LosCon 35

News Room

jhooper — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:29:36 +0000

Program Participants

jlloyd — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:23:08 +0000

Check back here for a list of participants as they come in.

Michael Siladi

jlloyd — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 02:57:32 +0000

Michael Siladi has been an active fan since 1973, when he attended his first convention, Equicon, in Los Angeles. He started working on conventions in 1975, and has been working on conventions ever since. He has been involved in all areas of convention operations, and is currently Chairman of BayCon 2008, being held at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara over Memorial Day Weekend. He was recently Chairman of Westercon 60: Gnomeward Bound, held at the San Mateo Marriott Hotel in July 2007.

Michael enjoys teaching others how to run conventions, and leads the occasional “Conventional Wisdom”, the San Francisco Bay Area Convention College. He served three times as Chairman of Construction, a predecessor to Conventional Wisdom. He was the Chairman of SMOFcon 17, the international science fiction and fantasy convention organizer’s convention, held in New Orleans in December of 1999.

He serves on the Boards of Directors of a number of fan-related corporations, including Artistic Solutions, Inc. (parent of BayCon) and the Society for the Promotion of Fannish Interests, Inc., (parent of Westercon 60 and of Conventional Wisdom). He has also served as a Director of the San Diego Speculative Fiction Society, Inc., (parent of Conjecture) and as a Director of San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions, Inc., parent of the 1993 and 2002 WorldCons.

Michael has been involved in the computer industry since high school, and has been an avid computer hobbyist since the dawn of the PC era. He is currently employed as a senior information technology professional for the University of California at Santa Cruz. In his spare time, his other hobbies include astronomy, photography, and petting his cats.

Michael thanks the Loscon 35 committee for honoring him as their Fan Guest of Honor.

Gary Lippincott

jlloyd — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:57:54 +0000

Having always been fascinated with the magical worlds of fantasy and imagination, Gary can’t remember a time when he wasn’t attempting to bring some of his dreams back to so-called reality. At a young age, he started ‘conjuring up’ images of fairies, gnomes, wizards, dragons, giants monsters and all the wonderful places they inhabit. Through his creative talents, Gary has attempted to capture the viewer of his art with the notion that the worlds of imagination and reality are not that far apart. Very recognizable landscapes become populated with wee folk . . . a ‘real’ stone castle houses dragons and sorcerers . . . and beneath the leaves and vines of the underbrush live creatures that are rarely encountered.

Shortly after receiving his BFA degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Gary began a career as a freelance illustrator. Although he had painted primarily in oils during his years in art school, Gary began teaching himself how to control the more difficult medium of watercolors. He wanted to stay away from the more ‘slick’ techniques being used so much in science-fiction and fantasy art to date. Gary developed a feel of ‘old-world craftsmanship’ in his art that separates it from most of the rest. He hopes to evoke a feeling in his art that lends itself to the whimsical fairy-tale-like themes he loves to paint.

Although he specializes in fantasy art, Gary has done a lot of illustration along other themes. His artwork appears in children’s books, text books, book jackets, and even jigsaw puzzles. He has received numerous awards for his artwork at science-fiction and fantasy conventions. His work is now being bought by collectors worldwide. Ed McMahon (of the Tonight Show) is even an owner of a Lippincott original.

A member of the Western Massachusetts Illustrators Guild, Gary has taught Fantasy Art and Imaginative Drawing at the Worcester Art Museum. He has exhibited at Arts Worcester, University of Massachusetts Medical, Bush Galleries, Cambridge Gallery, Southbridge Center for the Arts, Spencer Arts Center, Northampton Center for the Arts, and the Words and Pictures Museum. Books he has illustrated include The Bookstore Mouse, Jennifer Murdley’s Toad, With Love at Christmas, On the Frontier with Mr. Audubon, Ancient Egypt, The Skull of Truth, The Vampire’s Beautiful Daughter, The Fisherman and His Wife, Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, and more.

Gary lives in Royalston, Massachusetts, and can often be found playing piano, practicing magic, searching for gnomes and fairies in the woods, or dreaming . . . again.

