Alexander James Adams

(Faerie Tale Minstrel) (Canticles Productions) Professional musician for 30 years, Aja is currently Composer for Canticles Productions, a subscription-based independent production company. There the Faerie Tale Minstrel is bringing a level of epic and orchestral sounds to the music you already know and love. His latest album, Canticles Aria I: The Heroes of Our Days, is at the Canticles Table in the Dealer's Room, and Canticles Aria II: The Shadows of Our Past releases on a limited Vinyl run at the end of the year!

Kimm Antell

(ChickGeek) (Facebook) (GooglePlus) Kimm Antell is an artist and writer from Pflugerville, TX.  She also has a husband, 5 cats, 1,500 books, 1 house, 5 friends (she lost one to Portland,) 400 comic books, 2,795 ancestors, and 1 white lie to FenCon.  Favorite sci-fi movie is Ghostbusters (Original.)  Favorite horror movie is From Dusk ‘Til Dawn.  Favorite fantasy movie is The Adventures of Baron von Munchausen.  Favorite mystery is The Fugitive.  Least favorite president is Donald Dum-Dum.

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 and art 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'll be demonstrating 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. Born in Chicago, he is the international award-winning author of The Tels, Soulware, Nexus Point, The Presence, and The Samsara Effect. He has twice won the Independent Publishers Book Award, along with ForeWord Magazine's Book Award, The London Book Festival, and has been on the Barnes & Noble Best Seller list. His new book of fiction is called Cool Brain.

Karen Bogen

(Facebook) Karen is a self-confessed knit-and-yarn-aholic. She spends as much time as she can get away with either knitting something, inventorying her yarn stash, or fondling yarn at any shop within driving range. Interesting? Depends on your point of view. She likes to cook and she enjoys reading forensic anthropology books. Occasionally at the same time. In January of 2012, she allowed herself to get talked into taking a full-time+ job. It's really eating into her knitting time.

Rachel Caine

(Rachel Caine) Rachel Caine has multiple NYT and USA Today bestsellers, including books from her Morganville Vampires and The Great Library series in young adult SF/F. She's gotten to fulfill two of her fangirl dreams recently: writing for official anthologies for both The X-Files and Aliens. Recent releases: Aliens: Bug Hunt, Stillhouse Lake, and Ash and Quill. More info available on her website!

J. Kathleen Cheney

(J. Kathleen Cheney) J. Kathleen Cheney taught mathematics ranging from 7th grade to Calculus, but gave it all up for a chance to write stories. Her novella "Iron Shoes" was a 2010 Nebula Award finalist. Her novel, The Golden City, was a finalist for the 2014 Locus Awards (Best First Novel). Dreaming Death (2016) is the first in a new setting, the Palace of Dreams novels, with her novels of The Horn trilogy coming out in 2017.

Dantzel Cherry

(Dantzel Cherry) (Facebook) (Twitter) Dantzel Cherry teaches Pilates and raises her daughter by day. By night and naptime, she writes. Her baking hours follow no rhyme or reason. Her short stories have appeared in Fireside, InterGalactic Medicine Show, Galaxy's Edge, and other magazines and anthologies.

Lys Childs-Wiley

Melyssa “Lys” Childs-Wiley grew up in Western New York. She began reading at the age of four to escape watching apple trees grow, and hasn’t stopped.

Lys brought home as many books as the librarian allowed. When she wandered out of the children’s section into the main room, she discovered strands of Thread falling from the sky, to be destroyed by Dragonriders. This was when Lys realized that imagination is limitless. She has been writing, acting, and roleplaying ever since.

Rosemary Clement

(Rosemary Clement) (Twitter) Rosemary Clement writes, under various names, supernatural mystery and adventure novels for youngish adults. Her books are on recommended reading lists and received starred reviews from Kirkus and School Library Journal. She drinks too much coffee, journals with a fountain pen, knits her own sweaters, and loves books with witty banter, romantic tension, dead bodies, and live ghosts. You can connect with her on Twitter or visit her webpage/blog.

