StellarCon 33

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.

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.

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).

Dan Johnson is a North Carolina-born writer, who is first and foremost a fan himself. Dan’s love of horror, science fiction and comic books, all of which were cultivated at an early age, fueled his desire to step up from the sidelines of fandom and get into the game as a creative voice.

Dan began his professional writing career while still in college, contributing to several Triad based publications. Dan’s first nationally published work came less than a year after he graduated college when he began contributing articles to Scary Monsters Magazine. Since that time, Dan has had articles published in Alter Ego, Back Issue, Comic Book Marketplace, Con-Tour, Filmfax, Hogan’s Alley, Monster Memories and Monster News. His work has also appeared in such online publications as Monster Kid and Monster News Online, as well as the comics news website, Comicon.

Dan has also had material appear in the humor magazine Thwak; written scripts for the Michigan-based comic strip, “Midtown” and his first graphic novel, Herc and Thor Pocket Manga Volume One, which follows the misadventures of the legendary Hercules and Thor, was released in late 2006 by Antarctic Press. Currently, Dan is a regular gag writer for the “Dennis the Menace” comic strip, which is seen world wide, and he is also working on two follow-up projects for Antarctic Press.

White Plectrum is currently a solo act with Keith Brinegar as
singer/songwriter. Originally from Southwestern Virginia, White
Plectrum
has toured around the mid-Atlantic and southeastern United States.
Formed in the 80s, White Plectrum has also featured Bill Mullis as a
singer/songwriter, and Jerry Conner as a songwriter. The name comes
from
official name for a guitar pick, a “plectrum.”

Keith has a large repertoire of classic rock, but is best known for his
parody songs, also known as “Filks”. He delights in twisting popular
songs into funny, touching, sad, or even romantic alternatives that
have
more of a Science Fiction or Fantasy bent to them, much as Weird Al
Yankovic does to modern music.

Several albums exist; all recorded live at various venues.