Also Appearing at Ad Astra 2010

501st: Canadian Garrison

The Canadian Garrison (501st.ca) is part of the world's premier Imperial Star Wars costuming fan club. Our Stormtroopers, Sith Lords, Bounty Hunters and Royal Guards are among the 4000+ members of a larger organization known as the Fighting 501st which spans over twenty countries. If you have a calling to the Dark Side, you'll feel right at home here!

Rebel Legion Canadian Base

We are the Canadian representatives of the Rebel Legion, an international Star Wars costuming organization created by, of, and for people interested in creating costumes from the Star Wars mythos. Research, create, build and improve your costumes in a place where costumers with similar passions share skills, tips and ideas. Jedi, Rebel Pilots, Troopers, Princesses and even Wookiees... we've got them all... and we're always looking for more. We are the good guys! Rebel Legion Canadian Base or Rebel Legion

Kelley Armstrong

Kelley Armstrong has been telling stories since before she could write. Her earliest written efforts were disastrous. If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers' dismay. All efforts to make her produce "normal" stories failed. Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She's the author of the "Women of the Otherworld" paranormal suspense series, "Darkest Powers" young adult urban fantasy trilogy, and Nadia Stafford crime series. She lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and far too many pets.

Peter Atwood

Peter Atwood is a writer and editor who lives and works in Ottawa, where he once grew up and to where he returned after living in Winnipeg, Toronto, Seoul, and Cairo. He is a 2007 alumni of the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Workshop (San Diego) and his story "All In" (Weird Tales magazine) was nominated for the 2009 Aurora Award (Best Short-Form Work in English). He has a website.

Alison Baird

Alison Baird is the author of numerous fantasy novels for both young adult and adult readers, including The Dragon's Egg (Scholastic Canada), The Hidden World, The Wolves of Woden, and The Willowmere Chronicles (Penguin), White as the Waves (Tuckamore Books), and the Dragon Throne trilogy (Warner Aspect) which was recently translated into Russian. Her short fiction has been published in On Spec magazine and in various anthologies including Tesseracts 13.

Stephanie Bedwell-Grime

Stephanie Bedwell-Grime is the author of eleven novels and over sixty short stories, novelettes and novellas. She has been a five-time finalist for the Aurora and has also been an Eppie Award nominee. Stephanie welcomes visitors to her website at www.feralmartian.com.

Eileen Bell

Eileen Bell is an Alberta writer whose most recent publication, "Pawns Dreaming of Roses" (Absolute XPress), made the short list for the Prix Aurora Awards. (The anthology, "Women of the Apocalypse," made it too. Yay!) She is hard at work on other collaborative projects, plus her own writing. In those small moments when she's not writing, she's living a fine life in a round house with her husband, dog, her daughter's cat, and two fish.

Marie Bilodeau

Marie is a professional storyteller and author living in Ottawa. Along with earning a Bachelor's Degree in Religion and Culture with a minor in Archaeology (fields she has never once come close to working in, although they do come in handy for plot development), she also served two terms as President of the school's Science Fiction and Fantasy Club, an honor that she will never live down. Not that she cares to.

Leah Bobet

Leah Bobet lives and works in Toronto. Her short fiction has appeared most recently in Clockwork Phoenix 2 (Allen, ed.), Interzone, and Lone Star Stories, appears regularly in Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, and On Spec, and has been reprinted in The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy for Teens and The Mammoth Book of Extreme Fantasy. Her poetry has been nominated for the Rhysling and Pushcart Prizes, and she is Editor and Publisher at Ideomancer Speculative Fiction as well as support staff at the Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Until recently, she worked at Bakka-Phoenix Books, Canada's oldest science fiction bookstore. Between all that she keeps a balcony garden, studies bellydance, knits, and nurses a fascination with urban spaces and history. Anything else she's not plausibly denying can be found at www.leahbobet.com.

Rupert Bottenberg

The music editor at the Montreal Mirror newsweekly, Rupert Bottenberg has also written for Vice magazine and the National Post newspaper, among others. A devoted comics artist and enthusiast, he has created strips for anthologies in the US, Canada, and Europe, founded the Montreal Comic Jam events, served as comics correspondent on CBC Radio's Brave New Waves show, and overseen comics-related events for several Montreal festivals, including the Fantasia genre-film festival, with which he has worked since its inception in 1996. His commercial illustrations have graced many CD covers and publications as diverse as Screw, Star Wars Kids, and a series of Urdu-instruction textbooks for Pakistani-Canadian kids. He has also dabbled in short-film creation and animation, as well as painting, sculpture, and printmaking, and has curated a number of group art shows in Montreal. In addition to creating Lost Myths with Claude Lalumiere, Bottenberg is currently co-director of the En Masse art collective. Rupert lives in Montreal with two cats, Tatiana and Hank.

Robert Boyczuk

Robert Boyczuk has published stories in On Spec, Transversions, Descant, Prairie Fire, On Spec: The First Five Years, Erotica Vampirica, Northern Frights, Wild Things Live There, Tesseracts7, Northern Suns, and Queer Fear. In 2008 a collection of his work, Horror Story and Other Horror Stories, was published by Chizine Press. A novel is forthcoming in 2010 from the same publisher. More fascinating details on Bob, and downloads of his published work, are available at boyczuk.com.

Erik Buchanan

Erik Buchanan is the author of Cold Magics, which launches right here at Ad Astra, Saturday, April 10, at 10 p.m. in the Con Suite. His first book, Small Magics, is also available and Erik suggests picking it up as well. Erik began writing in grade three and kept going, pausing only to get a theatre degree, hitchhike around Great Britain, earn two black belts, and work as a professional actor and fight director.

Grant Carrington

Grant Carrington (grantcarrington.freeyellow.com): Associate Editor Amazing/Fantastic 1972-1974; Contributing Editor, Eternity 1977-1979. "His Hour Upon the Stage" (novelette) on final Nebula ballot 1976; "Andromeda Unchained" (non-sf) Short Story Award 1977 Sandhills Writers Conference, Augusta, Ga. 5 plays produced in Baltimore. Songs Without Wisdom (CD) available at cdbaby.com/cd/Carrington. Computer programmer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 1962-1968; Savannah River Ecology Lab 1977-1980. BA NYU 1962, MA UF 1970, math.

Brad Carson

Brad's first professional sale in the fantasy genre, "Here There Be Monsters" in the DAW anthology Ages of Wonder edited by Julie Czerneda and Rob St.Martin has been short-listed for the 2010 Aurora Awards.

Though born and raised on an Ontario tobacco farm, Brad has spent most of his time in cities across Canada working in theatre, where he learned the craft of writing dialogue and the value of strong coffee. Currently he is paying bills by working part-time in the hardware department at Home Depot but can be seen -- or not seen as that is the nature of the job -- as a background performer in movies and television. He's the guy who is arguing convincingly, but silently at the next table over from the star.

