You can learn more about our attending panelists below:
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 lover.
Andarta
Andarta is a professional psychic who performs tarot and oracle card readings, past life regressions, shamanic journey work, and Reiki healing. Andarta is an Empath who can sense people’s feelings, as well as a Clairvoyant and Clairaudient, to hear and see any messages that people need to know. She is a Reiki Master who heals people with Reiki energy, as well as teaches Reiki classes. She also is a high priestess who performs legal handfastings and weddings, and is a Priestess of Avalon, who helps the land and the people to heal. She is a Druid, and a member of the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids (OBOD). One of her crafts is to create anointing oils, which are used for ritual purposes, simple candle magic, and with some oils, can be used as a perfume and bath oil. Andarta makes envelope spell kits that are used for various types of spells. She also performs various rituals and spells, such as house cleansings and protection spells. She performs Reiki healing to humans and animals.
Ash Marie
Ash (e/em or they/them) has been attending sf/f cons since the womb. With two nerdy parents (one of them a seamstress), e never lacked for books, cons, or costumes. Following the call of the mountains, Ash moved to Colorado, majored in creative writing, & cultivated a profound wanderlust. E has two published stories, but mostly spends eir creative time making elaborate flower crowns & glittery fairy dresses to wear in public. Sometime after college, e forgot how to sit still; thus, e turned to horticulture to facilitate such pursuits as photosynthesizing & telling anyone who will listen the names of all the flowers. E identifies as both asexual & nonbinary, & liaises with the City of Fort Collins internal LGBTQIA+ committee, primarily on the subject of transgender/nonbinary pronoun education. Eir home is filled with plants, bones, soft blankets, lights, & art. Eir favorite pastimes are dancing barefoot & baking. E spends most Saturday mornings teaching eir cat how to walk on a leash.
Beverly Warner
Beverly Warner of Charmedseed Costuming has created dozens of costumes in various genres, played Society for Creative Anachronism, run costume contests & judged costuming events like WorldCon, Nan Desu Kan & Denver Comic Con. When not living the cosplay life, Beverly advocates for maternal mental health and mortality & writes Star Wars fanfic.
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.
Blair Bartlett / Alternate Realities Studio
Blair has been doing art in one form or another most of his life. It started with photography in the 4th grade, and over the years he has added in 3D computer art & polymer clay sculpting to his repertoire. He has been showing his work in various local convention art shows consistantly for the past 6 years, as well as participating as a panelist.
Blair does all his own matting, and also photographs both his & his wife Mitzi’s sculptures. In 2018 he joined with a group of fellow creatives to form the Convention Artists Guild in Colorado. Blair lives in Colorado with his lovely wife of 30+ years, Mitzi, and their feline overlords Koda and Sparo.
You can find his art at facebook.com/AlternateRealitiesStudio/ and on Instragram as alternate_realities_studio
Brenna Deutchman
Whimsical Whiskers creates treasured friends. Unique dragons made with love and care. Don’t forget to dress your dragon with a variety of accessories!
Brooke Lydick
Calvin Studzinski
The website of Calvin Studzinski contains his current projects and interesting articles on minutia of pop culture.
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 McLean Redding
Charles McLean Redding is a multi-talented storyteller and worldbuilder. An author, musician, 2d and craft artist, he is also active in the Springs theatre community as a performer, designer, playwright, & Director.
He is pleased to be bringing his Wasteland Bears collection back to the Whimsycon Art show, along with his new ink-arts.
He is also debuting TWO brand new items at his Author table: The first collection of his Snack Pack Raptor Comics, and his first illustrated Savage West Dime Novel Western!
His goal is to make the world a stranger and more magical place, so in pursuit of that, he is always seeking to create new worlds to play in, and produce artifacts of those worlds.
Look for him at his panels or at his table in Authors’ Row!
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.
Chaz Kemp is a featured artist in steampunk legend Paul Roland’s book “Steampunk: Back to the Future with the New Victorians”. Amazing Stories magazine featured him in the November 2014 issue, and his work has been seen in other publications such as Steampunk Magazine, Savage Insider and Aurealis. Over the years Chaz has created art for game publishers, sci-fi/fantasy conventions and several book covers including the anthology “Cthulhu Passant” by Travis Heerman & the “Oilman’s Daughter” by Local Hero Press. In 2012, he illustrated his first graphic novel entitled “Behind These Eyes” written by Guy Anthony De Marco and Peter J. Wacks. The graphic novel was a Bram Stoker Award finalist.
