Larry Correia
Guest of Honor
(Psst! Wanna share this bio on social media? Go here.)
The Faithful Sidekicks
Music Guests of Honor
Bill Necessary
Fen Guest of Honor
The Shiflett Brothers
Artist Guests of Honor
Dr. Robert E. Hampson
Science Guest of Honor
Internationally recognized physiologist and neuroscientist, Dr. Robert E. Hampson, leads the multi-university team that was first to demonstrate restoration of human memory using the brain's own information codes. His forty-year scientific career has ranged from studying the effects of commonly abused drugs on memory, to the effects of space radiation on the brain. He is a popular speaker and advisor on memory and the brain, having been interviewed by BBC, CNN, NPR, BYU Radio, Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal.
Known in nonscientific circles as Dr. Rob, he is a Hugo-nominated science writer with more than thirty essays, interviews, and talks on science for general audiences. As a Science Fiction author, he has published more than 25 short stories, co-edited two anthologies that combined hard science and science fiction, co-authored two novels, with two additional co-authored novels due out this year and a solo novel due out next year. With a combination of science and science fiction credentials, he has been a consultant to TV and game producers, defense contractors, and more than dozen science fiction authors.
Dr. Charles E. Gannon
Toastmaster
Gannon’s epic fantasy series, The Vortex of Worlds, debuted in 2021 with This Broken World. He collaborates w/ Eric Flint in the NYT/WSJ bestselling Ring of Fire series, has written two solo novels in John Ringo's Black Tide Rising world, and co-authored three volumes with Steve White in the Starfire series. He’s also worked in the Honorverse, Man-Kzin, and War World universes. His other writing credits include lots of short fiction, table-top roleplaying games (Traveller, 2300 AD, Twilight: 2000, Dark Conspiracy) and years of work as a scriptwriter/producer in NYC.
As a Distinguished Professor of English, Gannon received 5 Fulbrights, and his Rumors of War & Infernal Machines won the 2006 ALA Choice Award for Outstanding Book. He is a frequent subject matter expert for national media venues (NPR, Discovery, etc.) and for various intelligence and defense agencies.
Julie Barrett
(Stately Barrett Manor) (Steamcat) (Facebook)Julie Barrett is a writer, photographer, and maker of interesting things from Plano, TX. She is also a founding member of The Generic Radio Workshop, member of the Dallas Future Society board, and sells photography, fiber art, and hats through SteamCat.net. Julie writes short stories, radio plays, and whatever else helps pay the bills. She hates the bills. Find her at Stately Barrett Manor or on Facebook.
Paul Barrett
Amongst Paul's many pastimes, a favorite is creating, finding, and programming the sound effects for Generic Radio Workshop productions. As with the other GRW founders, he's done so many of these shows, he's no longer sure if this is reality, or if he's living in an episode of Dimension X. Other hobbies are prop-building and 3D printing--he has been known to demonstrate all the ways this can go wrong.
Paul Black
(Paul Black) (Wikipedia) (Facebook)Paul Black always wanted to make movies, but a career in advertising sidetracked him. He's the international award-winning author of The Tels, Soulware, Nexus Point, The Presence, The Samsara Effect, Cool Brain, and Dark Slide. He has twice won each the Independent Publishers Book Award, London and the New York Book Festival. He has also been on the Barnes & Noble Regional Best Seller list, has won the Writer’s Digest Book Award for Genre Fiction, and was optioned for television.
K.B. Bogen
(Facebook)A cat-loving native of Texas, K.B. Bogen is a self-confessed knit-/yarn-aholic. She spends much time knitting something (with the help of her three cats), inventorying her stash (also with the help of the cats), or fondling yarn anywhere within driving range (the cats don’t like road trips). She likes to cook and enjoys reading forensic anthropology books. Occasionally simultaneously. For nearly thirty years, she has also been lurking behind the scenes doing editing, copy editing and manuscript repair. With the rise in the numbers of epublications, her client load has increased. Time to come out of the editorial closet! Fortunately, writing and editing are not mutually exclusive pursuits. Her most recent publication, Everything Works in Theory, is available on Amazon, Baen, and Barnes & Noble. The first two books of the Quest series are also available. Coming soon Surely, You Quest—book three of the Quest.