He has planted trees, managed bookstores, painted buildings, wheel-barrowed gravel for swimming pools and served as a security guard. These days he lives in Toronto with his life mate, Arlene Stinchcombe, and a wayfaring cat named Mooch. The former is his collaborator on an in-progress high fantasy and the latter just likes to be scratched behind the ears.

He loves to travel and has heard whispers from hundred year old oaks in Wistman's Woods in Dartmoor, England and wandered Druid paths in Snowdonia, Wales.

He is a proud member of two Toronto writing crews -- the Stop-Watch Gang and Robert J. Sawyer's group, The Fledglings.

E. L. Chen

E. L. Chen's short fiction has appeared in publications such as Tesseracts Nine, Tesseracts Twelve, Strange Horizons, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet and On Spec. Everything else she doesn't mind you knowing can be found at elchen.blogspot.com.

Eric Choi

Eric Choi was the first recipient of the Isaac Asimov Award for his novelette "Dedication", which was subsequently published in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. His other short fiction has appeared in the anthologies Northwest Passages (Windstorm), Space Inc. (DAW), Tales from the Wonder Zone (Fitzhenry & Whiteside), Northern Suns (Tor), Tesseracts6 (EDGE) and Arrowdreams (Nuage) as well as Science Fiction Age magazine. "Another's Treasure", his latest story, appears in the new anthology Footprints (Hadley Rille). He is currently working with Derwin Mak as co-editors of the anthology The Dragon and the Stars, the first collection of science fiction and fantasy stories written by ethnic Chinese living outside of China, which will be published by DAW in 2010. An aerospace engineer by training, Eric has a bachelor's degree in engineering science and a master's degree in aerospace engineering, both from the University of Toronto, and an MBA from York University. He has worked on a number of space missions including the Phoenix Mars Lander, the Canadarm2 on the International Space Station, the RADARSAT-1 Earth-observation satellite and the MOPITT instrument on the Terra satellite. In 2009, he was one of the Top 40 finalists (out of 5,351 applicants) in the Canadian Space Agency's astronaut recruitment campaign. He is currently manager of business development at the space company COM DEV.

Suzanne Church

When Suzanne Church isn't convincing her characters to look behind dark curtains, she's in mom-mode or working as a direct sales consultant. She is a 2005 graduate of the Clarion South Science Fiction Writers' Workshop. Her short fiction has appeared in Cicada and On Spec, and in several anthologies including Tesseracts 13. On LiveJournal she scribbles as canadiansuzanne. Read more at: www.suzannechurch.com.

Calvin Climie

Born in Kingston, Ontario, he spent three years growing up in a small village beside the Schwartzwald forest without television to occupy his free time. This forced him into artistic pursuits, regular hikes into the woods as well as becoming a voracious reader of fantasy and science fiction. He soon integrated all of these elements into a comic book about bat-like humanoids that became the seed for his stop motion animated sci fi film, Hyperhelion. In high school, he enrolled in a filmmaking course where he took the plunge into stop-motion animation that was inspired by his reading of Cinemagic Magazine, and its sister Starlog: the science-fiction/fantasy movie mag of the day.

After graduating, he went on to produce Hyperhelion with a series of arts grants, volunteer labour and family support. He returned to university to get a teaching degree before working in the camera department on several feature films and a TV series. He has also worked as a cinematographer on a number of local independent short films through IFCO, Ottawa's independent film cooperative. In 2005, he became a regular school teacher after several years of supply teaching between film/TV gigs. He now teaches math at the local college and lives with his wife and their dog in the west end of Ottawa. His passion for ecological and social justice issues continues to inform his filmmaking and forms the seed of his next animated film. His hobbies include Tai Chi Chuan, sculpting and cycling.

Carolyn Clink

Carolyn's first SF convention was Fanfair 3 in 1973. She started writing bad SF poetry 10 years later. She's gotten better. Her speculative poetry has appeared in Analog, ChiZine, Northern Frights (all five volumes), On-Spec, Star*Line, Tesseracts, and Weird Tales. She is an assistant poetry editor at ChiZine and a member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and the Algonquin Square Table poetry workshop. Carolyn co-edited Tesseracts 6 and TransVersions: An Anthology. She's been poetry Guest-of-Honour at five science-fiction conventions.

David Clink

David Livingstone Clink is the Artistic Director of the Rowers Pub Reading Series, and the webmaster of poetrymachine.com. David's poetry has appeared recently in All Rights Reserved, Chiaroscuro; Echolocation, The Literary Review of Canada, and in the anthologies I.V. Lounge Nights, The 2008 Rhysling Anthology, and Imagination in Action. He is a member of 4 writing groups - The Algonquin Square Table Poetry Workshop; The Muse Cooperative; P-Club; and The Plasticine Poetry Workshop. David taught a one-day class on how to start up a workshop at the University of Guelph in 2003. He was co-publisher, along with Myna Wallin, of Believe Your Own Press, which published 20 quality chapbooks in its 5 year history. He is the author of 5 poetry chapbooks and the editor of 7 others. His poem, "Falling" was nominated for two awards: the Rhysling Award and the Aurora Award. His poem, "Copyright Notice 2525" placed second in the 2007 Asimov's Reader's Poll. His first book of poetry, Eating Fruit Out of Season was published by Tightrope Books in 2008.

John Robert Colombo

John Robert Colombo is best known as the Master Gatherer for his compilations of Canadiana, but long before he became interested in the lore and literature of this country, he developed a taste for the literature of the fantastic. He contributed the entries for Canada to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. Critic Roger Schlobin once dubbed Colombo a "superfan" for his contributions to the field of Canadian fantastic literature. Judith Merril exclaimed, "Colombo is the real thing." Spider Robinson referred to him as "a National Treasure," and as Ray Bradbury wrote to him, "We are twins .... " Colombo is the editor of "Other Canadas," the world's first anthology of Canadian fantastic literature, and the co-editor of "Not to Be Taken at Night," its first anthology of Canadian weird fiction. Other contributions to the field include the first collections in English of Maurice Level's Grand Guignol stories; the Canadian-inspired horror stories of Algernon Blackwood; and Stephen Leacock's fantastic tales and sketches. In September 2009, he delivered the keynote (academic) address at the Montreal Worldcon. His current publications are "End of Greatness" and "Poems of Space and Time." With Brett Alexander Savory he is currently editing "Tesseracts 14" to appear this fall.