R. Cat Conrad

(Artists In Residence) R. Cat Conrad provided cover art for FenCon's first program, the dystopian painting ominously titled You're Next. His work encompasses many genres directed to the fine art and illustration collecting community, but Cat's most popular compositions are his space landscapes and whimsical dragon sketches. It should also be noted he's a trail-blazer in frontiers beyond space and fantasy. In addition to being an award-winning painter, he’s a Golden Age comic historian, collector/dealer, auctioneer, and recently, film actor.

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.

Dominick D'Aunno

Dominick D’Aunno, MD, a writer of speculative fiction, is an Internal Medicine physician with a subspecialty in Space Medicine and Physiology. His NASA research includes cardiovascular adaptation to microgravity, immune system alterations in extreme environments, and musculoskeletal alterations to variable gravities. Dr. D’Aunno’s clinical practice focuses on the medical needs of patients with psychiatric illnesses, autism, developmental disabilities, and adolescents in Child Protective Services. Dominick works with writers to increase the use of medicine and physiology in speculative fiction.

Sherri Dean

(Facebook) (Twitter) Sherri "ConBarbie" Dean was born late AND backwards, which explains a lot. She does illustrations, stories, and editing for Yard Dog Press, recently the cover of Flush Fiction II. Sherri's latest are the weird western collection with Bill D. Allen Three Aces from Satan’s Hand and the horror anthology Death Is Only Skin Deep with Tim W. Burke and Allison Stein, available online. Sherri also goes by "Monkey Queen" and The Feisty Mistress of Fear.

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 inhabiting her Fangs & Halos series. When not hanging with vampires, she's a WoW gnome mage, Rubyrose. Of course, all this stuff weirds out her kids and grandkids. She found her husband, Bruce, through a want-ad in the program book for ConTroll 93. She's attended, worked, and guested at Texas conventions since 1979.

Bradley Denton

(Bradley Denton) (Bland Lemon Denton) Four Bradley Denton titles are in new formats for 2015: Novels Blackburn and Lunatics, plus story collection One Day Closer to Death, are now available as ebooks. And Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede is now an audiobook -- complete with cover art from FenCon Artist GoH Mitch Bentley. Meanwhile, Brad’s 2014 collection Sergeant Chip and Other Novellas is still in print, and he still manages the career of Bland Lemon Denton, the World’s Oldest (and Worst) Bluesman.

S.B. Divya

(S.B. Divya) (Twitter) S.B. Divya is a lover of science, math, fiction, and the Oxford comma. Her short stories have been published at Lightspeed, Tor.com, and other magazines, and her novella "Runtime" is a Nebula Award finalist. Divya's writing appears in the indie game Rogue Wizards. She also co-edits Escape Pod, a weekly science fiction podcast, with Mur Lafferty. She holds degrees in Computational Neuroscience and Signal Processing, and she worked for twenty years as an electrical engineer before becoming an author.

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.

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.

Amora D'or

(Facebook) Amora D’or is a DFW area belly dancer.  She performs at weddings, Lunar New Year Festivals, Tet-In-DFW, restaurants, and science fiction writer’s conventions.  Amora is Red Head adjacent; you will most often find her hanging with the writers of the “Four Redheads of the Apocalypse.”  Amora performs with Troupe Ravenar where she is affectionately known as the group glamazon.

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)

Sara Felix

(Sara Felix) Sara Felix is a Texas conrunner and artist living in Austin. She started working on conventions after working with Willie Siros at the Science Fiction and Mystery bookstore Adventures in Crime and Space. Since then she has worked many different sized conventions from ArmadilloCon, World Fantasy to WorldCons. While wearing her artist hat she makes jewelry and small clay robot sculptures that she sells at art shows. Always a fan of clay she was featured on Crafters Coast to Coast on HGTV a number of years ago where she crafted a flying pig.

