Arisia'15 is over. Please visit the new convention site: www.arisia.org.
Arisia 2015 Program Participant Bios
Arisia 2015 Program Participant Bios
Generated: Thu Jan 15 13:30:00 2015
Hanna Lee Rubin Abramowitz, or H-chan for short, is what you might call a Jack-of-all-things-geeky. She is an avid reader of YA fantasy, a video game player, a sci-fi TV show fan, a costumer and crafter and most of all an artist. Her dream is to one day become a published writer and cartoonist but right now is happy with writing fan-fics, working on her online manga and being your not so average house-wife who works part time at a tea-shop. At conventions you can find her in costume wandering the halls, sitting in panels that interest her, participating in panels that she has knowledge in or in the artist alley oggling things she would like to buy. So if you see her say a friendly “How do you do?” I promise she does not bite.
Yitzy Abramowitz comes from a family that is four-fifths nerd and married into a family that is two-thirds nerd. He is the kind of person who will watch a show or read a manga obsessively until the bitter end, even if it begins to turn sour coughHEROEScough. He is currently hooked on The Walking Dead, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Sword Art Online, and Doctor Who, among other things. Yitzy dreams of one day becoming an airplane. His brother has a blog where he does a super-mediocre job of reviewing manga at TheMangaConnoisseur.blogspot.com
Three words that one might use to describe Adri are “generic”, “geek” and “girl”. Sometimes all at once.
Dawn Albright is involved in many different areas of fandom. She’s a short story writer, editor of anthologies (New Altars and Vision Quest), a dollmaker and costumer. Her most recent project is a web journal called Polu Texni which can be found at http://www.polutexni.com. Her dollmaking site is www.dollmaking.org.
As a SFWA member, Ken Altabef’s short fiction has appeared three times in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction as well as Interzone, Abyss & Apex, BuzzyMag, Ominous Realities and others. His first short story collection Fortune’s Fantasy was published in 2014. His novels include The Calling, Secrets, Shadows8, The Tundra Shall Burn! and The Shadow of Everything Existing as part of Alaana’s Way, his 5-part epic fantasy series published by Cat’s Cradle Press. The first book in the series, The Calling, will be available for free Kindle download throughout Arisia weekend. You can preview this work and others at www.KenAltabef.com
Mark L Amidon first read Isaac Asimov’s “Nightfall” in 1971 and has been heavily involved in science fiction ever since. He has been attending Arisia since 1991, and with his wife since 1992. He lives in the future, right now. Both of his daughters read genre fiction. His cats remain aloof.
Erik Amundsen—Always Chaotic Evil.
Andrew Anselmo has been creating and folding origami for over 20 years, and has been a street performer for over 10 years at Waterfire (Providence, RI) as well as at Faneuil Hall, Boston Common, and many other venues. He also has taught origami at local libraries and museums throughout New England. www.flappingbird.com. He is a member of Artisan’s Asylum, a large maker space in Somerville, MA.
Inanna Arthen is an artist, speaker and author of The Vampires of New England Series (http://vampiresofnewengland.com): Mortal Touch (2007), The Longer the Fall (2010) and All the Shadows of the Rainbow (2013). Inanna is a lifelong scholar of vampire folklore, fiction and fact, and runs By Light Unseen Media (http://bylightunseenmedia.com), an independent press dedicated to publishing vampire fiction and nonfiction. She is a member of Broad Universe, New England Horror Writers, Horror Writers Association, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE). She holds an M.Div degree from Harvard and is an outspoken advocate for the Pagan and LGBTQI communities. She is the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Winchendon, MA.
Lisa A Ashton is a Master-level costumer from Maryland. She has won Best In Show in the Arisia Masquerade in the past with “Home Improvement”, “The Standing Stone” (with Diane Seiler), and “Mary Gothins—Perfectly Evil”, “Victorian Lady’s Hunting Costume—An American Tradition”, and “Victorian Tiki Calypso”, which almost caused her to fall over upon wining Best In Show. She enjoys costuming, beads, and hunting, and has been an Emergency PA for over 25 years. Passionate interests include Victorian photo graphs and extant clothing of the period, as well as vintage beadwork, for “Miss Lizzy’s Traveling Historical Fashion Show”, now a non profit. She is a contributor to “The Virtual Costumer” with articles about Victorian clothing research. Buy her a cup of coffee and talk about quilts and costumes and Victorian fashion and she’ll love you for it!
Software engineer, maker, and technology enthusiast: at the moment Robert Jack Babb is working on a variety of microcontroller projects and blogging at www.dragonflythingworks.com.
Lucy Backman
John Bacon
Stephen R Balzac is the author of The 36-Hour Course in Organizational Development, published by McGraw-Hill. He has also been published in numerous magazines, including Analog Science Fiction. When he’s not writing, Steve is a management consultant, speaker, and psychology professor. He is the president of 7 Steps Ahead (www.7stepsahead.com) and the founder of the MIT Assassins’ Guild and SIL West. He uses LARPs as a tool for training business leaders in negotiation and leadership skills.
Bonnie Barlow has a Master’s degree in Counseling and in Experimental Psychology. She is currently doing research psychology in personality and teaching psychology. Bonnie has worked in biotech and tutored ESOL students. She is a certified high school biology teacher. She met James Turner at Arisia 1 and has been married to him for 22 years.
E. J. Barnes is a cartoonist and comic-book artist, having seen publication in Fortean Times, Funny Times, and The Journal of Irreproducible Results. Her comics have been published in anthologies Colonial Comics: New England, 1620–1750, The Greatest of All Time Comics Anthology, Hellbound, SubCultures, and Nix Comics Quarterly. She exhibits at independent comic-book conventions, and her comic books (self-published under Drowned Town Press) are sold across the country. She teaches cartooning at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.
Howard G Beatman has been interested in comic books since 1959, science fiction since 1966, and has been going to conventions since 1974. He has attended all the Arisias, brought two friends, and brought his nephew to Arisia for four consecutive years—the next generation of nerds is well in hand!
Elizabeth Birdsall is a longtime fan and occasional author, as well as a queer lady and a lover of a wide variety of random subjects. She has had short stories published here and there, most notably in the “Women Destroy Science Fiction!” special issue of Lightspeed Magazine. She lives in the Boston area with two excellently geeky housemates and two extremely inept cats.
Mari Black
As Misty Pendragon, Gayle Blake is a published writer, editor, and jewelry maker. Currently she writes for the website, www.goodtobeageek.com, Carpe Nocturne Magazine and This Is Awesomeness! She has been doing panels at cons for too many years now, and you would find her on pretty much every Joss Whedon panel! Currently she works in the real life as a Tech Support rep for the area’s largest cable company. Current favorite quote is, “We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty,” by Joss Whedon.
A native of Phoenix, AZ who long ago decided he preferred living somewhere with actual seasons (namely Boston), W. “Ian” Blanton has been spending the last decade or so focusing on homeschooling his daughter while being gainfully employed as a Mac Consultant. His previous life interests include western/eastern martial arts, LARPs, costuming, Gaming (Video & RPG), historical re-enactment, and flinching whenever a “re-imagined” movie/TV show is announced. His current project is mastering his handmade 18’ folding sea kayak, and he still hasn’t opened that OGRE board game box.
Aimee Bouchard is a bi, poly, kinky, geeky, hippie, crafty, girly sort of gal.
John Bowker has a history of writing things, editing things, and occasionally talking about things, all of which combine to prove the old chestnut that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Reports that he wears a spandex uniform under his clothing are greatly exaggerated; but the tall buildings/speeding bullet thing? Totally true.
Anna R Bradley is a gamer, LARPer, costumer, and volunteering junkie. This year she is also a co-DivHead for Staff Services here at Arisia, as well as the Vice president of the Arisia Corporation.
James Bredt was one of two technical founders of Z Corporation, which makes 3D Printers, and holds over 20 issued patents in 3DP technology. He has taught numerous courses at MIT, from freshman chemistry to capstone lab classes in materials science. Presently he works for Viridis3D developing engineering ceramic materials for 3D Printing. He published a cartoon introduction to classical thermodynamics, and he is presently working on a sequel covering introductory quantum mechanics.
M. L. Brennan is the author of the critically acclaimed American Vampire books, featuring Generation V, Iron Night, and Tainted Blood. The fourth book will be published by Roc in August 2015. Brennan holds an MFA in writing and is employed as an adjunct professor at several New England colleges. Brennan cut her baby bibliophile teeth on her older brother’s collection of Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert, but it was a chance encounter with Emma Bull’s War For The Oaks as a teenager that led to genre true love. Today she’ll read everything from Mary Roach’s non-fiction to Brandon Sanderson’s epic fantasies, but will still drop everything for vampires and werewolves in the big city.
Shari Brezinsky
Katherine Brick is a fan with a fan husband and three fan kids. They all like to costume, do crafts, and read books. In her professional life she is a metaphorical cat herder. In Fast Track that counts for something, right?
Terri Bruce has been making up adventure stories for as long as she can remember and won her first writing award when she was twelve. Like Anne Shirley, she prefers to make people cry rather than laugh, but is happy if she can do either. She produces fantasy and adventure stories from a haunted house in New England where she lives with her husband and three cats. Visit her on the web at www.terribruce.net.
Nat Budin plays guitar, cello, and sings with the band Stranger Ways. He has also written and run over a dozen LARPs, has served as con chair of Intercon I in 2009 and the first three Festival of the LARPs conventions at Brandeis University, and writes open source software in the Ruby on Rails community. Basically, Nat does all the things.
Hanna “Gale” Burnett has been costuming at conventions since 2003. A few years ago she noticed that in all the discussions going on throughout the cosplay community one major topic seemed to be missing: safety. It was then that she created the Cosplay Safety Project: a series of articles and panels about how to maintain safe habits while creating and wearing costumes and attending conventions. The project covers everything from what to keep in mind when designing a costume (size, scale, comfort, temperature, etc.) to how to avoid becoming the victim of harassment, and many topics in between. When she is not working on costumes, Hanna sings karaoke, acts with local theater groups, and works as a sightseeing tour guide in Boston.
Michael A. Burstein, winner of the 1997 Campbell Award for Best New Writer, has earned ten Hugo nominations and four Nebula nominations for his short fiction, collected in I Remember the Future, which has been made into a film. Burstein lives with his wife Nomi and their twin daughters in the town of Brookline, Massachusetts, where he is an elected Town Meeting Member and Library Trustee. When not writing, he edits middle and high school Science textbooks. He has two degrees in Physics and attended the Clarion Workshop. More information on Burstein and his work can be found on his webpage, http://www.mabfan.com.
Nomi S. Burstein
Liz Cademy is a Professional Polymath, specializing in nothing at all. In a previous life, Liz sat in a small, padded cubicle under a nameplate that read “Financial Analyst”. Now, she is designated driver to two teens, runs a web and graphic design business, writes ebooks, designs and sells t-shirts (as Cartesian Bear Industries), sews, knits (and designs patterns for both), makes chain mail, and works at science fiction cons. Sometimes she sleeps. She lives in the New England woods with her kids, a silly lizard and a cat who hasn’t chosen itself yet.
Kevin Cafferty is a documentary filmmaker from Massachusetts. His most recent film, “It’s a Bash!”, was given four stars by The Providence Journal, aired on New England PBS affiliates, and is currently available on DVD from Midway Pictures. He has been nominated for four Emmy awards, can be followed on Twitter at @kcafferty, and writes terrible fan fiction about immersive theater in his spare time.
D. Cameron Calkins has been active in the SF/F community since the early 1980’s. He has been creating art in the genre and displaying it at conventions since Noreascon 3. He has won numerous awards, and been published from time to time. His art appeared most recently on the cover of Roberta Rogow’s 1800’s murder mysteries. Cameron speaks on a variety of topics and is frequently in the company of Dagnir, his dragon.
James L. Cambias is a science fiction writer and game designer based in western Massachusetts. His fiction has appeared in F&SF, Shimmer, Nature, and various original anthologies. He has written more than a dozen game books for Steve Jackson Games and HERO Games. In 2004 he became a partner in Zygote Games, a small game company which produces science and nature based card and board games. His first novel A Darkling Sea was published in 2014, and his new book Corsair will be out in May 2015 from Tor Books.
Ian Campbell—Works in IT, moonlights as an amateur (CCG) game developer. Likes long swordfights on the beach, space cowboys, Oberyn Martell, giant monsters/robots, and games. MANY GAMES.
Grant Carrington—“Song for Jamie” available as 99-cent MP3 download at cdbaby.com/cd/songforjamie—my share (75 cents) goes directly to the James Bishop Scholarship Fund, established by Michael Bishop, Jamie’s father. Website: grantcarrington.freeyellow.com; Associate Editor, Amazing, Fantastic, 1971–74; Contributing Editor, Eternity, 1978–79. 20–30 SF stories published, 1970–2011. Nebula finalist, 1976. One novel, Time’s Fool, Doubleday, 1981. Republished by Variations on a Theme as Time’s Fool and Other Stories (available on Amazon). Collection “Annapolis to Andromeda” published by Variations on Theme in 2014; 2 CDs—Songs Without Wisdom, 2001; Ancient Laughter, 2011 (available at CD Baby). 5 plays produced in Baltimore. Computer Programmer—NASA, 1962–68; Savannah River Ecology Lab, 1977–80. Member, Clarion Workshop, 1968, 1969, Tulane Workshop, 1971
D. L. Carter was decanted from her incubation pod in the outback of Australia many decades ago. This terrifying event was closely followed by shrieks of “there, there it goes. Hit it with a brick!” These valiant attempts to correct the existence of D.L. were, unfortunately, unsuccessful and she now resides in New Jersey, US., in a box with her toys, two human beings and three cats.
Jeffrey A. Carver was a Nebula Award finalist for his novel Eternity’s End. He also wrote Battlestar Galactica, a novelization of the acclaimed television miniseries. His novels combine thought-provoking characters with engaging storytelling, and range from the adventures of the Star Rigger universe (Star Rigger’s Way, Dragons in the Stars, and others) to the character-driven hard SF of The Chaos Chronicles (beginning with Neptune Crossing). All his books and stories are available in ebook format. A native of Huron, Ohio, Carver lives with his family in the Boston area. He has taught writing in a variety of settings, from educational television to conferences for young writers to MIT, as well as his occasional Ultimate Science Fiction Workshop with Craig Shaw Gardner. He has created a free web site for aspiring authors of all ages at www.writesf.com. Learn more about the author and his work at www.starrigger.net.
Monica Castillo is a freelance film critic and cultural consultant based in Brooklyn. She spends a good portion of her time reviewing films for Movie Mezzanine, Paste Magazine, WBUR, & Bitch Magazine. Monica has traveled to a few film festivals, met a couple of living legends, and has some great stories about hitch-hiking to red carpet premieres. You can usually find her outside any of the area’s movie theaters excitedly talking about the film she just saw or on Twitter & Letterboxd as @mcastimovies.
Jeanne Cavelos began her professional career as an astrophysicist at NASA. Her love of SF led her to earn her MFA in creative writing and move into publishing. She was a senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell, where she ran the SF/F/H programs and won the World Fantasy Award. Jeanne left publishing to write. Her seven books include the best-selling Passing of the Techno-Mages trilogy, The Science of Star Wars, and The Science of the X-Files. Her work has twice been nominated for the Stoker Award. Jeanne is director of the Odyssey Writing Workshops Charitable Trust, which offers a highly regarded summer in-person workshop in NH and winter online classes for writers of SF/F/H. (www.jeannecavelos.com)
Aurora Celeste is a costume dabbler with more than 10 years of experience. Her costuming interests are all over, but her passion is reproducing costumes; mostly sci-fi and fantasy movies, tv shows, anime, and manga. She gives panels and enters masquerades all over the country, has won Best in Show at Costume Cons 24 and 30 as well as Chicon and LoneStarCon and is currently serving as Vice President of the International Costumers’ Guild Board of Directors. Outside of costuming, Aurora can often be seen running conventions. She has served as staff on many conventions, including DragonCon in Atlanta and a con head at Naka-Kon Anime Convention in Kansas City. Visit her costuming blog at www.dramaticthreads.com.
Don Chase—Author, illustrator, picture taker and hopefully one day movie maker.
Barbara Chepatis
Bob Chipman is creator, producer and host of Escape to The Movies and The Big Picture on escapistmagazine.com; and The Game OverThinker on screwattack.com
John Chu is the author of “The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere” (Hugo winner, short story, 2013), originally published at Tor.com and anthologized in Wilde Stories 2014 (Berman, ed.). His other short fiction has appeared in Bloody Fabulous (Sedia, ed.), The Time Traveler’s Almanac (VanderMeer and VanderMeer, ed.), Boston Review, Asimov’s, Apex, and Tor.com among other places. His most recent publication is the short story “Double Time” in the anthology Kaleidoscope (Krasnostein and Rios, ed.). He has narrated stories for EscapePod, PseudoPod, PodCastle, and Lightspeed and he translates stories from Chinese into English. He attended Viable Paradise X (2006) and the 2010 Clarion Writers Workshop and is currently a member of the BRAWL writers’ group.
Dr. Amy Chused is a physician at Weill Cornell Medical Center in the Division of Hospital Medicine, who also spends some time in the Division of Palliative Medicine. She also works in data mining to evaluate efficiency and quality measures for the her division. In her free time, she raises her toddler twins, reads SF & F and fanfic, plays boardgames and computer games, debates medical ethics, and waves vaguely at the Arisia Dealers Room.
Vikki Ciaffone is a senior editor for Spencer Hill Press and the Editor-in-Chief of Spence City. She has been reading and writing since she was tall enough to see over the coffee table. Now that she can see over the kitchen counters, she still loves both, and now edits as well. She is personally responsible for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (she apologizes, but all the salacious gossip was untrue, and the populace was obsessed with Pictionary and Charades, two games Vikki abhors). She then turned her attention to Troy and, once again, engineered its downfall in her quest to burn out the Pictionary Plague. She claims no responsibility for Pompeii or the Fall of Rome, though she might possibly have had something to do with the sun setting on the British Empire. In her spare time, Vikki has been known to shoot craps with the Fates and the Valkyries for shiny trinkets.
