Arisia 2012 Program Participant Bios

dkap—A longtime GM, participating and running games since 1978, including long-running games. Has worked with many table-top and LARP systems over the years. On the cutting edge of computer research, having been involved with the development of computers from the old Mainframe days through the micro-embedded systems of today. Also, a longtime presenter and kinkster; practicing for almost 40 years and teaching for almost a quarter century, both nationally and internationally. Involved in the local BDSM group NELA (http://www.nelaonline.org) as Program and Education Director. Want to learn more? Ask me.

Fri 8:30pm BDSM 101: A Beginner's Guide

Fri 11:30pm Fun With Rope

Sat 2:30pm City Design—Ancient and Modern

Sat 5:30pm RPG Gaming: Rails vs. Sandbox

Sat 8:30pm Getting Started in the Public BDSM Scene

Sat 11:30pm GM Helpline

Sun 5:30pm Technology and the GM

Mon 1:00pm The Plight of the Older Gamer

 

Daniel Reuben Abraham

Sat 8:30am Mask Making

Sun 4:00pm Play Poker for a Good Cause, with Phil Foglio

 

Marc Abrahams is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. The prizes, awarded each year since 1991, honor achievements that make people laugh, then think. He is also editor and co-founder of the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, a weekly columnist for The Guardian newspaper, and the author of several books. His web site and blog are at www.improbable.com

Sat 2:30pm Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes

 

At age 80, Martha Adams realizes that some successes are not survivable, and retirement is one of these. She is developing a large Web page named Adra at www.mhada.info, the work of which is mostly text about settlements in space. From time to time she brings up the Venice Beach camera in her computer to look at its image while wondering what she is doing here in Boston with the Winter coming on…

Sun 5:30pm Mars or Bust!

Mon 11:30am Keeping Cool: Cryonics and Hibernation in SF

Mon 1:00pm The Future of Old Age

Mon 2:30pm Science Fiction as Mainstream Meme

 

Dawn Albright is involved in many different areas of fandom. She's a short story writer, editor of anthologies (New Altars and Vision Quest), and a dollmaker and costumer. Her most recent project is a web journal called Polu Texni which can be found at http://www.polutexni.com.

Fri 5:30pm Reading SF/F to Your Kids

Sat 1:00pm Monster Mash

Sun 11:30am Painting and Costuming for Dolls

Sun 1:00pm What are Your Favorites to Read?

Sun 2:30pm Quilting Basics

Sun 8:30pm Costume and Costuming Space

 

Mark L. Amidon first read Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall" in 1971 and has been heavily involved in science fiction ever since. He has been attending Arisia since 1991, and with his wife since 1992. He works as a software engineer now designing and programming robots, which is well ahead of the schedule that Dr. Asimov foresaw. Both of his daughters read genre fiction. His cats remain aloof.

Fri 5:30pm Reading SF/F to Your Kids

Fri 10:00pm Asimov vs. Heinlein: Which Future?

Sat 5:30pm Forensic Science and the Courts

Sat 10:00pm Politics in Science Fiction

Sun 8:30pm Reading: Amidon, Lieder, & Sandel

Sun 10:00pm The Year in Bad Science

Mon 1:00pm It's Only a Game

 

Thomas A. Amoroso, MD, MPH is a practicing emergency physician, health policy analyst, and has been a fan of fantasy and science fiction since his junior high librarian pointed him to Harry Harrison after he found Andre Norton on his own. After that, he devoured everything he could find in the limited libraries available in Europe for English language SF. Despite all of that, it took him way too many years to find the rest of organized fandom. He firmly believes in the power of human thinking to get us through crises; he just wishes we'd use some of it to avoid crises instead. He cannot wait for the autodoc so he can stop being a doctor because what he really wants to do is direct. All other aspects of science are just as fascinating, and he's fully prepared to expound on the scientific method, the uses and limits of statistics, and why most people aren't able to adequately judge scientific issues, even though it just isn't that hard.

Sat 11:30am Poly 101: An Introduction

Sat 5:30pm Forensic Science and the Courts

Sun 4:00pm The Near Future of Organ Transplants

Sun 5:30pm Bioethics in Today's World

Sun 8:30pm Our Weird Biology

Mon 11:30am Keeping Cool: Cryonics and Hibernation in SF

 

Taken broadly, Erik Amundsen has had an interesting life; he's been a baker, an itinerant schoolteacher, worked for two governments, and gotten in bar fights overseas. He now lives at the foot of a cemetery in central Connecticut where he writes nasty little stories and poems that shuffle around in the night when he's not looking. Or at least he hopes it's them; something's got to be making those noises and it's not the furnace. A few of them have made it to Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine, Goblin Fruit, Three Crow Press, and Cabinet des Fees.

Fri 7:00pm Interstitial Fiction: Dancing Between Genres

Sat 1:00pm Reading: Amundsen, Lipkin, Rios

Sat 10:00pm Mud and Blood: The Grittier Side of Fantasy

Sun 11:30am Myth and Folklore in Fantasy

Sun 2:30pm Speculative Poetry Slam

Mon 11:30am Setting as Character

 

Dash—I am an attorney, editor, linguist, and social justice activist. I am the founder and editor-in-chief of Expanded Horizons, a monthly online speculative fiction magazine whose mission is to increase diversity in speculative fiction and to create a venue for the authentic expression of under-represented voices in the genre. In all my work, I try to use my skills, talents, sensitivities and awarenesses to bring people together to prevent and solve problems and to promote social justice. I want to fight the "fear of the other" with every tool at my disposal, and to show people that there is nothing so esoteric as cannot also be completely normal.

Sun 4:00pm Avoiding CultureFail

Sun 5:30pm Coming Out

 

Lisa A. Ashton is a Master-level costumer from Maryland. She has won BIS in the Arisia Masquerade in the past with "Home Improvement," "The Standing Stone" (with Diane Seiler), and "Mary Gothins-Perfectly Evil." Last year's entry was "What If?", a late Victorian re-imagining of Bram Stoker's wife, Florence. She lives for costuming, beads, and hunting, and in mundane life is an Emergency PA. Current interests include collecting Victorian photo cards and researching clothing of the period. She is to be a featured speaker at Dress U 2012, a new costume convention for the East Coast, and is a frequent contributer to "The Virtual Costumer" with articles about Victorian clothing research.

Fri 5:30pm Corsets, Hoops, & Other Undergarments

Fri 7:00pm Learn to Make Fabric Flowers

Sat 1:00pm Modifying, Making, and Using Sewing Patterns

Sun 10:00am Ladies' and Gentlemen's Sewing Circle

Sun 11:30am Getting Ideas for Costumes and Presentations

 

John Bacon

Fri 8:30pm Introduction to LARPing

Sat 10:00pm Negotiation and BDSM

Sat 11:30pm Home Depot in the Bedroom

 

Stephen R. Balzac is the author of "The 36-Hour Course in Organizational Development," published by McGraw-Hill. He has also been published in numerous magazines, including Analog Science Fiction. When he's not writing, Steve is a management consultant, speaker, and psychology professor. He is the president of 7 Steps Ahead (www.7stepsahead.com) and the founder of the MIT Assassins' Guild and SIL West. He uses LARPs as a tool for training business leaders in negotiation and leadership skills.

Fri 8:30pm Introduction to LARPing

Sat 2:30pm Science in Politics

Mon 2:30pm The Dark Lords

 

E. J. Barnes is a cartoonist and comic-book artist, having seen publication in Fortean Times, Funny Times, The Journal of Irreproducible Results, and Gauntlet. Her comic books are sold across the country. She teaches Basic Cartooning at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.

Sat 4:00pm Art as Business

Sun 2:30pm Creating Minicomics

Sun 4:00pm Copyright/Trademark 101

Sun 5:30pm Building the Perfect Beast: How Comics Get Made

Sun 8:30pm Guilty Pleasures

Sun 10:00pm Bawdy Song Circle

Mon 1:00pm Birding 101

 

Howard Beatman—I have been interested in comic books since 1959, science fiction since 1966, and have been going to conventions since 1974. I have attended all the Arisias and took my nephew to Arisia for four consecutive years—the next generation of nerds is well in hand!

Fri 7:00pm What Makes a Good Panel

Sat 2:30pm Is Glee Fantasy?

Sat 8:30pm 10 Years of Smallville

Sun 1:00pm TV Year in Review

Sun 4:00pm Punday!

 

Brian Belanger is best known around New England conventions as "the guy with the real Scar tattoo." He is your typical all-around fanboy, even as a family man. He is a very big fan of anime and tries to regularly claim Ayanami Rei all to himself. Often found in front of a PC, if he isn't drowning in code for webpages he works on, he's lost in gaming. When he isn't busy with all that, he's continuing in his journey through art (gotrei.deviantart.com).

Sat 4:00pm The Ultimate Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Panel

 

Lex Berman is editor of the Science Fiction Artists Database at www.dbr.nu/sf and an alumnus of the Columbia University Science Fiction Society. You will find him hovering near any sizeable stack of books.

Sat 11:30am Dueling Easels

Sun 10:00am Aliens in 20th Century Science Fiction Art

Sun 2:30pm Marshall McLuhan Centennial

 

William "Ian" Blanton—A native of Phoenix, AZ who long ago decided he preferred actual seasons in Boston, Ian has been spending the last decade or so focusing on homeschooling his daughter while being gainfully employed as a Macintosh consultant. His previous life interests include western martial arts, historical re-enactment, and flinching whenever a "re-imagined" movie/ TV show is announced. His current project is running a Bronze Age/Fantasy GURPS Campaign for his daughter and her friends, which is rapidly spiraling out of control.

Sat 10:00am Online Privacy for Kids

Sat 5:30pm RPG Gaming: Rails vs. Sandbox

Sat 7:00pm The Legacy of Steve Jobs

Sat 11:30pm GM Helpline

Sun 11:30am Homeschooling: An Alternative Education

Sun 2:30pm The Future of School

Sun 5:30pm Technology and the GM

 

Corey Blumenthal

Sat 1:00pm Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls

Sun 11:30am Painting and Costuming for Dolls

Mon 11:30am Making Stained Glass

 

Michael Bonet is one of the hosts of the Ninja vs Pirates Podcast; one of the designers of Ninja vs. Pirates the card game, Shenanigans the card game, and Hammers, Lasers, Mirrors the card game; and currently a graduate student to become an English teacher.

Sun 2:30pm The Future of School

Sun 10:00pm What Makes a Game "Classic"?

Mon 10:00am Dungeon and Mazes

 

Aimee Bouchard is a bi, poly, kinky, geeky, hippie, and girly sort of gal. As a solo attorney practicing in Western MA she focuses on child welfare and domestic relations, and has published on same-sex estate planning. Her interests include protecting and creating rights for polyamorous relationships, the legalities of Kink and BDSM, and GLBT rights. Aimee lives in Springfield where she is on the board of the Western Mass Power Exchange, an avid geocacher, and lives in a large poly, co-housing home.

Sun 10:00am DIY and Fandom

Sun 4:00pm Poly 279: Poly Parenting

Sun 11:30pm Bootblacking 101

Mon 11:30am Self-Objectification and the Geeky Girl

 

Thomas Boutilier—Having spent eighteen years in the Boy Scouts and five years in the Navy, Thomas was fairly certain that he would be unprepared for anything life was going to hurl at him. And so he commenced a vigorous course of self-education of reading books and examining and studying anything he could get his hands on. This lead to Thomas having a tendency to keep all books for future reference. Large areas in his admittedly small apartment are overflowing with double-stacked, overstacked and teetering piles of books. When not reading, Thomas often spent time in the wilderness learning what works and what doesn't (i.e., don't take a tent into the woods if you are unsure of its waterproofing because it WILL rain). Thomas has developed a system of kits to prepare himself for that OH CRAP! moment. While moderately successful at dodging his own personal disasters, his assistance in helping other people and corporations prepare for disaster has been well received. Thomas loves roaming the tubes of the interwebs.

Sat 8:30pm Visual Kei Theatre 2012

Sun 2:30pm On The Fringe

Mon 2:30pm Snag It, Bag It, and Tag It

 

Angela K. Bowen—After the first Arisia I attended, I was hooked. I had so much fun that I had to come back, and I have not missed a year since. I am a costume person; I learned to sew by working a bit in a sweatshop factory in Mississippi, sewing my little heart out. I ran into the SCA in Montana (my home state) and put those sewing skills to work. (Yep, I joined so I would have a place to wear a costume… Oops! Sorry, I mean "garb.") When I moved to the Boston area I took up belly dancing (more costuming with beads) which led to drumming; I play a mideastern drum called a Doumbek and a frame drum called a Tar. I have volunteered in many areas at Arisia, a little bit here and there. I have helped with the period dances for a few years and most recently the Friday night drum and dance session.

Fri 10:00pm Drum and Dance at Arisia

 

John Bowker has a history of writing things, editing things, and occasionally talking about things, all of which combine to prove the old chestnut that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Reports that he wears a spandex uniform under his clothing are greatly exaggerated; but the tall buildings/speeding bullet thing? Totally true.

Fri 7:00pm Interstitial Fiction: Dancing Between Genres

Sat 10:00am Can You Like Literary SF Without Being a Snob?

Sat 11:30am The Movie Year in Review

Sat 2:30pm Reading: Bowker, Doyle, & Kimmel

 

Bridget Joyce Boyle has held many positions from gopher to div. head at many types of cons. As a transplanted Philadelphian, she makes her home in Merrimack, NH. A mother of 3 girls, an Artist and a dreamer, she has instructed Computer Literacy and Graphics Programs and avidly supports sexual orientation equality for all people. She enjoys her first Life and Second, and SF across the mediascape.

Sat 4:00pm Alternative Lifestyles and Fandom

Sun 1:00pm Being a Sex-Positive Parent

Sun 10:00pm Is There Anything Verboten Left?

Mon 11:30am Attending a Con with Kids

 

Anna R. Bradley is a gamer, LARPer, costumer, and volunteering junkie.

Fri 8:30pm Introduction to LARPing

Fri 11:30pm Music in LARPs and Tabletop

Sun 5:30pm Stitch 'n' Bitch

 

Cheryl Braverman—A native of MA, Cheryl has been attending cons for 30 years in multiple states and countries. She's also been involved with The Rocky Horror Picture Show for as many years, experiencing it not only from an audience member's perspective, but also as a participant; most recently as a member of the RHIS (Rocky Horror Internet Show). She has interests in cult movies, trivia, gaming, crafts and improv comedy. Legally disabled, she hopes she can impart some knowledge and perspective to those dealing with managing their health problems, while participating in fandom. She can be seen around Arisia volunteering as a Heinlein Society "Naughty Nurse."

Fri 5:30pm I Married A Mundane

Sun 2:30pm Disability and Fandom

Sun 7:00pm Flirt Like a Pro!

 

James Bredt—Jim was one of two technical founders of Z Corporation, which makes 3D Printers, and holds over 20 issued patents in 3DP technology. He has taught numerous courses at MIT, from freshman chemistry to capstone lab classes in materials science. Presently he works for Viridis3D, a ZCorp spinoff developing engineering ceramics for 3D Printing. He has published a cartoon introduction to classical thermodynamics, and is presently working on a sequel covering introductory quantum mechanics.

