Generated: Wed Jan 12 22:40:04 EST 2011
Award-winning author Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for over fifteen years. Her works include the urban fantasies, Yesterday's Dreams, Tomorrow's Memories, and The Halfling's Court: A Bad-Ass Faerie Tale. She has edited the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, and No Longer Dreams, and has contributed to numerous other anthologies and collections, including Dark Furies, Breach the Hull, So It Begins, Space Pirates, Barbarians at the Jumpgate, and New Blood. She is a member of The Garden State Horror Writers and Broad Universe, a writer's organization focusing on promoting the works of women authors in the speculative genres. Danielle lives somewhere in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail, mother-in-law Teresa, and three extremely spoiled cats. She can be found on LiveJournal (damcphail), Facebook (Danielle Ackley-McPhail), and Twitter (DMcPhail). To learn more about her work, visit www.sidhenadaire.com.
Martha Adams at age 79 realizes some successes are not survivable, and retirement is one of these. She is developing a large Web page, named Adra, at www.mhada.info. The Web work is mostly text. Its topic is settlements in space. From time to time she brings up the Venice Beach camera in her computer to look at its image while wondering what she is doing here in Boston with the Winter coming on…
Roland Adams
Dawn Albright is involved in many different areas of fandom. She's written short stories, edited anthologies, (New Altars and Vision Quest). She is also a dollmaker and costumer. Her most recent project is a web journal called Polu Texni which can be found at http://www.polutexni.com.
Paul Aldred
Adria Alumbaugh
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 works as a software engineer now designing and programming robots, which is well ahead of the schedule that Dr. Asimov foresaw. Both of his daughters read genre fiction. His cats remain aloof.
Thomas A. Amoroso, MD, MPH is a practicing emergency physician, a health policy analyst, and has been a fan of fantasy and science fiction since his junior high librarian pointed him to Harry Harrison after he found Andre Norton on his own. After that, he devoured everything he could find in the limited libraries available in Europe for English language SF. Despite all of that, it took him way too many years to find the rest of organized fandom. He firmly believes in the power of human thinking to get us through crises-he just wishes we'd use some of it to avoid crises instead. He cannot wait for the autodoc, so he can stop being a doctor-because what he really wants to do is direct. All other aspects of science are just as fascinating, and he's fully prepared to expound on the scientific method, the uses and limits of statistics, and why most people aren't able to adequately judge scientific issues, even though it just isn't that hard.
Taken broadly, Erik Amundsen has had an interesting life; he's been a baker, an itinerant schoolteacher, worked for two governments and gotten in bar fights overseas. He now lives at the foot of a cemetery in central Connecticut where he writes nasty little stories and poems that shuffle around in the night when he's not looking. Or at least he hopes it's them; something's got to be making those noises and it's not the furnace. A few of them have made it to Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine, Goblin Fruit, Three Crows Press and Cabinet des Fees.
Brian Anderson has been building costumes since he was a little kid. The only things that have really changed are his access to power tools and credit cards.
Michael Anderson is a First Amendment lawyer. After he takes off his tie, he talks to audiences in ways they don't allow in federal court. He started in the San Francisco spoken word scene in 1990. He performed in slacker coffeehouses and actual grownup venues.In 1999, he moved to Boston, where he brought his manic, political style to storytelling. He wrote and performed Free-Style Shakespeare (2003) and Soccer NIghtmares, Soccer Dreams (2007) at Jimmy Tingle's Off-Broadway Theater. Next to his wife and son, he loves the essays of George Orwell, the Queen's Gambit attack in chess, and the first two Clash albums. He thinks: there's no such thing as free speech if you don't use it.
Rebecca Angel is a singer/songwriter with themes of fantasy, anime, and whatever strikes her fancy. Living in Albany, NY, she has performed around the NorthEast with raw emotion, and storytelling music. Rebecca also teaches songwriting, and encourages topics that explore the fantastic: ex-boyfriends as wizards, falling in love with an anime character, or a Viking scientist… She firmly believes that anyone can write a song explore their geeky side at the same time.
Roza Anthony
Kelley Armstrong is the NYT bestselling author of the "Women of the Otherworld" paranormal suspense series, "Darkest Powers" YA urban fantasy trilogy, and the Nadia Stafford crime series. A former computer programmer, she's now escaped her corporate cubicle and hopes never to return.
Lisa A. Ashton is a Master-level costumer from Maryland.She has won BIS in the Arisia Masquerade in the past with "Home Improvement", "The Standing Stone" (with Diane Seiler), and "Mary Gothins-Perfectly Evil". Last year's entry was "Victorian Lady's Hunting Costume". She lives for costuming, beads and hunting, and in mundane life is an Emergency PA. Current interests include collecting Victorian photo cards and researching clothing of the period. She was also last fall's Fan GOH at Albacon, and is Programming Director for CC29 in NJ and CC30 in Phoenix.
Erika Ataya
Deborah Atherton
Richard B. Auffrey
John Bacon
Nicole Baldassari
Joe Ball
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 a science article on the psychology of culture in Analog Science Fiction. When he's not writing, Steve is a management consultant and speaker. 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.
E. J. Barnes is a cartoonist and comic-book artist, having seen publication in Fortean Times, Funny Times, The Journal of Irreproducible Results, and Gauntlet. Her comic books are sold across the country. She teaches Basic Cartooning at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.
Chris Barney
Gena Bean
Howard Beatman—I have been interested in comic books since 1959, science fiction since 1966, and have been going to conventions since 1974. I have attended all the Arisias and took my nephew to Arisia for four straight years—the next generation of nerds is well in hand!
Jessica Belisle—Sci-Fi /Sword & Sorcery Geek, garb maven, cosplayer, Haute Couture intermediate, Shutterbug, Poet, published online writer, beginner gamer, and proud studier of things that make it difficult for her to sleep at night. Pagan ala Carte; a Student of Life and Mortuary Science. Was delighted to win a Hall Costume Award her first year at Arisia.
Kevin Benoit
Nick Bento
Lex Berman is editor of the Science Fiction Artists Database at www.yunchtime.net, and spends his time researching SF fandom, beatniks, Russian futurism, agit-prop, tea, and historical rebellions. He started contributing to fanzines in the 1970s, spent the 80s practicing various forms of mysticism and alcoholism in the mountains and deserts of America, and the 90s moved to Asia to seek the secrets of the Orient. After his mysterious reappearance in Boston several years ago, Lex has been compiling digital samples and indexes of Science Fiction and Fantasy artists for sharing with other fen.
Steve Berman has been a finalist for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy (Vintage, a Ghost Story), the Golden Crown Literary Award (as editor of So Fey), and multiple times for the Lambda Literary Award (as editor of Charmed Lives and Wilde Stories). He regularly speaks around the country on queer issues in young adult literature. He has a gay vampire story in the forthcoming anthology Teeth (ed. by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling).
Jason Berube
Michael Bilow
Abby Blachly
Roxanne Bland
W. "Ian" Blanton—A native of Phoenix, AZ who long ago decided he preferred actual seasons in Boston, Ian has been spending the last decade or so focusing on homeschooling his daughter while being gainfully employed as a Macintosh consultant. His previous life interests include western martial arts, historical re-enactment, and flinching whenever a "re-imagined" movie/ TV show is announced. His current project is running a Bronze Age/Fantasy GURPS Campaign for his daughter and her friends, which is rapidly spiraling out of control.
Crystal Blauss
blee has signed up for enough different types of panels that having one bio is kind of silly, because it reads like this: blee is a [bi] [poly] [kinky] guy [who has extensive experience with both theater-style and boffer LARPs] [and] [who is very excited to be pursuing a master's degree in library science]. Please cross off any parts of this bio which are not relevant to your interests.
Jenn Bliss
Wolverine Bloodthorn—I am a 15+ year Arisia dweller living near Boston MA. Back in the Park Plaza era I used to help out in the Security department. I fell in love with the Drum Circle, so much so, that last year and this year I am co-running it with 2 friends on Friday night!
Michael Bonet—I am one of the hosts of the Ninja vs Pirates Podcast, one of the designers of Ninja vs Pirates the card game, and Shenanigans the card game (as well as Hammers, Lasers, Mirrors) and currently a graduate student to become an English teacher.
Athene Boswel
Aimee Bouchard is a bi, poly, kinky, geeky, hippie, girly sort of gal. As a solo attorney practicing in Western MA she focuses on child welfare and domestic relations, and has published on same-sex estate planning. Her interests include protecting and creating rights for polyamorous relationships, the legalities of Kink and BDSM, and GLBT rights. Aimee lives in Springfield where she is on the board of the Western Mass Power Exchange, is an avid geocacher, and lives in a large poly, co-housing home.
Kathy Bourassa
Thomas Boutilier—Having spent eighteen years in the Boy Scouts and five years in the Navy Thomas was fairly certain he would be unprepared for anything life was going to hurl at him so he commenced a vigorous course of self education reading books, examining and studying anything he could get his hands on which lead to Thomas having a tendency to keep all books for future reference, large areas in his admittedly small apartment are overflowing with double-stacked, overstacked and teetering piles of books. When not reading books Thomas often spent time in the wilderness learning what works and what doesn't, ie. don't take a tent into the woods if you are unsure of its waterproofing because it WILL rain. Thomas has developed a system of kits to prepare himself for that OH CRAP! moment. While moderately successful dodging his own personal disasters Thomas's assistance helping other people and corporations prepare for disaster has been well received. Thomas loves roaming the tubes of the interwebs.
Angela K. Bowen
John Bowker's stories have appeared in several anthologies and magazines. He is an associate editor at the online magazine http://www.ideomancer.com
Bridget Joyce Boyle has held many positions from div. head up to gopher at many cons. She instructed Computer Literacy and Graphics Programs. She avidly supports sexual orientation equality for all people. As a transplanted Philadelphian, she makes her home in Merrimack, NH. With her husband Alex Latzko, she fights the graying of fandom the old fashion way by reproduction resulting in Aileen(5) and Saoirse(3) and Caoimhe(3). She enjoys her 1, Second and 3rd lives immensely
Anna R. Bradley is a gamer, a LARPer, a costumer and a volunteering junkie.
Cheryl Braverman—A native of MA, Cheryl has been attending cons for almost 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. Legally disabled, she hopes she can impart some knowledge and perspective to those dealing with managing their health problems, while participating in fandom. She can be seen around Arisia volunteering as a Heinlein Society "Naughty Nurse."
Adrianne Brennan stumbled into her love of writing by accident at the age of ten with a creative writing assignment for her science class. The end result was a science fiction comedy featuring numerous puns regarding vegetables. Adrianne's works were previously published through Aphrodite's Apples Press and are now published through Freya's Bower and Love You Divine, and contracted with Running Press and Torquere Press. In addition, she is a member of EPIC, Infinite Worlds of Fantasy Authors, the Midnight Seductions Authors group, and is an alumnus member of Kappa Gamma Psi, a co-ed national professional performing arts fraternity. The author resides in Boston, Massachusetts with two cats and a car she has aptly named "the TARDIS." She assures her readers that people tell her it looks bigger on the inside.
Peter Breton has been attending Arisia off and on since the mid-90s. He is a software engineer who lives in Arlington with his wife, daughter and son.
Darrell Brown
Heather Brown
Nat Budin co-founded Alleged Entertainment in 2003 and has written and run over a dozen LARPs with the group since then, including two award-winning games. He also served as con chair of Intercon I in 2009, and the first three Festival of the LARPs conventions at Brandeis University.
Lauren P. Burka
Liz Cademy Pfeffer is the CMO (Chief Maternal Officer) of the Pfeffer family: herself, one "mad engineer" husband and 2 high-energy kids. In a previous life, Liz sat in a small padded cubicle under a nameplate that said "Financial Analyst". Now, she bills herself as a professional polymath, doing things as diverse as designing and selling t-shirts (as Cartesian Bear Industries), serving as an informal advocate to the gifted AS/NLD community, building furniture, leading grade school kids on nature hikes, sewing and knitting (and designing patterns for both) and working at science fiction cons.
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 Root of the Matter. Cameron speaks on a variety of topics and is frequently in the company of Dagnir, his dragon.
Calliope is a former English teacher and casual student of science fiction who blames Robert Heinlein for first introducing her to open relationships. She enjoys balancing a June Cleaver-esque love of cooking from scratch and household management with a kinky/poly lifestyle all while holding down a job, taking classes and being involved in the larger community in ways she adores. As a former freshman English teacher, she has a keen understanding of power dynamics! Together with Darkteddybear, she has recently taught at numerous conferences and meetings, including Floating World, Western Mass Power Exchange and Conversio Virium and looks forward to the chance to share new ideas and perspectives and hear those of others about the overlap of sexuality and science fiction/fantasy.
David Camacho—A graduate student in geographic information system, whose interests include folklore, and the mad sciences.
Hilary Caplan
Michela Carlson—A craftor of all things cyber punk, futuristic, Victorian, horror, Scifi, Fantasy and yes steampunk.
Eric Carter
Vonnie Carts-Powell is a science writer, book author, SF enthusiast, and an enthusiastic follower of the transformative arts pursued by fandom.
Hugh Casey is a writer, blogger, actor, filmmaker, photographer, convention promoter, geek, and fan. He currently lives in King of Prussia, PA. He is the founder of "Parents Basement Productions", and has produced, directed, written, and performed in two short films: "Teddy's Big Escape", and "Young Geeks In Love". Both are on YouTube.com. Hugh has been a long-time fan of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and has been part of fandom for many years. He has served as the president and vice-president of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society (PSFS), as well as on it's board of directors. He was chairman of the Society's annual conference, PHILCON, in 2003, and vice-chairman in 2002. He attends, and is often a panelist at, many cons and events, such as Arisia, Balticon, and Wicked Faire. In 2010 he was the "Guest of Awesome" at 5 Pi-Con, in Enfield, CT. You can read his blog at: www.hughcasey.com, or you can check out his photography at http://hughborg.deviantart.com.
Deborah Castellano (http://www.deborahmcastellano.com ) has been demanding culture for the masses since her SalonCon tenure starting in 2006. When she isn't instigating mini revolutions, she is a freelance and smut writer, crafter specializing in hand dyed & hand spun yarn, and blogging about kitchen witchcraft & radical practicality.
Ann Catelli is the current president of the International Costumers Guild and a past officer of the local chapter, Northern Lights Costumers Guild. She competes at the master level in F&SF and Historic Masquerades, and plays with cloth, string, and dolls.
Mary Catelli is a writer whose work has appeared in Sword and Sorceress anthologies and Weird Tales. She lives in Connecticut, where she daylights as a computer programmer.
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 Odyssey, widely considered one of the best workshops for writers of SF/F/H, held each summer in Manchester, NH. (www.jeannecavelos.com)
Thomas Champion
Cara Chiaramonte
Dr. Amy Chused is a physician at Weill Cornell Medical Center in the Division of Hospital Medicine. She also works in data mining to evaluate efficiency and quality measures for the Hospitalist Division. In her free time, she reads SF & F and fanfic, plays boardgames and computer games, debates medical ethics, and slaves away on the Arisia Dealers Row.
Vikki Ciaffone has been writing badly since the age of five, and reading fairly well since long before that. She is a fan of urban fantasy, pulp and many other genres, over-educated in literature, history and more, and spent more years than was possibly good for her in theater. She loves coming to Arisia to catch up with old friends and make new ones. Say hi!