Stephanie Clarkson (smc@stephanieclarkson.com), sometimes called thespian, has been attending Arisia since 1992. Though she has lived in Toronto; Rockville, MD; Arlington, VA; Raleigh, NC; and Atlanta, GA; she always feels compelled to get to Arisia. Fortunately, she now lives in the Boston area. A web developer, puppeteer & creator, journalist/copywriter, writer for JaneX0, and most recently a bartender, she is free to hire or flirt with. http://stephanieclarkson.com
George Claxton
Zachary Clemente is writes and chat comics and is essentially a non-producing installation artist. Writes for The Comics Beat sometimes and helps run the annual indie comics show MICE.
John David Cook
Joy Crelin is the editor and publisher of Betwixt, a quarterly magazine of eclectic speculative fiction. She also edits erotic science fiction and fantasy for Circlet Press. Joy lives in northeastern Massachusetts with her husband, cats, and neglected robot.
Deirdre Crimmins is a Boston-based film critic. She is currently a staff writer at AllThingsHorror.com, and a contributing writer for BtchFlcks.com, OpenLettersMonthly.com, the Brattle Theater Film Blog, and Rue Morgue Magazine. She has presented academic work at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts and spoken on panels at WorldCons. Though she focuses on contemporary horror film criticism, she is a life-long fan of science fiction and fantasy.
Morgan Crooks is a life-long fan of science fiction and fantasy literature and now teaches ancient history. Morgan’s stories have appeared on the Daily Science Fiction website, and in anthologies released by Dark Hall Press, Burnt Offerings, and Mystery and Horror LLC. Essays and reviews are also available on his blog (ancientlogic.blogspot.com).
Susan Hanniford Crowley, science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal romance author, is an active member of SFWA, Broad Universe, RWA, and an associate editor with Space and Time Magazine. Susan’s fantasy work appeared in Sword and Sorceress anthologies. In addition to writing novels, she’s been published in various magazines and on blogs. Susan is the founder of the Nights of Passion blog, the author of the Vampires in Manhattan series and the Arnhem Knights of New York series. Her 8th book out is Vampire King of New York available on Amazon Kindle & Print, B&N Nook & Print and Kobo. When Love Survives,A Vampire for Christmas and Mrs. Bright’s Tea Roomare out in ebook. Her novel about vampires and stormwrights The Stormy Love Life of Laura Cordelais is in Amazon Kindle and Print. Her website is http://www.susanhannifordcrowley.com, her Twitter name is SHCrowley, and her Facebook name is Susan Hanniford Crowley.
Mary Catelynn Cunningham got involved with science fictions conventions in 2004 when her now husband, Mark Richards, dragged her to one kicking and screaming. Having been an avid fan for years she felt right at home. Catelynn is also a member of the alt lifestyle community in NYC where is she is on the Board of a local group. She also helps staff cons when able, sometimes at senior management level.
David D’Antonio—DDA, as he is known, answered an email about something called a ConCom and has been volunteering for Arisia ever since. A lifelong fan of science fiction, he knows how Arisia got its name but has still not finished Stranger in a Strange Land. When not volunteering at cons, he does UI design, fights homonym abuse and creates stylish appetizer trays.
Leo D’Entremont, also known as Mijan in various fandom circles, has been active as a fan writer, costumer, and convention geek since 2003. Primary fandoms include Star Trek, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. As a self-identified queer person, he has a particular interest in GLBTQ issues as they relate to fan activities, particularly issues of gender identity and gender expression in social structures, writing, and fandom itself. Serving seven years in the Army under DADT has given Mijan a unique insight into certain aspects of social justice and civil liberties. Despite being a student of world religions and active in a UU congregation, he is a scientist, skeptic, atheist, and social secularist who feels that this is an essential perspective too often ignored in the political arena. In real life (what’s real?), Mijan is an EMT with a background in biology, a nursing student, and a published author of queer fiction.
Gillian Daniels lives in Somerville, MA and is a local theater critic with The New England Theatre Geek blog and a reviewer of short fiction at Fantastic Stories. After attending the 2011 Clarion Writing Workshop, she has had poetry and prose published in Apex Magazine, Strange Horizons, Flash Fiction Online, Electric Velocipede, PodCastle, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Flying Higher: An Anthology of Superhero Poetry, memorably, Kazka Press’s Bronies: For the Love of Ponies, and other venues.
Dash—I am the founder and editor-in-chief of Expanded Horizons, an online magazine whose mission is to increase diversity in speculative fiction and to create a venue for the authentic expression of under-represented voices in the genre. I am also an attorney, linguist, and private tutor of many subjects.
Steve Davidson is the publisher and editor of Amazing Stories, the world’s first science fiction magazine. A fan since the 60s, he cut his teeth on tv fare like Fireball XL5, Johnny Quest and on books like The Runaway Robot, A Wrinkle in Time, Starman Jones and The Dispossessed. He attended the very first NY Star Trek Convention and would eventually go on to manage the Hugo Awards banquet at the 1977 Suncon World Science Fiction Convention. Most recently he was a member of the Orlando in 2015 bid for Worldcon. In 1983 Steve GAFIATED for the greener pastures of the paintball industry, becoming a top 100 Player of All Time, founding that sport’s first national competition league and authoring three books and hundreds of articles about the sport along the way. In 2006 he returned to fandom with two relatively popular blogs—The Crotchety Old Fan and the Classic Science Fiction Channel, wherein he gleefully took up the role of curmudgeon, chasing youngster’s from genre’s lawn
Christopher Davis has been reading science fiction for longer than he can remember, and going to conventions for longer than he wants to think about. He’s worked as a sysadmin for both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and part of the Human Genome Project, and feels fortunate to have arrived at just the right time for such opportunities. He’s given up on looking for technological predictions from SF; too many lunar bases, not enough globe-spanning computer networks. (He’s still glad food pills never came along, though.)
An avid gamer (role-playing and miniatures) and reader (Sci-Fi and fantasy, mainly) since early adolescence, T Christopher Davis is now an amateur game designer and writer, as the love for the written word has grabbed hold and taken control of his soul. Now he only hopes to find a buyer for what he loves to write so that he may do much more of it.
Keith R. A. DeCandido has written a ton of things, most recently the Sleepy Hollow novel Children of the Revolution, the Star Trek coffee-table book The Klingon Art of War, the novelization of Big Hero 6, the “Precinct” series of fantasy/mystery novels and short stories, the short story collection Without a License, the Stargate SG-1 novel Kali’s Wrath, and short stories in the anthologies Bad-Ass Faeries: It’s Elemental, Out of Tune, Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: Far Horizons, V-Wars (Volumes 1 & 3), With Great Power, and The X-Files: The Truth is Out There. He’s also a professional editor of many decades’ standing, a second-degree black belt in karate, a veteran podcaster, and probably some other stuff, too. Find out less at www.DeCandido.net.
Lori Del Genis (Weegoddess) is among other things a 2D artist, dress designer, and a licensed speech-language pathologist. Though Lori has recently disappeared into creating shiny portraits on commission, she has 20+ years’ sewing experience and for the past 8 years has been the Alpha behind Conscious Elegance, a green business which creates custom-made eco wedding gowns out of reclaimed vintage silk and sustainable fabrics (and she’s still crowing about that award back in 2008). Lori has lectured publicly on zero-waste business practices and her work has been exhibited in the American Textile History Museum. In her copious spare time, she’s a coach for people keen to simplify Life, Health and Finances and continues to geek out about such burning issues as the benefits of chia vs. flax seeds. She’s finally back in Boston (yay!) with her spouse Jonathan and never wants to live outside of 495 again. Find her at www.consciouselegance.com or on deviantArt (http://weegoddess.deviantart.com/gallery/).
Chris Denmead runs a horror-themed radio show on WCUW 91.3 FM called the Dr.Chris Radio of Horror program. He has broadcast over 325 episodes as of Arisia 2013, covering horror and sci-fi films and interviews of various stars of genre fiction. Some of his past guests include Malcolm McDowell, Doug Jones, Dee Wallace Stone, Steve Niles, Doug Bradley, and Adam Green. He just published his first book, a children’s Halloween picture book Give Me Something Good to Eat.
Daniel P Dern (www.dern.com) is a freelance technology writer, and a very amateur magician. His science fiction stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies including Analog, F&SF, World of If, and New Dimensions. Having finished his first science fiction novel, Dragons Don’t Eat Jesters, which includes a minimum of “one dragon, two princesses, four dogs, a lot of riddles, some explosions, and a lot of really weird stuff,” he’s written over 60 short/flash stories—Dern Grim Children’s Short Bedtime Stories (Few of Which End Well), intended to be Morally Instructive to the Listener and Cathartically Therapeutic for the Reader (www.DernGrim.com) If you have at least 45 seconds to spare, ask to hear one if you see him and he’s not otherwise busy! More recently, he’s been working on longer Jewish-themed YA urban fantasies and other children’s stories, including “The Tashlich Fish” and “A Child’s Yom Kippur In Whales.”
Mario “DigiCom” Di Giacomo has been studying the weird and the fantastic (or, to use the term he coined, “Memetic Archaeology”) for nearly four decades, and enjoys speaking about his studies at conventions across Southern New England.
Alexa Dickman is a blogger who runs the Ladies Making Comics tumblr (http://www.ladiesmakingcomics.com). She is also a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable and an avid comics historian who runs the Women in Comics Wiki (http://womenincomics.wikia.com). She’s also a former law student and IP nerd. Her other interests include fanfiction, buying books she has no time to read, making her own tea blends, and Bond villains.
Samantha Dings is an Events Division Liaison Mentor for Arisia 2015, past President of Arisia Corporation, fan of Doctor Who who enjoys online Who fandom, and a fan of Star Trek, original and Next Gen, attending her 25th Arisia.
Sean Dixon-Gumm is a former-current-quasi professional historian with a penchant for homebrew, Irish music, punk rock, and living history. If it goes boom in the night, or if it was commonplace over 100 years ago, chances are he either knows about it, wants to know about it, or has tried to make it work. Oh, and he likes sewing things. He also gets cranky easily, and should be appeased with brandy.
DJ Dirge (Allure, Excess, Haven): DJ Dirge is know for his raucous parties and genre-defying mixing. Dirge is the resident DJ at several dance nights in and around Boston and New England. Dirge’s musical selections range from EBM, IDM, Electro, Dubstep, New Wave, Goth, and Rock. Never one to hold back, Dirge infuses energy and excitement into every event. Dirge is New England’s only living-dead DJ, playing music to wake the dead.
DJ Xero (Haven, Allure, Attic): DJ Xero has spun regularly in New England’s dark alternative goth-industrial dance club scene since 2006. He’s another DJ among many... not better or worse than any. Doing it all for the oddball, the weirdo, the outcast, the geek. And happiest seeing them dance when he’s not dancing himself! For examples of his work, playlists, and previous or upcoming events, find him online: http://xero.seedarkly.com
Debra Doyle was born in Florida and educated in Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and Pennsylvania—the last at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her doctorate in English, concentrating on Old English poetry. While in Philadelphia, she met and married James D. Macdonald, who was then serving in the US Navy, and subsequently traveled with him to Virginia, California, and the Republic of Panama. Doyle and Macdonald left the Navy and Panama in 1988 in order to move to Colebrook, New Hampshire, and write full-time. With Jim Macdonald, she has written the Mageworlds space opera series and the alternate-historical fantasies Land of Mist and Snow and Lincoln’s Sword; their most recent publication is the short story “The Devil in the Details” at Tor.com. She is a regular instructor at the Viable Paradise Science Fiction Writer’s Workshop each year on Martha’s Vineyard; she also does freelance editorial and critique work.
Michelle Driscoll lives in Western MA with her three partners, their son, a dog and four cats. She has hosted relationship discussion groups of many sorts in the poly and kink world and has been involved in the leadership of Transcending Boundaries, Inc.
Shirley Dulcey is a geek of all trades who has done many technology-related jobs. She is a long time fan, gamer, virtual world resident, and member of the SCA. Shirley has a long history with Arisia; she collected her “attended 25 Arisias” ribbon this year. In 2011 she chose to transition to life as a woman, adopting her current name; the change was done “in place” without leaving her existing home or social circles. She identifies as trans, poly, and kinky, and is still figuring out her sexual orientation.
Mary Dumas followed her Navy husband around the world for 22 years, and then settled in New England in 2003. She’s currently a Webcomic co-creator (justyaoi.com), stained glass artist (popcultureplace.com), Dirty Old Lady’s League founder (dolleague.com) and designs draq queen costumes. Prior to moving to N.E. she was a legal secretary, catering manager (L.A. Music Center), chieftain for the Monterey Scottish Festival, and Mom. Once in N.E. she founded Cauldron Con 2005; co-founded Anime Kaiju Experience 2008, chaired New England Fan Experience 2009, co-founded Nauticon, staffed Anime Boston, Arisia, Pop Culture Expo, Rhode Island Comic Con, North East Comic Con and Worldcon, and copilots N.E.R.D.S. (New England Resin Doll Society). Her hobbies include collecting Japanese manga, Gay romance and Asian ball-jointed dolls, and her interests are in media-SF fandom. And she works for Gary Sohmers.
Thom Dunn is a Boston-based writer, musician, and new media artist. He enjoys Oxford commas, metaphysics, and romantic clichés (especially when they involve whiskey), and he firmly believes that Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” is the single greatest atrocity ever committed against mankind. His work has been published by Tor, Quirk Books, Asimov’s, Grayhaven Comics, and more, and his plays have been produced across the country. Thom is a graduate of Clarion Writer’s Workshop at UCSD and Emerson College. You can follow his thrilling adventures at thomdunn.net.
Jill Eastlake is a Master Costumer and ICG Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Although she costumes infrequently, she has a penchant for working in winning costuming groups. Jill is the current President of the Northern Lights Costumers’ Guild, a chapter of the International Costumers’ Guild. She’s well known as a great recruiter, so if you have any spare time, watch out! You won’t after Jill and her friends have inspired you.
Nine time Hugo Winner Bob Eggleton has worked on the films: Sphere (1997), Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius (2001), The Ant Bully (2006), and the independent film, The iDol (2007), and designed visual effects for Star Trek in 1996. He is the author or co-author of eight books, the most current of which is If Dinosaurs Lived In My Town with his wife Marianne Plumridge, for Sky Pony Children’s Books. He was AGOH at the 2000 World SF Con in Chicago and, was a 1997 AGOH at Arisia, among MANY conventions all over the world. He has done covers to hundreds of books and, does private and personal commissions. His work has hung in The Allentown Art Museum, and The Providence Art Club (Lovecraft show). He is also involved in illustrating HP Lovecraft, and has done covers to Famous Monsters of Filmland, and Godzilla comics for IDW. He has an asteroid named for him—13562bobeggleton by Spacewatch at Kitt Peak.
Gaia Eirich is a Master costumer and has been attending and costuming at conventions for 14 years. For the last 17 years she has been sewing and creating costumes in a wide variety of forms including fantasy, historical, and anime costumes for conventions and commissions, belly dance costumes for a studio, wedding dresses, accessories, and also basic quilt making. She has also worked as a costume manager in a theater and is currently working on belly dance costume alterations for a studio. She loves and greatly enjoys taking part in convention masquerades and recently had the honor of judging the Balticon masquerade. She is also an active member of the Greater Columbia Fantasy Costumer’s Guild (GCFCG), the local chapter of the International Costumer’s Guild (ICG).
Genevieve Iseult Eldredge balances the romantic with the perilous in real life and in her writing. In real life, she dropped out of med school, married the girl of her dreams, and dedicated herself to writing LGBT epic fantasy featuring strong female characters. She has an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction, a black belt in karate, and a second-degree brown belt in jiu jitsu. In her writing, GIE tortures her characters with all manner of romantic peril—from desire to unrequited love, to showdowns and epic battles—including the dreaded incarnation of both: fightsex. As Kierstin Cherry, authoress and senior editor for Loose Id, she puts the romance back into necromancy with erotic lesbian vampire stories such as “Graced,” from the Lambda-nominated Women of the Bite from Circlet Press ebooks and her full-length Thorns & Hearts series including Blood Bound & Beautiful and the sequel Absent in Absinthe.
Amy Englesberg
Anna Erishkigal is an attorney who writes fantasy fiction under a pen-name so her colleagues don’t question whether her legal pleadings are fantasy fiction as well. Much of law, it turns out, is fantasy fiction. Lawyers just prefer to call it ‘zealously representing your client.’ Seeing the dark underbelly of life makes for some interesting fictional characters. The kind you either want to incarcerate, or run home and write about. In fiction, you can fudge facts without worrying too much about the truth. In legal pleadings, if your client lies to you, you look stupid in front of the judge. At least in fiction, if a character becomes troublesome, you can always kill them off. Anna is creator of the ‘Divorce Bootcamp’ legal self-help lecture series and book under her real name, which Shalt-Not-Be-Named lest the judge question whether that colorful legal pleading is the manuscript for her latest fantasy novel. She is also founder of Seraphim Press.
Lorelei Erisis
Deb Eskie is a resident of Massachusetts and has an M.Ed in creative arts education. With a background in women’s studies, her focus as a writer is to expose the woman’s experience through unsettling tales that highlight the dilemma of sexual repression and oppression. By combining the genres of feminist and horror fiction she aims to not only disturb readers, but deliver a message that is informative and thought provoking. In 2005 Deb’s play, Tell Me About Love, was featured in the Provincetown Playwright Festival. She has been featured in various online magazines such as Deadman’s Tome, Bad Moon Rising, and 69 Flavors of Paranoia. Deb has a number of short stories published by Pill Hill Press, Post Mortem Press, Cruentus Libri Press, and other publishers.