Fri 10:00pm Victorian Age Science in Steampunk

Sat 2:30pm Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes

Sun 11:30am The Generation and Utilization of Steam

Sun 7:00pm Alternative Energy

Mon 11:30am Keeping Cool: Cryonics and Hibernation in SF

 

Adrianne Brennan stumbled into her love of writing by accident at the age of ten with a creative writing assignment for her science class. The end result was a science fiction comedy featuring numerous puns regarding vegetables. Adrianne's works were previously published through Aphrodite's Apples Press and are now published through Freya's Bower, Love You Divine, Running Press/Constable & Robinson, and Torquere Press. In addition, she is a member of EPIC, Infinite Worlds of Fantasy Authors, the Midnight Seductions Authors group, and an alumnus member of Kappa Gamma Psi, a co-ed national professional performing arts fraternity. The author resides in Boston, Massachusetts with two cats and a car she has aptly named "the TARDIS." She assures her readers that people tell her it looks bigger on the inside.

Sat 11:30pm For the Love of the Geek

Sun 11:30am Autograph—Brennan, Fishbone, & Limoncelli

Sun 4:00pm Writing As Business

Sun 8:30pm The eBook Ecosystem

 

Peter Breton has been attending Arisia off and on since the mid-90s. He is a software engineer who lives in Arlington with his wife, daughter and son.

Fri 5:30pm Classic Playground Games

Sat 4:00pm Nerf Gun War

Sun 1:00pm I've Got All the Balls in the Air, Now What?

 

Kristian Brevik

Sun 11:30pm StarCraft!

 

Katherine Brick

Sun 1:00pm Duct Tape Roses

Sun 2:30pm Quilting Basics

Sun 4:00pm Gum Drops and Castles!

Mon 10:00am Coffee Filter Flowers

 

Nat Budin plays guitar, cello, and sings with the band Stranger Ways. He has also written and run over a dozen LARPs, has served as con chair of Intercon I in 2009 and the first three Festival of the LARPs conventions at Brandeis University, and writes open source software in the Ruby on Rails community. Basically, Nat does all the things.

Fri 8:30pm Introduction to LARPing

Sat 4:00pm Apples to Apples Junior

Sat 8:00pm Sassafrass & Stranger Ways Concert

Sun 6:00pm Sassafrass + Stranger Ways: Greatest Hits

Mon 1:00pm Skin Horse Sing-Along

 

Liz Burke

Fri 10:00pm Victorian Age Science in Steampunk

Sat 1:00pm Steampunk Make and Takes

 

Liz Cademy is a Professional Polymath, specializing in nothing at all. In a previous life, Liz sat in a small, padded cubicle under a nameplate that read, "Financial Analyst." Now, she is designated driver to a teen and a preteen, writes web articles, builds mobile applications, designs and sells t-shirts (as Cartesian Bear Industries), is an informal advocate to the gifted AS/NLD community, builds furniture, leads grade school kids on nature hikes, sews, knits (and designs patterns for both), makes chain mail, and works at science fiction cons. She lives in the woods with her two kids and a cat who hasn't chosen itself yet.

Sat 8:30am Yarn Works (Basics)

Sat 11:30am Make a Byzantine Bracelet

Sun 2:30pm Mail 'n' Flail

Mon 10:00am Beginning Chainmail

 

Kevin Cafferty is a documentary film writer and producer. His most recent film, "It's a Bash!", was given four stars by The Providence Journal, aired on New England PBS affiliates, and is currently available on DVD from Midway Pictures. He has been nominated for four Emmy awards and is currently working on a film about the punk rock scene. http://midway-pictures.com/

Fri 8:30pm A Game of Thrones

Sat 10:00am I'm Just Wild about Kirby

Sat 4:00pm If You Liked Part 1…

Sat 10:00pm Social Media

 

D. Cameron Calkins has been active in the SF/F community since the early 1980's. He has been creating art in the genre and displaying it at conventions since Noreascon 3. He has won numerous awards, and been published from time to time. His art appeared most recently on the cover of Roberta Rogow's Root of the Matter. Cameron speaks on a variety of topics and is frequently in the company of Dagnir, his dragon.

Sat 4:00pm Art as Business

Sat 10:00pm Negotiation and BDSM

Sun 10:00pm Religion and Kink

 

Calliope is a former English teacher and casual student of science fiction who blames Robert Heinlein for first introducing her to open relationships. She enjoys balancing a June Cleaver-esque love of cooking from scratch and household management with a kinky/poly lifestyle all while holding down a job, taking classes and being involved in the larger community in ways she adores. As a former freshman English teacher, she has a keen understanding of power dynamics! Together with Darkteddybear, she has recently taught at numerous conferences and meetings, including Floating World, Western Mass Power Exchange and Conversio Virium and looks forward to the chance to share new ideas and perspectives and hear those of others about the overlap of sexuality and science fiction/fantasy.

Fri 8:30pm A Game of Thrones

Fri 10:00pm Asimov vs. Heinlein: Which Future?

Mon 2:30pm Co-Housing: Beyond the Commune

 

James L. Cambias is a science fiction writer and game designer based in western Massachusetts. His fiction has appeared in F&SF, Shimmer, Nature, and various original anthologies. He has written more than a dozen game books for Steve Jackson Games and HERO Games. In 2004 he became a partner in Zygote Games, a small game company which produces science and nature based card and board games. His most recent work includes the story "Object Three" in the November/December 2011 issue of F&SF, and the forthcoming game sourcebook Weird War I, from Pinnacle Entertainment.

Fri 10:00pm Issues in Modern Mad Science

Sat 10:00am So, What's New?

Sat 8:30pm SF vs. the Body

Sat 10:00pm Reading: Cambias, Freedman & Sklar

Sat 11:30pm The Moral Aesthetics of Steampunk

Sun 5:30pm "But That's Not Science Fiction, Is It?"

 

Andrea Carney

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Grant Carrington—Website: grantcarrington.freeyellow.com; Associate Editor, Amazing, Fantastic, 1971–74; Contributing Editor, Eternity, 1978–79. 20–30 SF stories published, 1970–2011. Nebula finalist, 1976. One novel, Time's Fool, Doubleday, 1981. 2 CDs—Songs Without Wisdom, 2001; Ancient Laughter, 2011 (available at CD Baby). 5 plays produced in Baltimore. Computer Programmer—NASA, 1962–68; Savannah River Ecology Lab, 1977–80.

Sat 10:00am Can You Like Literary SF Without Being a Snob?

Sat 7:00pm Plot and Structure

Sun 10:00pm Ethics of Science Fiction

 

Vonnie Carts-Powell is a science writer, book author, SF fan, and an enthusiastic follower of the transformative arts pursued by fandom.

Sat 10:00am Kamikaze Costuming

Sun 1:00pm Being a Sex-Positive Parent

Sun 7:00pm Alternative Energy

Mon 2:30pm Soldiers Made to Order

 

Hugh Casey is a writer, actor, filmmaker, photographer, and promoter living in King of Prussia, PA. He's the founder of Parents Basement Productions and has produced, directed, written, and performed in two short films: Teddy's Big Escape and Young Geeks In Love; both on YouTube.com. Hugh is a longtime fan of science fiction and fantasy, and has been part of fandom for many years. He has been the president and vice-president of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society (PSFS), as well as on the board of directors. He was chairman of the Society's annual conference, PHILCON, in 2003, and vice-chairman in 2002. He is currently the head of programming for Philcon. He attends, and is often a panelist at, many cons and events, such as Arisia, Balticon, and Wicked Faire. In 2010 he was the "Guest of Awesome" at 5 Pi-Con. You can read his blog at http://www.hughcasey.com, or check out his photography at http://www.hughcaseyphoto.com.

Fri 7:00pm What Makes a Good Panel

Fri 8:30pm Paneling 101: A Primer

Sat 1:00pm Monsters in Motion: Ray Harryhausen at Work

Sat 2:30pm Steampunk and Costuming

Sun 11:30am Steampunk: Boom or Bust?

Sun 7:00pm Flirt Like a Pro!

Mon 10:00am Star Wars at 35

 

Ann Catelli is the current president of the International Costumers Guild and a past officer of the local chapter, Northern Lights Costumers Guild. She competes at the master level in F&SF and Historic Masquerades, and plays with cloth, string, and dolls.

Sun 1:00pm Costuming on the Cheap

Sun 7:00pm Costume Presentation: Is Humor Always Best?

Mon 11:30am Costuming & Body Type: How to Hide/Accentuate

 

Mary Catelli is a writer whose work has appeared in Sword and Sorceress anthologies and Weird Tales, and is forthcoming in Black Gate. She lives in Connecticut where she daylights as a computer programmer.

Fri 5:30pm Reading SF/F to Your Kids

Fri 11:30pm When Series Jump the Dragon

Sat 5:30pm Anne McCaffrey Memorial Panel

 

Jeanne Cavelos began her professional career as an astrophysicist at NASA. Her love of SF led her to earn her MFA in creative writing and move into publishing. She was a senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell, where she ran the SF/F/H programs and won the World Fantasy Award. Jeanne left publishing to write. Her seven books include the best-selling Passing of the Techno-Mages trilogy, The Science of Star Wars, and The Science of the X-Files. Her work has twice been nominated for the Stoker Award. Jeanne is director of Odyssey, widely considered one of the best workshops for writers of SF/F/H, held each summer in Manchester, NH. (www.jeannecavelos.com)

Sat 2:30pm My Bizarre Writing Process

Sat 4:00pm Odyssey Writing Workshop Presentation

 

Aurora Celeste is a costume dabbler with more than 10 years' experience. Her costuming interests are all over, but her passion is reproducing costumes; mostly sci-fi and fantasy movies, tv shows, anime, manga, and Joseph Michael Linsner's Dawn. She gives panels and enters masquerades all over the country, has won Best in Show at Costume Con 24, and is currently serving as Recording Secretary of the International Costumers' Guild Board of Directors. Outside of costuming, Aurora can often be seen running conventions. She has served as staff on many conventions, including DragonCon in Atlanta and a con head at Naka-Kon Anime Convention in Kansas City. Visit her costuming blog at www.dramaticthreads.com.

Fri 5:30pm Corsets, Hoops, & Other Undergarments

Fri 10:00pm Costume Failures, Horror Stories, and Lessons

Sat 10:00am Fabric Dyeing

Sun 1:00pm Meet the Worldcon Bids

Sun 5:30pm Judging and Being Judged in Costume Contests

Sun 8:30pm Costume and Costuming Space

Sun 10:00pm Anime Cons: Behind the Scenes

Mon 10:00am New Worlds of YA

 

Bob Chipman—Creator and star of Escape to The Movies and The Big Picture on escapistmagazine.com, and The Game OverThinker on screwattack.com

Fri 5:30pm E.T. at 30

Fri 7:00pm The Future of Bioethics as Portrayed in Film

Fri 8:30pm Batman Through the Ages

Fri 10:00pm More Terrible SF/F Movies We Love

Sat 10:00am Gender and Video Games

Sat 1:00pm Monsters in Motion: Ray Harryhausen at Work

Sat 4:00pm If You Liked Part 1…

Sat 10:00pm Death of PC Gaming May Be Greatly Exaggerated

Sun 1:00pm Wonder Woman

Sun 10:00pm Marvel Movies

Mon 10:00am Star Wars at 35

Mon 11:30am MST3K The Panel

Mon 1:00pm The Alien as Metaphor

 

Vikki Ciaffone has been involved in SF/Fantasy for many years. She is personally responsible for the destruction of Sodom and Gommorrah (she apologises, but all the hype was lies and the populace was obsessed with Pictionary and Charades, two games Vikki finds highly evil). She then turned her attention to Troy, and once again, engineered its downfall in her quest to burn out the Pictionary Plague. She claims no responsibility for Pompeii or the Fall of Rome, though she might possibly have had something to do with the sun setting on the British Empire. In her spare time, Vikki has been known to shoot craps with the Fates and the Valkyries for shiny trinkets.

Fri 5:30pm Parapsychology in Genre Fiction

Sat 10:00am World Building 101

Sat 10:00pm Mud and Blood: The Grittier Side of Fantasy

Sun 10:00am Traditional Stories, Modern Audiences

Sun 11:30am UnCONventional Rapid-Fire Reading

Sun 10:00pm Consistent Magic Systems in Fantasy

Mon 11:30am Among the Ruins

 

Stephanie Clarkson (smc@stephanieclarkson.com), sometimes called thespian, has been attending Arisia since 1992. Though she has lived in Toronto; Rockville, MD; Arlington, VA; Raleigh, NC; and Atlanta, GA; she always feels compelled to get to Arisia. Fortunately, she now lives in the Boston area. A web developer, puppeteer & creator, journalist/copywriter, and most recently a bartender, she is free to hire or flirt with. http://stephanieclarkson.com

Sun 2:30pm Disability and Fandom

Sun 5:30pm Food Communicating Culture in Literature

Mon 10:00am Boston in SF/F

Mon 2:30pm Why not 1812?

 

Myke Cole is the author of the military fantasy Shadow Ops series. The first novel, Contol Point will be published by Ace in February, 2012. As a security contractor, government civilian and military officer, Myke Cole's career has run the gamut from Counterterrorism to Cyber Warfare to Federal Law Enforcement. He's done three tours in Iraq and was recalled to serve during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. His website is www.mykecole.com.

Sat 8:30pm Self-Publishing Snares

Sun 11:30am Why You Should/Should Not Self-Publish

Sun 1:00pm Reading: Cole, Hairston, & Silverman

Sun 5:30pm "But That's Not Science Fiction, Is It?"

 

Byron P. Connell, a longtime SF and costuming fan, is a historian by training. He likes to help at masquerades rather than entering them—entering once a decade is about right! However, since being part of the Torcon III best-in-show entry, when he does enter, he does so in the Master division. Byron has run masquerades at the 2002 Arisia as well as several Costume-Cons and Philcons, but he was shocked when it was suggested that he direct the Anticipation masquerade. He will be running the Chicon 7 masquerade. He is a member of the Sick Pups (New Jersey-New York Costumers' Guild), the SLUTs (St. Louis Ubiquitous Tailoring Society), and the Armed Costumers' Guild; that makes him an Armed SLUT Puppy! Byron is a past President of the International Costumers' Guild, which honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. (He still doesn't know why.) He likes hard SF, alternate history, alternate worlds, and fantasy (not necessarily in that order).

Sat 10:00am Surviving Your First Masquerade

 

Tina Connell has been a SF reader for over 50 years, although she didn't discover conventions until 20 years later. She is mostly active in costume fandom, assisting backstage in the contestants' Green Room, occasionally as a judge and infrequently as a contestant. She has won costume awards at regional conventions, WorldCons and Costume-Cons, and competes as a Master. Her SF tastes are eclectic, although she is especially fond of alternate history and military SF. She and her husband also collect SF art, although their many bookcases limit the available wall space to display it.

