Participants

Her published works include eight novels, Yesterday’s Dreams, Tomorrow’s Memories, Today’s Promise, The Halfling’s Court, The Redcaps’ Queen, Daire’s Devils, The Play of Light, and Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn, written with Day Al-Mohamed. She is also the author of the solo collections Eternal Wanderings, A Legacy of Stars, Consigned to the Sea, Flash in the Can, Transcendence, The Kindly Ones, Dawns a New Day, The Fox’s Fire, Between Darkness and Light, Echoes of the Divine, and the non-fiction writers’ guides The Literary Handyman, More Tips from the Handyman, LH: Build-A-Book Workshop, and The Literary Handyman Library omnibus edition, and three cookbooks: The Ginger KICK! Cookbook, Auntie D’s Recipes, and Auntie D’s Sweet Treats. She is the senior editor of the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, No Longer Dreams, Heroes of the Realm, Clockwork Chaos, Gaslight & Grimm, Grimm Machinations, A Cast of Crows, A Cry of Hounds, An Assembly of Monsters, A Curiosity of Cats, Other Aether, The Chaos Clock, Grease Monkeys, Side of Good/Side of Evil, After Punk, A Future for Ferals, More Future for Ferals, A Heart for Hounds, More Hearts for Hounds, and Footprints in the Stars. Her short stories are included in numerous other anthologies and collections. She is a former member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, and a current member of the Horror Writers Association.

In addition to her literary acclaim, she makes homemade flavor-infused candied ginger and other sweet confections under the brand of Auntie D’s Sweet Treats at literary conventions, on commission, and wholesale.

Danielle lives in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail and four extremely spoiled cats.

For several years he was an assistant editor for Asimov’s SF Magazine (but has lived an otherwise blameless existence).

Since then he has worked as a software and database developer, working in the medical, legal, advertising, financial, scientific, and other areas, with clients ranging from a perinatal laboratory to a cemetery (his company slogan is cradle to grave programming).  He currently supports a leading optical switch manufacturer (your web pages & email travel over switches he helped build).  He is currently spear-heading their AI program (only the good AI!).

John has stayed part of the science fiction community.  Recently he co-edited (with Darrell Schweitzer) Tales from the Miskatonic University:  what evils lurk in the dark reaches of the Dewey Decimal System?  And he has given talks at NASA, Philcon, Capclave, Balticon, and several Worldcons on subjects such Time Travel, Invisibility, Practical Telepathy, Artificial Intelligence, and the Quantum Internet.

He has published several peer-reviewed physics papers on the relationship between time and quantum mechanics: does quantum mechanics apply along the time dimension?  and if so, how could we look for this experimentally? and with current technology?  Details (& papers) at his web site Time and Quantum Mechanics.

His lifetime goal is to build a really practical time machine.

She proudly writes in cursive with fountain pens, knows many useless facts, and loves putting stickers on things. Her retired racing greyhound and Cardigan Welsh Corgi let her pretend to be leader of the pack as long as she provides the right snacks.

Learn more at https://www.JenniferBrinnAuthor.com/

Jack Campbell (John G. Hemry) is a retired US Navy officer who writes the New York Times best-selling Lost Fleet series and whose books have been translated into fifteen languages and sold four million copies worldwide.  His most recent novels are Squad Kill, and In Our Stars and Destiny’s Way in the Doomed Earth series, as well as Implacable, the third book in the Lost Fleet Outlands series.  His next book out will be Champion: Goddess of Cats Book One, the first book in the Goddess of Cats two-book series..  He’s the author as well of the Genesis Fleet and Lost Stars series, as well as the “steampunk meets high fantasy” Pillars of Reality and Empress of the Endless Sea series.  He’s had numerous short stories published dealing with alternate history, time travel, SF, fantasy, and humor.  His YA novel The Sister Paradox won the 2018 Epic ebook award.  While in the Navy he served in surface warfare, intelligence, amphibious warfare, anti-terrorism, and other assignments. He lives in Maryland with his indomitable wife “S” and three great kids.  www.jack-campbell.com

Doc’s short stories can be found in The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences’ Tales from the Archives, the Way of the Gun Bushido Western Anthology, the Steampunk Special Edition of Flagship magazine, the Paradise Found, Tales from the Library anthology, and the Forgotten Lore anthology series by eSpec Books. Doc has also published a collection of short stories: The Shining Cog and Other Steampunk Tales.

The Perils of Prague is the first novel in the series The Adventures of Crackle and Bang. The Kindred of Kali is the second, and several more books are planned to chronicle the journeys of Professor Harmonious Crackle, Miss Titania Bang, and Sir Richard Blasphemy.

