Saturday night of this convention.
http://prophetx.deviantart.com | http://www.giovanni-wod.net/shadowphoenix
Paula Lary
Along with belly dance costuming and dancing, Paula does stained glass, photography, and general costuming. She is the Secretary of the Southwest Costumer’s Guild chapter of the International Costumer’s Guild. She has started to write stories about her cat family, to play several musical instruments, and to try to work a way to make all this pay to supplement her mundane income.
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
Jacqueline Lichtenberg, originator of the cult classic Sime~Gen Universe ("science fiction in the grand manner" --- The New York Times Book Review) is known best for her complex world building and genre-busting relationship-driven fiction. Her bibliography includes 19 novels, two of which are award winners, 13 short stories, 2 nonfiction books, plus over 10 years of her monthly sf/f review column for The Monthly Aspectarian. She will be doing several short stories and a new novel for Meisha Merlin's Sime~Gen editions which include novels by her collaborator Jean Lorrah. Currently, one of her short stories, "Vampire's Friend", has been fully dramatized in audio format as "The Vampire's Friend" and will be available in a variety of forms. Her Vampire works include a Vampire Romance, Those of My Blood, now available on Amazon.com; a futuristic Vampire Romance Dreamspy trade pb. She also wrote an article in Seven Seasons of Buffy about Buffy The Vampire Slayer television show and an article in Five Seasons of Angel. http://www.simegen.com/writers/audio/dorian/
Jack Mangan
Jack Mangan is a writer, musician, Software Quality Engineer, etc., born in New Jersey, but now residing in Arizona with his wife and three children. His short novel, “Spherical Tomi”, is available in e-format at Fictionwise.com and is being recorded for release at www.podiobooks.com. His writing has appeared in CGP’s
critically-acclaimed anthology, “Amityville House of Pancakes Omnibus, Vol. 1”, as well as The Internet Review of Science Fiction, Neometropolis Magazine, anda number of small presses and zines. He is an established, quoted reviewer at SFReader.com, and a columnist for the biannual Beyond Infinity Magazine.
Last but not least, his “Duel of the Fates” podcast segment can be heard each week on the Dragon Page Wingin’ It! Show (www.dragonpage.com), and will be featured as a live event right here at CopperCon 25. http://jackmangan.blogspot.com.
Sue Martin
Sue Martin has been a member of local fandom for ten years and this is the 11th CopperCon she has attended. For over 15 years, she freelanced science fiction and fantasy book reviews to the Los Angeles Times Book review section (She worked at the newspaper for 18 years, her last five years as the Film Dept. desk assistant. While in that department she freelanced many articles on science fiction and fantasy on TV and in film. She even got an exclusive in-person interview with George Lucas on the 10th anniversary of "Star Wars!"). She has been an avid and voracious reader all of her life and holds opinions on many things. She is working right this very second on finishing up her first romance novel, "The March of Four Corners," a tale concerning your basic human/alien love triangle, which she hopes will prove worthy of publication---and then, of course, worthy of a book review or two. Martin currently reviews books for ConNotations.
Alice Massoglia
Alice has been active in club and convention fandom since the mid'70s, having worked on numerous conventions around the southwest since 1977. Alice (then Alice Williams) was Fan GoH at CopperCon 5. She added bookselling to her schedule about 5 years later, helping her husband Marty at dealers' tables and with their bookstore and mailorder book business. Her four children all grew up as part of Los Angeles and Phoenix fandom, and her youngest, Ben, is still very much an active member of those groups. She has also helped promote the interest among fans and others in Regency Dance, both as a hostess for her local (Los Angeles area) events and by teaching the dances at conventions here in Arizona. Besides reading, her other interests include handicraft work (crocheting and knitting for her grandchildren being the current projects), cooking and listening to radio dramas. http://home.pacbell.net/ambooks
Marty Massoglia
http://home.pacbell.net/ambooks
Loretta McKibben
Loretta McKibben is an Information Specialist Coordinator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) telescopic camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. She does HiRISE education and public outreach, computer programming and analysis, and is the webmaster for HiRISE. She enjoys teaching kids about space exploration and astronomy and has organized large public outreach events for HiRISE and the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, served as a volunteer NASA-JPL Solar System Ambassador since the program began in 1997 and is a volunteer telescope operator at Flandrau Science Center. Loretta has wanted to visit Mars since she was five, so participating in an instrument team which will obtain images of the Red Planet's surface to less than a meter in resolution is a fantastic adventure and almost like going there! She studied astrophysics at the graduate level and is also working on several science fiction and fantasy novels. Her email is loretta@LPL.arizona.edu.
