Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Read "A Chat With Sharon Lee and Steve Miller" by Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are the internationally celebrated co-authors of the best-selling Liaden Universe® series. The husband-and-wife team have been writing together since the early 1980s. They started the first Liaden novel in 1984. Together, they have published eighteen novels of science fiction and fantasy, and nearly four dozen short stories. The most recent Liaden novels are Ghost Ship, published in an eBook edition in July 2011, and in hardcover on August 2, 2011; and Saltation in mass market (sequel to Fledgling), which appeared in June 2011.

Sharon and Steve have garnered a legion of fans and a number of awards, as well as invitations as Guests of Honor and Special Guests at science fiction conventions from coast to coast in the U.S. and Canada. Sharon and Steve were both born and raised in and around Baltimore, Maryland, and have been involved in science fiction most of their lives, with both of them having a background as con-going fans.

Professionally, Steve was Founding Curator of Science Fiction for the University of Maryland's SF Research Collection as well as Vice Chair of the Baltimore in 80 WorldCon bid, while Sharon has been Executive Director, Vice President, and President of the Science Fiction Writers of America; together they were BPLAN Virtuals, an ebook publisher in the late 1980s. The combination of these experiences has created a unique voice in science fiction.

Susan Satterfield
Read "A Chat With Susan Satterfield" by Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Susan Satterfield is the author of numerous short stories that have been published in Eldritch Tales, Yard Dog Press anthologies Stories That Won’t Make Your Parents Hurl, International House of Bubbas, Houston, We’ve Got Bubbas, Flush Fiction, and I Should Have Stayed in Oz, and the . Small Bites anthology, which was a benefit for author Charles Grant.  Her chapbook, Mirror Images, was published by Yard Dog Press in May 2002. Her poem “The Hunger: A Zombie Poem,” appeared in the anthology Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhyme from Costcom Entertainment.
She has a number of writing projects on (and sometimes under) the table.

Susan first entered fandom in 1978 and since then has been on the committee or chaired over 50 conventions including 3 Worldcons. She was a director of Starbase Tulsa in the early 80’s and of Kacsffs in the early 90’s, where she helped coordinate the Sweetheart Ball, the first “sit-in” movies, and various other events. She has been Fan Guest of Honor at a number of conventions in Nebraska, Oklahoma, and in St. Louis.

Susan is an English Instructor at MCC- Longview in Lee’s Summit, Missouri where she is founder and has been the coordinator for the MCC- Longview Literary Festival the past three years. She lives in Lee’s Summit with her extended family including five dogs, two cats, and assorted fish.

Gardner Dozois

Gardner Dozois is the author or editor of over one hundred books.  For almost 20 years, he was the editor of ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION magazine, and still edits THE YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION annual series, now up to its Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection.  He has won fifteen Hugo Awards as Year's Best Editor, 33 Locus Awards, and two Nebula Awards and a Sidewise Award for his own writing and was recently inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.  His most recent books are a new collection, WHEN THE GREAT DAYS COME, and an anthology edited with George R.R. Martin, DOWN THESE STRANGE STREETS.  He lives in Philadelphia, PA.

Ursula Vernon
Read "A Chat With Ursula Vernon" by Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Ursula Vernon is the author and illustrator of "Nurk," "Digger," and a number of other projects. Her work has been nominated for an Eisner award, "Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition" and a number of Webcomics Choice Awards.

In addition to writing and making art, Ms. Vernon is "an avid birdwatcher, occasional neophyte practitioner of the sword art of iaido, and an amateur thrower of pots." She is active in her local webcomics community, and can occasionally be found at local science fiction conventions, looking vaguely baffled by the crowd and signing anything put in front of her.

Having moved across the country several times, she eventually settled in Pittsboro, North Carolina, where she works full-time as an artist and creator of oddities. She lives with her boyfriend, a spastic Beagle, a (fairly) mellow Border Collie, a small collection of cats, and a large collection of Indonesian demon masks, which generally manage to keep her out of trouble.

Tim Miller

Tim Miller was born a Connecticut Yankee but got to Texas as soon as he could. Since discovering Dallas-area SF fandom in the late 1980s, he has helped run numerous local conventions and become a major proponent of filk music. Tim has helped with filk programming at several Worldcons and helped bring the Worldcon back to Texas in 2013. He co-founded FenCon (and chaired it twice) as a way to bring literary SF and filk fans together. Now in its ninth year, FenCon brings in top names in both written SF and filk to interact with fans from across Texas and the great southwest. Tim has also twice organized conventions about running conventions. Tim's interests include amateur filmmaking, Dalek building, playing with his son Iain, and promoting FenCon with room parties at great conventions across the United States. Tim now serves on the "Kansas City in 2016" Worldcon bid committee.

Shannon K. Butcher

A lot of authors knew they wanted to write books from the time they were little. Shannon was not one of them. She wanted to be an Industrial Engineer. And she became one. Then she married Jim Butcher, fantasy and sci-fi author extraordinaire. She learned to write in an effort to help him improve his own work and as soon as she discovered that writing was more a learned skill than a natural talent she knew she had to give it a try. She couldn’t resist the challenge of taking the pieces of a story apart and putting them back together again. It’s the kind of puzzle that made her want to be an engineer to begin with – to learn how things work and why.

She thought she’d write the same kind of thing Jim did, but then she picked up her first romance in 1998 and was hooked. Somehow, stories about how two people come to love each other made everything else seem shallow in comparison. Maybe it was just her hormones talking, but whatever it was, it was loud, so she listened and she started writing romances. She wrote great heaping piles of suckfulness – like most new writers – but eventually her work sucked less and hopefully that trend will continue as she learns more. Heaven knows she have a great teacher. (Thanks, Jim.) A family of geeks to the core, the Butchers live in Independence, Missouri, with their son and a dog who is only one four-foot stick away from being a dust mop.

KRIS (aka John Halvorson)

John Halvorson, a Hollywood screenwriter, started a Klingon fan club in Seattle in 1979. That club declined when Halvorson moved to Michigan, but gave him the ideas and determination to try again. In 1989, Halvorson formed another club, The KLINGON ASSAULT GROUP (KAG), based on the "bad guys" of STAR TREK, and KAG is still going strong over 20 years later.

Halvorson still plays as a Klingon named KRIS, complete with uniform, headpiece, and a happy sense of menace for STAR TREK-related events and conventions. Klingon fans are usually perceived as a pretty serious-minded bunch. However, Halvorson thinks differently. "For years, KAG has done the "playfully serious" thing. Now it's time for us to be "SERIOUSLY PLAYFUL." Klingons have changed over the years, and Halvorson prefers the early era Klingons, before there was peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. "Playing the Antagonist is a lot more fun," he says.

Halvorson is quite an active Klingon, too. Not only is KRIS the club's Founder, but he and his Los Angeles friends have a local KAG ship, the IKV DARK SUN. Recently, Halvorson assumed command of KLIN-FIRE, the KAG Fleet comprising all of the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones. "Hey, don't forget Alaska and Hawaii", he adds. And the KLINGON ASSAULT GROUP is growing out west by bringing back what STAR TREK fans have always preferred from the Klingons. "They're just so good at being 'bad'".

Halvorson and some of his friends from L.A.'s IKV DARK SUN will be heading to CONQUEST 43 -- Memorial Day Weekend, May 25-27, 2012 at the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center, Kansas City, MOO http://kag.org As Halvorson, or KRIS puts it: "We'll be celebrating the 'KLINGON NEW YEAR' with batleths and barbecue!!"