Guests of Honor

Actress guest Gwynyth Walsh

Winnipeg-born actress Gwynyth Walsh is probably best known among fans for her recurring role B’Etor, the younger of the politically influential Klingon Duras Sisters in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Gwynyth has also appeared in Taken, Smallville, Forever Knight, Tin Man, Supernatural, and Alien Nation. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alberta and started her acting career in Shakespere before moving on to movies and TV.

Gwynyth Walsh at Wikipedia
Gwynyth Walsh at the Internet Movie Database

Artist guest John Garner

John Garner has been drawing and painting science fiction, space, and fantasy art all his life. John discovered his first Science Fiction convention in 1984. Since then he has won numerous awards and has been published in books and magazines including TSR’s Dungeon Adventures magazine, Starslayer gaming module, Cloud Kingdom Games, the book “Fantasy Art Now”, and others. John and his wife’s work can be seen in many convention art shows across the country.

In his youth, trapped in the wilderness forty miles south of the middle of nowhere, he was amazed to win awards at local art shows known for their duck and crop art.

John uses a variety of mediums, including oils and watercolor, but works primarily in acrylics. He prefers to work on hardboard rather than canvas.

“I prefer painting anything I want with no restrictive boundaries of time and space or reality. Each painting has its own feeling which I try to make as obvious as possible while still keeping smaller themes less obvious for a person to discover when they take a closer look.”

John also enjoys chocolate in all forms and continues to seek the holy grail of the most decadent desert in the universe.

Author/Sciences guest Loretta McKibben

Loretta McKibben loves to talk about science, astronomy and space exploration, and has served as a science panelist at two worldcons (ConJose 2002, the 60th Worldcon in San Jose, California; and Chicon 2000, the 58th Worldcon in Chicago, Illinois), Shore Leave 23 in Baltimore, Conestoga 2008 (Tulsa) and numerous Westercons, Leprecons, and Coppercons in the Phoenix area. For her day job, she’s been a scientific programmer analyst and systems administrator for over 25 years to scientists in astronomy, planetary geology, environmental studies, and meteorology. Since 2003 she has worked on two NASA Mars mission instrument teams at the University of Arizona: the Mars 2001 Odyssey Gamma-Ray Spectrometer, which discovered and studied water on Mars and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, the most powerful orbital camera ever sent to another planet. Loretta’s educational background is in astrophysics, and she has taught space exploration, astronomy, and model rocketry to thousands of children through science museums, astronomy clubs, and the NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador program. At the age of five she and her mother were picked up by a tornado, which led to a lifelong weather fascination, and she began intermittent storm chasing in the summer of 1973. For ten years (1991-2001) she worked at the National Severe Storms Laboratory as a UNIX systems administrator and programmer and received a Silver Medal from the U.S. Department of Commerce as a member of the Stormscale Research and Applications Division (SRAD) for work on the Warning Decision Software System for the WSR-88D (NEXRAD) radar system. Loretta is writing a book about women and space, and science fiction and fantasy books.

Music guests The Nick Atoms

Coburn and Wyngarde were created by Dr. Ted Nelson to perform rock versions of your favorite television and movie theme songs. As The Nick Atoms, they served as MarsCon’s house band (and played other venues) for several years. The Nick Atoms disappeared under mysterious circumstances some 5 years ago. Then, at MarsCon 2009, Dr. Ted returned from other dimensions just in time to rescue Coburn and Wyngarde from being turned into Euro-synth-pop-bots. The reunited Nick Atoms will perform their trumphal Reunion/Farewell concert at MarsCon 2010.

The Nick Atoms website has more information and lots of music.
MarsConDementia.com has more news about the entire dementia track as well as more images by Luke Ski.

But wait, there’s more!

The Dementia Music Track

In addition to our atomic Musical Guests of Honor The Nick Atoms, the Dementia Track will include new-coming acts

• Throwing Toasters
• Schaffer the Darklord
• Steve Goodie
• Nuclear Bubble Wrap
• Insane Ian
• Dino-Mike
• Odd Austin

and returning favorites

• Rob Balder
• Worm Quartet
• The Gothsicles
• Power Salad
• Hot Waffles
• Raymond & Scum
• Carrie Dahlby
• Devo Spice
• the great Luke Ski

Tribal Fusion

Tribal fusion dance troupe Tribal Spirits of the Sun will be making their first MarsCon appearance. Tribal fusion is a whole different style of belly dance which pulls a lot of its influence from sci fi and fantasy. More info at www.tribalspiritofthesun.net.