Megan Crewe

Megan Crewe is an author of all things speculative fiction, and the founder of the Toronto SF Writers Group. She spends her non-writing time tutoring children with autism, practicing kung fu, and planning her next overseas trip. Her first book, the young adult paranormal novel GIVE UP THE GHOST, was published by Henry Holt in 2009. Her short fiction has appeared in ON SPEC and BRUTARIAN QUARTERLY. She can be found online at www.megancrewe.com

Karen Dales

Karen Dales is the Author of The Chosen Chronicles which includes Changeling: Prelude to the Chosen and Angel of Death: Book One of the Chosen. Ms Dales is one of the Space Channel's Vampire experts and can be seen on Inner Space as a regular guest. She has been a Notable Guest at Polaris23, an Author Guest at AdAstra2010 and a Special Guest at FanExpo 2009 where she was a panelist on the Vampires in Fact and Fiction Panel with Kelley Armstrong, Nancy Kilpatrick and Dr. Elizabeth Miller.

Writing fiction from the age of 9 she went on to complete York University's Creative writing program. She has been published in numerous periodicals such as Eye For The Future, and has been interviewed by The Toronto Star and The National Post.

Karen is married, has one son and two cats, and lives in Toronto, Canada. Currently she is at work writing the next novel in the series, Shadow of Death: Book Two of the Chosen.

Visit her website at: www.thechosenchronicles.com

Quote from the Bitten By Books Review: "A Brilliant example of good overcoming and prevailing against evil and prejudice... an emotional ride of literary genius, both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time." - BittenByBooks.com

Ms Dales, when not at a panel, reading or signing, can be found at her table in the Dealer's Room.

Nick DiChario

Nick DiChario's first two novels were published by Robert J. Sawyer Books: A Small and Remarkable Life (2006) and Valley of Day-Glo (2008). Both titles were nominated for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best SF Novel of the Year. Nick has been a Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee, and his short fiction has been published in many magazines and anthologies.

Sarah Jane Elliott

Sarah Jane Elliott is a science teacher at the Royal Ontario Museum and a published author of curriculum-based science fiction and fantasy for young adults. She was one of the 2001 winners of the Dell Magazines Award (formerly the Asimov Award) for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy writing.

Gemma Files

Award-winning horror author Gemma Files has been a film reviewer, teacher and screenwriter, and is currently a wife and mother. She has published two collections of short stories (KISSING CARRION and THE WORM IN EVERY HEART, both Prime Books) and two chapbooks of poetry (BENT UNDER NIGHT, Sinnersphere Productions, and DUST RADIO, Kelp Queen Press). Her first novel, A BOOK OF TONGUES--a Weird Western in which a Pinkerton agent, undercover with a "hexslinger"-led gang, ends up battling dead Mayan/Aztec gods--is available from CZP Publications.

James Alan Gardner

James Alan Gardner has published seven science fiction novels, plus one Lara Croft book (oooh!) and a collection of short stories. Gardner has won the Aurora award twice, and has been a finalist for both the Hugo and Nebula awards. In 2009, he won the Asimov's Readers Choice award and the Theodore Sturgeon Award for his novelette "The Ray-Gun: A Love Story".

Sephera Giron

Sephera Giron has over 15 published novels and numerous short stories. She is also a professional tarot counsellor and is actively involved in commmunity theatre. In 2009, Sephera won a MARTY (Mississauga Arts Council Award) in the Established Literary Category and a Silver Hammer from the Horror Writers Association. You can catch her as "Ruby" in Slime City Massacre in 2010. http://www.sepheragiron.com

Michelle Goodeve

Michelle Goodeve -- best known as Degrassi Junior High's "Ms. Avery" -- has been flying since she was 16. The Actor/Screenwriter/Story Editor/Producer also appeared as a pilot in episodes of "Danger Bay" and "White Fang," her own shows, "Vulcan EFTS" and "Barnstormers," as well as Hillary Swank's recent Hollywood feature, "Amelia." In addition, Michelle has just completed a 5-year restoration on the open-cockpit, 1929 Pietenpol Aircamper she has owned for more than 30 years. This proud member of "The Metis Nation of Ontario," and Co-Owner of Fearless Widget Productions, recently joined forces with partners, Glenn Norman, Mike Singer & EAA's Hal Bryan to create the Online, Multi-Media, Aviation Site, "Why Fly." Michelle is Co-Founder & Creative Director for the project, as well as providing a monthly column, "Birdwoman," feature articles, poems, prose, and most of the site's gorgeous photography. Learn more about Michelle at www.whyfly.aero.

Ed Greenwood

ED GREENWOOD is a busy and award-winning Toronto-born fantasy and science fiction writer and game designer whose writings have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide in more than two dozen languages. Best known as the creator of The Forgotten Realms® (arguably the largest and most detailed fantasy world-setting ever), Ed has been hailed (by award-winning fantasy author J. Robert King) as "the Canadian author of the great American novel" and "another of Canada's stealthy, pleasant surprises" (by sf great Roger Zelazny). He has been nominated for science fiction's Nebula Award, and has served as a judge for the World Fantasy Awards and the Sunburst Awards.

Ed's published fiction includes over twenty-five novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Spellfire and Elminster: The Making Of A Mage, more than forty short stories, literally thousands of magazine and web articles, and several bestselling collaborative novels.

He also scripts comics and radio dramas, crafts computer game storylines and settings, and writes all sorts of fiction, from horror to mystery, and pulp adventure to hard sf.

Ed's most recent novel is Falconfar (from Simon & Schuster); his next, this coming August, will be Elminster Must Die! (from Wizards of the Coast).

When he's not at conventions, Ed lives in a farmhouse in the countryside in eastern Ontario with some 80,000 books, chairs his local library board, and can often be found behind the desk at the public library in Port Hope.

Gabrielle Harbowy

Gabrielle Harbowy has worked in the publishing industry for over a decade - as a third generation reader of fantasy and science fiction, a passion for books is in her blood. Six years' experience at a large New York publisher inspired her to strike out on her own as a full-time freelance editor. She is Editor-in-Charge at Dragon Moon Press, where the horrors of the slushpile and the thrill of bringing new and talented writers to print only reinforce her love of the genre. She has worked with several award-nominated authors through Dragon Moon Press, and has most recently completed COLD MAGICS with Erik Buchanan. Her freelance editing credits include GEIST by Sir Julius Vogel winner Philippa Ballantine, forthcoming in Fall 2010 from Ace Books. Gabrielle's blog, www.gabrielle-edits.com, features useful information, advice, and humor for writers and editors. She lives in San Francisco with two cats who are named after chocolate, and a significant other who is not.

