Eric Flint – Guest Of Honor
Stephanie Osborn – Special Guest
Stephanie’s Biography
Award-winning author Stephanie Osborn, the Interstellar Woman of Mystery, is a veteran of more than 20 years in civilian/military space programs, with graduate and undergraduate degrees in four sciences: astronomy, physics, chemistry and mathematics, and she is “fluent” in several more, including geology and anatomy. She has authored, co-authored, or contributed to some 50 books, including the celebrated science-fiction mystery, Burnout: The mystery of Space Shuttle STS-281. She is the co-author of the Cresperian Saga book series, and has written the critically acclaimed Displaced Detective Series, described as “Sherlock Holmes meets The X-Files,” and the award-winning, exciting Sherlock Holmes: Gentleman Aegis series. Her latest venture: Division One, her take on the urban legend of the mysterious people who make evidence…disappear, as well as the ongoing story of Dominick Ashton and his legacy in Richard Weyand’s popular EMPIRE series. In addition to her writing, the Interstellar Woman of Mystery now happily “pays it forward,” teaching math and science through numerous media including e-books, radio, podcasting and public speaking, as well as working with SIGMA, the science-fiction think tank.
Personal Links
Dr. Charles Gannon – Special Guest
Dr Gannon’s Biography
Dr. Charles E. Gannon‘s best-selling books have won the Dragon Award, the ALA Choice Award (Outstanding Book), the Compton Crook Award, and have been nominated for four Nebulas. He is best known for the Caine Riordan series of hard sf novels, which have all been national best-sellers and include 4 finalists for the Nebula, 2 for the Dragon Award, and a Compton Crook winner. In 2020, the “Caineverse” expanded into an exclusive imprint, Beyond Terra Press (Chris Kennedy Publications) which, now entering its third season, has brought readers the closely entwined Murphy’s Lawless series, reissued the anthology Lost Signals of the Terran Republic, and will soon be releasing stand-alone novels focused on Caine and other major characters from various the series.
Gannon’s epic fantasy series, The Vortex of Worlds, debuted in 2021 with This Broken World. He collaborates w/ Eric Flint in the NYT/WSJ bestselling Ring of Fire series, has written two solo novels in John Ringo’s Black Tide Rising world, and co-authored three volumes with Steve White in the Starfire series. He’s also worked in the Honorverse, Man-Kzin, and War World universes. His other writing credits include lots of short fiction, table-top roleplaying games (Traveller, 2300 AD, Twilight: 2000, Dark Conspiracy) and years of work as a scriptwriter/producer in NYC.
As a Distinguished Professor of English, Gannon received 5 Fulbrights, and his Rumors of War & Infernal Machines won the 2006 ALA Choice Award for Outstanding Book. He is a frequent subject matter expert for national media venues (NPR, Discovery, etc.) and for various intelligence and defense agencies.
Personal Links
Faith Hunter – Special Guest
Biography
Faith Hunter is the award-winning New York Times and USAToday bestselling author of several series: Jane Yellowrock, Soulwood, Rogue Mage, and Junkyard Cats.
In addition, she has edited several anthologies and coauthored the Rogue Mage RPG.
She is the coauthor and author of 16 thrillers under pen names Gary Hunter and Gwen Hunter.
Altogether she has 40+ books and dozens of short stories in
print and is juggling multiple projects.
She sold her first book in 1989 and hasn’t stopped writing since. Faith collects orchids and animal skulls, loves thunderstorms, and writes. She drinks a lot of tea. She likes to kayak Class II & III whitewater rivers. Some days she’s a lady.
Some days she ain’t.
John Hartness – Guest
Biography
John G. Hartness is a teller of tales, a righter of wrong, defender of ladies’ virtues, and some people call him Maurice, for he speaks of the pompatus of love. He is also the award-winning author of the urban fantasy series The Black Knight Chronicles, the Bubba the Monster Hunter comedic horror series, the Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter dark fantasy series, and many other projects. He is also a cast member of the role-playing podcast Authors & Dragons, where a group of comedy, fantasy, and horror writers play Dungeons & Dragons. Very poorly.