Doc has been known to stream the latest video games he’s enjoying on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/doccoleman) and on Sundays he streams writing chat and productivity sprints on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@DocColeman).

When he isn’t juggling projects, making a living, or mainlining podcasts, Doc is a gamer, an avid reader, a motorcyclist, a home brewer and beer lover, a fan of renaissance festivals, and frequently a smart-ass. He lives with his lovely wife and a cat in Germantown, MD.

Christina is a lifelong, if eclectic, learner. From caring for native wildlife in NC, to teaching environmental education across the country, to rock climbing in CA, and to SCUBA diving off the coast of FL, she’s always filing away experiences and information that might come in handy in a story. She’s happily settled into a day job that leaves more room for her writing and her current interests, which at the moment include: deep diving into the Enneagram, dabbling in D&D, and learning to teach Qi Gong. 

Her website is https://christinacrothers.com/ 

Randee Dawn is the bestselling author of the “funny as hell” pop culture fantasy novel “Tune in Tomorrow” (2022) and its “Tune”-iverse 2026 follow-up “We Interrupt This Program.” She’s also the author of the dark Celtic musical fantasies “The Only Song Worth Singing” and “Leave No Trace” (both 2025). Her short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies, including most recently “Dark Spores: Stories We Tell After Midnight, Vol. 4.” She is the co-author of “The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion,” hosts a course called “How to Be Interviewed” through Creative Coaching Partners, and curates and hosts a monthly reading series in Brooklyn called Brooklyn Books & Booze. A veteran entertainment journalist for The LA Times, Variety and Today.com, Randee lives in Brooklyn.

Her medical mystery/climate fiction novel Entheóphage follows the story of one woman’s actions on a coral reef in the South Pacific, and the shocking results that follow.

Her science fiction trilogy The Founder’s Seed follows Alira, a misfit who truly wants to belong. The story dives deep into her intentions, her mistakes, her sacrifices, and her changing role among her people.

Drema’s short stories have been published in numerous online journals, as well as a few semi-professional zines. Nine of those are now available in her short-story collection, “Murder of Crows & Other Consequential Tales.”

Her two short novelettes, “Deer in Headlights” and “Jane Doe #7,” are currently available on Kindle Unlimited. The combined chapbook with both stories, “Deer Jane,” is available in print only at in-person events.

While she always has multiple projects in the works, Drema’s current front-burner manuscript is The Way In, Book 1 of The Nexus, a trilogy that takes place in The Founder’s Seed Universe and follows directly after Driven, book 3 of the TFS trilogy.

On occasion, Drema blogs about writing, ideas from Life that inspire her, environmental issues, ways to live more sustainably, and whatever else captures her fancy. When she’s not writing, Drema likes to spend time in Nature, surrounded by flora and fauna.

Tom Doyle is the award-winning author of the American Craftsmen trilogy from Tor Books, a saga of modern-day magician soldiers and psychic spies fighting their way through nightmares from the worlds of Hawthorne and Poe. 

Tom’s latest work for Graphic Audio is the Agent of Exiles series of supernatural spy adventures in the 6th century BCE. His recent SF novel, Border Crosser, follows the far-future journeys of Eris, a psychologically extreme secret agent whose shifting loyalties cause chaos wherever she goes in the galaxy. His story “The Wizard of Macatawa” won the 2008 WSFA Small Press Award.

Tom has survived Harvard, Stanford, and cancer, and he writes in a spooky turret here in Washington, DC. Links to Tom’s short fiction and audio versions of his stories are available at www.tomdoyleauthor.com.  

https://www.facebook.com/tom.doyle

https://bsky.app/profile/tomdoyle.bsky.social

Edelman also worked for the Syfy Channel for 13+ years as editor of Science Fiction Weekly, SCI FI Wire, and Blastr. He was the founding editor of Science Fiction Age, which he edited during its entire eight-year run. He also edited SCI FI magazine, previously known as Sci-Fi Entertainment, for more a decade, as well as two other SF magazines, Sci-Fi Universe and Sci-Fi Flix. He has been a four-time Hugo Award finalist for Best Editor. Additionally, he is the host of the 2026 Hugo Awards finalist Eating the Fantastic interview podcast, which since February 2016 has allowed listeners to eavesdrop on his meals with creators of science fiction, fantasy, horror, comics, and more.

In addition, Jim is Producer and Executive Curator of the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings, started by Gordon Van Gelder some 30-plus years ago. Many are currently held and archived on Jim’s channel on YouTube.

With a time out for illness and personal matters, Jim spent nine years as the Post-Production Editor of the six monthly audio versions of stories from Adamant Press, which has won two Hugos.