Michael Mennenga
Michael’s novels include the Fantasy/Romance novel “Mistress of the Dragon” and the young adult series “The Valley of the Dragons.” He is also host of his own Internet radio talk show called “The Dragon Page” (www.dragonpage.com). Along with his co-host, Evo Terra, they broadcast worldwide with listeners as far away as Australia, Europe and even Russia. The show features interviews with speculative fiction authors, publishers and artists. Michael and his wife, Lorrie, are currently residents of Phoenix. He is a member of the Arizona Author’s Association, Toastmasters International and is Book Crazy Author.
http:// www.dragonpage.com - http://www.sliceofscifi.com
Edouard Mesert
http://www.lifewave.com/ebmassociates
Toni Moore
Tee Morris
Referring to himself as "The Accidental Author," actor Tee Morris began his writing career with his portrayal of Rafe Rafton, a character featured in his 2002 historical epic fantasy, MOREVI, The Chronicles of Rafe & Askana. Tee then appeared in Dragon Moon Press' The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy, a "user-friendly, how-to" guide to writing that earned the distinction of finalist for ForeWord Magazine's 2003 Book of the Year. 2004 saw the releases of Billibub Baddings and The Case of The Singing Sword, a spoof of both the Fantasy and Hard-Boiled Detective novel; and The Fantasy Writer's Companion, a sequel (yes, a sequel!) to The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy. The Companion was also a finalist for ForeWord Magazine's 2004 Book of the Year Award while Billibub received an Honorable Mention for the same award, and was a finalist for the Independent Publisher's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy. 2005 threw him into Deadline Overdrive with (in order of release) the short story "Reality Check" in Lite Circle Book's No Longer Dreams, his highly-anticipated sequel Legacy of MOREVI: Book One of the Arathellean Wars, the article "Dear John" appearing in BenBella Books's retrospective Farscape Forever: Sex, Drugs, and Killer Muppets (coming in October), the do-it-yourself guide Podcasting for Dummies(coming in November). and all this, while hosting the podcast of MOREVI. After taking a well-earned nap, Tee will begin 2006 with an article in Dragon Moon's third volume of their Fantasy Writer's Series, Writing Fantasy: The Business End of Things, and welcoming Terry Brooks to Richmond as he serves as Vice-Chair of RavenCon 2006 alongside Nth Degree's Mike Pederson. And yes, Tee's also working out the details for the next case of Billibub Baddings and continuing adventures of Rafe and Askana... http://www.teemorris.com
Yvonne Navarro
Yvonne Navarro lives in southern Arizona, where by day she works on Fort Huachuca. By night she chops her time into little pieces, dividing it among her huge adopted Great Danes, Lily and The Goblin, her husband, author Weston Ochse, her Dad, her writing, and very occasionally, illustrating. Most recently she’s completed the submission draft of the upcoming film, Ultraviolet and is gearing up to work on her next solo novel. Recently completed projects include Elektra, Hellboy, and the final book in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Wicked Willow Trilogy, Broken Sunrise. In total, she’s written nearly twenty novels and almost a hundred short stories. She also runs a little online bookstore, Dusty Stacks (www.dustystacks.com). www.yvonnenavarro.com
Bill Nicholls
Bill Nicholls, or BillN as he is known online, has a BS in physics, 40+ years of experience in the computer industry and writes for Byte.com, acts in a local theater and pretends to write science fiction. Starting on the Ides of March 1985, he became a BIX moderator and learned to write clearly by the process of rewriting posts online until he was understood. After a year of this, Phil Lemmons invited him to write a sidebar for a 1986 Byte article. After that is was downhill all the way to exchange editor status in 1991. Since then he has written for Byte.com, developed a website, and continues to find opportunities to mess up his four experimental computer setups. He also is rebuilding a burnt out doublewide. His advice is not to do this…
http:// www.billswrite.com
Adam Niswander
Adam Niswander is the author of the Shaman Cycle novels (The Charm, The Serpent Slayers, The Hound Hunters, The War of the Whisperers, and The Nemesis of Night). He is also the author of The Repository, The Sand Dwellers, Golden Dreams: Book One in The Histories of Light and Dark, and of Blurring the Edges of Dream: The Short Fiction of Adam Niswander. He is a former CASFS President and has served on the board. He resides in Phoenix with two feline companions, Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser. http://adam-niswander.com
Kevin O’Connor
Kevin O'Connor is best known as TD0013 of the 501st Dune Sea Garrison. The Garrison, in its Sniper Detachment days, won Best of Show at CopperCon XXI's Masquerade. These days the Garrison keeps its plate full with Charity work, such as the MS Walk, MDA Telethon, Toys for Tots, and visits to the Phoenix Children’s Hospital and St. Joseph’s Hospital. Kevin keeps busy writing and performing “A Different Point of View” for the podcast show “Wingin’ It” at dragonpage.com, as well as acting work here and there. http://www.az501st.com
Devin Olson
Webb Pickersgill
Webb Pickersgill is an aspiring independent film maker and special event videographer who owns Bassline Digital, LLC, a video production company in north Phoenix, Arizona. Webb has talent and experience making independent films with little-to-no budget and enjoys sharing his experiences, techniques and stories with others. His current projects include the short film based on the Villikon Chronicles graphic novel series, two no-budget Star Wars fan films, an instructional video about babywearing, and various special interest videos.