His latest pieces have been featured in the work that he and his wife, award-winning author, Carolyn Kay created for the World of Ashelon. These include two novellas entitled, “Dien Vek” and “Sikevra” in which he did the cover and interior art. He recently finished his three-year project called the Ashelon Oracle Deck; a 52-card divination deck featuring characters that appear in the World of Ashelon. You can find his work at www.ChazKemp.com, buy the Ashelon Oracle Deck here: http://bit.ly/AshelonOracle or become his patron at: www.Patreon.com/ChazKemp
Clockwork Rose Cosplay
Magnus Rose is an award winning cosplay craftsman and disability inclusion advocate for the con community. With 16 years of sewing experience and a passion for creativity, they specialize is original designs and budget oriented creation.
Cori
Massage therapy is, first and foremost, a practice of tension release. Healthy touch by itslf is tension-releaving and light and firm tissue work can take that to amazing heights.
In an industry focused on healing, self-improvement, recovery and pretty much any other term that can make you feel like you are unable to relax without our help, Reworks strives to stand out by choosing instead to say that we are simply working together as client and therapist to invoke change: to Rework the body.
Since 2015, Reworks has been providing self-care services to geeks et al, one byte at a time. Now delivering the best to your door for gatherings, events or for yourself let the Wizard Rework, Relax and Return you to your happy, healthy self.
Dana Bell
Owned by two cats, Adara and Taj, Dana Bell writes stories staring her fur babies often. She loves to tell tales set in places she has lived or visited, has a fascination for lighthouses, Yellowstone National Park, super volcanoes, and doll houses which have taken over her basement. Her published books include Winter Awakening and God’s Gift. Her short fiction can be found in various anthologies for SFFH and she writes romance as well. She lives in Colorado and works a day job so her cats have a warm house, food and lots of toys.
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).
Hideyo Mochimo
Hideyo Mochimo has been cosplaying since 2006 when a high school friend told him that he should join him at a con and “it would look weird if [he] didn’t dress up”. Ever since then, cosplay has been his absolute passion.
Over the twelve years he has participated in this hobby, he has hand-made over 200 cosplays, ranging from things like anime, to Disney, scifi, movies, and even obscure things like Broadway. He has won several awards, including Best Performance in the Intermediate Category and Runner-Up to Best in Show, and has guested at several conventions across the United States including Starfest, Anime Weekend Atlanta, and ThyGeekdomCon.
As a trans cosplayer, he is all about accepting ourselves for who we are, and thinks cosplay is a beautiful way to express that, and something he wants to share with anyone he is fortunate enough to meet at conventions all over the United States!
HopeFully Cosplay
Hope began cosplaying in 2013 and mermaiding in 2016. She tends to create cosplays from existing pieces, and placed first in the Creative Division of the costume contest at AnomalyCon 2017 with Steampunk Firestar. Hope enjoys cosplaying lesser-known characters, such as Clawhauser from Zootopia, or variations/mash-ups of popular characters, such as Jedi Jolteon. She uses cosplay as a way to express passion for her favorite characters, and loves to bring smiles to others with both cosplay and mermaiding.
Ian Brazee-Cannon
At the dawn of time there was a crack in reality. Through this tear in time and space emerged beings of unfathomable power bent on shaping the destiny of the universe towards their sinister goals. Great battles that would drive any lesser beings insane raged on as reality took shape during this chaotic period. In the end the universe was spared by the self destructive nature of these beings, fighting each other into nonexistence until none were left.
Uncounted ages later, on a small planet that often is unnoticed by the rest of the universe, Ian Brazee-Cannon was born. A story teller from a young age, he became a writer, film maker, game designer and podcaster. Over a dozen of his short stories have seen publication. ‘Divided States of America,”The Fifth Di…’, ‘Wondrous Web Worlds’, ‘Forgotten Worlds’, ‘Tales of the Talisman’ and various anthologies have featured his works. You can hear him discuss all manner of subjects as a founder and regular co-hosts on the Ama
J.D. Harrison
J.D. Harrison writes epic length adventure romance about modern day jousters at renaissance faires. A lifelong horsewoman, animals factor heavily into all her stories. She also loves helping people achieve their dreams, no matter how big or small. Love is her driving tenet, be it for oneself, for friends, animals, and even strangers. Bringing that to life in her books is a genuine dream come true.
Gallant Hearts- giving falling hard a whole new impact!
