We love to bring talented creators to the convention. Our announced guests appear below.
A.M. Burns
A.M. Burns lives in the Colorado Rockies with his partner, several dogs, cats, horses, and birds. When he’s not writing, he’s often fixing fences, splitting wood, hiking in the mountains, or flying his hawks. As of January 2013 he is the president of the Colorado Springs Fiction Writers Group. www.csfwg.org You can find out more about A.M. and his writing at www.amburns.com, or follow him on twitter @am_burns
Aaron Michael Ritchey
Aaron Michael Ritchey is the author of six young adult novels and his short fiction has appeared in various anthologies and online magazines. The first three books in his epic YA sci-fi western series, The Juniper Wars, are available now through WordFire Press. Aaron, his wife, and two stormy daughters live in Colorado.
Adam McLaughlin
Adam lives in Northern Colorado where he does metal smithing; fashioning knives,axes, jewelry and other odds and ends. When he is not working in his shop he spends time gaming and hanging out in the outdoors. He can be contacted at mclaughlinmetalworks@gmail.com
Amalie Howard
Amalie Howard is the best selling, award winning author of several young adult novels critically acclaimed by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, VOYA, and Booklist, including Waterfell, The Almost Girl, and Alpha Goddess, a Spring 2014 Kid’s INDIE NEXT title. Her debut novel, Bloodspell, was a #1 Amazon bestseller, and the sequel, Bloodcraft, was a national IPPY silver medalist. She currently resides in Colorado with her husband and three children. Visit her at www.amaliehoward.com.
Amber Peter
Amber Peter is a Northern Colorado designer, food and drink enthusiast, and occultist. She has a background in historical spirits, pre-prohibition cocktails, and dubious Victorian medical practices.
Amy Griswold
Amy Griswold is a professional seamstress with over thirty years of experience in clothing construction and industrial sewing. She is self-taught and also worked as an apprentice in her sister’s shop where she learned techniques in alterations, custom clothing design, reupholstery, canvas work, as well as large scale production industrial sewing. Her body of work includes everything from wedding gowns and costuming to boat covers and custom reupholstery. Her motto is “show me a picture and I can make it for you.”
She has taught basic sewing and machine sewing to numerous homeschool and scouting groups and has taught reuphostery techniques at JoAnn Fabrics. Her drive for teaching is to take the fear and mystery out of sewing and show people it’s easier than they think.
Currently she is designing costumes and cosplay items for her family members and working on a new line of Neo-Victorian and Steampunk clothing and accessories for her on-line shop.
Ana MacDonell
Ana was born and raised in Spain, and came here 25 years ago. She is been a congoer for +30 years. She is a pirate, alien, trekkie, walking dead, shieldmaiden, companion, Sith, Stark, Gryffindor, Pikachu, Asha’man, mystery lover, and all around pun
Andarta
Angela Sheehan
Angela is an artist and educator passionate about craft electronics, costuming, and combining arts and technology. She is a professional maker who has been working with e-textiles and wearable technology since 2005. She creates playful and interactive costumes and crafts through her brand GellaCraft and is also a product manager for SparkFun Electronics.
Through her career as an independent artist and working at SparkFun, Angela has helped facilitate over 90 e-textile and e-craft workshops, including sessions at Fashion Institute of Technology, SparkFun National Tour, WEAR (Smart Fabrics), USA Science and Engineering Festival (USASEF), National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and TempleCon.
She has worked with organizations including PBS SciGirls, iDTech Camps/Alexa Cafe, Society for Women Engineers Rocky Mountain Section, Women Who Code Boulder/Denver, and Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Aria Fawn
Aria is a self taught artist who, though born in the Otherworlds, was mostly raised in Colorado where she remains today in a studio filled with bones, bottles and too many daydreams.
Aria’s art, often referred to by the artist herself as “Dark Surrealism” sets to explore the stranger sides of nature in all its violent and loving chaos. Often painting animals and monsters, she seeks to breed a dreamy sense with her work and make a show of one of her favourite subjects, death and its vital essence to life.
Aside from nature, music is perhaps one of the most immense influences and fuel for her work which has led to her working on a number of album covers for musicians, both American and overseas.
Her work can be viewed on her website www.shepaintswithblood.com and on Instagram as @ariafawnart or in person at Valkarie Gallery in Lakewood Colorado and The Ian Russell Gallery of Fine Art in Prescott Arizona.
Betsy Dornbusch
Betsy Dornbusch is the author of several fantasy short stories, novellas, and novels, including the BOOKS OF THE SEVEN EYES trilogy. When she’s not writing, she reads, snowboards, and goes to punk rock concerts. Betsy and her family live in Colorado.