Black Light Whip-Cracking with a Steampunk Twist

Robert Dante, the “World’s Fastest Whip,” will be returning to MarsCon for an out of this world performance. It has been five years since this Guinness Book of World Records holder electrified MarsCon with his theatrical blend of dark fantasy and circus. You will be mesmerized. More info at bullwhip.net.

We’re not done yet; there’s

S.N. Arly

St. Paul science fiction and fantasy writer, S.N. Arly has had short stories featured at FearsMag.com, a limited edition DragonCon 2000 chapbook, several issues of Tales of the Unanticipated, and most recently the WolfSongs anthology. She has received two honorable mentions from the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest. She is a member the local critique group Guts and Rocks. Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/S.N.Arly1?ref=name

Ruth Berman

Ruth Berman has published fiction and poetry in many magazines and anthologies, including science fiction, fantasy, general, and literary publications. She is one of the co-authors of Autumn World by Joan M. Verba et al., and has written articles on sf/fantasy for many journals. Books she edited: Dear Poppa (MN Historical Society), The Kerlan Awards in Children’s Literature (Pogo Press), Sissajig and Other Surprises (short fantasy by Oz author Ruth Plumly Thompson). She is a longtime Twin Cities fan. Read more at www.tc.umn.edu/~d-;lena/RuthBermanPage.html

Cynthia Booth

Roy C. Booth

Roy C. Booth hails from Bemidji, Minnesota, and is a published author, game designer, comedian, poet, journalist, essayist, screenwriter/doctor, but is mostly known as an internationally award winning playwright with 49 plays published to date with over 650 productions of his work in 25 different countries on every continent save Antarctica. His most recent projects include the dramatization of Brian Keene’s bestselling paranormal suspense novel, TERMINAL, various book deals in horror, fantasy, dark poetry, and theatre, as well as various ongoing genre-based television/film deals. A recent interview by Horror World on Roy’s writing style and upcoming published work can be found at www.horrorworld.org/interviews.htm. Roy can also be found on MySpace, Facebook, and at www.roycbooth.com.

Rob Callahan

Rob Callahan is a Minneapolis writer, storyteller and life-long science fiction fan. His articles on Minneapolis arts, music and events have been seen in a number of local magazines. In 2009 he was nominated for the Twin Cities Top Ten Titans of Social Media, which he didn’t quite win but it was nice nonetheless, and was honored to have a drink named after him at Clubhouse Jager (the home of Sci-Fi Tuesdays) in the Minneapolis Warehouse District. He is the resident emcee at the bi-monthly Twin Cities Doctor Who Meetup Pub Quiz, a frequent guest of The Rockstar Storytellers, producer of the Nightmare Fuel podcast and author of the novel “Hellbound Snowballs”. He is currently serializing his second novel, Prom Queen of the Damned, as an eBook for iPhones, Kindles, Sony Readers and other popular eReading devices. For more information, please visit RobCallahan.com.

2006 Guest of Honor Beth Hansen-Buth

ARTIST STATEMENT: “Nothing inspires me more than time spent in nature. Feeling the wind in my hair and listening to the leaves rustling in the trees makes me long for my walking stick, and off I go on another journey of wonder and delight.”

Featured in FATE Magazine as the Painter to the Faery Court, Beth’s visionary work has been published in Oracle 20/20, Pentacle Magazine, Seventh House Publishing’s “Seasons of the Witch” calendars in 2003 and 2004, and she has done numerous illustrations for “Tales of the Unanticipated”, a speculative fiction small press publication. As artist Guest of Honor at MarsCon in 2007, Beth’s designed a custom T-shirt for the “Things that go bump in the night” theme. She is currently taking a break from oil painting to work in ink & watercolor, creating highly detailed works based on her meditations and dreams. Her artwork can be found online at www.wyrdhaven.com and at your favorite local SF&F convention art show.

Douglas Hulick

According to his business cards, Douglas Hulick is an “Author and Swordsman.” Since he recently sold a three book crime-based fantasy series to Penguin USA, the first part is likely true. As for the second claim, well, while he has been fencing for over fifteen years and studying and teaching Western European Historical Combat for seven, can anyone who hasn't served in the King’s Musketeers say he is truly a swordsman? I mean, really…

P M F Johnson

P M F Johnson has published dozens of poems, including genre poetry in Asimov’s, Strange Horizons and Tales of the Unanticipated, mainstream poetry in Threepenny Review and Nimrod, and haiku in Modern Haiku, Acorn and a couple “Best Of” anthologies. Along with his wife, Sandra Rector, he has published stories in Amazing Magazine and several pro anthologies. His web site is at PMFJohnson.com.