Mark Finn

(Mark Finn) (The Gentlemen Nerds) (Twitter) Mark Finn is an author, an editor, and a pop culture critic. He is a managing editor for Skelos Press, and he podcasts with The Gentlemen Nerds. When he is not waxing eloquent about popular culture, he writes comics and fiction, dabbles in magic, and produces and performs community theater.  He lives in North Texas over an old movie theater with his long-suffering wife, too many books, and an affable pit bull named Sonya. This bio is too short.

Michael Ashleigh Finn

(LiveJournal) (The Gentlemen Nerds) (The Lobot Lounge) (Dirty Magick: LA) (Amazon) Mickey is 1/4 of the The Gentlemen Nerds podcast, as well as the editor and accidental co-producer. He is short story author expanding into novels, and a thematic consultant for Dynamite Entertainment on Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files.

His latest Wormwood story, "All the Pretty Little Horses," is available in the anthology Dirty Magick: New Orleans (Lucky Mojo Press).

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.

Karl 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 USAF officer, and selected orbits for government and commercial satellites. His novels Torchship and Torchship Pilot are working-class hard SF adventures, available on Amazon and Audible. Karl lives in Saginaw, TX with his family.

C Stuart Hardwick

(C Stuart Hardwick) (Twitter) (Facebook) C Stuart Hardwick is a Writers of the Future winner and three-time Jim Baen Award finalist who’s been published in Analog, Galaxy’s Edge, Forbes.com, and Mental Floss, among others. Stuart grew up amid the ghost towns of South Dakota, creating radio dramas and animated shorts before moving on to robots and ill-conceived flying machines. He studied writing at U.C. Berkeley, lives in Houston, and has been known to wear a cape. Visit his website for a free e-sampler.

Teddy Harvia

Teddy Harvia is an anagram of David Thayer. Teddy has drawn and contributed cartoons to fan publications since the mid-70s. Fans and friends have rewarded his efforts with a few Hugos for Best Fan Artist. He has cut back on cartooning recently to allow David to concentrate on writing SF poetry. In his professional life, he works as a technical writer for a big telecommunications company. With his wife Diana, six cats, and thousands of books, he lives in Dallas.

Kristi Hutson

(KHP at GooglePages) Born in Texas, but educated on both coasts, Hutson did time as a DoD contractor and now slings education at 6th graders. Hutson has been the LETS (Law Enforcement Teaching Students) liaison, a Krav Maga student and instructor, and a Texas Defensive Shooters club member. So far these facts remain mutually exclusive. Occasionally Hutson writes fiction instead of grading papers: "An Undercover Haunting" appears in the Strange Afterlives anthology, and the novella Bound by Ink is available at Amazon.

Lee Killough

(Lee Killough) (Coffee Shop Writers) Lee Killough became hooked on SF, fantasy, and Mysteries at age eleven. The result: her novels usually combine genres...SF/mystery, mystery/supernatural/urban fantasy. She shares her lakeside home with a Schnauzer and walls of books. Her older books are republishing as e-books, revised and updated since science has overrun the 70's fictional science. They are available at Amazon and other e-book sites. Also see her original space opera Ancient Enemy and its new cover at the Yard Dog Press table.

William Ledbetter

(William Ledbetter) William Ledbetter is a 2016 Nebula Award winner, with fiction published in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, Baen.com, EscapePod, Writers of the Future, Yard Dog Press, and many others. He is an unapologetic space geek, an associate editor at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, and runs the annual Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award contest for Baen Books and the National Space Society.

Steve Liptak

Steve Liptak is a retired pilot who has been involved in fantasy/SciFi and costuming for over 30 years. He has earned costume awards from DragonCon, AllCon, and Fencon. Over the last few years he has lectured on prop fabrication at conventions such as AKon, SoonerCon, and FenCon. He enjoys working in metal, leather, and plastics, and uses a kit-built 3D printer to speed prototyping. His last few projects have been lathed metal sonic screwdrivers, featured at Tardisbuilders.com in the UK.