Sun 5:30pm Judging and Being Judged in Costume Contests

 

Jerome C. Conner is a fan boy. He plays in just about any genre and loves it all. His primary fandoms are Science Fiction and Comic Books, which he got into at a young age. Jerome is a self-labeled "Sci-fi Geek". He's been going to cons, of all sorts, since 1983 and has helped run a number of sci-fi cons in New England. He's been involved in Star Trek Fandom, giving his time and energy to that group on many levels over the past 20+ years. He's an award-winning Master-level costumer and current head of Northern Lights: New England's Costuming Association. He's seen at many of the local Comic Book Conventions, where he's known as "The Hawkeye Guy." He's also been involved in the Anime scene; not just talking to costumers about it, but enjoying the local cons and has even helped behind the scenes at some.

Fri 5:30pm Con-Going 101: Planning, Budgeting, & Surviving

Sat 4:00pm If You Liked Part 1…

Sun 4:00pm Northern Lights Costumers' Guild Meet-up

 

Emily Coombs is both a scientist and slightly mad, some days more than others.

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Caitlin Cooper

Sat 8:30am Dubstep Yoga

Sun 8:30am Dubstep Yoga

Mon 7:30am Dubstep Yoga

 

John Costello has an MA in archaeology and has dug in Kenya, Sardinia, PA, MA, and NH. The sale of four stories (not since repeated) got him SFWA membership; from the late 80's onward he translated articles on Russian SF for Locus, and two books by Kir Bulychev. Hopefully the (authorized) collection of Murray Leinster's non-SF short fiction he edited will be out by the time of the convention.

Sat 2:30pm Science in Politics

Sat 7:00pm Reading: Costello, Gilman, & Martin

Sun 10:00am Disaster Preparedness for Fans

Sun 8:30pm The eBook Ecosystem

Mon 11:30am Among the Ruins

Mon 2:30pm Why not 1812?

 

Ann Crimmins—Edited Zelazny Collection for NESFA Press. Copy editor on staff of The New York Review of Science Fiction.

Fri 5:30pm I Married A Mundane

 

Patricia M. Cryan is, by turns, a retailer who never sleeps; a walking library of children's literature; a fan of hard science, harder science fiction, and literary horror tales; and a freelance editor who makes strong folk cry at regular intervals. She owns Annie's Book Stop of Worcester, one of the last brick-and-mortar bookstores in central Massachusetts, which sells new and used speculative fiction and general interest books and audios, as well as providing a home for the largest selection of Doctor Who and other British science fiction merchandise on the East Coast of the United States, in partnership with http://www.mikescomics.com.

Sun 10:00am The Who, the Whole Who, and Nothing but the Who

Sun 2:30pm On The Fringe

Mon 2:30pm Mainstream Fiction for Fen

 

Ctein is a professional photographer and writer, best known in the SF community for his photographs of eclipses, aurora, natural and unnatural scenics, and space launches and for his hand-printed fine-art books. His work can be seen at http://ctein.com and photo-repair.com. He's a columnist for The Online Photographer and the author of Digital Restoration from Start to Finish. He's been an industrial consultant on computer displays, a technical writer of computer manuals, has degrees in English and Physics from Caltech, and has engaged in pollution research, astronomy, photocopy research, world designing for CONTACT, and radical feminist queer activism. If he grows up, he wants to be a dilettante. Ctein lives in Daly City with technical writer Paula Butler, four demented psittacines, a half dozen more-or-less normal computers, and twenty kilobooks. He reports that the house seems to be shrinking…

Sat 11:30am The 100-Year Starship Study

Sun 11:30am SF/Fantasy Pictionary

Sun 7:00pm Alternative Energy

 

Leah Cypess is the author of Mistwood (2010) and Nightspell (2011), YA high fantasy novels published by HarperCollins. She lives in Brookline, MA. Her website is: www.leahcypess.com.

Sun 4:00pm Writing As Business

Sun 7:00pm Making Politics Work in Fiction

Mon 10:00am New Worlds of YA

 

David D'Antonio—DDA, as he is known, answered an email about something called a ConCom and has been volunteering for Arisia ever since. A lifelong fan of science fiction, he knows how Arisia got its name but has still not finished Stranger in a Strange Land. When not volunteering at cons, he does UI design, fights homonym abuse and creates stylish appetizer trays.

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Michelle d'Entremont—Mijan has been active as a fan writer, costumer, and convention geek since 2003. Primary fandoms include Star Trek, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. As a self-identified queer person, Mijan has a particular interest in GLBTQ issues as they relate to fan activities, particularly issues of gender identity and gender expression in social structures, writing, and fandom itself. Serving seven years in the Army under Don't Ask, Don't Tell has given Mijan a unique insight into certain aspects of social justice and civil liberties. Despite being a student of world religions and active in a UU congregation, Mijan is a scientist, skeptic, and social secularist who feels that this is an essential perspective so often ignored in political discussions of civil liberties. In real life (what's real?), Mijan keeps busy saving the world from itself by playing with toxic, infectious, and radioactive materials. Sadly, this has not yet led to any superhero mutations, but hey, there's still time.

Fri 7:00pm Hall Costumes: Everyday Wear for Conventions

Fri 10:00pm The Nature of Gender: Past, Present & Future

Sat 11:30am Panel in the Pool

Sun 2:30pm Harry Potter, My Love for You Will Never Die

Sun 4:00pm Avoiding CultureFail

Sun 7:00pm Reading:D'Entremont, Kingsgrave-Ernstein& Peeler

Mon 11:30am Costuming & Body Type: How to Hide/Accentuate

 

Garen Daly has been in the dark for more years than acceptable. First as an award winning film booker and exhibitor then as a movie industry analyst and commentator. He is a regular contributor to WGBH, NH Public Radio and several web sites, but is perhaps best known as the producer of The Boston Science Fiction Film Festival. Now in its 37th year, the sci-fi fest runs Feb. 10–20, 2012 at the Somerville Theatre. Visit the web site, BostonSci-fi.com for submission info. Garen also produces The Terror'Thon, a yearly exploration of horror film.

Fri 7:00pm SF and Horror: Where Do You Draw the Line?

Fri 10:00pm Victorian Age Science in Steampunk

Sat 11:30am The Movie Year in Review

Sat 1:00pm Monsters in Motion: Ray Harryhausen at Work

 

Alexander Danner is a writer of comics and co-author of the textbook Character Design for Graphic Novels. He teaches "Writing the Graphic Novel" at Emerson College. His comics can be found online at TwentySevenLetters.com (experiments) and PictureStoryTheater.com (fables and fairy tales).

Sat 11:30am Webcomics 101

Sat 2:30pm Comics Reading

Sat 5:30pm Comics: Not How You Start, But How You Finish!

Sun 10:00am The Best Young-Adult and Children's Comics

Sun 11:30am No Capes! Non-Superhero Comics

Sun 2:30pm Creating Minicomics

Sun 5:30pm Building the Perfect Beast: How Comics Get Made

Sun 7:00pm How to Write a Comic

 

Brandy Danner is the Head of Teen Services at the Wilmington Memorial Library in Wilmington, MA. She has experience developing child- and teen-friendly graphic novel collections in public libraries. Her first book, Dark Futures: A Genre Guide to Dystopian, Apocalyptic, and Post-Apocalyptic Teen Books and Media, will be published by VOYA Press in 2012.

Sun 10:00am The Best Young-Adult and Children's Comics

 

Christopher Davis has been reading science fiction for longer than he can remember, and going to conventions for longer than he wants to think about. He's worked as a sysadmin for both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and part of the Human Genome Project, and feels fortunate to have arrived at just the right time for such opportunities. He's given up on looking for technological predictions from SF; too many lunar bases, not enough globe-spanning computer networks. (He's still glad food pills never came along, though.)

Fri 7:00pm Just a Quick Game?

Fri 8:30pm Paneling 101: A Primer

Sat 8:30pm Humor in SF/F

Sat 10:00pm Social Media

Sun 8:30pm Aboard All That Glitters:Foglio's Illegal Aliens

Mon 10:00am Boston in SF/F

Mon 2:30pm The Relevance of Livejournal

 

T. Christopher Davis—An avid gamer (role-playing and miniatures) and reader (Sci-Fi and fantasy, mainly) since early adolescence, Chris is now an amateur game designer and writer, as the love for the written word has grabbed hold and taken control of his soul. Now he only hopes to find a buyer for what he loves to write so that he may do much more of it.

Fri 11:30pm Music in LARPs and Tabletop

Sat 11:30pm GM Helpline

Sun 10:00am Disaster Preparedness for Fans

Sun 2:30pm Introduction to Tabletop Roleplaying

 

A freelance writer for such entertainment publications as The Hollywood Reporter, The Los Angeles Times, and Moving Pictures Magazine, Randee Dawn had her first zombie story published in the Well-Told Tales podcast. She is also a co-author (with Susan Green) of The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion, which published in September 2009, and produces for the Web at sites including MSNBC.com. She will write in exchange for bacon.

Fri 8:30pm A Game of Thrones

Sat 2:30pm Is Glee Fantasy?

Sat 5:30pm Winter Is Coming

Sun 10:00am Reading: Dawn, Feinman, & Sawicki

Sun 5:30pm Creating and Maintaining Your Public Persona

 

Susan de Guardiola (http://www.blank.org/susan) is best-known for her role as a masquerade emcee at the 1997 and 2004 worldcons as well as numerous east coast local and regional conventions. She is a reviewer for Publishers Weekly and a social dance historian. She may often be found in musty library stacks researching dance from the 16th to the early 20th century, which she teaches at workshops and dance events across the United States and in Russia. Susan also makes costumes and blogs about both dance history (at Capering and Kickery, http://www.kickery.com) and the rest of her life (at Rixosous, http://www.rixosous.com). In her spare time, she plays high-speed online Scrabble.

Fri 11:30pm Eye of Argon Reading

Sat 10:00am Surviving Your First Masquerade

Sun 1:00pm Disco Line Dancing

Sun 2:30pm Cross-Step Waltz for Dummies

Sun 4:00pm Cross-Step Waltz for Experienced folk

Sun 7:00pm Does Anyone Here Know How to Madison?

Sun 10:00pm Martian Croquet: A Steampunk Diversion

 

Lori Del Genis (weegoddess on LJ) spends her time saving the world through pretty, pretty fabrics and loves to create eco-friendly wedding dresses and formal gowns out of fabulous vintage silk dresses. She currently lives in State College, PA with her spouse Jonathan but insists on lurking around the Boston area whenever possible for her requisite dose of Normality.

Sat 11:30am Poly 101: An Introduction

Sat 4:00pm Helpful Sewing References and Resources

Sun 7:00pm Flirt Like a Pro!

 

Patrick Delahanty is best known as the creator of AnimeCons.com, the largest source of anime convention information on the Internet. The site is now expanding into FanCons.com to cover more than just anime cons. Patrick is also the founder and host of The Chibi Project where he conducts experiments on toys for fun and amusement, and publishes those experiments as a podcast. Patrick is big fan of conventions. He has attended over 100 of them in the last 10 years, at most of which he has cosplayed. He is one of the founders of both Anime Boston and Providence Anime Conference. Patrick has hosted his popular improv comedy event, Anime Unscripted, more than 30 times at 11 different conventions in two countries and four time zones. Additionally, Patrick is also the voice of the fighter pilots in the award-winning game Escape Velocity and its sequel, EV: Override. You should follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/pdelahanty.

Sun 7:00pm Surviving an Anime Con

Sun 10:00pm Anime Cons: Behind the Scenes

Mon 1:00pm Back in MY Day… Anime

 

Daniel P. Dern (www.dern.com) is a freelance technology writer, and a very amateur magician. His science fiction stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies including Analog, F&SF, World of If, and New Dimensions. Having finished his first science fiction novel, Dragons Don't Eat Jesters, which includes a minimum of "one dragon, two princesses, four dogs, a lot of riddles, some explosions, and a lot of really weird stuff," he's written over 60 short stories—Dern Grim Children's Short Bedtime Stories (Few of Which End Well), intended to be Morally Instructive to the Listener and Cathartically Therapeutic for the Reader (www.DernGrim.com)—plus Jewish-themed YA urban fantasies and other children's stories. If you have at least 45 seconds to spare, ask to hear one if you see him and he's not otherwise busy!

Sat 1:00pm Magic Show Part 1

Sat 2:30pm Magic Show Part 2

Sat 4:00pm Dern Grim Bedtime Tales

 

Mario Di Giacomo is an amateur historian (although he prefers "memetic archaeologist") of sci-fi literature and media.

Fri 7:00pm SF and Horror: Where Do You Draw the Line?

Sat 10:00am I'm Just Wild about Kirby

Sun 10:00am The Leiji-verse

Sun 11:30am Steampunk: Boom or Bust?

Sun 8:30pm Aboard All That Glitters:Foglio's Illegal Aliens

Mon 10:00am The Many Faces of Frankenstein

 

Alexa Dickman—A law student and blogger who runs the Ladies Making Comics tumblr (http://ladiesmakingcomics.tumblr.com). Also a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable and an avid comics historian who runs the Women in Comics Wiki (http://womenincomics.wikia.com).

Sat 4:00pm Female Fandom in Comics

Sat 7:00pm Race, Gender & Disability Politics in Comics

Mon 11:30am The History of Comics

 

Samantha Dings—Assistant Division Head for Events, Doctor Who fan since 1986. Look for me at Gallifrey Base and say 'Hi!'

Fri 7:00pm Introduction to Arisia

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Sun 7:00pm Doctor Who Companions

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Ira Domnitz "The Texas Quilt" Domnitz is an IP attorney practicing in Houston, Texas, or wherever needs be. He is self-proclaimed Old School Doctor Who expert, Pre-80's comic fan, Peanuts and Popeye funny paper aficionado, and science fiction and fantasy fan. Ira wrote a 400+ page vampire novel while a senior in college "because he was bored." Professionally, Ira has worked with his clients in the field of entertainment in vetting scripts and obtaining funding, movie contracts, copyright and trademark protections. The proud father of two "nerdlings" who won the costume contest at Apollocon 2010 as Dr. Who Jr. and Leela Jr. (age 4.5 and 3 respectively), Ira is proud to be a participant in this year's events. Ira is also the drummer for "$.50 Drink Night Featuring the Velvet Jus," a cover band in Houston. Ira says, "If you don't like what I am saying, blame Danny Miller."

Fri 5:30pm SF/F, Prior Art, and Patents

Fri 7:00pm The Future of Bioethics as Portrayed in Film

Sun 10:00am The Who, the Whole Who, and Nothing but the Who

Sun 1:00pm Copyright, Satire, and the Public Domain

 

Debra Doyle was born in Florida and educated in Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and Pennsylvania—the last at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her doctorate in English, concentrating on Old English poetry. While in Philadelphia, she met and married James D. Macdonald, who was then serving in the US Navy, and subsequently traveled with him to Virginia, California, and the Republic of Panama. Doyle and Macdonald left the Navy and Panama in 1988 in order to write full-time. Since then they have lived in Colebrook, New Hampshire, where they write science fiction and fantasy for children, teenagers, and adults.