Jason Henry Evans
Jason Henry Evans always wanted to be a writer, he just didn’t know it. His short stories and essays have been published in several different anthologies. His debut novel, The Gallowglass, was released this past summer and was followed up by his first novella, Colleen. Stop buy the author nook to meet Jason! Social Media Contact: Twitter: @evans_writer, Facebook Author Page: Jason Henry Evans Website: www.jasonhenryevans.com
JD Gryphion
JD Gryphion has been fighting the demons of their soul to establish their identity and worth. Their war is ongoing. Many battles have been won, and with those, they have rediscovered old passions that they allowed to fall aside as more “urgent” matters made themselves known. And among what has been reclaimed is the desire to build community and serve its needs.
JD has developed a growing fascination with the theory and practice of Civics. They wish to learn how to build an engaged community that can better understand personal progress and contribution. They seek to help those around them to appreciate their positive impact and to offer them the tools to empower themselves in an age of learned helplessness.
Above all, JD Gryphion desires:
– To learn from the failures and successes of others
– To develop a meaningful practice in line with their values, beliefs, and faith,
– And if providence wills, to teach and lead those who find their practice worthwhile.
Jessica McMaster
Julie Nakao
Julie Nakao currently is the Chair for WhimsyCon 2020 and on the Shiny Garden Board. She has been geeking out with Denver conventions since 2011. “There is only one you, be the best ‘you’ you can be!”
Kevin Frost
Once upon a time, Kevin Frost was a shellback. Then he contracted a mortal terror of Davy Jones. Now he sails the sagebrush seas of northern New Mexico along side a fleet of earthships. He is the lead editor of the retropunk short story zine Curiosities and was a Parsec Award finalist for the companion podcast, Gallery of Curiosities, in 2018 in the Best Speculative Fiction Story: Short Form (Small Cast) category. When the rural wireless goes down, he resorts to managing the slush pile from a lonely crossroads diner, and has only occasional bouts of vertigo from living so far inland.
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
Kristin Dalleske
Kristin Dalleske is a freelance artist specializing in creature and puppet fabrication. She is the grand prize winner of the Jim Henson Company’s official Dark Crystal fan film competition. Her film has been featured at the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts, the New York Museum of Moving Image and the Seattle Museum of Pop Culture. Her film also received an entry in The Dark Crystal Ultimate Visual History book.
Her creatures, costumes and replica props have been displayed at the Boulder International Film Festival, the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art and the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum. In 2017 Kristin was hired to work at Jim Henson’s Creature shop on the Netflix original series Dark Crystal Age of Resistance.
Lara Beckwith
Lara is a Librarian and seamstress and grew up doing historical reenacting and sewing. She created the first Sewing Lab at the Aurora Public Library and now teaches sewing among other things at Anythink libraries in Thornton.
Lee Moody
Leif Olsen
Lena M. Johnson
Lena M. Johnson is a scientist with a writing problem. Holding an M.S. in Biology and currently working as a chemist, she has a keen interest in exploring science through the lens of fiction. On weekends she volunteers at a dinosaur museum preparing fossils. She has been published in various anthologies, including Cat Tails: Warzone and previous Midnight Writers’ anthologies, of which she is a founding member. You can find her on social media as lenamjohnson for cat pictures and horrible puns.
Lorelei Suzanne
Lorelei Suzanne is a Colorado author, pianist, violinist, teacher, and composer. She’s active in music ministry and the singer/songwriter scene, and absolutely loves conventions!
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 WhimsyCon 2018, MALCon 2017, and GeekyCon 2016. She just finished her first book, a LGBTQ sci-fi novel, Prism. If you are interested in getting it published please consider supporting her Patreon.
Lou J Berger
Lou J Berger is an Active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and has published short stories in Galaxy’s Edge Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, and a handful of anthologies. Recently, he was a Finalist in the Writers of the Future contest. He can be found on Facebook and on Twitter (@LouJBerger), and his website is: http://www.LouJBerger.com His website is: www.LouJBerger.com.
Lynelle Phillips
Lynelle loves costuming, building props, and movies. She is a Star Wars droid builder, costume maker, and scone baker extraordinaire. She built the large curtain for the WhimsyCon stage, and can be found helping in the Parlour.
Maxwell Alexander Drake
Maxwell Alexander Drake is an award-winning Science Fiction/Fantasy author, Graphic Novelist, and Playwright. He recently sold two movie scripts that are now in development, Dwarka: Gateway to the Stars (a Sci-Fi movie) and Snurse: A Magical, Magical Fairytale (a Children’s Fantasy movie). He was also the Lead Fiction Writer and game story consultant for Sony’s massive online game EverQuest Next as well as writing for the Shadowrun game. He is best known for his fantasy series, The Genesis of Oblivion Saga. Drake teaches creative writing at writers’ conferences and fan conventions all around the world, and is the author of the Drake’s Brutal Writing Advice series.