Julia S. Mandala

(Julia S. Mandala) Julia S. Mandala holds degrees in history and law. She co-authored the Redheads of the Apocalypse series with Rhonda Eudaly, Dusty Rainbolt and Linda Donahue, and the Corimar series and Villains in Training with Linda Donahue, along with her novels, Blood Songs and House of Doors, and many short stories. In addition to editing The Fantasy Writers Asylum, she’s a scuba diver and belly dancer. She lives in Plano, TX with her husband Larry and two demanding but adorable cats.

Marshall Ryan Maresca

(Marshall Ryan Maresca) Marshall Ryan Maresca is a fantasy and science-fiction writer, as well as a playwright, living in South Austin with his wife and son. He is the author of the Maradaine Novels: The Thorn of Dentonhill, A Murder of Mages, The Alchemy of Chaos and the upcoming An Import of Intrigue.  His work also appeared in Norton Anthology of Hint Fiction and Rick Klaw’s anthology Rayguns Over Texas. He also has had several short plays produced.

A. Lee Martinez

(A. Lee Martinez) A. Lee Martinez is best known for his sparkling wit, incredible good looks, and his ability to endlessly debate the Superman VS. Batman dilemma. (Correct answer: Tarzan) Also, he's written 10 fantasy novels and managed to get paid for it. If you would like to read random thoughts from him, you can go to his website, or check him out on Twitter or Facebook.

Kip McMurray

Clifford R. McMurray (AKA “Kip”) is a space advocate, writer, singer, and science fiction devotee with extensive knowledge of the politics, history, and current progress of space exploration. A former National Space Society vice-president and Board of Directors member, he yearly publishes at least four space-related articles. Cliff attended both the first and last space shuttle launches, as well the last Apollo launch, and in the evenings can be found telling jokes at parties or singing along at a filk.

Margaret Middleton

Filker Margaret Middleton is retired from 25 years of “designing piles of dirt and holes in the ground” for the Arkansas Highway Department. She now lives in Starkville MS, where she roots for the Mississippi State Bulldogs except when they play either the Arkansas Razorbacks or the Texas A&M Aggies. In between sporting events and science fiction conventions, she quilts and collects songs about aviation and the space program.

Matthew R.R. Morrese

(Canticles Productions) (Facebook) (Instagram) (Twitter) Matthew R.R. Morrese is the creator of the unique, high-fantasy universe called Canticles. Matthew grew up in a small farm town in Southern Illinois, left home at 19, chased the Hollywood dream, and is now redefining high-fantasy. No more dwarves, no more elves, no more dragons. You've been to Middle-earth; you're done with the Seven Kingdoms. Now, experience independent imagination with the Canticles family. Canticles produces literature, media, music, and art every month for its subscribers.

Tracy S. Morris

(Tracy S. Morris) (LiveJournal)  Tracy S. Morris is that one nerdy cheerleader you knew in high school all grown up and still reading comics. She's the author of the Tranquility Mysteries from Yard Dog Press, co-author of the Dennis and Betsy stories in the 1632 universe, and creator of the I Am Not Making This Up podcast. She dreams of having spare time.

Michelle Muenzler

(Michelle Muenzler) (Facebook) Michelle Muenzler, also known at local conventions as "The Cookie Lady", writes fiction both dark and strange to counterbalance the sweetness of her baking. Her fiction and poetry have been published in magazines such as Star*Line, Daily Science Fiction, and Apex Magazine, and she takes immense joy in crinkling words like little foil puppets.

Ethan Nahté

(Ethan Nahté) (Facebook) (Live ‘N’ Loud) Ethan Nahté is an author, journalist, screenwriter, photographer, musician, and he worked several years in TV/Film/Radio. More than two dozen of his stories and poems have been published spanning speculative fiction, historical fiction, comedy, and young adult by publishers such as Yard Dog Press, Skelos Press, 4 Star Stories, Pro Se Press, Alban Lake Publishing and more. Two of his short story collections have recently been published: Of Monsters & Madmen and The Undead Ate My Head.