Russ Howe

Russ Howe is a partner in the law firm of Boland Howe, having conducted trials and tribunal hearings for his clients at every court level in Ontario. Russ is the Past President of the Ontario Trial Lawyer's Associations, former State Rep to the American Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice and is a member of the Advocate's Society, Law Society of Upper Canada and the Canadian Bar Association. He has been published in multiple legal and scholarly journals and is a highly sought after speaker for legal and medical conferences in both Canada and the United States.

Russ has a background in history and a long association with the SF community. He has done research and editing for many top flight authors including Canadian greats Rob Sawyer and Nalo Hopkinson. He has also had the privilege of being an instructor in the Seton Hill Masters program in writing genre fiction. Russ is also active in many charitable interests focusing his efforts in assisting children in East and Southern Africa. He currently has a non-fiction book out with noted physician Dr. Alison Bested entitled "Hope and Help for Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia."

Giasone Italiano

Giasone Italiano is a singer/songwriter from Waterloo Ontario who has been writing and performing music for almost 20 years. Over the last 10 years he has released 4 solo albums including his most recent CD "Songs of Innocence and of Experience". His songs have won numerous awards inluding a top 5 finish in the Unisong International Song contest as well as a recent top 10 finish in the Indie International Songwriting Competition. In the horror genre Giasone has released the critically acclaimed horror soundtrack "Gruesome" and in 2010 his song "Slime" is featured as the title song in Greg Lamberson's horror film sequel "Slime City Massacre" that is currently playing at film festivals across North America.

Marcy Italiano

Marcy Italiano lives in Waterloo, Ontario with her husband Giasone and twin boys. Now available: KATRINA AND THE FRENCHMAN: A JOURNAL FROM THE STREET - June 2009. SPIRITS AND DEATH IN NIAGARA - May 2008. PAIN MACHINE - 2003. She has written many dark fiction stories and has published poetry in magazines and online. She also works on songwriting with Giasone. Marcy is still a Web Designer (www.theweblizard.com). To find out more please visit www.marcyitaliano.com.

Chris A. Jackson

Born in a land-locked small town in southern Oregon, Chris A. Jackson fell in love with the sea the first time he set eyes on those majestic rolling waves. After college, graduate school and a lengthy career in biomedicine, he and his wife decided to change their lives forever; the sea was calling their names, and the call could not be ignored. The couple have lived on a sailboat for years, and are now cruising and writing full time. They are sailing the east coast and Bahamas, and can be followed along at www.sailmrmac.blogspot.com

Chris has three independently published novels of fantasy, "A Soul for Tsing", "Deathmask" (Second place Novel of the Year 2005, Florida Writers Association), and "Weapon of Flesh" (USA Book News National Best Books Awards 2005 award in Fantasy and Science Fiction). Scimitar Moon, published by Dragon Moon Press, is a high fantasy novel of piracy on the tropical high seas, and was released in September, 2009. The sequel, Scimitar Sun, will be out in 2010. He is also branching out into satirical ramblings in science fiction that have received high acclaim. His Science Fiction comedy entitled "Cheese Runners", the sequel "Cheese Rustlers" and the finale "Cheese Lords" are out in audio-book format, narrated by the hilarious Jeffrey Breslauer.

Michael Johnstone

I have been teaching in the Department of English at the University of Toronto (St. George campus) since the Fall of 2004, and teaching the Science Fiction and Fantasy & Horror courses since the Summer of 2007. While a committed fan of SF&F since staying up all night reading the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table at the age of about 11, my teaching has given me the opportunity to (re)discover and enjoy many of the great works of SF&F, old and new. Now, I'm finally taking steps down the path of writing SF&F, with a couple of stories in submission and a few more in development. I also maintain Travel By Thought, a blog of my reviews of and discussions about SF&F novels, short stories, and films: travel-by-thought.blogspot.com.

Sandra Kasturi

Sandra Kasturi is a writer, publisher and editor. In 2005 she won ARC magazine's annual Poem of the Year award. She is the poetry editor of ChiZine (chizine.com) and the co-publisher, with Brett Alexander Savory, of ChiZine Publications (chizinepub.com). Sandra has written three poetry chapbooks and has edited the poetry anthology, The Stars As Seen from this Particular Angle of Night. Her work has appeared in various magazines and anthologies, including Taddle Creek, Prairie Fire, Contemporary Verse 2, TransVersions, On Spec, several of the Tesseracts series, 2001: A Science Fiction Poetry Anthology, and Northern Frights 4. Her cultural essay, "Divine Secrets of the Yaga Sisterhood" appeared in the anthology Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Slayers, Mutants and Freaks. Sandra is a founding member of the Algonquin Square Table poetry workshop and runs her own imprint, Kelp Queen Press. She managed to snag an introduction from Neil Gaiman for her first full-length poetry collection, The Animal Bridegroom (Tightrope Books). She is currently working on another poetry collection, Come Late to the Love of Birds, and two novels: Medusa Gorgon, Lady Detective, and a steampunk epic involving the British East India Company, the Pinkertons, Harry Houdini and zombies. She is represented by the Anne McDermid Agency.

Alan Katerinsky

Alan Katerinsky has been a fan all his life, but started attending conventions in 1972. He is the son of First Fandom's Rickey Slavin, and is full of old-timey anecdotes, among other things. Al has had several short stories and poems published, as well as a book chapter in "A Handbook of Research in ICT Policy" this spring. With Herb Kauderer, he co-hosts the internet podcast "Orthopedic Horseshoes". Currently, Al is an NSF Scholar at the University at Buffalo, and recently achieved Graduate certification in Information Assurance. He also is an Adjunct Professor of IT at Erie Community College.

Herb Kauderer

Herb Kauderer is an assistant professor of English at Hilbert College, and a graduate student of Canadian Studies at the University at Buffalo. He holds an MFA in screenwriting and was the main screenwriter on 'Beyond the Mainstream', a no-budget film about fans. He has also published 25 stories and over 800 poems, mostly in genre. Along with Alan Katerinsky, Herb cohosts the monthly internet talk show Orthopedic Horseshoes where (along with an array of guests) they talk about the sorts of things that interest fans; science, fiction, technology, computers, games, and some of the politics behind the topics.

Ian Donald Keeling

Ian Donald Keeling is an odd, loud little man who acts a little, writes a little, and suffers from delusions of grandeur whenever he can. As a poet, he has won poetry slams and been published in various lit magazines including Grain and Queen's Quarterly. His speculative fiction has appeared in Realms of Fantasy, and in upcoming issues of Realms of Fantasy and On Spec. He recently finished his first novel, BELIEVE.