Mary Crowell
(Mary Crowell) (Patreon) Dr. Mary Crowell is a singer/song writer and music teacher from north Alabama. She writes jazzy, bluesy, artsy songs about gaming, mythology, coffee, and whatever tickles her fancy. Her latest two albums are Scattering Seeds on the Pomegranate Tour (2017) funded by a successful Kickstarter and Acolytes of the Machine & Other Gaming Stories (2012), a love letter to the hobby of gaming. Mary releases her more recent songs and funny music videos on her Patreon page.
Charlayne Denney
(Charlayne Denney) (Facebook) (Twitter) (Goodreads) Given Charlayne's habit of checking people for fangs and living in the dark, she discovered her own vampires and Lilly, Marcus, and the rest of the gang living in the Fangs & Halos series she writes. When not hanging with vampires, she is a WoW gnome mage, Rubyrose. She's the crazy lady in the wheelchair with the Werepup. She found her husband, Bruce, through a want-ad in the program book for ConTroll 93. She's done conventions in Texas since 1979.
Chris Donahue
Chris Donahue is an electrical engineer living in the Dallas area with his wife and fellow-author, Linda. A former member of a Joe Bob Briggs' Drive In Review committee, he served the public by counting rolling heads, types of Fu, and exposed breasts in committee films. Outside of that, he has been a Navy Avionics tech, brewer, and writes sci-fi, military fiction, horror, humor, and combinations of those themes. His first novel, Death's Paladin, is now available.
Linda L. Donahue
(Linda L. Donahue)Linda has degrees in computer science, Russian studies, Earth science education, and electrical engineering. Additionally, she teaches tai chi and belly dancing, can borrow moon rock samples, and is a certified commercial instrument pilot, advanced ground instructor, and SCUBA diver. Her latest short stories have appeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #25 and Chicks and Balances. Her novel, Jaguar Moon, is available from Yard Dog Press. She lives with her husband and pet rabbits, sugar gliders, and cats in Garland, Texas.
Marianne Dyson
(Marianne Dyson)One of NASA's first female flight controllers, Marianne Dyson shares first-person accounts of high-stakes situations--including her own--in her books, A Passion for Space and Shuttle Mission Control. Her nonfiction children’s books (including two coauthored with Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin) have been recognized by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the American Institute of Physics, and the National Science Teachers Association. She enjoys writing for Ad Astra and Analog magazines and playing Pokémon with her international family.
Rhonda Eudaly
(Rhonda Eudaly) Rhonda Eudaly lives in Arlington, Texas where she's ventured into several industries and occupations for a wide variety of experience. She's married with dogs and a rapidly growing Minion© army. Her two passions are writing and music, which is evident in her increasing horde of writing instruments. Rhonda has a well-rounded publication history in fiction, non-fiction, and script writing. Check out her website for her latest publications and downloads.(Photo by Bobby Hitt)
Brad W. Foster
(Brad W. Foster) (Jabberwocky Graphix)Hugo-award winning artist Brad W Foster lives to draw, and draws to live, and still loves to see his artwork in that so-last-century thing called "print". Over the decades his work has appeared in hundreds of publications, large and small, and he hopes to add a few thousand more to that list. You can learn more than you would probably care to just by spending a few hours wandering around his website, Jabberwocky Graphix.
Monalisa Foster
(Monalisa Foster) (Facebook) (Amazon) Monalisa won life’s lottery when she escaped communism and became an unhyphenated American citizen. Her works tend to explore themes of freedom, liberty, and personal responsibility. Despite her degree in physics, she’s worked in several fields including engineering and medicine. Her space opera series, Ravages of Honor, is out now.
Karl Gallagher
(Karl K. Gallagher)Karl K. Gallagher is a systems engineer, currently performing data analysis for a major aerospace company. In the past he calculated trajectories for a commercial launch rocket start-up, operated satellites as a US Air Force officer, and selected orbits for government and commercial satellites. Karl lives in Saginaw, TX withhis family.He writes both science fiction (the Torchship trilogy) and fantasy (The Lost War). His books are available on Amazon and Audible.