Gannon, Eric’s Flint collaborator on the Dragon-award winning 1632 novel, No Peace Beyond the Line, has since become the series’ showrunner. He has also written in many other universes, including John Ringo’s Black Tide Rising IP (two solo novels), Larry Niven’s Known Space, and David Weber’s Honorverse. He also has many table-top roleplaying credits and worked as a scriptwriter/producer in NYC for major media outlets.

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.

Gilman lives in Washington, D.C., and works as a freelance writer and museum consultant.  She is also author of seven nonfiction books about North American frontier and Native history.

Elektra is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop and a member of SFWA. She lives in Delaware with her husband, Mike, and more than the usual allotment of felines.

You can find her on Mastodon (elektra@wandering.shop), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/elektra.hammond/), Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/untilmidnight.bsky.social), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/elektraum/), and building her website at http://www.untilmidnight.com.

When not writing, you can find her devouring book series on her Kindle, learning to scroll saw, or feeding her webcomic addiction. A volunteer for her local science fiction and fantasy convention: Balticon, she was also a voice actor for Anansi Storytelling — a fairytale audio drama podcast.

morganHazelwood.com

linktr.ee/morganHazelwood

            Raven Jakubowski is a fiction writer and poet. Originally from Tennessee, they received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Costume Design and currently work as a tailor for television and film production in New York City. In their professional life, Raven has been recognized by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for work as a tailor on the series Russian Doll and Feud.

            Raven’s fiction writing has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Flash Fiction Online, Freeze Frame Fiction, DreamForge Anvil, and Nightmare Magazine, and their poetry has appeared in Star*Line, Strange Horizons, and Sinister Wisdom. Raven was nominated for a Dwarf Stars Award in 2022 for the poem “Sasquatch Burial Ground.” In 2025, Raven was longlisted for a Rhysling Award for their poem “Veiling the Statues” and nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Short Horror Fiction for their short story “She Sheds Her Skin.” In 2026, Raven’s story “The Last Mardi Gras” was a finalist for the Washington Science Fiction Association’s Small Press Award.

            Raven is an associate member of the Science Fiction Writers Association and a member of Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers.

Danian Darrell Jerry, writer, teacher, and musician, holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. He is a 2020 VONA Fellow and a Fiction Editor of Obsidian. Danian founded Neighborhood Heroes, a youth arts program that employs comic books and literary arts. Currently, he revises his first novel, Boy with the Golden Arm. As a child he read and drew comic books. As an adult, he writes his own adventures. His work appears or is forthcoming in Fireside Fiction, Cracking the Wire During Black Lives Matter, Trouble the Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue, Black Panther Tales of Wakanda, Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, Illmatic Consequences: The Clapback to Opponents of Critical Race Theory, Captain America: The Shield of Sam Wilson, The Map of Lost Places, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Fiction. Danian resides in Memphis, Tennessee, home of the blues and soul music.

Awards won by works published by the press include the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy and Prometheus. 

In 2020, he published Robert A. Heinlein’s last published work, The Pursuit of the Pankera, under an exclusive contract with the Heinlein Estate.

His company also published Galaxy’s Edge for 10 years and currently co-sponsors the Mike Resnick Memorial Short Fiction Award in partnership with Dragon Con, one of the largest speculative fiction conventions in the United States. 

Arc Manor uses a mix of old and new technologies and continues to stay at the forefront of the publishing business. They are involved with eBooks and Print on Demand, as well as more traditional means of distribution, and their Caezik imprint is represented by Consortium (a division of Ingram), one of the preeminent full-service distributors in the world catering to independent presses.

Currently Shahid is creating Book Bale, which offers publishers and authors a new way to reach customers, while providing readers access to thousands of eBooks for one low monthly subscription fee.

As a professional author, he has been involved in numerous projects, but he is best known as the creator and series editor of the award-winning Defending the Future military science fiction anthologies—now in their second decade of publication. His body of work has been formally recognized with his acceptance into SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

As a graphic designer, he is the owner of McP Digital Graphics (founded in 2006), a company established to provide cover art, design, layout, and prepress services. This built upon not only his experience as a game designer, but primarily from his time as the Proofing Supervisor for Phoenix Color Corp doing cover work for the great publishing houses.

As a publisher, he is the co-owner of eSpec Books LLC (since 2014), where his graphics company has become the inhouse design arm of production.

As Airman McPhail, he is a member of the Military Writers Society of America and is dedicated to helping his fellow service members (and those deserving civilians) in their efforts to become authors, editors, or artist, as well as supporting related organization in their efforts to help those “who have given their all for us.”