Nancy Kilpatrick

Award-winning author Nancy Kilpatrick has published 18 novels, around 200 short stories, 1 non-fiction book and has edited 10 anthologies. She writes mainly horror, dark fantasy, mysteries and erotica and is currently working on two new novels. Her most recent short fiction has appeared in: Blood Lite (Pocket Books); Hellbound Hearts (Pocket Books); The Bleeding Edge (Dark Discoveries); The Living Dead (Nightshade Books); Don Juan and Men (MLR Press); Vampires: Dracula and the Undead Legions (Moonstone Books); By Blood We Live (Nightshade Books); The Bitten Word (Newcon Press); Campus Chills (Stark Publishing). Look for upcoming stories in Darkness on the Edge (PS Publishing); The Moonstone Book of Zombies (Moonstone Publishing); Blood Lite 2 (Pocket Books). Recently she co-edited with David Morrell the horror/dark fantasy anthology Tesseracts Thirteen (Edge SF&F Publishing). She is the editor of Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead (www.vampires-evolve.com), launching in Canada on Saturday, April 10th, 2 to 3:30 pm at the Ad Astra Convention.

You can check out Nancy's latest endeavors at her website: www.nancykilpatrick.com

Adrienne Kress

Adrienne Kress (www.adriennekress.com) is the author of Alex and the Ironic Gentleman and Timothy and the Dragon's Gate (Scholastic, Canada). She is a theatre graduate of the University of Toronto and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in the UK. Along with a starred review from Publisher's Weekly, her first novel, Alex, has been published around the world and was featured in both the New York Post as a "Post Potter Pick", as well as on the CBS Early Show as one of a dozen children's books "you should know about". It recently won the Heart of Hawick Children's Book Award in the UK and has also been nominated for the Red Cedar Award this year. The sequel, Timothy, came out in 2009 and was awarded Silver by the Moonbeam Awards (USA), in the YA SF/F category. Her plays have been performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, among other venues in Canada and the UK.

Also an actress, Adrienne is a member of the Tempest Theatre Group here in Toronto, and a founding member/correspondent for the geektastic website HardcoreNerdity.com.

Derek Kunsken

Derek Kunsken is a writer living in Ottawa after a number of years overseas working for the government and for NGOs. He has sold short genre fiction to Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, On Spec: the Canadian magazine of Science Fiction, Black Gate Magazine and mainstream fiction to sub-TERRAIN. He is now marketing two completed novels to publishers and agents and planning his next project. He just returned from four weeks in Haiti.

Claude Lalumiere

Claude Lalumiere is the author of the story collection Objects of Worship and the chapbook The World's Forgotten Boy and the Scorpions from Hell. He has edited eight anthologies, including the Aurora Award finalist Tesseracts Twelve: New Novellas of Canadian Fantastic Fiction. He has published hundreds of articles and reviews, and he's the Fantastic Fiction columnist for The Montreal Gazette. In the 1990s, Claude owned and managed two Montreal bookshops, danger! and Nebula. With Rupert Bottenberg, he's the co-creator of Lost Myths.

Justine Lewkowicz

Justine Lewkowicz is a TV producer, host and reporter from Toronto. As an Associate Producer with CBC's Dragons' Den, Justine is scouring Ontario looking for the next million-dollar deal. On the air, Justine is a host and reporter with the program Kontakt on OMNI TV. She recently hosted and produced two special editions from the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. She has previously worked in radio as a news anchor and news reporter for Newstalk 1010.

Tim Liebe

Lesley Livingston

Lesley Livingston is a writer and actor living in Toronto, Canada. Captivated at a young age by stories of mythology and folk lore, past civilizations, and legendary heroes, she developed into a full-fledged Celtic Mythology Geek, steeped in stories of the Otherworld, Faeries and King Arthur. Lesley went on to earn a Master’s Degree in English from the University of Toronto specializing in Shakespeare and Arthurian literature.

For almost three years, Lesley hosted weekly late-night movie marathons on the nationally broadcast television show, SPACEBAR, as the Waitron-9000, a sparkly holographic waitress with an encyclopaedic knowledge of obscure B-movie trivia. She is also a founding member and principal performer with TEMPEST THEATRE GROUP. Lesley is an unrepentant egghead - a character-trait that somehow doesnn’t interfere with a love of shoes and shiny things.

WONDROUS STRANGE and DARKLIGHT are the first two books in Lesley's young adult urban fantasy series, published by HarperCollins. TEMPESTUOUS, the third book in the trilogy, will be in stores in December.

Karin Lowachee

Karin was born in South America, grew up in Canada, and worked in the Arctic. Her first novel WARCHILD won the 2001 Warner Aspect First Novel Contest. Both WARCHILD (2002) and her third novel CAGEBIRD (2005) were finalists for the Philip K. Dick Award. CAGEBIRD won the Prix Aurora Award in 2006 for Best Long-Form Work in English and the Spectrum Award also in 2006. Her second novel BURNDIVE debuted at #7 on the Locus Bestseller List. Her books have been translated into French, Hebrew, and Japanese. Her current fantasy novel, THE GASLIGHT DOGS, will be published through Orbit Books USA in April 2010. Visit her on the web @ www.karinlowachee.com.

Marc Mackay

Marc Mackay is from Montreal. He started writing in his forties and has, so far, sold his short story "Eye of Newt" to Julie Czerneda for her anthology "Misspelled". He is a technical writer by trade (meaning he writes the user manuals no one reads), and plays keyboards in a rock band on the side. He has been singing (not professionally) for five years now and is considered a counter tenor. He is currently working on a YA Fantasy novel, and still doesn't own any cats.

Derwin Mak

Derwin Mak co-edited, with Eric Choi, The Dragon and the Stars, the first anthology of science fiction and fantasy written by ethnic Chinese outside China, coming from DAW Books in 2010. His story "Transubstantiation" won the 2006 Prix Aurora Award in the category of Best Short Form Work in English. His novel The Moon Under Her Feet was a finalist for a 2008 Prix Aurora Award. A second novel in the same universe, The Shrine of the Siren Stone, will be published in summer 2010. He has also written articles about East Asian pop culture and anime for the magazines Parsec and Rice Paper. His website is www.derwinmaksf.com.