Sat 11:30am Language & Linguistics in SF/F

Sat 2:30pm Reading: Bowker, Doyle, & Kimmel

Sat 4:00pm Autograph—Doyle & Kimmel

Sun 2:30pm Use Your Words: Dialogoue, Prose, and Tone

 

Chris Denmead runs a horror-themed radio show on WCUW 91.3 FM called the Dr.Chris Radio of Horror program. He covers horror and sci-fi films and interviews various stars of genre fiction. Some of his past guests include Malcolm McDowell, Doug Jones, Dee Wallace Stone, Steve Niles, and Gardner Dozois.

Fri 5:30pm E.T. at 30

Fri 7:00pm SF and Horror: Where Do You Draw the Line?

Sat 11:30am The Movie Year in Review

Sat 8:30pm Autograph—Dr. Chris & Stallman

Sat 10:00pm Kolchak the Night Stalker

 

Michelle Driscoll lives in Western MA with her three partners, their son, a dog and four cats. She has hosted relationship discussion groups of many sorts and has been involved in the leadership of Transcending Boundaries, Inc.

Sat 11:30am Poly 101: An Introduction

Sat 7:00pm Poly 201: Theory and Practice

Sat 8:30pm Getting Started in the Public BDSM Scene

Sat 11:30pm Non-Monogamy: A Diverse Set of Options

Sun 5:30pm Coming Out

Sun 7:00pm Building a Poly Home

Sun 8:30pm Your Kink is OK!

 

A Western states native (Utah, California), Mary Dumas moved to New England in 2003. She chaired the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fantasy convention, Cauldron Con in 2005; co-founded the Anime Kaiju Experience section of the United Fan Con's New England Fan Experience in 2008; in 2009 she was the Chairman of New England Fan Experience, welcoming Leonard Nimoy and hosting the Mayor's Leonard Nimoy Day; has joined the staff of Anime Boston and Nauticon; and is on the Bid Committee for the ORLANDO in 2015 Worldcon. Mary is a member of the N.E.R.D.S. (New England Resin Doll Society) and founder of the D.O.L.L. (Dirty Old Lady's League). Her hobbies include collecting Japanese manga and Asian ball-jointed dolls.

Fri 10:00pm Intro to Anime's Adult Forms—Hentai, Yaoi

Sat 11:30am What Every Parent Should Know About Anime

Sat 1:00pm Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sat 5:30pm Anime for Kids

Sat 10:00pm Yin and Yang: Yuri and Yaoi

Sun 11:30am Painting and Costuming for Dolls

Sun 1:00pm Meet the Worldcon Bids

Sun 4:00pm Anime as Art

Mon 10:00am Manga's Great Apocalypses

Mon 11:30am Making Stained Glass

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Jennifer Duschak—Jeni has spent the last decade of her life immersed in the convention scene on both as Staff and Attendee (but mostly as Staff…). She's served as Executive Staff of Anime Boston, Department Chair of PortConMaine, and was involved with Providence Anime Conference, the first-ever "21-and-Over" convention. Jeni is also among the founding members of Nauticon, another 21+ event coming to Provincetown, Massachusetts this May, and she is incredibly excited about being able to portray the convention's mascot, "Morgan." Jeni also has 10 years experience with Personality Type Theory, particularly the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. She has published articles on the topic, and her comics have been seen via Keirsey Personality Zone and Team Technology UK. Her psychology blog, "I Know I Am, but What are You" (type-takeover.blogspot.com) provides a humorous perspective on Personality Type, and her past decade of experience with this powerful theory.

Sat 4:00pm The Ultimate Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Panel

Sat 8:30pm Visual Kei Theatre 2012

Sat 10:00pm The Mind of the Nerd: Psychology and Fandom

Sun 10:00pm Anime Cons: Behind the Scenes

Mon 1:00pm Back in MY Day… Anime

 

Dyschordiana is a Pagan Witch who follows a Celtic Reconstructionist path. She is also a feminist, writer, reader, music lover, big sister, polyamorist, queer, and, of course, nerd. She is proud to say that she graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 2004, where she majored in English and Medieval Studies; she is also a recovering law student with a taste for libraries, and she currently works in a University setting. Dyschordiana has a variety of tastes in all aspects of life and likes to document her adventures whenever possible. She wishes she could play the cello, but she can make a mean baklava. If Star Trek: TNG frightens you, she will strive to change your mind. Dyschordiana has been known to geek out about anything from the The Canterbury Tales to German Expressionist films to Amanda Palmer to Russian composers to Roman history. She is always looking for the TARDIS and new companions.

Fri 10:00pm The Nature of Gender: Past, Present & Future

Fri 11:30pm Sacred Sexuality

Sat 10:00am Online Privacy for Kids

Sat 1:00pm Magickal Traditions: A Review

Sat 4:00pm Female Fandom in Comics

Sat 5:30pm Winter Is Coming

Sat 7:00pm Poly 201: Theory and Practice

Sat 11:30pm Non-Monogamy: A Diverse Set of Options

 

Jill Eastlake has been around SF conventions for over 40 years. She volunteered at her first Boskone and has worked on almost every convention she has attended since then. She is the first person to have chaired a Boskone (11 with husband Donald, and then 15) and an Arisia ('09). She has done both back-of-the-house (Operations, Treasury, and Volunteers) and visible work (Art Show, Events, Masquerade, and even Program once) for local conventions, World SF Conventions, and Costume-Cons. She is a Master Costumer, and is an ICG Lifetime Achievement Award winner. And, hopefully, will be around for another 40 years as a part of this fannish family.

Sun 10:00am The Hugo Awards: An Introduction

Sun 4:00pm Northern Lights Costumers' Guild Meet-up

 

Bob Eggleton—9 time Hugo Winner. Worked on the films Sphere (1997), Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius(2001), The Any Bully (2006), and the indpendent film The iDol (2007), and designed visual effects for Star Trek in 1996. Author or co-author of seven books, the most current one is Dragon's Domain: The Ultimate Dragon Painting Book from Impact Books.

Fri 10:00pm More Terrible SF/F Movies We Love

Sat 10:00am Judging a Book By Its Cover

Sat 1:00pm Monsters in Motion: Ray Harryhausen at Work

Sun 1:00pm Jack Arnold at 100

 

Genevieve Iseult Eldredge is the kind of girl you don't want to meet in a dark alley. Five foot nothing and red-haired with a temper to match, she holds a black belt in Goju-Ryu Karate and can craft words faster than a ninja throws shuriken. A panelist at Arisia, PhilCon, and Pi-Con, she writes high fantasy and fantasy erotica (under a pseudonym so her mom doesn't disown her). She is currently pursuing her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University. Her publications as "Kierstin Cherry, Semi-shy Erotica Writer" include the erotic vampire stories: "Taken," featured in Blood Surrender by Blue Moon Books; "Enslaved," appearing in the Circlet Press ebook Like Crimson Droplets; and "Graced," featured in Women of the Bite by Circlet Press ebooks and in print by Alyson Books.

Fri 5:30pm Parapsychology in Genre Fiction

Fri 7:00pm When Authors Critique the Critic

Fri 11:30pm The Vampire Zone

Sat 10:00am Reading: Eldredge, Longyear, & Pelland

Sat 1:00pm Autograph—Eldredge & Martin

Sat 4:00pm Writer's Clinic

Sat 10:00pm Mud and Blood: The Grittier Side of Fantasy

Sun 10:00am Ending the Epic

Sun 4:00pm Writing As Business

Sun 5:30pm Creating and Maintaining Your Public Persona

Sun 8:30pm Women in Gaming

Sun 10:00pm Consistent Magic Systems in Fantasy

Mon 11:30am Self-Objectification and the Geeky Girl

 

Paul Estin (a.k.a. "Happy Fun Paul") is a longtime SF fan with a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and an affinity for silly music. Becoming a filker was inevitable—he sings and plays guitar and other instruments; sometimes solo and sometimes in the bands "Dr. Snark" and "Don't Fret the Small Stuff". Among Paul's other interests (in alphabetical order) are 80's music, Andrew Sullivan, astronomy, bicycling, books, cats, cognitive science, comics, complexity, dynamism, folk music, freedom, maps, market solutions, modern fairy tales, movies, mu*ing, natural history, Neil Gaiman, non-fiction, nonstandard categories, reading, rock music, RPGs, science, surreality, Unitarian Universalism, and xenobiology. Ingredients of Happy Fun Paul include an unknown glowing substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space. DO NOT TAUNT HAPPY FUN PAUL!!!

Fri 11:30pm Pick, Pass, Play Open Filk

Sat 2:30pm Filk 101 Song Circle

Sat 7:00pm Mad Science Song Circle

Sun 4:00pm Funniest Songs Sing-Along

 

Rhea Ewing is a comic artist and illustrator. She is the artistic mind behind Urban Fey and also draws a number of short comics like "Clip!" She has 6 years of experience in drawing and self-publishing comics and graphic novels.

Sat 11:30am Webcomics 101

Sat 5:30pm Comics: Not How You Start, But How You Finish!

Sun 2:30pm Making Art on Commission

Sun 4:00pm Autograph—Hinds (4–4:30), Ewing & Long-Ewing

Sun 5:30pm Building the Perfect Beast: How Comics Get Made

 

Fabrisse is a fanfiction writer who lives in Washington DC. (It's one way to put her BA in English to good use.) In addition, she is an elected official in the District and has been arrested while protesting for District representation in Congress. She has been attending Arisia for over a decade.

Fri 10:00pm Asimov vs. Heinlein: Which Future?

Sat 12:00pm Tactile Tour of Art Show

Sat 8:30pm 10 Years of Smallville

Sun 1:00pm Arisia Lightning Talks

Sun 7:00pm How the Political Process Works—and Doesn't

Sun 10:00pm Fan Etiquette: How Not to Be That Fan

 

Kate Farb-Johnson is an all-around geek, especially interested in filk, gaming, mathematics, literary SF and other geeks.

Sat 10:00am Crochet & Knitting Basics

Sat 2:30pm Filk 101 Song Circle

Sun 10:00pm Bawdy Song Circle

 

Dr. Alex Feinman hacks hackers for a living; he provides usability support for designing software development and testing environments. His hobbies include all but one of the following: audio production, carpentry, glass-blowing, leather-working, miniatures gaming and painting, music, role-playing, sociology, and writing science fiction. His novel Duplicate is available for sale online and at Arisia.

Sat 5:30pm RPG Gaming: Rails vs. Sandbox

Sat 8:30pm Improvisation and Role-Playing

Sun 10:00am Reading: Dawn, Feinman, & Sawicki

Sun 4:00pm Miniatures in Gaming: Painting Tips & Techniques

 

Stuart Ferguson is a math teacher at a school for students with above average intelligence and emotional differences. He is also a youth sword instructor, so please ask him if you want your children to learn the knightly art of the sword, and a storyteller with 21 years' experience, although some would say the first ten years don't count because he wasn't over 18 yet.

Sat 8:30am Starting out with the Sword

Sat 7:00pm The Autism Spectrum

Sun 8:30am The Cutting Truth (Jr.)

Sun 10:00am Ending the Epic

Mon 8:30am The Pointy End Goes in the Other Guy

 

Adam Ferraro has been an anime fan since he was 16 years old and is one of the Founders of Anime Boston and Nauticon, the new 21+ fan convention held in Provincetown, MA.

Sun 7:00pm Surviving an Anime Con

Sun 10:00pm Anime Cons: Behind the Scenes

Mon 1:00pm Back in MY Day… Anime

 

Tony Finan—Tony is a scarred veteran of many a decade of con running, including spending over a decade running the film program at Philcon. He is also active with the Philadelphia Film Festival and Cinefest. He is an avid film and media fan specializing in Asian and British science fiction and horror.

Fri 7:00pm SF and Horror: Where Do You Draw the Line?

Fri 10:00pm More Terrible SF/F Movies We Love

Sun 5:30pm Coming Out

Sun 8:30pm Guilty Pleasures

 

Kristina Finan—I have been sewing and costuming since 1982, a Doctor Who fan since 1979, and a Science Fiction fan since I saw the first man walk on the moon, live. Now I attemped to write about it. Don't get me wrong, I still sew, keep a full-time job as a Custom Framer, and a part-time job keeping a husband.

Fri 7:00pm Hall Costumes: Everyday Wear for Conventions

Sat 1:00pm Modifying, Making, and Using Sewing Patterns

Sat 4:00pm Helpful Sewing References and Resources

 

Greg R. Fishbone is an author of galactic fiction for young readers, including the Galaxy Games series of humorous middle grade sci-fi novels from the Tu Books imprint at Lee & Low Books. Greg also serves as an Assistant Regional Advisor for the New England regions of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, is a two-time NESCBWI conference co-director, and founder of the Class of 2k7 debut author group. This summer he participated in the NASA and NSF-funded Launch Pad program at the University of Wyoming, intended to provide authors with better knowledge of astronomy and theories of science literacy. Visit his website at gfishbone.com for more information.

Sat 1:00pm Short Story Contest!

Sat 2:30pm Reading By Greg Fishbone

Sun 10:00am Humor in Writing

Sun 11:30am Autograph—Brennan, Fishbone, & Limoncelli

Sun 4:00pm Writing As Business

Mon 1:00pm It's Only a Game

 

Kaja Foglio

Fri 8:30pm Phil and Kaja Foglio Reading

Sat 1:00pm Inside Studio Foglio

Sun 1:00pm Q & A with Phil and Kaja Foglio

Sun 8:30pm Women in Gaming

 

Phil Foglio

Fri 8:30pm Phil and Kaja Foglio Reading

Sat 1:00pm Inside Studio Foglio

Sun 1:00pm Q & A with Phil and Kaja Foglio

Sun 4:00pm Play Poker for a Good Cause, with Phil Foglio

 

William Frank, aka "scifantasy," is a geek and lawyer, in roughly that order. Professionally, he specializes in intellectual property law, has interned for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Creative Commons, and was a computer programmer before he turned to evil—err, law. Fannishly, he has interests in pretty much everything, but the filkroom would be a good first place to look for him. Will was also on the reality television show Beauty and the Geek in 2007. (Guess which one he was.) This is Will's fourth Arisia, his second as a panelist.

Sun 1:00pm Copyright, Satire, and the Public Domain

Sun 4:00pm Copyright/Trademark 101

Mon 2:30pm Mainstream Fiction for Fen

 

William Freedman, author of Land That I Love and the forthcoming Mighty Mighty, is a writer of science fiction, dark fantasy and horror who injects humor, to greater or lesser degree, into his work. His novelette "Forever and Ever, Amen" appeared in the 2006 Spirit House chapbook and he spent two years as a slush editor for Abyss & Apex. He is a founding member of the Long Island-based LISciFi critique group and a perennial Literature-track panelist at the I-Con convention in Stony Brook, N.Y. He holds degrees in journalism and international business and his non-fiction work has appeared in Investor's Business Daily, Euromoney Books, Global Finance magazine, Treasury & Risk Management magazine, and many other business and financial news outlets both in print and online.

Fri 7:00pm When Authors Critique the Critic

Sat 8:30pm Death Personified

Sat 10:00pm Reading: Cambias, Freedman & Sklar

Sun 11:30pm "No Sh*t, There I Was!": Oral Storytelling

 

David J. Friedman is a practicing attorney that reviews legal and regulatory developments in intellectual property and cyberspace law as co-author of one nutshell book and two treatise chapters for Thompson Reuter's WestLaw publications. His past experience includes assisting artists and entrepreneurs with business and intellectual property law issues, internships at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, and pro bono work with the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. Outside the legal field, he has worked as a performing and visual artist for ten years at festivals, corporate events, and on broadcast media. David is proud to play with toys, argue, and throw things for a living. In the future, he hopes to focus his work on helping people mind their own businesses.