Paul Estin (a.k.a. “Happy Fun Paul”) is a longtime SF fan with a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and an affinity for silly music. Becoming a filker was inevitable—he sings and plays guitar and other instruments; sometimes solo and sometimes in the bands “Dr. Snark” and “Don’t Fret the Small Stuff”. Among Paul’s other interests (in alphabetical order) are 80’s music, Andrew Sullivan, astronomy, bicycling, books, cats, cognitive science, comics, complexity, dynamism, folk music, freedom, maps, market solutions, modern fairy tales, movies, mu*ing, natural history, Neil Gaiman, non-fiction, nonstandard categories, reading, rock music, RPGs, science, surreality, Unitarian Universalism, and xenobiology. Ingredients of Happy Fun Paul include an unknown glowing substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space. DO NOT TAUNT HAPPY FUN PAUL!!!
Like Goodgulf the Wizard, this individual has many names: the one on her passport and her scholarly writings on early textiles (Lisa J. Evans); the one on her popular Saturday night “Books So Bad They’re Good” diary for Daily Kos (Ellid); and the one on the erotica she’s been writing and selling for the last couple of years (Sarah Ellis). Among her accomplishments are founding the Smith College Science Fiction & Fantasy Society, which is still going strong and slaughtering marshmallow peeps 34 years later, writing the first work in English on medieval European patchwork, and acquiring degrees from Smith College and Hartford Seminary. She also owns a photo of Adolf Hitler’s bathtub. And no, it’s not for the reasons you might think.
Lynn Feingold has more than 25 years of performance experience as a solo a cappella singer. Specializing in performance of traditional English, Irish and Scottish songs and ballads, particularly as a witty Tavern Wench. She has performed many times for coffeehouses, historical societies, organizations, libraries, museums, house concerts and private parties.
Dr. Alexander Feinman hacks hackers for a living: he designs software that helps other programmers develop, build, and test MATLAB. His hobbies include all but one of the following: audio production, carpentry, glass-blowing, leather-working, painting miniatures, music, role-playing, sociology, and writing science fiction. His novels “Duplicate”, “We Were Gods”, and “End Game” are available for sale online and at Arisia; he is currently finishing up “Mr. Maybe and Dr. Don’t”, a YA fantasy novel.
Mr. Ferguson is a math teacher at a school for students with above average intelligence and emotional differences. He is also a youth sword instructor, so please ask him if you want your children to learn the knightly art of the sword. AND he is a storyteller with 25 years’ experience, although some would say the first ten years don’t count because he wasn’t over 18 yet.
Allison Fin is a scarred veteran of many a decade of con running, An avid film and media collector specializing in Asian and British science fiction and horror. When not in meatspace, preparing for the oncoming necro-apocalypse, she is often found in Second Life, role-playing and DJing.
Kristina Finan has been sewing and costuming since 1982, a Doctor Who fan since 1979, and a Science Fiction fan since she saw the first man walk on the moon, live. Now she attempts to write about it. Don’t get her wrong, she still sews, keeps a full-time job as a Custom Framer, and a part-time job keeping a husband.
Carl Fink is the Chair of LI-CON, a brand new convention on Long Island. Taking Heinlein’s comment about specialization to heart, he has in his life worked on a loading dock, managed a store, been a schoolteacher, worked as a technical trainer, managed corporate Information Technology, and is an occasional freelance writer, appearing in Smart Computing and Linux Journal. A member of the James Randi Foundation and the Skeptics Society, Carl is particularly likely to challenge pseudoscience and superstition. He lives and works on Long Island, New York.
Colette H. Fozard has been helping to keep SF and anime conventions running for over twenty years. She has served as Convention Chair or other senior staff of several East Coast cons including Balticon, Katsucon, Zenkaikon, and Nekocon as well as many others. She has served as Arisia senior staff on many occasions and continues to help us out to this day. Her love of working at conventions has blossomed into a professional event planning career and she is the Director of Operations for the Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival in Washington, DC each spring – the largest one-day celebration of Japanese Culture in the United States.
William Frank, aka “scifantasy,” is a geek and lawyer, in roughly that order. Professionally, he specializes in intellectual property law, has interned for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Creative Commons, and was a computer programmer before he turned to evil—err, law. Fannishly, he has interests in pretty much everything, but the filk-room would be a good first place to look for him. Will was also on the reality television show Beauty and the Geek in 2007. (Guess which one he was.) This is Will’s fourth Arisia, his second as a panelist.
Terry Franklin is a writer of science fiction and fact. Living in Western Mass, he also gets himself caught up in Libertarian politics from time to time.
Damarie—Aurora Freyasdottir—Giles: Are you a witch? Ms. Calendar: Mm. I don’t have that kinda power. ‘Technopagan’ is the term.—Buffy the Vampire Slayer “I, Robot—You, Jane”... only, some of us technopagans ARE witches.
David J. Friedman is a practicing attorney that helps people understand and solve legal challenges facing their businesses. A co-author of legal reference guides, his books discuss intellectual property, cyberspace, privacy, speech, and related issues. As an artist, David has over a decade of professional experience as a performing and visual artist. David is proud to argue, play with toys, and throw things for a living and has dedicated his life to helping people mind their own businesses.
Ed Fuqua is a Young Adult Librarian as well as being a writer, poet and swordsman. He has spent many years running comic book stores and has qualified for the National Poetry Slam Championships four times. His short story “Familiar Places” appears in the anthology Bites of Passion and his latest book is The Viscountess Investigates being published by Circlet Press under his pen name Cameron Quintain. He is a performer and director at King Richard’s Faire in Carver, MA.
Shana Fuqua has a BA in music. She is an twelve-year veteran of King Richard’s Faire where she spent one year as assistant apprentice music director and four years as an administrative assistant to the apprentice program. She has been involved in the BDSM scene for roughly twenty years. She is an experienced gamer, both video games and tabletop RPGs. Her many skills include knitting, crocheting, spinning, candlemaking, and balancing a stick on her head. This year she joins the Arisia staff.
Ken Gale’s writing career started with sales to DC Comics and Warren Publishing in the 70’s. He’s editor and co-publisher of Dangerous Times and New Frontiers for Evolution Comics, wrote for Defiant Comics, and is a producer and host for two radio shows on WBAI-FM in NYC; one on the environment and one on comic books. He does miscellaneous arts and public affairs shows at many different time slots. He is a member of the Board of the Celtic League American Branch and a former math textbook writer. He wrote an environmental horror comic book story for Psychosis! #2 and is a long-time environmental activist. Since last Arisia, the guy with a face for radio has become a regular for Environment TV. www.comicbookradioshow.com
Craig Shaw Gardner is the author of a bunch of books and short stories, many of which are now being released as e-books. His latest novel, Temporary Monsters, features an unemployment agency that secretly controls the world.
Jaime Garmendia is a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable where he writes, produces, publicizes, and markets independent comics of all genres. His first published game, the Wuxing Empire expansion for Your Move Games’ Battleground, is scheduled for release in late 2014. He was the Arisia Programming Division Head for 2013–14, and Exhibits Division Head in 2015.
Greer Gilman’s first metaphysical noir mystery, Cry Murder! In a Small Voice, won the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award. Ben Jonson investigates again in Exit, Pursued by a Bear. Her Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter’s Tales won the 2010 Tiptree Award. Like her earlier novel Moonwise, it’s set in a Northern mythscape, in a world where women turn the sky. Her Cloudish tales have also won a World Fantasy Award, a Crawford Award, and have been shortlisted for the Nebula and Mythopoeic Fantasy awards. Besides her two books, she has published other short work, poetry, and criticism. Her essay on “The Languages of the Fantastic” appears in The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature. She likes to say she does everything James Joyce ever did, only backward and in high heels.
Max Gladstone has been thrown from a horse in Mongolia and nominated (twice!) for the John W Campbell Best New Writer Award. Tor Books published Full Fathom Five, the third novel in Max’s Craft Sequence (preceded by Three Parts Dead and Two Serpents Rise) in July 2014. Last First Snow, the next Craft Sequence novel, will hit shelves in July 2015. Max’s game Choice of the Deathless was nominated for a 2013 XYZZY Award, and his short fiction has appeared on Tor.com and in Uncanny Magazine.
Hayley “Shenanigans” Goldstein is a freshman at Drew University in Madison, NJ. Originally hailing from Newton, MA, Ms. Shenanigans is passionate beyond belief about Doctor Who, Sherlock, the works of Neil Gaiman, fanfiction, cosplay, filking, steampunk, various nerdy TV and film series, and collecting books. Her favorite Doctor is Peter Capaldi. At Arisia you will most likely be able to find her cosplaying or paneling or maybe even filking. (Filker Paul Estin taught her history during her freshman year of high school and introduced her to the wonders of conventions and filk.) You can find her online at stuff-and-shenanigans.tumblr.com or on Fanfiction.net under the pen name “The Impossible Slashtronaut.”
Timothy Goyette was raised in and is a resident of New Hampshire. He is the editor at Quantum Muse, a webzine and online writing group that has been around since 1999. In this capacity he has worked with many aspiring authors to help them develop their talents. He has authored a number of short stories and one novel, Lockdown which came out in 2013. In 2014 a collection of short stories was published, titled: The Light, the Dark, and the Quick.
Anabel Graetz began performing as a teenager in Omaha, NE. She is half of the Victorian duo, The Proper Ladies; the creator and director of The Festival of Light & Song; and founded and directed the all-woman ensemble Laduvane in the 70’s. She has appeared off-off Broadway in The Drunkard and on several Boston stages; studied vocal folk styles extensively; was a Fulbright Scholar in 1987–88; developed and taught the perennially popular course “Song for Non-Singers” at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Anabel currently teaches at the Lau Lapides Studio in Wellesley, MA. She can be seen in “Spirit of Salem,” now showing in Salem, MA, in “Stand Back” on YouTube and has a small role in the upcoming HBO mini-series based on “Olive Kitteridge,” the novel by Elizabeth Strout, a must read!
Justine Graykin is a freelance philosopher sustained by her deep and abiding faith in Science and Humanity (well, Science, anyway) and the belief that humor is the best anti-gravity device. Author of Archimedes Nesselrode (Double Dragon, 2013), written for adults who are weary of adult books, her new SF novel Awake Chimera is due out in June. She is often accompanied at conventions by a Winged Snake. Justine lives, writes and putters around her home in rural New Hampshire, occasionally disappearing into the White Mountains with a backpack. Find her at justinegraykin.com.
Jared Griego
Dr. Abby Hafer was born at Cape Canaveral, where her father was part of the U.S. space program. She grew up living lots of places in the U.S. She graduated in biology at Swarthmore College and got a D.Phil. in zoology from Oxford University. She briefly worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service on a Japanese fishing ship in the Bering Sea. While on board, she won a push-ups contest with the ship’s officers. Since Oxford, she has done research on sleep, circadian rhythms, and respiratory physiology. She works at Curry College where she teaches Human Anatomy & Physiology. She enjoys outdoor sports and has traveled widely, including recent trips to Transylvania, Alaska, China, and the Grand Canyon. In her spare time, she gives public lectures that debunk Intelligent Design and Creationism. She has been interviewed on NPR and other radio outlets, and has written a book on that subject which will be published in 2015. She is married, has two children, and lives in Bedford, MA.
Andrea Hairston is author of Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the 2011 Tiptree and Carl Brandon Awards and Mindscape, shortlisted for the Phillip K Dick and Tiptree Awards, and winner of the Carl Brandon Parallax Award. A performer, playwright, and artistic director of Chrysalis Theatre, her plays have been produced at Yale Rep, Rites and Reason, the Kennedy Center, StageWest, and on Public Radio and Television. Lonely Stardust,—a collection of plays and essays came out in 2014. Her play, Thunderbird at the Next World, appears in Geek Theater,—a collection of sf plays from Underwords Press. Andrea bikes at night year round, meeting bears, multi-legged creatures of light and breath, and the occasional shooting star.
A member of the CERN team that developed the original specifications for the World Wide Web, Phillip Hallam-Baker predicts the future the old way, by inventing it. With numerous patents and contributions to IETF, W3C and OASIS standards, Hallam-Baker is a recognized authority on Internet security, cryptography and Internet Crime. Active in the replica prop building community for the past five years, the full scale dalek he built (which visited Arisia in 2012) uses the same materials and techniques as the original prop. He is currently working on a TARDIS and Han in carbonite, both full scale.
Elektra Hammond emulates her multi-sided idol Buckaroo Banzai by going in several directions at once. She’s been involved in the copyediting and proofreading end of publishing since the 1990s for presses small and large and nowadays concocts anthologies, writes the occasional short story, and is an editor and movie reviewer at buzzymag.com. Her latest story “In the Form of a Question” appears in the parody anthology TV Gods. Elektra lives in Delaware with her husband, Mike, and the cat herd of BlueBlaze/Benegesserit catteries. When not freelancing or appearing at science fiction conventions she travels world-wide judging cat shows. Find Elektra on Facebook (Elektra Hammond), Twitter (elektraUM), LiveJournal (elektra_h), and building her website at http://www.untilmidnight.com.
Forest Handford is a fire artist from Newport, Rhode Island. Forest works as a programmer at Carbonite. While not at work, he’s bringing his family to corn mazes, conventions, and Burning Man events. His website is EastCoastGames.com where he publishes video and writing about various topics. He is the Director of Organizational Development for Firefly Arts Collective, Inc. He recently founded VoteSquared.org, the site for rating politicians.
Jeff Hecht is a freelance science and technology writer, a correspondent for the weekly New Scientist and a contributing editor to Laser Focus World. His short fiction has appeared in Analog, Asimov’s, Interzone, Odyssey, Nature, Twilight Zone, Daily Science Fiction and several anthologies including Year’s Best Horror Stories, Great American Ghost Stories, and Extreme Planets. His non-fiction has appeared in many other magazines, including Optics & Photonics News, Omni, Earth, Analog, Cosmos, and Technology Review. His books include Understanding Fiber Optics (Pearson/Prentice Hall), Understanding Lasers (IEEE Press/Wiley), Beam: the Race to Make the Laser and City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics (both Oxford University Press). He holds a B.S. in electronic engineering from the California Institute of Technology.
Karl G Heinemann—Both science and SF have been core passions of Karl’s since early childhood, and his bio-family nurtured strong habits of analyzing and predicting “the world around him” and “thinking for himself.” These traits led Karl to formal education in physics, astronomy, and epistemology. Other interests include modeling and simulation of economic and social systems, history, SF-based gaming, polyamory, and mythology viewed as entertainment, a cultural attribute, and psychological drive. During this period of economic uncertainty and transition, Karl questions the viability/sustainability of “The Great American Dream,” and celebrates the SF community as a place to articulate and examine possible paths and visions for adjustment and improvement.
Lisa Hertel is an artist from a long line of artists (to be continued). She usually works in clay and watercolors, but has been known to work with pencils, glass, paper, metal and more. In her spare time, she helps run literary science fiction conventions, including being the chair of Arisia 2014. Visit her at Western Avenue Studios in Lowell, studio #108, where she offers art classes for children and adults. Or just come try her human-powered kickwheel.
Andy Hicks is a radio and television producer for WGBH, who has written and produced hundreds of spots. He even got Mark “Mycroft” Gatiss to record a thing for TV pledge once, which was pretty neat, because Andy is—first and foremost—a massive Doctor Who/Sherlock nerd. He’s also a musician, freelance sound designer, director, writer, and actor. He also co-wrote 2010: Our Hideous Future—The Musical!, the first stage musical ever to pass both the Bechtel and Turing tests. While it stubbornly failed to win either a Tony or a Hugo, it had some catchy tunes, so that’s nice. He recently discovered that he was born the same day Bauhaus’s “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” was released, which explains all the black t-shirts.
James Hinsey is a lifelong lover of Science Fiction, Fantasy, books, movies, tv-shows, anime, 80’s music, women, root beer, chocolate, Hawaii, Japan, and family. He is half-Japanese, a reader, Potterhead, Trekker, Browncoat, Costumer, book-collector, model-maker, videographer, publicator, con-goer, RISFC member, Sci-Fi Journal co-host, Psi Upsilon brother, RPI alum, former naval officer, brother, son, uncle, husband, and father of two girls. He is currently Arisia ’15 Masquerade Director. SamuraiX47.
Merav Hoffman is a New York-based singer/songwriter and performer. She is a founding member of the band Lady Mondegreen along with Seanan McGuire and Batya Wittenberg. She also edits books, musicals and poetry, as well as writing her own. In 2013 she was nominated for the Rhysling poetry award in the short form category. She works in publishing and IT, and occasionally produces albums and DVDs for her various musical projects. In whatever time she has left over, she crochets an insane amount and runs local music events.
Melissa Honig maintains a calendar of sci-fi and fantasy events in New England on her blog, http://nescifievents.org/. She is active with the New England Browncoats and the Boston SciFi/Fantasy Meetup. She enjoys steampunk, costuming, weird crafts, and watching old TV shows from her childhood via Netflix.
Sharone Horowit-Hendler is a linguistic anthropology graduate student, currently working on her PhD. She is studying how we create and present our gender identities through our language. In her free time, she is a LARPer, playing in boffer LARPs, Camarilla, and playing, GMing, and writing theater style LARPs. She is an avid reader, board gamer, and table top gamer, who also sings, writes music ( though rarely), and makes adorable jewelry and pins out of sculpy. She is also a member of the Teseracte Players of Boston and looks forward to performing for you this Arisia.
Diana Hsu
Walter H. Hunt has been writing for most of his life and was Arisia Author GOH in 2009. His first four Dark Wing novels were published by Tor Books and are now available from Baen as e-books. His novel A Song In Stone deals with Rosslyn Chapel and the Templars. His latest novel Elements of Mind from Spencer Hill Press was published in July 2014, and his 1632 novel 1636:The Cardinal Virtues will be published next summer. He has a background in history, with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and he speaks two other languages (German and Spanish). A member of the Masonic Fraternity, Walter H. Hunt has served as Master of two different Lodges in Massachusetts. He is a devoted baseball fan and board gamer; his first published game was published in 2011 by Rio Grande Games. He has been married for more than half of his life, and he and his wife have one daughter who is a product of their affection and unusual joint sense of humor.