Violette Malan

Violette Malan lives in a nineteenth-century limestone farmhouse in southeastern Ontario with her husband, Paul Musselman. Born in Canada, Violette's cultural background is half Spanish and half Polish, which makes it interesting at meal times. Violette has a PhD from York University in 18th-Century English Literature, but reports that most people don't hold it against her. She started reading fantasy and science fiction at the age of eight. Violette has been a book reviewer, and has written feature articles on genre writing and literature for the Kingston Whig Standard. She has worked as a teacher of creative writing, English as a second language, Spanish, beginner's French, and choreography for strippers. On occasion she's been an administrative assistant, and a carpenter's helper. Her most unusual job was translating letters between lovers, one of whom spoke only English, the other only Spanish. Violette is co-founder of the Scene of the Crime Festival on Wolfe Island, a single-day event focusing on Canadian crime writing, and celebrating the birthplace of Grant Allen, Canada's first crime writer. Violette is currently the president of the board, but in the past she's given the writing workshop, and was the original organizer and co-judge of the short story contest (for first crime fiction) sponsored by the festival. With Therese Greenwood, Violette is the editor of Dead in the Water, an anthology of crime and mystery fiction set in and around Canada's bodies of water. The anthology was published by Rendezvous Press in Toronto. Violette's short mystery fiction has been published in the Canadian anthologies of the Ladies Killing Circle, in the noir anthology Crime Spree, and in the magazine Over My Dead Body. Her erotic has been published in Penthouse. Violette's first fantasy novel, The Mirror Prince, was published by DAW (New York) in 2006. The Sleeping God, the first of her Dhulyn and Parno novels, was published in 2007. The series has continued with The Soldier King in 2008, and the latest, The Storm Witch, was released in September of 2009. The next Dhulyn and Parno adventure, The Path of the Sun, will be available in the fall of 2010.

Helen Marshall

Helen Marshall spends the majority of her time pursuing a Ph. D. in Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto for which she gets to travel across England to examine fourteenth-century manuscripts. Her poetry has been published in ChiZine, NFG and the Ontarion Arts Supplement. "Mist and Shadows," published originally in Star*Line, appeared in The 2006 Rhysling Anthology: The Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Poetry of 2005. "The Gypsy" and "Crossroads and Gateways" both received honourable mentions in the 2009 Rannu Fund Contest, while four other poems were short-listed. Helen has been involved with a number of writing enterprises, including websites, academic journals and books, chapbooks, and a CD of folk music. She currently works as an editor and slushie for ChiZine Publications.

Laura Marshall

Laura Marshall is the marketing assistant and author wrangler for ChiZine Publications where she writes press releases, creates author press kits and generally does neat stuff with layout. She is recently graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Masters in Material Culture and the History of the Book. Though not a writer herself, she has spent much of her life supporting and herding literary types through her work for organizations such as the Ad Astra Literary, Word on the Street and the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Ryan McFadden

Ryan McFadden knew from age 16 that he was going to make his living writing novels. After 18 years of living this dream, he has earned a total of $45, publishing in Alienskin, Chicago Overcoat, Afterburn SF; he was a finalist in the $1500 JFJK contest (but didn't win even a dime). Most recently, he was part of the the Aurora-nominated collaborative project entitled Women of the Apocalypse

Erik Mohr

Erik Mohr is the designer extraordinaire for ChiZine Publications' much lauded covers. His work as a Creative Director, Art Director, and designer has been recognized by the Society of Publication Designers, the Canadian National Magazine Awards, Magazines du Quebec, Applied Arts, and the Advertising & Design Club of Canada, among others. Erik has worked as an illustrator with clients including Harper Collins New York, Maclean's Magazine, National Post Business Magazine, The Utne Reader, Groundwood Books, and McClelland and Stewart. Erik's paintings have been in group and solo exhibitions across Canada and hang in private collections around the world. He lives in Toronto with his wife, Tania, his daughters, Astrid and Estelle, and his three-legged cat, Roger.

Matt Moore

By day, Matt Moore is a project manager and communication specialist in the information technology field. By night, he is a science fiction and horror writer with work in On Spec and Tesseracts Thirteen and an upcoming e-book published by Damnation Books. By later at night, he is the marketing director for ChiZine Publications, a small Canadian publisher. Raised in small-town New England, a place rich with legends and ghost stories, he lives in Ottawa, Ontario. He blogs at mattmoorewrites.wordpress.com.

Jim Munroe

Ira Nayman

Ira Nayman is a tree-towed sloth, found mostly in the rain-forests of northern Ontario. The Alternate Reality News Service grew out of Les Pages aux Folles, his project of political and social satire that started in 1984 and has been on the Web since 2002. He also writes comedy for radio, film and television, not that he is hinting at anything [no, no he is not hinting at anything at all]

David Nickle

David Nickle's published stories in magazines, anthologies and online, and seen one adapted for television. Many years ago, he and Karl Schroeder won an Aurora Award for their story "The Toy Mill." That turned into the novel The Claus Effect, which is hard, but not impossible, to find these days. His story collection, Monstrous Affections, was released last year by ChiZine Publications, and it is all over the place. During the day, he works as a political reporter and columnist covering Toronto City Hall. His website is at davidnickle.googlepages.com.

Glenn Norman

Glenn Norman has been an Amateur Astronomer since he was 9 and a Pilot since the age of 18. He's given hundreds of Astronomy talks & Star Parties, flown more than 140 aircraft, carried more than 1200 passengers while "barnstorming" open cockpit biplanes all over North America, survived 2 spectacular crashes, had 21 in-flight engine failures, jumped off the Scarborough Bluffs with one of the first Hang Gliders, survived a 600' plunge in an out of control, foot-launched, Ultralight, and appeared -- as himself -- in Richard Bach's feature film, "Nothing by Chance." Glenn makes his living as a Screenwriter/Story Editor/Producer, but recently put all his skills together to create an Online, Multi-Media, Aviation Site titled "Why Fly." Glenn is the President, Co-Founder & Editor for Why Fly, and also provides a lot of the written & video content for the enterprise. You can learn more at www.whyfly.aero

Kevin Nunn

Kevin Nunn has been performing or teaching improvisation since he stumbled into TheatreSports in the 80's. Specializing in masked and historical theatre, he has taught as a guest artist at universities, colleges, high schools, and public schools, varying his approach to suit his audience. As a writer he produced prolifically for the stage with various comedy troupes including Lichen to Gods, as well as publishing several board games and role-playing systems. Recent fiction publications include his story "Fatherly Love," in The Harrow, and "The Sun Also Shines on the Wicked" in the new anthology from Edge Publishing, Vampires Evolve.

Ian O'Neill

Ian O'Neill is the author of Afterlife (offbeat paranormal) and Endo (mystery). He comes from an advertising background but try not to hold that against him. Ian can often be found quietly drinking tea and muttering about how hard it is to be a Leafs fan. He loves Hot Wheels, action figures and movies almost as much as he loves his wife and daughter. Ian started dabbling in filmmaking and is always armed with a camera.

Jana Paniccia

Jana Paniccia's short stories have appeared in a variety of anthologies, including Ages of Wonder, Fantasy Gone Wrong, and Children of Magic. In 2007, she co-edited the DAW anthology Under Cover of Darkness with Julie E. Czerneda, which won the Prix Aurora Award for Best Work in English (Other). By day, Jana works as a consultant in climate change and sustainability, developing creative solutions for her clients, which she hopes will work. So far, so good.