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

Gloria Oliver

(Gloria Oliver) Expert party wallflower, Gloria Oliver can be a great asset during any multi language movie experience, able to translate some Spanish and Japanese when it's splattered without warning or subtitles at your screen. She also likes to dabble at movie reviews, which she posts on her blog every Friday.

A small press author, her latest work is a gender swap fantasy novel entitled Jewel of the Gods. For sample chapters, free fiction, and more, please visit her website.

Stephen Patrick

(Films) Stephen Patrick is a storyteller living in the Dallas area.  Born in the Kentucky bluegrass, his 30 years among the bluebonnets make Texas his home.

His latest story appears in an anthology of Texas horror entitled Road Kill: Texas Horror by Texas Authors.

Outside of the Lone Star state, he has won the Arkansas Writer's Conference Special Award (2009) and the Creme De La Creme award (2014) from the Oklahoma Writer's Federation, Inc. for best overall story.

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.

Alan J. Porter

(Alan J. Porter) (Twitter) Writer, and award-winning editor, Alan J. Porter, has written adventures featuring Sherlock Holmes, Allan Quatermain, Houdini, and private eye Rick Ruby; as well as his own New Pulp adventurers, The Raven and The Lotus Ronin. His pop-culture non-fiction work has featured properties such as Batman, Star Trek, The Beatles, and James Bond. He has also written comics for Tokyopop, BOOM Studios, Marvel, Disney, and Kid Domino.

Trakena Prevost

Trakena Prevost is from the great state of Texas, where everything IS bigger. She spends time running after her young son, trying to annoy her husband to distraction, and being completely obsessed with reading. She also happens to write the fantastic stories in her head--mostly to quiet the voices there. When not writing, Trakena works in HR and spends time with family.

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 new Yard Dog Press paranormal mystery, Death Under the Crescent Moon, and coauthor of The Four Redheads of the Apocalypse series. Like to shop online? She’s the editor-in-chief of AdoptAShelter.com, a free shop-to-donate website that benefits animal charities. She’s written numerous books and thousands of articles on cat care, behavior, and animal hauntings.

Ravenar

Ravenar (Amora, Linda Donahue, and Julia Mandala) performs traditional and SF/Fantasy-themed belly dance. They have appeared at several World Cons and at regional conventions in the Midwest and South.

Rob Rogers

(Rob Rogers) Rob’s first novel, Devil's Cape, a superhero thriller set in Louisiana, was a Pop Matters pick and HeroPress book of the year. Rob’s stories have appeared in Comets and Criminals magazine and the anthologies The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Triumph Over Tragedy, and This Mutant Life, plus an upcoming Pro Se Productions anthology. Rob lives in Richardson, Texas, where he writes about superheroes, pirates, aliens, mad cultists, dragons, interdimensional rifts, carnival freaks, and cowboys, often in the same stories.

Rie Sheridan Rose

(Rie Sheridan Rose) (The Conn-Man Chronicles) Rie's short stories appear in numerous anthologies, including Nightmare Stalkers and Dream Walkers Vols. 1 and 2, Avast Ye Airships, The Grotesquerie, and In the Bloodstream as well as Yard Dog Press' A Bubba in Time Saves None. Mocha Memoirs has the short story collection RieTales. Online, she has appeared in Cease, Cows, Lorelei Signal, and Four Star Stories. She is also the author of seven novels, five poetry chapbooks, and lyrics for songs on several of Marc Gunn's CDs. 

Amber Royer

(Amber Royer) (Twitter) Amber Royer writes fun science fiction involving chocolate, aliens, lovesick AIs, time travel, VR, and more. Her debut space opera Free Chocolate will be coming June 2018 from Angry Robot Books. She's also the co-author of two cookbooks (one of which is all about chocolate). She teaches creative writing in North Texas.