2008 Guest of Honor Naomi Kritzer

Naomi Kritzer is the author of three fantasy novels in her “Dead Rivers” series: Freedom’s Gate (2004), Freedom’s Apprentice (2005), and Freedom’s Sisters (2006), and short fiction in Realms of Fantasy, Strange Horizons, and Tales of the Unanticipated. Naomi recently completed a children’s fantasy novel in which a ten-year-old Minneapolis girl notices that no one else can see one of the houses on her block. www.naomikritzer.com

Craig R. Lang

Craig Lang is a UFO and anomaly researcher with Minnesota MUFON, the local chapter of the Mutual UFO Network. He investigates sighting and encounter reports in the Twin Cities and surrounding areas. Craig is a Certified Hypnotherapist, with the National Guild of Hypnotists. His “day job” is as a computer engineer, working with a medical electronics firm in the Twin Cities. Mr. Lang has been interested in astronomy, ET life and UFOs since childhood. He is the author of two nonfiction books on UFO abduction, The Cosmic Bridge and The Other Side of the Sky, The Cosmic Bridge Companion. He is an amateur radio operator (KC0̸ZH), and also dabbles in writing science fiction. websites: ww.craigrlang.com/ and www.thecosmicbridge.com

Catherine Lundoff

Catherine Lundoff is the award-winning author of two short story collections: Crave: Tales of Lust, Love and Longing (Lethe Press, 2007) and Night’s Kiss (Lethe Press, 2009). She is also the editor of the fantasy and horror anthology Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories (Lethe Press, 2008) and co-editor, with JoSelle Vanderhooft, of the anthology Hellebore and Rue: Tales of Queer Woman and Magic (Drollerie Press, forthcoming). She teaches writing classes at The Loft Literary Center upon occasion and works as a computer geek. Website: www.visi.com/~clundoff.

Rebecca Marjesdatter

Rebecca Marjesdatter is a past winner of the Rhysling Award for Speculative Poetry. Her work has appeared in Tales of the Unanticipated (TOTU), The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, the anthology Women of Other Worlds, and Asimov’s. She is the current Poetry Editor of TOTU. She lives in Minneapolis with too many cats.

Kelly McCullough

Kelly McCullough is an an international award-winning short story writer and novelist. The first book in his series, WebMage, was released by ACE in 2006 to considerable critical praise. It was followed by Cybermancy, CodeSpell, and MythOS, with SpellCrash slated for late May 2010.

2002 Guest of Honor Lyda Morehouse, aka Tate Hallaway

Lyda Morehouse leads a double life. By day she is the science fiction author of the award-winning AngeLINK series. At night she transforms into the best-selling vampire romance writer Tate Hallaway author of the Garnet Lacey series and the young-adult vampire princess of Saint Paul series. As Lyda she’s won the Shamus (a mystery award) for “Archangel Protocol”, and came in second for the Philip K. Dick award for “Apocalypse Array”. She’s just finished a prequel in the AngeLINK series called “Resurrection Code”, which will be coming out later this year from Mad Norwegian Press. Tate has been busy as well. 2010 will see the publication of the last of the Garnet books: “Honeymoon of the Dead”, as well as the first of the vampire princess books, “Almost to Die For”. She lives in Saint Paul with her partner of twenty-four years, six year-old son, four cats, two gerbils and a multitude of fishes.

Anna Waltz

Anna Waltz was a script writer for EverQuest II, where she wrote quest favorites like “Rat Smashing Fun,” along with the NPC monologues of Queen Antonia Bayle. As a local writer, she is best known for her book, “Swedish Lutheran Vampires of Brainerd.” Her fanfiction (written under various assumed names) has been floating around the Internet since 1997.

Jason D. Wittman Jason D. Wittman lives and works in Minnesota. In addition to having fiction published in SCIFI.COM, the hardcover anthology The Best of Baen’s Universe 2006, and Tales of the Unanticipated, he also has two games, Tile Chess, and Spooks, both published by Steve Jackson Games. www.sff.net/people/jasondwittman

Bryan Thao Worra

Bryan Thao Worra is a Lao American poet, short story writer, playwright and essayist.

His work appears internationally in numerous anthologies, magazines and newspapers, including Tales of the Unanticipated, G-Fan, Illumen, Astropoetica, Outsiders Within, Dark Wisdom, Journal of the Asian American Renaissance and Mad Poets of Terra. An NEA Fellow in Literature, he is the author of the books of speculative poetry On the Other Side of the Eye and BARROW. You can visit him online at thaoworra.blogspot.com.

2004 Guest of Honor David E Romm

romm.org

more to be announced

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March 5—7, 2010
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites
Bloomington, MN

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