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David Brin is a scientist, public speaker, and author.  His novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards.  His fifteen novels have been translated into more than twenty languages. A 1989 ecological thriller, Earth, foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare and the World Wide Web.  A 1998 movie, directed by Kevin Costner, was based on The Postman.

Brin advises groups dealing with subjects as diverse as national defense and homeland security, astronomy and space exploration, SETI and nanotechnology. His non-fiction book — The Transparent Society: Will Technology Make Us Choose Between Freedom and Privacy? — won the 2000 Freedom of Speech Award of the American Library Association.

Lou Antonelli is a science fiction and fantasy writer residing in Mount Pleasant, Texas. His stories; often characterized by a Texas setting, a strong use of dialogue, and twist or surprise endings, have been published in magazines based in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada.

A Massachusetts native who grew up in Rockland, Lou attended Columbia University. He lived in New York City, where he ran for the United States House of Representatives at the age of 25, losing to the incumbent Ted Weiss by a margin of 85%-15%. Three years later, in 1985, Lou moved to Texas. Now a professional journalist, he is currently the managing editor of the Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune and is married to Patricia (Randolph) Antonelli, a Dallas native. They have no children.

Rob Cerio was born at an early age, and has since grown much more hair. He may not be nearly as interesting as that Dos Equis guy, but Rob has worked as a paranormal researcher, piloted a riverboat on the Mississippi, stood in 34 out of 50 states, and touched the clouds. He has been writing since the age of nine, but has only recently broken through to the ranks of "professional writer". His first novel, "Dimensional Games" was a Semifinalist for the 2011 Amazon breakthrough novel award, with his writing style being compared favorably to the likes of Douglas Adams and Robert Asprin. In addition, one of his short screenplays, "Mailman of Steel" is currently in pre-production. Rob currently lives in Kenner, Louisiana with his lovely wife Cheri, two adorable stepkids, and one annoying dog named after a giant Japanese monster.

Allan Gilbreath denies that he was raised by wolves, but still enjoys quiet moonlit evenings.  He is an accomplished skeptic, cook, gardener, computer geek, martial artist, and avid student of arcane knowledge.  Allan is also a nationally recognized and award-winning author, publisher, speaker, and instructor.  He has appeared on television, stage, radio, web/podcast, and tours the country in live appearances.  He enjoys serving on convention panels and can cover a wide range of topics from the serious to the outrageous.  In his adult vampire novels, Galen and Dark Chances, he links sensual fantasy with danger and predation to excellent effect.

Charles Allen Gramlich grew up on a farm in Arkansas, near the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, but moved to the New Orleans area in 1986 to teach psychology at Xavier University. He’s since sold four novels and numerous short stories. His stories, while mostly in the genres of Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy, have included Westerns, Children’s stories, Mainstream, Slipstream, and experimental tales. In 2009, Charles’s nonfiction book, Write With Fire, was published. It’s a collection of his articles and essays on the craft of writing. His most recent book is Midnight in Rosary, an anthology of vampire and werewolf short stories. He has also self published a collection of his western tales entitled Killing Trail for the Kindle and the Nook. All of Charles’s print books are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online sites. Charles is an editor for The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies, and produces a regular column on writing for an online newsletter called The Illuminata. He lives with his wife in Abita Springs, Louisiana, and has a son named Joshua. His blog is at: http://charlesgramlich.blogspot.com/

J L Mulvihill is the author of The Lost Daughter of Easa, which is the first book of a young adult fantasy series that borders on science fiction with a dash of steam punk. J L feels that writing is like cooking: a variety of ingredients in the right amount will blend nicely if done properly.

J L is a California native who has made Mississippi her home for the past fourteen years. She has been writing poetry, short stories, and song lyrics since she was a little girl. J L has continued her writing and is currently working on her second novel, Elsindai, Heir to the Throne of Easa, while writing short stories and poetry.

After being found as an infant crawling among old and dusty books in an abandoned library, Kimberly Richardson grew up to be an eccentric woman with a taste for listening to dark cabaret music while drinking tea, reading books in every genre, and writing stories that cause people to make the strangest faces.

