Guests

Steam Punk Family



The Steampunk Family spend some of our time as a family of Edwardian mad scientists who live in an airship and have amazing adventures, and some of our time as making beautiful, and when possible, functional things. If a thing cannot be useful, let it at least be beautiful, and if it cannot be beautiful, do we really need it? We fight the tide of disposable, plastic-laden consumerism, making a stand for elegance and choosing art over plenty. We document this madness on www.steampunkfamily.com.

Annette Curtis Klause



Annette Curtis Klause was born in Bristol, England and moved to the United States when she was a teenager. She daydreamed constantly while growing up, and she turned some of those fantasies into stories and poems. Her novels include The Silver Kiss, Blood and Chocolate, and Freaks: Alive, on the Inside! Her latest story, “Elf Blood” appears in Welcome to Bordertown, edited by Ellen Kushner and Holly Black (Random House, 2011).

Matthew Myers



Matthew Myers has been a music composer in the video game industry for the past 5 years. Though he's probably most well-known as the lead singer and songwriter from otaku band LeetStreet Boys, as made famous by songs like “Yuri The Only One.” As a composer, Matt has worked on projects for Nokia, Square-Enix and numerous independent video game developers. He particularly enjoys opportunities to make pop songs for anime RPGs and visual novel games. www.leetstreetboys.com

Elaine Cunningham


Elaine Cunningham is a New York Times best-selling fantasy author whose work includes 21 novels and over three dozen short stories. She is best known for her stories set in licensed worlds such as the Forgotten Realms, Star Wars, EverQuest, and Pathfinder Tales. Shadows in the Starlight, the second book in her urban fantasy Changeling Detective series, was included on the 2008 Kirkus list of 10 Best Sci-Fi Novels. Elaine is currently working on Tales of Sevrin, an e-riginal series of short fantasy novels. For more information, visit her website at www.elainecunningham.com.

Stephanie Dray



Stephanie graduated with a degree in Government from Smith, a small women's college in Massachusetts where-to the consternation of her devoted professors-she was unable to master Latin. However, her focus on Middle Eastern Studies gave her a deeper understanding of the consequences of Egypt's ancient clash with Rome, both in terms of the still-extant tensions between East and West as well as the worldwide decline of female-oriented religion.
Before she wrote novels, Stephanie was a lawyer, a game designer, and a teacher. Now she uses the transformative power of magic realism to illuminate the stories of women in history and inspire the young women of today. She remains fascinated by all things Roman or Egyptian and has-to the consternation of her devoted husband-collected a house full of cats and ancient artifacts.
http://www.stephaniedray.com/

Charles Dunbar



Charles Dunbar (also known by his internet handle "Anime Anthropologist") is a graduate of Hunter College of the City University of New York, where he received his BA in Anthropology and Religion in 2004, and an MA in Sociocultural Anthropology in 2010. His fieldwork of the past 2 years has revolved around anime convention participation, including perceptions, misconceptions, stereotyping, spending habits and convention culture. He's also addicted to the works of Hayao Miyazaki and has an obsession with mythology and folklore, especially where gods and ghost stories are concerned. He currently rambles about these things on his website, www.studyofanime.com.

Genevieve Iseult Eldredge



Genevieve Iseult Eldredge used to keep her fantasies to herself until they grew wings (and swords, spears, and other medieval weaponry) and broke free. Now, she balances the romantic with the perilous, both in real life and in her writing.
In her real life, she dropped out of med school, began practicing the martial arts, married the girl of her dreams, and became an epic fantasy writer. She has earned a BA in English Literature, a black belt in Chinese-American Goju-Ryu, and an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She has been a panelist at Arisia, PhilCon, and she was the Guest of Awesome at 4Pi- Con.
In her writing, GIE has been known to torture her characters with all manner of romance and peril- -from desire to unrequited love, to showdowns and epic battle sequences--including the dreaded incarnation of both: fightsex. She does not have a degree in the latter.
In her guise as Kierstin Cherry, semi-shy erotica writer, she puts the romance back into necromancy with her 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 Lambda-nominated anthology Women of the Bite by Circlet Press ebooks and in print by Alyson Books.