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.
One of the instigators in the Denver Victorian & Steampunk Society, Melanie is also Vice-President of the Arapahoe Ceramics Guild, and a founding member of the Convention Artists Guild. Melanie lives in the Denver area. Her work is shown at Guild and Convention shows in the Denver area several times a year.
Melissa Koons
Melissa Koons is a writer, blogger, and book formatted for Write Illusion. She has won 3 awards for her writing and multiple publications. She works at the University of Colorado by day and publishes by night. She has written novels, workbooks, multiple short stories, and has ghostwritten over 60 novellas. Her novel, “Orion’s Honor”, academic workbook “Writing a Critical Essay”, and horror anthology “Aberration” are 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 “Undercurrents” anthology.
Michelle Reeves
Michelle Reeves has been in the Denver Sci-fi community for over 10 years. As a mother of 3, she knows the importance of including the next generation of geeks in conventions and strives to create fun and innovative panels for all ages and abilities.
Mike (mikeyzart) Kloepfer
Mike(mikeyzart) Kloepfer is an award-winning artist with a career spanning over 3 decades.
Along the way, Mike and his art have appeared in books and magazines such as ‘Classical Drawing Atelier’ by Juliette Aristides and ‘The Artists Magazine.’
He has been a staff illustrator for Microsoft and Boeing. He has also drawn over 1,000 commissioned portraits and over 12,000 professional caricatures, and his art has found a home with collectors from every continent on earth!
Mike is a founding member of the Convention Artists Guild (Colorado Chapter.) He teaches classes and workshops, as well as panels, demosntrations and insturction
at conventions across the United States.
See his artwork on Facebook and Instagram:
@mikeyzart (finished art, events and announcements, etc. )
@mikekloepfer (personal, works-in-progress, etc.)
Mike Cervantes
Mike Cervantes is a graduate of creative writing and communication from The University of Texas at El Paso, currently studying for his Master’s in communication from the University of Colorado Denver. He is a humorist, a cartoonist, a steampunk enthusiast, and a regular contributor to Denver’s many local conventions. He writes and publishes stories featuring his steampunk hero characters ‘The Scarlet Derby and Midnight Jay’ regularly on his website, TheScarletDerby.com.
Mildred Toepfer (Mistress Mab)
Mildred Toepfer is a Jill of many trades when it comes to creative endeavors. She is an author, an artist, a cos-player, and poet and a general weirdo. She is a steampunk enthusiast and loves delving into the sub-genres for inspiration.
Mitzi Bartlett
Mitzi Bartlett is a local polymer clay artist who specializes in small, whimsical figurines of a fantasy and science fiction nature. She has been focused on this for the last fifteen years, and hopes to keep doing so for as long as life allows.
Mr. Harmel
Terry Harmel has been practicing and teaching martial arts for almost 30 years. He has been a sc-fi fan for closer to 50, but has only recently rediscovered the convention scene.
Nancy Kay Clark
Nancy Kay Clark is retired and living her dream life in the mountains of Southern Colorado with her hubby, two horses, and three cats. She worked in animal health and has written many articles for Morris Animal Foundation, especially for the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study.
In her spare time, she is fixing up her home, crafting, working on a few urban fantasy stories, and proofreading for author, J.D. Harrison.
Nancy was one of the founding board members of Shiny Garden and supports their values of creating inclusive events that celebrate diversity.
NightmareLoki Cosplay
A cosplayer and costumer since 2006, Dawn has been in the scene for a while. She makes it her goal to have fun with every con and every costume. Always willing and ready to learn new things as well as teach to those who are new to the scene! Balancing work life and con life has its ups and downs but there’s not one thing she regrets with this hobby.
In recent years she’s picked up on makeup and learning the art of contouring. Her specialty tends to rely on crossplay and gender bending, to be right down the gender spectrum.
Her goal is to always enjoy what she is doing and to never stress from it.
Nikki Ebright
Executive Director for Shiny Garden and initial convention chair for MALCon, HexaCon, and WhimsyCon. Currently lives in the Netherlands.