Generic Radio Workshop
(Generic Radio Workshop)Generic Radio Workshop has been around longer than the Golden Age of Radio lasted -- a little over thirty years. They started with the Texas Broadcast Museum and have performed at festivals, conventions, and yes, on the radio. They use as much vintage equipment as possible for that "old time radio" feel. Plus, many of their sound effects devices are hand-built, following period designs. While they've made a few concessions to modern technology, their core practices follow radio's Golden Age.
Teddy Harvia
Teddy Harvia is the well-known pen name of David Thayer. He has drawn scores of wild beasts, strange BEMs, and big-nosed whiz kids from a world far from Earth who use short words to make fun of all kinds of things in scores of toons and fan art for flyers, zines, and con pubs since 1967. He lives with wife Diana and five fat cats in Dallas, Texas. To earn his keep, he works with words at a high-tech firm.
Julia S. Mandala
(Julia S. Mandala)Julia S. Mandala holds a BA in history from Kansas State University and a JD in law from Tulane. In addition to being editor of The Fantasy Writers Asylum, an imprint of Yard Dog Press, she is a scuba diver and belly dancer. She lives in Plano, TX with her husband Larry and two demanding, but adorable cats. She is best known as a co-author of the Four Redheads of the Apocalypse series and the Corimar series.
Dawn Mennear
Dawn comes from Des Moines, IA, and she has been coming to FenCon since FenCon II and considers it one of the best run conventions, with some of the friendliest people around. She doesn't write but she reads voraciously and considers that an excellent reason to attend. She is 54, Rubenesque, and nosy in a good way. Loves to crochet and will often be seen in corners crocheting away.
Kathleen O'Brien
(Vintage Fashion Explained) (Victorian Smoking Caps)Kathleen M. O'Brien began sewing at age 4, learning traditional techniques from her mother and grandmother. She collects and studies vintage clothing to decipher mysteries of drape and fit found in previous eras. Her costumes include both original designs and reproductions, utilizing many historical techniques. She enjoys sharing both these skills and her collection with others and has published her first e-book Victorian Smoking Caps. Check out her website at Vintage Fashion Explained.Photo ©2012, Carol Schiraldi
Stephen Patrick
(Facebook) (The Holocaust Engine)Born in the Kentucky bluegrass, but inspired by the Lone Star state, Stephen Patrick's storytelling ranges between historical, thriller, science fiction, and horror. His most recent offerings include The Holocaust Engine trilogy with David Rike (available October, 2019) and stories in Road Kill: Texas Horror by Texas Authors, Vol 1 and 2 and Crimson Streets.Every year, he explores new skills/disciplines to find ideas for his work. This year is geology/rockhounding and skateboarding, which have more in common than he cares to admit.
Teresa Patterson
(Event Horizon EBooks) (Facebook)Teresa Patterson’s work includes, The World of Shannara with Terry Brooks, The World of the Wheel of Time with Robert Jordan, No Quarter with Robert Asprin, Combat Corpsman with Navy SEAL Greg McPartlin, numerous short stories, and humorous history essays. Her newest work, with Navy SEAL Craig Marley, is No Lifeguard on Duty. When not writing she works as a balloon sculptor, kayak instructor, show horse trainer, and managing The Armory at DragonCon. She also loves to sing and entertain.
Dusty Rainbolt
(Dusty Rainbolt)Dusty Rainbolt swears she was raised by aliens after being abandoned on Earth by grays who abhorred the TransGalactic School System. She’s the author of the newly released nonfiction Ghost Cats 2: More Encounters with Feline Spirits (Stupid Gravity Press), the paranormal mystery Death Under the Crescent Moon (Yard Dog Press), and coauthor of The Four Redheads of the Apocalypse series. She's the editor of Stupid Gravity Press and has published extensively regarding cat care, behavior, and animal hauntings.
Dr. John Randall
(Zyvex Labs) (NanoRetina) (Teliatry) John Randall is the President of Zyvex Labs, Executive VP of NanoRetina, VP of Teliatry, Adjunct Professor at UTDallas, and a proud former Science GoH at FenCon. John has spent his entire career as a nanofabricator, which might mean that he tells small lies. He plans world domination with Atomically Precise Manufacturing, is an amateur saxophone player, has built robots that make fine art paintings, is working to heal the blind, and loves his wife and kids.