Bill
Bill has been gaming for over 30 years, and people keep coming back to play, so he must be doing something right. Bill wa the layout designer and art director for Hero Games, Silverback Games, and Blackwyrm Publishing. His first book, The Widening Gyre, is a world of steampunk and sorcery for Savage Worlds and the HERO System. Known as “The Bunny” (for reasons we are unable to explain), Bill claims to have been elected President in an rigged election, conquered the Midwest, been shot and killed at least once, sworn (and achieved!) vengeance on the gods themselves, crowned himself King of the World, become the arch-enemy of a llama, deposed the Pope, and had torrid love affairs with several well-known movie starlets. It is unlikely that any of these things are actually true, but it’s best to just humor him when he gets like this.
Billy Van Ark
Billy has been helping out behind the scenes at Denver conventions since early 2013. Contributing part tech support, part treasurer, part teacher of chainmaille, he does his best to make everything run smoothly.
Blossom the Faun
Brenna
Creators of handmade stuffed animals, Brenna and Jessica are proud to bring you fun and easy canvas painting & stuffed animal classes! See the Whimsical Whiskers booth in the Vendors Room and adopt your snuggly dragon friend today!
Brett J Baker
Brett Baker is an independent author and publisher, and a graduate of the University of Colorado. He is unmarried, and he lives in Denver, CO. For more information about Brett or his books, please visit http://www.brettbaker.ws.
Brian Ziman
Brian Ziman is a software engineer at Google and a member of the board of Shiny Garden, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit, that creates inclusive events, including Myths & Legends Con, that celebrate diversity and bring all fans together.
Calvin Studzinski
The website of Calvin Studzinski contains his current projects and interesting articles on minutia of pop culture.
Carol Hightshoe
Born in 1964, Carol grew up in San Antonio, Texas. An avid reader at a young age, her strong desire to write came from her love of (her husband calls it her obsession with) Star Trek. It was this early love of Trek that led her to the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres.
She has been published in various anthologies and magazines including “Creature Fantastic”, “Illuminated Manuscripts”, PanGaia Magazine, “Stories of Strength”, “The Stygian Soul”, Baen’s Universe, Tales of the Talisman and Beyond Centauri.
She also runs her own micro-press – WolfSinger Publications.
Carol Van Natta
Carol Van Natta is a USA TODAY bestselling and award-winning science fiction and fantasy author. Works include Last Ship Off Polaris-G, Overload Flux, Minder Rising, Pico’s Crush, Pet Trade, and Jumper’s Hope in her Central Galactic Concordance space opera series; In Graves Below, a paranormal romance; and Hooray for Holopticon, a retro science fiction comedy. She shares her Fort Collins, CO home with a sometime mad scientist and various cats. Any violations of the laws of physics in her books is the fault of the cats, who are notorious gravity scofflaws.
Carolyn Kay
Carolyn Kay enjoys writing about an eclectic variety of things, and imagining what normally inanimate objects would do if given life. She is currently collaborating with award-winning illustrator, Chaz Kemp, on the World of Ashelon, a series of novellas set in a steampunk fantasy world. When she’s not writing, she can be seen dancing with Batavia, a tribal fusion belly dance troupe, knitting or playing with her beloved cats. You can catch up on her latest shenanigans at carolynkayauthor.com.
Catherine Winters
Catherine Winters writes urban fantasy, women’s fiction, and literary fiction. She is an undefeated four-time Chopped champion and a former model. When she’s not writing or cooking, she enjoys teaching French to cats. At least one of these things is actually true.
Charles Orndorff
Both Charles and Tauni Orndorff are Colorado natives that started creating costumes for Halloween shortly after getting married. They have been costuming for over 20 years and have participated in several costume events to include MileHiCon, Opusfest, Starfest, World Con (Denvention), and Bubonicon in New Mexico. They have earned best in show as well as other awards in a many of these venues. Most recently awarded Best In Show Workmanship at Archon in St Louis. For them costuming is a great hobby that they both can enjoy together, additionally they love to share their knowledge and experience. Recently they have worked with a local theater group and independent film makers for their costumes and effects. Also makers in residence at the pikes peak library district in colorado springs.
Chaz Kemp
Bram Stoker Award finalist Chaz Kemp embraces an Art Nouveau style that incorporates vibrancy and color into fantasy and steampunk art in a way that is rarely seen. As an illustrator, the influence of Alphonse Mucha is evident in his award-winning work that combines the artistic energy of the Roaring 20s with the untamed diversity of steampunk and fantasy. You can find his art at ChazKemp.com or better, become his patron at: Patreon.com/ChazKemp
Cori
Whether the job is Engineering or providing Excellent Bodywork, the most important part of the business is in the word Reworks and that is the part I emphasize.