In 2016, John teamed up with several other publishing industry professionals to create Falstaff Books, a small press dedicated to publishing the best of genre fiction’s “misfit toys.” Falstaff Books has since published over 200 titles with authors ranging from first-timers to NY Times bestsellers, with no signs of slowing down any time soon. 2019 saw the launch of Book Babble, a YouTube show where John and Falstaff Books Associate Publisher Melissa McArthur interview professional writers about the books they love.
In his copious free time John enjoys long walks on the beach, rescuing kittens from trees and playing Magic: the Gathering. John’s pronouns are he/him.
Joshua Palmatier – Guest
Biography
Joshua Palmetier is a fantasy author with a PhD in mathematics. He currently teaches at SUNY Oneonta in upstate New York, while writing in his “spare” time, editing anthologies, and running the anthology-producing small press Zombies Need Brains LLC. His most recent fantasy novel, Reaping the Aurora, concludes the fantasy series begun in Shattering the Ley and Threading the Needle, although you can also find his “Throne of Amenkor” series and the “Well of Sorrows” series still on the shelves. He is currently hard at work writing his next novel and designing the Kickstarter for the next Zombies Need Brains anthology project.
J F Posthumus – Guest
Biography
Wife and a mother of five, J.F. Posthumus is an IT Tech with over a decade of experience. When she isn’t arguing with computers and their inherent gremlins, or being mom to the four younger monsters (the eldest has flown the nest and is doing quite well on his own), she’s crafting, writing, or doing some other sort of art. An avid gamer, she loves playing Dungeons & Dragons, and a variety of other board games with her family and friends. She’s also a hopeless romantic, thanks to all the fairy tales she cut her eyeteeth on–they were what J.F. Posthumus learned to read before she discovered the Boxcar Children Mysteries. From there, she fell into the rabbit hole that’s reading, where she discovered a love for mysteries, fantasy, and the occasional romance. Since writing was her favorite subject, she naturally incorporated her love of murder, mysteries, and fantasy into her works.
When she came up with the idea of a body being found at a local building, it was only natural to create a necromancer for the job. From there, Catherine’s story unfolded, complete with monsters, magic, and a little bit of romance…
Personal Links
Henry Vogel – Guest
Biography
Henry began his first writing career in comic books. He spent the 1980s writing and publishing the superhero title Southern Knights, and the space and time-travel, caper comedy title Aristocratic Xtraterrestrial Time-Traveling Thieves. Along the way, he became the first comics professional online. A crash in the independent comic book market ended his comic book writing career. In 2006, Henry became a performing storyteller. He has performed all across North Carolina and has entertained thousands with his tales. In 2012, Henry returned to writing, this time in the genre he’s read throughout his life. He grew up reading science fiction, and his love of space opera and sword & planet stories is what drives him to write similar stories. Henry writes tales filled with action, adventure, and a touch of romance. They’re stories he would want to read, and Henry hopes you enjoy reading them as much as he enjoyed writing them.
Chaz Kemp – Guest
Biography
Bram Stoker Award finalist Chaz Kemp embraces a dynamic watercolor style that incorporates vibrancy and color into fantasy, steampunk and cyberpunk art in a way that is rarely seen. As a freelance illustrator of color, the influence of Alphonse Mucha is evident in his award-winning work that combines the artistic energy of the Roaring 20s with the untamed diversity of the modern era. His current project is the steampunk/fantasy world called Ashelon, which he created with his wife and award-winning author, Carolyn Kay.
Richard F. Weyand – Guest
Biography
Rich Weyand is a computer consultant and digital forensic analyst. He was born in Illinois and lived there almost 60 years before he and his wife engineered an escape to the hills of southern Indiana in 2011. His undergraduate and graduate education is in Physics, and he’s never really recovered.
Rich is a lifelong science fiction reader who turned to writing after attending his first convention in June of 2017. In the last four and a half years he has written and published twenty-two SF novels in three series: Childers (Military SF), EMPIRE (Galactic Empire SF) and COLONY (Colonization SF). His primary literary inspirations are Robert Heinlein, David Weber, and Lois Bujold.
