StellarCon 33

StellarCon 33 is proud to present John Wick, our Gaming Guest of Honor!

Lee Martindale looks like your average middle-aged Rubenesque paraplegic housewife, but don’t be fooled; they don’t call her “Hell on Wheels” for nothing. She’s brought grown men to tears (To Stand as Witness from Yard Dog Press), incited belly laughs (”Combat Shopping” in Esther Friesner’s Turn the Other Chick, written high-brow (stories in three Sword and Sorceress anthologies, and low (in three volumes of Selina Rosen’s Bubbas of the Apocalypse anthology series). She’s edited a groundbreaking anthology (Such a Pretty Face), released a CD of original filk music (The Ladies of Trade Town), and an audiochapbook CD (To Stand as Witness: Three Arthurian Tales from HarpHaven Publishing.)

When not slinging fiction, Lee is a Named Bard, Lifetime Active Member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, a fencing member of the SFWA Musketeers, and a member of the SCA. She and her husband George live in Plano, TX, where she shares news with friends and fans at her website, HarpHaven.net.

James Maxey is the author of the cult classic superhero novel Nobody Gets the Girl and the just released fantasy novel Bitterwood. Bitterwood has been described as “Robin Hood with dragons.” A follow up novel from the Dragon Age will likely see print in the summer of 2008. In addition to his novels, James is also the author of numerous short stories. His works now appear in a dozen anthologies and in major fiction magazines such as Asimov’s. James lives in Hillsborough, NC, with two cats, two robots, and an imaginary friend. Read more about his life and his work at jamesmaxey.blogspot.com.

Mike Pederson is the publisher/editor/graphic designer responsible for the wildly successful semiprozine, Nth Degree. Mike began life as a semi-pro in 1988 when his SF short story, ‘Dust Storm,’ won first place in a local writing contest. In the 1990s he wrote and published the Raven comic book series (with artist R. Craig Enslin) and edited and published Scene, a Virginia-based entertainment magazine.
All of this self-publishing has led Mike into a career in graphic design. Nobody is more surpised by this than Mike himself who expected to be a washed-up actor or struggling writer at this point in his life. I mean, really, he flunked the only art class that he ever took. And I mean epically flunked; his art teacher retired the semester after she had Mike in her class.
In 2001, Mike was part of the ‘Best in Class - Master Division’ winning presentation (Pre-Emptive Strike) at the Millennium Philcon Masquerade which helped re-invigorated his interest in fandom. Since then Mike has attended over 80 conventions with Nth Degree.
In addition to Nth Degree, Mike also edits its e-zine cousin - Nth Zine. He’s also the con chair for RavenCon in Richmond, Virginia. In addition to all of this he is also very proud to be hosting ‘Inside the Stellarcon Studio’ for its fourth year. Yes, Mike is an insanely busy person; if you see him around the con please feed him lots of caffeine and/or beer.

Stephen Mark Rainey is author of the novels The Lebo Coven, Balak, Dark Shadows: Dreams of the Dark (with Elizabeth Massie), Blue Devil Island, and The Nightmare Frontier; three short story collections; and over 90 published works of short fiction, which may be found in magazines and anthologies such as Cemetery Dance, The Best of Cemetery Dance, Dark Wisdom, Dark Discoveries, Inhuman, Robert Block’s Psychos, and many others. For ten years, he edited DeathRealm magazine and has edited the anthologies DeathRealms, Song of Cthulhu, and Evermore (with James Robert Smith). Mark lives in Greensboro, NC, with his wife Peggy.

James started building models back when the instruction sheets were printed on clay tablets. He got a degree in Electrical Engineering From North Carolina State University. So naturally the combination led to lighted models. There were not any lighting effects available then, so he had to make his own. Since then, the complexity of the available parts has increased (he uses single-chip computers now). So some fairly sophisticated effects are not possible without breaking the bank. He has expanded his work to include professional model makers, costumes, and the occasional movie. His customers include VoodooFX and The FX Company.

Allen Wold was born in south-western Michigan, where he began writing teeny little stories when he discovered an old portable typewriter. He finished high school in Tucson, Arizona, and graduated fron Pomona College, in Claremont, California, where he later met his wife, Diane. They married in 1972, and moved to North Carolina, where he began his career as a full time writer. In 1986, he became a full time father, writing when he could make the time. In 2003, he became a full time writer again, when his daughter, Darcy, went off to college, also at Pomona.
He has published nine novels (has written several more, most of which will never see print, thank God), several short stories (mostly for the Elf Quest anthologies), five non-fiction books on computers (he’s completely self-taught, and it probably shows), and a number of articles, columns, reviews, and so forth, also concerning computers (written in language even he can understand).
Currently, Allen has one novel, a very long ghost story, going the rounds, and is working on an epic heroic fantasy (2160 pages so far, details on request).
Allen has been running his version of a writer’s workshop at various conventions for more than twenty one years, and has had some success, since several people have not only finished but sold stories started in the workshop.
Allen is a member of SFWA, and Toastmasters International (which gives him a captive audience).

One of the more recognizable faces in Southern Fandom, you may also have been hearing Kelly Lockhart’s voice for the past twenty years and never even realized it. He has lent his voice talents to over 150 infomercials and corporate training films as well as over 2,000 radio and television commercials in the past two decades. Along the way, he’s been nominated for several “Addy” awards for advertising copywriting and was honored by the Florida Association of Broadcasters in 1989 for his spot reporting from within the eye of a hurricane.

In 1991, Kelly joined the Denver Mad Scientists Society and started staging robotic competitions across the country. Since then, Robot Battles has grown to encompass events in seven different states and currently hosts four events a year at Chattacon, Stellarcon, OpusFest and Dragon*Con. It is now the second oldest robotic combat event in the world, with only the original Critter Crunch at MileHiCon in Denver being older.

Professionally, he is the Director of Internet Development for a nationwide web streaming company, oversees one of the oldest community websites in his hometown of Chattanooga and still maintains the popular Southern Fandom Resource Guide convention calendar website. He is also an accomplished musician, an award-winning costumer, and is an administrator for the extremely popular Fark.Com website.

Josef J. Komenda was born in the wilderness of Southeastern Lower Michigan in the winter of nineteen hundred, three score and eight. When he was five years old, he wandered away from the small cabin his parents had made from old rusty Pontiacs, and got lost in the woods.

Cut off from civilization, he learned the secret language of the many small animals that lived there. Over time, his little friends grew weary of Joe’s terrible human accent and his incessant desire to ‘tidy up the forest a bit’. They led him to the nearest mall and abandoned him while he waited in a line to see the Easter Bunny.

Unable to find his way back, Joe was soon adopted by cruel Yorkshire terrier ranchers, who forced him to go to school, wear clothes, and become a QA engineer. All of this made Joe bitter and full of suppressed rage, and so he became a writer and cartoonist. He now spends his spare time telling the world about the deep, dark secrets of dog ranchers and those fair-weather friends in the woods.

Feral Chicken

We’re happy to welcome William Stout, our Artist Guest of Honor!