Stephanie Clarkson ([email protected]) sometimes called thespian, has been attending Arisia since 1992, and though she has lived in Toronto, Rockville MD, Arlington VA, Raleigh NC, and Atlanta GA, she always feels compelled to get to Arisia. She now lives in the Boston area. A web developer, puppeteer & creator, journalist/copywriter and most recently a bartender, she is free to hire or flirt with. http://stephanieclarkson.com
Randee Dawn Cohen—A freelance writer for such entertainment publications as "The Hollywood Reporter," "The Los Angeles Times" and "Moving Pictures Magazine," Randee Dawn recently had her first zombie story published in the "Well-Told Tales" podcast, where she also serves as a submissions editor. She was also a co-author (with Susan Green) of "The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion," which published in September 2009. She will write for food.
Ian Condry is a cultural anthropologist who studies Japanese popular culture. He is associate professor in Foreign Languages and Literatures at the MIT. He likes the anime "Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei" and "Samurai Champloo," and is hooked on the manga "Terumae Romae." He is the author of "Hip-Hop Japan" (2006). His forthcoming book is "The Soul of Anime" to be published in spring 2012. His work focuses on "globalization from below," that is, cultural forms that become transnational despite a relative absence of support from major corporations and governments. He founded and organizes the MIT Cool Japan research project (http://mitcooljapan.com), which explores the cultural connections, dangerous distortions, and critical potential of popular culture through seminars, international conferences, and cultural events. From 2009–10 he was Associate Director of MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program. Web: http://iancondry.com
Amy Lee Connell
Christine Connell has been a sf reader for over 50 years, although she didn't discover conventions until 20 years later. She is mostly active in costume fandom, assisting backstage in the contestants' Green Room, occasionally as a judge, and infrequently as a contestant. She has won costume awards at regional conventions, WorldCons and Costume-Cons, and competes as a Master. Her SF tastes are eclectic, although she is especially fond of alternate history. She and her husband also collect SF art, although their many bookcases limit the available wall space to display it.
Patrick Connelly
Jerome C. Conner is a fan boy. He plays in just about any genre and loves it all. His primary fandoms are Science Fiction and Comic Books, which he got into at a young age. Jerome is a self-labeled "Sci-fi Geek". He's been going to cons, of all sorts, since 1983 and has helped run a number of sci-fi cons in New England. He's been involved in Star Trek Fandom, giving his time and energy to that group on many levels over the past 20+ years. He's an award-winning Master-level costumer and current head of Northern Lights: New England's Costuming Association. He's seen at many of the local Comic Book Conventions, where he's known as "The Hawkeye Guy". He's also been involved in the Anime scene, not just talking to costumers about it, but enjoying the local cons and has even helped behind the scenes at some.
Josh Conway
Emily Coombs is both a scientist and slightly mad, some days more than others.
Drawing much of its aesthetic from steampunk fashions and the neo-vintage movement, Psyche Corporation seeks to combine art, fashion, dance, and science within the framework of a technomythological world of life-extension and virtual reality servers full of wonderful nightmares. Psyche Corp. specializes in an unique genre often described as dark victorian fairytale science fiction. The band itself is named after a dream manufacture group from the future where widespread neural implants have allowed people to jack their nerve endings directly into the internet and download dreams. As a performance group, Psyche Corporation has at various times incorporated robot exhibitions, steel origami cranes, contortion, corsets, flashlights, and old radios. The music spans genres; a recent song has mixed tribal singing with classical piano while embedding the DNA of deadly polio virus into its percussion.
John Costello has an MA in archaeology and has dug in Kenya, Sardinia, PA, MA, and NH. The sale of four stories (not since repeated) got him SFWA membership; from the late 80s onward he translated articles on Russian SF for Locus, and two books by Kir Bulychev. Hopefully the (authorized) collection of Murray Leinster's non-SF short fiction he edited will be out by the time of the convention.
Kay Coughlin
Katherine Crighton is the coauthor of SALT AND SILVER (Tor, May '09), under the name Anna Katherine. Her day job is as a production editor at a nonfiction publisher; she is currently a Massachusetts local, with her wife, daughter, housemate, and a pair of cats.
Morgan Crooks
Susan Hanniford Crowley writes science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal romance, is a member of SFWA and RWA, and an associate editor with Space and Time magazine. Susan's fantasy work appeared in Sword & Sorceress anthologies. Her science fiction story "She Came to Sing" appeared in (Jan. 2009) Beyond Centauri magazine. In addition, Susan is a member of the Futuristic, Fantasy, and Paranormal chapter of the RWA. She is the founder of the Nights of Passion blog and is the author of the Vampires in Manhattan series. Her latest releases from Tease Publishing LLC are the 4th in the series: Vampire in the Basement, her mythology romance Poseidon's Catch, and Mrs. Bright's Tea Room, her steampunk romance. Susan will be reading from and signing her vampire/supernatural romance novel The Stormy Love Life of Laura Cordelais at Arisia. Her website is http://www.susanhannifordcrowley.com Her twitter name is SHCrowley.Her Facebook name is Susan Hanniford Crowley.
Patricia M. Cryan is, by turns, a retailer who never sleeps, a walking library of children's literature, a fan of hard science, harder science fiction, and literary horror tales, and a freelance editor who makes strong folk cry at regular intervals. She serves as General Partner for Mike's Comics—http://www.mikescomics.com—a mail order and Internet company established in 1976, which carries audio dramas, science fiction and fantasy books and collectibles, independent comics titles, graphic novels and trade paperback comics collections, roleplaying game supplies, fantasy greeting cards, and much, much more. She has been active in bookselling since 1987 and is a member of The New England Children's Bookselling Advisory Council. Her efforts to establish a worldwide wholesale company devoted exclusively to speculative fiction in print, audio, and sequential art can be found at http://www.spicadistribution.com.
Miranda Cummings
Leah Cypess is the author of Mistwood (HarperCollins, May 2010), and its companion novel, which will be published in 2011. She lives in Brookline, MA. Her website is: www.leahcypess.com.
Charlene Taylor D'Alessio has been a F&SF illustrator for over 30 years. She is known for her exquisite painted Ties, humorous Fantasy paintings of Cats, Hamsters, Dragons, Owls, and miniature astronomical pieces. Her latest published piece is Merlin's Dilemma. Currently she is also illustrating a Children's Book. Look for Charlene's Artwork at most SciFi Con artshows.
David D'Antonio
Michelle D'Entremont—Mijan 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, Mijan 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 Don't Ask, Don't Tell 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, Mijan is a scientist, skeptic, and social secularist who feels that this is an essential perspective so often ignored in political discussions of civil liberties. In real life (what's real?), Mijan keeps busy saving the universe from itself by playing with toxic, infectious, and radioactive materials. Sadly, this has not yet led to any superhero mutations, but hey, there's still time.
Mike D'Errioc
Garen Daly has been in the dark for more years than acceptable. First as an award winning film booker & exhibitor then as a movie industry analyst & commentator. He is a regular contributor to WGBH, NH Public Radio, NE Cable News and several web sites, but is perhaps best known as the producer of THE BOSTON SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL, now in its 36th year, and co-producer for TERRORTHON, a yearly exploration of horror film & live events.
Loren Damewood has been creating intricate decorative knots in precious metal for over 28 years, and recently retired from a career in the aerospace industry ("Not exactly rocket science… more like rocket tech.") to teach workshops on his methods full time. He taught himself the techniques he uses, by trial and error, and delights in helping others to bypass the painful and tedious stages and go right to the shiny stuff.
Troy Daniels
Carl Danielson is the co-writer/director of "2010: Our Hideous Future: The Musical!" The web series he wrote, "The Way of the Warrior-Bunny" will appear at unreliable-narrator.com in spring/summer. He is the artistic director of the Unreliable Narrator Theater Group.
Alexander C. Danner is a writer of comics and co-author of the textbook Character Design for Graphic Novels. He teaches Writing the Graphic Novel at Emerson College. His comics can be found online at TwentySevenLetters.com (experiments) and PictureStoryTheater.com (fables and fairy tales).
Darkteddybear is an ordained minister and lifelong geek, who found his first theological insights from Star Wars, and first learned the mental aspects of BDSM from David Bowie in Labyrinth. He has spent many years examining interconnections of sexuality, religion, polyamory and kink, particularly in regard to science fiction and fantasy, and has taught previously in both kink and vanilla settings, particularly on what it means to be a feminist male kinkster. If left alone with a guitar, he is liable to break out into renditions of songs from Jonathon Coulton or the Whedonverse.
Dash—I am an attorney, editor, linguist and social justice activist. I am the founder and editor-in-chief of Expanded Horizons, a monthly online speculative fiction 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. In all my work, I try to use my skills, talents, sensitivities and awarenesses to bring people together to prevent and solve problems and to promote social justice. I want to fight the "fear of the other" with every tool at my disposal, and to show people that there is nothing so esoteric as cannot also be completely normal.
Jim Dattolo
Robert Davies write stories about lobster girls and laser beams. Mimetic fiction is for wimps. Raised on a steady diet of weird paperbacks, Infocom games, and comic books, he has always wanted to be a writer (Well, actually, he first wanted to be a dinosaur, but that didn't work out so well). When not writing, he likes to travel around the world searching for the ideal pint of beer and the perfect bookstore. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, with his high school sweetheart Sara, two cats, Lilith and Tiamat, and a lot of books. His stories have appeared in The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2010, Weird Tales, Interzone, Shroud Magazine, and Murky Depths. His horror-thriller novella, Hiram Grange and the Digital Eucharist, was recently released.
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.)
Kelly Davis
Susan de Guardiola (http://www.blank.org/susan) is best-known for her role as a masquerade emcee at the 1997 and 2004 worldcons as well as numerous east coast local and regional conventions. She is a reviewer for Publishers Weekly and a social dance historian who may often be found in musty library stacks researching dance from the 16th to the early 20th century, which she teaches at workshops and dance events across the United States. Susan also makes costumes and blogs about both dance history (at Capering and Kickery, http://www.kickery.com) and the rest of her life (at Rixosous, http://www.rixosous.com). In her spare time, she plays high-speed online Scrabble.
Lori Del Genis (weegoddess on LJ) is back in the US with a business that eats her brain and feeds her soul. She currently spends her time creating eco-friendly/ethical wedding attire and saving the world through pretty pretty dresses. Lori currently lives in State College, PA with her spoose Jonathan but can be seen lurking around the Boston area whenever possible.
Patrick Delahanty is perhaps best known as the founder and host of The Chibi Project where he is responsible for experiments on anime toys. He is also the creator of AnimeCons.com, the largest source for anime convention information on the Internet. Patrick is big fan of conventions. He has attended more than 75 of them and is one of the founders of both Anime Boston and Providence Anime Conference. He has hosted his popular improv event, Anime Unscripted, 30+ times at 11 different conventions in two countries and four time zones. In addition to being a con whore, Patrick is also the voice of the fighter pilots in the award-winning game Escape Velocity and its sequel, EV: Override. You should follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/pdelahanty.
Chris Denmead—I run a horror themed radio show on 91.3 fm wcuw. The name of the show is Dr.Chris Radio of Horror program, we cover horror movies and sci fi films. Some of the guests we have had on are Malcolm McDowell, Doug Jones, Dee Wallace Stone, Steve Niles and this years guest of honnor writer Gardner Dozois
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 50 short-short "Dern Grim Children's Short Bedtime Stories intended to be Morally Instructive to the Listener and Cathartically Therapeutic for the Reader," plus other children's stories. If you have at least 45 seconds to spare, ask to hear one if you see him and he's not otherwise busy!
John Deschene
Mario Di Giacomo is a voracious reader, avid film-goer, and author of the "Beware Of Geek" blog: http://bewareofgeek.blogspot.com.
Dan Diamond has organized Realms events at Vericon, and helped to run the Realms activities Arisia 2008, 2009 and 2010. Dan has been LARPing since 1990, SCA shortly thereafter, and tabletop gaming since he was eight. Science fiction caught his interest when as a kid he discovered his dad's books and hasn't looked back since.
Karen Diamond
Domingo Diaz
Jack Dietz
Samantha Dings—Back to Events Division! After a year as Corporate President, Samantha is 'taking it easy' as an Assistant Division Head.
Andrew V. Disbrow
Michael Dlott "Lawyer Mike" has been running games for over 20 years and has frequently run White Wolf Larps at local area cons such as Arisia and Anime Boston. He resides in Sharon with his Fiance Melissa Hamilton and their two cats.
David Dodson
Kamela Donlinova
Josh Doremus
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 Panam' in 1988 in order to write full-time. Since then they have lived in Colebrook, New Hampshire, where they write science fiction and fantasy for children, teenagers, and adults.
Katie Drexel
Michelle Driscoll is poly, kinky, pansexual, and proud to haveserved as a 2009 Co-chair and 2010 Content Director for the Transcending Boundaries Conference. A former university instructor of Gender Studies and English, Michelle runs a monthly polyamory/BDSM discussion group for The Society in Hartford, CT and is co-facilitator of the Western MA Polyamory group. She lives in Springfield MA with her wife and two boyfriends, their 4 cats and a dog.
Becca Driver
Tananarive Due
Katie Dumas—At the first convention I remember attending, my mother went into labor—dressed in full Romulan garb—to have my little brother. I was four years old. Since then, I have been to dozens of conventions all over the country ranging in interest from Buffy to anime to Star Trek and everything in-between. I am an actress, singer, costumer, and DJ—but more importantly, I am a young fan and proud of it!
A Western states native (Utah, California), Mary Dumas, moved to New England in 2004. She chaired the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fantasy convention, Cauldron Con in 2005. She co-founded the Anime Kaiju Experience section of the United Fan Con's New England Fan Experience in 2008. In 2009 she was the Chairman of New England Fan Experience, welcoming guest of honor Leonard Nimoy and hosting the Mayor of Boston's first Leonard Nimoy Day. For a third year Mary is assisting with the Anime programming for Arisia. She has joined the staff of Anime Boston and Worldcon for 2011.
Paul Dworkin
Jerel Dye is an artist, illustrator, designer and writer/creator of numerous comics projects. His artwork has appeared in galleries throughout the country, in childrens books, museum exhibitions, comics anthologies and several online magazines. He received his MFA from Mass College of Art. You can read more about his various projects and see examples of his work at www.jereldye.com
Jill Eastlake has been around SF conventions for over 40 years. She volunteered at her first Boskone and has worked on almost every convention she has attended since then. She is the first person to have chaired a Boskone (11 with husband Donald, and then 15) and an Arisia ('09). She has done both back-of-the-house (Operations, Treasury, Volunteers) and visible work (Art Show, Events, Masquerade, and even Program once) for local conventions, World SF Conventions, and Costume-Cons. She is a Master Costumer. And, hopefully, will be around for another 40 years as a part of this fannish family.
Nicole Edgecomb
Bob Eggleton—9 time Hugo Winner. Worked on the films SPHERE(1997), JIMMY NEUTRON BOY GENIIUS(2001) and THE ANT BULLY(2006) as well as the indpendent film THE iDOL(2007) and designed visual effects for Star Trek in 1996. Author or co-author of seven books, the most current one is DRAGON'S DOMAIN: THE ULTIMATE DRAGON PAINTING BOOK from Impact Books.
Genevieve Iseult Eldredge is the kind of girl you don't want to meet in a dark alley. Five foot nothing and red-haired with a temper to match, she holds a black belt in Goju-Ryu Karate and can craft words faster than a ninja throws shuriken. A panelist at Arisia, PhilCon, and Pi-Con, she writes high fantasy and fantasy erotica (under a pseudonym so her mom doesn't disown her). She is currently pursuing her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University. Her publications as 'Kierstin Cherry, Semi-shy Erotica Writer' include the erotic vampire stories: 'Taken' featured in Blood Surrender by Blue Moon Books, 'Enslaved,' appearing in the Circlet Press ebook Like Crimson Droplets and 'Graced' featured in the Women of the Bite by Circlet Press ebooks and in print by Alyson Books.