Nicole Givens Kurtz – Guest
Biography
Nicole Givens Kurtz is an author, editor, and educator. She’s the recipient of the Ladies of Horror Grant (2021), the Horror Writers Association’s Diversity Grant (2020) and the Atomacon Palmetto Scribe Award-Best Short Story 2021. She’s been named as one of Book Riot’s 6 Best Black Indie SFF Writers. She’s also the editor of the groundbreaking anthology, SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire. Her novels have been a finalist in the Dream Realm Awards, Fresh Voices, and EPPIE Awards for science fiction. She’s written for White Wolf, Bram Stoker Finalist in Horror Anthology, Sycorax’s Daughters, and The Realm’s The Vela: Salvation series. Nicole has over 40 short stories published as well as numerous novels and three active speculative mystery series. She’s a member of Horror Writers Association, Sisters in Crime, and Science Fiction Writers of America. You can support her work via Patreon.
Personal Links
Carolyn Kay – Guest
Biography
Carolyn Kay enjoys crossing genres and imagining what normally inanimate objects would do if given life. She is currently collaborating with award-winning illustrator, Chaz Kemp, on the World of Ashelon, a series of novellas and novels set in a steampunk fantasy world. When she’s not writing, she can be seen dancing with Batavia, a tribal fusion belly dance troupe, knitting or playing with her beloved cats.
Personal Links
William Joseph Roberts – Guest
Biography
In a previous lifetime, William Joseph Roberts was an F-15 mechanic and Staff Sergeant in the United States Air Force. He has traveled the world and experienced many things in his few years. During this lifetime, he has been called a Jack of all trades, a Renaissance man, and insane squirrel wrangler by his peers.
Since his enlistment ended, he has perused careers as an industrial and architectural designer, design engineer, and now, eclectic writer. and publisher at Three Ravens Publishing.
William Joseph Roberts currently resides in the quaint southern town of Chickamauga, Georgia with his loving wife, three freaky-smart nerd children, and a small pack of fur babies.
Julie Frost – Guest
Biography
Julie Frost is an award-winning author of every shade of speculative fiction. She lives in Utah with a herd of guinea pigs, her husband, and a “kitten” who thinks she’s a warrior princess. Her short fiction has appeared in Straight Outta Dodge City, Monster Hunter Files, Writers of the Future, The District of Wonders, StoryHack, Stupefying Stories, and many other venues. Her werewolf PI novel series, “Pack Dynamics,” is published by WordFire Press, and a novel that takes place in Hell, “Dark Day, Bright Hour,” is published by Ring of Fire Press.
Personal Links
Cedar Sanderson – Guest
Biography
Cedar Sanderson was born a military brat and spent her childhood moving to new duty stations. Her formative years after her father left the Air Force were spent being home-schooled on the Alaskan frontier. She is a scientist, while running a household, an art and design business, and writing multiple novels on the side with occasional forays into coloring books and children’s stories. She has written more short stories than she can keep track of, and the recent publication of The Case of the Perambulating Hatrack makes her tenth novel in print. She also has a blog with over a decade of essays, recipes, and artwork for you to explore should you so desire. In any case, writing seems to be a compulsion for her; she’s not planning to give up any time soon.
Personal Links
Dimensional Riffs – Musical Guest Of Honor
Biography
Dimensional Riffs began as some geeks cracking jokes and cranking out tunes. After awhile, they realized that were pretty good at it. They take their favorite sci-fi genres (Doctor Who, Firefly, etc) and a bunch of other stuff from 21st century geekdom and tell the stories through song. When they’re not rocking out at cons, they’re living, laughing, and working across southeastern Virginia, from Richmond to Suffolk.
Personal Links
The Blibbering Humdingers – Musical Guests
Biography
These magical masters of musical hi-jinx and mayhem will wizard rock the tea towel right off your house elf! Their unique blend of 80s new wave, 50s do-wop, straight-up pop-rock, and old-timey sing-songy comedy will leave you laughing and crying for more. They draw inspiration from the Harry Potter series, Dr. Who, the SCA, medieval fantasy, science fiction, and all kinds of delightfully, geeky fandomness.
Scott & Kirsten Vaughan began performing together in 1992 in the SCA, where they are known as Efenwealt Wystle and Maîtresse Aénor d’Anjou. They live in Cary, NC (under the name Sanderz) with two kids and a cat named Rosemerta. (That’s the cat’s name. It would just be silly to give both our kids the same name as the cat!)
Personal Links