http://www.basslinedigital.com | http://www.webbpickersgill.com
Ray Poulsen
Ray Poulsen is a Biologist and is currently the President of the ASU/Phoenix Chapter of the Mars Society. He enjoys Scuba diving and believes that, while located hundreds of miles from the ocean, Phoenix is an ideal place to study Marine Biology (due to the proximity to the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean.) If confronted today by extraterrestrials, his first words would be "what took you so long? These people are WEIRD!"
Kayla Rei
http://www.gotkayla.com
Jennifer Roberson
Jennifer Roberson is known for two fantasy series, the Sword-Dancer saga (three 2-volume omnibus editions to appear in 2006) and the Cheysuli books, both lengthy series. She will debut an entirely new fantasy universe in April 2006 with the publication of Karavans, the first volume in an ongoing series. When the first three Karavans novels are completed, she will return to the world of the Cheysuli with three new volumes that will take place within the framework of the original 8-volume series. Jennifer has also moonlighted in the historical genre with the publication of two novels, Lady of the Forest and Lady of Sherwood, featuring the Robin Hood legend, and Lady of the Glen, a novel set in 17th-century Scotland based on the Massacre of Glencoe, when the Campbells attempted to wipe out the McDonalds. (The "Lady" titles were foisted on her by her publisher.) Jennifer lives in Flagstaff, AZ on acreage she shares with (currently) 8 dogs, 2 cats, and 1 horse. (Her next door neighbor is fantasy/romance author Doranna Durgin, and fantasy author Melanie Rawn lives 5 minutes away). She continues to breed and show Cardigan Welsh Corgis, and is now also a mosaic artist. She and long-time fantasy illustrator Liz Danforth have formed a business partnership called Mosaic Miscellanea, and display their work at various Arizona arts festivals.
Annette Sexton-Ruiz
Lisa Shock
Lisa Shock has spent the last decade working in the videogame industry,
localizing Japanese games for the US market. Like many writers, she has
held a variety of jobs inluding: librarian, chef, toy store manager, and
marketing director. Her hobbies include painting, ceramics and jewelry
making, several of her works are in the permanent collection of the Ford
Foundation. She is an Alcor member, signed up for cryonic suspension
sometime in the future. She has been involved in literary and media SF
fandom since the early 1970s, and has worked on various campaigns to save
media properties. She writes non-fiction on a freelance basis and fact-checks
SF related items for a group of publications, including Wired magazine.
http://monsterrancher.com
Ken St. Andre
Nobody knows anything about Ken--we just invite him back year after year out of habit… 2005 was a big year for Ken with two new editions of Tunnels and Trolls coming out--edition 5.5 and the Mythical 7th edition. He had a story published in the Golden Heroes Anthology by Cafe Press, and half a dozen book reviews in Library Journal. And he really hates bios. http://www.geocities.com/kenstandre
Robert Sparks
Robert Sparks has been a tattoo artist and piercer for 8 years. He is currently working at The Astrology Store in Glendale, AZ. He specializes in cover ups and comic book/manga tattoos. He won several first place awards at tattoo conventions and from tattoo magazines.
Michael Stackpole
Michael A. Stackpole is an award-winning, New York Times Bestselling author, editor, game and computer game designer. Raised in Vermont, he graduated from the University of Vermont in 1979 with a BA in History. He moved to Arizona to work for Flying Buffalo, Inc., which had previously published his first game, City of Terrors, in 1978. Over the next ten years he worked with a variety of companies in the gaming and computer gaming industries. In 1988 the first two of his novels appeared, and by 2005 he had published thirty-seven books, including eight New York Times Bestselling Star Wars® novels. In addition to writing fiction and doing game design, Mike publishes The Secrets, a publication for writers and produces podcasts related to The Secrets. A Secret Atlas, the first in the Age of Discovery trilogy, was released by Bantam Books in March, 2005. He's just completed work on its sequel, Cartomancy, and is currently at work on A New World, the trilogy's third book. www.stormwolf.com.