Adeena is a physicist and astronomer (by degree) working in aerospace as a software engineer and manager. More importantly, she’s a long-time science fiction geek with a strong desire to inspire others through writing about robots, aliens, artificial intelligence, computers, longevity, exoplanets, virtual reality, and more.

Website <> LinkedIn <> Twitter <> Facebook

The Robot Galaxy Series on Amazon (and universal link for all the other places)
Lunar Logic on Amazon (and universal link for all the other places)
Co-Host of The BIG Sci-Fi Podcast

In poetry editing, Miguel is the editor of the 2025 Dwarf Stars, an anthology of the best 1-10 line speculative poems (or 100 words or fewer prose poems) published in 2024. With David Kopaska-Merkel, Miguel also co-edited Dwarf Stars 2023. Currectly, Miguel is Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of SpecPoVerse: An International Journal of Speculative Poetry.

In SFF prose, Miguel has published two flash fiction stories, “Trading with Monsters” in Fantasy (Psychopomp) 90 (April 2023) and “Finding the Path” in Space &Time 152 (July 2026), a dark fantasy short story, “The Revenant Saga” in Scarlet Leaf Review, and an urban fantasy short story, “Synchronicity Redux” in Dirty Magick Magazine 22 (June 2026),

The majority of his thirteen novels are written in satiric-theological mode, including the critically acclaimed Godhead Trilogy. He has twice won the World Fantasy Award (for Only Begotten Daughter and Towing Jehovah) and twice the Nebula Award (for his short story “The Deluge” and the novella City of Truth). His novella Shambling towards Hiroshima received the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.

In recent years Jim has written historical fiction informed by a fantastika sensibility, including The Last Witchfinder (about the birth of the Enlightenment), Galápagos Regained (about the coming of the Darwinian worldview), and Lazarus Is Waiting, a novel-in-progress that satirically reimagines the A.D. 325 Council of Nicaea. The coming year will see the publication of Madly in All Directions, a phantasmagoria spun from the climate crisis.  

Jim’s latest works to see print are the novella Behold the Ape, in which Charles’s Darwin’s cryopreserved brain is transplanted into the skull of a gorilla, and The Purloined Republic, one of three mordant alternate-history novellas constituting And the Last Trump Shall Sound from Arc Manor Publishing.

So far, he’s written more than two dozen novels and over fifty short stories and essays. He’s written series in science fiction (The Silent Empire), steampunk (The Clockwork Empire) and fantasy (The Books of Blood and Iron). In 2022, his short story “Eight Mile and the City” in When Worlds Collide by Zombies Need Brains won the Washington Science Fiction Association Small Press Award for Short Fiction. When not writing, he plays the folk harp, lifts weights, and spends more time on-line than is probably good for him. He recently retired from teaching high school English and discovered his stress levels dropped considerably. Steven lives in southeast Michigan with his husband Darwin.

He helped complete Jerry Pournelle’s Janissaries: Mamelukes and is working on the sequel.  He has written several military themed short stories including one in the RoboSoldiers: Thank You for Your Servos anthology.

Dominick’s debut book, Vèvè-Punk: Birth of the Dream (2026), explores an alternate history where Haiti is the global superpower, Vodou spirits operate as techno-corporations, and human souls function as currency on a spiritual stock exchange.

A 2026 Grant recipient from the Washington Project for the Arts, Dominick is currently developing Vèvè-Punk: Mind Singer, a narrative PC game set during the Haitian Revolution.

I am a long-time fan and scientist. I grew up in the Pittsburgh area and got involved in fandom during college. At the University of Chicago, he reincarnated the science fiction club. I met my wife at Windycon in Chicago, and my child attended their first con at the age of 4 weeks, sleeping underneath a huckster table. I was the CFO for DisCon III and currently am involved in the Washington Science Fiction Association and is a past chair of the local convention – Capclave.

My scientific areas of expertise are ecology and evolution, and have published 11 books, including The Ecology of Plants and The Theory of Ecology, and over 120 scientific papers. I also co-authored a book with SF author Phyllis Eisenstein on arthritis. I retired after working for 26 years as a Program Director at the U.S. National Science Foundation, having escaped just in time, but continue as an active researcher. I am a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society for the Study of Evolution.

His science fiction includes many light and humorous adventures of a space-faring stage hypnotist and his alien animal companion. Other works take a very different tone, exploring aspects of determinism and free will, generally redefining the continua between life and death. Sometimes he blurs the funny and the serious. Lawrence and his wife live near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has bested both Multiple Myeloma and Leukemia and is a chimeric cancer survivor. The Universe is not yet done with him.