Wendy Ellertson, www.ellertson.com, is an internationally known mixed media and leather artisan who creates story filled three dimensional mixed media mythic figures, masks and magical books. Her blog: www.wendyellertson.blogspot.com chronicles the transformation of materials into playful embodiments of myth as well as her reflections as she wanders the road of an artist. She is on the Executive Board of the International Arts Foundation where she networks with others who thrive in the world of the "in between" and enthusiastically support border crossing art.
Paul Estin (a.k.a. "Happy Fun Paul") is a long-time 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 alphabetical interests are '80s 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!!!
Fabrisse is a fanfiction writer who lives in Washington DC. It's one way to put her BA in English to good use. She has been attending Arisia for over a decade.
Andrew Farago is the curator of the Cartoon Art Museum, and husband to mad creator Shaenon K. Garrity. He is also the co-author of the "The Looney Tunes Treasury" and an expert on all things comics.
Kate Farb-Johnson is an all-around geek, especially interested in filk, gaming, mathematics, literary SF and other geeks. Lately, she has taken to volunteering at SF cons, including running the Music track at Arisia this year.
Dr. Alex Feinman hacks hackers for a living; he provides usability support for designing software development and testing environments. His hobbies include all but one of the following: audio production, carpentry, glass-blowing, leather-working, miniatures gaming and painting, music, role-playing, sociology, and writing a little SF on the side. His novel "Duplicate" is available for sale online and at Arisia.
Stuart Ferguson is a math teacher at a school for students with above average intelligence and emotional differences. Stuart is a youth sword instructor, so please ask him if you want your children to learn the knightly art of the sword. Stuart is also a storyteller with 20 years' experience, although some would say the first ten years don't count because he wasn't over 18 yet.
Adam Ferraro has been an anime fan since he was 16 years old and is one of the Founders of Anime Boston
Paul Fest
Tony Finan is a scarred veteran of many a decade of con running, including spending over a decade running the film program at Philcon. He is also active with the Philadelphia Film Festival and Cinefest. He is an avid film and media fan specializing in Asian and British science fiction and horror.
Kristina Finan—I have been sewing and costuming since 1982. Been a Dr.Who fan since 1979. Been a Science Fiction fan since I saw the first Man walk on the moon, live. Now I attemped to write it, as I keep a full-time job as Custom Framer, and a part-time job keeping a husband.
Faye Finegan
Tuna Oddfellow AKA Fish Fishman—Tuna Oddfellow was born in Second Life in mid-2005 as the online alter ego of local and well-known magician, Fish "the Magish" Fishman. When a magician enters virtual space his first thought is,"how do you get that WOW feeling from folks in a place where they learn to fly on day one?" So coming from a thimbleful of knowledge of Photoshop, Fish and Tuna conspired to create a new art form, and the Odd Ball was born. Today, Fish's company, Oddfellow Studios, Inc. has patents in the works, they've created a way to alter brain waves through immersive 3D— it's gorgeous too. Having uncovered a previously unspecified principle of perceptual psych, Oddfellow Studios weds science to art in virtual space to benefit of the real world, with posited applications to therapies for PTSD/anxiety disorders, drug addictions, insomnia,… But to someone without that need, the alpha/theta-like trance feels like getting stoned over the Internet. He still does magic in the real world — too.
Ginger Fitzsimmons
Jen Flis
William Frank, aka "scifantasy," is a fan jack-of-all-trades and a programmer-turned-law student (NYU Law Class of 2011). Professionally, he specializes in intellectual property law; fannishly, he has interests in pretty much everything, but will probably be found in the filk room most of the time. Will has also appeared on reality television, specifically "Beauty and the Geek" in Fall 2007. Guess which he was. This is Will's third Arisia as a congoer, and his first as a panelist.
Bill Frankenfield—Special effects makeup artist, studied Art and theatre, graduating in '82 an avid costumer and prosthetics artist raven is the owner of Raven Desigh / Ram FX studios in New Jersey http://ravendesigngroup.com
Terry Franklin is a writer of science fiction and fact. He also gets himself caught up in Libertarian politics. Over the coming year, he will be coordinating the "Freedom Bus Caravan," an effort to bring marijuana legalization protesters to the circus of New Hampshire's primary season, and to get activists to each campaign stop by every presidential candidate.
William Freedman, author of "Land That I Love" and the forthcoming "Mighty Mighty," is a writer of science fiction, dark fantasy and horror who injects humor, to greater or lesser degree, into his work. His novelette "Forever and Ever, Amen" appeared in the 2006 Spirit House chapbook and his short story "Intentions" is scheduled to be published this year in Ash-Tree Press's Holy Horrors anthology. He is a founding member of the Long Island-based LISciFi critique group and a perennial Literature-track panelist at the I-Con convention in Stony Brook, N.Y. He holds degrees in journalism and international business and his non-fiction work has appeared in Investor's Business Daily, Euromoney Books, Global Finance magazine, Treasury & Risk Management magazine, and many other business and financial news outlets both in print and online.
William Frisbee
Adam Fromm is a writer, musician, published crossword constructor, game developer, and multiple-year recipient of the prestigious Guy Most Likely To Apologize Unnecessarily for Stuff Trophy. He has recently relocated from upstate New York to the Boston area, where he can be found in close proximity to his guitar, an overworked MacBook and that novel that he really is going to finish one of these days, honest.
Ed Fuqua is a Young Adult Librarian as well as being a writer, a poet and a 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. He is a performer and a director at King Richard's Faire in Carver MA.
Shana Fuqua has a BA in music. She is an nine year veteran of King Richard's Faire where she spent one year as assistant apprentice music director and work this past year as admin. assistant to the apprentice program. 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.
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, 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 was a member of the Board of the Celtic League American Branch and a former math textbook writer. His environmental horror comic book story in Psychosis #2 came out in 2008. www.comicbookradioshow.com
Jaime Garmendia is a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable, where he writes, produces, publicizes, and markets independent comics of all genres. He is also the Comics Track manager this year.
Shaenon Garrity has written and/or drawn an awful lot of webcomics, including Narbonic, Skin Horse, and Li'l Mell. She occasionally writes comics for Marvel and is the author of the book CLAMP in America. Because none of this actually earns her a living, she works as a freelance manga editor for VIZ Media.
Marty Gear is a past Arisia fan guest of honor. He has been making, wearing and competing costumes, running costume competitions, judging costumes, & M/Cing convention masquerades for more years than he likes to count. Along the way he has also run a few Costume Cons. In between costume "stuff" he reads Science Fiction helps run S-F cons, and does tech. He pays for all this con stuff by negotiating contracts with the Federal Government. He really loves Arisia because he doesn't have to help run it.
Joel Gill is the Chair of The Foundations Department at the NH Institute of Art. Originally from Roanoke Virginia, (but he does not hold that against New England) he received his MFA in Painting from BU. He writes and draws StrangeFruit. He is not currently in a bad mood. Feel free to "like" this Bio.
Greer Gilman's new book, Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter's Tales, is set in the Northern mythscape of her much-praised novel, Moonwise. Her Cloudish tales have won a Tiptree, a World Fantasy Award and a Crawford Award, and have been nominated for the Nebula, and Mythopoeic Fantasy awards. Her love of British lore and landscape, of its rituals and ballads, is a constant in her work; her love of language at its roots. Her books are written for the ear, as much as for the understanding. Besides her two books, she has published other short work, poetry, and criticism. Her chapter on 'The Languages of the Fantastic' will appear in The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature.
Laura Anne Gilman
Ethan Gilsdorf is the author of "Fantasy Freaks & Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, & Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms." Named a "Must-Read" book by the Massachusetts Book Awards, "Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks" is an award-winning travel memoir that investigates fantasy & gaming subcultures—from D&D players to World of Warcraft addicts, from Harry Potter fans to live-action role-players. What lures people to fantasy realms, and what meaning do they find there? National Public Radio described the book as "Lord of the Rings meets Jack Kerouac's On the Road." Wired.com proclaimed, "For anyone who has ever spent time within imaginary realms, the book will speak volumes." He publishes regularly in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, Washington Post, & other magazines and newspapers worldwide. His blog "Geek Pride" is seen on PsychologyToday.com and appears regularly at cons. More info: http://www.fantasyfreaksbook.com.
Jenn Giorno
Bendy Yoga Girl has been teaching and training groups and individuals for almost 30 years. She has extensive experience with body/mind disciplines including several forms of meditation and yoga, as well as cognitive therapeutic techniques, all of which she has studied for decades. She created the first internal training program for the search engine that rhymes with Taboo! and has worked professionally as an instructional designer, Sexpert, Goddess of Ontology, teacher, trainer, business process engineer, information architect, visual artist, writer, dancer, singer and musician. Currently based in Boston, Bendy Yoga Girl co-founded MAsTMass, runs The Submissives' Round Table, is the Speaker Liaison for NELA's programming team, volunteers with the NCSF, and is an activist for personal freedom. Bendy presents on a wide variety of topics, including bottoming, communication/negotiation, sexuality, yoga and meditation for kinksters, body language, and energy play.
Mary Goodman
Sarah Goodman is an anthropologist by training and a gentlewoman by profession. Everything else is a hobby… Sarah, or one of her myriad personae, are likely to pop up anywhere on the space-time continuum, studying humankind and other semi-sapient and sapient races with the professed purpose of learning that which is necessary to increase the general satisfaction level of the multiverse. A fan since the late mimeocene, she is also active in various trans-temporal re-creation activities including her current claim to fame as costumer of the (semi-) nude theatrical extravaganza, Saucy French Postcards, at the Dickens Fair. When not otherwise caught up in saving the galaxy, or investigating other centuries, she pursues her interests in law, culture, religion, dance, clothing, good food, friends, cats, and people in general from Tranquility Base, her Beaux-Arts-and-Crafts bungalow by the Lake in Oakland, California.
Alicia Ellen Goranson is an award-winning Boston author of books, plays and audio drama. Her first novel, Supervillainz, is a 2007 Lambda Literary Award finalist and winner of the 2004 Project QueerLit Award. She is currently writing, directing and producing the Post-Meridian Radio Player's audio drama, "The Mask of Inanna", a thriller which includes both unheard episodes of a 1950's horror radio show and a modern tale of mystery, passion and enormous speed bumps. You can listen to it at themaskofianna.com. She has performed at events including the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival, Cornell University and LitQuake in San Francisco. Charlie Jane Anders, editor of io9.com and She's Such a Geek, says, "Alicia Goranson's superpowers include searing vision, a powerful voice, and the ability to leap over genre boundaries." You can learn more about her at her website: alicia-goranson.com.
Cassia Gordon
Zephyr Goza
Lauren Gray
Justine Graykin is a free-lance philosopher who writes antidystopian SF (among other things) and is sustained by her deep and abiding faith in Science. She lives with 1 husband, 2 kids, 3 dogs, too many cats and a flock of chickens on 50 acres in New Hampshire. Boasting six degrees of separation from Harvard, Cornell and Dartmouth, she is a member of Broad Universe, and has had several pieces of short fiction published and anthologized. Of course, there is a website, justinegraykin.com. Science fiction doesn't have to be cold to be hard.
Esh Grey aka Cookie—Im a house keeper, nanny, personal assistant, gourmet chef, alchemist, caffeine/tattoo/piercing addict, chaos maker, book reader, erotica lover, dancer, mohawked, sacred mother wife and girl friend who still somehow manages to find time to have and be fun!! Im also the root of all thats evil but you can call me Cookie!
Valerie Grimm is part of the team running Nanopress (nanopress.ca), a small Canadian science fiction publisher based in Montréal, which has published two books, "Blood Out of a Stone", a collection of short stories by Élisabeth Vonarburg released in August 2009, and "The Aurora Awards-Thirty Years of Canadian Science Fiction", with a third title slated to come out in early 2011. Other projects include The Portal (sffportal.net), an international online review of short-form science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and activities in the demoscene such as founding @party, a small computer art event — join us in June 2011 (atparty-demoscene.net)! Involved in fandom since 2003 as a stagetech, Val took on other roles, among them Anglophone Press Liaison for the 67th Worldcon. Other activities include organizing bone marrow registry drives at several science fiction conventions and teaching English as a foreign language as a volunteer for Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts.
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, experiencing the South, Midwest, Washington D.C, and New England all before age 10. She graduated in biology at Swarthmore College, then went to UCLA. She finished her graduate work at Oxford University, where she earned a D.Phil. in zoology. Between UCLA and Oxford she worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service on a Japanese fishing ship in the Bering Sea. While on board, she won a pushups contest with the ship's officers. After Oxford, she did research on sleep and circadian rhythms, then took a job at Curry College where she teaches Human Anatomy & Physiology. She has also done research on respiratory physiology at Harvard School of Public Health. She enjoys outdoor sports and has traveled widely, including recent trips to Transylvania, Alaska and China. She is married, has two children, and lives in Bedford, Massachusetts.
Sarah Haglers
Andrea Hairston was a math/physics major in college until she did special effects for a show and then she ran off to the theatre and became an artist. She is the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre and has created original productions with music, dance, and masks for over 30 years. She is the L. Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre & Afro American Studies at Smith College. Her plays have been produced at Yale Rep, Rites and Reason, the Kennedy Center, StageWest, and on Public Radio and Television. She has translated plays by Michael Ende and Kaca Celan from German to English. "Griots of the Galaxy," a short story, appears in SO LONG BEEN DREAMING: POSTCOLONIAL VISIONS OF THE FUTURE, edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan. Her first novel, MINDSCAPE, won the Carl Brandon Parallax Award and was shortlisted for the Phillip K Dick and Tiptree Awards. REDWOOD AND WILDFIRE will be published by Aqueduct Press in 2011.
Melissa Hamilton
Steven Hammond—Communities, of all kind, are important to Steve. From communities of patients at patientslikeme.com where Steve is the Director of Engineering to the Town of Holden where Steve serves on the School Board and volunteers as a space educator in local schools… Steve supports community, open source software development, and patronizes Kobold Quarterly's community game development. Steve has years of game mastering experience and was recently a top 10 finalist in Kobold Quarterly's "King of the Monster" contest.
Forest Handford
Nikki Hanscom
Shannon Harrower
Onezumi Hartstein is one of the most active contributors to and supporter of the convention and comics scene:—She founded an entire New Media convention. Intervention (http://www.InterventionCon.com) is Your Online life-In Person. Her new take on fandom conventions has been recognized by Wired Magazine and many others. —She writes and draws Stupid and Insane Defenders Against Chaos: A Lovecraftian Horror Comedy (http://www.onezumi.com) —Her dev team made the Webcomics Central App Service (http://www.onezumi.com/webcomics-central-app-service). They give free custom iPhone apps to other webcomics. —She posts random art, tutorials, and awesomeness in her personal blog Onezumiverse: Art + Theme Parks = Life (http://www.Onezumiverse.com). It's pronounced "Oh-neh-zoo-me". She lives in New Jersey. She loves Heavy Metal and Disney World. Follow her on Twitter @Onezumi or say hello on Facebook!
Kat Harvey
Jeff Hecht is a free-lance 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, and several anthologies including Year's Best Horror Stories and Great American Ghost Stories. His nonfiction has appeared in many other magazines, including Optics & Photonics News, Omni, Earth, Analog, Cosmos, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Technology Review. His books include Beam: the Race to Make the Laser and City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics (both Oxford Univerity Press), and Understanding Fiber Optics (Pearson/Prentice Hall); and Understanding Lasers (IEEE Press/Wiley). 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, and mythology viewed as both entertainment and as a cultural attribute and psychological drive,. "Coming of age" during the 1960s-and 1970s, Karl also developed a strong affinity for the humanistic and playful social agendas of those times. This exposure and his general skepticism led Karl to a 26-year involvement with the culture and practices of polyamory. During this time, he's led many presentations and mini-workshops in this field, including a monthly Poly Support Group at Boston's Fenway Community Health Center. Karl also has been living in a successful open marriage for the past 13 years.