Shane Stevens
Shane Stevens is an Arizona actor who has been sharpening his acting skills since 1988. He began his acting career in Tucson, Arizona where he was a student of Ann Risley (Saturday Night Live) specializing in improvisational comedy skills. He became a member of "Group Therapy", a comedy improv troupe in Tucson. In 1997, Shane moved to the Phoenix area and continued his quest in the acting field. Shane recently appeared in the independent films "Leather And Iron" and "Greasewood Flat." In addition, he has been involved with the "Villikon Chronicles" graphic novel series project since 2002. He is currently represented by the FORD/Robert Black Agency in Phoenix.
Paige Sullivan
Paige Sullivan is a Wiccan High Priestess and a professional divinator. She has been reading since she was 16. She began with Tarot, and branched out to Palmistry and Tea Leaves. She will be helping us to understand this ancient art as well as teaching us how to do it ourselves. She can be contacted at leilagenie@yahoo.com for professional readings or events.
Chris Swanson
Evo Terra
Evo Terra has been interviewing some of the best minds in science fiction literature for over three years. As host of The Dragon Page Cover to Cover, he and his partner Michael R. Mennenga bring their worldwide listeners fun and interesting conversations with their favorite authors. Recently, they have branched out and are creating two other shows (The Dragon Page Wingin' It! and Slice of Scifi), both available in podcast form. Co-authoring Podcasting for Dummies with Tee Morris, Evo acts as evangelist and catalyst for others wishing to explore this new content delivery method. Along with Tee, Evo has founded Podiobooks.com, an online repository of free serialized audio book novels, released in podcast form. He is also a musician and herbal therapist, residing in Cottonwood, Arizona.
http://dragonpage.com | http://sliceofscifi.com | http://podiobooks.com
R-Laurraine Tutihasi
Laurraine Tutihasi has been reading SF&F since 1951 and discovered fandom in 1973 after attending her first convention, a Worldcon. She has published fanzines, attended and worked on numerous conventions, participated in local clubs, belonged to numerous APAs, written reviews and other things for fanzines, and even sold some artwork. She is currently a member of FAPA, belongs to the LASFS and RSFFA, and publishes a newsletter and is the web reviews coordinator for Sime~Gen Inc. In her other life, she has been a librarian and a programmer and is currently engaged in editing and writing.
Larry Vela
2005 has been and is still…busy. Larry and the Velavision crew are in the final post production of the movie "Attack of the Killer Chords" and are now working with Katie Walker on the horror movie "The Basement" due out Spring 2006. Larry has been working on both sides of the camera in both of these movies. Larry's day job which is specialty paint of vehicles, has lead to his involvement in a three part article featured in KITPLANE magazine in the May thru July issues called "In search of the perfect paint job". Future plans see the next movie with the working title "Empire Graffiti" currently being outlined, possibly completed by spring 2006. When not working on these projects, Larry was Chairman of LepreCon 31 and is now the Chairman for LepreCon 32. http:// velavision.com
Doreen Webbert
Chris Welborn
Chris has worked in microelectronics and historical aircraft restoration. He belongs to his local amateur rocket association. He shares his love of rockets by teaching beginning classes in rockets for kids at the Pima Air and Space Museum as well as cons, schools, and summer camps.
Michelle M. Welch
Michelle M. Welch is an Arizona native who grew up trying to choose between her two loves: music and writing. After a brief stint in music school, she somehow ended up as a reference librarian, and after a flurry of query letters and rejections, she somehow ended up writing a fantasy trilogy. Chasing Fire, the third volume in her Five Countries series, is due to be published at the end of September 2005. http://www.sff.net/people/mmwelch
John T. Wheeler
Professional Facepainter for the last 3 years. Been at many Coppercons and formerly did the video rooms for the cons from 1994-2004. Local Fan and Former President of the United Federation of Phoenix. And A Major League Doctor Who Fan. http://members.aol.com/facepainteraz/facepainter.htm
Lee Whiteside
Lee Whiteside has been keeping track of science fiction and fantasy TV for the last 15 years or so, both in print and online with the SFTV.org website. He's also been involved with Arizona fandom for almost as long, having chaired two CopperCons, a LepreCon and the upcoming 2006 Nebula Awards weekend. In real life, he's a network engineer.