Elaine Isaak is the author of The Singer’s Crown (Eos, 2005), and its sequels, as well as the “Tales of Bladesend” epic novella series. As E. C. Ambrose, she also writes “The Dark Apostle” series of dark historical fantasy novels about medieval medicine. The Dark Apostle started with Elisha Barber (DAW, 2013), described in a starred Library Journal review as, “painfully elegant”. Elaine lives in New Hampshire with her family where she works part-time as an adventure guide. In addition to writing and teaching, Elaine enjoys taiko drumming, kayaking, rock climbing, and all manner of fiber arts. www.thedarkapostle.com
Felicitas Ivey is the pen name of a very frazzled helpdesk drone at a Boston area University. She’s an eternal student even with a BA in Anthropology, Classical Studies and History, since free classes are part of the benefits. Felicitas writes Urban Fantasy and Horror of a Lovecraftian nature—monsters beyond space and time that think humans are the tastiest things in the multiverse—that is passing as MalexMale Romance. She divides her free time between writing and slowly working her way through her yarn stash, even as she adds more to it periodically.
Alexander Jablokov’s most recent published novel is Brain Thief, a fast-paced AI-hunting adventure, now out in paperback. His most recent story, “The Instructive Tale of the Archeologist and His Wife” will appear in Asimov’s. He is the author of five other novels, including Carve the Sky, Nimbus, and Deepdrive, and a number of short stories. He recently completed a YA alternate history adventure novel, Door of Worlds. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Victoria Janssen can frequently be found blogging about romance at Heroes & Heartbreakers and mysteries at The Criminal Element. Her novel-length erotica includes The Duke and the Pirate Queen; The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover; and The Moonlight Mistress, set during her favorite historical time period, World War One; its electronic-only sequel is titled “Under Her Uniform.” Her erotic short stories, many of them historical or speculative, are available in numerous anthologies and as e-books. She also reviews for Publishers Weekly. Find out more at http://victoriajanssen.com.
Alex Jarvis is a Meat Popsicle.
N. K. Jemisin is a Brooklyn author whose short fiction and novels have been multiply nominated for the Hugo, the World Fantasy Award, and the Nebula, shortlisted for the Crawford and the Tiptree, and have won the Locus Award. Her latest novel, The Shadowed Sun, was published in June 2012 from Orbit Books, and she is at work on her next trilogy—the first book of which, The Fifth Season, is due out in August 2015. Her website is nkjemisin.com.
Jules is an evolutionary biologist, speculative fiction reader and writer, and purveyor of bizarre fanfictions. Her favorite books include The Dispossessed, His Dark Materials, and Animorphs.
Rachel Kadel-Garcia is a bookbinder and librarian living in Medford, MA. She holds an MS in Library Science from. Simmons and an MA in Conservation Studies from the University of Sussex.
Eri Kagami—Presenting panels since Anime Central 2001 at the humble age of 16, Eri enjoys public speaking and teaching. As a veteran to the anime con scene, Eri has seen the changes in fandom and convention culture. Growing up with the convention scene, Eri feels the need the educate the kids on old school anime and create open discussion forums on nostalgia anime for the 90s kids that keep coming back. Eri serves as the “Cosplay Sensei” in the New England Cosplay Community Board of Directors. She has also staffed and volunteered for Anime Expo, Mikomi Con, Boston Cosplayers Ball, and Anime Vegas. She has also judged cosplay contests for smaller, local events.
A recent transplant to the Boston area, Juliet Kahn was doomed to nerdhood from the moment she found her father’s Bronze Age Marvel stash. She is particularly interested in shoujo manga, self-publishing, and the history of comics. She writes for Comics Alliance.
Walter Allen Kahn has an been in Science Fiction and Fantasy Fandom since 1989 when he volunteered for Norescon 3, the 1989 Boston WorldCon, also his first Fan Run Convention he attended. He started working on Boskone until he found a home at Arisia in 1992 he then joined Arisia Staff in 1993, where he has held the positions of Assistant Division Head of Member Services, Assistant Division Head of Events, Operations Desk Department Head and Staff, Programming/AV Staff, Artshow Staff, Writer Guest of Honor Liaison, Hotel Liaison Staff and Innkeeper, Security Staff. Con Suite, among others. Assistant Area Head He is currently the Assistant Division Head for Operations for A’15. He was Arisia’s Corporate Vice President and Fan Guest of Honor in 1995. He also has worked on and attended number of WorldCons over the years. He has attended and/or worked on Readercon, Balticon and Gaylaxicons, The last time Gaylaxicon was in the Boston Area he was the Co-Operations Division Head with his wife.
Catherine Kane is a professional psychic, published author, Reiki master/teacher, bard, artist, enthusiastic student of the Universe, maker of very bad puns, songwriter and overachiever, amongst other things... She loves empowering people to have their best lives possible. Visit Catherine and her husband, Starwolf, at Foresight on Facebook, www.ForesightYourPsychic.com, and www.ForesightYourCtPsychic.wordpress.com.
Witch, Shaman, Professional Psychic, Metaphysical Engineer, Rune Valder Master, and Reiki Master, Sean Kane (Starwolf) posseses a vast, ecclectic store of knowledge, both Esoteric and Exoteric.
Melissa Kaplan is a longtime attendee of cons, gamer, watcher and reader of sci-fi/fantasy, and general geek. Past endeavors include two blogathons, one nanowrimo, and participating in panels at Pi-con and Arisia. She spends far too much of her disposable income on costume pieces, wirework jewelry, and books. She freely admits that her qualifications as a panelist are restricted to love of sci-fi/fantasy and her ability to ramble semi-intelligently about geeky topics on command. Melissa is Fundraising and Publicity Chair for the 2015 Transcending Boundaries Conference and committed to making the fandom community safe and comfortable for anyone who wants to participate.
Faith Karklin was introduced to Arisia in 2008 and has found herself returning every year since. Apparently she can’t resist a weekend spent dancing and discussing books. She’s a member of a local meet-up group called New England Asexuals. She irregularly updates a blog called “I’m Ace, Ask Me How!” to share some of her thoughts and respond to questions posed by that friends, family, and acquaintances.
Jeff Kaufman is a musician, gamer, and singer living in Somerville, MA. He writes a blog (www.jefftk.com) and plays contra dance music with the Free Raisins (FreeRaisins.com).
Jeff Keller is a Boston-area song session leader and occasional filker. He’s run the Arisia chantey sing from its inception and various one-off sessions. He’s also a vintage dancer, the founder of the local vintage dance band (the Ad Hoc Waltz and Quadrille Band), and a sometime member of the Arisia technical crew and Music Area Head.
Leigh Perry is Toni L.P. Kelner in disguise, or maybe vice versa. As Leigh, she writes the Family Skeleton mysteries. The Skeleton Takes a Bow, the second, came out in September 2014. As Toni, she’s the author of the “Where Are They Now?” mysteries and the Laura Fleming series (all of which are available as ebooks and audiobooks); an Agatha Award winner for short fiction; and the co-editor of New York Times bestselling fantasy/mystery anthologies with Charlaine Harris. Dead But Not Forgotten is their most recent. Leigh/Toni lives just north of Boston, on the Orange Line, with her husband and fellow author Stephen P. Kelner, Jr., their two daughters, and two guinea pigs.
Rachel Kenley is a novelist, workshop leader, radio host, and co-founder of the Writers Business School. She is the best-selling author of erotic romance novels and anthologies. Her current works include a paranormal middle grade and a series set in a diner on the Jersey Shore. When she is not writing she is homeschooling her sons, trying unsuccessfully to keep up with laundry, and laughing as much as possible. She loves reading, chocolate, her morning cup of coffee and retail therapy. Her radio show, The O Spot, is new every Wednesday at 10 pm EST on www.dkrn.fm and encores several times during the week. A Jersey Girl no matter where she is living, she can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rachel-Kenley/43491347339, on Amazon at www.amazon.com/author/rachelkenley and at her website www.rachelkenley.com. Learn more about the business of selling your books at www.writersbusinessschool.com
Paul Kenworthy began historic costuming and making armour and swords back in 1974 while he was getting his bachelor’s degree in history and working part-time as a shipsmith at Mystic Seaport. He is an avid re-enactor and belongs to a number of groups that recreate various periods. He is the commanding officer of the New England Brigade, an umbrella organization for Union re-enactors in New England, Captain of the Salem Trayned Band, a group that recreates the first militia company in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and a member of the Company of the Wolfe Argent, a group that recreates a Burgundian ordinance company of the 1470s. He is one of the co-founders of the Higgins Armory Sword Guild, a group based in Worcester that studies and interprets Renaissance fencing manuals. He has recently expanded his costuming and prop making into cosplaying anime and video game characters.
Angela Kessler’s longstanding interests include morris dance, Kalevala, cheesemaking, singing and other enjoyment of trad music, sewing (esp. historical and wedding gowns), crochet, and learning about how the world works. Passing whims include canning, gardening, soapmaking, and food sculpture. Someday there will be goats.
Jeremy H. Kessler lives in Greater Boston where he is an instigator. He is also a singer, morris dancer, musician, cheesemaker, drinker, and co-developer of the only known kosher boar’s head anywhere. As a singer, he has been deeply involved in local sings of various traditional sorts, including chantey sings and pub sings. As a morris dancer, he dances with the Newtowne Morris Men, is the musician for Pipe Dream Morris, and is the squire of the only Greater Boston morris team to dance the AntiMorris. He has danced the AntiMorris for Terry Pratchett himself, and is quite proud that said author described it—in Wintersmith‘s author’s note—as “a bit creepy”.
A freelance writer and web producer for such entertainment publications as Today.com, Variety, The Los Angeles Times, and Emmy Magazine, Randee Dawn Kestenbaum is also a fiction writer, with a self-published volume of speculative fiction, Home for the Holidays. The collection—which runs the gamut from speculative fiction to memoir—includes a first-person zombie story originally podcast by “Well-Told Tales.” She is also a co-author (with Susan Green) of The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion, which published in September 2009. She has a first novel of urban fantasy recently completed, and renews her offer to write in exchange for sugar-cured bacon.
Daniel M Kimmel is a Hugo-nominated film critic and author of Jar Jar Binks Must Die. His reviews and essays can be found at NorthShoreMovies.net, the Sci-Fi Movie Page, and Space and Time Magazine. His most recent book is his first novel Shh! It’s a Secret: a novel about Aliens, Hollywood and the Bartender’s Guide which launched at Arisia 2013. In September 2014 he became editor of The Jewish Advocate, the nation’s oldest English language Jewish newspaper.
Born in 1967, Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein has not yet managed to shuffle off the mortal coil, though not for want of trying, apparently. She writes (fiction, music, poetry, recipes, and the occasional political rant), draws, paints, sings, dances, cooks, builds and repairs houses, and occasionally makes an outright fool of herself when confronted with her intellectual heroes. She also has Opinions. No, wait! Don’t run!
Ken Kingsgrave-Ernstein is absolutely not the superhero Common Sense Man. He does not spend his days saving various portions of Corporate America from itself. He also does not recover data structures in need. He does, however, enjoy reading Science Fiction and the occasional foray into Fantasy. He also enjoys speculating on how to survive the Zombie Apocalypse with skills he learned surviving the Cold War. He also spends spare time (ha, what’s that?) with his camera and playing with rope, often at the same time.
Amber P. Knight is the hostess of the Black, Sexy, Geeky and Mental podcast. For the past three years audiences have been delving into the mind of a Black, former Burlesque performer, sci-fi fan with bipolar disorder. As a speaker with NAMI, (National Alliance on Mental Illness) she talks candidly about living with bipolar disorder. She has been a featured storyteller with MassMouth and has done Stand-up comedy in the Naked Comedy Showcase. To date she has produced and performed four one-woman theater productions, presented workshops on improving body image using the performing arts, and performed in a number of theatrical productions.
Kerri Knorr
Rachel Kory has been with Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency, Inc. since 2011. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, where she studied Classics. As a literary agent and digital strategist, Rachel is interested in all things new media; she works to integrate authors into an increasingly electronic world. As a lover of genre fiction and media, she is fascinated by the blurring of lines between fan and professional. She is a muay thai practitioner, homebrewer, costumer, and a member of the 501st Legion and Rebel Legion Star Wars costuming organizations.
Ellen Kranzer has been attending science fiction conventions for over 30 years and making music even longer. Filk lets her mix the two hobbies. Ellen is a founding member of M.A.S.S. F.I.L.C. and the club’s current treasurer. She has been involved in planning numerous conventions both in and out of fandom.
Bob Kuhn is a professional voiceover artist. Speculative fiction and science credits include audiobook titles by Mike Resnick, Carl Sagan, YA author William Sleator, Jeff Carver, and Thomas Burnett Swann. (Plus audiobooks of history and historical fiction, true crime and mystery.) Bob has also provided fantasy MMORP NPC game voices for Dungeons and Dragons Online, the ill-starred 38 Studios, and a soon-to-be-released dark fantasy out of Singapore. As an expatriate Australian, Bob has done readings at North American Cons for antipodean authors unable to attend. He is the co-inventor of both serious (Master of Disaster) and fun (ChronoCollisions, Artifactual) games and gameshows, many of which he has hosted at various world and regional cons. Visit bkvoice.com for more information. He is also a higher education I.T. management consultant.
Bettina M. Kurkoski, is the creator/writer/artist of My Cat Loki—volumes 1 & 2 now available from TOKYOPOP—is Bettina’s first professionally published series. She has also contributed the Star Trek 40th Anniversary Convention exclusive cover for Star Trek: TOS Manga Vol. 1, cover and story art for Star Trek: TOS Manga Vol. 2, story art for Star Trek: The Next Generation Vol. 1, story and art for the Princess Ai/My Cat Loki crossover story in Princess Ai: Encounters, and cover and story art for Warriors: Rise of Scourge and Seekers manga series based on the best-selling novel series; all available from TOKYOPOP and Harper Collins. She has 20+ years of experience teaching comic art to all ages through various events. She is currently working on the webcomic, RomeoXJulien (justyaoi.com) with co-creator, Mary Dumas, and has developed and launched websites for Nauticon, Worldcon, Ohayocon, Just Yaoi & Dreamworld Studio. You can see more of her artwork at www.dreamworldstudio.net.
Adria Kyne—While I’ve certainly done some interesting things in my time, my life has been somewhat unremarkable until last year. That is when I was chosen to be a contestant in a brand-new reality TV show based in a fantasy setting (ABC’s “The Quest”). In preparing for the show and in participating, I drew upon my experiences in tabletop gaming, LARPing, reading fantasy, and interacting with fandoms, with perhaps-surprising results. I met (and disagreed with) Mark Ordesky (Exec Producer for The Lord of the Rings), learned a lot about how the TV sausage gets made, and even learned a few things about myself along the way.
Marnen Laibow-Koser
David Larochelle is a researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society who works at the intersection of computer science and social science. He’s worked extensively in information security and is the co-author of Splint, an Open Source tool for detecting security vulnerabilities in C programs. However, more recently he’s focused on understanding and building the Internet rather than attacking and defending it. He grew up in the D.C. area but moved up to Cambridge in 2004 where he currently resides. His involvement with fandom began when he joined the William & Mary Science Fiction and Fantasy Club (SKIFFY). He served as Vice President and was named Senator for Life upon gradation.
A dedicated fan of Duran Duran, as seen in the documentary There’s Something You Should Know, avid cosplayer, and Neil Gaiman Fangirl, Pam Larson has dedicated what little free time she has from her television directing job to becoming the best fan she can be. Helping out her fellow fans by staffing and volunteering at many cons, she makes sure a good time is had by all. Her Personal Motto is, “All Nite Parties, Cocktail Bars and Smiles... It’s more than a lyric, it’s a way of life.”
Toni Lay is a member of the New Jersey-New York Costumers Guild (aka The Sick Pups) and a Deputy Chatelaine for the Crown Province of Ostgardr in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), which gives her plenty of opportunity to costume. Toni was Program Director for Costume Con 5, a Historical Masquerade Director for Costume Cons 16 and 22, a Historical Judge for Costume Con 28, and a Presentation Judge at Renovation, the Reno Worldcon. Her other fannish interests include Torchwood, Merlin, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Britcoms, alternate history novels, Harry Potter, Dragonriders of Pern, Marcus Didius Falco, and Roma Sub Rosa mysteries. When she is not watching DVDs, reading, or making costumes, Toni is a secretary for the New York City Department of Design and Construction.
Cassandra Lease is a lifelong resident of Boston and a second-generation fan who was introduced to Star Trek while she was still learning to talk and Isaac Asimov while she was in elementary school. As a neo-pagan trans lesbian feminist, she’s an outspoken advocate for religious tolerance, LGBT rights, and social equality. As Amazon Pink, she is an enthusiastic amateur cosplayer and very active in the Power Rangers cosplay scene. She is also a veteran GM, an avid reader of comic books and urban fantasy literature, and a massive fan of Power Rangers, Sailor Moon, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Disney’s Gargoyles and more. Cassandra is currently hard at work on her first novel, a queer supernatural romance entitled Fall, as well as numerous fanfics.
Michael Lee—I’ve been involved with CONvergence in Minneapolis for over a decade in a variety of roles, including head of programming and on the board of directors. My top three interests tend to be comics, conrunning, and Doctor Who.
Scott Lefton makes and sells artwork in media including metal, wood, glass, and Photoshop, is occasionally serious about photography, and works as a freelance mechanical design consultant and patent agent. He lives in a big old Victorian house in Melrose, MA with his wife Rachel, whichever of their 3 kids happen to be in residence, and a cat.
Legio III Cyrenaica is a Roman Legion re-enacting/living history organization based in New England that seeks to accurately portray Legionary and Auxiliary soldiers stationed in Egypt during the Roman Empire’s Flavian period (69–80 AD) using the latest academic and archaeological research and reconstructions. Members study soldiers’ training, combat tactics, and arms and armor. Legio III’s historical duties were to secure the grain, precious metals, mines, and trade ports vital to Rome while trying to keep a sporadic peace in the volatile city of Alexandria and protecting the Empire’s southern border in Koptos, near Luxor. In addition, one member portrays a Greek-Egyptian physician under Legion contract, with contemporary medical tools. The group presents at military timeline/living history events, the Worcester Art Museum, schools, and colleges; recently at archaeology fairs and lectures sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America; and formerly at the Higgins Armory Museum.