Susan Heithmar—Harry Potter fan from Boston and member of HP-MA. This is my second year at Arisia and I'm very pleased to be getting more into the community!
James T. Henderson Jr—An avid reader of science fiction and Fantasy, since the age of 7, and a rabid gamer since the age of 10, Jimmy has been a gamer and fan for most of his life. As an adult Jimmy pusued a career in Mechanical and Structural Engineering. As he is now dedicated to the upbringing of the next generation of Fans. He remains a Wargamer, costumer, modeler, roleplayer, LARPer, and reader he attempts to divide his time to enjoy both Parenthood, insanity and Fandom. And succeeds.
Andy Hicks is a Boston-based musician, director, actor, and radio producer. He co-wrote and composed the music for 2010: Our Hideous Future, a cyberpunk satire/romantic comedy which premiered at the Boston Playwright's Theater last summer and is scheduled to be performed this weekend on Sunday night. He will also be appearing this weekend as The Doctor in the Post-Meridian Radio Players' live action Doctor Who audio drama. And, last year, he was hired by a public radio station as an Associate Producer. Considering he wrote a musical, worked for NPR, and was cast in his dream role within the space of a year, it's pretty safe to say that his "Bucket List" is quickly running out of stuff.
Higgins Armory Sword Guild/Higgins Armory Museum—The Higgins Armory Sword Guild is a volunteer organization dedicated to the historically accurate interpretation of medieval and Renaissance martial arts from surviving texts. Convention members will have the opportunity to witness combat techniques forgotten for hundreds of years. We invite you to join us to learn these martial arts. Safety and body-mechanics courses are required of all new participants. http://www.higginssword.org/ Worcester's Higgins Armory Museum is the only museum in the Western Hemisphere wholly devoted to the study and display of medieval and Renaissance arms and armor. Our founder, John Woodman Higgins, housed his collection in a unique building now on the National Register of Historic Places. Museum visitors will see objects ranging from ancient Greek helmets to ornate Renaissance armors while our programs help interpret the artifacts in a broad cultural context. http://www.higgins.org/
Woodrow Hill is one the few male Raqs Sharqi artists—better known as "belly" dancers—in the world, having started over 20 years ago. His day job as a programmer with a focus on security issues gives him a oddly optimistic view of the future, one fueled by his very first memory—watching STAR TREK on an Black and White TV set. This reality-beaten optimism also leaks into his strong political activism, having been invested in Civil Rights, Feminist, and related issues as well as working for politicians as varied as Strom Thurmond and Barack Obama (the latter of which he liked significantly more!) He also looks back into the past as a member of the Society of Creative Anachronism, specializing on researching Medieval Era "belly dance" and 15th Century Ottoman culture, and into the future via interests in broader layperson science activities, focusing on issues around Evolution.
James Hinsey—I'm a life long lover of Science Fiction, Fantasy, books, movies, tv-shows, anime, 80s music, women, root beer, chocolate, Hawaii, Japan and family. I am half-Japanese, a reader, Trekker, Browncoat, Costumer, book-collector, model-maker, videographer, publicator, con-goer, RISFC member, Psi Upsilon brother, RPI alum, former naval officer, brother, son, uncle, husband, and father of two girls. I am SamuraiX47.
Steven Hirsch has been playing swords for 5 years now. First with the Higgins, he now teaches at his own school Kunstbruder—the Brotherhood of the Art of Defense. Since he started playing with swords he has stopped having other hobbies—just variations on playing with swords like making Medieval clothes and armour or researching Medieval Combat. He is also studying to be a nurse—which may be useful given his hobby.
John Hodges has organized all Arisia's blood drives for the Heinlein Society. He's a donor himself, having given away 41 gallons of his own blood and a kidney. He's a public representative to the board of directors of the United Network for Organ Sharing. He has been employed as a math & science tutor for gifted students, a climate scientist, a real estate appraiser, and a doodlebug (petroleum exploration geophysicist (we blow things up)). He's been a fan since reading "Farmer in the Sky" when he was eight.
Merav Hoffman is a New York based songwriter and performer. She is a founding member of the band Lady Mondegreen and is also an administrator for the Live Filk project. Merav will be chairing the 21st NEFilk convention: Contata VI on July 1–3, 2011. When she's not wearing her filker hat she edits manuscripts, crochets, and hosts NYC area house concerts.
Dave Hollinsworth
Stephen Holmes
Lisa Holsberg—Assistant conchair for the second time. Nope, not gonna be a conchair. Not ever gonna happen.
Nancy Holzner is the author of the Deadtown urban fantasy series, set in Boston and featuring a shapeshifter who kills other people's personal demons for a living. A recovering academic, Nancy has worked as a medievalist, English teacher, corporate trainer, and freelance editor. She lives in Ithaca, NY, with her husband Steve, where they both write from home without getting on each other's nerves. Her latest novel is Hellforged.
Butch Honeck—Butch has been making his living by selling his sculpture for 36 years. Self-taught, he casts the bronze using the lost wax method, with ceramic shell molds in his own foundry. Butch also does custom orders, so if you want your idea in bronze, talk to him. He has Steampunk items for sale along with his regular array of items.
Melissa Honig maintains a calendar of sci-fi and fantasy events in New England on her blog, http://nescifievents.org/. She is also the list administrator for the New England Browncoats. She enjoys steampunk, costuming, weird crafts, and watching old TV shows from her childhood via Netflix.
Heidi Hooper, Believe it or Not, is also known as "The Dryer Lint Lady" for her whimsical art, which can be seen in galleries around the country as well as in Ripley's Museums and in their latest book. Heidi received her bachelor's in sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University and her master's in metalsmithing at Massachusetts College of Art. Once cancer took most of her right arm, she had to find new ways to express herself and found clay and dryer lint (not together). Her web page is www.HeidiHooper.com. With her husband Michael A. Ventrella, she helped found modern live action fantasy roleplaying games in America and currently runs the Alliance LARP (www.AllianceLARP.com). She loves the pitter patter of little feet (she has four cats).
Tim Hoover
Michael A. Horne—A Californian transplanted to Boston, Mike Horne has been attending Arisia's since the very beginning. In that time he's been a scenester in the Anime community as a Triumvir of the Boston Japanimation Society in it's early days. He's written reviews for AnimeJump.com and is currently the Manager of The Compleat Strategist, Boston's oldest games store. His interest include cinema, travel and humor.
Wil Howitt is a doctor of computer science and electrical engineering, specializing in physical acoustics and psychoacoustics. He has worked at MIT and BU, developing human auditory system models and speech recognition systems. He also enjoys drumming, dancing, and playing didjeridu and other rhythmic instruments. He teaches Taoist martial arts, rides a black BMW motorcycle, fences with a German longsword, and looks around a lot.
Crystal Huff spends her time saving the world and chasing down conventioneers. Officially, she is the chair of this year's Arisia. Alignment: Chaotic Good.
Warren Huff—I am currently professor of geology at the University of Cincinnati, where I have been a faculty member since 1963. Much of my research deals with the study of bentonites and K-bentonites, which are the remains of explosively erupted volcanic ash layers. These layers are now altered largely to clay minerals although some original volcanic crystals remain. I study both types of minerals to learn about the nature of the source volcanoes, many of which are several hundreds of millions years old, as well as the natural processes by which the volcanic ash layers have been buried in the earth and altered to their present form. In recent years I have served as a technical consultant to NASA on the subject of Martian soil clays.
Walter Hunt has been writing for most of his life. His first four "Dark Wing" novels were published by Tor Books. His novel A Song In Stone appeared in 2008, dealing with the mystery of Rosslyn Chapel and the Templars. Current projects include an 18th century alternate history novel, a book on mesmerism in the Victorian age, and a sequel to A Song In Stone that will answer some questions and ask some others. 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 is scheduled for a 2010 release 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 their unusual joint sense of humor.
Jennifer Hunter, 39, is a professional organizer and artist in Medford, Massachusetts. Once a writer and editor, with four books on NeoPaganism to her credit, she decided to make a career out of what she did for fun on her writing breaks. She specializes in working with unconventional people, helping them learn that creative does not have to mean disorganized. Jen is also a collage artist, using mostly pictures from castoff magazines, and has exhibited in several shows. She lives with her housemates, boyfriend, ten-year-old daughter, and a matching ginger cat and dog. Her website is at www.jenniferhunter.com.
Kara Hurvitz
Sandra Hutchinson has been reading and writing science fiction since she discovered the Oz books at age 6. A proofreading supervisor at a textbook publishing company, she is also an ordained deacon in the Independent Catholic Christian Church, with a master's degree in theology. She has published short stories in a number of different publications including "365 Scary Stories."
Elaine Isaak dropped out of art school to found Curious Characters, designing original stuffed animals and small-scale sculptures, and to follow her bliss: writing. She is the author of The Singer's Crown (Eos, 2005), and sequels The Eunuch's Heir (Eos, 2006), and The Bastard Queen (Swimming Kangaroo, 2010). Her new dark historical fantasy series will be starting in 2011 with DAW books under a pseudonym (shhh!) A mother of two, Elaine also enjoys rock climbing, taiko (Japanese drumming) weaving and exotic cooking—when she can scrape the time together. Visit www.ElaineIsaak.com to read sample chapters and find out why you do not want to be her hero.
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 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 that humans are the tastiest things in the multiverse. Felicitas lives in Boston with her beloved husband, known to all as The Husband, and her cat Smaugu, whom the husband swears is a demon. The husband also is worried about Felicitas' anime habit, her extensive collection of manga and Gundam Wing doujinshi, which has turned her library into a Very Scary Place for him.
Alexander Jablokov—Alex's most recent novel is Brain Thief, a fast-paced AI-hunting adventure, out from Tor January 2010. His most recent story, "Blind Cat Dance", will be in the March issue of Asimov's. He is the author of five other novels, including Carve The Sky, Nimbus, and Deepdrive, and a number of short stories. He lives in Cambridge, Mass.
Victoria Janssen is currently writing her fourth novel for Harlequin Spice, a trade paperback line of erotic novels. The Moonlight Mistress, a historical set during World War One, is most recent; it was nominated for an RT Book Reviews Reviewers' Choice Award. It has werewolves and a Zouave on a motorcycle. Her first novel was an alternate-world fantasy titled The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover that subverted a number of romance novel tropes. The Duke and the Pirate Queen, set in the same world, is due out December 2010. It has pirates and the Island of the Lotus Eaters (or maybe that episode of Star Trek where Spock puffs flowers with Jill Ireland). Find out more at http://www.victoriajanssen.com. She blogs on writing, reading, and genre here: http://victoriajanssen.blogspot.com/ and twitters here: http://twitter.com/victoriajanssen.
Brian C. Johnson
Renée Johnson's got a background in cultural anthropology which serves her well in the SF/F world. Some of her favorite fannish things include: Doctor Who, King Arthur, mythic fiction, urban fantasy, China Mieville, C.S. Friedman, vampires that don't sparkle, Miyazaki, DC Vertigo, Gothic Lolita, Tolkien, Shakespeare, Fringe, Bones and probably many more…
James Jones is a polyamorous Tibetian Buddhist who has an(almost) unhealthy love of beating people with plumbing supplies(sometimes called "larping") and Iceland. He currently works for a large company nicknamed "Wolfram & Hart" doing difficult to explain things with computers.
Rachel M. Kadel-Garcia is a bookbinder and book and paper conservator in private practice in Medford, MA. She holds an MA in Conservation Studies from the University of Sussex and a postgraduate diploma in Conservation of Books and Library Materials from West Dean College.
Vylar Kaftan
After almost a decade exploring creative sexuality, lifestyle and professional Dominatrix Princess Kali launched the KinkAcademy.com website to share her passion for making all things kinky more understood and more accessible. Intent on making "pervert" a compliment, she spends her days reaching out to individuals and couples all over the world with her playful philosophy of "pleasantly perverted" sex education.
Steve Kanaras is the publisher of Free Lunch Comics, and serves as a writer and editor as well. His works include Only in Whispers, Pork N' Beans, Beyond the Kuiper Belt, and the upcoming Hostile Universe.
Catherine Kane is a professional psychic, published author, Reiki master/teacher, bard, artist, enthusiastic student of the Universe, maker of very bad puns, songwrite and overachiever (amongst other things…). She loves empowering people to have their best lives possible. Visit Catherine and her husband, Starwolf as Foresight on Facebook, at www.ForesightYourPsychic.com, and at www.ForesightYourCtPsychic.wordpress.com.
Sean Kane—Witch,Shaman,Professional Psychic,Metaphysical Engineer,and Reiki Master. Starwolf posses a vast, ecclectic store of knowledge, both Esoteric and Exoteric.
Melissa Kaplan is a long time 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 5pi-con. She spends far too much of her disposable income on steampunk costume pieces, wirework jewelry and books. This year marks her 11th time attending Arisia and her first time participating in programming. 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.
Jeff Kaufman
Kate Kaynak was born in New Jersey but was able to escape. Her degree from Yale says she was a psych major, but her true senior project was a bawdy songbook for the Marching Band. After serving a 5-year sentence in graduate school, she started teaching psychology around the world for the University of Maryland. While in Turkey, she started up a conversation with a handsome stranger in an airport—and ended up marrying him. Kaynak now lives in New Hampshire, where she enjoys reading, writing, and fighting crime with her amazing superpowers. Her YA paranormal series—the Ganzfield books—include Minder, Adversary, and Legacy. They tell the story of Maddie, a 16-year-old telepath training at a secret facility. It's not exactly a nurturing place. Every social interaction carries the threat of mind-control; a stray thought can burn a building to the ground, and people's nightmares don't always stay in their own heads. But it's still better than New Jersey. www.Ganzfield.com
Jeff Keller
Zahra Khan
Daniel M. Kimmel is a film critic and author. His reviews and essays can be found at NorthShoreMovies.net, the Jewish Advocate, Clarkesworld, and Space and Time magazine. He teaches film at Suffolk University. He is the author of five books. His latest, "Jar Jar Binks Must Die… and other observations about science fiction movies," will debut at Arisia.
Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein—Born in 1967, she has not yet managed to shuffle off the coil mortal, though not for want of trying, apparently. Catt Kingsgrave writes, (fiction, music, poetry, recipes, and the occasional political rant,) she 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 Super Hero 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.
Mike Kitchenman
Mindy Klenoff
Rebecca L. Kletnieks—Becky Kletineks is a larper, tabletop gamer, veterinarian, SCAdian, writer, crafter, and small redheaded force of nature.
Audrey Knuth
Kovaks
Richard Kovalcik—Arisia Corporate President and Last Year's ConChair
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.
Felice Kuan
Bettina Kurkoski is the creator/writer/artist of My Cat Loki, published by TOKYOPOP Inc… In 2003 she entered TOKYOPOP's Rising Stars of Manga vol. 2 competition, placing as a runner-up, her work Axis Lumen published in the winners' compilation. My Cat Loki, volumes 1 &2 now available now from TOKYOPOP, is Bettina's first professionally published series. She has also contributed the 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, all available from TOKYOPOP. Bettina is currently working on the TOKYOPOP/Harper Collins Seekers manga series based on the best selling Seekers novel series. You can see more of her artwork at www.dreamworldstudio.net.