Fri 5:30pm SF/F, Prior Art, and Patents

Sat 10:00am Online Privacy for Kids

Sat 1:00pm Army of Davids: The Role of New Media

Sun 4:00pm Copyright/Trademark 101

Sun 11:30pm The Law, Risk Assessment, and Fun

 

Esther Friesner—2011 brings Spirit's Princess, my latest YA historical novel set in 3rd century Japan. To learn more, see my Princesses of Myth website: http://www.princessesofmyth.com. Still enjoying family, writing, travel (Hawai'i!), bears (Alaska!), chocolate, and housecritters.

Fri 7:00pm When Authors Critique the Critic

Sat 10:00am Avatar: The Last Airbender

Sat 11:30am Fantasy Before Fantasy, SF Before SF

Sat 2:30pm Autograph—Friesner & Longyear

Sat 8:30pm Death Personified

Sun 10:00am Humor in Writing

Sun 11:30am Myth and Folklore in Fantasy

 

Adam Fromm is a writer, musician, published crossword constructor, game developer, and multiple-year recipient of the prestigious "Guy Most Likely To Apologize Unnecessarily for Stuff" trophy. He has recently relocated from upstate New York to the Boston area, where he can be found in close proximity to his guitar, an overworked MacBook and that novel that he really is going to finish one of these days, honest.

Sun 1:00pm I've Got All the Balls in the Air, Now What?

 

Ed Fuqua is a Young Adult Librarian as well as being a writer, poet and swordsman. He has spent many years running comic book stores and has qualified for the National Poetry Slam Championships four times. His short story "Familiar Places" appears in the anthology Bites of Passion and his latest book is being published by Circlet Press. He is a performer and director at King Richard's Faire in Carver, MA.

Fri 10:00pm Intro to Anime's Adult Forms—Hentai, Yaoi

Fri 11:30pm The Vampire Zone

Sat 1:00pm How to Design a Fun Roleplaying Adventure

Sat 2:30pm The DC Reboot

Sat 8:30pm Improvisation and Role-Playing

Sun 10:00am The Leiji-verse

Sun 1:00pm Wonder Woman

Sun 2:30pm Introduction to Tabletop Roleplaying

Mon 10:00am New Worlds of YA

Mon 11:30am Manga—Is It Dying?

Mon 1:00pm Baby Vamps: The New World of Teen Vampires

 

Shana Fuqua has a BA in music. She is an ten year veteran of King Richard's Faire where she spent one year as assistant apprentice music director and this past year as an admin. assistant to the apprentice program. She is an experienced gamer, both video games and tabletop RPGs. Her many skills include knitting, crocheting, spinning, candlemaking, and balancing a stick on her head.

Fri 8:30pm BDSM 101: A Beginner's Guide

Fri 10:00pm BDSM 201: Hurting the Ones You Love

Sat 8:30pm Improvisation and Role-Playing

Sun 11:30am Great Games without the M Rating

 

Ken Gale's writing career started with sales to DC Comics and Warren Publishing in the 70's. He's editor and co-publisher of Dangerous Times and New Frontiers for Evolution Comics, a producer and host for two radio shows on WBAI-FM in NYC; one on the environment and one on comic books. He does miscellaneous arts and public affairs shows at many different time slots. He was a member of the Board of the Celtic League American Branch and a former math textbook writer. His environmental horror comic book story in Psychosis! #2 came out in 2008. www.comicbookradioshow.com

Sat 10:00am I'm Just Wild about Kirby

Sun 7:00pm Alternative Energy

Mon 10:00am Boston in SF/F

Mon 11:30am The History of Comics

Mon 1:00pm Birding 101

 

Jaime Garmendia is a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable where he writes, produces, publicizes, and markets independent comics of all genres. He is also the Comics Track manager this year.

Fri 7:00pm Elseworlds and What Ifs

Sat 2:30pm The DC Reboot

Sat 7:00pm Race, Gender & Disability Politics in Comics

Sat 8:30pm Self-Publishing Snares

Sun 2:30pm Disability and Fandom

Sun 10:00pm Religion and Kink

Mon 1:00pm Marketing Independent Comics

Mon 2:30pm The Dark Lords

 

Marty Gear is a past Arisia fan guest of honor. On top of making and wearing costumes, he had been competing, running, and judging costume competitions, as well as M/Cing convention masquerades, for more years than he likes to count. Along the way he has also run a few Costume Cons. In between costume "stuff" he reads Science Fiction, helps run S-F cons, and does tech. He pays for all this con stuff by negotiating contracts with the Federal Government. He really loves Arisia because he doesn't have to help run it.

Fri 7:00pm Hall Costumes: Everyday Wear for Conventions

Sun 5:30pm Judging and Being Judged in Costume Contests

Sun 7:00pm Costume Presentation: Is Humor Always Best?

 

Judy Gentry

Sat 10:00am Crochet & Knitting Basics

 

Greer Gilman's Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter's Tales won the 2010 Tiptree Award. Like her earlier novel Moonwise, it's set in a Northern mythscape, in a world where women turn the sky. Her Cloudish tales have also won a World Fantasy Award, a Crawford Award, and have been shortlisted for the Nebula and Mythopoeic Fantasy awards. Besides her two books, she has published other short work, poetry, and criticism. Her essay on "The Languages of the Fantastic" will appear in The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature. She likes to say she does everything James Joyce ever did, only backward and in high heels.

Fri 5:30pm Gender Limitations in SF/F

Fri 7:00pm The Exiled Character

Sat 11:30am Language & Linguistics in SF/F

Sat 2:30pm Fantasy and Horror in Shakespeare

Sat 7:00pm Reading: Costello, Gilman, & Martin

Sun 11:30am Myth and Folklore in Fantasy

Sun 4:00pm Diana Wynne Jones: In Memoriam

Sun 5:30pm Food Communicating Culture in Literature

Mon 11:30am Setting as Character

 

Brian Glass has been at NASA-Ames Research Center since 1987. He is the deputy Principal Investigator for the Icebreaker Mars drilling and life-detection mission proposal, is involved with current planning for the "Red Dragon" spinoff of Icebreaker (with SpaceX) and leads the Deployable Automation Technologies group at NASA-Ames. He has also led projects in automated reasoning (for Space Station and SETI), surface air traffic control (the Surface Movement Advisor), and research groups in intelligent, adaptive control systems. Brian has conducted field experiments at terrestrial Mars analog sites in the Arctic and other remote locations to field test equipment and instruments for future Mars geological exploration. He has scientific and technical publications in AI/robotics, impact crater geophysics, and space systems.

Sat 4:00pm Planetary Penetration: Drilling for Mars Life

Sun 4:00pm Poly 279: Poly Parenting

Sun 5:30pm Mars or Bust!

 

Sarah Goodman is an anthropologist by training and a gentlewoman by profession. Everything else is a hobby. Sarah, or one of her myriad personae, are likely to pop up anywhere on the space-time continuum, studying humankind and other semi-sapient and sapient races with the professed purpose of learning that which is necessary to increase the general satisfaction level of the multiverse. A fan since the late mimeocene, she is also active in various trans-temporal re-creation activities including her current claim to fame as costumer of the (semi-) nude theatrical extravaganza, Saucy French Postcards, at the Dickens Fair. When not otherwise caught up in saving the galaxy, or investigating other centuries, she pursues her interests in law, culture, religion, dance, clothing, good food, friends, cats, and people in general from Tranquility Base, her Beaux-Arts-and-Crafts bungalow by the Lake in Oakland, California.

Sat 10:00am Kamikaze Costuming

Sat 11:30am Fashion Throughout History

Sun 11:30am Getting Ideas for Costumes and Presentations

Sun 7:00pm Disabilities in Science Fiction

 

Deborah Goss

Sat 10:30pm Concert: The Proper Ladies

 

Anabel Graetz began performing as a teenager in Omaha, NE. She is half of the Victorian duo, The Proper Ladies; the creator and director of The Festival of Light & Song; had founded and directed the all-woman ensemble Laduvane in the 70's; has appeared off off Broadway in The Drunkard and on several Boston stages; studied vocal folk styles extensively; was a Fulbright Scholar in 1987–88; developed and taught the perennially popular course "Song for Non-Singers" at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education; honored to have recently played Rebecca Nurse in "Salem: Unmasking the Devil" on the National Geographic Channel; and currently teaches at the Lau Lapides Studio in Wellesley, MA.

Sat 10:30pm Concert: The Proper Ladies

Sun 11:30am Braiding Voices: Singing Rounds & Related Forms

Sun 5:30pm Singing for Non-Singers

Sun 8:30pm Delsarte Technique: Victorian Oratory

Sun 10:00pm Bawdy Song Circle

 

April Grant lives in Western Massachusetts. A folklorist and historian, she has published poetry in Strange Horizons and fiction in the UK magazine The Living Tradition. She enjoys singing and reciting poetry, both as a solo performer and with Faye Ringel as the supernatural music duo The Midnight Belles.

Sat 11:30am Fantasy Before Fantasy, SF Before SF

Sat 11:30pm The Moral Aesthetics of Steampunk

Sun 10:00am Traditional Stories, Modern Audiences

Sun 2:30pm Speculative Poetry Slam

Sun 5:30pm Food Communicating Culture in Literature

Sun 10:00pm Ethics of Science Fiction

Mon 11:30am Among the Ruins

Mon 1:00pm Baby Vamps: The New World of Teen Vampires

 

Glenn Grant's first short fiction collection Burning Days was released in 2011 by Nanopress; the title story was on the 2005 Tiptree Jury's Long List. Glenn's stories have appeared in Interzone, Northern Stars, ArrowDreams: An Anthology of Alternate Canadas, Island Dreams: Montreal Writers of the Fantastic, Year's Best SF 10, and (in French) in Solaris. With David G. Hartwell, he co-edited Northern Stars: The Anthology of Canadian Science Fiction (Tor, 1994) and a second volume, Northern Suns (Tor, 1999). He has written reviews and nonfiction for Science Fiction Eye, The Montreal Gazette, NYRSF, Science Fiction Studies, and bOING bOING. He edited and published three issues of the spec. fic. 'zine Edge Detector. He has written and drawn underground comics, illustrated SF RPGs, and been nominated for the Aurora Award twice. Born in London, Ontario, he now lives in Montreal. At the annual Burning Man festival his name is "Science." He blogs at glenngrant.ca.

Fri 11:30pm Reading: Grant, Nurenberg, & Wilk

Sat 1:00pm Our Grim Meat-Hook Future

Sat 2:30pm My Bizarre Writing Process

Sat 5:30pm SF Spaceship Design for Artists

 

Justine Graykin is a free-lance philosopher who writes undark, anti-dystopian SF (among other things) and is sustained by her deep and abiding faith in Science, as well as the belief that humor is the best anti-gravity device. She lives with 1 husband, 2 kids, 2 dogs, too many cats and a flock of chickens on 50 acres in New Hampshire, and appears regularly in the Concord Monitor newspaper. Boasting six degrees of separation from Harvard, Cornell and Dartmouth, she is a member of Broad Universe, serving as Broadsheet copy editor and BroadPodcast co-queen. Find her at justinegraykin.com. Science fiction doesn't have to be cold to be hard.

Sat 10:00am World Building 101

Sat 7:00pm The Autism Spectrum

Sat 8:30pm Humor in SF/F

Sun 11:30am UnCONventional Rapid-Fire Reading

Sun 4:00pm A "Self" or "No Self?" Neuroscience in SF

Sun 10:00pm Ethics of Science Fiction

Mon 10:00am The Many Faces of Frankenstein

 

Melina Gunnett—Tired of working for "the man," Melina is currently taking a couple of years off to write and travel. Her latest contribution can be found in the UnCONventional anthology published by Spencer Hill.

Fri 5:30pm Con-Going 101: Planning, Budgeting, & Surviving

Sat 2:30pm My Bizarre Writing Process

Sun 10:00am What is the Society for Creative Anachronism?

Sun 2:30pm On The Fringe

Sun 10:00pm Fan Etiquette: How Not to Be That Fan

Sun 11:30pm "No Sh*t, There I Was!": Oral Storytelling

 

Dr. Abby Hafer was born at Cape Canaveral, where her father was part of the U.S. space program. She grew up living lots of places in the U.S, experiencing the South, Midwest, Washington D.C, and New England all before age 10. She graduated in biology at Swarthmore College, then went to UCLA. She finished her graduate work at Oxford University, where she earned a D.Phil. in zoology. Between UCLA and Oxford she worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service on a Japanese fishing ship in the Bering Sea. While on board, she won a pushups contest with the ship's officers. After Oxford, she did research on sleep and circadian rhythms, then took a job at Curry College where she teaches Human Anatomy & Physiology. She has also done research on respiratory physiology at Harvard School of Public Health. She enjoys outdoor sports and has traveled widely, including recent trips to Transylvania, Alaska and China. She is married, has two children, and lives in Bedford, Massachusetts.

Sun 11:30am Intelligent Design: Debunked by its Own Words

Sun 1:00pm Extremophiles

Sun 8:30pm Our Weird Biology

 

Andrea Hairston was a math/physics major in college until she did special effects for a show; then she ran off to the theatre and became an artist. She is the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre and has created original productions with music, dance, and masks for over 30 years. She is the L. Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre & Afro American Studies at Smith College. Her plays have been produced at Yale Rep, Rites and Reason, the Kennedy Center, StageWest, and on Public Radio and Television. She has translated plays by Michael Ende and Kaca Celan from German to English. "Griots of the Galaxy," a short story, appears in So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Visions of the Future. Her first novel, Mindscape, won the Carl Brandon Parallax Award and was shortlisted for the Phillip K Dick and Tiptree Awards. Her latest novel, Redwood and Wildfire, was published by Aqueduct Press in 2011.

Fri 5:30pm Gender Limitations in SF/F

Sat 10:00am Can You Like Literary SF Without Being a Snob?

Sat 7:00pm How Not To Suppress Women's Writing

Sat 8:30pm SF vs. the Body

Sun 1:00pm Reading: Cole, Hairston, & Silverman

Sun 4:00pm Avoiding CultureFail

 

Steven Hammond—Communities of all kinds are important to Steve, from the patients at patientslikeme.com, where Steve is the Director of Engineering, to the Town of Holden, where Steve serves on the School Board and volunteers as a space educator in local schools. Steve supports community, open source software development, and patronizes Kobold Quarterly's community game development. Steve has years of game mastering experience and was recently a top 10 finalist in Kobold Quarterly's "King of the Monster" contest.

Sat 11:30pm GM Helpline

Sun 4:00pm Miniatures in Gaming: Painting Tips & Techniques

Sun 5:30pm Technology and the GM

Sun 7:00pm How the Political Process Works—and Doesn't

Mon 10:00am Painted Miniatures Contest

 

Forest Handford is a fire artist from Newport, Rhode Island. Forest works as a supervisor at a medical software company. While not at work he's bringing his family to corn mazes, conventions, and burning man events.