Rie Sheridan Rose
(Rie Sheridan Rose) (Facebook) (Twitter)Rie Sheridan Rose's work appears in numerous anthologies, including Killing It Softly Vol. 1 & 2, Speculative Poets of Texas, Vol. 1, Dark Divinations, and Startling Stories. Her photographs are in several publications and grace the covers of some independent book projects. Rie is an avid Pokemon GO player and collects key-chains. She has authored twelve novels, six poetry chapbooks, dozens of song lyrics, and is an Affiliate Member of the Horror Writers Association and Associate member of SFWA.
Amber Royer
(Amber Royer) (Facebook) (Instagram) (Youtube) (Amazon) (Goodreads)Amber Royer writes the Chocoverse comic telenovela-style foodie-inspired space opera series, as well as the Bean to Bar Mysteries. Amber has been teaching creative writing to writers of all genres for over a decade in North Texas for UT Arlington Continuing Education and Writing Workshops Dallas. Amber's book, Story Like a Journalist: A Workbook for Novelists, boils down her writing knowledge into an actionable plan. If you are very nice to her, she might make you cupcakes.
Ken Ruffin
(National Space Society of North Texas) A Trekkie and a former Aerospace Engineering student, Ken serves on the Board of Advisors of the National Space Society (NSS) and is the Vice Chair of the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in the DFW Metroplex in May 2020. Ken has also been serving as the VP of the award-winning NSS of North Texas (NSS-NT) since 2016. Across the DFW Metroplex and beyond, Ken gives presentations to inform and inspire the public about "the latest and greatest information in space travel and space development".
Brad Sinor
(Brad Sinor) (Facebook) (LiveJournal)Bradley H. Sinor’s short stories have appeared in many anthologies. His collections include The Game’s Afoot: A Sherlock Holmes Miscellany and Of Two Minds, including stories by both Brad and Sue. Novels include The Hunt For The Red Cardinal, written with Sue, The Eye Of Dawn, and two new publications, The Grantville Inquisitor, written with Tracy S. Morris, and Megan Thomas, Forensic Sorceress. Check Amazon for availability of these books.
Sue Sinor
(Facebook)Sue Sinor started writing at the urging of her husband, Brad. She has stories in several Yard Dog Press publications, as well as others. Sue and Brad have collaborative stories in the anthology Rotten Relations and in Grantville Gazette 4, as well as several for Yard Dog Press. Most recently they have a joint collection, Of Two Minds, and a novel in the Ring of Fire universe titled The Hunt For The Red Cardinal, both available on Amazon.
Mike Stewart
(Save for Half Podcast) (Victorious RPG) (Victorious RPG Facebook) Mike Stewart has participated in the Role Playing Game industry for the past fifteen years. His recent work, the Steampunk Superhero RPG Victorious was the 2017 winner of the Three Castles RPG Award. His other writing runs the gamut from RPG and wargaming writing to fiction and nonfiction academic work as a professor of Victorian history. He and his wife Liz host the Save for Half podcast, a show about Old School RPGs and the modern games inspired by them.
Kathryn Sullivan
(Kathryn Sullivan) (Facebook)Kathryn Sullivan writes young adult science fiction and fantasy. Any place and any object is at risk of appearing in her stories--the river bluffs surrounding Winona, MN, where she lives, can become the windswept cliffs of an alien planet or the deep mysterious woods of a fantasy tale. She is owned by a large cockatoo, who graciously allows her to write about other animals, as well as birdlike aliens.
The Four Red Heads
Mel. White
(Facebook) (Twitter)Known to her kids as "Indiana Mom", Mel. has gone back to school to become "Dr. Indiana Mom." She still works on fossils for the Museum of Nature and Science, and is now a volunteer educator at Trinity River Audubon Center as well as a Texas Master Naturalist. She's also a proud member of the Yard Dog Press gang, with a story in A Bubba in Time Saves None.
Ben Yalow
Ben Yalow’s very first convention he attended as a fan was Lunacon in 1971, followed later that year by his first Worldcon, Noreascon (He hasn’t missed a Worldcon since). Ben is a co-founder of SMOFcon, the annual convention on how to run a convention, and was the recipient of fandom's highest award, the 2015 Forest J. Ackerman Big Heart Award.
If you are interested in being a participant this year, please read our program participant guidelines before contacting us. We hope it will answer most of your questions. Thanks.