Reworks is a word chosen for its progressive attitude, without creating contrast. Much of the massage industry is focused on healing, self-improvement, recovery and pretty much any other term meant to make you feel like you aren’t doing your best and that they are the only ones who can help you. By choosing instead to say that I ‘rework’ my clients I offer a less polarized self view: we are simply changing from one state to another.
Since 2015, Reworks has been providing self-care services to geeks et al, one byte at a time. Delivering the best to your door for gatherings, events or for yourself let Reworks Massage (and Tech) Reset, Relax and Return you to your happy, healthy self.
Dame Ursula Whiffenpott
Dame Ursula is a Potterverse nut (RAVENCLAW!) and a dabbler in many other fandoms, from Star Trek to MLP. She is a professional costumer and Opera singer, when not drinking tea and holding forth on the merits of period romance novels
Dana Bell
Dana Bell enjoys writing regional Colorado tales and has lived many places. Many of her stories are set there and star the various cats she’s been owned by. Her works include her novels Winter Awakening and God’s Gift, a popular cat vampire short
Dylan Edwards
Dylan Edwards is the author of Transposes, which was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist in 2013 for Best Transgender Non-Fiction; Politically InQueerect: Old Ghosts and Other Stories; and Valley of the Silk Sky, which was a DINKy Award finalist for Best Webcomic. His comics have also appeared in numerous anthologies, including the Ignatz Award-winning QU33R (Northwest Press, 2013), the Lambda Literary Award-winning No Straight Lines (Fantagraphics, 2012), and the Lambda Literary Award-winning Beyond Anthology (Beyond Press, 2015). He is the recipient of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association’s 2016 Award for Excellence in Transgender Coverage for his comic “How I Told My Grandma I’m Transgender.”
Erin Card
Erin is an award-winning aficionado and advocate of all things costume and couture. A seamstress, designer, and costumier 20 years in the making, she loves to bring her wealth of knowledge to the table and convince those in her presence, and not, to come to the shiny, make-it-yourself side (we have brownies).
Guy Anthony De Marco
Guy Anthony De Marco is a speculative fiction author; a Graphic Novel Bram Stoker Award® finalist; winner of the HWA Silver Hammer Award; a disabled US Navy veteran, a prolific short story and flash fiction crafter; a novelist and poet; an invisible man with superhero powers; a game writer; and a coffee addict. One of these is false.
A writer since 1977, Guy is a member of the following organizations: SFWA, ITW, WWA, SFPA, IAMTW, ASCAP, RMFW, MWG, SWG, HWA. He hopes to collect the rest of the letters of the alphabet one day. Additional information can be found at Wikipedia and GuyAnthonyDeMarco.com.
Hal Weeks, Autoharp
Hal Weeks (Autoharp) has worn numerous musical hats over the years: classical composition, electronic theater music, children’s performances, music theory workshops, Autoharp and Native Flute lessons, programs in libraries, senior centers, YMCA’s, summer camps, Concerts in the Park, festivals, fairs, weddings, luncheons, receptions, coffee shops, television and radio. In 1996 he took the award of National Autoharp Champion in Avoca, Iowa. In recent years he has settled into working with Autoharp and Native Flute, both as a performance andrecording medium, and in teaching lessons. He has been playing Autoharp since 1987, Native Flute since 1991. He also plays world percussion, piano and keyboards.
Ian Brazee-Cannon
Ian Brazee-Cannon a writer, film maker, game designer, podcaster. His short stories have been in The Fifth Di…, Wondrous Web Worlds, Forgotten Worlds, Tales of the Talisman, and various anthologies Ian has worked on the Ephemeris RPG. He is active with the Amateur Skeptics podcast. Ian has worked on several short films with Ijin Studios.
Ian Thomas Healy
Ian Thomas Healy is an author of superhero and speculative fiction and the creator of the Just Cause Universe of superhero novels. His publishing company, Local Hero Press, focuses upon high-quality crossgenre speculative fiction.
J.A. Campbell
When Julie is not writing she’s often out riding horses in the Colorado mountains, or working sheep with her dogs, Bran and Kira. She’s the author of many Ghost-Hunting Dog stories and other YA and Adult books. She belongs to the Horror Writers Association and the Dog Writers of America Association. Find out more at http://www.writerjacampbell.com
J.D. Harpley
J.D. Harpley is Astral Scribe, a dedicated word ingester and producer. A past laden with science fiction books led her to follow in the footsteps of those she found great to create vivid, brain-tantalizing works of her own.
Project Manager at a game studio by day, she spends her weekends and nights furiously typing or gaming.
Her fiction is inspired by authors such as Stephen King, Mary Shelley, Orson Scott Card, Harry Harrison, and Robert Heinlein. Expect elements of horror, lengthy and delectable action scenes, and a heroine sporting some kind of deadly weapon–in no need of a hero to save her.