Sat 10:00am All About Poi

Sat 5:30pm Video Production and Distribution

Sun 10:00am The Who, the Whole Who, and Nothing but the Who

Sun 7:00pm Doctor Who Companions

Sun 8:30pm The Future of Religion

Mon 8:30am Pirate Time!

Mon 10:00am Dungeon and Mazes

 

Glenn Hauman has twenty years of experience in publishing, including work for DC Comics, Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Apple Comics, and has worked as a writer, graphic designer, editor, photo retoucher, CD-ROM producer, story consultant for films, comic book colorist, and radio show host. His latest Star Trek e-book, Creative Couplings, has been getting press coverage for its portrayal of the first Klingon-Jewish wedding. He's written other licensed tie-in works for X-Men and Farscape, and urban fantasy for Baen Books. A e-publishing pioneer with BiblioBytes, he's now part of e-publishers ComicMix (http://www.comicmix.com) and Crazy 8 Press (http://www.crazy8press). He also webmasters for PeterDavid.net, BobGreenberger.com, and EstherFriesner.com. You can find out more at http://www.glennhauman.com.

Sat 11:30am Incorporating Photography into Art

Sat 5:30pm Comics: Not How You Start, But How You Finish!

Mon 1:00pm Marketing Independent Comics

 

Jeff Hecht is a freelance science and technology writer, a correspondent for the weekly New Scientist and a contributing editor to Laser Focus World. His short fiction has appeared in Analog, Asimov's, Interzone, Odyssey, Nature, Twilight Zone, and several anthologies including Year's Best Horror Stories and Great American Ghost Stories. His non-fiction has appeared in many other magazines, including Optics & Photonics News, Omni, Earth, Analog, Cosmos, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Technology Review. His books include Understanding Fiber Optics (Pearson/Prentice Hall), Understanding Lasers (IEEE Press/Wiley), Beam: the Race to Make the Laser and City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics (both Oxford Univerity Press). He holds a B.S. in electronic engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

Sat 10:00am So, What's New?

Sat 8:30pm The Race to the Moon

Sun 1:00pm Extremophiles

Sun 5:30pm "But That's Not Science Fiction, Is It?"

 

Karl G. Heinemann—Both science and SF have been core passions of Karl's since early childhood. And his bio-family nurtured strong habits of analyzing and predicting "the world around him" and "thinking for himself." These traits led Karl to formal education in physics, astronomy, and epistemology. Other interests include modeling and simulation of economic and social systems, history, SF-based gaming, polyamory, and mythology viewed as entertainment, a cultural attribute, and psychological drive. During this period of economic uncertainty and transition, Karl questions the viability/sustainability of "The Great American Dream," and celebrates the SF community as a place to articulate and examine possible paths and visions for adjustment and improvement.

Fri 10:00pm Asimov vs. Heinlein: Which Future?

Sat 10:00am I'm Just Wild about Kirby

Sat 5:30pm RPG Gaming: Rails vs. Sandbox

Sun 8:30pm Poly in Sci-Fi

Sun 10:00pm Marvel Movies

Mon 8:30am Pirate Time!

Mon 10:00am Star Wars at 35

Mon 2:30pm Science Fiction as Mainstream Meme

 

James T. Henderson Jr—An avid reader of science fiction and fantasy since the age of 7 and a rabid gamer since the age of 10, Jimmy has been a gamer and fan for most of his life. As an adult, Jimmy pursued a career in Mechanical and Structural Engineering, but is dedicated to the upbringing of the next generation of Fan (his daughter). He remains a Wargamer, costumer, modeler, roleplayer, LARPer, and most of all a reader. He attempts to divide his time to enjoy both Parenthood and the insanity called Fandom, and mostly succeeds.

Sat 11:30am What Every Parent Should Know About Anime

Sat 5:30pm SF Spaceship Design for Artists

Sat 7:00pm Man-in-the-Machine Anime

Sun 5:30pm Technology and the GM

Mon 10:00am Star Wars at 35

 

Woodrow Hill is one the few male Raqs Sharqi artists—better known as "belly" dancers—in the world, having started over 20 years ago. His day job as a programmer with a focus on security issues gives him a oddly optimistic view of the future, one fueled by his very first memory; watching Star Trek on a black-and-white TV set. This reality-beaten optimism also leaks into his strong political activism, having been invested in Civil Rights, Feminist, and related issues as well as working for politicians as varied as Strom Thurmond and Barack Obama (the latter of which he liked significantly more!) He also looks back into the past as a member of the Society of Creative Anachronism, specializing on researching Medieval Era "belly dance" and 15th Century Ottoman culture, and into the future via interests in broader layperson science activities, focusing on issues around Evolution.

Sat 11:30am Fashion Throughout History

Sat 5:30pm Sexual Harassment and Assault in Fandom

Sat 7:00pm Race, Gender & Disability Politics in Comics

Sat 10:00pm Social Media

Sun 10:00am What is the Society for Creative Anachronism?

Sun 1:00pm Wonder Woman

Sun 4:00pm Avoiding CultureFail

Sun 8:30pm Your Kink is OK!

Mon 2:30pm The Relevance of Livejournal

 

Gareth Hinds

Fri 5:30pm Tell the Truth: Non-Fiction Comics

Sat 10:00am Judging a Book By Its Cover

Sat 11:30am Fantasy Before Fantasy, SF Before SF

Sat 4:00pm Gareth Hinds: Work and Commentary

Sun 1:00pm Art Show Docent Tour with Gareth Hinds

Sun 4:00pm Autograph—Hinds (4–4:30), Ewing & Long-Ewing

Sun 5:30pm Building the Perfect Beast: How Comics Get Made

Mon 10:00am Painted Miniatures Contest

 

James Hinsey—I'm a life long lover of Science Fiction, Fantasy, books, movies, tv-shows, anime, 80s music, women, root beer, chocolate, Hawaii, Japan, and family. I am half-Japanese, a reader, Potterhead, Trekker, Browncoat, Costumer, book-collector, model-maker, videographer, publicator, con-goer, RISFC member, Sci-Fi Journal cohost, Psi Upsilon brother, RPI alum, former naval officer, brother, son, uncle, husband, and father of two girls. I am SamuraiX47.

Sat 10:00am Harry Potter in the Future

Sun 11:30am The Generation and Utilization of Steam

Sun 2:30pm Harry Potter, My Love for You Will Never Die

Sun 4:00pm Harry Potter: The Films

 

Steven Hirsch has been playing swords for 5 years now, first with the Higgins and now teaching at his own school Kunstbruder, the Brotherhood of the Art of Defense. Since he started playing with swords he has stopped having other hobbies, just variations on playing with swords like making Medieval clothes and armour or researching Medieval Combat. He is also studying to be a nurse—which may be useful given his hobby.

Fri 7:00pm "Reclaiming the Blade" and Q&A

Sat 2:30pm The Cutting Truth of Medieval Swords

Sat 3:30pm Free Fencing

Sun 5:30pm Grappling at the Sword

 

By day, Sarah Hodge-Wetherbe appears to be a mild-mannered Youth Services Paralibrarian in Springfield, MA, but she moonlights as a panelist and presenter who tours New England and lectures on a variety of geek culture topics. She's presented at Connecticon, Anime Boston, Bakuretsu Con, Conbust, The Norman Rockwell Museum, and more schools and libraries than she can shake her collection of Firefly DVDs at.

Sat 11:30am What Every Parent Should Know About Anime

Sat 4:00pm Female Fandom in Comics

Sat 5:30pm Anime for Kids

Sun 11:30am No Capes! Non-Superhero Comics

Sun 7:00pm Surviving an Anime Con

Sun 10:00pm Anime Cons: Behind the Scenes

Mon 11:30am MST3K The Panel

 

John C. F. Hodges has organized Arisia's blood drives for the Heinlein Society. He's a donor himself, having given away 44 gallons of his own blood and a kidney. He's been a public representative to the board of directors of the United Network for Organ Sharing, a math & science tutor for gifted students, a climate scientist, a real estate appraiser, and a doodlebug (petroleum exploration geophysicist—we blow things up). He's been a fan since reading Farmer in the Sky when he was eight.

Sun 4:00pm The Near Future of Organ Transplants

Sun 5:30pm Bioethics in Today's World

 

Merav Hoffman is a New York-based songwriter and performer. She is a founding member of the band Lady Mondegreen and in her spare time she edits books, musicals and poetry, as well as writing her own. She works in publishing and IT.

Sat 11:30pm Pick, Pass, Play Open Filk cont.

Sun 11:30am Myth and Folklore in Fantasy

Sun 1:00pm Alice "Badger" Washburn Memorial Filk Sing

Sun 4:00pm Diana Wynne Jones: In Memoriam

Sun 11:30pm Pick, Pass, Play Open Filk cont.

 

Melissa Honig maintains a calendar of sci-fi and fantasy events in New England on her blog, http://nescifievents.org/. She is also the list administrator for the New England Browncoats. She enjoys steampunk, costuming, weird crafts, and watching old TV shows from her childhood via Netflix.

Sat 10:00am Surviving Your First Masquerade

Sun 11:30am Steampunk: Boom or Bust?

Mon 2:30pm Snag It, Bag It, and Tag It

 

Heidi Hooper, Believe it or Not, is also known as "The Dryer Lint Lady" for her whimsical art, which can be seen in galleries around the country as well as in Ripley's Museums and in their latest book. Heidi received her bachelor's in sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University and her master's in metalsmithing at Massachusetts College of Art. Once cancer took most of her right arm, she had to find new ways to express herself and found clay and dryer lint (not together). Her web page is www.HeidiHooper.com. With her husband Michael A. Ventrella, she helped found modern live action fantasy roleplaying games in America and currently runs the Alliance LARP (www.AllianceLARP.com). She loves the pitter patter of little feet (she has four cats).

Fri 8:30pm Introduction to LARPing

Sat 1:00pm Attaching This to That

Sat 4:00pm Art as Business

Sat 5:30pm Crafts for Adults: Working with Clay

Sun 11:30am Painting and Costuming for Dolls

 

Wil Howitt is a doctor of computer science and electrical engineering, specializing in physical acoustics and psychoacoustics. He has worked at MIT and BU, developing human auditory system models and speech recognition systems. He also enjoys drumming, dancing, and playing didjeridu and other rhythmic instruments. He teaches Taoist martial arts, rides a black BMW motorcycle, fences with a German longsword, and looks around a lot.

Fri 5:30pm Science Friction

Sat 11:30am Language & Linguistics in SF/F

Sun 4:00pm A "Self" or "No Self?" Neuroscience in SF

Sun 8:30pm Our Weird Biology

 

Crystal Huff spends her time saving the world and chasing down conventioneers. She was convention chair of Arisia 2011, and will be convention chair of Readercon 2012. Alignment: Chaotic Good.

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Sun 5:30pm Arisia Corporate Meeting

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Walter Hunt has been writing for most of his life. His first four Dark Wing novels were published by Tor Books. His novel A Song In Stone appeared in 2008, dealing with the mystery of Rosslyn Chapel and the Templars. Current projects include an 18th century alternate history novel, a book on mesmerism in the Victorian age, and a sequel to A Song In Stone that will answer some questions and ask some others. He has a background in history, with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and he speaks two other languages (German and Spanish). A member of the Masonic Fraternity, Walter H. Hunt has served as Master of two different Lodges in Massachusetts. He is a devoted baseball fan and board gamer; his first published game is scheduled for a 2010 release by Rio Grande Games. He has been married for more than half of his life, and he and his wife have one daughter who is a product of their affection and their unusual joint sense of humor.

Fri 7:00pm Reading: Hunt, Kirschbaum, & Stallman

Sat 11:30am Autograph—Hunt & Peeler

Sat 10:00pm Politics in Science Fiction

Sun 4:00pm The Hobbit

Mon 2:30pm Why not 1812?

 

Jen Hunter, 40, is a professional organizer and artist in Medford, Massachusetts. Once a writer and editor, with four books on NeoPaganism to her credit, she decided to make a career out of what she did for fun on her writing breaks. She specializes in working with unconventional people, helping them learn that creative does not have to mean disorganized. Jen is also a collage artist, using found objects, and has exhibited in several shows. She lives with her housemates, boyfriend, 11-year-old daughter, two cats, and a dog. Her website is at www.jenniferhunter.com.

Sat 10:00am Play with Clay

Mon 10:00am Collaging with Found Objects

Mon 11:30am Improv Theater Games For Kids

 

Kara Hurvitz

Sat 8:00pm Sassafrass & Stranger Ways Concert

 

Sandra Hutchinson has been reading and writing science fiction since she discovered the Oz books at age 6. A proofreading supervisor at a textbook publishing company, she is also an ordained priest in the Independent Catholic Christian Church, with a master's degree in theology. She has published short stories in a number of different publications, including 365 Scary Stories.

Fri 5:30pm The Heinlein Juveniles

Sun 8:30pm The Future of Religion

 

Elaine Isaak dropped out of art school to found Curious Characters, designing original stuffed animals and small-scale sculptures, and to follow her bliss: writing. She is the author of The Singer's Crown (Eos, 2005) and sequels, The Eunuch's Heir (Eos, 2006) and The Bastard Queen (Swimming Kangaroo, 2010). Her new dark historical fantasy series will be starting in 2011 with DAW Books under a pseudonym (shhh!). A mother of two, Elaine also enjoys rock climbing, taiko (Japanese drumming), weaving and exotic cooking—when she can scrape the time together. Visit www.ElaineIsaak.com to read sample chapters and find out why you do not want to be her hero.

Sat 10:00am World Building 101

Sat 11:30am Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading

Sat 4:00pm Writer's Clinic

Sat 5:30pm Crafts for Adults: Working with Clay

Sat 7:00pm Plot and Structure

Sun 1:00pm Point of View

 

Felicitas Ivey is the pen name of a very frazzled helpdesk drone at a Boston area University. She's an eternal student even with a BA in Anthropology, Classical Studies and History, since free classes are part of the benefits. Felicitas writes Urban Fantasy and Horror of a Lovecraftian nature—monsters beyond space and time that think humans are the tastiest things in the multiverse—that is passing as MalexMale Romance. She divides her free time between writing and slowly working her way through her yarn stash.

Sat 2:30pm City Design—Ancient and Modern

Sat 10:00pm Yin and Yang: Yuri and Yaoi

Sun 10:00am The Leiji-verse

Sun 2:30pm History in Japanese Anime and Manga

Mon 2:30pm Why not 1812?

 

Alexander Jablokov—Alex's most recent novel is Brain Thief, a fast-paced AI-hunting adventure, out from Tor since January 2010. His most recent story, "Comfort of Strangers," will appear in F&SF. He is the author of five other novels, including Carve The Sky, Nimbus, and Deepdrive, and a number of short stories. He lives in Cambridge, Mass.