Sarah Hodge-Wetherbe



Sarah Hodge-Wetherbe has been a geek since her father sat her down in front of an episode of star trek at age 7. She has worked in the western mass library system for 11 years, promoting geek culture as a way of introducing children and teens to the wonders of good storytelling. She has been a featured speaker for many professional Massachusetts Library System events, and has performed her workshops on various geek cultures at libraries, schools, museums, and conventions all over the new England area. She's presented at such diverse places as the Norman Rockwell Museum, Conneticon, the McDuffy School and Anime Boston. When not working, she can be found rolling dice while fighting orcs at the same table as her geeky husband of 10 years.

Sharyn November



Sharyn November is senior editor for Viking Children's Books and the editorial director for Firebird Books. She's a two-time finalist for the World Fantasy Award for her editorial work; FIREBIRDS RISING, the second anthology she edited for the imprint, was also a World Fantasy Award Finalist. Her personal website is www.sharyn.org

Tamora Pierce



Tamora Pierce is a New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestselling author and has written over two dozen fantasy novels for teenagers. MASTIFF, her most recent book, was published in October of 2011. Tammy was born in South Connellsville, Pennsylvania into a long, proud line of hillbillies. While her family didn’t have much money, they did have plenty of books, and books continue to be the main yardstick by which she measures true wealth. Crediting her fans with her success, Tammy loves the chance to go on tour and thank them in person. “Struggling along as a kid and even through my twenties, it’s the kind of life I dreamed of but never believed I would get. And I never take it for granted.” She hopes her books inspire her readers with the feeling that they too can do anything if they want it badly enough. Tammy now lives in Syracuse with her beloved Spouse-Creature Tim Liebe, and their numerous cats, two parakeets, and whatever freeloading wildlife takes up residence in their backyard.

Michael "Mookie" Terracciano



Michael "Mookie" Terracciano is the author and artist of the fantasy webcomic, "Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire." Since its humble beginnings nine years ago it has received acclaim for its unique characters, addictive storylines, painful puns, awful alliteration and (gasp!) reliable update schedule. Want to know what's so interesting about a grumpy seer, his deformed girlfriend, his talking cat, his archmage mother and rock-star father? See for yourself at www.dominic-deegan.com!

Phoebe Wray



Phoebe Wray's futurist, dystopian novel, Jemma7729, is published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, and in e-book by Dark Quest Books.The sequel, J2 is published by Dark Quest. Both novels are also available as e-books. She has stories in the anthologies No Man's Land, All About Eve, and Backless, Strapless and Slit to the Throat; stories and poetry in Farthing, fables, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and Fiddlehead. Phoebe teaches Theatre History and Cultural History at The Boston Conservatory.

Jane Yolen



Jane Yolen, often called "the Hans Christian Andersen of America," is the author of well over 300 books, including OWL MOON, THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC, and HOW DO DINOSAURS SAY GOODNIGHT. The books range from rhymed picture books and baby board books, through middle grade fiction, poetry collections, nonfiction, and up to novels and story collections for young adults and adults.
Her books and stories have won an assortment of awards--two Nebulas, a World Fantasy Award, a Caldecott Medal, the Golden Kite Award, three Mythopoeic awards, two Christopher Medals, a nomination for the National Book Award, and the Jewish Book Award, among many other honors. She is also the winner (for body of work) of the Smith Medal, the Kerlan Award, the World Fantasy Assn. Lifetime Achievement Award, the Science Fiction Poetry Society Grand Master Award, the Catholic Library's Regina Medal, and in 2012 will receive the de Grummond Medal from the University of Southern Mississippi. Six colleges and universities-- Smith College, University of Massachusetts, Keene State College, Baypath College, Our Lady of the Elms College, and Westfield State College--have given her honorary doctorates.