Ken Ruffin

(National Space Society of North Texas) A lifelong Trekkie, space enthusiast, and former Aerospace Engineering student, Ken was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the National Space Society (NSS). He’s also served five years as chapter president of NSS of North Texas: the 2014 and 2016 NSS Chapter of the Year! During local public events and monthly meetings, Ken presents "the latest and greatest information in space travel and space development" and advocates using technologies, energy, and materials from space to benefit humanity.

Shawn Scarber

(Shawn Scarber) Shawn Scarber lives in North Texas. He’s written a number of short stories that have appeared in magazines, collections, and e-zines. He’s a Clarion West 2006 graduate and an active member of the Future Classics Speculative Fiction Writers. By day he's an application developer specializing in full stack JavaScript programming for the web. He has 18 years experience in application product development, management, delivery, and he's a certified SCRUM master. Sorry, but he won't fix your computer.

Martin L. Shoemaker

(Blue Collar Space) (Facebook) Martin L. Shoemaker is a programmer who writes on the side…or maybe the other way around. Programming pays the bills, but a second place in the Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest earned him lunch with Buzz Aldrin! His Clarkesworld story "Today I Am Paul" won the 2016 WSFA Small Press Award and also appeared in four year’s best anthologies and seven international editions. His work has appeared in Analog, Galaxy’s Edge, Digital Science Fiction, and Forever Magazine.

Adrian Simmons

(Heroic Fantasy Quarterly) (Heroic Quarterly Fantasy Facebook) (Facebook) Adrian Simmons lives in Norman, Oklahoma. He has hoofed the Ouachita and Ozark Highlands trails, the England coast to coast trail, and the Camino de Santiago in Spain. His nonfiction has appeared in Black Gate and Strange Horizons. His fiction has popped up in James Gunn’s Ad Astra Magazine, Outposts of Beyond, Plasma Frequency and the anthologies Apotheosis and No Sh!t There I Was. In 2009 he founded the webzine Heroicfantasyquarterly.com and currently serves as 1/3 of its editorial staff.

Brad Sinor

(Brad Sinor) (LiveJournal) Bradley Sinor has been writing for five-sixths of his life, and has written many short stories, most of them published in a variety of anthologies and three short story collections. His new collection--The Game’s Afoot: A Sherlock Holmes Miscellany, published by Pro Se Productions--is now available on Amazon. He lives in Tulsa, OK, with his wife (writer and copy-editor) Sue Sinor, and four cats. He can be contacted on his Facebook page as Brad Sinor.

Sue Sinor

Sue Sinor started writing at the urging of her husband, Brad. She has solo stories, as-well-as several collaborations with Brad, in Yard Dog Press publications. They have collaborative stories in Grantville Gazette IV and the anthology Rotten Relations. She also has two stories in the charity anthology Small Bites. Together, she and Brad are the caretakers and household staff for four cats. They live in Tulsa, OK. She can be contacted on her Facebook page.

Amy Sisson

(Amy Sisson) (LibraryThing) Amy Sisson is a writer, book reviewer, librarian, dedicated Trekkie, and crazy cat lady. Her recent publications include stories in the Podcastle and Glittership podcasts. She is on a quest to read All the Things, and started in January 2015 by reading at least one short story per day, which she blogs about on her website.

Seth Skorkowsky

(Seth Skorkowsky) (Facebook) (YouTube) Raised in the swamps and pineforests of East Texas, Seth Skorkowsky gravitated to the darker sides offantasy, preferring horror and pulp heroes over knights in shining armor.

His debut novel, Dämoren, was published in 2014 asbook #1 in the Valducan series. The fourth novel, Redemptor, will releaseNovember 2017.

When not writing, Seth enjoys cheesy movies,tabletop RPGs, and traveling the world with his wife.