Benjamin Levy has been a science fiction fan for most of his life. He went to his first science fiction convention when he was 10 years old. He has been involved with Arisia since its inception. In the past he has worked for Arisia as a gopher, Dealers Liaison, Fixed Functions (Exhibits) Division Head, and Assistant Con Chair. Currently, he is the Arisia Corporate Treasurer and an Assistant Con Chair for A15.
Megan Lewis is a librarian at a research library and archives located in a museum, dealing with researchers from all over the world and all levels of education. She has a great fondness for biographical dictionaries. Megan’s attended Arisia for over a decade and has previously worked Art Show. This is her first year doing a panel (but is still working Art Show—come buy some art!). She possesses interests in a diverse number including modern architecture preservation, crocheting and genealogists.
Brian Liberge is a father of one, living in Boston, MA. As a freelancer he’s worked with Kobold Press, Raging Swan Press, Gygax Magazine and the Gamer Assembly. He loves home-brewed ideas, is honest to a fault, and loves converting content between systems. Additionally he has backgrounds in Theatre Arts and Technology which often comes up in the way he works and his writing. Currently he’s the owner and Creative Director of Beer Star Games, the makes of Pulp! the RPG and BEARD! the Card Game.
Gordon Linzner is founder and editor emeritus of Space and Time Magazine; author of several novels and scores of short stories; freelance editor; licensed New York City tour guide; and front man for Saboteur Tiger blues band.
Adam Lipkin is a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, covering science fiction, fantasy, horror, and young adult books. He has written reviews for a number of publications, including The Green Man Review and Rambles. He wrote the horror column, “Fear Factor,” for Bookslut, and was also the animation columnist for SMRT-TV.com. He has published hundreds of horror movie reviews at his own blog, http://yendi.livejournal.com, and has also published essays in Salem Press’s Critical Survey of Graphic Novels. By day, he works as an Associate Director of Academic Technology at a top-35 university. Adam lives in the suburbs of Boston with his wife, daughter, and two moderately psychotic felines.
Shira Lipkin has managed to convince Strange Horizons, Stone Telling, Clockwork Phoenix 4, Interfictions 2, Apex Magazine, and other otherwise-sensible magazines and anthologies to publish her work; two of her stories have been recognized as Million Writers Award Notable Stories, and she has won the Rhysling Award for best short poem. She co-edits speculative poetry magazine Liminality with Mat Joiner. Her cats are bigger than her dog.
Barry B. Longyear is the first writer to win the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, all in the same year. In addition to his acclaimed Enemy Mine series, his works include the Circus World series, the Infinity Hold series, and novels ranging from Sea of Glass to The God Box, as well as his much praised Science-fiction Writer’s Workshop-I and the latest, The Write Stuff. His recent works include the award-winning collection Jaggers & Shad: ABC is for Artificial Beings Crimes, Dark Corners, his hardest hitting collection of stories; and the Joe Torio Mystery Series: The Hangman’s Son, Just Enough Rope, and Rope Paper Scissors published as three books: Rope, Paper, and Scissors. He is currently working on his magnum opus, a political/spy/coming of age science fiction thriller titled: The War Whisperer. A complete list of his awards, books and short stories and other writings is available on his website, http://www.barrylongyear.com/.
James Douglas Macdonald was born in White Plains, New York, the second of three children of W. Douglas Macdonald, a chemical engineer, and Margaret E. Macdonald, a professional artist. After leaving the University of Rochester, where he majored in Medieval Studies, he served in the U. S. Navy. Macdonald left the Navy in 1988 in order to pursue writing full-time. Since then he has lived with his wife and co-author, Debra Doyle, in a big 19th-Century house in Colebrook, New Hampshire, where they write science fiction and fantasy for children, teenagers, and adults. From 1991 through 1993, as Yog Sysop, he ran the Science Fiction and Fantasy RoundTable on the GEnie computer network; after the death of GEnie, he was the managing sysop for SFF-Net. These days, when not writing novels or running as an EMT with the local ambulance squad, he blogs at Absolute Write.com and Making Light.
Business Director for the past 20 plus years of The Teseracte Players of Boston, New England’s Premier Traveling Shadowcast, performing The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and others. Webpage: teseracte.com. Teseracte is always available for charity and fund raising events, and Glenn MacWilliams is the General Manager of Magic Dragon Comics in Arlington MA, the place for new comics.
Tegan Mannino—Librarian, techie, blogger, bookworm, and all around geek.
Peter Maranci is founder and editor of the Interregnum RPG APA (RIP). Winner of several amateur video prizes at Arisia. Publisher of “Pete’s RuneQuest & Roleplaying!” (www.runequest.org/rq.htm), one of the oldest RPG sites online. Longtime Arisia panelist. Sold a story to a semi-pro mag long ago, but it folded before publishing it (or paying for it, unfortunately). Once boasted that he could do a panel on ear wax and make it interesting. Luckily Arisia hasn’t tested that. :D
Joy Marchand holds a B.A. in Classical Studies from the University of the Pacific. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts, where she enjoys giving tourists directions, obsessively playing Ingress, throwing splendid dinner parties, and reading a ton of books on cooking, mindfulness, and leadership. Joy’s poems and short stories have been featured in Interzone, Talebones, Apex, Writers of the Future XX, Polyphony 5, and Interfictions, among others. Joy currently volunteers as an associate editor for Shimmer, a small magazine packed with quality short speculative fiction and stunning artwork.
Megan S. Markland is a Pagan Witch who follows a Celtic Reconstructionist path. She is also: a feminist; writer; reader; music lover; big sister; aunt; polyamorist; queer; and, of course, a big nerd. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 2004, where she majored in English and Medieval Studies; she is also a recovering law student with a taste for libraries, and she hopes to wield Mjolnir when she is worthy. Megan has a variety of tastes in all aspects of life and likes to document her adventures whenever possible. She wishes she could play the cello, but she can make a mean baklava. If Star Trek: TNG frightens you, she will strive to change your mind. Megan has been known to geek out about anything from the The Canterbury Tales to German Expressionist films to MST3K to Russian composers to Roman history. She is still looking for the TARDIS...
Daniel Marsh is a member of the Society of Creative Anarchism (as Grim the Skald); even his wife calls him “Grim,” so there’s that. He considers himself knowledgeable in the following things, in order of how much he knows: Norse Poetry, Norse Culture, Alliterative Poetry in general (particularly Old English and 14th Century), Medieval costuming, Medieval combat, and Victorian costuming. Seriously, if you want to know about alliterative poetry, he’ll talk your ear off. He also has been gaming off and on since his parents gave him something called “Dungeons and Dragons” in a bright red-pink-purple box when he was ten.
Shelley Marsh—Rocket scientist by day; cook, knitter, spinner, seamstress, actress, model, singer, and weaver by night. Yes, she sleeps; she just has a messy house.
David Marshall has been making and teaching comics for more than 20 years. Published credits include Fantagraphics Books, SpiderBaby Graphix, FantaCo Enterprises, The Boston Comics Roundtable and Riverbird Studios. Check out his free web comics on Inky Stories (www.inkystories.com). David’s latest works “Enter...General Zaq!” and “The World’s Slowest Foot Chase” debuted this year at Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo and New York ComiCon. Art of the Comic Book (www.artofthecomicbook.com) is his college-level studio workshop for making comics with traditional ink-on-paper media. He frequently participates in 24-Hour Comics Day, Free Comic Book Day, Arisia, Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo and Boston ComicCon. David also started the new Doctor Who group “TARDIS Regenerated”.
B. Diane Martin began reading science fiction at age nine, and later that same year she asked for her first telescope. She has a law degree, is a founder of several companies, and has advised start-ups in software, gaming, holography, and other technology areas. Diane is extremely honored to be a World Fantasy finalist (Special Award—Non-Professional) for her work with Readercon. Diane (a/k/a She Who Must Be Obeyed) lives with her husband, David G. Shaw, and their son Miles (He Who Will Not Be Ignored) in a Somerville, MA, Victorian home filled with books, games, music, anime, and cookware.
Gail Z. Martin is the author of the new epic fantasy War of Shadows (Orbit Books), the Deadly Curiosities new urban fantasy series set in Charleston, SC (new book November 2015 Solaris Books), and Iron and Blood: The Jake Desmet Adventures a new Steampunk series (July 2015, Solaris Books) co-authored with Larry N. Martin. She is also author of Ice Forged and Reign of Ash in The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, The Chronicles of The Necromancer series (The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven & Dark Lady’s Chosen) from Solaris Books and The Fallen Kings Cycle (The Sworn and The Dread) from Orbit Books. Gail writes two series of ebook short stories: The Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures and the Deadly Curiosities Adventures. Find her at www.AscendantKingdoms.com, on Twitter @GailZMartin, on Facebook.com/WinterKingdoms, at DisquietingVisions.com blog and GhostInTheMachinePodcast.com, on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/GailZMartin and free excerpts on Wattpad http://wattpad.com/GailZMartin.
Donna Martinez is a freelance artist originally from New Mexico and has been a resident of Boston for 15 years. Donna is also a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable, contributing stories to Inbound, Hellbound, The Greatest Comics Anthology of All Time, and issues #1 and #3 of In A Single Bound. She is presently happily married to fellow Round Table writer/cartoonist Joey Peters.
Milo Martinez is a semi-professional costumer living in Cambridge. His interests include leather working, costuming technology, craftwork (armor, casting, etc), and villainy. An avid maker since childhood, he uses mixed medias and unconventional approaches to solve costuming challenges.
Marlin May—I’m no scientist, but I’ve consumed a steady diet of science books/media as long as I can recall. The first book I remember reading was Man in Space about Mercury 7. My favorite kids’ t.v. show? Mr. Wizard. Lately I’ve been exploring the promise/problems of transhumanism/post-humanism. I’ve been reading/watching genre fiction a long, long time. My first convention was in Feb. 1979; a tiny gathering in Southern California called “Science Fiction Weekend.” I wandered into a room where they were screening episodes of Commando Cody. I was transfixed, hooked, captured... doomed. Since then I’ve attended many a Westercon, Worldcon, NASFic, Galacticon, Gaylaxicon, Balticon, Equicon, Filmcon, Albacon, Fantasmacon, Boskone and Arisia.
Michael McAfee is an actor, writer, director and managing director for the Post Meridian Radio Players. His poetry has appeared in Space and Time Magazine and Flying Higher. He has been on panels dealing with a variety of topics at Arisia and other conventions since the mid-1990s, including running flirting workshops. He has been active in all aspects of fandom since 1990, particularly in the SCA, LARPing and filking. Feel free to talk with him about future projects.
Elizabeth McCoy has been an editor and writer for Steve Jackson Games, and has recently branched out into original fiction—mostly self-published. Her most recent work is “Blackest Before the Dawn,” a story about First Contact between alien races, in the What Happens Next anthology published by Furplanet Productions. She has also written a fantasy duology with a romance plot, Herb-Witch and Herb-Wife, and the science fiction Queen of Roses, reviewed in Analog (Sep. 2014). She is working with a layout person for her science fiction. She still lives in the Frozen Wastelands of NH, with a spouse, a kid, and various cats.
Dennis McCunney is a longtime SF fan, and has been helping to run cons like Arisia since the 1970’s. For the twelve years he was been a member of Arisia’s Hotel Liaison Staff, and for six of those years he edited and designed the Arisia Souvenir Book. He’s been involved on one level or another with Arisia, Capclave, Lunacon, Philcon, WorldCon, and World Fantasy, and in the process has come to know a lot of the folks working professionally in SF. When he isn’t working on cons he has variously been a graphic designer, iron worker, museum exhibit builder, alternative energy analyst, jr. financial analyst, system/network/telecom administrator, and web journalist and moderator. He currently spends too much time on Google+.
John G. McDaid’s fiction has appeared in Asimov’s and F&SF. He attended Clarion in 1993 and sold his first story, the Sturgeon Award-winning “Jigoku no mokushiroku”, in 1995. A webmaster by day, he lives in Portsmouth, RI where he juggles writing, work, and citizen journalism. For downloads and blog visit http://harddeadlines.com.
Craig R McDonough—Associated with running/helping F/SF conventions in the Boston area for [mumble] years, I’ve learned the only way to ensure you can actually see the program items you are interested in is to get scheduled onto them. Especially since I seem constitutionally unable to attend a con without volunteering. Professionally a Computing Dinosaur (read: primarily a mainframe developer) for almost as long as I’ve been working on cons, and lay worship leader in the Episcopal Church (like the Roman Catholic church, but without the incense, and only about 10% of the guilt).
Meghan McGinley
Amos Meeks
James Meickle is a self-taught programmer into all kinds of nerdery, but with a particular love for crushingly difficult indie roguelikes. His professional life has been almost as weird as him: working on state-level criminal justice and drug policy, studying academic political psychology, building the Romney campaign’s website (where he had the longest hair), and providing web performance expertise to top companies. When he’s at his (poly, kinky, queer) home in Somerville, he rules over the kitchen with an iron fist.
Daniel Miller is a local attorney, gamer, comics aficionado, and SF/F fan (not necessarily in that order) who keeps coming back to Arisia because he enjoys it. He has been “living this lifestyle” since high school, and lives it in eastern Massachusetts. He recently completed his first manuscript, even if it is utterly unpublishable at the moment, though he recognizes that fiction is perhaps not his strong suit. He continues to like alternate histories, humorous SF/F, and rollicking good adventures with good worldbuilding. He once tickled a man in Reno just to watch him laugh, turned the tap dance into his crusade, and is always looking to proselytize the uninitiated into the worlds of assorted geekery. (Or, at least get them to come to a team trivia event. Either way.)
Mark Millman is a member of the Salem Zouaves/Salem Trayned Band military re-enactment unit, which portrays citizen militias of the 1630s and the early 1860s, and of the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers, New England’s premier vintage-dance company, which performs the social dances of the Federal, Civil War, Gilded Age, Ragtime, and Roaring Twenties eras. Both groups’ members make their own historically accurate clothing and study and perform period movement disciplines. He is also the former demonstration co-ordinator and head of historical-combat instruction at the Higgins Armory Museum, and the Steward and a founding member of the Higgins Armory Sword Guild. In addition, he is an experienced fight choreographer, both for the theater and for historical martial-arts demonstrations, and a long-time modern fencer and practitioner of Asian martial arts.
Troy Minkowsky is a published comicbook writer, stand up comedian, and director. His current project is a web-series “Super Life” for which he is a writer, director, and producer for Rhino Crate productions.
Josephine Monreal
Richard Moore
Dan Morris was born June 3rd, 1982. He grew up in Charlotte, NC on a steady diet of comic books, loud music, and Legend of Zelda games. He earned a degree from Savannah College of Art and Design. It was there that he met his future wife Christa Newman who continues to encourage him to just be him. Today, he continues to enjoy comics, loud music, and Legend of Zelda games. To date he’s made several self-published mini comics and continues to make comics in his spare time.
Sarah “Tashari” Morrison is an aspiring fantasy and children’s book illustrator, currently building up her portfolio. In her “spare time” she sews gowns with hoop skirts. Find her work at Tashari.Org.
Lee Moyer is an American painter, illustrator, graphic designer, Web designer, and comic book painter and designer. Lee Moyer began his initial painting training using the mediums of watercolor and oils. In 1989, he expanded into the digital art realm, which has become his premiere medium as a painter and illustrator. While building his freelance career and expanding his skill set, he worked for ten years as a Docent & Naturalist Illustrator at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Moyer considers his primary influences to be Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Arts & Crafts, propaganda art, and the Pre-Raphaelites. His website is: www.leemoyer.com
John P. Murphy is a short fiction writer and engineer living in southern New Hampshire. He has a PhD in robotics and currently works in the field of network security. His short fiction has appeared in markets including Nature, Crossed Genres, and the Drabblecast, and his SF/mystery novella Claudius Rex was published in 2014.
Maddy Myers is a freelance video game critic. She currently writes a biweekly column as well as game reviews for Paste Magazine. She previously worked as a games columnist, features writer, and web producer for the Boston Phoenix, and her writing about video games has also appeared at re/Action, Gameranx.com, the Border House, and Kill Screen. She also plays keytar and sings in a nerdcore pop rock band called the Robot Knights.
Lawrence (Larry) Nelson, known as LORDLNYC online, is a long time member of the leather/queer/poly communities as well as a longtime queer/kinky/poly rights activist. He attended his first science fiction convention (Lunacon) in 1984 where he went on to help run gaming from 1991–2003. In 2006 he attended his first Arisia where he put in over 30 hours helping out in the con suite. In 2007 he put his longtime activism to good use and started doing panels at Arisia, Lunacon, and The Eulenspiegel Society (TES) [a major leather group in NYC]. He lives in Queens, NYC where he runs the Queens BDSM group and, when he can, their munch (which he started).
Resa Nelson’s newest novel is All Of Us Were Sophie, a science fiction murder mystery. She is the author of the Dragonslayer series, a 4-book series based on two short stories published in Science Fiction Age, the first of which ranked 2nd in that magazine’s first Readers Top Ten Poll. The Dragonslayer’s Sword (Book 1) was Nominated for the Nebula Award and was an EPPIE Award Finalist for Best Fantasy Novel. Nelson also has a standalone novel about a modern-day society based on ancient Egypt called Our Lady of the Absolute. Her short fiction has been published in Fantasy Magazine, Paradox, Brutarian Quarterly, Science Fiction Age, Aboriginal SF, and many anthologies. Nelson is a graduate of the Clarion Workshop. She has also sold over 200 magazine articles. She was the TV/movie columnist for Realms of Fantasy for 13 years. Visit her website at http://www.resanelson.com and follow her on Twitter @ResaNelson..
Kate Nepveu was born in South Korea and raised in New England. She now lives in upstate New York where she is practicing law, raising a family, and (in her copious free time) writing at her Dreamwidth account (kate_nepveu), a booklog (steelypips.org/weblog), and at Tor.com, where she is presently re-reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
Benjamin Newman has been filking since his college friends dragged him to his first convention his freshman year at Swarthmore. Since then, he has written over 200 songs on a wide range of topics, including SF and fantasy, science, computers, and religion, both singly and in various whimsical juxtapositions. Ben has also organized filk programming for Philcon, Concertino, and Pi-con.
