Our 2008 Science Guest of Honor was archaeologist Jeannine Davis-Kimball, who discovered the real-life Amazon warriors. Her research is fascinating, and we were very excited to have her as our guest.

Dr. Davis-Kimball works at the Center for the Study of Eurasian Nomads. Along with Mona Behan, she authored Warrior Women: An Archaeologist's Search for History's Hidden Heroines and edited Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes in the Early Iron Age.

Warrior Women is about female warriors and priestesses of the Iron Age from Ireland to China. As a result of her research, Dr. Davis-Kimball has been featured in on the PBS show Secrets of the Dead and NOVA's "Mysterious Mummies of China" episode.

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At Context 21, our musical Guests of Honor were the Indianapolis-based band Wild Mercy, who describe their music as "neo-Celtic-powered post-industrial electro-acoustic folk-rock with jazz influences and freeform choral structure". The group is composed of Barry (bass, guitars, Roland GR-33 guitar synth, vocals), Debbie (keyboards, percussion, vocals, occasional guitar), Jennifer (harp, vocals, bass guitar, psaltery), and Sally (percussion).



Wild Mercy's albums include Summer Storm and Furious Fancies; they've almost finished production on their third CD. Musically, Summer Storm runs the gamut from ballads to improvisational space music to rowdy singalongs, proving that it's possible to provide something for everyone without sacrificing musical integrity. Of course, the big trick was figuring out how to get from the ethereal "Mantra" to "Chicken on a Raft" without frightening the listener. Furious Fancies shows a strong Celtic rock influence while also mixing in things like Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood." The bluesy "Their Music" and the cutting humor of the re-mixed fairy tales in "Po' Boys" showcase the songwriting breadth of Chicago singer-songwriter Martha Coady Fabish, while "Gravity Exiles" brings updated lyrics to the "Nottamun Town" tune, offering travel advice to aliens passing near our planet.

We had other musicians performing at the Saturday night open filk, including our guest Robin Nakkula, who plays mandolin and guitar.

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Geoffrey A. Landis is a scientist and a science fiction writer. As a scientist, he is researcher working at the NASA John Glenn Research Center. He works on projects related to advanced power and propulsion systems for space and planetary exploration. He is currently a member of the science team for the Mars Exploration rovers mission, which is directing the operation of two rovers, "Spirit" and "Opportunity" on the surface of Mars. He was a member of the Sojourner rover team on the Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997. For 2005 and 2006, he was the Ronald E. McNair Visiting Professor of Astronautics at MIT.

He holds seven patents, and is the author of 400 scientific papers on subjects ranging from interstellar travel to semiconductor physics.

As a writer, Geoffrey Landis won the Hugo award for best short story in 1992 for the story "A Walk in the Sun," and again in 2003 for the story "Falling onto Mars."

He won the Nebula award in 1990 for "Ripples in the Dirac Sea". His novel Mars Crossing from Tor books won the Locus award for best first novel in 2001. His many science fiction stories has been translated into 21 languages, ranging from Chinese through Turkish. His short story collection Impact Parameter was published by Golden Gryphon Books. It was named as a notable book of 2001 by Publisher's Weekly.

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Lon Prater is an active-duty Naval officer by day, writer of odd little tales by night. His short fiction has appeared in the Stoker winning anthology Borderlands 5 as well as Writers of the Future XXI and Frontier Cthulhu. His fiction will soon appear in Talebones.

He is an avid Texas Hold 'Em player, stunt kite flyer, and rejectomancer. You can find out more at www.lonprater.com

 

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Thomas Sigel is president of Sigel Press and T Sigel Consulting. Before launching the companies in March 2006, Sigel worked at South-Western College Publishing (Thompson) in Cincinnati, Ohio. He then ran publishing units for Pearson Education, first in the Prentice Hall division in Upper Saddle River, NJ, and then for the Prentice Hall/Financial Times imprint in London, England. Sigel's clients include major global publishing companies, academic institutions, government and private sector organizations. He has worked on over 90 books.