Author, performer and radio personality Ellen Kushner (www.ellenkushner.com.) hosts WGBH's Sound & Spirit for PRI. Novels include The Privilege of the Sword, Swordspoint, & Thomas the Rhymer. Spoken word performances include Esther: the Feast of Masks, and The Golden Dreydl: a Klezmer 'Nutcracker' (with Shirim Klezmer Orchestra, on Rykodisc CD), also published as a children's chapter book by Charlesbridge. Forthcoming: Welcome to Bordertown (co-edited w/Holly Black). She is a founding member of the Interstitial Arts Foundation, has taught at the Clarion Workshop, and lives in New York City with Delia Sherman and no cats whatsoever.
Ron Lacey
Chris Lahey
Amy Lake
Bill Lange
David Larochelle 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. He's worked extensively in information security and is the coauthor 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 currently works for the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
Pam "Izumi" Larson—A dedicated fan of Duran Duran as seen in the Documentary "There's Something You Should Know", avid cosplayer best known for her "Izumi Curtis" from Fullmetal Alchemist, Boston Legal Assassins Repo Shadowcast's "Blind Mag" and Neil Gaiman Fangirl. Pam has dedicated what little freetime 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, making 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."
Emma Lathan
arthur laurie
Chris Lawrence
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, and a Historical Judge for Costume Con 28. She has also been an Arisia Den Mom, Presentation Judge and Greenroom Director. Her other fannish interests include Torchwood, Merlin, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Britcoms, alternate history novels, Harry Potter, Pern and the Didius Falco and Gordianus the Finder 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.
Vanessa Layne
Ginger Lazarus
Andy Lebrun
David Lee—A modern day swordsman and Japanese culture enthusiast. David has been training for six years in various sword arts from around the world and currently teaches children and adults how to have fun sword fighting. He also teaches a Japanese culture class sharing his knowledge and love of all the unique aspects in Japan to his students. David also has a background in art, with a focus on graphic design. Just like knights and samurai of old, not only is he a capable swordsman, but also an artisan of various talents.
Jacob Lefton is an artist blacksmith currently living in Amherst, Massachusetts. He studied creative writing, art, and education at Hampshire College. Following brief adventures with the circus, he spent six months in Europe as a journeyman blacksmith. Since then he has been working hard to support himself. Visit www.jacoblefton.com to see more of his work.
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.
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 Room Liaison, Fixed Functions Division Head, and Assistant Con Chair. Currently, he is the Arisia Corporate Treasurer and Hotel Liaison Division Head.
Emily Lewis
Jen Lewis
Suford Lewis is an long time fan and a longer time reader. She has been a member of LASFS & MITSFS, & a founding member of NESFA and of Regency fandom. She is a Master Costumer, an inveterate con com member having been part of the committees of all the Boston worldcons, many Boskones, 2 Costumecons, a few others, and even an Arisia or so, and in 2008 was given the Big Heart Award. She also finds time to play a little Dominion, see some anime, and, with luck, even filk a bit. Mostly retired from software system building, she still occasionally helps some people out with computers. She is the Bujold editor for NESFA Press, now on book 8. She is married to Tony Lewis, is owned currently by 2 cats, and is the proud mother of Alice.
Timothy Lewis
Derek D. Lichter
Paula Lieberman went to her first convention, which was a worldcon, and college the same weekend. Since then she's been to a bunch more conventions, many of which she's worked on, including Arisia, and has had more career changes than she can remember—military officer, systems engineer, analyst, tech writer, test engineer, market researcher, consultant… She's more likely to be around at 1 AM filking, than at a 9 AM panel, and usually helps out at art show sales. On-line she one's of the community at Making Light (http://www.nielsenhayden.com/makinglight) prone to spontaneously posting in verse (ballad form mostly).
Tim Lieder is a professional writer and editor. Through his publishing company, Dybbuk Press, he has published and edited eight books including Teddy Bear Cannibal Massacre and God Laughs When You Die by Michael Boatman. His latest project, She Nailed a Stake Through His Head: Tales of Biblical Terror was released in October 2010.
Tom Limoncelli is a 40 year old bi/poly activist and organizer from NJ. An IT professional and author, his 2003 book "Time Management for System Administrators" (O'Reilly) became an instant classic. He is an internationally recognized author and speaker, presenting keynotes and classes both within the IT community as well as at LGBTI, poly, and bi leadership conferences. He blogs at http://EverythingSysadmin.com
Gordon Linzner—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; front man for Saboteur Tiger blues & oldies band.
Adam Lipkin is currently 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 for two years, and was also the animation columnist for SMRT-TV.com. He has published hundreds of horror movie reviews at his own blog, yendi.livejournal.com. His day job involves educational technology, heutagogy, and library research. Adam lives in the suburbs of Boston with his wife, daughter, and three moderately psychotic felines.
Writer/activist Shira Lipkin sidles up to the most interesting bars, and chats with runaway gods, duty-shirking sphinxes, the Ghost of Purim Past, and apostate cyborgs. She has managed to convince Electric Velocipede, Chizine, Interfictions 2, Mythic Delirium, and other otherwise-sensible magazines and anthologies to publish her work. She credits luck, glitter eyeliner, and tenacity. She lives in Boston with her husband, daughter, and the requisite cats, most of whom also write. She also fights crime with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, is taking suggestions for her burlesque name, does six impossible things before breakfast, and would like a nap now. You can track her movements at shiralipkin.com. Please do. She likes the company.
Geofffrey Long
Barry B. Longyear—Award winning author of "Enemy Mine," Barry has authored over twenty book-length works and numerous short stories. Recently he has completed his first vampire work, The Night, and is now in the process of converting all of his works into Kindle eBook format, several of which are now live. Check www.barrylongyear.com.
Joel Lord has been involved in technical theater for 17 years, and has been applying that experience to cons for 10. He has Stage Managed the Masquerade at Lunacon for the past 9 years, Arisia for the past 2 years, the Historical Recreation Masquerade at CostumeCon 27, and the Hugo Awards Ceremony at Noreascon 4 in 2004. He was also the Technical Director for Arisia 2005–2008 and is TD for CostumeCon 29, next May in New Jersey.
Julia Lunetta
Robert Luoma
Ted Lynch
James 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.
Bruce Mackenzie is currently working on the Mars Homestead settlement design for the Mars Foundation, and an entrepreneurial venture. Past work included use of rotating space tethers to establish industry on the Moon. Bruce is a software and aerospace engineer. He has held positions in the National Space Society, AIAA, Mars Foundation, & Mars Society.
Allen MacLeod
Heather MacNeill
Michelle MacNiel
Glenn MacWilliams—Business Director for the past 15 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. Always available for charity and fund raising events. General Manager of Magic Dragon Comics in Arlington MA, THE place for new comics.
Sasha Madore
Mark A. Mandel is: a fan since the fifties and a filker since the nineties (thank you, Lois Mangan!); professionally and avocationally a language scientist; sometimes morphs into Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoepist, and Philological Busybody; currently lives in Philadelphia, which is why he hasn't been so active around here in recent years
Peter Maranci—Founder and editor of the Interregnum RPG APA (RIP). Winner of a few amateur video prizes at Arisia over the years. Publisher of "Pete's RuneQuest & Roleplaying!" (www.runequest.org/rq.htm), one of the oldest RPG sites online. Long-time Arisia panelist. Sold a story to a semi-pro mag long ago, but it folded before publishing it (or paying for it, unfortunately).
Joy Marchand holds a B.A. in Classical Studies from the University of the Pacific. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts, where she takes photos of odd signage, churchyards and the occasional roadside shrine. Joy's poems and short stories have been featured in Bare Bone, Writers of the Future Volume XX, the Elastic Book of Numbers, Modern Magic, Time for Bedlam, Polyphony 5, Interfictions, Talebones, Apex Digest, and Interzone, among others. Joy is an editor for Shimmer, a small magazine packed with quality short fiction and stunning artwork. She is currently at work on a novel set on Cape Ann, MA.
Derek Marchetti
Neil Marsh
David Marshall was published by Fantagraphics Books, SpiderBaby Graphix and more recently by The Boston Comics Roundtable. This lecture is a selected portion of "Art of the Comic Book", a college-level studio and history comics class. Details on http://www.illdave.com/comicbooks/
Gail Martin is the author of The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven and Dark Lady's Chosen (The Chronicles of The Necromancer series). A new series set in her world of the Winter Kingdoms, The Fallen Kings Cycle, debuts from Orbit Books in 2011 with Book One: The Sworn. For book updates, tour information and contact details, visit www.ChroniclesOfTheNecromancer.com Gail is the host of the Ghost in the Machine Fantasy Podcast, and you can find her on MySpace, Facebook, GoodReads, BookTour, BookMarketing.ning, Shelfari and Twitter. She is also the author of a series on book marketing. The Thrifty Author's Guide to Launching Your Book comes out in early 2010. Gail's short fiction has been featured in two anthologies: Rum and Runestones from Dragon Moon Press and The Bitten Word from New Con Press.
Samara Martin—In real life Samara is a tribal fusion bellydancer, living statue and consummate theatre geek (primarily acting, directing and costuming), and is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Theatre Education. Her "geek cred" includes ten years of tabletop gaming (mainly Dungeons and Dragons), five years of LARPing including two and counting on staff at the New Hampshire chapter of Alliance, minor obsessions with Doctor Who and Neil Gaiman and a blossoming interest in steampunk under the alter ago Abigail Mycroft of the Wandering Legion of the Thomas Tew. For more information, find her online at http://www.facebook.com/samara.dancing.frozen
Donna Martinez is freelance artist originally from New Mexico and has been a resident of Boston for 11 years. She's continually working on something, be it clever ideas for fan art or short stories for various web comics. Donna is also a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable and contributed the story 'Wish Me Luck' to issue #3 of their anthology comic 'Inbound'. At present she's working on (among other things) 'Garry: The Legend Continues' with her husband of 3 months, Joey Peters. Her various illustrations and scribblings can be found at donnamartinez.net.
Lilianna Maxwell
Marlin May—I was born a poor black child. OK, not exactly poor, more middle class. The child part is true; it was far easier on my mom that way. I'm far closer to a luscious chocolate brown than ebony. I'm a currently an employed (!) web apps developer. I'm no scientist, but I've consumed a steady diet of science books/media as long as I can recall. The 1st 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 and writer for the Post Meridian Radio Players and with i Sebastiani, the greatest commedia dell'arte troupe in the entire world. He has run flirting workshops in a variety of venues, and is a commissionable poet. He has been active in all aspects of fandom since 1990, particularly in LARPing and filking.
Joy McCarthy
Michael McCarthy
Melissa McCusker
John G. McDaid attended Clarion in 1993, and sold his first short story, the Sturgeon Award-winning "Jigoku no mokushiroku" to Asimov's in 1995. A webmaster by day, he lives in Portsmouth, RI, where he tries to fit in work on two novels (a time travel series and an alternate history singleton) around work, hyperlocal citizen journalism, and politics. For downloads and blog visit http://www.torvex.com/jmcdaid.
Matt McFarland
Gary McGath is a writer of filk songs and occasional organizer of filk events.
Michelle McGuire has been working with glass since 2001. She has a passion for the material and the process and shares her love for the art through glassblowing demonstrations, teaching and collaboration. Michelle is an instructor in the MIT Glass Lab. She has studied numerous glass working techniques at The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts as well as the MIT Glass Lab. Recently, she has been exploring glass mosaic, torchwork and coldworking as a complement to her glassblowing. Michelle holds degrees in both Computer Science and Literature from MIT. When not blowing glass, she can often be found hula hooping with the Boston Hoop Troop.
Seanan McGuire is the author of the October Daye series published by DAW Books, and the winner of the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She is also the monster under her own bed: her pseudonym is Mira Grant, author of the Newsflesh trilogy. Seanan lives in a crumbling California farmhouse with blue cats, several thousand books, and too many horror movies.
Mike McPhail is the award winning Author and Anthologist of the military science fiction series Defending The Future (Breach The Hull, So It Begins and By Other Means), published by Dark Quest Books. He is a member of the Military Writers Society of America (MWSA), a reviewer for MilSciFi.com, and the creator of the Alliance Archives (All'Arc) series and its related Martial Role-Playing Game (MRPG), a manual-based, percentile system, that realistically portrays the consequences of warfare. www.mcp-concepts.com, www.milscifi.com, www.alliancearchives.net, www.defendingthefuture.com
Little Mel is a poly, pansexual, pagan, spiritually gender queer, kinky, geeky girl living in Western MA and originally from the Boston area. She obviously likes labels. Mel is a former performer in Rocky Horror and REPO! shadow casts. She is also the first person in New England to perform as Amber Sweet. Mel has a book of poetry and short stories out called, "Modern Day Ophelia" that can be found on http://www.lulu.com. When she isn't reading comics, gaming (all varieties) or dancing at goth clubs Mel works as a marketing admin in Lee, MA. Yes, she works in the Berkshires. It's not as bad as you think! This is Little Mel's third Arisia and she is very excited to be part of the great event once again! For more info on Little Mel check out her blog: http://modernophelia.blogspot.com
Penny Messier—Self acknowledged geek and couch potato Penny never seems to find enough time in the day for the latter. Between work, hanging with friends, drumming, kite flying, movie going and other various activities Penny's couch is extremely lonely. In an exclusive interview with said couch, "Arisia bio's" found a very disgruntled sofa "… she's always gone! She used to spend all day with me but now it's an hour to work and back, and the same to see friends on the weekend, her driver's seat gets more attention then I do! Then she takes time out of work and heads to Arisia, while I languish here alone. That's it the waterbed and I are going on str…" Hi, My name is Penny and I would like to apologize for my couch…it's normally a very nice sofa but lately it gone a bit flat. I think I need to buy some new foam for it…. Anyways this is me quirky but fun!!!
Katrina Meyer
Dale Meyer-Curley has been an Arisia attendee, volunteer, panelist, and participant since 2004, when her now-husband Erik brought her to her first con. Her fannish interests touch all forms of media, including Discworld, Doctor Who, and comics. She incorporates her geekiness into her crafting hobbies of knitting and making unique shirts. She is now trying to make the con a family affair by having the "geeky playdates," a place for her one-year-old daughter to enjoy Arisia.
Erik J. Meyer-Curley—I am Erik all the time. I am Erik everywhere I go. Whether or not I am the Erik you are looking for is to be determined. I have been attending cons in Boston environs since about 1980. My interests are varied and my affiliations numerous.
Daniel Miller is a local attorney, gamer, comics aficionado, and SF/F fan who keeps coming back to Arisia because he enjoys it. He has been "living this lifestyle" since high school, and lives it in Brookline. He would say that the more his background stays the same, the more his life changes, but he still insists that he can indoctrinate his young daughter into the worlds of SF/F, comics, D&D, and Magic when the time comes.
Ray Mitchel
James Mobius is a multimedia artist and multi-instrumental musician. A licensed Tattoo artist, published comic book artist/writer/colourist/inker, James has degrees in music and electronics, so he fixes houses for a living. James plays 6 string bass and Chapman Stick with Mojoceratops, is a former chocolatier, has lived in Japan and currently has no cats. oh he also does theatrical lighting for Rocky Horror, etc. if you need a handyman, a tattoo, murals, portraits or progressive music please visit his site (he made that too, from scratch) mobiusbandwidth.com.
John Monahan is a science writer and editor. He is a former science teacher, who taught in Baltimore City public schools for over 12 years. His current book They Called Me Mad: Genius, Madness and the Scientists Who Pushed the Outer Limits of Knowledge deals with the lives of the real life scientists, like Nikola Tesla, Isaac Newton and Werhner von Braun, who inspired our image of the mad scientist. Further information about John Monahan and his books may be found at his blog, mad4science.wordpress.com or on his Facebook page.