J.D. Harrison
J.D. Harrison is a lifelong horsewoman, often found in the uncommonly intelligent company of her horse, Smoke. She believes in soul satisfying relationships with animals, conversation with genuine people, supporting her friends and reading voraciously.
With over a decade of experience squiring at a championship tourney, and a long term love affair with all things medieval and renaissance, she brings to life the culture of jousters and their unorthodox lifestyle. Chivalry isn’t dead, it’s just in hiding.
Gallant Hearts- giving falling hard a whole new impact!
J.L. Forrest
J.L. Forrest is the author of short fiction and novels for the likes of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Crossed Genres, the Robot Cowgirl Press, and others. His work ranges from hard-science fiction to forays into weird western and nukepunk. His most recent collection of short fiction, Minuscule Truths, is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and booksellers everywhere, and he is the author of multiple novels, including the beautiful and haunting Requies Dawn, a tale of the far future and an undying love.
Travelling the world, Forrest studies the cultures, histories, myths, ideas, and hopes of the places and people he encounters. The best fictions, he believes, reflect back upon ourselves and our culture the deeper truths of our own existence. Fiction has the power to transform us.
A nomad of sorts, Forrest has often scribbled from the snowy Rocky Mountains, the misty forests of the Pacific Northwest, the ancient landscapes of Vikings, and the Eternal City of Roma, Italia.
James A. Hunter
Hey all, my name is James Hunter and I’m a writer, among other things. So just a little about me: I’m a former Marine Corps Sergeant, combat veteran, and pirate hunter (seriously). I’m also a member of The Royal Order of the Shellback—’cause that’s a real thing. I’ve also been a missionary and international aid worker in Bangkok, Thailand. And, a space-ship captain, can’t forget that.
Okay … the last one is only in my imagination.
Currently, I’m a stay at home Dad—taking care of my two kids—while also writing full time, making up absurd stories that I hope people will continue to buy. When I’m not working, writing, or spending time with family, I occasionally eat and sleep.
Jan Scott-Frazier
Jan is a public speaker, storyteller, multimedia artist, and art/creativity educator who has been an invited industry guest speaker at over 250 anime, sci-fi , and comics conventions. She is Executive Director and Founder of non-profit Voices For and does education and outreach for the LGBTQI community.
Janet Smith
Janet Smith has been designing and making garments for 55 years. She has degrees in Apparel design from the Fashion Institute of
Jason Henry Evans
Jason always wanted to be a writer, he just didn’t know it. He grew up in Pasadena, Ca. in the 1980s. Watched way too many movies and too much television. He graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 1996 with degrees in History & Renaissance Studies. After wasting his youth he fell in love with his wife and moved to Colorado in 2004. He taught in Denver Public Schools for nine years before realizing teaching was not his life’s calling. He graduated from the UC Denver in 2012 with a masters in History. Currently Jason lives in Denver with the fetching Mrs. Evans, and way too many pets.
Jessica Lauren Gabarron
Jessica Lauren Gabarron has been enchanted with the written word from the moment she first learned how to write a complete sentence in school. Jessica has lived in many states in the USA, and most recently, has called Colorado her home for the last fourteen years. During the day, she works with the loan department in a bank, but she spends her nights dabbling in more fun hobbies and crafts. When her fingers aren’t busy flying over the keys of her laptop, Jessica is also a licensed massage therapist. Jessica can be found in several places on the internet, including the Sidekicks anthology, Adventures in Zookeeping anthology, Domesticated Velociraptors anthology, and Shatter Your Image anthology.
Jodi M Franklin
With several published short stories, aspiring author Jodi M Franklin, is currently producing her first novel. She writes in several genres, including steampunk, si-fi, and fantasy.Moonlighting as a bartender by night provides endless inspiration for unique characters and social conflict. She writes by day with her dog Jasper at her feet, and with the support of her fiancee.
Kal Spriggs
Kal Spriggs is a science fiction and fantasy author. He currently has four series in print.
Kal is a US Army combat veteran who has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. He lives in Colorado, and is married to his wonderful wife (who deserves mention for her patience with his writing) and also shares his home with his infant son, two feline overlords, and a rather put-upon dog. He likes hiking, skiing, and enjoying the outdoors, when he’s not hunched over a keyboard writing his next novel.
Kerry Major
Kerry is a former swordfighter and re-enactor who now brings the past to life through vivid narratives and anecdotes. Historian, Technologist, and Amateur Game Designer, he’s always up for a good rant on a variety of subjects.