Stephen B. Pearl

Gandalf taught me how to be a spirit wrapped in flesh. Aragorn taught me how to be a man. Frodo taught me of perseverance and Samwise of loyalty. I owe much to JR Tolkien and others like Homer, innumerable books on mythology, Frank Herbert, HG Wells and the list goes on. They, through their works, taught me how to live. Along the way I learned of the power of the written word, the gift it could give by slipping past our defences to show us the best and the worst in ourselves. These revaluations lead me to become a writer.

I am also a lifeguard, husband, mystic, science enthusiast, home handyman and backyard mechanic. Like most of us, the face I wear changes with the company and the season. My three cats know me as pride alpha; I like to think so, though servant is probably more accurate. Who am I kidding, my wife runs the pride, I just try and stay out of her way.

At any rate, I am a man of middle years who lives in a house in Ontario, Canada with three cats, a wife and a sincere hope that you will enjoy my books.

To find out more and access free stories and excerpts visit my site at http://home.mountaincable.net/~pearls or visit my blog at www.draumrpublishing.com/forums/blog/stephen_b__pearl

My currently available works are:
Tinker's Plague, a post apocalyptic, science fiction, medical / political thriller, available in book stores or at www.draumrpublishing.com
The Hollow Curse, a centuries-spanning tale of love and obsession, available at www.clublighthousepublishing.com
Slaves of love, an erotic, romance, science fiction, detective story, available at www.clublighthousepublishing.com

Tony Pi

Tony Pi is a Toronto-based writer who has also lived in Vancouver and Montreal. A winner of the Writers of the Future Contest (appearing in volume 23), and a finalist in the category of "Best Short Form in English" in the 2008 Prix Aurora Awards for his novelette "Metamorphoses in Amber", Tony has also published widely in such venues as Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, On Spec, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and the Aurora-nominated anthology AGES OF WONDER. He will next appear in THE DRAGON AND THE STARS, a DAW anthology featuring Chinese writers on Chinese themes.

Tamora Pierce

Tamora Pierce was drawn to books from a young age. Raised in rural Pennsylvania, the child of a "long, proud line of hillbillies," her family never had much. "We were poor, but I didn't know it then. We had a garden where my folks grew fruit and vegetables and our water came from a well," she explains. But one thing they did have was plenty of books. So Tamora read.

A self-proclaimed "geek," she devoured fantasy and science fiction novels, and by the age of 12 was mimicking her literary idols and writing her own action-packed stories. It was thanks to her father that Tamora began writing. "He heard me telling myself stories as I did dishes, and he suggested that I try to write some of them down," Pierce says.

But Tamora's novels had one major difference: unlike the books she was reading, her stories featured teenaged girl warriors. "I couldn't understand this lapse of attention on the part of the writers I loved, so until I could talk them into correcting this small problem, I wrote about those girls, the fearless, bold, athletic creatures that I was not, but wanted so badly to be."

Seventeen years later, after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, a brief career in teen social work, some time spent writing for radio, and a job as assistant in a literary agency, Tamora Pierce held true to her childhood crusade, and published Alanna: The First Adventure, the first in a quartet about a valiant, young, *female* warrior. Pierce's heroine struck a chord with readers across the country and quickly earned her a loyal following.

Pierce is now a #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and has written more than two-dozen books, including her newest, BLOODHOUND: The Legend of Beka Cooper #2, as well as being co-author, with her husband Timothy Liebe, of White Tiger: A Hero's Compulsion from Marvel Comics. Her books are translated into eleven languages and available in English worldwide, which brings her wonderful fan mail. "It's a pretty good life. Struggling as a kid and through my twenties and thirties, it's the life I dreamed of but never believed I would get. Yet here I am, after a lot of work, a lot of worry, a lot of care for details, and with a massive chunk of luck, the kind that brought me such strong friends and readers. Pretty good for a hillbilly, yes? And I never take it for granted," she says.

Pierce lives in Syracuse, New York with her husband Tim, eight tame and two semi-feral cats, two parakeets, and various freeloading wildlife. Visit her online at www.tamorapierce.com.

Paul Roberts

Michael Rowe

Michael Rowe is the award-winning editor of the Queer Fear anthology series. He's also the author of several non-fiction books, a 17-year veteran Fangoria writer, and the co-author of the horror novella collection Triptych of Terror. He lives in Toronto

Mark Sadler

Mark Sadler was diagnosed with depression in his early twenties and turned to writing horror short stories as a way of trying to comprehend the darkness that fell like a shroud over his life. He was published in some small press magazines in the United States before he temporarily lost his sanity for three months in Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. It was a gruelling flirtation with madness that left him with a different diagnosis, bipolar illness, and an inability to continue writing horror stories. However, Mark's love of all things science fiction, and a touch of horror, continues to this day. He presently works for the Canadian Mental Health Association as a Mental Health Worker at their Safe Beds facility in Halton Region.

Brett Alexander Savory

Brett Alexander Savory is the Bram Stoker Award-winning Editor-in-Chief of ChiZine: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words (which has been in operation since 1997), Co-publisher of ChiZine Publications, has had nearly 50 short stories published, and has written two novels. In 2006, Necro Publications released his horror-comedy novel, The Distance Travelled. September 2007 saw the release of his dark literary novel, In and Down, through Brindle & Glass. His first short story collection, No Further Messages, was released in November 2007 through Delirium Books. He is now at work on his third novel, Lake of Spaces, Wood of Nothing. Savory is represented by The Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency. He lives in Toronto with his wife, writer/editor Sandra Kasturi.

Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder has published eight science fiction novels, one short story collection, and one Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction. His current series, the books of Virga, has been widely translated, is available in audiobook form, and has been nominated for numerous awards. Both of the two short stories he wrote last year have been selected for publication in Year's Best anthologies for 2008. His next novel, Ashes of Candesce, will be published later this year.

Don Shears

Gordon Skerratt

Adam Smith

Douglas Smith

Doug is an award-winning Toronto author of speculative fiction with over a hundred fiction sales in two dozen languages, including appearances in InterZone, Baen's Universe, Amazing Stories, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, Cicada, Postscripts, Weird Tales, On Spec, The Third Alternative, and anthologies from Penguin/Roc, DAW and others. He was a John W. Campbell Award finalist for best new writer in 2001, and has twice won Canada's Aurora Award. This is his second collection of short fiction. His first collection, Impossibilia (PS Publishing, UK), was published in 2008 and garnered two more Aurora nominations. Doug recently completed his first novel, an urban fantasy set in Ontario, incorporating shapeshifters, covert government agencies, and Cree and Ojibwa legends. A film based on his supernatural horror story, "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down," is in post-production with TinyCore Pictures in the US. Doug can be contacted via his web site, www.smithwriter.com.