Alex is the author of The Best of All Possible Planets (2026), Kakistocracy (2023), The Middling Affliction (2022), and Eridani’s Crown (2019). Over 150 of his stories and his translations from Russian have appeared in Analog, Asimov’s Clarkesworld, F&SF, Nature, Reactor, Strange Horizons, and several Year’s Best volumes. He won the WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction, and is a World Fantasy Award finalist and a three-time finalist for each the Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Fiction and the BSFA Award. For a brief, glorious moment one of his stories was in development as a live action TV series.

Alex has edited nearly twenty anthologies, including the long-running Unidentified Funny Objects series, as well as The Digital Aesthete, The Cackle of Cthulhu, Humanity 2.0 and many more.. He has worked on many games and is presently the Narrative Director for Card Advantage Games, working on the Reclusion video game.

His website is www.alexshvartsman.com.

Alan has also sold 50+ stories to Asimov’s, Sunday Morning Transport, Abyss & Apex, and many other magazines and original anthologies, and science and history articles to Lightspeed, Journey Planet, and Galaxy’s Edge.

Born and raised in England, Alan lives in Maryland and recently retired from a career as an astrophysicist and data archive manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. In what is humorously referred to as his ‘spare time’, Alan also sings bass and serves as Business Manager for high-energy vocal band The Chromatics, who have performed at various science fiction conventions (DC Worldcon, Balticon, Shore Leave, Farpoint) and have been the Music Guests of Honor at Philcon.

Rosemary Claire Smith 

Rosemary’s new series begins with the novel SAUROTOPIA, which she cowrote with Dave Creek. It’s available now. Her novelette, “Apollo in Retrograde” (Analog 2023), won the Sidewise Award for alternate history, short form. Several of her stories and a fact article have been finalists for the AnLab Readers’ Award. Rosemary writes a book review column that appears in every other issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Her fiction also appears in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Amazing Stories, The Reinvented Heart, The Reinvented Detective, and other periodicals and anthologies. Many of her stories showcase her fascination with alternate history and dinosaurs. She’s a former field archaeologist who excavated prehistoric sites around the United States. You are invited to play her RPG, T-Rex Time Machine, available from Choice of Games.

Website: https://rcwordsmith.com,

Social media @RCWordsmith

Facebook: rosemary.c.smith.7

Wayland Smith is the pen name for a native Texan who has lived in Massachusetts, New York, Washington DC, and presently makes his home in Virginia. His rather unlikely list of jobs includes private investigator, comic book shop owner, ring crew for a circus (then he ran away from the circus and joined home), deputy sheriff, writer, and freelance stagehand. Wayland’s novels include In My Brother’s Name, ‘Tis The Season, Cadre Clash, and Old Gods and New Drugs, the first two books in the Wildside series. He has short stories in the anthologies “Cat Ladies of the Apocolypse”, “HeroNet Files, Vol 1,”, “SNAFU: An Anthology of Military Horror,” and “Misfits of Magic,” among many others. He has spoken on panels at many conventions including WorldCon, MarsCon, DragonCon, DC AwesomeCon, MystiCon, BalitCon, PhilCon and RavenCon. A black belt in shao lin kung fu, he is also a fan of comic books, reading, writing, and various computer games (I’ll shut 7 Days to Die down in one more hour. Really). He lives with a beautiful woman who was crazy enough to marry him, and the spirits of a few wonderful dogs that have passed on.

Brigitte Winter is an author, poet, and game designer creating content about your favorite monster ex-girlfriends. Their writing has appeared in PodCastle, City of Weird: 30 Otherworldly Portland Tales, New Year, New You: A Speculative Anthology of Reinvention, Yellow Arrow, and more. They are also the Editor of Tales from The Cryptids, an anthology of games, fiction, poetry, and weird ephemera from monstrous perspectives. Brigitte was a 2023 Dicebreaker Tabletop Awards Finalist for Designer of the Year, a 2024 PNWA Literary Awards Finalist, and a 2025 Indie Groundbreakers Award Finalist. Her game, Psychic Trash Detectives, won the 2024 CRIT Award for Best Indie TTRPG and Best Cover Art. She is a 2023 alumna of Viable Paradise and a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association and the Horror Writers Association. Her debut novel, The Normal Monster Club, will be published by Generous Press in spring 2027. Find her at brigittewinterauthor.com, @bwinterose on Instagram, and @brigittewinter on Bluesky.

Sherri blogs at www.tasteofsherri.com and publishes the Mesopotamian contemporary fantasy series The Misbegotten under the pseudonym Searby Gray. More info at www.searbygraybooks.com

He also is the non-fiction editor for Seize the Press Magazine, and a host on Podside Picnic.