Christa Newman received a Bachelors in Fine Arts for Animation from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2009. Along with her love of animation, she has been a member for the costuming community since 2002 as Sweet-Pea. Completing over 100 costumes for herself and others in her 9 years of participating in the hobby, she has also judged craftsmanship for local conventions in the past few years. After graduation she has become a professional catalog photographer and also branched out into costume photography using her film degree to create images with narrative depth.
Joshua A.C. Newman is the publisher of the literary SF roleplaying games, Shock:Social Science Fiction and Shock:Human Contact, as well as Mobile Frame Zero, the tabletop wargame of tiny giant LEGO robots. He is an avid proponent of independent media, and produces his own Patreon-funded speculative fiction on his blog, ‘xenoglyph’, visible at glyphpress.com.
Abby Noyce is a cognitive neuroscientist, a knitter, and a theatre geek.
David Nurenberg, Ph.D. just does too much stuff. He’s a freelance writer for White Wolf, a self-published novelist, a high school English teacher and an occasional adjunct professor. That explains all the twitching. He’s been a GM for 24 years, which explains the severe twitching. He has traveled to over 30 countries and runs two international exchange programs, which explains how he can twitch in several languages. Do not stare directly at David, as contents are under pressure and may detonate, causing minor to moderate injuries. But David comes in peace, really—at least, that’s what he’ll insist in court.
Elizabeth O’Malley is part of FanCons.com/AnimeCons.com, the leading web site dedicated to news and information about conventions, contributing to both their website and weekly podcast, AnimeCons TV. She is also the past Vice President of the Northern Lights chapter of the International Costumers Guild.
Adrienne J. Odasso’s poetry has appeared in a number of strange and wonderful publications, including Sybil’s Garage, Mythic Delirium, Jabberwocky, Cabinet des Fées, Midnight Echo, Not One of Us, Dreams & Nightmares, Goblin Fruit, Strange Horizons, Stone Telling, Farrago’s Wainscot, Through the Gate, Liminality, inkscrawl, and Battersea Review. Her début collection, Lost Books (Flipped Eye Publishing, 2010), was nominated for the 2010 London New Poetry Award and for the 2011 Forward Prize, and was also a finalist for the 2011 People’s Book Prize. Her second collection with Flipped Eye, The Dishonesty of Dreams, was released in August of 2014. Her two chapbooks, Devil’s Road Down and Wanderlust, are available from Maverick Duck Press. She holds degrees from Wellesley College and the University of York (UK). She currently lives in Boston with her partner and a tank full of inquisitive freshwater fish. You can find her online at ajodasso.livejournal.com (and on Twitter under the same name).
Jennifer Old-d’Entremont is an hobbyist costumer with a taste for recreating both sci-fi/fantasy characters as well as historical and ethnic dress. A medical technologist by day, it’s the fannish endeavors that make life more fun. She’s never read the instruction manual that came with the sewing machine and can’t make herself follow the instructions of a pattern or recipe to save her life. There’s also a very unhealthy obsession with puff paint, but we don’t talk about that. Jennifer lives in Kansas City with her spousal unit and furry, four-legged children.
Daniel José Older is the author of the upcoming Young Adult novel Shadowshaper (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2015) and the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series, which begins in January 2015 with Half-Resurrection Blues from Penguin’s Roc imprint. Publishers Weekly hailed him as a “rising star of the genre” after the publication of his debut ghost noir collection, Salsa Nocturna. He co-edited the anthology Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History and guest edited the music issue of Crossed Genres. You can find his thoughts on writing, read dispatches from his decade-long career as an NYC paramedic and hear his music atghoststar.net/ and @djolder on twitter.
David Olsen is an all-around geek who will happily talk your ear off about stories and games. As such, he fell in love with RPGs upon receiving the Dungeons & Dragons red box for Christmas at the age of nine. Since then, he’s campaigned in dozens of worlds and systems, including GMing a few LARPs over the past 15 years. He’s done game testing for various independent companies, including Firehose Games and Choice Of Games and even voice acting work for Reactive Studios. You can catch him as a background actor in various feature films or as the fourth season winner of “Beauty and the Geek.”
Ken Olum is a research professor in the Tufts Institute of Cosmology, where he studies cosmic strings, the possibility of time travel in general relativity, and philosophical issues in cosmology. He lives in Sharon, MA with his partners, Valerie White and Judy Anderson, and his children, Jocelyn and Perry.
What if you could re-live the experience of reading a book or watching a show for the first time? Mark Oshiro provides just such a thing on a daily basis on Mark Reads and Mark Watches, where he chronicles his unspoiled journey through various series. Since 2009, Mark has been subjecting himself to the emotional journey that one takes when they enter a fictional world for the first time. He mixes textual analysis, confessional blogging, and humor to analyze fiction. Since its inception, Mark has covered series such as Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, The Lord of the Rings, and genre favorites like Buffy/Angel, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Battlestar Galactica, and Veronica Mars. All of this earned Mark a Hugo nomination in the Fan Writer category in 2013 and 2014, and he has no plans on stopping. Somehow, he’s also writing the first book in a YA trilogy set in a pre-dystopian world, and he’s still determined to fulfill a lifelong goal in the process: to pet every dog ever.
Suzanne Palmer is an SF/F author who is a regular contributor to Asimov’s and Interzone, and an artist of occasional, impractically large sculpture. She is a moderator on Absolute Write and an alumna & former staff member of the Viable Paradise writer’s workshop.
Jim Paradis is a Certified Picture Framer and owner of Baldwin Hill Art & Framing in Natick, MA. His wife, Tamu, is an artist who has exhibited at many conventions including Arisia and Boskone; Jim did most of the framing for those shows. After working the art show for Noreascon 4, he decided that he would like to make picture framing a career. He has since framed a wide variety of art and objects including sports jerseys, archaelogical artifacts, surgical instruments, and Vise-Grips just to name a few. His gallery is also the current representative of the fine art works of Richard M. Powers.
Carole Parker’s detail focus works well in her more than 30-year publications career including technical writing and technical editing, as well as her interests in costuming, dyeing, and wearable art. She has competed in masquerades and won numerous workmanship awards for her dyework. Carole likes combining traditional and contemporary techniques to attain unusual results. She has worked behind the scenes at local, regional, Worldcon, and Costume-Con masquerades since 1982, was a Workmanship Judge at the 2012 Worldcon, Chicon7, and has served on several concoms. In 2012, Carole had five hand-dyed scarves in the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles High Fiber exhibit.
Jennifer Pelland is a Boston-area science fiction writer, bellydancer, and occasional radio theater performer. She’s a two-time Nebula finalist for her short fiction, and her collection Unwelcome Bodies and novel Machine are available from Apex Publications. To learn more about her writing: www.jenniferpelland.com, and keep track of her bellydance performances at www.facebook.com/ziadances.
A longtime GM, participating and running games since 1978, including long-running games, Percival has worked with many table-top and LARP systems over the years. On the cutting edge of computer research, he has been involved with the development of computers from the old Mainframe days through the micro-embedded systems of today. He is also a longtime presenter and kinkster; practicing for almost 40 years and teaching for almost a quarter century, both nationally and internationally. He is involved in the local BDSM group NELA (http://www.nelaonline.org) as Program and Education Director. Want to learn more? Ask him.
A Disney obsessed, Harry Potter loving, sassy feminist, Melissa Perreira-Andrews hails from the North Shore where is she a cog in the corporate machine. She is a member of the Teseracte Players of Boston (her found family), playing multiple roles in a variety of productions. In addition to shadow casting, Melissa volunteers for a leadership conference for high school girls where she teaches a week long course on feminism and the portrayal of women in various forms of media.
Israel Peskowitz (Izzy) is a professional photographer, proficient plumber, and amateur fan.
Joey Peters is a writer, cartoonist and beauty contest champion from Boston. His work has appeared in “In a Single Bound”, the Boston Phoenix, Leftovers of the Living Dead, Inbound: Comics from Boston and all across the internet. Visit his website at tacolicious.net
Jessa Phillips is Editor-in-Chief of Goodtobeageek.com, a website which indulges in all manner of geek. Articles penned by Ms. Phillips have been featured on Rocket Llama, Game Tyrant, Geek Girls Network, Action Flick Chick, Hour 42 and SciFi Mafia. In addition to her editorial duties, Ms. Phillips is also Broadcasting Director of the Good To Be A Geek Network with a number of podcasts to her credit, including Good To Be A Gamer, a video game news show which she also co-hosts. She has also been a guest on many other podcasts, including The Earth Station One podcast and RevolutionSF RevCast. Ms. Phillips has also appeared on panels at other science fiction and gaming conventions, lending her expertise in a myriad of topics from B movies to video games to web entertainment. Recently, Ms. Phillips was honored to judge the Video Games category for the 2014 Geekie Awards.
Steve E Popkes, his wife, son, dog and cat breed turtles on two acres in Massachusetts.
Dr. James Prego is a naturopathic doctor from Long Island, NY. Dr. Prego is a recipient of the NYANP’s Physician of the Year award. He is an adjunct professor of Biology at Molly College and Touro College School of Health Sciences. Dr. Prego is a longtime fan of science fiction and enjoys discussing xenobiology, health in space, life extension, fusions of biology and technology, how natural ways of healing fit in a sci-fi/high-tech world, and many other topics both science related and non-science related. He is the New York Delegate to the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, and spent 6 years as a board member of the New York Association of Naturopathic Physicians. Dr. Prego has given talks, written articles, and been a guest on radio and television shows, discussing naturopathic medicine, children’s health, detoxification, and other health-related topics. He also has interests in acting/shadowcasting, EMT volunteering, gaming, and more.
Jennifer Allis Provost is a native New Englander who lives in a sprawling colonial along with her beautiful and precocious twins, a dog that thinks she’s a kangaroo, a parrot, a junkyard cat, and a wonderful husband who never forgets to buy ice cream. As a child, she read anything and everything she could get her hands on, including a set of encyclopedias, but fantasy was always her favorite. She spends her days drinking vast amounts of coffee, arguing with her computer, and avoiding any and all domestic behavior. Follower her on Twitter @parthalan or visit her home on the web: http://jenniferallisprovost.wordpress.com
Psyche Corporation is a fairytale cyber/steampunk band fronted by a former Ladies of Steampunk model and programmer who combines dance with a powerhouse vocal range, while clad in an improbably wasp-waisted Victorian corset. The band is named after a dream manufacture group from a future where neural implants allow people to download dreams from the Internet. Songs deal in dystopian themes as well as more lighthearted filk works, such as “Perl-Operated Boy”. The musical style spans genres of trip-hop, electro-rock, and world music; a recent song has mixed tribal singing with classical piano while embedding poliovirus DNA into its percussion.
Antonia Pugliese is a girl of many talents. She once went for 125 days of school wearing a different costume each day and never repeating. She has costumed several productions for the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert & Sullivan Players and other theater groups, demonstrates 18th smallsword with the Higgins Museum Sword Guild, and teaches vintage dance and performs with the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers.
Barbara M Pugliese is a historian of both clothing and dance. She is Artistic Director of the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers.She has taught in the US, England, Denmark and Austria.
Julia Pugliese is a college student with a love for costuming, superheroes, and alternative street fashions.
Most commonly known in fandom and elsewhere as Dr. Karen, Karen Purcell DVM has been active in veterinary medicine since her early teens. Sometime during her unending college years, she went to her first convention and her spare time became non-existent. Busy in past years with Masquerade, Costuming, and the Art Show. Despite only a few months in Raleigh, NC, she has already met the local Honor Harrington fan club and attended their convention, as well as helping out with Balticon. This year she is helping out in programming.
Tori Queeno is the founder and President of the Boston Whovians, a Boston-based Doctor Who fangroup boasting over 1,600 members that hosts meetups and photoshoots around the New England area. Tori is a recently-college-graduated “real adult” aspiring to write and costume for a living. In the meantime, Tori sells books and works frantically to make the Boston Whovians an entity of somewhat-organized chaos with love and support from a Tenth Doctor/Boyfriend and cats.
Richard Ralston has been a fan of science fiction and anime since the late 60’s. Rick has been staffing conventions the past 10 years on the local and regional level. Rick is also the organizer of the local anime group in Albany, NY. Rick brings a unique point of view to the fandom community.
Nalin A. Ratnayake is a former NASA propulsion engineer turned science teacher and fiction writer. He holds a B.S.E. and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering and has published 11 peer-reviewed papers on supersonic airbreathing propulsion, environmentally responsible aviation technologies, and advanced access-to-space systems. Nalin also holds an M.Ed. and currently teaches Physics and Special Education Biology at an urban public high school in Boston. He is triple-licensed as an educator: in Physics, English as a Second Language / Sheltered English Immersion, and Teaching Students with Moderate Learning Disabilities. Nalin writes fiction as N.A. Ratnayake. His speculative fiction has appeared in Crossed Genres Magazine as well as the post-colonial SF anthology We See A Different Frontier. His current project is a novel exploring the effects of corporate control on the future of space colonization.
Victor Raymond PhD is a longtime SF&F reader and fan, and currently serves as a board member of the Carl Brandon Society and the Tekumel Foundation. In the past, he has served as President of the Interstitial Arts Foundation, Chair of WisCon 28, Co-Chair of WisCon 33, and Executive Committee member of Minicon 28 and 33. A professional sociologist, he is a member of the Arts & Sciences faculty of Madison College in Madison, Wisconsin.
Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert writes speculative fiction from her little corner of Massachusetts. Her poetry has been published in The Wayfarer: A Journal of Contemplative Literature, Tales of the Zombie War, Strong Verse, Eternal Haunted Summer and Pagan Edge. Her first published short story “Essie” appeared in Luna Station Quarterly, and her first book of poetry was published November 2013. Her current WIP is a contemporary fantasy novel. She’s the Program Coordinator for Open Spirit, a multi-faith wellness center. Suzanne is blessed with a tolerant husband, two mischievous black cats, and two amazing kids. She has degrees in Communication and Sociology, and is a lifelong scifi fan and science geek. Find her online: http://suzannereynoldsalpert.blogspot.com/
A triple threat (at least to himself), as a fan, sometime smof, and kinkster, Mark W. Richards got started early, reading SF and fantasy as soon as he could reach the bookshelf (which admittedly wasn’t very high). He started going to cons as soon as he was able (1978), after hearing of them, and way too soon found himself working on them as well. Some years later (early 90s), he discovered kinkdom, both by itself and where it crossed over with fandom. He’s been on the committees for both conventions and kink events, as well as served on the boards of organizations in both milieus. He’s equally comfortable discussing literary science fiction and fantasy, the classics of the field, fanzines, kink activism, and sexual politics... preferably over a couple of pints or some good single malt. Doing it in front of an audience, starting at Arisia 2014, has been an interesting experience which he’s looking forward to repeating.
Santiago Rivas is currently celebrating 30 years as a sci-fi enthusiast, ever since his exposure to works like Tron, Empire Strikes Back, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. However, it was his time at MIT that he became an avid film, theatre, and gamer geek. He has been involved with the Theatre@First acting troupe for over seven years and the Heinlein Society Naughty Nurses for five years. In his copious spare time, when he’s not blogging, acting, writing short stories, writing one-act plays involving lightsabers, spending time with his Fabulous Redheaded wife, raising their advanced male prototype, and going out with hot Goths, he takes every opportunity to indulge in RPGs, Steve Jackson/Rio Grande games, and anything related to Star Wars, Star Trek or Final Fantasy.
Nicole Robinson has been awarded the title of Mega Awesome Super Mom by a group of local burners. While mothering three fabulous young people, she provides incredible massage therapy services, bakes and cooks divinely, preserves the local harvest, dances, hula hoops, sings like an angel, sews, reads an abundant amount of sci-fi, fantasy, and cooking books, and has even won a fake beard contest. Nicole is happily married to the equally awesome Forest Handford, winner of the Mr. BeardFly contest and in the running for the Best Dad Ever award.
Jimmie Rodgers
Margaret Ronald is the author of Spiral Hunt, Wild Hunt, and Soul Hunt, as well as a number of short stories. Originally from rural Indiana, she now lives outside Boston.
Ian Cooper Rose is the Chairperson of the 2012 Transcending Boundaries Conference. He is a bi, poly, kinky activist focusing on the education within these communities and the public. Ian currently lives as part of a kinky, poly quad in Springfield, MA where they are discovering on how to run a complex household in the process.
Noel Rosenberg has been running conventions for more years than not. He has worked on several major regionals, including Philcon and Balticon, as well as Gaylaxicon, several gaming conventions, and a couple of Worldcons. Arisia is his home convention. Proving he has no friends, he has worked on every Arisia since ’90, filled almost every division head position at least once, held several officer positions in Arisia Corporate, and in a past life was the Conchair. He also chaired the Corporate Hotel Search Committee, and has negotiated hotel contracts for a few conventions.
A Joseph Ross has been in fandom since the 1960’s. In 1964, he founded the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) Science Fiction Society, then later became a member of MITSFS and NESFA, serving as Vice President of NESFA from 1970–72. He edited Volume I of the NESFA Hymnal in the late 1970’s. He was Clerk of Arisia, Incorporated from 1990–92 and President from 1992–94. He is a practicing attorney and figures that if he practices long enough, he may get good at it.
Lauren M. Roy started out as an independent bookseller, moved on to work for a publisher (where she sells books to independent bookstores), and is completing her bookselling hat trick as an author. She is also a freelance writer for tabletop role-playing games. Lauren lives in southeastern Massachusetts with her husband, their cats, and the ghosts of houseplants she forgets to water. She is a graduate of Viable Paradise, the science fiction and fantasy writers’ workshop. Her first novel, Night Owls, was published by Ace in February 2014.
Rubi—Film student at Bard College, currently working on mockumentary about the cursed production of a superhero-themed musical. Writes film and culture articles for the-lfb.com/authors/rbaron. Previously ran anime programming at Boskone and regularly runs panels at Anime Boston.