Josephine Monreal
Alexandra Morgan
Kristen Morris—I love reading and writing science fiction, making my own games, and making costumes. I also love the latest episode of Futurama. "I was living in solitude until this ruddy young lad stepped into my mouth and lodged there". I studied Psychology as an undergrad at Harvard. I once dressed up as Captain Picard for the premiere of the new Star Trek Movie even though he wasn't in it because he is WAY better than Captain Kirk. I was disappointed no one noticed. Fail for you BOSTON.
Mitchell Morris—I am a brilliant computer science PhD student at Columbia University (no relation to the football team). I have a game design firm called Ninja vs. Pirates and a podcast of the same name where we interview game designers. Until recently I was living in solitude in this mutating swamp until a ruddy young lad stepped into my mouth and was lodged there. My favorite Science Fiction movie of all time is Newsies.
Rachel Morris—Having barely escaped with her sanity questionably intact after more than 8 years as owner of NERO Mass/Ravenholt, the founding chapter of NERO International LARP, Rachel is finally able to enjoy PCing again. She's been LARPing for 15 years—a natural extension of her theater background—and has been a science fiction fan since childhood, thanks to her father introducing her to Analog at an early age. She makes her living as a productivity consultant, doing data analysis, training, and custom software development.
Ron Morris
Jeremy Murphy
Tom Murphy got tagged with his nickname in '85 and it has stuck ever since. A common man of good will, Merv entered Fandom through Star Trek in '92, discovered there was SO much more to life than 'Trek, and hasn't looked back since. A sometimes-employed career Chemist, Merv highly recommends reading most anything by Ball, Carey, Friesner, Isaak, Lackey, Moon, Pierce, Rowling, Sherman, Shwartz, Snicket, or Weiss. Merv has been an enthusiastic volunteer for Arisia since '94, and has enjoyed it enough to mention it here in the hopes of luring you into volunteering, too.
Mycroft
Thomas Nackid—I am a graphic designer and illustrator who lives in Bethel, Connecticut with my fanish wife Terri and my raised-in-fandom children Alex (14) and Emma (11). Over the years I have created illustrations and layout design for various publishers including Terrific Science Press, Scholastic Books, Sumner Communications. Firewheel Editions, Cynterpubs Information Resources and I recently created cover art for the Mundania Press's re-release of the best-selling Bad Ass Fairies anthology series. I also recently completed a cover for Dragon Lure. the first book in a new anthology series from Dark Quest Books. I am a regular contributor of artwork to Space and Time magazine as well. When not working with publishers I design various marketing and informational materials for businesses and organizations. You can always find me at www.tomnackidart.com or look for me on Facebook.
Adam Nakama does many things, including educational research, teach dance, design games, and write things. He has edited some stuff, and been published in a few places. He currently works under the auspices of the Eval [pronounced EEEEEEEEEvil] Arts Collective. According to Mr. Darcy, he is an accomplished woman, and in 2008 he attended Odyssey Writer's Workshop.
Amber Nakano-san Romaniak
Susan Napier
Lawrence Nelson—Larry Nelson, also known as LORDLNYC online, is a long time member of the leather/queer/poly communities as well as a long time queer/kinky/poly rights activist. He attended his 1st con (Lunacon) in '84 where he went on to help run gaming from 91–03. In '06 he attended his first Arisia where he put in over 30 hours helping out in the con suite. In '07 he put his long time activism to good use and stated doing panels at Arisia, Lunacon as well as for TES (a major Leather group in NYC). He lives in Queens, NYC.
Resa Nelson is the author of The Dragonslayer's Sword, a novel 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 was a 2009 EPPIE Award Finalist for Best Fantasy Novel and was Recommended for the Nebula Award. Her next novel, Our Lady of the Absolute, is slated for publication in July 2010. She recently finished writing The Iron Maiden, Book 2 in her Dragonslayer series. Her short fiction has been published in Fantasy Magazine, Paradox, Brutarian Quarterly, Science Fiction Age, Aboriginal SF, Tomorrow SF, Oceans of the Mind, and many anthologies. Nelson is a graduate of the Clarion Workshop (1985). She has also sold over 200 magazine articles. She has been the TV/movie columnist for Realms of Fantasy since 1998, and is a regular contributor to SCI FI magazine. Visit her website at http://www.resanelson.com.
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 in the home stretch of re-reading The Lord of the Rings one chapter a time.
Shava Nerad is a polymath autodidact who likes obscure vocabulary, online life, and weird science and social issues. She's been working online since 1982, and has spent most of her career at the intersection of tech and society. She's CEO of an indy game company, Oddfellow Studios (http://oddfellowstudios.com) that has discovered something very much like Snow Crash (for good not evile!) for real life.
The legendary Alex Newman was raised on a parallel Earth where his plane crashed in the Himalayas — er, the parallel Himalayas. Not ours. There he was taught the secret of clouding mens' minds by monks. Parallel monks. Stop laughing. He fought crime for many years until a group of his arch enemies (can you have a "group" of arch enemies?) banded together in a sinister plot to bounce him into a parallel universe. That is, parallel to that one. Which they thought of as the real universe but which you think of as a parallel universe. Unless you're also from there, in which case you think of this one as the parallel… Oh, screw it. Alex Newman is the founder of The Boston Babydolls (www.BostonBabydolls.net), a former comic book writer, LARP author, and is the organizer of KLOCKWERQ, Boston's Steampunk Dance Party. He has been involved in Arisia in various aspects for many years.
Benjamin Newman, a computer science graduate student at Brandeis University, has been filking since his college friends dragged him to his first convention his freshman year at Swarthmore. Since then, he has acquired two guitars and 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.
Robert Newton is a writer and filmmaker who operates The Cape Ann Community Cinema in Gloucester, MA. He is a former video store mogul and novelty recording artist whose album, "Monkey Bismuth," won a couple of major awards (or something).
Larissa Niec
Emilie Nims
Mimi Noyes—Convinced as a child that she was left on this planet by aliens and picked off the street by a kind lady who became her mother, Mimi has always been a bit different. Naturally drawn to the bizarre, the fantastic, and the unordinary, she has grown up (physically, if not mentally) to be an artist, a muralist, a film buff, and a movie reviewer amongst other odd and less desirable career choices. Both running her own mural company and working for such illustrious film sources as SIFF and Scarecrow Video, Mimi spends an inordinate amount of time being silly and adding sound effects to every day life. Approach at your own risk.
Rob Noyes
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 20 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.
Molly O'Brien
Elizabeth O'Malley is a long time anime fan and avid cosplayer, and she attends far more conventions every year than she should. She is the creator of AnimeCheep.com, a resource for anime fans to watch anime free and cheep, legally, as well as a writer for AnimeCons.com, the leading web site dedicated to news and information about anime conventions, contributing to both their website and monthly podcast. She is also the Vice President of the Northern Lights chapter of the International Costumers Guild.
Briavael O'Reilly
Rita Oakes writes dark fantasy and historical fiction. She enjoys travel and has been known to traipse around cemeteries, battlefields, and derelict prisons, provided there is a good beer at the end of the journey. Her work has appeared in the late, lamented Paradox and Aeon Speculative Fiction, as well as in Tales of Moreauvia, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and the anthologies, The Many Faces of Van Helsing and Time Well Bent. Visit her on Facebook or at www.ritaoakes.com.
Robyn Ochs is the editor of the 42-country anthology, Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World and of the Bi Women newsletter (biwomenboston.org). Her writings have been published in numerous bisexual, women's studies, multicultural, and LGBT anthologies. She has taught courses on LGBT history& politics in the US, the politics of sexual orientation, and the experiences of those who transgress the binary categories of gay | straight, masculine | feminine, black | white and|or male | female. Robyn has spoken at hundreds of colleges, conferences and youth groups in the US and beyond, and she can be found online at www.robynochs.com.
Jennifer Old—Fiona is an amateur costumer with taste for recreating sci-fi/fantasy characters and historical dress (particularly Victorian). 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 a 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. Fiona lives in Kansas City with her wife and furry children.
Ken Olum is a research associate professor in the Tufts Institute of Cosmology. He lives in Sharon, MA with his partners Valerie White and Judy Anderson and his children Jocelyn and Perry.
Sheila M. Oranch has been involved in fandom since 1979 when she innocently volunteered for NE2. Sheila has been known as Con Mom and Tarot Talk moderator, served as A95 conchair and many other positions. Current interests include energetic healing, memetics, sustainability, psycho-social communications, how tech changes daily life and…more. Sheila and Bill operate Coppertoppe Inn & Retreat Center overlooking Newfound Lake in Hebron, NH with the help of two cats and a changing cast of diligent teens and contractors.
Alyssa Osiecki
Renee Otis
Jim Paradis
Jennifer Pelland is a Boston-area science fiction writer, bellydancer, and occasional radio theater performer. She's published several dozen short stories, and her debut novel Machine will be coming out later this year from Apex Publications. For more info, visit www.jenniferpelland.com, which contains a full bibliography, as well as links to her various blogs.
Misty Pendragon is the founder of The Legal Assassins,a Repo Shadowcast group, wanting to bring all different types of people together to celebrate the love of the film Repo the Genetic Opera. She is a published writer and editor. 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 an Advanced Representative for the area's largest cable company. Current favorite quote is 'We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty' by Joss Whedon.
Israel Peskowitz—Izzy is a professional photographer, dabbling plumber, and amateur fan.
Solveig Pflueger—As the owner of The Lady and The Leopard, I design and sell costumes for historical re-enactment and theatrical productions. Although I originally started making medieval and renaissance clothing for sale at renaissance faires, my theatrical pursuits have pushed me into the more recent eras. I have a particular weakness for 18th century men's clothing (I can't resist a great fop or pirate coat) and am intrigued by the evolution of ladies' fashions from the early Victorian through the late Edwardian periods.
Marlie Philiossaint has been a voracious reader since before she can actively remember. She relies on a constant stream of fantasy, science fiction, and comic books of all kind to keep herself sane. With that said, she has exactly zero connections to the professional side of fandom, but she babbles with the best of them. She came to her first Arisia when she was far too small, and the hotel far too large.
Lauren Phillips
Michael Piantedosi is a machine learning researcher, sound engineer, music geek, photographer, and obsolete hardware enthusiast. He is an organizer for @party (http://www.atparty-demoscene.net) and was the sound designer for Arisia 2005–2007.
James Pinkerton—An apparently wild mannered fellow, involved in all sorts of geekery (game master, game maker, LARP master, previous Arisia Gaming head, leader for the WoW guild All Together Now, SCAdian); secretly, an entropic inducer, deployed here to hasten on this existence to its inevitable heat death, and have a good time while doing it.
Bill Pomeroy—I'm an avid sci-fi fan and roleplayer. I've been running games and events for 15 years. I am the owner and operator of Plan B IT Solutions. I am also working on my first collection of short stories.
Steve E. Popkes, his wife, son and cat breed turtles and on two acres in Massachusetts.
Jennifer Allis Provost
Barbara M. Pugliese is a dance historian and a clothing historian. She is an intrepid guide for time travelers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. She is active in steampunk in the Boston area.
Karen Purcell DVM—Most commonly known in fandom and elsewhere as Dr. Karen, I have been active in veterinary medicine since my early teens. Sometime during my unending college years, I went to my first convention and my spare time became non-existent. Busy in past years with Masquerade, Costuming and the Art Show, I now lend my organizational talents to the Publications Division.
J. Chris Quint
As a queer, poly, transmasculine boy, Rabbit has never fit well into standard boxes and enjoys spending time with others who are expanding the options and building their own. Over the last decade, he has bootblacked or presented at events such as Transcending Boundaries Conference, FFF, Dark Odyssey, Leather Retreat, Smartfest, Ohio Leather Fest, Winter Wickedness, and for groups such as NELA, Adventures in Sexuality, and Purple Rose Society. He considers transition to be one of his biggest and most rewarding adventures.
Christine Raboin
Daniel Rabuzzi—I grew up immersed in fairytale and folklore, and have wandered beyond the fields we know ever since. Chizine Publications launched my novel The Choir Boats at Worldcon 2009 in Montreal. My short fiction and poetry appear in, among others, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Shimmer, Sybil's Garage, Goblin Fruit, Scheherezade's Bequest, and Abyss & Apex. I blog at Lobster & Canary. My website is www.danielrabuzzi.com
Richard Ralston
Jesse Rawson
Victor Raymond is a longtime SF&F reader and fan, and currently serves as a board member of the Carl Brandon Society and as Recording Secretary of SF3. In the past, he has served as President of the Interstitial Arts Foundation, Chair of WisCon 28, 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.
Deirdre Rees
Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert is a Technical Assistance Associate for a nonprofit by day, and is blessed with a tolerant husband and two amazing kids. In between, she tries to find writing time. Her poetry has been published in Strong Verse, newWitch, Pagan Edge and The Norfolk Quill. Her short story-length poem "Interview with the Faerie (Part I)" will appear in _Abandoned Towers_ in 2011. She is a former co-assistant editor and a feature writer for The Tor Stone, and has contributed to The Pagan Writers Community. She is currently Membership Goddess for _Broad Universe._ Although she has spent most of her life writing (in her head, if not on paper), she's earned degrees in Communication and Sociology in lieu of anything "literary." She is a lifelong speculative fiction and scifi fan and science geek. Find her online: http://suzannereynoldsalpert.blogspot.com/
Jonathan Riedel
Santiago Rivas
Kevin Robbins—Caspian was sent to Earth as part of an expeditionary force from what Humans refer to as the Andromeda Galaxy to see if there was any sentient life. Stuck here because of an engine malfunction and Caspian not having the skill to repair it (Anthropologist, not Engineer) He's been making a living doing odd jobs and generally waiting for the Mothership to come back. It will come back, won't it?
Marcio Roberto
Thom Robertson
Roho was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and immigrated to the United States with his parents in his early adulthood. Roho studied Commercial Art after high school and began drawing inexpertly at age seventeen. Despite his parents' hopes for him to become a well adjusted person, Roho studied sequential art on his own for several years. Shortly after moving to Cambridge in 2008, he joined Boston Comics Roundtable. Roho has contributed to the last two issues of Inbound as well as publishing Outbound: The Science Fiction Comics Anthology and the annual Hellbound anthology co edited with Joel Gill.
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 was one of the organizers of the Transcending Boundaries Conference 2009. He is a bi, poly, kinky activist focusing on the education with in 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 and documenting 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, has 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 1960s. In 1964, he founded the University of Massachusetts 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 1970s. 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.
Robert J. Rossi
Roy Rossi
Jean Rossner
Joan Ruland Donnelly—Among many things, Joan is a mother, spouse, insurance professional (someone has to do it), hula dancer, former morris dancer, pub singer, flautist, martial artist, and rennie. She is a High Priestess in the Blue Star tradition of Wicca, and has also been involved with the Boston Pagan Community for the last 8 years, participating in and occasionally leading public events and innumerable closed events. She has also written rites of passage for children and adults. She beads, crochets, makes candles, soaps, sachets, bath salts, oils, bath bombs, brews mead and makes yogurt and cheese. Joan is endlessly fascinated with why people do what they do—in many areas of life.
Matt Ryan/Norman Katz—Matt C Ryan's work spans from the comics industry to package design and advertising. He is the creator and artist on the comic, BIGGER, published by Free Lunch Comics. His stories, characters, and art appear in many products from Free Lunch and other comic companies. His larger body of work includes cartoons for magazine ads, package and character designs for various companies. He also co-founded Free Lunch Studios where he works on his freelance assignments, teaches and hosts special events like Comic Book Shuffle, 24 Hour Comic Day, and the weekly Monday Night Jam sessions. Matt will be drawing commissions throughout Arisia! www.freelunchcomics.com Norman Katz is an artist from The Mine Studio that specializes in the female form. His pin up work has appeared a number of publications and he has had two sketchbooks published by Free Lunch Comics. Some of his original published work will be available for purchase. Available for commissions during Arisia! www.normankatz.com
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.