Sigel's own work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal Europe, Transition, and other publications. Dragons in the Sky, by David Jowsey, was featured on ITV's Northeast Tonight; In the Shadows, by Justin Thorne, was showcased on the BBC.

To learn more about the companies, visit www.sigelpress.com and www.tsigel.com.

 

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Barry and Sally Childs-Helton are filk writers and singers. Members of the group Wild Mercy, Barry plays bass, guitars, Roland GR-33 guitar synth, and sings, and Sally plays drums and other forms of percussion.

They are also highly educated, although their song "Alphabet Soup" shows their feelings on the value of their doctorate and PhD degrees. They currently live in Indianapolis.

 

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Josef Matulich started Dalmatian Alley over 22 years ago. A gifted sculptor and designer, Josef has provided foam creature costumes, puppets, masks, props and make up effects for C.A.T.C.O., Columbus Children's Theater, Actor's Theater, Rosebriar and Player's Theatre and several high school theatre programs. As a special effects artist, Josef has worked with numerous haunted houses and film and television projects.

Kit Matulich is a Master Costumer who never stopped playing dress up. She has been lead costumer for numerous theatrical productions and independent films. Kit has created costumes for Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Seussical, Disney's High School Musical, The King and I, The Music Man, Pippin and A Doll's House. Her love of Renaissance clothing comes to life when she conducts lectures and classes on the period between 1425 and 1625 for schools and other organizations.

Aidan Matulich is a theatre veteran. He has worked in all aspects of backstage crew including lighting, sound, props, and costumes.

 

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Mary Turzillo won the 1999 Nebula for her story "Mars Is No Place For Children", and her latest book is Dragon Soup, with Marge Simon. "Pride," her bad kitty story in Fast Forward 1 was on the final Nebula ballot this year. Her poetry collection Your Cat & Other Space Aliens was a nominee for the Pushcart Prize and appeared on the preliminary Stoker ballot. Two of the poems from that book were on this year's Rhysling ballot, and she was a nominee for the Cleveland Arts Prize. Her novel, An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl, was serialized in Analog.

She is working on another novel, Heart's Journey, Mars Quest. She has a fascinating son, Jack Brizzi, and lives in Ohio with her fascinating husband, Geoff Landis. She feels any decent story needs cats, chocolate, vampires, and Mars. For a decent life, delete the vampires.

Mary's web page: www.maryturzillo.com

 

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Chuck Lamb is known to most people as "The Dead Body Guy". A huge TV and movie fan from a young age, he became determined to play dead in a variety of movies and television shows. And he's succeeded. According to IMDB, he's appeared or will appear in "The Kentucky Fried Horror Show", "Horrorween", "ThanksKilling", "Book of the Dead: Necromancer", "TMZ on TV", "Taff", "Web Junk 20", "What I Like About You", and "Stiffs".

You can learn more at his website:

http://www.deadbodyguy.com/

 

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This is just a quick note to let you know that after August 15th, the full-weekend registration rate will increase from $35 to $45.

If you want to send a check or money order instead of paying online, print out your filled-out online registration form and mail it to us -- as long as your envelope is postmarked August 15th or earlier, your $35 registration will be fine.

There are also seats available in the following workshops:

• Creating the Comic Book Series
  
• World-Building
  
• Novel Package Critiques
  
• Interactive Narrative and Game Design
  
• Writing Great Openings

And finally, Context panelists Gary A. Braunbeck, Michael Arnzen, Lucy A. Snyder and Lawrence C. Connolly will be participating in panel entitled "The Business/Life of Writing Horror & Dark Fantasy" a few hours before Context officially begins.

Their panel will be held from 3-5pm in 010 Page Hall on the Ohio State University central campus in Columbus on Friday, September 26th. The event is sponsored by the Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing. Please visit the following site for directions to Page Hall:

http://www.osu.edu/map/building.php?building=061

We hope some of you who may be arriving early can attend the discussion. A book signing will follow. For more information, please contact Doug Dangler at 614-688-5865.

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Carlos Glender has had an active career in aviation material support and logistics spanning over 30 years. He served 20 years as an officer in the U.S. Navy, specializing in the support of tactical, carrier-based naval aviation. Presently he is Manager of Materials Management for ABX Air, a major cargo airline. Carlos earned a Master of Science degree in Logistics Management.