Nissa LaFete
As the faerie Queen of LaFete, Nyssa began the Festival of Faerie in 2012. She is a maker of wings, stories, laughter, and new friends. She loves storytelling and hearing new stories! But she also loves shiny objects and can be distracted easily.
Nonir Amicitia
Nonir Amicitia has never really fit into molds or boxes. They claim labels such as queer, nerd, Heathen, and Social Justice Cleric, but none of those completely describe them. As a lifelong outcast, they know how hard it can be to not fit in, and they hope Wandering Jotun can help provide a little bit of help to others who feel like they don’t belong. Through my art and writing, I advocate for mental health awareness, human rights, and inclusion of all marginalized identities.
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/
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.
Randy Upton
Sheila McClune
Sheila McClune enjoys writing, cooking, creating art, costuming, and hosting tea parties. She can often be found helping to run conventions, especially in the con suite. In so-called Real Life, she works as a data analyst.
Stace Johnson
Stace Johnson is a Colorado writer, musician, and IT guy. He is a copy editor for the Inquisitr website, has published fiction, poetry, and non-fiction articles, and has performed geeky music sets at various writing-related conventions and conferences. For more information, please visit http://lytspeed.com/.
Stant Litore
Stant Litore is the author of Ansible, The Running of the Tyrannosaurs, The Zombie Bible, and Dante’s Heart. Besides science fiction and fantasy, he has written the writers’ toolkits Write Worlds Your Readers Won’t Forget and Write Characters Your Readers Won’t Forget, as well as Lives of Unstoppable Hope and Lives of Unforgetting, and has been featured in Jeff Vandermeer’s Wonderbook: An Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction. He has served as a developmental editor for Westmarch Publishing and holds a Ph.D. in English. He lives in Aurora, Colorado with his wife and three children and is currently at work on his next novel.
Susan Clare Adams
Susan Clare Adams is an author and poet. Due to her many interests, she is reluctant to write in only one genre and instead prefers to broaden her scope. Susan has stories published by Villainous Press and books of poetry by NT Publishing. She lives in Colorado where she surrounds herself with family and friends.
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.
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’ invasion tale from the Martian point of view, just won the Colorado Book Award. He now has sympathy for Frankenstein’s monster, after getting a heart transplant in April 2019.
Tomas O’Dreams
Tomas O’Dreams has been entertaining both adults and children since 1987. Usually this trickster can be seen at Renaissance Festivals and Fairy Events around the South-Western USA. Tomas is quick to tell a story or share the secrets of Fairy life to those who listen.
Unwoman
Unwoman (aka Erica Mulkey) is a San Francisco-based cellist-singer-songwriter. Layered with skillful cello, rich vocals, and beats, her music is a darkly futuristic homage to her classical training. Her song “The Heroine” was the weather in Welcome to Night Vale’s “Triptych” episode. Vintage Tomorrows, a feature documentary about steampunk, includes that song and other footage of Unwoman. Unwoman has performed solo at major steampunk, goth, and sci-fi-related events all over the United States. Most live solo shows use electric cello played standing up, and live-looping accompaniment. She has also collaborated with Amanda Palmer, Abney Park, Stripmall Architecture, Voltaire, Rasputina, Jill Tracy, Vernian Process, Caustic, Anthony Jones, Nathaniel Johnstone Band, Black Tape for a Blue Girl, and Attrition.
Vennessa Robertson
Vennessa Robertson is a Colorado author and is active in the writing and historic reenactment communities. She taught high school with dueling degrees in both English and History in Colorado and Alaska until a traumatic brain injury in 2009. Now, she lives in rural Colorado. When she is not writing or homeschooling her two small children she is managing their ever-growing large and small animal rescue ranch. www.vrobertsononline.com
Veronica R. Calisto
Veronica R. Calisto spends her days massaging data, weekends massaging people, and the spaces between at the mercy of the superheroes and giant spiders in her head. She is the author of several books including Diary of a Mad Black Witch and the first two in the SparkleTits Chronicles series.
Her demons can be yours too, with a purchase or two.
Vonie’ Stillson aka Lady Vo
Vonie’is a lifelong comic book reader and sci-fi fan, she advocates geek culture as positive for mental health, leads the American Dance Therapy Association’s for geek culture and is Captain of Airship Iron Opal, a NOCO based all ages social steampunk group that stresses without Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics there would be no steampunk. She received a MA in Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) & Counseling from Antioch, a BA in DMT from Naropa, and has 15+ years Certified Aquatic Rehabilitation Specialist.
She is the ADTA’s former Southern Chapter President & current Rocky Mountain 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.