Don Sakers was launched the same month as Sputnik One, so it was perhaps inevitable that he should become a science fiction writer. A Navy brat by birth, he spent his childhood in such far-off lands as Japan, Scotland, Hawaii, and California. In California, rather like a latter-day Mowgli, he was raised by dogs. As a writer and editor, he has explored the thoughts of sapient trees, brought ghosts to life, and beaten the “Cold Equations” scenario. In 2009, Don took up the position of book reviewer for Analog Science Fiction & Fact, where he writes the “Reference Library” column in every issue.
Kiini Ibura Salaam is an award-winning writer, painter, and traveler from New Orleans, Louisiana. Kiini’s work is rooted in eroticism, speculative events, and women’s perspectives. Co-winner of the 2012 James Tiptree Jr. Award, her book Ancient, Ancient collects sensual tales of the fantastic, the dark, and the magical. Her short fiction has been anthologized in such collections as Dark Matter, Mojo: Conjure Stories, and Dark Eros. Her nonfiction has been published in Ms. Magazine, Essence magazine, and Utne Reader. She’s the author of two ebooks (“On the Psychology of Writing” and “On the Struggle to Self-Promote”) that chronicle the ups and downs of the writing life. You can learn more about her at www.kiiniibura.com.
The Salem Light Infantry, an elite militia company from Salem, Massachusetts, adopted Zouave dress and drill, following the example of Elmer Ellsworth’s U.S. Zouave Cadets, in April, 1861. Like the original unit, the reconstructed Salem Zouaves specialize in historically accurate Civil War-era precision manual-of-arms drill and the use of the bayonet, and add military swordplay to their repertoire. They wear historically accurate reproduction uniforms, made mostly by the individual unit members. Their other incarnation is as the Salem Trayned Band.
The Salem Trayned Band reconstructs the militia of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in its earliest years, from its description in Massachusetts Bay Company documents of 1629 to its appearance at the first regimental-strength muster in North America, on what is now Salem Common, in 1637. The Trayned Band specialize in English pike-and-shot tactics of the first half of the seventeenth century, using full-size, sixteen-and-a-half-foot long reproduction pikes, and in early seventeenth-century English swordplay. They wear period clothing. Their other incarnation is as the Salem Light Infantry (Salem Zouaves).
Carol Salemi costumes at the Master level and has been involved in all aspects of costuming for over 30 years, trying her hand at everything from teaching, creating, and competing to judging and masquerade directing. Each competition costume usually involves some new, fun, or challenging technique that keeps it fresh. While best known for Media recreations and Native American clothing, her most recent work can be seen on “My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding”. Carol has enjoyed working as a medical massage therapist for 24 years, works part time for Regal Cinemas, Disney/Mosaic and Sondra Celli Designs with seasonal jobs in the Haunt Industry. She now has a growing interest in Steampunk accessories and fashion...so check out her jewelry in the art show!
Caelyn Sandel is an author and narrative designer born and raised in the DC area who now lives in Malden in spite of the weather and drivers. She has been writing interactive literature for almost two decades, but only joined the industry professionally four and a half years ago. She is a strident intersectional feminist and social justice warrior, and strongly advocates using video games to raise awareness of societal issues. She recently ran the Ruin Jam game jam to celebrate the destruction of all good video games forever, and launched her video game website, inurashii.xyz.
Writer and screenwriter, Steve Sawicki’s short fiction has been featured in Future Washington, Transversions, and Electric Velocipide, and a novella in Absolute Magnitude. Reviewer of books, movies, and small press, and the Creator of the Damn Aliens, Steve currently has two screenplays under option and negotiating a reality television series with production companies. His reviews appear in SFRevu and Gumshoe and in the new Fantastic Stories of the Imagination.
Micah Schneider joined the Programming Staff for Arisia six years ago. This is his first year as the Programming Division Head. He was previously a co-chair for Transcending Boundaries 2014, a regional GLBTQ conference. Micah completed his Masters degree in history and public history from UMass Amherst in 2011, and works as a middle school math tutor. In his free time, Micah enjoys running, highpointing, all kinds of gaming, and being polyamorous as often as possible. He lives in Western Massachusetts with his family of choice and a small coterie of animal companions. If you enjoyed the panel programming this weekend, Micah thanks you on behalf of the entire staff. If you didn’t, it was probably someone else’s fault.
Ken Schneyer received a Nebula nomination for his 2013 story, “Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer.” In 2014, Stillpoint Digital Press released his first collection, The Law & the Heart. His stories, which often employ weird narrative devices, appear in Analog, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Clockwork Phoenix 3 & 4, Daily Science Fiction, Ideomancer, Escape Pod, Podcastle, and elsewhere. By day, he teaches legal studies and science fiction literature to college students, and has published articles on the constitutive rhetoric of legal texts. You could describe him as an actor, lawyer, teacher, archer, cyclist, amateur astronomer, project manager, Humanistic Jew, feminist, Democrat, and Pawsox fan. Born in Detroit, he now lives in Rhode Island with one spouse, two children, and something with fangs. You can find him on Twitter, on Facebook, and at http://ken-schneyer.livejournal.com.
Meredith Schwartz’s short fiction appeared in Strange Horizons, Reflection’s Edge, and Sleeping Beauty, Indeed. She edited Alleys & Doorways, an anthology of homoerotic urban fantasy, available from Lethe Press. She has committed both screen writing and conrunning, but she is much better now.
The Science Babe can be found at scibabe.com delivering a bitch slap to all the bad science on the internet. Armed with a B.A. in theater, a B.S. in chemistry, an M.S. in forensic science, and a Marilyn Monroe dress, Science Babe takes no prisoners and holds nothing back in ripping through bullshit on health, nutrition, alternative medicine, and general “it’s on the internet so it must be true” bad science. She’s been seen on The Doctors and featured on several skeptic and science podcasts. After moving from Boston to LA last year and missing the convention in 2013, she’s glad to be back at Arisia.
Kristin Seibert is from North Carolina but has called contradances all over the country.
Jude Shabry (aka peacefrog) found Arisia in 1994 and hasn’t been able to stay away since. She has attended as an artist, vendor, party host, techie, panelist, yoga teacher, climbing guide, bride, mama, and more.
David G. Shaw was a World Fantasy Award finalist (Special Award—Non-Professional) for 2009, for his two decades of work with Readercon. In his non-Readercon life he has managed to change careers from research biochemist, to founder of Belm Design (a graphic and web design company), to COO of Blopboard, a social media startup. Somehow he found the time to marry She Who Must Be Obeyed (B. Diane Martin) and have a son, He Who Will Not Be Ignored (Miles). His scientific research has been published in various academic journals, while his articles about interactive gaming have appeared in The Whole Earth Review and the proceedings of the Computer Game Developer’s Conference. In his spare time he cooks and blogs (blog.belm.com) about cooking. He lives and works in Somerville, MA.
Nisi Shawl’s story collection Filter House won the 2009 James Tiptree, Jr. Award. She co-edited Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler. Two more anthologies from her, “Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany” and “The Year’s Illustrious Feminist SFF,” are due in 2015. Her stories have appeared in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Asimov’s SF Magazine, and the groundbreaking Dark Matter anthologies, among many other publications. She was WisCon 35’s Guest of Honor. Shawl edits reviews for The Cascadia Subduction Zone. Her own reviews appear there and in the Seattle Times. She is the coauthor of Writing the Other, a guide to developing characters of varying racial, religious, and sexual backgrounds. A founding member of the Carl Brandon Society and an officer of its Steering Committee, Shawl also serves on the Clarion West Writers Workshop Board of Directors.
Nicholas “phi” Shectman has twice each chaired Arisia and Somerville Open Studios, whose 400 participating artists make it one of the largest single weekend Open Studios events in the country.
David Silverman
Hildy Silverman is the publisher of Space and Time, a four-decade-old magazine featuring fantasy, horror, and science fiction. She is also the author of several works of short fiction, including “The Vampire Escalator of the Passaic Promenade” (2010, New Blood, Thomas, ed.), “The Darren” (2009, Witch Way to the Mall?, Friesner, ed), “Sappy Meals” (2010, Fangs for the Mammaries, Friesner, ed), “Black Market Magic” (2012, Apocalypse 13, Raetz, ed.), and “The Bionic Mermaid Returns (2014, With Great Power, French, ed.). In 2013, she was a finalist for the WSFA Small Press Award for her story, “The Six Million Dollar Mermaid” (Mermaids 13, French, ed). In the “real” world, she is a Digital Marketing Communications Specialist at Siemens Hearing Instruments.
Emiy Simon
Hannah Elyse Simpson—Sci-fi nerd, Red Sox fan, engineering grad, swing dancer, osteopathic medical student, marathoner, involved Jew who writes sermons, and generally vibrant soul who is also an openly bisexual and transgender young woman. She lived here in Boston for eight years attending BU and working for Brandeis, before starting her doctorate in NYC.
Jill R. Singer’s earliest memories are of drawing and coloring, and has not stopped making things since. I sew clothes, bags, and quilts; and crochet little animals and hats. I am always doing something, whether it be dan zan ryu ju jitsu, israeli folkdancing, or music. I play flute, guitar, sing, and a little piano. In terms of science fiction and fantasy, I love all things joss whedon (I have seen all his series, and I have read all of his comic books), and am a voracious reader. Recent favorites include Mcmaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan series and Scott Westerfelds’s Uglies/Pretties/Specials series. When I’m not doing all that stuff, I’m a software engineer; designing and implementing user interfaces at AG Mednet in Boston. Lastly, I am a graduate of MIT; and tried to leave Boston but was drawn back and then promptly met my wonderful husband; I have been living here for the past 7 years.
Jamila Sisco is an award-winning costumer with a specialization in Anime costumes. She has worked on costumes for over 7 years, usually working on making the big and elaborate come to life. Currently, she is the President of the Northern Lights chapter of the International Costumers’ Guild.
Rebecca Slitt is a writer and editor for Choice of Games, LLC, a company that produces text-based interactive fiction. Before that, she was a professor of medieval history. She’s played D&D for more than 20 years, LARPed for more than 15, read mountains of SF and fantasy books, and written Call of Cthulhu games that may or may not suggest that there’s a Deep One living near her college dorm.
Sarah Smith’s first YA, The Other Side of Dark (ghosts, interracial romance, and a secret from slavery times) won the Agatha (for best mystery) and the Massachusetts Book Award. She has also written Chasing Shakespeares, The Vanished Child and The Knowledge of Water (both New York Times Notable Books), A Citizen of the Country, and horror, SF, and hypertext short stories. “The Boys Go Fishing” appears in NY Times best-selling Death’s Excellent Vacation (ed. Charlaine Harris and Toni Kelner). Two of her books are being made into plays. She Finally Finished the Titanic book, and all the Reisden/Perdita books are now going to be published as ebooks as well (about time).
Kris “Nchanter” Snyder stumbled sideways into fandom in her early 20’s for lack of anything else to keep her out of trouble. With a background in theater, the visual arts, and a love for SF/F books and media fostered by her father from a young age, it soon became obvious that this was where she, and her colorful curls, belonged. Nchanter now helps make fandom go by working on convention-related activities (including the DC in 2017 Worldcon Bid) and is looking forward to being the Convention Chair for Arisia 2016!
Everett Soares is the creator and writer of the steampunk comic book series, Sky Pirates of Valendor. Publishing his first mini-series within the world of Valendor through Free Lunch Comics, Everett has traveled the country promoting his series for the last four years. Beginning in 2011, Everett has taken on publishing duties of Sky Pirates of Valendor under the Jolly Rogue Studios label. Everett is also a staff writer for DarkBrain.com.
Danielle Souza is a Boston native who started her costuming education at Fisher College and continued on to Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA. Danielle currently works as a costumer in the film industry and has worked on films such as The Devils Carnival, Harbinger Down, and The Devils Carnival: Alleluia!
Michael Sprague is the Convention Chair for Arisia 2015. He’s been reading SF/F since he was the size of a Jawa and has been involved with Arisia since before he could purchase alcohol legally. In addition to running conventions you can frequently find him performing in productions for the Post-Meridian Radio Players. He likes long walks on the beach, Norse mythology, and gaming. Though he drinks white Russians he is not, in fact, The Dude. After his term as Convention Chair he plans on beginning his training to be a ninja.
Allen M. Steele was a journalist before turning to his first love, science fiction. Since then he has published nineteen novels and nearly a hundred short stories. His work has received numerous awards, including three Hugos, and has been translated worldwide. A lifelong space enthusiast, he has testified before Congress in hearings regarding space exploration and flown the NASA space shuttle simulator. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife Linda and their dogs, and is former Arisia Guest of Honor.
Ian Randal Strock is the publisher and owner of Fantastic Books (www.FantasticBooks.biz), which publishes new and reprint SF in both print and electronic editions. Random House published his first book, The Presidential Book of Lists, in 2008, and his short fiction has appeared in Nature and Analog (from which he won two AnLabs). Previous publishing positions have included stints at Analog, Asimov’s, Science Fiction Chronicle, Baen Books, The Daily Free Press, and more. Outside of SF, he’s been a tour guide at Niagara Falls, worked on Wall Street and at several start-up companies, and started four businesses himself. His name is unique on the internet.
Dr. Kristen Stubbs is a queer/pansexual roboticist, maker, and entrepreneur who’s more interested in people than in technology. Kristen earned her Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008. She blogs about technological empowerment for sexuality and pleasure, including her own experiences and creations, at toymakerproject.com. Kristen also organizes teasecraft-boston, a local meetup group for sex/kink-positive makers (teasecraft.com).
Sonya Taaffe’s short fiction and poetry can be found in the collections Ghost Signs (Aqueduct Press), A Mayse-Bikhl (Papaveria Press), Postcards from the Province of Hyphens and Singing Innocence and Experience (Prime Books), and in anthologies including Aliens: Recent Encounters, Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction, The Moment of Change: An Anthology of Feminist Speculative Poetry, People of the Book: A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction & Fantasy, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, The Alchemy of Stars: Rhysling Award Winners Showcase, and The Best of Not One of Us. She is currently senior poetry editor at Strange Horizons; she holds master’s degrees in Classics from Brandeis and Yale and once named a Kuiper belt object. She lives in Somerville with her husband and their two cats.
Cecilia Tan is “science fiction’s premiere pornographer,” according to Walter Jon Williams, and “one of the most important writers, editors, and innovators in contemporary American erotic literature” according to Susie Bright. Her novel Slow Surrender won several major awards in romance in 2014. She is the author of many books that combine the erotic with the fantastic, including the novels of the Magic University series, Mind Games, and The Velderet, the collections of short stories Edge Plays, White Flames, Black Feathers, and Telepaths Don’t Need Safewords, and the web serial The Prince’s Boy. She is the founder and editor of Circlet Press, erotic science fiction and fantasy, and has edited anthologies for numerous publishers. Her short stories have appeared everywhere from Asimov’s and Strange Horizons to Ms. Magazine. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or http://blog.ceciliatan.com.
Timothy J Tero has been attending Arisia cons for about 11 years now. He’s a painter and photographer, and has traveled extensively; he have been to Europe about a dozen times and Japan 3 times. He’s an assistant organizer for an international arthouse film meetup group in the Boston area. He would say his special interest would be the culture of Japan (old and new)—Japanese Sci-fi/horror films and some anime (especially old Anime). Also, he has a keen interest in European Sci-fi films.
W. A. (Bill) Thomasson is 77 years old and a biochemist by training. After a fairly varied earlier career, including a stint in science/medical PR, he is currently helping biomedical researchers write their journal articles and grant applications. He’s been legally blind – meaning with glasses he can just make out the second line on the eye chart—since 2000. Self-identifying as disabled (an inconvenience, not a handicap) he has become treasurer of Chicago’s annual Disability Pride Parade. He’s also been part of Accessibility Services at the past 3 Worldcons and is now starting his tenure as Accessibility Services manager for Sasquan, the 2015 Worldcon. He especially loves being on panels that give him a chance to speculate about the future.
Tikva is attending her bazillionth Arisia, but only her second as a panelist. She’s a public health professional, disability activist, baseball addict, and member of a poly family/household. She hosts Geek Love, a weekly radio show on Boston Free Radio, which is kind of like Arisia except all year ‘round. Her latest project is Ramp It Up!, a site and movement dedicated to fighting street harassment of people with disabilities. You may recognize her via her trusty guide dog, the Poodle of Destiny, who is kind of large print. Please do not pet either her or the dog without a whole lot of permission.
Dan Toland is a writer and podcaster with Earth-2.net, specializing in comics (Grumpy Old Fans, Earth-2-In-One), genre television (Bigger on the Inside, The Edge of Forever), and classic SF literature (Books Without Pictures). His strength is as the strength of ten, because his heart is pure; knows he is the World’s Greatest Whovian because he has a mug that says so; and understands that mid-1960s Tales of Suspense was the pinnacle of Western civilization, and will fight any man who disagrees. He has had his previously unshakable Tom Bakerism tested by Matt Smith, once watched the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. without bursting into flame, and probably owns more comics than you do. (He’s not bragging; his family would really like the living room back.) He lives in Boston with a woman of limitless patience, a dog of nigh-infinite derpitude, and also there is a cat.
Michael Toole caught an episode of Battle of the Planets at the age of four, and has spent an altogether unreasonable amount of time since then in pursuit of Japanese animation. He’s been an entertainment critic since 1994 and has written for over a dozen publications. Currently, he’s a columnist and occasional onscreen personality for Anime News Network, and a regular contributor to the geek humor blog Toplessrobot.com. You can hear his commentary on the brand new DVD release of Horus: Prince Of The Sun, as well as the Lupin the 3rd films Napoleon’s Dictionary (forthcoming), Bye Bye, Lady Liberty, and The Hemingway Papers, and the Sanrio Films production of Ringing Bell.
Thomas Traina is an attorney who specializes in consulting with law firms on issues of electronic data and evidence, computer forensics, and related technological issues in litigation. Academically, he also focuses on civil liberties, constitutional law, speculative bioethics, and comparative law and government in science fiction. Tom got into science fiction through Star Wars, then Star Trek TNG, and snowballed from there. He is also an avid roleplayer and theatre-style LARP writer. When he can afford it, he also enjoys wargames.