He is an active member of The Mars Society (Ohio Chapter) and believes that the human exploration of Mars would greatly expand scientific knowledge and perspective in a wide range of fields as diverse as geology, exobiology, climatology and comparative planetology.

The Mars Society is an international, non-profit advocacy group founded in 1998 to promote the human exploration and settlement of Mars. We believe that humans could be on Mars within 10 years from the start of a serious project. To that end, we are: increasing public awareness and support, encouraging more participation by the government and private enterprise, and sponsoring several key projects to prepare us to go to Mars.

For more information, please visit: http://www.marssociety.org/

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Michael Laimo has written the novels ATMOSPHERE, (nominated for the Bram Stoker Award), DEEP IN THE DARKNESS (also nominated for the Stoker), and THE DEMONOLOGIST, all of which were published in paperback by Leisure Books. He has also had a dark S/F-Suspense novel, SLEEPWALKER, published in Limited Edition hardcover by Delirium Books, and well as two short story collections, DEMONS, FREAKS, AND OTHER ABNORMALITIES, and DREGS OF SOCIETY. More recently, his short fiction has found its way into the pages of A WALK ON THE DARKSIDE, LOST ON THE DARKSIDE, HOT BLOOD XII: STRANGE BEDFELLOWS, SURREAL MAGAZINE, INHUMAN MAGAZINE, plus many more anthologies and magazines. His new novel, DEAD SOULS, was released in February 2007 in paperback from Leisure, and he is busy at work on another novel, entitled FIRES RISING.

Michael has recently found some success in optioning his work for film. His novel DEEP IN THE DARKNESS has been optioned by Burning Grounds Motion Entertainment, and is currently in pre-production. Plans are to begin shooting in the summer of 2007, for a 2008 release. A number of his short stories have been optioned as well.

His story ANXIETY was optioned by Burning Grounds and will be released as a feature in 2006/2007.

Michael can be contacted through his website at www.laimo.com, or through www.myspace.com/michaellaimo.

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Nick Mamatas is the author of the Lovecraftian Beat road novel Move Under Ground, which was nominated for both the Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild awards, the Civil War ghost story Northern Gothic, also a Stoker nominee, the suburban nighmare novel Under My Roof, and over thirty short stories and hundreds of articles (some of which were collected in 3000 Miles Per Hour in Every Direction at Once). His work has appeared in Razor, Village Voice, Spex, Clamor, In These Times, Polyphony, several Disinformation and Ben Bella Books anthologies, and the books Corpse Blossoms, Poe's Lighthouse, Before & After: Stories from New York, and Short and Sweet.

Nick's forthcoming works include the collection You Might Sleep... (November 2008) and Haunted Legends, an anthology with Ellen Datlow (Tor Books 2009).

Until recently, he was editor of Clarkesworld Magazine, and now works in the California Bay Area for the US licensers of various anime and manga programs.

A native New Yorker, Nick now lives near, but not in, Boston.

For more information, visit:

http://www.nick-mamatas.com/

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Lawrence C. Connolly's first stories appeared in Amazing Stories and Fantastic Stories in the early 1980s.

From there he moved on to sell fiction to Rod Serling's Twilight Zone Magazine, Borderlands, Cemetery Dance, F&SF, and numerous other magazines and anthologies in the SF, fantasy, and horror field. Many of these stories have gone on to be included and recommended in a variety of retrospective anthologies, among them Karl Edward Wagner's Year's Best Horror Stories, Thomas F. Monteleone's Best of Borderlands, and Audible's Best of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

In August, Fantasist Enterprises released Connolly's novel Veins as an illustrated trade paperback.

More information is available at www.VeinsTheNovel.com.

 

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Jer Alford is the head of Mini-Komix, a company that publishes comic books, graphic novels, and sketchbooks.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.minikomix.com/

 

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Phoebe Wray is a long-time nonfiction writer who has begun to publish in the speculative fiction field, with stories in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Mag, Farthing, Fables.org, and Chizine. She now has a novel, JEMMA7729, just released from EDGE. A horror story will be included in Backless, Strapless and Slit to the Throat: A Femme Fatale Anthology later this spring.