Reprinted from Gary Lippincott’s website www.garylippincott.com

John Scalzi

jlloyd — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 02:24:07 +0000

I was born in 1969 and by 1983 it became clear to me that I had better become a writer because everything else was actual work. Fortunately, so far I’ve managed to pull this off: My first job out of college was as a film critic at the Fresno Bee newspaper in California, and I’ve been working as a writer ever since. Since 1998, I’ve been a full-time freelance writer, which is both fun and occasionally panic-inducing.As a writer, I’ve done pretty much everything, from the previously-mentioned film reviews to corporate brochures to books. The last of these is the most “romantic” sort of writing I do (i.e., conforms to what people expect of writers), but I find the other sorts of writing that I do equally interesting in their own way. I’m not a snob when it comes to writing — work is work, and speaking from experience, doing a good job feels good whether it’s from writing a book or delivering on client needs.

However, at the moment, I am primarily a book writer, writing both fiction and non-fiction. Here’s a quick bibliography:

The Rough Guide to Money Online (2000, Rough Guide Books)
The Rough Guide to the Universe (2003, Rough Guide Books)
The Book of the Dumb (2003, Portable Press)
The Book of the Dumb 2 (2004, Portable Press)
Old Man’s War (2005, Tor Books)
Agent to the Stars (2005, Subterranean Press)
The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Film (2005, Rough Guide Books)
The Ghost Brigades (2006, Tor Books)
The Android’s Dream (2006, Tor Books)
You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop: Scalzi on Writing (Subterranean Press, 2007)
The Last Colony (Tor Books, 2007)

Upcoming books:

Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: Selected Writing, 1998 - 2008 (Subterranean Press, 2008)
The High Castle (Tor Books, 2008)

Old Man’s War, my debut novel, was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in March 2006. I was also nominated for the Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Author at the same time, which I won. OMW was also a finalist for the 2006 Locus Award for Best First Novel. In 2007, I was a Hugo nominee in the category of Best Fan Writer.

In addition to these books under my own name, I am a frequent contributor to books in the Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader series. Books in the series to which I have contributed include Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History, Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Universe, Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Great Lives, Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into Texas, Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into Hollywood, Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into Michigan, Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into New Jersey and Uncle John Presents Mom’s Bathtub Reader. My latest contribution to these books is in Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into Ohio.

Aside from books, from 2000 through 2006, I was the Chief Entertainment Media Critic for Official US Playstation Magazine, which means I wrote DVD and CD reviews for the magazine, and discussed the social and legal issues surrounding video games. I am also frequent writer for my local newspaper, the Dayton Daily News, for which I also wrote a DVD review column through early 2007. And if that’s not enough I’m also a paid blogger, working for America Online. You can see my AOL blog at By The Way, and at the Ficlets Blog.

I live in the small rural town of Bradford, Ohio with my wife Kristine, my daughter Athena and our pets Kodi, Lopsided Cat and Ghlaghghee (pronounced “fluffy.”). We all enjoy pie.

Reprinted from John Scalzi’s site ”Whatever:Taunting the Tauntable since 1998″ Posted on July 1, 2007 5:50 PM

Links

jlloyd — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 03:00:20 +0000

Links placeholder

Legalese

jlloyd — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 02:59:54 +0000

Legalese placeholder

Hugo Nominations

jlloyd — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 02:59:25 +0000

April 2, 2008 - Hugo nominated works now available for free download to members!

For the duration of the 2008 Hugo campaign, Ian McDonald, Robert J. Sawyer, John Scalzi, Charles Stross and their respective publishers are making special electronic editions of their Hugo-nominated works available at request to 2008 Hugo voters. You must be a supporting or attending member of Denvention 3, The 66th World Science Fiction Convention, http://www.denver2008.com/, to be eligible to vote for the Hugos and to receive these free Hugo nominated books.

The authors have put together a package of their books for the voters’ convenience. How can you, the Hugo voter, get these special editions? Send an e-mail to hugo2008@scalzi.com requesting the editions. IMPORTANT: Your e-mail MUST include the following information: The name under which you are registered for Denvention 3, your full membership number, and your home state/province/country (if not US or Canada). This is so we may confirm you are, indeed, a Denvention 3 member and are thus eligible to vote for the 2008 Hugo Awards. DO NOT PROVIDE YOUR PIN NUMBER. We don’t need that, and as per your bank card, that’s not a number you need to share with anyone else.

Information sent to the “hugo2008@scalzi.com” address will be stored by John Scalzi for the duration of the nomination process. After the final day for voting is over, it will deleted. None of this information will be seen or used by anyone other than John Scalzi, nor used for any purpose other than verifying Denvention 3 membership and providing 2008 Hugo voters with the eligible texts.

The team here at Loscon 35 would like to give a special thanks to John Scalzi for his part in making these copies available.

For more information, visit John’s blog at http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/