Kevin Frost
Kevin began in fandom as an avid costumer, and did a stint in the Virginia Opera costume shop to hone his skills. Since a downsizing move, those boxes have never been opened again. He has been a sailor on both naval vessels and tall ships and obtained BS in Math in an attempt to transition to a more respectable lifestyle. Now he has turned hand to writing and editing while sailing the vast sagebrush seas of northern New Mexico. He is lead editor at the Gallery of Curiosities, a retro-vintage oriented fiction anthology podcast and zine.
Kim Klimek
Dr Klimek is currently working on a textbook, The Global Middle Ages, a comparative work surrounding medieval concepts on a world stage. Her other projects include the use of graphic novels in history classrooms, and PTSD and medieval Crusade veteran
Kira Cook
With a Bachelors in Culinary Management, she has the skills to tell food what to do. She also combines cloth and shinies into outfits for various occasions. Witchcraft may be involved in these endeavors, but requires more research.
Kitty Krell
Kitty Krell is a cosplayer from Denver, Colorado. Upon entering her first convention in 2000, the heavens opened up and a choir of angels rejoiced, for she had found a place she actually fit in.
Since then, she’s concentrated her energy on improving her craft, focusing on high-end construction, extravagant details, and corsetry. She owns a masquerade boutique in Denver.
Lady Z
Lara Beckwith
Lara is a Library assistant At Hoffman Library and grew up doing historical reenacting and sewing. She created the first Sewing Lab at the Aurora Public Library where she teaches all levels and ages to sew.
Losing Lara
Losing Lara is an avid YouTuber, posting weekly videos ranging from nerd-themed songs to convention vlogs. She has been playing guitar and writing music for almost 4 years. Her songs highlight the fandoms of Harry Potter, Firefly, Captain America, and more. She has participated in the Yes All Witches Wizard Rock tour and performed at MALCon 2017 and GeekyCon 2016.
Lou J Berger
Lou J Berger is a Denver-based writer who tends to focus on Science Fiction. He’s been writing for nine years and is a full member of SFWA. He’s mostly been published in Mike Resnick’s GALAXY’S EDGE magazine, but also has stories in various anthologies.
His website is: www.LouJBerger.com.
Mario Acevedo
Mario Acevedo is the author of the bestselling Felix Gomez detective-vampire series and the YA humor thriller, University of Doom. His debut novel, The Nymphos of Rocky Flats, was chosen by Barnes & Noble as one of the best Paranormal Fantasy Novels of the Decade. He contributed short fiction to the anthologies, Nightmares Unhinged, CyberWorld, and Blood Business from Hex Publishing, and You Don’t Have a Clue, from ArtePublico Press. His novel, Good Money Gone, co-authored with Richard Kilborn, won an International Latino Book Award. He edited the anthology, Found, for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, which won a Colorado Book Award. Mario serves on the writing faculty of the Regis University Mile-High MFA program and Lighthouse Writers Workshops. He lives and writes in Denver, Colorado.
Mason J. Torall
A Colorado native, Mason J. Torall is an eclectic hobbyist. When he isn’t writing or working the odd day job, he tests board games with friends, samples Denver’s booming local fare, and bikes the metro area. A huge advocate for sustainable engineering, he spends much of his free time drafting his own engineering designs and training with technical and artistic software. His first novel, The Dark Element, is currently available on Amazon and Kindle, and he is currently working on the sequel. He lives alone in South Denver, where there is still space to think.
Melanie Unruh
Melanie is an artist and maker of decorative and functional pottery, and sartorial arts, ranging from historical to fantasy, Viking to Victorian, and hats to spats. Melanie uses juxtapositions between mechanical and organic motifs, metal against fabric, and things hidden and revealed, and Asian influences in her work.
She is one of the instigators in the Denver Victorian & Steampunk Society, and Vice-President of the Arapahoe Ceramics Guild. Melanie lives in the Denver area. Her work is shown at the Fun & Funky gallery in Bailey, CO, and she participates in two Guild shows each year.
Melissa Koons
Melissa Koons is a former English teacher who now works as a writer and editor for Spine Press + Post author services. She still contributes to education as a tutor, and academic writing. She has one novel published, multiple short stories, and has ghostwritten over 60 novellas. Her novel, “Orion’s Honor” is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and her own website Write Illusion. Her short story “Reconciling the Dragon” is featured in Wordfire Press’ “Dragon Writers” anthology available on Amazon and other platforms with a new short story featured in their next “Undercurrents” anthology to be released soon.
Michelle Reeves
Mike Cervantes
Mike Cervantes is a graduate of creative writing and communication from The University of Texas at El Paso. He is a humorist, a cartoonist, a steampunk enthusiast, a regular contributor to Denver’s many local conventions, and just a swell person besides. He writes and publishes stories featuring his steampunk hero characters ‘The Scarlet Derby and Midnight Jay’ regularly on his website, TheScarletDerby.com.