She's on the Motherboard of Broad Universe, teaches in the Theatre Division of The Boston Conservatory, and lives in a small town outside of Boston with three cats.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.phoebewray.net

 

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Scott M. Sandridge's first short story, "Treecutter," was published in The Sword Review in July 2005. Since then, he's gone on to publish more short stories, and he writes reviews for Tangent Online and The Fix. He's also a columnist for the Double-Edged Publishing webzines, a submissions editor for Ray Gun Revival, and the managing editor of Fear and Trembling.

For more information, visit:

http://smsand.wordpress.com/

 

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Nick Winks is genuinely lazy, but also inefficient, so he ends up working hard anyway. He volunteers for several conventions in Central Ohio, now that his kids are grown and he can play the games HE wants to play. His website is http://www.bluesass.com where he provides support for Electronic Commerce for Department of Defense business.

Linda Winks is a seamstress and she runs SF conventions and is the permanent chair of DeCONpression, and is the reason for Rule 13.

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Drollerie Press is the brainchild of Deena Fisher, President and Chief Visionary Officer. Deena was born in Salem, Oregon and has lived in 9 states and about 40 towns over the course of her life -- from North Pole, Alaska to Orlando, Florida, and now lives in Ohio -- trapped there by a happy marriage. Deena holds a B.A. in English and Education from Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Central Arkansas. She has studied literature from many cultures, but prefers those that spring from myths and legends around the world.

As her peripatetic nature might attest, she’s held a lot of jobs -- from party clown to English teacher to web designer -- but considers Drollerie Press more a passion than a profession. To support it, she has owned her “day job” an unprecedented (for her) 7 years, providing editing, writing, design, marketing, research services, and graphic arts to businesses.

For more information, visit:

http://drolleriepress.com/
http://www.dlmfisher.com/

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Greg Fisher is a librarian assistant at The Cleveland Heights / University Heights Public Library; he has over 18 years of library experience in addition to degrees in history, religious studies, and library science.

His current passion is a website dedicated to helping people find their next good horror novel:

http://theundeadrat.com/

 

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Tina Morgan is the managing editor for Fiction Factor and editor-in-chief of The Fractured Publisher. She's a contributing author to The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy, and The Companion Guide to Writing Fantasy, and the 2008 EPPIE Winner The Complete Guide to Writing Science Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Firestorm for Dragons, The Stygian Soul and in the July 2008 issue of The Lorelie Signal.

You can learn more about her at:
http://www.fictionfactor.com

 

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D. Harlan Wilson is the author of several collections of short stories and a meta-pulp science fiction novel, Dr. Identity, or, Farewell to Plaquedemia (2007), the first installment in the Scikungfi trilogy.

Other upcoming projects include Blankety Blank: A Memoir of Vulgaria (2008), and a book of literary criticism, Technologized Desire: Selfhood & the Body in Postcapitalist Science Fiction (2009).

Wilson teaches writing and literature at Stick Figure University.

Visit him online at www.dharlanwilson.com.

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Jackie is co-founder and Executive Editor of Meadowhawk Press, a speculative fiction small press based in Memphis. Their novel Terminal Mind by David Walton won this year's Philip K. Dick Memorial Award.

As an author, Jackie's stories range from ultra-short to novel-length, varieties of which have appeared (or are due to appear) in anthologies such as Dragons Composed by Kerlak and Beauty and Dynamite by Apex Books, as well as several publications, including The Binnalce, Mindflights Magazine, and Necrotic Tissue. Her SF novella appears in Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medecine Show in spring 2009, and a short dark tale soon to be in Shroud Magazine. She was named honorable mention in L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Award, and received a 2008 Darrell Award for best short story by a MidSouth author. Her fantasy novel Redheart premiered in October.

For more about Jackie, please visit www.jackiegamber.com/ or
www.meadowhawkpress.com.