Libby A. Smith

Libby A. Smith is a frequent contributor to 4starstories. Other works have appeared in the anthology Avast, Ye Airships, several Caliber Comics, Atomic Mouse, and in other publications. An adaptation of The Story of the Rainbow Bridge was charted for counted cross stitch by Sue Hillis. Libby lives in Central Arkansas with three phat cats. She also acts on stage, in commercials, and in films, including The Hanging of David O Dodd which aired on the Arkansas PBS station.

Caroline Spector

(Caroline Spector) Caroline Spector has worked on numerous game modules, written three computer game hint books, three Shadowrun/Earthdawn novels, and is active in the Wild Cards universe. Her 2013 essay, “Power and Feminism in Westeros”, appeared in the collection Beyond the Wall: Exploring George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, and her novella, “Lies My Mother Told Me,” was in the World Fantasy Award winning anthology Dangerous Women. She’s also in the latest Wild Cards braided mosaic novel, High Stakes.

Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

(Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam) (Short Story Review) (Twitter) Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam’s fiction and poetry has appeared in over 40 magazines and anthologies such as Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Her novelette “The Orangery” was a finalist for the 2016 Nebula Award. In 2015 she released a collaborative fiction-jazz album Strange Monsters. She also created and coordinates the annual Art & Words Collaborative Show in Fort Worth, Texas.

Kathryn Sullivan

(Kathryn Sullivan) (Facebook) Kathryn is the author of The Crystal Throne, Agents & Adepts, Talking to Trees, and picture book Michael & the Elf. A Chick who has dug Time Lords for many years, she has an essay in the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords and a review in Outside In. Her newest short story, “Search and Rescue”, is an expansion of “The Rescue” from FenCon's 2009 program book. Any birdlike beings only slightly resemble her cockatoo owner.

Shanna Swendson

(Shanna Swendson) (Wikipedia) Shanna Swendson is best known as the author of the Enchanted, Inc. series from Ballantine Books, the YA steampunk fantasy Rebel Mechanics, and a variety of geeky pop-culture essays published by BenBella Books. She can occasionally be lured out of her writing cave by movies, promises of Doctor Who episodes, conventions, or new books calling to her from the library or bookstore. Or tea or chocolate (or tea and chocolate, but not chocolate tea).

Mel Tatum

(Mel Tatum) (Benefit CD for Parkinson's Research) Mel writes songs, short stories, essays, and assorted academic articles. Her short stories can be found in Yard Dog Press anthologies and her songs online, in filk circles, and on the CATH Benefit CD. For those desperately seeking an insomnia cure, her academic articles are also available online. Mel's newest project is a trivia/adventure board game called First: the Game of Knowledge and Discovery. The game is in final beta testing, headed for a Kickstarter launch the week of Fencon.

Tex Thompson

(The Tex Files) (Children of the Drought) (DFW Writers Conference) Arianne "Tex" Thompson is a home-grown Texas success story. After earning a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s in literature, she channeled her passions into the Children of the Drought--an internationally-published epic fantasy Western series from Solaris. Now a writing instructor at SMU and editor for the DFW Writers Conference, Tex is blazing a trail through conferences, workshops, and fan conventions alike--as an endlessly energetic, relentlessly enthusiastic one-woman stampede. Find her online at The Tex Files!

Katherine Turski

Kathy Turski writes the way she looks--short and funny. She’s published in Flush Fiction, A Bubba in Time Saves None, and The Anthology From Hell with Yard Dog Press, and Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. Her humor essay, "My Inner Fat Girl", is in You & Me Magazine.

Kathy lives in North Texas with her husband. She clerks for a local library and loves old movies, baking, and coming up with weird story ideas--mainly fueled with caffeine and chocolate.

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.

Shado Wiley

(Twitter) Shado blames his belief that imaginary reality is better than actual reality on George Lucas, E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, two weird uncles, and the eternal struggle between Autobots and Decepticons. He somehow manages to keep his amazingly talented, beautiful, and loving wife from beating him to death with one of his many TRANSFORMER action figures despite his inability to change light bulbs or clean the litter boxes in a timely fashion.