Carol Salemi
Steve Sawicki—Writer and screenwriter. Short fiction in Future Washington, Transversions, Electric Velocipide. Novella in Absolute Magnitude. Reviewer of books, movies, small press. Creator of the Damn Aliens. Currently have two screenplays under option and negotiating a reality television series with production companies. Reviews appear in SFRevu, Gumshoe.
Sharon Sbarsky
Jow Scangarella is a born and bred NJ native, who finds the recent attention to his home state both hilarious and a little bit shameful. He is a practicing Pagan, Magician, an RPG Geek, Religion Nerd, and only makes public appearances at 3/4 actual size.
Dori Schendell started to write about the world of Nexus Elements thirteen years ago as a creative writing assignment in high school. After the assignment was done she kept writing about this world. She was in the middle of planning three books she would write when she realized she was a whole lot more interested in writing about the world instead of the characters. Coming home from a weekend LARP it hit her; she should write a LARP of her own, using the Nexus Elements world. So it began, and after many long years of work she is ready to share her world and game with LARPers like herself.
Ian Keville Schleifer is the author of a science and technology blog called The Grok Project (http://grokproject.net). He works at the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory at Brandeis University. He is a bachelor of the sciences with a major in computer science and a minor in mathematics. Ian has a passion for figuring out how things work and he loves to share it.
Mike Schneider—Micah joined the Programming Staff for Arisia two years ago. A long time activist, he has worked with many different types of organizations in the past. He was the Co-LC of Western MA Pagan Pride for five years, Hotel Liaison for Pi-Con for two years, and is a current board member of the Western MA Power Exchange. He is a graduate student of History and Public History at UMass Amherst. In his free time, Micah enjoys video and board gaming, geocaching and being polyamorous as often as possible. He lives in Springfield with his family of choice, a small menagerie of pets and far more books than any one person really needs.
Jason Schneiderman
Dr. Jason Schneiderman has a BS in Psychology from Stony Brook University and PhD in Neuroscience from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Over the last decade he has worked on a variety of research and educational projects sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Space Biomedical Research Institute, and NASA's Space and Life Sciences Directorate. His research has focused on the biological basis of psychiatric disorders, brain imaging techniques, and the effects of microgravity on the nervous system and his research has appeared in scientific journals including The Journal of Vestibular Research, Psychological Medicine, Biological Psychiatry, Neuropsychobiology and Schizophrenia Research. Currently, he is working at the Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School on using diffusion tensor MRI to study the white matter changes in the brain during the early stages of schizophrenia.
Meredith Schwartz's short fiction appeared in Strange Horizons, Reflection's Edge, & the anthology Sleeping Beauty, Indeed. She edited Alleys & Doorways, an anthology of homoerotic urban fantasy, forthcoming from Lethe Press. She is screenwriter for Accidental Heroes, has been known to commit fanfiction, & ran Buffycon once upon a time.
Stephen H. Segal
Gregory Seidman—A fan, a tabletop gamer, a geek, and a family man.
Jude Shabry (aka peacefrog) attended her first Arisia in 1994 and hasn't been able to stay away since. She's attended as an artist, vendor, techie, panelist, yoga teacher, climbing guide, and more. This year she is thrilled to add bride to the list as she and Dreaming tie the knot in the ballroom on Sunday.
Nisi Shawl's story collection Filter House won the 2009 James Tiptree, Jr. Award. It was praised by Ursula K. Le Guin as "superbly written" and by Samuel R. Delany as "amazing." Shawl was a double-nominee for the 2009 World Fantasy Awards. Her stories have appeared in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Asimov's SF Magazine, and the groundbreaking Dark Matter anthologies, among other publications. In May of 2011 she'll be one of two Guests of Honor at the 35th WisCon. Shawl's reviews and essays appear in the Seattle Times and Ms. Magazine. She is the editor of the forthcoming fifth volume of the WisCon Chronicles and 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 that organizations' Steering Committee, Shawl also serves on the Board of Directors of the Clarion West Writers Workshop.
Nicholas "phi" Shectman is Clerk of Arisia, Inc.
Delia Sherman
Hillary Sherwood is a filker, harper, knitter and needlepointer. She has been reading Science Fiction and Fantasy for as long as she can remember, and watching it for nearly as long. She currently lives in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Cynthia A. Shettle—My current obsessions are Heroes and Kingdom of Loathing. Old favorite shows include Angel, Highlander and Misfits of Science. I roleplay with the Western Avenue Irregulars.
Cris Shuldiner
Rachel L. Silber
Rick Silva has been involved in small press publishing since his college days. He published and edited Kinships magazine. Along with his wife Gynn, Rick is a partner in Dandelion Studios (www.dandelionstudios.com), a small press comic book company. Rick co-writes the Dandelion Studios comics Zephyr & Reginald: Minions for Hire, Stone, Kaeli & Rebecca, Stone, and Perils of Picorna. He publishes his own zine, Caravan, and he is one of the featured contributors for the fiction webzine The Edge of Propinquity (www.edgeofpropinquity.net). Rick Silva grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, attended Cornell University, and currently teaches chemistry at a high school on Cape Cod, where he resides with his wife and son, and three cats.
Hildy Silverman is the publisher of Space and Time, a 4-decade-old magazine featuring fantasy, horror, and science fi ction. She is also the author of several works of short fiction, including "Damned Inspiration" (2009, Bad-Ass Fairies, Ackley-McPhail, ed), "The Vampire Escalator of the Passaic Promenade" (2010, New Blood, Thomas, ed.),"The Darren" (2009, Witch Way to the Mall?, Friesner, ed), and "Sappy Meals" (2010, Fangs for the Mammaries, Friesner, ed). She is the Vice President of the Garden State Horror Writers and member of the literary programming committee for Philcon. In the "real" world, she is a freelance consultant who develops corporate training and marketing communications materials.
Labels, labels everywhere! Some of those that fit Mistress Simone: sadist, pervert, fetishist, polyamorous, professional dominatrix,comic geek,Doctor Who aficionado,Battlestar watcher and old sci-fi lover,lifestyle educator, fetish performer,geek and kinkster. Current title holder of International Ms. Olympus 2009. Mistress Simone has been a lifestyle and professional Domina for seventeen years. Her community service has included the executive directorship of the LRA, Inc., GLLA 2006 and Illinois Leather Sir and boy 2007 judge, LA&M volunteer and giving educational discussions nationwide. Some of the events she has presented at include Kinky Kollege, NELA,Shibaricon, Galleria Domain 2 and DomCon. College lectures include Northwestern University, Loyola and University of Chicago. Seeking to expand her knowledge base, she tries to learn something new from each event, person and encounter she has. www.chicago-mistress.com
Josh Simpson's vision in glass is as vast as the universe, an unlimited landscape that stretches from the mysteries of the ocean to the far reaches of space. Self taught, his work evolved as he experimented, made stupid mistakes, and pursued countless dead ends. In 1976 he began his "Infinity Project" — to leave his small planet sculptures around the Earth, an unsigned gift for future generations.
Jill 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.
Vandana Singh
Jamila Sisco is an award-winning costumer with a specialization in Anime costumes. She has worked on costumes for over 5 years and is a member of the Northern Lights chapter of the International Costumers' Guild.
David Sklar writes in the places between the impossible magic of legend, the inscrutable magic of dreams, and the breathtaking everyday magic of the world in which we live. His works include fiction in such publications as Space and Time and Cabinet des Fées, and poetry in Wormwood Review and Paterson Literary Review, among others. His first novel, Shadow of the Antlered Bird, is available as an e-book from Drollerie Press. He is currently coediting the two-headed anthology Trafficking in Magic/Magicking in Traffic. David lives in New Jersey works as a freelance writer and editor. For more information, see http://davidwriting.com
Brad Smith is a professional Linux nerd by day, and does musical theater, voice acting, larp, drumming, and just about any other kind of performance he can get involved with by night. He currently does vocals and percussion in the folk group Stranger Ways, and has recently performed on stage as Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar and Jake in Evil Dead: The Musical, both with the MIT musical theater guild. He is the technical producer of and principle voice cast in the online audio theater podcast, Second Shift (http://www.secondshiftpodcast.com). Occasionally, he sleeps.
Sarah Smith's first YA, THE OTHER SIDE OF DARK (ghosts, interracial romance, and a secret from slavery times) has been named a Junior Library Guild selection. She's 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 bestselling DEATH'S EXCELLENT VACATION (ed. Charlaine Harris and Toni Kelner). She is still working on that Titanic book. Visit her at www.sarahsmith.com, FB and Twitter, and www.bookviewcafe.com, where a lot of her stories are free for the reading.
Elayna Jade Smolowitz—I am a second-generation geek, a writer, a singer, and an actress. I'm an anime geek, a band geek, and a literature geek, and have a certain passion for musicals. Many of my short stories are stored in my journal on Gaia Online (gaiaonline.com), which is where I get much of my inspiration anyway.
While Everett Soares, the creator of Sky Pirates of Valendor, had been working on this concept for over 2 years, it truly did not come to life until he met Brian Brinlee, penciler for the project. In December 2006, the two were introduced and started working on concept sketches. Before they knew it, Everett's words came to life on Brian's 11 x 17 art boards. Four months and 8 pages later, they stumbled upon the chance of a lifetime, Small Press Idol. What occurred from there was beyond any of their expectations! Sky Pirates of Valendor finished the competition in 2nd Place. Shortly after, Free Lunch Comics extended an offer to publish the series, in a five-issue miniseries followed by a trade paperback. Besides his work on Sky Pirates, Everett is stretching his writing skills through a variety of pending projects, working with a group of talented artists. Everett is an active member of the Comicbook Artists Guild and lives in Rhode Island with his wife and dog.
SJS Comic Promotions is owned and operated by Promotions Consultant, Susan Soares. Opening its doors officially in 2009, Soares has been working in the comic book industry since 2007 as a part of Jolly Rogue Studios. The purpose of SJS Comic Promotions is to provide support and guidance to comic book creators in the areas of marketing and promotions of their properties. Currently SJS Comic Promotions represents Dandelion Studios, Fallenmage Productions, Big Bone Studios, Mustard Seed Comics, Dark Brain Comics, Jolly Rogue Studios and Three J Productions LLC. Soares is also a novice comic book writer with three short stories to be published within the next year.
Tim Spalding
Sparr—At Arisia in order to feed his girlfriend's mad scientist fetish, he will also be teaching paper folding, rope tying, and lego building, all while leaving time for fun, of course. If you turn this page into a square and bring it to him, he will teach you how to fold it into a stegosaurus!
Charlie Spickler is a Brooklyn based independent filmmaker. Charlie has written and directed three feature films a number of short films and two TV pilots. Charlie Co- Wrote and directed Accidental Heroes, the highly acclaimed TV pilot and recently finished another Syfy TV pilot titled "The Chronicles of Bob" which us currently being shopped to a number of networks. Charlie is a partner in C Squared Pictures. C Squared currently owns the rights to the first three books in Lynn Flewelling's "Nightrunner" series and in in development on a feature film of the first book "Luck in the Shadows". Charlie also just published his first book, "So You Want To Be a Filmmaker… Forget Film school."
Michael Sprague is the Division Head of Programming for Arisia 2011. This is his second year as head of Programming. He has been involved as staff for Arisia for several years and as an attendee for even longer. Clearly he needs to find another hobby.
Dr. Richard Staats joins us with an extremely varied background. He has been in the game design community since the mid-70s. Colonel Staats is highly decorated combat veteran that most recently commanded 18,000 personnel in Iraq. Dr. Staats is also a department head at a think tank in DC. There is more information on Rich at www.drgames.org
Renee Staffeld
Richard Stallman—Founded of the Free Software Movement in 1983—a movement for software users' freedom, and launched development of the GNU operating system (gnu.org), often mislabeled as "Linux" and attributed to someone else. President of the Free Software Foundation (fsf.org).
Lisa J. Steele
Jon Steiner
Chris Stetson
Vessela Stoyanova
Ian Randal Strock is the editor and publisher of SFScope.com and the publisher of Fantastic Books. 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).
AJ Strong—Child Wrangler
Rebecca Sturdevant
Lisa Sturgeon
Danielle Sucher—(http://daniellesucher.com) is part artist, part pyromaniac, and spends much of her time creating art glass jewelry at her torch. Her work is available at http://emblems.etsy.com. She also practices law, spins fire, keeps bees, takes photos, cooks, writes, and generally manages to keep busy somehow.
Julia Suggs sings alto for the a cappella filk group Sassafrass. She is Admin for Arisia '11.
Jeremy Sullivan
Sean Sullivan is a software entrepreneur, science journalist, and art photographer with nine patents in communications technology and particle physics. He was home-schooled, and triple-majored at Amherst College in computer science, astronomy, and cultural evolution.
Poems and short stories of Sonya Taaffe's have won the Rhysling Award, been shortlisted for the SLF Fountain Award and the Dwarf Stars Award, and been reprinted in such anthologies as The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, The Alchemy of Stars: Rhysling Award Winners Showcase, The Best of Not One of Us, Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2006, Best New Romantic Fantasy 2, and You Have Time for This: Contemporary American Short-Short Stories; a selection of her work can be found in Postcards from the Province of Hyphens and Singing Innocence and Experience (Prime Books). She holds master's degrees in Classics from Brandeis and Yale and once named a Kuiper belt object.
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. She is the author of many books that combine the erotic with the fantastic, including the novels The Siren and the Sword, The Tower and The Tears, The Incubus and the Angel, 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 Alyson Books, Thunder's Mouth Press, Carroll & Graf, Ravenous Romance, Masquerade Books, and others. Her short stories have appeared everywhere from Asimov's to Ms. Magazine. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or http://blog.ceciliatan.com
Emily Taradash
Tchipakkan—Artist, writer, healer, student of history, especially the European Dark Ages, healing, psychic phenomena, magick and divination, ancient and neo-pagan religions, as well has skills for sustainable self-sufficiency. I teach everything from Divination to Dressing small game.
Timothy J. Tero—Have been attending Arisia's for about 10 years now. I'm a painter and photographer and have traveled extensively. I have been to Europe about dozen times and Japan 3 times…I'm an assistant organizer for an international /arthouse film meetup group in the boston area. I would say my special interest would be the culture of Japan (old and new) -Japanese Sci-fi / horror films. and some anime ( especially old Anime). Also have a keen interest in European Sci-fi films. I would be very excited to moderate a panel on the Japanese Ghost story at this years Arisia—i hope it is included. I would concentrate the panel on live action film and the history of the Japanese ghost story and its similarities and differences with western culture ghost stories. Would like to include Anime in this panel, but i do not want it to be exclusively an Anime panel. Perhaps about a 25% of the panel would be about Anime ghost story examples… hope to see you there!
Joye Thaller
Peter L. Thomas—This will be the eleventh consecutive Arisia for Pete 'Happy' Thomas and his son Quinn, age 10. Happy supports polyamory, gay marriage, group marriage, line marriage, and term marriage; he is traditionally married to Pam Ochs. Though a libertarian, Pete works as a systems architect for a federal contractor. While he's a militant agnostic, he's perfectly happy dancing in a drum circle with neo-pagans or in deep contemplation with Unitarian Universalists. An Eagle Scout, he refuses to support today's BSA on moral grounds. Though Happy's undergraduate degree is in Aerospace Engineering; his M.S.is in Computer Science. He has been unable to kick his hard SF habit, acquired at an early age. Though there are some that only know him as "Happy," he has suffered from depression. Feel free to friend him on LiveJournal, Flickr, Facebook, Digg, Twitter, MySpace, Blogger, Live.com. He rarely posts anything of substance on any of them.