 

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The business card for Samuel Travis Clemmons lists him as an Author - Lecturer - Philosopher - Time Traveler - Public Nuisance - Sometime Ne'er Do Well. The man claims to be an "Alternate Reality Counterpart" of the man that everyone knows as Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Yes, this is all a load of bullfeathers ... But you've got to start a biography somewhere.

The man who created the character of Samuel Travis Clemmons was born and raised in Central Kentucky. Being someone who loves an intricately woven tall tale (the more absurd the better) he wrote and began performing a comedy routine called "Marc Twain: The Time Traveler". In order to keep his storytelling from being railroaded into following the actual events of Mark Twain's life, he decided it would be best to create a fictional Marc Twain who had been born in an alternate realm of existence.

So if a friend tells you that he's headed to a science fiction convention to meet Marc Twain ... Ask him to spell the first name before you call him a liar.

For more about Travis, please visit: www.pup-stc.com

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Dr. Karen Nagel is an associate professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Midwestern University in the Chicago suburbs. She teaches classes in biotechnology, dosage form design, and pharmaceutical compounding and has research interests that include natural product analysis. In her spare time, she teaches yoga, reads anything she can get her hands on, runs marathons (very slowly) and hangs out at conventions.

 

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Prolific author Mike Resnick returns to Context. He has written, co-written or edited over 100 science fiction books and has published nearly 200 speculative fiction short stories.

Since 1989, Mike has won five Hugo Awards, (For "Kirinyaga", "The Manamouki", "Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge", and "The 43 Antarean Dynasties", and "Travels With My Cats"), a Nebula Award (for "Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge"), and has been nominated for 30 Hugos, 11 Nebulas, a Clarke (British), and six Seiun-shos (Japanese). He has also won a Seiun- sho, a Prix Tour Eiffel (French), 2 Prix Ozones (French), 10 HOmer Awards, an Alexander Award, a Golden Pagoda Award, a Hayakawa SF Award (Japanese), a Locus Award, 3 Ignotus Awards (Spanish), a Futura Award (Croatian), an El Melocoton Mechanico (Spanish), 2 Sfinks Awards (Polish), a Fantastyka Award (Polish), a Xatafi-Cyberdark Award (Spanish), and has topped the Science Fiction Chronicle Poll six times, the Scifi Weekly Hugo Straw Poll three times, and the Asimov's Readers Poll five times. In 1993 he was awarded the Skylark Award for Lifetime Achievement in Science Fiction, and in 2001 and 2004 he was named Fictionwise.com's Author of the Year in open competition with Dan Brown, Stephen King, Robert Ludlum, Louis L'Amour, Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov.

For more information, please visit his website:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/farmer/2/

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Fran Friel is a Bram Stoker Award-nominated author; she resides in rural New England with her husband and their band of animal masters. She writes a weekly column for The Horror Library Blog-O-Rama, as well as Yada, Too, and she is a fiction editor for Dark Recesses Press. As a full member of The Horror Library, her short story fiction appears regularly in the Fresh Meat department.

Fran's work has been featured in the 2006 anthology release, Horror Library Vol. 1, as well as publications online and in print at The Horror Library, Insidious Reflections, Wicked Karnival, The Lightning Journal, Lamoille Lamentations, The Eldritch Gazette, and Dark Recesses Press. Fran's debut novella, Mama's Boy, nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, was released August 2006 by Insidious Publications. You can find more of her work upcoming in Hadesgate Publications anthology, Tiny Terrors 2, and in Apex Digest (Fall 2007).

Fran is currently working on a short story collection to be paired with the new release of Mama's Boy by Apex Books.

http://www.franfriel.com/

 

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Alethea Kontis is a writer and editor who lives in Murfreesboro, TN. She's the author of the children's book AlphaOops! The Day Z Went First and the collection Beauty & Dynamite, published by the Apex Book Company. She also co-wrote The Dark Hunter Companion with Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Alethea also runs Nyx Books, which has published A Spider on my Tongue by T. M. Wright, Double Act by Mick Sims and Len Maynard, and Lost in Translation by Gord Rollo.