Randall Whitlock
Masquerade Director Randall Whitlock has been an active SF/medieval/renaissance costumer since the early 80's, with a certain reputation for visual pun costumes, such as "Dances with Werewolves" and "The Dookus of Hazzard." Randall writes the "Costume Closet" column in Connotations, publishes the Southwest Costumers Guild newsletter, and drafts the "Randwulf's" line of sewing patterns. Mundanely, Randall is a Geologist, digging up dirt on soil and groundwater contamination for real estate investors in Arizona. www.moirandalls.com | www.southwestcostumersguild.org | http://members.aol.com/coppermask25
Dave Williams
Dr. David A. Williams, Ph.D. is a Faculty Research Associate in the Department of Geological Sciences at Arizona State University. He served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at ASU in 2001-2002, in which he cotaught Physical Geology and a graduate seminar in Planetary Volcanology. David is currently performing research in volcanology and planetary geology, with a focus on planetary mapping, geochemical, and remote sensing studies. His research has included computer modeling of seismic wave propagation through planetary interiors, visible and near-infrared spectroscopy of lunar lavas, planetary geologic mapping of the satellites of Jupiter, computer modeling of the physical and geochemical evolution of lava flows in a variety of planetary environments, and petrologic study of lava samples from Mount St Helens. He was involved with NASA’s Magellan Mission to Venus, and was an affiliate member of the Solid-State Imaging Team of NASA’s Galileo Mission to Jupiter, where he was involved in mission planning, image processing, and data analysis of the Jovian satellites Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Dr. Williams is currently serving as an Associate Investigator on the German-built High Resolution Stereo Camera on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express mission, which arrived at Mars in December 2003 and is currently in its two-year nominal mission. He also is a member of the Jupiter Encounter Sequencing Team for the NASA New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission, scheduled for launch in February 2006. David is also involved in NASA education/public outreach activities including giving talks to school and civic groups on the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, and developing educational materials. http://europa.la.asu.edu/associates/members/williams/
Kevin Yancy
K. Anderson Yancy has written, directed, adapted, performed, produced, etc. over 300 SonicMovies — premium audio dramas — for his firm, Wollcott & Sheridan. His SonicMovies air weekly for more than five million listeners of XM Satellite Radio’s Sonic Theater and regularly on XM’s XMKids, in addition to Playboy Radio’s Playboy’s Sexy Stories. Naturally, the same stories that air on XMKids don’t air on Playboy and vice a versa… You can listen to nearly 200 of his SonicMovies for FREE at www.SonicMovies.net He’s won numerous National and International awards for short story and screenwriting. And, many of his short stories have been published in genre magazines along with the book, The Mammoth Book of Legal Thrillers, published in the UK and the US, which included works by several notable writers. Kevin has also directed and performed in San Diego’s top Off-Broadway theaters, which by definition and location couldn’t be more off Broadway. Let’s see… where were we? Hmmm… Oh yes! He has appeared in Film, TV, commercials and ads for McDonald’s, Buick and other Fortune 500 companies and is looking forward to further exploring the world of writing and performance.
http://sonicmovies.net/default.asp
Nola Yergen-Jennings
Nola Yergen-Jennings is an award winning costume designer. She currently works for Grand Canyon University as their in-house designer. She has designed over 35 theatrical productions and has created dozens of individual costumes for various fantasy and historical venues. She is a Costuming Laurel in the SCA. http:// www.darkcon.org
Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto
Veronica is currently attending Arizona State University majoring in Geology and currently focusing her studies in the field of planetary geology. She is a NASA Space Grant Intern involved with all aspects of investigation pertaining to the aeolian dynamics of the planet Mars and how it affects the surface structure; assembling data for analysis and of selection of high priority regions of the planet which will aid in the final decisions of future landing sites, both robotic and human. She also provides photographic support from Viking images, Mars Global Surveyor images (MOC), and THEMIS data. Also, she gathers data for the Athena 2003 Mars missions. Most of her research has been that of processing MOC imagery, locating aeolian features, calculating densities and determine wind directions within high priority landing sites; especially that of the MER-A, MER-B rover missions (NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity) and that of the ESA Mars Express and Beagle 2 Lander. Veronica holds the position of Educational Outreach Coordinator for the ASU NASA Space Photography Laboratory. She founded the Mars Society Chapter of Phoenix (Chapter Founder and President from 1999-2004), the National Space Society of Phoenix (Chapter Founder & President), and the Astronaut Hopefuls of Arizona (Chapter Founder and President). Recent she was selected to be a Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Ambassador for the state of Arizona. She was also the Crew Geologist for Crew 36 at the Mars Desert Research Station which was the first all-female crew at a Mars Analog Station. Also, the Commander of the F.L.A.M.E. crew in the summer of 2005 which was the first time children under the age of 13 have lived and worked under strict Martian conditions at a Mars Analog Station. http://europa.la.asu.edu