David Stephenson

David Stephenson is a space physicist who studied the high atmosphere over Saskatoon during the 1970s, then designed systems for a deep space probe in Germany, and was a consultant to Lloyd's space insurance before returning to join the Geological Survey of Canada in 1984. Downsized in 1996, he now lives in Merrickville near Ottawa. He has been a guest panelist and lecturer at science fiction and anime conventions for 25 years. His web page is: www.ncf.ca/~ah728.

Rob St. Martin

Rob St.Martin returns to Ad Astra to launch the third installment of his popular "Truthseekers" series, as well as introduce his new steampunkian fantasy novel, "Princess Smith and the Clockwork Knight".

"Truthseekers 3 : Level Up" continues to investigate the mystery and intrigue surrounding 16-year-old Ashley Bennett's life in the small town of Blackriver, Ontario. With her friends by her side there doesn't seem to be anything they can't face. Bigfoot? No problem. Aliens? Pssh. Vampires? Bring it. Werewolves, bah. But will their own growing powers prove to be their undoing?

"Princess Smith" tells the tale of a hidden princess and the giant steam-driven automaton she uses to escape her parents' killers.

A Montrealer by birth and by inclination, Rob earned a BA in History in nineteen ninety something from Concordia University and has worked in numerous mildly interesting and occasionally amusing jobs. His first published work, "The Mysterious Case of Spell Zero", appeared in Julie Czerneda's anthology "Misspelled" and he later had the honour of working alongside Julie to co-edit "Ages of Wonder", an anthology of fantasy stories set in historical periods beyond the more traditional medieval or modern settings. His "Squirrelman" series of superheroic action has achieved an international following, and the question he is most often asked about "Truthseekers" is not "What's the big secret of Blackriver?" but rather, "When is the next one coming out?!"

When not writing, Rob actively wishes he had more time to write. Online, Rob can be found at www.talyesin.com

Kate Story

Kate Story is a Newfoundlander living in Ontario. Her first novel Blasted came out with Killick Press in 2008, and received honourable mention from the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic; it was also nominated for the ReLit Awards. Her short story runaway was a finalist in the 2008 CBC Literary Awards, and her short fiction has been published in Can'tLit: Fearless Fiction from Broken Pencil Magazine, Kiss Machine, and Takeout. She also works as a theatre/dance artist, and has been twice nominated for the Ontario Arts Council's K.M. Hunter Artists Award.

Karina Sumner-Smith

Karina Sumner-Smith is a Toronto-based author and Nebula Award nominee. Her short fiction has been published in a number of anthologies, including Ages of Wonder and Children of Magic, and a variety of magazines. Her most recent short story, "When the Zombies Win," will be included in the anthology The Living Dead 2 out from Night Shade Books later this year. In addition to writing fiction, Karina is a freelance technical/proposal writer, a part-time bookseller at Bakka-Phoenix Books, and dances as a member of ATS bellydance troupe Shades of Araby.

Dena Bain Taylor

Dena Bain Taylor taught sf&f at the University of Toronto for 12 years and has published academic articles and short fiction in the field. Formerly the owner of Ben Abraham Books, specializing in the occult, she has been a series advisor for all three seasons of the W Network tv show "Ghostly Encounters." She is currently working on a historical novel about Beowulf.

Hayden Trenholm

Hayden Trenholm's novel, Defining Diana (2008), was a finalist for the 2009 Aurora Award. Its sequel, Steele Whispers, was launched last year at WorldCon in Montreal. The final volume of The Steele Chronicles, Stealing Home will be published by Bundoran Press in October. Hayden has also published more than fifteen stories and has been nominated four times for the Aurora for best Short Form, winning in 2008 for "Like Water in the Desert." His plays have appeared across western Canada and on CBC Radio. He lives with his wife and writing collaborator, Elizabeth-Westbrook-Trenholm, in Ottawa where he does research for the Senator for the Northwest Territories.

Chris Warrilow

Peter Watts

Peter Watts (www.rifters.com) is a reformed marine biologist whose latest novel was nominated for several major awards, winning exactly none of them. It has, however, won awards in Poland, been translated into a shitload of languages, and is being used as a core text for university courses ranging from "Philosophy of Mind" to "Introductory Neuropsych". If he is actually at this con, it will be because the US Border Patrol has failed in their attempts to have him jailed.

Rick Wilber

Rick Wilber's mystery novel, RUM POINT, is newly out from McFarland Books. Another recent book is the memoir, MY FATHER'S GAME: LIFE, DEATH, BASEBALL (McFarland), which bestselling novelist Peter Straub called "A stunning book: dead level and achingly honest. It abounds with faith, heartbreak, love, insight and honor." Wilber is also the author of two well-received novels, a short-story collection and more than fifty short stories and an equal number of poems published in a wide variety of publications in America, Scotland, Ireland and elsewhere. He has also published several hundred magazine and newspaper travel articles, essays, profiles and reviews for a wide range of publications, and he is the author of several college textbooks books on writing or media studies. After many years of living literally within sight of Toronto in Lewiston, NY, he now lives in St. Petersburgh, Florida, where he teaches journalism and mass media studies at the University of South Florida. He has been a full-time college teacher for more than 35 years, and frequently lectures on writing and editing techniques at conferences and workshops in the United States, Ireland and Scotland.

Gregory A. Wilson

Gregory A. Wilson is currently an Associate Professor of English at St. John's University in New York City, where he teaches creative writing and fantasy fiction along with various other courses in literature. His first academic book was published by Clemson University Press in 2007; on the creative side, he has won an award for a national playwriting contest, and his first novel, a work of fantasy entitled THE THIRD SIGN, was published by Five Star Press in the summer of 2009. He regularly reads from his work at conferences across the country and is a member of Codex, the Writers' Symposium and several other author groups on and offline. He is currently in the process of submitting his second novel, ICARUS, to publishers, and is in the planning stages for a third work tentatively entitled Grayshade. He is represented by Roger Williams of the Publish and Perish Literary Agency. He lives with his wife Clea, daughter Senavene--named at his wife's urging for a character in THE THIRD SIGN, for which he hopes his daughter will forgive him--and dog Lilo in Riverdale, NY.

Russell Zeid

Born in London, England in 1959, Russell Zeid came to Canada in early 1983. He is a certified Toolmaker who went into Mechanical Engineering. He has used his mechanical abilities, and a strong sense of adventure, to work at many unusual and varied jobs including animation instructor in Northern Ontario first nation communities. Since 2000 he has been a science educator at the Ontario Science Centre. In 2006 he co-hosted 14 TV episodes for the Discovery network, called 'Patent Bending'.