Valerie Thompson
Persis L. Thorndike—As the mother of a 15 year old accomplished Novice costumer and filker, I am busy sharing my sewing machines, singing, playing music, cooking good food for my extended family, and homeschooling my child; oh, I am also holding down two jobs ATM. I am not only raising a costumer, but have a background of sewing, organizing, music, and graphics; I collect children's literature; and read avidly. I have experience in fannish and music publishing, run non-profit charity auctions for Interfilk, (a filk fan fund), and have been on the ConCom of the local Boston area gen and filk cons, and am currently Tech Mom to Arisia and Balticon. Free time? Overcommitted? Who, me? Don't tell me not to burn the candle at both ends, just tell me where to get more wax! (a Nancy Button in my collection.)
Dirk Tiede—Webcomics pioneer Dirk I. Tiede is the creator of the graphic novel series, Paradigm Shift. In addition to print collections, he continues to serialize his comics online and is a founding contributor to premiere comics portal Modern Tales. His work is also showcased in the books Toon Art: The Art of Digital Comics and Webcomics, and appears in the documentary Adventures In Digital Comics. Dirk can be found at comic and anime shows around the country promoting his books. He relocated from Chicago to Boston's North Shore in 2008 where he continues to work as a professional cartoonist and freelance illustrator.
William Todisco
Stabbing people in fencing or dangling from a rope, Tom may be in training to be a pirate. He's run games in more systems than it's worth mentioning and figured out that good company is the key and not all the rules need to be followed.
Mike Toole watches anime every single day. He's got nearly fifteen years of involvement in the scene under his belt, partaking in both journalistic endeavors (Animerica, Anime Insider, Sci-Fi Magazine to name a few) and doing work in the industry itself for the nascent Geneon Animation. Recently he's dusted off his old Animejump.com website, home to more than 500 long-form anime and manga reviews. In addition to that, he's currently a biweekly columnist, sometime producer, and onscreen personality for Anime News Network, the world's #1 anime website, and a regular reviewer and features writer for Otaku USA Magazine.
Thomas Traina is an attorney practicing law in Massachusetts. He has experience in the areas of labor law, business law, and practices in an area he likes to call "fandom law": legal issues of special interest to fandom, conventions & event hosts. Academically, he also focuses on civil liberties, constitutional law, speculative bioethics, and comparative law & 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.
Peter Truong
S. Tulchinsky—The bare bones description: poly, kinky, multilingual, and perpetually dancing college girl with distinctive hair and a penchant for toe socks and handstands.
Bonnie Barlow Turner has a Masters in Counseling and is a certified high school Biology teacher. She is currently investigating research in Psychology. Bonnie has worked in biotech and tutored ESOL students. She volunteers informing the public about environmental and other social justice issues. She met James Turner at Arisia 1 and has been married to him for 18 years.
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 went on to serve as president. He has been, and remains, an EMT, a teacher, an artist, a hacker, and a student. Currently pursuing a master's degree in art education, he fills his copious spare time with varied pursuits like eating and sleeping.
James 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 two books on Java Web Development ("MySQL & JSP Web Applications" and "Struts: Kick Start"). Recently, he has also started writing semi-regular DIY columns for IEEE Spectrum (anyone for a homemade projection TV?). In addition, he has spent more than 30 years as a software engineer, and currently works as a Senior Software Engineer 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. He is an open water diver and instrument-rated private pilot.
Erin Underwood
Born in the Pacific Northwest in 1979, Catherynne M. Valente is the author of over a dozen works of fiction and poetry, including Palimpsest, the Orphan's Tales series, and the crowdfunded phenomenon The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Own Making. She is the winner of the Tiptree Award, the Andre Norton Award, the Mythopoeic Award, the Lambda Awrad, the Rhysling Award, and the Million Writers Award. She was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award in 2007 and 2009, and the Locus and Hugo Awards in 2010. She lives on an island off the coast of Maine with her partner, two dogs, and an enormous cat.
Eric M. Van was a 2010 nominee for the World Fantasy Award for his work as Program Chair or Chair Emeritus for all 21 Readercons (and has been at work on a novel, _Imaginary_, nearly the entire time). His observations on Philip K. Dick have appeared in the _New York Review of Science Fiction_. At the turn of the millennium he spent four years back at Harvard studying psychology, and has renewed a lifelong interest in theoretical physics (his original major there). He also writes film and rock criticism, online and for local 'zines. In the real world, he is a former statistical consultant for the Boston Red Sox, and lives in Watertown, Mass.
James B. Van Bokkelen—Outside of my career as a software developer and entrepreneur, my list of hobbies is at risk of overflowing this space: farming fruit, hay, grain, vegetables and meat animals, restoring old farm equipment and tools, historic research, documentation and preservation, forestry, genealogy, foreign languages, metalworking, woodworking, model railroading, massage, science fiction, travel, beer, cider, photography, electronics, solar energy, astronomy, local government, open space preservation and nursing as many MPG as possible out of my hybrid cars.
Mark L. Van Name is a writer and technologist. As a science fiction author, he's published four novels—One Jump Ahead, Slanted Jack, Overthrowing Heaven, and Children No More—and the omnibus collection, Jump Gate Twist. He's edited or co-edited three anthologies—Intersections: The Sycamore Hill Anthology, Transhuman, and The Wild Side—and written many short stories. Those stories have appeared in a wide variety of books and magazines, including Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, many original anthologies, and The Year's Best Science Fiction. As a technologist, he's the CEO of a technology assessment company, Principled Technologies, Inc., that's based in the Research Triangle area. He's worked with computer technology for his entire professional career and has published over a thousand articles in the computer trade press, as well as a broad assortment of essays and reviews.
Mercy E. Van Vlack has been a comics pro since 1980, including writing Richie Rich; artist on Green Ghost & Lotus (set in Boston) and 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 and makes Celtic jewelry.
Andrew Van Zandt
Michael A. Ventrella's second fantasy novel "The Axes of Evil" (the sequel to "Arch Enemies") was released last year from Double Dragon. His web page is www.michaelaventrella.com. His blog interviews genre authors, editors and agents and is quite useful for aspiring writers. Michael is one of the founders of modern live action roleplaying gaming in the US and currently runs the Alliance LARP (www.AllianceLARP.com) with chapters all over the US and Canada. His Rule Books and Players Guides can be found at book stores with good taste. Mike is also the founder of Animato magazine, the first major magazine dedicated to animated films, which had a glorious run in the 80s and 90s before being destroyed by the internet. He is married to artist Heidi Hooper. In his spare time, he is a lawyer.
Amanda Vetalino
Jesse Viator
Jono Vincent
Mark Waks/Justin du Coeur is an emergent property, arising from decades of programming, SCA, fandom, LARP and Freemasonry. He is gradually learning enough Buddhism to prove that he does not actually exist.
A fan of animation, comic books and science fiction, René Walling chaired Anticipation, the 67th Worldcon held in Montréal in 2009. He writes for fps magazine, co-owns Nanopress, a small publishing company, helps out with a few conventions, and has occasionally been known to work as a graphic designer. He looks forward to living on Mars where he would benefit from having more than 24 hours in a day.
JeffWarner stands accused of: being a President Emeritus of the Science Fiction Forum, of conduct remotely responsible for the death of Lastcon, of inventing "Panel in the Pool" for Pi-con, of running the Nexus at Arisia too many times, of not being Jeff Mach, of accepting 'field promotions' at various WorldCons, of having been a "Special Assistant" to the Shirt & Pants of Lunacon, of being a published writer, and of committing the SMOF Hat Trick of helping start 3 SF conventions. He pleads Insanity.
John C. Watson—A longtime fan of SF/F, Mr. Watson was infected with the anime and manga bug in the early 1990s, and remains a virulent carrier of all three.
Joshua Watson
Mikala Watson
A. J. Watts
Susan Weiner is a biology Ph.D. student, a LARP writer with Alleged Entertainment, a fiddle player and songwriter with the band Stranger Ways, and somehow also manages to date far too many people. She's not exactly sure how she does all that either.
Morven Westfield
Alan Wexelblat
Michelle Wexelblat
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 stars, and has her own business designing and creating costumes for life… suits, evening gowns, and casual wear.
Michael Whitehouse
Dropping out of his 11-dimension Home Universe and trapped in ours by a lab accident, Stephen R. Wilk has coped by learning to work with optics in only three dimensions as a Laser Scientist at Lincoln Labs. He also edits for Optics and Photonics News, and writes for The Light Touch, The Spectrograph, and the e-zine Teemings. He's working on "Sons of God", the follow-up to his book "Medusa", and has appeared on the History Channel's "Clash of the Gods", which so far is only available in 2D.
Connie Wilkins's ([email protected]) first love was writing fantasy and science fiction, but her alter-ego Sacchi Green became seduced by the erotic side of the force, where she's published scores of stories and edited or co-edited seven anthologies. One of them, Lesbian Cowboys: Erotic Adventures, was a Lambda Literary Award winner. Lately she's returned to her specfic roots as editor of Time Well Bent: Queer Alternative Histories from Lethe Press. Her own story from that anthology also appears in Best Erotic Fantasy & Science Fiction from Circlet Press, and will be in Best Lesbian Fiction 2010 from Bedazzled Inc.
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 recently 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.
Ella Willyard
Jason Winslade
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.
The Wombat, aka jan howard finder, has been reading SF for more than 60 years & active in SF circles for more than 35. He chaired 7 events. His next event is The 3rd Conference On Middle-Earth; www.3rdcome.org. He has been a GoH at a number of cons including CONFRANCISCO, the 1993 Worldcon. He participates in, judged & MC's masquerades, a superb auctioneer & gives the best backrubs. He has been published & has pub-lished. He has divers interests, a budding film career, visited Middle-earth & saving the world with SUTs. He is a neat guy & enjoys driving his Vette: Red Shift. Buy him a Pepsi!
Sandra Woodring
Keither Woods
Lin-Z Woods
Bey Woodward—Bey has been invloved in fandom for more than 8 years. She is part of the Boston area Poly and Kink communities, has been a member of the Naughty Nurses since their inception in 2005, and is married to gaming book author, Jonathan L. Woodward.
Jonathan Woodward is the author or co-author of over a dozen roleplaying game books, including the Hellboy RPG, Trinity, and GURPS Banestorm. This convention marks his 18th year as an Arisia panelist. He lives near Boston with his wife, Bey Woodward.
Trisha Wooldridge is a freelance writer, editor and educator from Auburn, MA with experience ranging from Dungeons & Dragons Online to animal rescue public relations. She writes about food, wine, horses, haunted locations, teaching, and she interviews bands like Voltaire, Within Temptation and Nightwish. She is on the Motherboard of Broad Universe, an international organization promoting women writers in speculative fiction, and an active member of the New England Horror Writers and the Editorial Freelancers Association. Additionally, she is an online tutor, course editor and course developer for CODiE Award winning Smarthinking and StraighterLine. You can find her novella, "Mirror of Hearts," at FANTASY GAZETTEER(www.fantasygazetteer.com), and short story, "Party Crashers," co-authored with long time friend Christy Tohara, in the EPPIE Award winning BAD-ASS FAERIES: JUST PLAIN BAD. www.anovelfriend.com
Phoebe Wray's futurist novel JEMMA7729 enjoys 5 stars on Amazon. Her stories are in Farthing, Andromeda Spaceways, the anthologies "All About Eve" and "Backless, Strapless & Slit to the Throat," online at Fables.org and chizine. She serves on the Motherboard of Broad Universe and lives in Massachusetts.
Brianna "Spacekat" Wu is a 2009 finalist in the Illustrators of the Future contest, and 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 3000 miles a year. She is married to four-time Hugo-award-winner Frank Wu.
Frank Wu is an award-winning artist, writer and animator. He's married to fellow artist / costumer / gamer Brianna Spacekat Wu. Frank's art has materialized in many magazines and books. Frank won the Illustrators of the Future Grand Prize and four Hugo Awards. He also has four scientific papers to his credit, along with humor published in The Journal of Irreproducible Results and The Annals of Improbable Research. His current project is Guidolon the Giant Space Chicken, which is a movie about a giant space chicken making a movie about a giant space chicken. When not creating stuff, Frank can be found hanging out with monks, hunting for mastodon bones in New Mexico and dinosaur bones and fish fossils in Wyoming, holding Laura Palmer's diary, riding in banana-shaped mopeds, touching art when the museum guards aren't looking, searching for a river of molten lava to drop keys into, or walking the earth, meeting people, getting into adventures, you know, like Caine in Kung Fu.
Mimi Diedrich Wu
Kevin Wynott
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 code for his "Polynomial Regression" algorithm is embedded in every high-end Texas Instruments calculator sold today, and apparently, in Microsoft's EXCELL Spreadsheet. He lectures worldwide on the SCIENCE needed to understand Global Warming, and annually adjusts his "Toucan Equations" for predicting Sea-Level rise/fall.
Amy Yampanis
Keith Yampanis
Judy Yen
Bill "Dr. Crash" Yerazunis
Aimee Yermish, PsyD ([email protected]) is an educational therapist, providing assessment, remediation, enrichment, and overall strategizing, for children who are gifted, learning disabled, or twice-exceptional. In her former lives, she was a molecular biologist, a schoolteacher, a black belt, and a Master Assassin, and she is working on a future life as a clinical psychologist. She also loves to sing, read, ride her bike, and do a great many crafts, and is busy raising a husband and two lovely children.
Jennifer Yoo is as much a Japanese History buff as she is an anime fan. An anime fan of more than 7 years, she is also an award-winning cosplayer and has studied Japanese History, Culture and Japanese Language for more than 6 years. Currently a student at Wellesley College, Jennifer divides her free time between teaching Japanese Studies classes to teenagers, presenting panels at local conventions, working on cosplay projects with her group, translating Japanese works into English, and writing her novel.
Samantha Yoo has been in the world of anime/manga since she was seven, and has been cosplaying since she was eight. She's won several awards for costume craftsmanship. (Let it be said that it isn't 'practice that makes perfect', it's 'a hell of a lot of practice makes marginally better over time'.) She has studied Japanese for three years, and adores Kamen Rider and Super Sentai.
James Zavaglia—I have worked with the media since the age of 15. I currently work at a local university as a media specialist. I have also helped on political campaigns since age 9, and worked on everything from ward councilor to president.
Guillermo "Zubie" Zeballos—A Guy of many names. At 5 y.o., thought SF was pretty cool 'cause Capt. Kirk always got the girl. Great fan of "Mampato" & his time traveling adventures (look that one up). I also loved the hardware from Stingray to Whitestar. I'm keen on paper folding. I'm not keen on a badly handled X-acto, but it comes with the territory.
John F. Zmrotchek—Time traveller (strictly forward), dweller in the Fandom Below (twice con chair, proving he has no friends), teller and told of tall tales, player with words, hacker of code (or perhaps just plain hack), witness to Great Things, Fantastic Places and Interesting People, suspended upside down twixt heaven and hell (giving him a unique perspective on both) and man who's had his chance to make those people dance… and maybe they were happy for a while.
Ariela Zonderman—When not partying scientifically with Ziggurat Labs, Ariela works in software quality assurance. She likes to sing to herself, attend community theater, and read webcomics.
Eric Zuckerman is not a real talk show host, but he plays one on TV. His fannish semi-improv comedy project, "Eric in the Elevator" has screened at regional West Coast conventions, several WorldCons, and Arisia, where he was 2008 Fan Performer GoH. Among his many other nerdly pursuits, he's a geocacher, a gamer, an armchair "fanthropologist", and a compulsive ribbon collector/trader.