To learn more about Alethea and her projects, please visit:

http://www.aletheakontis.com/

 

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Jason Sizemore runs the Apex Book Company. In addition to acting as editor-in-chief for Apex Digest, he has published books such as I Remember The Future by Michael A. Burstein, Beauty & Dynamite by Alethea Kontis, Orgy of Souls by Maurice Broaddus and Wrath James White, The Next Fix by Matt Wallace, Unwelcome Bodies by Jennifer Pelland, Temple: Incarnations by Steven Savile, Grim Trixter by Brandy Schwan, Courting Morpheus (edited by Jodi Lee) and Mama's Boy and Other Dark Tales by Fran Friel.

Jason also edited the anthologies Aegri Somnia, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award, and Gratia Placenti. He'll be hosting a party at Context 21, and the Apex Book Company will be showcasing their wares in the dealers' room.

Apex Digest is a science fiction and horror magazine that has been in print since 2004. Popular authors such as Brian Keene, Kevin J. Anderson, MM Buckner, James P. Hogan, Michael Laimo, Bryan Smith, JA Konrath, Tom Piccirilli, Cherie Priest, William F. Nolan, Gary Braunbeck, and many, many more talented writers have appeared in the pages of Apex Digest.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.apexbookcompany.com/

 

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Diane Merlin is a romance writer who has authored books such as Michael Angelo, Mercenary Heart, Super Hero, and Mercenary Redemption. Her publisher, Tease Publishing LLC, will be hosting a party at Context where they will be giving away free books.

Diane lives in Trenton, North Carolina. For more information, please visit:

http://www.dianemerlin.com/

 

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Michael Knost is the publisher who edited the anthology Legends of the Mountain State: Ghostly Tales from the State of West Virginia and the magazine Noctem Aeternus.

Legends of the Mountain State features ghost stories by authors such as Thomas F. Monteleone, Tim Waggoner, Scott Nicholson, Bev Vincent, Mark Justice, Jude-Marie Green, Brian J. Hatcher, Trent Walters, and Marta Murvosh. The first issue of Noctem Aeternus features fiction by Ramsey Campbell, Cherie Priest, and Charles Coleman Finlay.

Michael lives and works in West Virginia.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.michaelknost.com/

 

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Gary Frank is a novelist from New Jersey; he is the author of Forever Will You Suffer and the upcoming book Institutional Memory. He is also an active member of the Garden State Horror Writers group.

When he's not writing, he can be found playing guitar, reading comic books, reading novels (he has a To Be Read Room), watching movies (which may be horror, science fiction, fantasy, comedy or drama or some amalgam of several genres) with his wife Nancy, or attending to the regal needs of his cats Socrates and Jax.

For more information about Gary, please visit:

http://www.authorgaryfrank.com/

 

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Maurice Broaddus will be returning as a panelist for Context 21. Many of you may know Maurice as the mastermind behind Mo*Con, a unique convention that brings Christians and horror writers to the table to discuss topics of mutual interest.

Maurice's fiction has appeared in anthologies such as Whispers in the Night (edited by Brandon Massey) , Death Grip: Exit Laughing, and Voices from the Other Side: Dark Dreams II. His work has also appeared in Weird Tales and Hollywood Jesus.

For more information about Maurice and the upcoming Mo*Con III convention, visit his site at:
http://www.mauricebroaddus.com/

 

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We're excited to have Erin Hoffman join us this fall to lead a workshop entitled "Interactive Narrative and Game Design". This workshop explores the fundamentals of video game design through the use of interactive fiction, exploring the places where interactivity and storytelling overlap. No technology or game training is necessary, though a laptop computer is highly recommended. Attendees will be provided with advance reading and will create a small interactive fiction game using the Inform7 Engine. Ms. Hoffman notes that the 2007 IFC winner was written in Inform6.

She says, "(I'm) interested in using Inform as a teaching tool because it is extremely user-friendly for people who haven't programmed before -- it's one of the most remarkable tools I've seen for instant implementation of game design ideas, which is what the workshop will focus on. I'm definitely open to (other software tools), and I'll be talking about several methods for game development."