Milton J Davis
Milton Davis is owner of MVmedia, LLC , a micro publishing company specializing in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Sword and Soul. MVmedia’s mission is to provide speculative fiction books that represent people of color in a positive manner. Milton is the author of eight novels; his most recent The Woman of the Woods and Amber and the Hidden City. He is co-editor of four anthologies; Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology and Griot: Sisters of the Spear, with Charles R. Saunders; The Ki Khanga Anthology with Balogun Ojetade and the Steamfunk! Anthology, also with Balogun Ojetade. MVmedia has also published Once Upon A Time in Afrika by Balogun Ojetade.
Milton resides in Metro Atlanta with his wife Vickie and his children Brandon and Alana.
Mistress Mab
Mistress Mab is a long time cosplayer and general geek. She has relatively recently (less than five years ago) become a steampunk enthusiast and proselytizer for almost all that falls under it’s strange and wonderful parasol.
Nancy Parker
Nancy is an employee of Colorado Fabrics and loves to share her knowledge of all things fabric.
Nikki Ebright
Executive Director for Shiny Garden and convention chair for Myths and Legends Con, WhimsyCon, and HexaCon.
Nissa LaFete
Olivia Wylie
Olivia Wylie is a blogger, comic artist, professional horticulturist and illustrator whose works revolve around the themes of self-determination, freedom and the natural world throughout folklore and history. She is currently focused on the projects ‘Smoke And Roses: A Steampunk Language of Flowers’ and Parmeshen, the steampunk webcomic she serves as artist. She owns the small landscaping company Leafing Out Professional Gardening centered in downtown Denver.
Her comic work can be viewed at http://parmeshen.webcomic.ws/
Her horticultural work can be viewed at
http://www.leafingoutgardening.com/
Paul Lell
Sci-fi/Fantasy author Paul Lell currently residing in Westminster, Colorado with his family; a wife, two sons, a giant dog, and two equally giant cats, Paul writes daily, reads everything he can, and works on refining his stories, and games at all hours. Paul has 9 novels, numerous short stories, and 2 going on 3 RPGs in print today.
Peri Charlifu
Peri Charlifu was born in 1962 in Alamosa Colorado, his Father was an art teacher and his Mother was a social worker. His Mother is now retired and living in Aurora Colorado. He grew up in Denver and Aurora Colorado, studying art from an early age and continuing to this day. He attended Metropolitan State Collage and studied Art, Psychology and combined his studies using Art as therapy. He now does Art full time.
Peri has been selling his work for 34 years, and has been selling almost exclusively in the science fiction convention market for almost 11 years. He teaches workshops and seminars in Pottery, sculpture and theory on a regular basis. He is Guild master for Art and Artisans and a founding member of the Stoneleaf potters guild.
Although an accomplished and proficient graphic artist, Peri’s first love is pottery. He is highly skilled in both Wheel thrown and hand-built work. He mixes all his own stains and glazes, and has developed an underglaze technique that he uses in 90%
Pink Pitcher
Pink Pitcher is a seamstress, textile and domestic historian, and artist (among other titles). She enjoys costuming and cosplaying in a variety of genres. She is currently publishing her very first comic – Root & Branch. She would really love to talk about neolithic spinning techniques, with pretty much anyone.
Prof. Artimus G Smithmage
Professor Artimus G Smithmage is Maker/ Metalsmith for 30yrs 10yrs in Steampunk life making jewelry props leather metal and other mis media.
Richard Blake
After 25 years of designing learning experiences for universities as well as major corporations like IBM, Xerox, and Ernst & Young, Richard left the world of full time professional instructional design for the world of full time professional parenting.
As a Stay At Home Father to two wonderful young children, Richard discovered his passion for educating primary and middle school children as well as adults. He also discovered that his lifelong and profound interest in STEM could become more than a rainy day hobby.
Today he uses his corporate and collegiate experience, as well as his MA in Instructional Design and BA in English & Liberal Arts, to ensure that his children and those around him are not only supported in their STEM, humanities, and language arts interests, but that they are inspired by the science, history, and literature happening all around them at every moment.
Richard E. Friesen
Richard just loves telling stories, and has found novels to be an ideal length-anything under 75,000 words is too short for him. His first fantasy series, The Dreaming King Saga is complete. All 5 books are available now: The Tower of Dreams, Oathbound Sisters, An Uncivil War, and On Black Mesa, and The Gates of Heaven. He also has several short stories available online (and one free one on his website). He is now working on a superhero story where they hero’s power is to fall asleep, and take you into his dreams. After that, there is the first book in the Wetware Wizards series.