Fri 5:30pm The Heinlein Juveniles

Sat 1:00pm Our Grim Meat-Hook Future

Sun 10:00am Traditional Stories, Modern Audiences

 

Victoria Janssen's newest novel is The Duke and the Pirate Queen, from Harlequin Spice. She can also be found blogging on romance and young adult at Heroes & Heartbreakers and mysteries at The Criminal Element. Her novel-length erotica also includes The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover; it's been translated into French and German. The Moonlight Mistress, features the early days of World War One and werewolves, and has been translated into Italian. Find out more at http://www.victoriajanssen.com. She twitters here: http://twitter.com/victoriajanssen.

Fri 5:30pm Schools for Magicians

Fri 8:30pm Paneling 101: A Primer

Sat 5:30pm Anne McCaffrey Memorial Panel

Sun 1:00pm Point of View

 

Alex Jarvis has written for Wired's "Geekdad," is a former editor for The Consumerist, and writes for the Chronicle of Higher Education's "ProfHacker," though he is currently editor-in-chief of Spandexless. He wants to write comics and graphic novels professionally one day. He hates vowels.

Fri 5:30pm Tell the Truth: Non-Fiction Comics

Fri 7:00pm Elseworlds and What Ifs

Sat 2:30pm The DC Reboot

Sun 11:30am No Capes! Non-Superhero Comics

Sun 7:00pm How to Write a Comic

 

Nicole L. M. Jurkowski—As an artist herself, Nicole places a high value on client education as to their rights when it comes to federal Copyright and Trademark law, as well as the business of making a client's art more than a private passion. She is an advocate for encouraging artists to making that great next step into commerce, including content licensing and the incorporation of small business ventures.

Sun 1:00pm Copyright, Satire, and the Public Domain

Sun 4:00pm Copyright/Trademark 101

 

Rachel Kadel-Garcia is a bookbinder and book and paper conservator in private practice in Medford, MA. She holds an MA in Conservation Studies from the University of Sussex and a postgraduate diploma in Conservation of Books and Library Materials from West Dean College.

Sat 10:00am Play with Clay

Sat 1:00pm Attaching This to That

Sat 2:30pm Little Homes

Sat 4:00pm Book Creation Workshop

Sun 10:00am Origami Fun

 

Raven Kaldera is a transgendered intersex activist and Pagan shaman who has written 28 books and innumerable articles and stories. His "hub" website is www.ravenkaldera.org. 'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.

Fri 10:00pm The Nature of Gender: Past, Present & Future

Sat 7:00pm Poly 201: Theory and Practice

Sat 8:30pm Self-Publishing Snares

Sun 7:00pm Building a Poly Home

Sun 10:00pm Religion and Kink

Mon 10:00am Queer SF&F

 

Steve Kanaras is the publisher of Free Lunch Comics, and serves as a writer and editor as well. His works include Only in Whispers, Pork N' Beans, Beyond the Kuiper Belt, and the upcoming Hostile Universe.

Sun 7:00pm How to Write a Comic

Sun 10:00pm Ethics of Science Fiction

Mon 11:30am The History of Comics

Mon 1:00pm Marketing Independent Comics

 

Catherine Kane is a professional psychic, published author, Reiki master/teacher, bard, artist, enthusiastic student of the Universe, maker of very bad puns, songwriter and overachiever, amongst other things… She loves empowering people to have their best lives possible. Visit Catherine and her husband, Starwolf, at Foresight on Facebook, www.ForesightYourPsychic.com, and www.ForesightYourCtPsychic.wordpress.com.

Sat 4:00pm Designing A Memorable Role-Playing Character

Sat 10:00pm Kolchak the Night Stalker

Sun 2:30pm Autograph—Kane & Kaynak

Sun 8:30pm Women in Gaming

Sun 10:00pm Reading: Kane & Vanderhooft

Sun 11:30pm "No Sh*t, There I Was!": Oral Storytelling

Mon 1:00pm The Plight of the Older Gamer

 

Sean Kane—Witch, Shaman, Professional Psychic, Metaphysical Engineer, and Reiki Master. Starwolf posses a vast, ecclectic store of knowledge, both Esoteric and Exoteric.

Sat 2:30pm Steampunk and Costuming

Sun 10:00am Disaster Preparedness for Fans

Sun 8:30pm The Future of Religion

 

Melissa Kaplan is a longtime attendee of cons, gamer, watcher and reader of sci-fi/fantasy and general geek. Past endeavors include two blogathons, one nanowrimo, and participating in panels at Pi-con and Arisia. She spends far too much of her disposable income on steampunk costume pieces, wirework jewelry, and books. She freely admits that her qualifications as a panelist are restricted to love of sci-fi/fantasy and her ability to ramble semi-intelligently about geeky topics on command.

Fri 5:30pm Con-Going 101: Planning, Budgeting, & Surviving

Fri 10:00pm BDSM 201: Hurting the Ones You Love

Sat 10:00pm Negotiation and BDSM

Sun 5:30pm Coming Out

 

Jeff Kaufman is a musician, gamer, and singer living in Somerville MA. He writes a blog (www.jefftk.com) and plays contra dance music with the Free Raisins (FreeRaisins.com).

Fri 7:00pm Contra Dance

 

Kate Kaynak was born in New Jersey but was able to escape. Her degree from Yale says she was a psych major, but her true senior project was a bawdy songbook for the Marching Band. After serving a 5-year sentence in graduate school, she started teaching psychology around the world for the University of Maryland. While in Turkey, she started up a conversation with a handsome stranger in an airport—and ended up marrying him. Kaynak now lives in New Hampshire where she enjoys reading, writing, and fighting crime with her amazing superpowers. Her YA paranormal series—the Ganzfield books—include Minder, Adversary, and Legacy. They tell the story of Maddie, a 16-year-old telepath training at a secret facility. It's not exactly a nurturing place. Every social interaction carries the threat of mind-control; a stray thought can burn a building to the ground, and people's nightmares don't always stay in their own heads. But it's still better than New Jersey. www.Ganzfield.com

Fri 5:30pm Parapsychology in Genre Fiction

Sat 10:00pm The Mind of the Nerd: Psychology and Fandom

Sun 11:30am UnCONventional Rapid-Fire Reading

Sun 2:30pm Autograph—Kane & Kaynak

Sun 7:00pm Disabilities in Science Fiction

Mon 10:00am New Worlds of YA

 

Jeff Keller—I'm a Boston-area song session leader and occasional filker. I've run the Arisia chantey sing from its inception and various one-off sessions. I'm also a vintage dancer, the founder of the local vintage dance band (the Ad Hoc Quadrille and Dance Band), and sometimes a member of Arisia technical crew.

Sun 2:30pm Rousing Chorus Songs

 

Toni L.P. Kelner is the Agatha Award-winning author of the forthcoming Family Skeleton mysteries, the Where are they now? mysteries, and the Laura Fleming mysteries. She has also co-edited with Charlaine Harris four successful fantasy/mystery anthologies, all of which have debuted on the New York Times bestseller list; their most recent is Home Improvement: Undead Edition. Kelner was awarded an RT Career Achievement Award, and her short stories have been nominated for the Agatha, the Anthony, the Macavity, and the Derringer awards. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, fellow author Stephen P. Kelner, Jr., and their two daughters.

Sat 10:00am Autograph—Kelner, & Kirschbaum

Sat 11:30am Character Building

Sun 10:00am Humor in Writing

 

Angela Kessler

Sat 10:00am Crochet & Knitting Basics

Sat 1:00pm Chantey Sing

Sun 2:30pm Rousing Chorus Songs

 

David Kessler—Co-Producer and Stage Manger of the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Writer, Logistician, and professional Generalist, studying odd ideas and skills, from calligraphy to juggling, sailing to fire eating, Taichi to Lewis Carroll, and whisky to singing. (www.ouphrontis.com)

Sat 1:00pm Chantey Sing

Sat 2:30pm Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes

Sun 8:30pm Good Story Songs

 

Jeremy H. Kessler lives in Greater Boston where he is an instigator. He is also a singer, morris dancer, renaissance dancer, musician, cheesemaker, drinker, and co-developer of the only known kosher boar's head anywhere. As a singer, he has been deeply involved in local sings of various traditional sorts, including chantey sings and pub sings. As a morris dancer, he has been the squire of the Commonwealth Morris Men for longer than he cares to remember. He is also the musician for Pipe Dream and the squire of the only Greater Boston morris team to dance the AntiMorris. He has danced the AntiMorris for Terry Pratchett himself, and is quite proud that said author described it—in Wintersmith's author's note—as "a bit creepy".

Sun 2:30pm Rousing Chorus Songs

 

Daniel M. Kimmel is a film critic and author. His reviews and essays can be found at NorthShoreMovies.net, the Jewish Advocate, Clarkesworld, the Sci-Fi Movie Page, and Space and Time Magazine. He teaches film at Suffolk University. His latest book is Jar Jar Binks Must Die… and other Observations about Science Fiction Movies.

Fri 5:30pm E.T. at 30

Fri 7:00pm What Makes a Good Panel

Sat 11:30am The Movie Year in Review

Sat 2:30pm Reading: Bowker, Doyle, & Kimmel

Sat 4:00pm Autograph—Doyle & Kimmel

Sun 7:30pm Trailer Park

Mon 1:00pm The Alien as Metaphor

 

Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein—Born in 1967, she has not yet managed to shuffle off the coil mortal, though not for want of trying, apparently. Catt Kingsgrave writes (fiction, music, poetry, recipes, and the occasional political rant), draws, paints, sings, dances, cooks, builds and repairs houses, and occasionally makes an outright fool of herself when confronted with her intellectual heroes. She also has Opinions. No, wait! Don't run!

Fri 5:30pm Corsets, Hoops, & Other Undergarments

Fri 7:00pm The Exiled Character

Sat 11:30am Character Building

Sat 1:00pm Magickal Traditions: A Review

Sat 5:30pm Sexual Harassment and Assault in Fandom

Sat 10:00pm Mud and Blood: The Grittier Side of Fantasy

Sun 2:30pm Use Your Words: Dialogoue, Prose, and Tone

Sun 7:00pm Reading:D'Entremont, Kingsgrave-Ernstein& Peeler

Sun 10:00pm Fan Etiquette: How Not to Be That Fan

Sun 11:30pm "No Sh*t, There I Was!": Oral Storytelling

Mon 10:00am Collaborating Couples

Mon 11:30am Setting as Character

Mon 2:30pm Mainstream Fiction for Fen

 

Ken Kingsgrave-Ernstein is absolutely not the Super Hero Common Sense Man. He does not spend his days saving various portions of Corporate America from itself. He also does not recover data structures in need. He does, however, enjoy reading Science Fiction and the occasional foray into Fantasy. He also enjoys speculating on how to survive the Zombie Apocalypse with skills he learned surviving the Cold War.

Fri 10:00pm BDSM 201: Hurting the Ones You Love

Sat 1:00pm Our Grim Meat-Hook Future

Sat 2:30pm City Design—Ancient and Modern

Sat 10:00pm Negotiation and BDSM

Mon 10:00am Collaborating Couples

 

Andrew Kirschbaum—Author of Monday and the Murdered Man and the iPhone multiple-choice, steampunk adventure "Verdigris," as well as the author and GM of over 100 LARPs. A 30-year veteran tabletop gamer, Co-Owner of 3 Trolls Games & Puzzles, and nerd-about-town.

Fri 7:00pm Reading: Hunt, Kirschbaum, & Stallman

Fri 11:30pm The Vampire Zone

Sat 10:00am Autograph—Kelner, & Kirschbaum

Sat 4:00pm Designing A Memorable Role-Playing Character

Mon 2:30pm The Dark Lords

 

Amanda Koval

Sat 1:00pm Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls

Sat 10:00pm Yin and Yang: Yuri and Yaoi

Sun 11:30am Painting and Costuming for Dolls

 

Rick Kovalcik—Arisia Corporate President and past Arisia Conchair.

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Sun 5:30pm Arisia Corporate Meeting

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Marek Kozubal started looking at satellites in 1995 while working as an intern at the Boston Museum of Science. His development of software to track and image satellites helped jumpstart the amateur telescopic satellite-watching field. After moving to the Clay Center Observatory in 2001, he continued developing imaging and tracking software and hardware, which was used to image the International Space Station as it was built, and in cooperation with the NASA HYTHERM program, to image the Space Shuttle during reentry on STS-131 and STS-134. Data obtained from his reentry imaging will help improve computer models for reentering bodies, which will be used to develop more efficient heat shields for future missions. He has long been an avid amateur astronomer, and as a professional astronomer he has worked on diverse projects such as imaging Mercury, studying asteroids, and observing reentering satellites including ESA's ATV-1 and Japan's Hayabusa sample-return mission.

Fri 8:30pm Sky Searching

 

Ellen Kranzer has been attending science fiction conventions for over 30 years and making music even longer. Filk lets her mix the two hobbies. Ellen is a founding member of M.A.S.S. F.I.L.C. and the club's current treasurer. She has been involved in planning numerous conventions both in and out of fandom.

Fri 10:00pm NESFA Songbook Sing-a-long

Sat 2:30pm Filk 101 Song Circle

Sun 11:30am Braiding Voices: Singing Rounds & Related Forms

Sun 10:00pm Pick, Pass, Play Open Filk

Sun 11:30pm Pick, Pass, Play Open Filk cont.

 

Paul Kraus started working with Theater and Entertainment Technology in 1979 and has not stopped since. In the mid 1980's he combined Tech with Conventions by working Tech Support at Boskones and Noreascon 3. Since 1995 he has attended and worked on all but one Arisia. His WorldCon experience includes working Sound for Bucconeer in 1998, Deputy TD for the Millennium Philcon in 2001, Video for ConJose in 2002, Sound for Torcon 3 in 2003, and Technical Director for Noreascon 4 in 2004. Recently Paul has been working on the Sound System design for Schenectady Light Opera Company's newly acquired building (an old church) and Theatrical Sound Design for "Frankenstein: A New Musical" at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and "Leading Ladies" at Schenectady Civic Players. He is currently Sound Designer for Arisia 2012.

Sat 11:30am Sound for Events 101

Sun 11:30am Planning for Sound at Conventions

 

Bob Kuhn is a fantasy and science fiction voiceover artist. Professional credits include titles by: Mike Resnick, Carl Sagan, YA author William Sleator, Jeff Carver, and recently Thomas Burnett Swann. (Plus audiobooks of history and historical fiction, true crime and mystery.) Bob has also provided fantasy MMORP NPC game voices and hosted Boskone's Fantasy and Science Fiction Pictionary. He may be the only actor who has played two different Tolkien Dragons.

Fri 5:30pm Schools for Magicians

Fri 7:00pm The Exiled Character

Fri 11:30pm When Series Jump the Dragon

Sat 2:30pm Fantasy and Horror in Shakespeare

Sat 5:30pm Video Production and Distribution

Sat 8:30pm Improvisation and Role-Playing

Sun 10:00am Traditional Stories, Modern Audiences

Sun 11:30am SF/Fantasy Pictionary

Sun 4:00pm Diana Wynne Jones: In Memoriam

Mon 2:30pm The Dark Lords

 

Bettina Kurkoski is the creator/writer/artist of My Cat Loki, published by TOKYOPOP Inc… In 2003 she entered TOKYOPOP's Rising Stars of Manga Vol. 2 competition, placing as a runner-up, her work "Axis Lumen" published in the winners' compilation. My Cat Loki—volumes 1 & 2 now available from TOKYOPOP—is Bettina's first professionally published series. She has also contributed the convention exclusive cover for Star Trek: TOS Manga Vol. 1, cover and story art for Star Trek: TOS Manga Vol. 2, story art for Star Trek: The Next Generation Vol. 1, story and art for the Princess Ai/My Cat Loki crossover story in Princess Ai: Encounters, and cover and story art for Warriors: Rise of Scourge and Seekers manga series based on the best-selling novel series; all available from TOKYOPOP and Harper Collins. You can see more of her artwork at www.dreamworldstudio.net.