Her first book, Tales From a Goth Librarian, was published through Kerlak Publishing in 2009 and was named a Finalist in the USA Book News Awards for Fiction: Short Story for 2009 and in the International Book Awards for Fiction: Short Story in 2010.  She is also the Editor for the Steampunk anthology Dreams of Steam through Kerlak Publishing in 2010.  Her family, albeit normal, loves her as much as she loves them.  She currently resides in Memphis, Tennessee.

At Dragon*Con 2004, Dr. Demento declared “the great Luke Ski” to be his radio program’s “Most Requested Artist of the 21st Century”. Since then, Luke has held onto that title by having a song within the top five of “The Dr. Demento Show’s” year-end “Funny 25″ countdown of his most requested songs of the year for five years in a row, including two of them at #1 (”Peter Parker” featuring Sudden Death in 2002, and “Stealing Like A Hobbit” in 2003).

His song parodies, originals, stand-up and sketches about pop culture pheonema (doot doo, do-do-do!) have make him a favorite performer at science-fiction and fandom conventions all across the midwest and beyond.

Jennie Faries is a master costumer who has been competing for over 25 years. Among her awards are Best Master Workmanship at the Millenium Philcon World SF convention and the first place special Discworld prize from Terry Pratchett at the Noreascon 4 Worldcon. It is also her fault that Mark Van Name is ranked as master costumer, even though he can't sew a button onto a shirt. She holds an MFA in theatrical costume and lighting design. For many years, she was part of Techno Fandom - the roving East coast tech crew - and designed the lighting for many masquerades when she wasn’t competing.

Her day job is as a graphic designer, for which she creates such materials for Baen Books as book jackets, CDs, catalogs, and advertisements.

Toni Weisskopf succeeded Jim Baen as publisher of Baen Books where she serves as executive editor. She has worked with Toastmaster Mark L. Van Name, David Weber, David Drake, Lois McMaster Bujold, Eric Flint, Wen Spencer, and many others. With Josepha Sherman she compiled and annotated the definitive volume of subversive children’s folklore, Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts, published by August House, now in its third printing. For Baen she’s edited three original hard sf anthologies: Cosmic Stories: Adventures in Sol System, Cosmic Stories: Adventures in Far Futures and most recently Transhuman, with our Toastmaster.

Colonel Louis Zocchi has been involved with Adventure games since 1959. He play tested them for the Avalon Hill Company, and later designed its Luftwaffe game, which remained on the top sellers list for the next 20 years. In 1981 Zocchi's Basic and Advanced Fighter Combat game received an Origins Award for designing the best air to air combat rules of all time. His Star Fleet Battle Manual won the British Games Day Award and was nominated for an Origins Award. Zocchi designed the 100 sided die and in 2009, he was given another Origins for co-designing the D-Total die which can generate the numbers for 18 different die shapes.

In 1987 Zocchi was inducted into the Adventure Games Hall of Fame and has lectured every year at Origins and Gencon since 1990. More than 120,000 gamers have gone to YouTube and typed in louzocchi to see both parts of his 20 minute explanation of why all dice are not created equal. You'll discover what the other dice makers want to keep secret.

(Not) A Bio of Jim Mulé by Dan Stocker

Why am I writing anything about Jim Mulé? There are several ways to answer.

1. I was lucky enough to know him. Not as well as some, but better than most. I'm certainly not qualified to write a bio for him, but I'm well qualified to describe the kind of man he was.
2. I happened to be there for most of the events that make Jim one of the most important figures in New Orleans fan history. Vul-Con was a big part of my life.
3. I asked to.
4. No one else would.

Jim Mulé was not the first fan to organize in New Orleans, but for a while he was the most important.

Dr. Charlotte Pipes is a career university music professor and classical musician for 30 years, recently retired from Nicholls State University in Louisiana. As a personal avocation, she has created vocal music specifically designed for use in Pagan rituals. Although she is a solitary Wiccan practitioner, she regularly participates in New Orleans group rituals, often assisting with the music.

She has presented lectures on Wicca, Scrying, Rune Casting, Pagan Music, Neolithic Studies and Herbal Magick to audiences in several venues: university humanities classes, literary conventions, sci-fi/fantasy conventions, Wicca/Goddess conventions, internet podcasts and Wiccan discussion groups. Her articles on runes, the pentagram and divination can be found online at www.witchvox.net.