Ronin
Ronin is a local Colorado costume prop and armor maker who has turned his love for nerdy things, and his skill in auto bodywork, into high quality custom cosplay gear
Sam Knight
Part of the WordFire Press Production Team, Sam Knight is Senior Editor for Villainous Press and author of three novels, five children’s books, four short story collections, and nearly three dozen short stories, including two co-authored with Kevin J. Anderson. He can be found at SamKnight.com and Sam@samknight.
Sandra Wheeler
Sarah Menzel
Growing up inspired by animation, comic books, video games, and fantasy novels, these influences constantly seep into Sarah’s artwork and identity as an illustrator. With a deep passion for storytelling, Sarah tries to incorporate that ideology into everything she creates in order to portray a well thought out visual message.
Sarin Tatroe (Sariochan Arts)
Sarin is a local artist living in Colorado. She’s a native Coloradoan and of course, doesn’t know how to ski. Her art style is a mix of realism and anime/manga style. Sarin loves to use most art mediums with Copic markers being one of her favorites.
Scott Beckman
Scott Beckman is the author of several high epic fantasy novels, including Pantheon and The Fox and the Blade. A lifelong Coloradan, he is a frequent panelist at local conventions, a proud cat owner, and an avid video-gamer.
Seth Phillips
Seth Phillips is Colorado’s own geek songwriter.
Every couple of weeks when he runs out of Fritos and Mountain Dew, he straps on a guitar and emerges from his basement with tales of love, loss, and science fiction.
Shamelessly plugging his latest album “Tradition Change Geekery,” he plies clever wordcraft and time-honored chord progressions for a thoroughly entertaining set.
Also look for Seth fronting his geek rock band “Zero Day Exploits” around the greater Front Range.
Shullamuth Ballinger
Local novelist, literature teacher, and amateur Joycean. Ballinger’s work brings mythology out of folklore and into modern contexts. She takes the larger than life characters in the Greek or Celtic pantheons and applies the mythology’s perspective to contemporary challenges.
Stace Johnson
Stace Johnson is a Colorado writer, musician, and IT guy. He has published fiction in Edward Bryant’s Sphere of Influence, poetry in cream city review and Tales of the Talisman, and won an Apex Book Company poetry contest in 2013. He has also written numerous non-fiction articles for computer magazines. For more information, please visit http://www.lytspeedconsulting.com/publications/.
Stant Litore
An emerging voice in weird fiction, Stant Litore is the author of the series The Zombie Bible, which retells history (and the Bible) as a series of encounters with the restless dead, as well as The Ansible Stories, in which twenty-fifth century Islamic explorers become trapped in alien bodies on alien worlds. Litore has been featured in “The Year’s Best New Sci-Fi” at NPR (March 2014), as an Author Success Story on the Amazon.com homepage (November 2013), and in Weird Fiction Review and SF Signal. Litore recently released Write Characters Your Readers Won’t Forget, a handbook for young writers, and has been featured on the same topic in Jeff Vandermeer’s Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction. Asked what he does for a living, Litore says, “I chronicle zombie apocalypses from 3,000 years ago and I build colosseums for tyrannosaurs.”
Stant Litore lives in Colorado with his wife and three children, where he is working on his next novel.
Tauni Orndorff
Both Tauni and Charles Orndorff are Colorado natives that started creating costumes for Halloween shortly after getting married. They have been costuming for over 20 years and have participated in several costume events to include MileHiCon, Opusfest, Starfest, World Con (Denvention), and Bubonicon in New Mexico. They have earned best in show as well as other awards in a many of these venues. Most recently awarded Best In Show Workmanship at Archon in St Louis. For them costuming is a great hobby that they both can enjoy together, additionally they love to share their knowledge and experience. Recently they have worked with a local theater group and independent film makers for their costumes and effects. They are also Makers in Residence with the Pikes Peak Library.
Tawny Fritz
Tawny is a freelance illustrator based in Colorado. She has worked professionally in the tabletop and role-playing gaming industry for a few years and is an official Paizo Pathfinder and Starfinder artist. She has also worked on titles such as Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Star Wars.
Her pursuit to educate and motivate has led to her being hired as Event Coordinator for The Fantastic Workshop in Nashville and as Moderator for the Facebook group One Fantastic Week. She works directly with Samuel Flegal and Peter Mohrbacher to ensure artists everywhere have access to information that will help them achieve their dreams. Her current passion projects are The Divine Coven tarot deck, designing t-shirts for her online shirt runs, and creating mock up beer labels in ink.
You can find and follow Tawny on…
Twitter – https://twitter.com/tawnyfritz
Instagram – https://instagram.com/tawnyfritzart (where all the art gets posted!)