Ms. Hoffman has been working in video games since 1999 on an assortment of genres from massively multiplayer online games (MMORPG) to Nintendo DS titles for young audiences to action-RPGs for PC, XBox, and PlayStation2.

More specifically, she has worked as a game designer at 1st Playable Productions, was an assistant game designer at Simutronics, and acted as Director of Online Communities at GoPets, Ltd. She does independent game design through Philomath Games.

The specific video game titles she's done design work on include DragonRealms, Black9, Shadowbane: The Lost Kingdom, GoPets, Cabbage Patch Kids: Patch Puppy Rescue, and GoPets: Vacation Island. She has also written on gaming and game design topics for publications such as Gamasutra, Best Software Writing I and Escapist Magazine.

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Diana Dru Botsford returns to Context to teach a workshop on plotting long works such as novels and screenplays.

Botsford has taught media writing courses at Missouri State University and other places for several years. She has a wide variety of credits on motion pictures, network television, online streaming media, online comics and print publications. She has also written and directed for the live stage.

Botsford has received multiple awards and accolades for her work in television and film including Starlog Magazine's Top Choice award for her writing on the multi-award winning episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation entitled "Rascals."

She has produced and directed second unit for television and film for a variety of television shows including the CBS series Harts of the West and Nightgames. Her theatrical credits include visual effects directing and supervision for a wide variety of films including Nightmare of Elm Street VI, Tank Girl, From Dusk Til Dawn, Terminator 2 and many independent films.

As Associate Producer for D.I.C. Enterprises and then later as VP for Kushner-Locke, she produced over 1,000 hours of animation for shows that included Inspector Gadget, Heathcliff, M*A*S*K Force, Spiral Zone, and the Columbia/Tristar film Pound Puppies & the Legend of Big Paw.

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We're happy to welcome back Michael A. Arnzen as a writing workshop instructor. He will be leading a 2-hour workshop on writing flash fiction.

Arnzen was the horror GoH at Context last year, and he led a well-attended workshop on writing genre poetry. A three-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, he teaches creative writing at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA. He is the author of books such as 100 Jolts (Raw Dog Screaming Press), Fluid Mosaic (Wildside Press), Freakcidents, Gorelets: Unpleasant Poetry, Dying (With No Apologies to Martha Stewart), Paratabloids, Chew, Sportuary, Writhing in Darkness, and Play Dead.

You can learn more at his website: http://www.gorelets.com/

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We're pleased to have Brian Keene as our 2008 horror Guest of Honor.

He is the best-selling author of many books, including Dark Hollow, The Rising, Ghoul, City of the Dead, Terminal, Dead Sea, The Conqueror Worms, Fear of Gravity, and many more. Several of his short stories have been adapted into graphic novels and several of his novels are slated for film and video game adaptations.

The winner of two Bram Stoker awards, Keene's work has been praised in such diverse places as The New York Times, the History Channel, CNN.com, Fangoria, and Rue Morgue.

Keene lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, Cassi, and their dog, Sam. He communicates with his readers online at www.briankeene.com.

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Timons Esaias returns this year to teach his well-regarded writing workshop on world-building. He is a Pittsburgh-based fiction writer and poet, and he teaches in the Writing Popular Fiction graduate program at Seton Hill University.

He is the author of the poetry collection The Influence of Pigeons on Architecture and has been a finalist for the British Science Fiction Award. His work has appeared in publications such as Asimov's and Strange Horizons.

For more information, visit his website at http://www.timonsesaias.com/

 

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Tobias Buckell is returning as a writing workshop instructor for Context 21. He is a professional blogger who consults for companies interested in electronic media and he is also the author of the science fiction novels Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin and the upcoming novel Sly Mongoose.

This year, he will be leading a short workshop on "Effective Blogging". In the past, he has taught "Writing Cover Letters and Synopses" and has helped lead short fiction critique workshops at Context.

His short fiction has published stories in various magazines and anthologies. He is a Clarion graduate, Writers of The Future winner, and a Campbell Award for Best New SF Writer Finalist.

