Guests of Honor
Cory Doctorow
Cryptic Guest of Honor
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist. He is the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing, and a contributor to Wired, Popular Science, Make, the New York Times, and many other publications and websites. He was formerly Director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation His novels are published by Tor Books and simultaneously on the Internet under Creative Commons licenses, encouraging their re-use and sharing. He has won the Locus and Sunburst Awards, and been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and British Science Fiction Awards.
Cory's latest novel, Little Brother, was published in May, and his latest short story collection is Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present. A collection of his essays, called Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright and the Future of the Future will be published later this year by Tachyon Books. Also due in 2008 is a collection of comic books inspired by his short fiction, coming from IDW, called Cory Doctorow's Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now. He is presently working on a new young adult novel, For The Win (about union organizing in video games). On February 3, 2008, he became a father. The little girl is called Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow, and is a marvel that puts all the works of technology and artifice to shame.
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Cat Rambo
Pro Guest of Honor
Fantasy and science fiction writer Cat Rambo's work has burst onto the scene in recent years with work appearing in a variety of venues, including Asimov's, Weird Tales, and Strange Horizons. Her collaboration with Jeff VanderMeer, The Surgeon's Tale and Other Stories, appeared in 2007. She is the co-editor of Fantasy Magazine. She lives and writes in Washington State when not being distracted by her charming spouse and two cats. Her hair is rarely its natural color. It is indeed her real name.
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Diana Harlan Stein
Artist Guest of Honor
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Elizabeth Turtle
Scientist Guest of Honor
Elizabeth Turtle is a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). She received a B.S. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989 and a Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences from the Univ. of Arizona in 1998. She studies impact cratering and other geological processes on the terrestrial planets and the satellites of the outer planets through a combination of remote sensing observations and numerical modeling. She has worked with the imaging teams of the Galileo and Cassini missions, planning and analyzing observations the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, respectively. She is also a co-investigator on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, planned for launch to the Moon in Fall 2008, and a member of Science Definition Teams convened by NASA to investigate possible future missions to the outer Solar System.
Ralph D. Lorenz
Scientist Guest of Honor
Ralph Lorenz has a B.Eng. in Aerospace Systems Engineering from the University of Southampton in the UK and a Ph.D. in Physics in 1994 from the University of Kent at Canterbury. He worked 1990-1991 for the European Space Agency on the design of the Huygens probe and during his PhD research designed and built its penetrometer instrument that 12 years later measured the mechanical properties of Titan's surface when Huygens landed in January 2005. From 1994-2006 he worked as a planetary scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona with particular interests in Titan, Mars, planetary climate, nonequilibrium thermodynamics, aerospace vehicles and radar. He continues to work on those topics at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD. He is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Astrobiology and is author or co-author of several books including Lifting Titan's Veil, Spinning Flight, and Space Systems Failures as well as over 140 publications in refereed journals.
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Davroz (David Rozian)
Raconteur Guest of Honor
Anyone remember the year 1983? Gasoline averaged $1.21/gal., Shuttle Challenger had its maiden voyage, Barney Clark was ticking along with the world's first artificial heart, Return of the Jedi hit the multiplex and a 16-year-old kid from Plymouth, MI, went to his first SF convention: ConFusion 101. He hasn't missed a single ConFusion since. 26 years gives David Rozian a broad perspective on the history of the Stilyagi Air Corps, from Cosmic Encounter parties, Bar Wars, the AASFA schism, the Hurricane Picnic, and the many migrations of ConFusion from Plymouth to Novi to Southfield to Warren to Troy. A photographer by trade, David has amassed a collection of tens of thousands of pictures spanning every convention he's attended, taught workshops on photography for the costumer and artist, and is often seen both in front and behind the camera at the Masquerade contest. You might also recognize him as the goat-footed satyr, Pan, and Sweet, the Dancing Demon. You will find him late at night leading drum circles, playing two recorders simultaneously (if you ask him to play them with his nose, he'll happily oblige... on the condition you play them when he's done). Bad puns are his specialty, as evidenced by his suggestion that the former Toastmaster role be recast as "wrack-on-tour". He is fond of Dementia, filk, dancing, he wears gaudy colors with pride, associates with pirates, ninjas and rogues and frequents room parties of ill-repute. Cryptic Confusion marks his first time as GoH and he is the first official 'Raconteur' of Honor.
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Freon (Michael Andaluz)
Fan Guest of Honor
Michael "Freon" Andaluz was born July 1967 in Ontario, Canada, and attended Michigan State University during the mid-80s. He worked in the automotive industry in Michigan in the late 80s, and in the mortgage and IS industry in Michigan in the early 90s. He has been an active participant in southern Michigan genre literature and costuming volunteer events since 1989. Freon is also a founder of several communities in support of genre literature awareness, such as SP Writing Workshops (held in southeastern Michigan since 2005). Ascent Stage is his debut short story collection.
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