YouTube – https://youtube.com/c/tawnyfritz (#betenacious)
Terry Kroenung
Terry Kroenung used to jump out of perfectly good aircraft for the Army. Now he teaches literature and Bartitsu, the real-life Victorian mixed martial art that Sherlock Holmes used against Moriarty. His Steampunk novel PARAGON OF THE ECCENTRIC, a prequel to THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (really) won the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold contest. The anthology FOUND, featuring his story “Nergali Orphan”, telling Wells’ tale from the Martian point of view, just won the Colorado Book Award.
the Librarian Fairy Mrs. Lula Jewel
Thomas A Fowler
Thomas A. Fowler is the author of nerdy things. He’s written a motion picture, theatrical plays, had a few short stories published, and is the author of The Writer’s Conquest: Establish a Brand. The book brings his marketing expertise as a Producer & Content Creator in advertising to the writing world.
When it comes to fiction, Fowler primarily sticks to sci-fi, but will dabble in whatever inspires him. He helps authors market & publish themselves as the Chief Marketing Officer for Spine Press & Post & is an investing partner at Modular Workshop.
Head to ThomasAFowler.com to get social on the internet and find out everything he does in life and writing.
Tomas O’Dreams
Liam Bootzin has been entertaining adults and children with his stories since 1987.
Tonya L. De Marco
Tonya L. De Marco is a local Costume Designer, Cosplayer, published Model, and published Author.
She’s been hooked on costumes and costuming since she was a preteen. Growing up reading about the wonderful characters and places created by authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin, J.R.R.Tolkein, and Frank Herbert, Tonya turned to costuming as a way to immerse herself more deeply into those fantastic worlds.
Her love of the written word also encouraged her to pursue a writing career and she has several short stories published. Much of her work is dark in nature and Tonya is a member of the Horror Writers Association.
Tonya cosplays across multiple genres including anime, sci-fi, steampunk, Disney, comic book, and pin-up. She attends several conventions per year across the country and enjoys meeting and talking with people about cosplay and writing. Tonya has been involved in costume contests/masquerades as both a participant and a judge.
Traci Cartwright
TRAI CARTWRIGHT, MFA, is a 25-year entertainment industry veteran and creative writing specialist. She teaches, produces, and writes screenplays and novels, and can be found at www.craftwrite.com. While in Los Angeles, she was a screenwriter, independent film producer, and story consultant and development executive for HBO, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, New Lines Cinema, and 20th Century Fox. Trai currently teaches creative writing, screenwriting, and producing for the Colorado Film School and two online master’s programs, writers groups, conferences and cons, and one-on-one as a development and story editor. She is the screenwriter for Secret Ellington, and producer of docu-series Hidden Tigers.
Van Aaron Hughes
Van Aaron Hughes is a SFWA member whose stories have appeared in F&SF, Writers of the Future, IGMS, and others. He is the father of three amazing children. In real life, he is a lawyer and has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Veronica R. Calisto
Masseur of people and plot lines. Singer of songs inside her own head and in a local choir. Author of Diary of a Mad Black Witch, A Griffin Scorned, and the first in SparkleTits Chronicals: Starfish & Coffee.
Victoria Regina
Victoria Regina LOVES making unique hats great & small. Using traditional millinery skills, she has mastered the art of using non/traditional materials to create ‘sculptures’ for the head. She is known for her dedication to quality & crafting her own hat blocks to truly make one-of-a-kind pieces to complete your costume or outfit. Besides an adventurous hatter, Victoria is the dedicated Millinery instructor for the Emily Griffith Trade School based in the Fiber Arts Department at the Art Students League of Denver.
Vivian Caethe
When not fighting crime or tinkering with Tarot spreads, Vivian Caethe writes weird fiction, science fiction, fantasy, quirky nonfiction and everything in between. She also crafts, crochets, and goes on long quests to find the perfect knitting pattern. She lives in Colorado with a super villain cat. She can be found as a writer at VivianCaethe.com and as an editor at WordsMadeBeautiful.net.
Voniè Stillson aka Lady Vo
Voniè received a MA in Dance Movement Therapt (DMT) & Counseling from Antioch, a BA in DMT from Naropa, 10+ years Certified Aquatic Rehabilitation Specialist, past recipient of American Dance Therapy Association’s Outstanding Achievement Award and former Southern Chapter President. She’s presented DMT at mental health conferences, aquatics conferences, community-based workshops and pop culture conventions, as well as introduced other professionals to the wonderful world of fandoms. A lifelong comic book reader and sci-fi fan, she advocates geek culture as positive for mental health, leads ADTA’s Multicultural and Diversity Affinity Group for geek culture and is Captain of Airship Iron Opal, an all ages social steampunk group that stresses that without Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathmatics there would be no steampunk
William
Sir William is the 2017 Colorado Bootblack. Not sure what a bootblack is? Swing by the atrium and bring your leather. He will be providing leather care services for those interested. Prices will be posted at the booth. He will be there sharing his knowledge as well and willing to answer all questions.