Born in a log cabin he built with his own hands, Carsten Turner expects to have it finished any day now; certainly by the time he’s finished reinventing himself (again). In 2004, he chaired Arisia, and then went on to serve as president. He has been, and remains, an EMT, teacher, artist, hacker, and student.
James “Coder Brony” Turner, contributing editor for oreilly.com, is a freelance journalist who has written for publications as diverse as the Christian Science Monitor, IEEE Spectrum and WIRED Magazine. In addition to his shorter writing, he has also written three books on Software Development Developing Enterprise iOS Applications, (MySQL & JSP Web Applications and Struts: Kick Start). In addition, he has spent more than 30 years as a software engineer, and currently works as the Mobile Architect for a company in the Boston area. He lives in a 200-year-old Colonial farmhouse in Derry, NH along with his wife and son. As Coder Brony, he is the President and Chairman of the Board of the Brony Thank You Fund, the only 501(c)(3) public Brony charity. He also organizes and published the annual Brony Herd Census. He is an open water diver and instrument-rated private pilot.
Heather Urbanski holds a Master of Arts in Writing and a Ph.D. in English, specializing in Composition and Rhetoric. Her first book, Plagues, Apocalypses, and Bug-Eyed Monsters: How Speculative Fiction Shows Us Our Nightmares (McFarland 2007), a bibliographic survey of the genre, combines her passion for SF as a fan with her academic career. Her second book, the edited collection Writing and the Digital Generation: Essays on New Media Rhetoric (McFarland 2010), focuses on the intersections of rhetoric, popular culture, fandom, and digital media. Her third book, The Science Fiction Reboot, a narrative analysis of reimagined works such as Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, was released in early 2013. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English Studies at Fitchburg State University. Her next projects are two edited collections, this time on social memory and popular culture.
Eric M Van was a 2010 nominee for the World Fantasy Award for his work as Program Chair or Chair Emeritus for the first 21 Readercons—the only convention ever so honored. The outline for his novel Imaginary has passed the 75,000 word mark, and a handful of critical pieces for New York Review of Science Fiction (where his observations on Philip K. Dick appeared back in the 90’s) are just as unfinished. At the turn of the millennium, he spent four years back at Harvard studying psychology; he’s now writing Mind as Matter: a Testable Theory of Phenomenal Consciousness and Actual Free Will and planning its popularization, The Divine Universe. He’s also a popularizer of theoretical physics (his original Harvard major), and writes about film online. He is the chair of the Society of Baseball Research’s Science and Baseball Committee and a former statistical consultant for the Boston Red Sox. He lives in Watertown, Mass, and has a website at ericmvan.com.
Mercy E Van Vlack has been a comics pro since 1980, including working as a writer for Richie Rich; an artist on Green Ghost & Lotus (set in Boston), creator of Miranda for Leg Show and Puritan magazines; inker for DC, Malibu, and others; illustrator for numerous fanzines, APAs, anthropomorphics, and SF cons; and artist of many Celtic Calendars and the Celtic Coloring Book. She also draws for private collections, bakes Gluten-Free cookies and cakes that taste good, and makes Celtic jewelry. Birdwatcher, beekeeper and singer of bawdy songs.
Andrew Van Zandt is an engineer, roboticist, and general geek. He’s also on the Board of Directors at the Artisan’s Asylum, a hacker/makerspace in Somerville, MA. Drew is happiest when he’s teaching you to make something or making things himself.
JoSelle Vanderhooft is a poet, author, and editor of several anthologies of fantasy stories—most of them having to do with lesbians. These include the well-received Steam-Powered series (lesbian steampunk) as well as Bitten by Moonlight, Sleeping Beauty, Indeed, (with Catherine Lundoff) Hellebore & Rue, and (with Steve Berman) Heiresses of Russ I, a collection of the best lesbian spec fic published in 2010. Her second novel, Ebenezer, a lesbian re-telling of A Christmas Carol, was released from Zumaya Publications in 2013. She lives in South Florida with her partner and a lovely orange tabby. She is a full-time freelance editor.
Carolyn VanEseltine has been fascinated by interactive narrative since playing Colossal Cave Adventure at age six, which explains why she’s now a professional game developer who writes text adventures on the side. In her spare time, she reads voraciously and pursues a long list of kaleidoscopically changing hobbies. Her games and blog are at www.sibylmoon.com, and you can follow her on Twitter @mossdogmusic.
Pablo M.A Vazquez III considers himself many things, including performer, poet, wild fanboy, sometimes scholar/always student, agitator, bard-magus, and whatever else he comes up with. A true lover of Freedom and Passion, he champions love and unity, liberty and danger, creativity and aesthetics. He’s a cinephile, DC Comics enthusiast, voracious reader, and avid gamer (tabletop/video). Born alongside the Panama Canal, he strangely does not like extreme heat and views his perfect weather to be something akin to Fimbulwinter, but he definitely is a child of the Caribbean, with all of its mystic glory, tropical paradises and delicious culinary trappings. Pablo spends his time traversing various underground and subcultural communities, ranging from magical lodges and mystic circles, unsanctioned parties and kink events to Underground Rap and radical bookstores to, of course, Science-Fiction and Fantasy fandom.
Thomas P. Vitale is currently EVP Chiller Strategic Operations and EVP Syfy Original Movies and Co-Productions. Prior to his current role, he was EVP of Programming and Original Movies for Syfy. Vitale has been with Syfy since its first year. A fan of science fiction, fantasy and horror, Vitale has developed and commissioned over 350 original genre movies, and has been involved in original scripted series from Farscape to Stargate to Sanctuary to the current Z Nation. He has reached out to fans through online chats on syfy.com, has spoken at numerous science fiction conventions and for ten years wrote a monthly “TV on TV” column aimed specifically at the fan base in the Syfy Magazine. Vitale loves television so much that rather than lullabies, he used to rock his children to sleep by singing television theme songs.
Mark “Justin du Coeur” Waks is a rapidly moving particle. If one pins down his position enough (and doesn’t worry about his velocity), one finds him focusing on programming, SCA, fandom, LARP, and Freemasonry. He is currently working on building Querki, a new system for Keeping Track of Your Stuff, and is likely to burble at you about it if you give him even the slightest opening—be warned.
William C. Walker III is an inveterate gamer in multiple media, lover of sci-fi and fantasy, and veteran gm/dm/storyteller with over twenty years of experience running at least one game, and as many as three concurrently. He is a PhD candidate in Law and Public Policy at Northeastern University, with a focus in renewable energy policy. He works as a policy research assistant for the Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing.
A native of MA, Cheryl Wallace has been attending cons for 30+ years in multiple states and countries. She’s also been involved with The Rocky Horror Picture Show for as many years, experiencing it not only from an audience member’s perspective, but also as a participant; most recently as a member of the RHIS (Rocky Horror Internet Show). She has interests in cult movies, trivia, gaming, crafts and improv comedy. She can be seen around Arisia volunteering as a Heinlein Society “Naughty Nurse.”
Conor Walsh
Emily Walton
Amanda Stenquist Warner
Jeff Warner is: a professor of autodidactism, a not-recently-published writer, an associate of first fandom, a 7th level ninja-smof with a lawful/good alignment, available for cheap dates, a co-founder of 3 SF conventions and a utility infielder for many others, a freelance blurb-meister, and a philosophical entertainer. “Geek, Nerd, and Dork? I’m a Triple Threat!”
Peggi Warner-Lalonde has been involved in the fan music community for almost 20 years. She helps to run the music track at several conventions, and is on the convention committee of FilKONtario. She’s also been known to sing a bit, and has provided backup harmonies on several Filk CDs.
Tanya Washburn (Selkiechick) has been lurking around the edges of fandom and the SCA for just over 20 years, dabbling in costuming and cooking and fanfiction, among many other things. Her day job is create accessible electronic texts for college students with disabilities. She is also currently an active advocate for better access services at conventions.
Ket Waters is a violinist with a taste for Celtic and electronic music, but you may know her as a costumer, jeweller, or simply “that blue-haired girl”. She also has a talent for drawing on people’s faces. In the past she has been a dealer of shiny things, volunteer, truck-unloader, writer, artist, and maker-of-another-convention’s-badges (though she did not add a scratch and sniff). Ask her about her recordings, about makeup artistry, or about playing fiddle for your event. At Arisia, she teaches chainmail classes, makes costumes on a budget, and drinks too much coffee.
A longtime fan of SF/F, John C. Watson was infected with the anime and manga bug in the early 1990s, and remains a virulent carrier of all three.
Michele Weinstein—I have been a convention attendee since the 1970’s. I have been quite involved with masquerades ( as a contestant, a ninja and a judge-not at the same time! ). This year, I am here to help develop early morning activities for my fellow early risers, give some insight on how to manage a collection and help teach others how to have a good panel. My geeky family is also here. My husband is in the tech crew and my daughter is working on the newsletter.
Syd Weinstein was a mentor at the American Film Institute Digital Content Lab and is video designer for Arisia and many Worldcons. He has more than 15 years’ experience teaching television production techniques to both children and adults. He has directed countless productions and produced several documentaries. He has been part of Techno-Fandom since 2001. He has been involved in Costuming since 2004 and is a presentation judge and ICG member.
Morven Westfield is a fiction writer, technical writer, and occasional podcaster who lives west of Boston. She is the author of a two-book series in which a coven of witches investigate supernatural evil in the form of vampires. Morven also regularly contributes non-fiction articles on folklore and the supernatural to The Witches Almanac. Like many writers, she keeps a messy office and drinks way too much coffee. www.morvenwestfield.com
Alan Wexelblat is a poly parent, an amateur photographer, a long-time tabletop RPG and online MMO gamer, and a writer on intellectual property issues.
If Michelle Wexelblat began her life with the date she started going to conventions, she’d be old enough to vote and drink. Given that she started attending them when she was old enough to drive.... Besides attending cons, Michelle is a mother, wife, friend, extrovert, clinical social worker, poi spinner, and has the ability to see any problem from all sides, all at once. Her brain is a very busy place, and she’s happy for distractions, so talk to her.
A Vermont-licensed lawyer, Valerie White is a sexual freedom activist and practicing polyamorist. She’s executive director of the Sexual Freedom Legal Defense and Education Fund, on the advisory council of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, on the coordinating council of Family Tree, and on the board of Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness. She speaks nationally on sex and the law.
Nightwing Whitehead was born in 1958. The Barbie doll was “born” in 1959; so for a year she had nothing to do. Since then, she’s been making up for lost time by dressing anyone and anything that comes within her reach. She’s worked for several theaters, dressed some stars, done some teaching, and has her own business designing and creating costumes for life.
Doug Wilder has been attending conventions for over a decade, hosting panels for nearly as long, and watching anime for more years than he should probably admit openly. As the resident mecha fan of AnimeCons.com’s podcast, AnimeCons TV, he can often be found talking about giant robot shows to anyone who will listen. On the rare occasions that he does shut up about his mechanical friends, Doug has run other panels such as “The Aging Otaku” and “The Changing Face of Anime Conventions”, as well a variety of other geeky topics.
Penelope Wilhelm is a professional musician and music teacher, a lay Emergent Church leader at The Crossing, nascent game master, cisgender transsexual, camp counselor, an accidental political activist, and an intentional life-long sci-fi fan. She began drumming when she was three, began teaching drums when she was sixteen, and went on to major in composition at Berklee College of Music. Penny was instrumental in organizing her church’s efforts to help pass transgender civil rights legislation in Massachusetts. She has worked with transgender and gender variant youth as a counselor and activity leader at Camp Aranu’tiq. She has also lead and been a member of several panels speaking to groups of parents, trans kids, and the public about issues faced by trans individuals.
Scott Wilhelm is a licensed biology, physics, and general science teacher with more than 10 years of experience, mostly with high-school-aged learners with learning disabilities and severe behavioral problems. He combines deeply analytical lessons with fun activities to meet high expectations with no tears for a very wide range of ages and abilities.
Having retreated to the basements of the Paris Opera House wearing a demi-mask, Stephen R Wilk has been trying unsuccessfully to find a young protégé willing to learn the rudiments of Optics. He did persuade Oxford University Press to publish his scribbled manuscript of “How the Ray Gun Got Its Zap!”, and has had fiction published in Analog and Tales of the Undead, as well as several online publications. From his dark and miserable lair, he continues to be a Contributing Editor for the OSA.
Connie Wilkins began with Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, several of Bruce Coville’s anthologies for kids, Strange Horizons, and various similar publications. Then she was seduced into writing and editing erotica as her alter-ego Sacchi Green. That resulted in publishing scores of erotic stories, some of them also crossing into science fiction and fantasy, and editing ten anthologies including teo Lambda Literary Award winner.s Now she’s getting back to her roots by editing Time Well Bent: Queer Alternative Histories, co-editing Heiresses of Russ 2012: the Year’s Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction, both for Lethe Press, writing erotic sf/f for Circlet Press, and combining specific with erotica in an upcoming fairy tale anthology, The Princess’s Bride.
Jennifer Williams is an author, editor, and crazy cat lady. Her most recent work is the anthology Like a Sacred Desire: Tales of Sex Magick published by Circlet Press and featuring stories by Raven Kaldera, D.L. King, and David Sklar. She has also been published in the Lambda Literary Award nominated collection Women of the Bite edited by Cecilia Tan, and Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes, a collection of zombie poetry edited by A.P. Fuchs. She is an active member of the New England Horror Writers Association and a staff writer for Blogcritics.org.
W. B. J. Williams, author of The Garden at the Roof of the World, holds advanced degrees in anthropology and archeology and is an avid historian, mystic, poet, and author who manages an information security program at a prominent New England start- up. He is noted for his bad puns, and willingness to argue from any perspective. He is endured by his beloved wife and two daughters, and lives in Sharon Massachusetts. When he is not at home or at his computer, he can often be found haunting the various used bookstores of Boston.
Attorney, occasional writer, and all around fan, James A. Wolf was known as Dungeon Master Jim on The Toucher and Rich Show on WBCN, when there was a WBCN. He is presently shopping novels and plotting trouble.
Jonathan Woodward is the author or co-author of over a dozen role-playing game books, including the Hellboy RPG, Trinity, and GURPS Banestorm. He has been an Arisia panelist for over 20 years. He lives near Boston with his wife, daughter, girlfriend, and other family.
Trisha J. Wooldridge is the current president of Broad Universe and a senior editor for Spencer Hill Press. She’s also a member of New England Horror Writers, the HWA, and SCBWI. Under her full name, she writes grown-up horror short stories that occasionally win awards. She has co-produced the Spencer Hill Press anthologies Unconventional and Doorways to Extra Time. In her child-friendly persona of T.J. Wooldridge, she’s published three novels: The Kelpie, The Earl’s Childe, and Silent Starsong. As if she weren’t busy enough, Trish is also the writing partner for the webcomic Aurelio at www.thevampireaurelio.com. Find out more at www.anovelfriend.com.
Brianna Spacekat Wu is head of development at Giant Spacekat Productions, where she is wrote and directed the videogame “Revolution 60”. This game is a fully 3D-animated game about girls in space who kick ass, and features professional voice actors such as Amanda Winn-Lee. Brianna is also a frequent contributor to science fiction fanzines. She’s known for her high-energy art style featuring tall, skinny women. Wu is six foot two, and a dedicated marathoner. She runs over 55 miles every week, and almost 3,000 miles per year. She is married to four-time Hugo-award-winner Frank Wu.
Frank Wu is a Hugo award-winning artist, writer, and animator. Frank’s art has materialized in many books and magazines, including Amazing Stories, wherein his art featured a giant laser gun and iceskating dinosaurs. Frank is also a big fan of giant marine isopods and pycnogonids. He’s married to game developer Brianna Spacekat Wu. Along with Brianna, he is a co-founder of the game studio Giant Spacekat, which recently released “Revolution 60”. For that game, he designed the spaceships and made up all the technobabble.
Tom Wysmuller forecasted weather at Amsterdam’s Royal Dutch Weather Bureau after studying meteorology at NYU and Stanford. Selected for a NASA internship, he worked throughout NASA before, during, and after the moon landings. He worked at Pratt and Whitney and held insurance industry executive positions. The Polynomial Regression mathematics, algorithms, or code he personally produced after leaving NASA is used by almost every climate scientist on the planet for modeling and analysis. He lectures worldwide on the SCIENCE needed to understand Global Warming, and his “Toucan Equations” for predicting Sea-Level rise/fall are still within range. In 2012, Tom (as a Meteorologist, was asked to be among those who) joined the “NASA 49,” a group of Astronauts, Scientists, Engineers, and NASA Field Center Directors publicly requesting improvement in NASA’s handling of climate pronouncements. His http://www.colderside.com/Colderside/Temp_%26_CO2.html has gone viral.
Aimee Yermish, PsyD (aimee@davincilearning.org) is a clinical psychologist and educational therapist, providing assessment, consultation, therapy, coaching, remediation, enrichment, and overall strategizing for people of all ages who manifest giftedness and/or disabilities (ADHD, Asperger’s, learning disabilities, psychological disorders, etc). In her former lives, she was a molecular biologist, a schoolteacher, a black belt, and a Master Assassin. She also loves to sing, read, ride her bike, run, do a great many crafts, and make long lists of things. She is busy raising a husband, two lovely children, and three cats.
A child of the space race, Guillermo Zeballos has always been fascinated by fantastic vehicles and stories of space, real and fictional. He is active in designing and building spaceships out of paper and researching their designs. He is also a great fan of spaceship and futuristic art and illustration, as well as those of the more familiar hero ships of film and television. His professional background is in teaching, computer-human interaction, collaborative systems, and interface design.
Matthew Zielinkski
Eric Zuckerman is not a real talk show host, but he played one on TV. His fannish semi-improv comedy project, “Eric in the Elevator” has screened at regional West Coast conventions, several WorldCons, Arisia (where he was 2008 Fan Performer GoH), and LunaCon (where he was 2011 Special Guest). Among his many other nerdly pursuits, he’s a geocacher, a gamer, an armchair “fanthropologist”, and a compulsive ribbon collector/trader.