StellarCon 33

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.

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.