Tobias grew up in Grenada, the British Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For more information, please visit his website at http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/

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Robin Nakkula is a science fiction fan who was transplanted from Michigan to Ohio. She has publication credits in science, science fiction, and filk; she currently works in medical research at The Ohio State University. Her day job supports her pursuits of rat- and husband-keeping, (e.g., Samie, Kodie, and Alan Dormire), intensive square-foot vegetable gardening, filk, classical mandolin, and classical guitar.

You can listen to some of Robin's filk at themadmusicarchive.com

 

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Elizabeth Vaughan is the author of the romantic fantasy novel Warprize and its forthcoming sequels Warsworn and Warlord (Tor Books). She's always loved fantasy and science fiction, and has been a fantasy role-player since 1981.

By day, Beth's secret identity is that of a lawyer, practicing in the area of bankruptcy and financial matters, a role she has maintained since 1985.

Beth is owned by three cats, and lives in the Northwest Territory, on the outskirts of the Black Swamp, along Mad Anthony's Trail on the banks of the Maumee River.

For more information, visit her website at www.warprize.com

 

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June 2008 update: Sadly, Patrick will not be able to make it to Context 21. We hope he'll be able to come in the future!

Patrick Rothfuss is the author of The Name of the Wind (DAW Books).

He was born in Wisconsin and studied philosophy, medieval history, eastern theater, anthropology, sociology, and chemical engineering before getting a BA in English. A short story set in Wind's universe won him first place in the the Writers of the Future contest in 2002.

He currently teaches college in Wisconsin and acts as advisor for the College Feminists and the local Fencing Club.

For more information, visit his website at www.patrickrothfuss.com

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Tanya Huff is the author of several novel series: Wizard Crystal, the Victoria Nelson Blood Books, the Quarters Novels, Keeper's Chronicles, the Confederation series, and the Smoke books.

She was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and was raised in Kingston, Ontario.

Her first sale as a writer was to The Picton Gazette when she was ten. They paid $10 for two of her poems. Huff joined the Canadian Naval Reserve in 1975 as a cook, ending her service in 1979. In 1982 she received a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree in Radio and Television Arts from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, Ontario; she was in the same class as noted science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer; they collaborated on their final TV Studio Lab assignment, a short science-fiction show.

In the early 1980s she worked at Mr. Gameway's Ark, a game store in downtown Toronto. From 1984 to 1992 she worked at Bakka, North America's oldest surviving science fiction book store, in Toronto. During this time she wrote seven novels and nine short stories, many of which were subsequently published. She was a member of the Bunch of Seven writing group. In 1992, after living for 13 years in downtown Toronto, she moved with her four large cats to rural Ontario, where she currently resides with her partner Fiona Patton. Her current pet population consists of six cats and what she describes as an "unintentional chihuahua".

Huff is one of the most prominent Canadian authors in the category of contemporary fantasy, a subgenre pioneered by Charles de Lint. Many of the scenes in her stories are near places where she has lived or frequented in Toronto, Kingston, and elsewhere. This author frequently uses as character names the names of people in her circle of acquaintances.

The television series Blood Ties, based on Huff's Vicki Nelson novels, is currently airing in the United States on Lifetime. It is produced by CHUM Television and Kaleidoscope Entertainment. Toronto actress Christina Cox has the lead role.

For more information, visit her website at tanyahuff.net

Biographic details from Wikipedia.

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Paula Guran is the editor of fantasy imprint Juno Books (www.juno-books.com) and its Best New Romantic Fantasy anthology series.

She reviews regularly for Publishers Weekly and is review editor for Fantasy Magazine. In an earlier life she produced weekly email newsletter DarkEcho (winning two Stokers, an IHG award, and a World Fantasy nomination), edited Horror Garage (earning another IHG and a second World Fantasy nomination), and has been a contributing editor/writer/reviewer for various professional sf/f/h venues including a stint (2006-2007) as the editor of CFQ's (circ. 100,000) "Print" section and editing/production of sections for Universal Studios HorrorOnline and OMNI Online.

Guran is a frequent contributor to genre encyclopedias and nonfiction books. She's a publisher, teaches sf/f/h writing, and has been a literary agent for author John Shirley (www.john-shirley.com) for a decade.

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