Sat 10:00am Drawing Manga for Beginners

Sat 1:00pm Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls

Sat 5:30pm Manga & Anime Art Workshop

Sat 10:00pm Yin and Yang: Yuri and Yaoi

Sun 4:00pm Anime as Art

Mon 8:30am Cartooning & Comic Creating

Mon 11:30am Manga—Is It Dying?

 

David Larochelle grew up in the D.C. area but moved up to Cambridge in 2004 where he currently resides. His involvement with fandom began when he joined the William & Mary Science Fiction and Fantasy Club (SKIFFY). He served as Vice President and was named Senator for Life upon gradation. He's worked extensively in information security and is the co-author of Splint, an Open Source tool for detecting security vulnerabilities in C programs. However, more recently he's focused on understanding and building the Internet rather than attacking and defending it. He currently works for the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Fri 5:30pm SF/F, Prior Art, and Patents

Sat 1:00pm Army of Davids: The Role of New Media

Sat 2:30pm Steampunk and Costuming

Sun 11:30am Steampunk: Boom or Bust?

Sun 2:30pm Marshall McLuhan Centennial

Mon 10:00am Watson, Jeopardy, and the Future of Computing

 

Pam "Izumi" Larson—A dedicated fan of Duran Duran, as seen in the documentary There's Something You Should Know, avid cosplayer, and Neil Gaiman Fangirl, Pam has dedicated what little free time she has from her television directing job to becoming the best fan she can be. Helping out her fellow fans by staffing and volunteering at many cons, she makes sure a good time is had by all. Her Personal Motto is, "All Nite Parties, Cocktail Bars and Smiles… It's more than a lyric, it's a way of life."

Sat 4:00pm The Ultimate Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Panel

Sat 8:30pm Visual Kei Theatre 2012

Sun 1:00pm Meet the Worldcon Bids

Sun 10:00pm Fan Etiquette: How Not to Be That Fan

Mon 10:00am What is Cosplay?

 

Toni Lay is a member of the New Jersey-New York Costumers Guild (aka The Sick Pups) and a Deputy Chatelaine for the Crown Province of Ostgardr in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), which gives her plenty of opportunity to costume. Toni was Program Director for Costume Con 5, a Historical Masquerade Director for Costume Cons 16 and 22, and a Historical Judge for Costume Con 28. She has also been an Arisia Den Mom, Presentation Judge, and Greenroom Director. Her other fannish interests include Torchwood, Merlin, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Britcoms, alternate history novels, Harry Potter, Dragonriders of Pern, Marcus Didius Falco, and Roma Sub Rosa mysteries. When she is not watching DVDs, reading, or making costumes, Toni is a secretary for the New York City Department of Design and Construction.

Fri 8:30pm A Game of Thrones

Sat 10:00am Surviving Your First Masquerade

Sat 1:00pm Modifying, Making, and Using Sewing Patterns

Sun 10:00am What is the Society for Creative Anachronism?

Sun 11:30am Getting Ideas for Costumes and Presentations

Sun 5:30pm Judging and Being Judged in Costume Contests

Sun 7:00pm Doctor Who Companions

 

Vanessa Layne, M.Ed. is a psychotherapist; before she became a therapist, she was a computer programmer. She plans to open a private practice in 2012 serving engineers, scientists, geeks, hackers, and anybody with a logical or mathematical muse. Presently, she treats the general public at a community clinic in Boston. Additionally, she treats prison inmates, leading to a particular and urgent interest in the psychology of morality and ethics. A Renaissance woman, in ways literal as well as figurative, she is better known to many Arisians for her work as an amateur musician-historian with a particular focus on the popular music of the 16th century.

Sat 5:30pm Anne McCaffrey Memorial Panel

Sat 10:00pm The Mind of the Nerd: Psychology and Fandom

 

Jacob Lefton is an artist blacksmith currently living in Amherst, Massachusetts. He studied creative writing, art, and education at Hampshire College. Following brief adventures with the circus, he spent six months in Europe as a journeyman blacksmith. Since then he has been supporting himself with artisan metalwork. Visit www.jacoblefton.com to see more of his work.

Fri 7:00pm Introduction to Arisia

Sat 2:30pm From Concept to Completion

Sat 4:00pm Art as Business

Sun 2:30pm Making Art on Commission

Sun 5:30pm 3D Art & Sculpture

 

Scott Lefton makes and sells artwork in media (including metal, wood, glass, and Photoshop), is occasionally serious about photography, and works as a freelance mechanical design consultant and patent agent. He lives in a big, old Victorian house in Melrose, MA with his wife Rachel, whichever of their 3 kids happen to be in residence, and a cat.

Sat 11:30am Incorporating Photography into Art

Sat 1:00pm Attaching This to That

Sat 4:00pm Art as Business

 

PJ Letersky has been cosplaying for decades and has been a fixture at the FUNimation booths in New York and Boston for the past 5 years. He is both a professional actor and musician, having been the music instructor on the first season of Fox TV's Fringe, and acting in numerous television shows and movies. Based out of Connecticut makes it very easy to get to all the location shoots across New York and New England. With the wealth of tv and filming in the area, he is more than willing to give out the information he has learned over the years to folks who want to get into acting and cosplaying.

Fri 5:30pm Con-Going 101: Planning, Budgeting, & Surviving

Fri 7:00pm Viewing Anime Online

Sat 10:00am What Anime is New Now?

Sat 4:00pm The Ultimate Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Panel

Sun 2:30pm On The Fringe

Sun 5:30pm Autograph—Letersky & Sklar

Sun 10:00pm Fan Etiquette: How Not to Be That Fan

Mon 10:00am What is Cosplay?

Mon 1:00pm Costume Weathering

 

Bill Levay—Though I was born in Rome, Italy, I emigrated to the US with my parents at seven years of age. I grew up in Honolulu, attended Tulane University (majoring in Mechanical Engineering), and spent six years on active duty in the US Navy. After leaving the Navy I worked for 21 years as an Electrical Engineer for various DoD contractors. Then I finally grew up… Since 1995 I have worked in the games industry as Producer and Executive Producer at The Avalon Hill Game Company (pre-Hasbro acquisition) and at Hasbro Interactive, which was bought by Infogrames and years later renamed Atari. My proudest accomplishment was being the Executive Producer for Civilization III. At age eleven I was bitten (severely, mind you) by the Science Fiction bug when I accidentally cast my eyes on A Princess of Mars at the school library, and immediately fell in love with Dejah Thoris, John Carter and Barsoom. I live in Rockport, MA, and am married to the incomparable Trish Wilson. We have two children, Jim and Mike.

Fri 7:00pm Just a Quick Game?

Sat 2:30pm City Design—Ancient and Modern

Sat 10:00pm Death of PC Gaming May Be Greatly Exaggerated

Sun 10:00am Ending the Epic

Sun 1:00pm Beyond the Controller

Sun 8:30pm The Future of Religion

Sun 11:30pm StarCraft!

 

Benjamin Levy has been a science fiction fan for most of his life. He went to his first science fiction convention when he was 10 years old. He has been involved with Arisia since its inception. In the past he has worked for Arisia as a gopher, Dealers Liaison, Fixed Functions Division Head, and Assistant Con Chair. Currently, he is the Arisia Corporate Treasurer and Hotel Liaison Division Head.

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Sun 5:30pm Arisia Corporate Meeting

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Emily Lewis

Sat 8:00pm Sassafrass & Stranger Ways Concert

 

Suford Lewis is a longtime fan and a longer-time reader. She has been a member of LASFS and MITSFS, and a founding member of NESFA and Regency fandom. She is a Master Costumer; an inveterate con com member, having been part of the committees of all the Boston worldcons, many Boskones, two Costumecons, a few others, and even an Arisia or so; and in 2008 was given the Big Heart Award. She also finds time to play a little Dominion, see some anime, and, with luck, even filk a bit. Mostly retired from software system building, she still occasionally helps some people out with computers. She is the Bujold editor for NESFA Press, now on book 9. She is married to Tony Lewis, is owned currently by 2 cats, and is the proud mother of Alice.

Fri 7:00pm Hall Costumes: Everyday Wear for Conventions

Fri 11:30pm When Series Jump the Dragon

Sat 10:00am Judging a Book By Its Cover

Sat 1:00pm Short Story Contest!

Sat 11:30pm For the Love of the Geek

Sun 1:00pm Figure Drawing Workshop – Models in Costume

Sun 7:00pm Costume Presentation: Is Humor Always Best?

Sun 8:30pm Good Story Songs

Sun 10:00pm Marvel Movies

Mon 1:00pm The Future of Old Age

Mon 2:30pm Science Fiction as Mainstream Meme

 

Paula Lieberman went to her first convention, which was a worldcon, and college the same weekend. Since then she's been to a bunch more conventions, many of which she's worked on, including Arisia, and has had more career changes than she can remember—military officer, systems engineer, analyst, tech writer, test engineer, market researcher, consultant… She's more likely to be around at 1 AM filking, than at a 9 AM panel, and usually helps out at art show sales. On-line she's one of the members of the community at Making Light (http://www.nielsenhayden.com/makinglight) prone to spontaneously posting in verse (ballad form mostly).

Sat 8:30pm Humor in SF/F

Sun 10:00am The Hugo Awards: An Introduction

Sun 10:00pm Is There Anything Verboten Left?

 

Tim Lieder is a professional writer and editor. Through his publishing company Dybbuk Press, he has published and edited eight books, including Teddy Bear Cannibal Massacre and God Laughs When You Die by Michael Boatman. His latest project, She Nailed a Stake Through His Head: Tales of Biblical Terror was released in October 2010. His short story "Bop Kabala and Communist Jazz" appeared in the Winter 2011 issue of Shock Totem.

Sat 11:30am Fantasy Before Fantasy, SF Before SF

Sat 5:30pm Winter Is Coming

Sun 10:00am The Who, the Whole Who, and Nothing but the Who

Sun 1:00pm Autograph—Lieder, Linzner, & Smith

Sun 8:30pm Reading: Amidon, Lieder, & Sandel

Mon 10:00am The Many Faces of Frankenstein

 

Tom Limoncelli is a 43-year-old bi/poly activist and organizer from NJ. An IT professional and author, his 2005 book Time Management for System Administrators (O'Reilly) became an instant classic. He is an internationally recognized author and speaker, presenting keynotes and classes both within the IT community as well as at LGBTI, poly, and bi leadership conferences. He blogs at http://EverythingSysadmin.com

Sun 11:30am Autograph—Brennan, Fishbone, & Limoncelli

 

Gordon Linzner—Founder and editor emeritus of Space and Time Magazine; author of several novels and scores of short stories; freelance editor; licensed New York City tour guide; front man for Saboteur Tiger blues & oldies band.

Sat 4:00pm Reading: Linzner, Macdonald, & Sakers

Sat 8:30pm Self-Publishing Snares

Sun 11:30am Why You Should/Should Not Self-Publish

Sun 1:00pm Autograph—Lieder, Linzner, & Smith

Mon 11:30am The Lighter Side of Adventure

 

Adam Lipkin is currently a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, covering science fiction, fantasy, horror, and young adult books. He has written reviews for a number of publications, including The Green Man Review and Rambles. He wrote the horror column, "Fear Factor," for Bookslut for two years, and was also the animation columnist for SMRT-TV.com. He has published hundreds of horror movie reviews at his own blog, yendi.livejournal.com. His day job involves educational technology, heutagogy, and library research. Adam lives in the suburbs of Boston with his wife, daughter, and three moderately psychotic felines.

Fri 7:00pm Just a Quick Game?

Fri 10:00pm More Terrible SF/F Movies We Love

Fri 11:30pm When Series Jump the Dragon

Sat 10:00am Gender and Video Games

Sat 2:30pm The DC Reboot

Sat 4:00pm If You Liked Part 1…

Sun 11:30am Great Games without the M Rating

Sun 1:00pm TV Year in Review

Mon 10:00am New Worlds of YA

Mon 1:00pm It's Only a Game

Mon 2:30pm Snag It, Bag It, and Tag It

 

Writer/activist Shira Lipkin sidles up to the most interesting bars and chats with runaway gods, duty-shirking sphinxes, the Ghost of Purim Past, and apostate cyborgs. She has managed to convince Electric Velocipede, Chizine, Interfictions 2, Mythic Delirium, and other otherwise-sensible magazines and anthologies to publish her work. She credits luck, glitter eyeliner, and tenacity. She lives in Boston with her husband, daughter, and the requisite cats, most of whom also write. She also fights crime with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, is taking suggestions for her burlesque name, does six impossible things before breakfast, and would like a nap now. You can track her movements at shiralipkin.com. Please do. She likes the company.

Fri 7:00pm Introduction to Arisia

Sat 10:00am So, What's New?

Sat 1:00pm Reading: Amundsen, Lipkin, Rios

Sat 4:00pm Social Change and Con Safety for Teens

Sat 5:30pm Sexual Harassment and Assault in Fandom

Sun 2:30pm Speculative Poetry Slam

Mon 10:00am Collaborating Couples

Mon 11:30am Among the Ruins

 

Kimberley Long-Ewing is a writer and photographer. Her work focuses on fantasy themes and finding the unusual in ordinary objects. She is the author of the graphic novel series Urban Fey and Revenge of the Nature Imps. Her short stories include "Brahma's Missile" in the August 2009 Crossed Genres, "Come Like a Tailor" in the anthology No Man's Land (May 2011, Dark Quest Books), "Forensix" in issue 14 of New Myths (newmyths.com) and "M.U.S.E." in UnCONventional (Jan 2012, Spencer Hill Press). Additional stories and work can be found at www.mysticsheepstudios.com.

Sat 10:00am World Building 101

Sat 11:30am Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading

Sat 5:30pm Comics: Not How You Start, But How You Finish!

Sun 4:00pm Autograph—Hinds (4–4:30), Ewing & Long-Ewing

Sun 7:00pm Making Politics Work in Fiction

Mon 1:00pm Marketing Independent Comics

 

Barry B. Longyear—Award winning author of Enemy Mine, Barry has authored over twenty book-length works and numerous short stories. Recently he has completed his first vampire work, The Night, and is now in the process of converting all of his works into Kindle eBook format, several of which are now live. Check www.barrylongyear.com.

Fri 7:00pm The Exiled Character

Sat 10:00am Reading: Eldredge, Longyear, & Pelland

Sat 2:30pm Autograph—Friesner & Longyear

Sat 4:00pm Writer's Clinic

Sat 8:30pm SF vs. the Body

Sun 10:00am Humor in Writing

 

Joel Lord has been involved in technical theater for 18 years, and has been applying that experience to cons for 11. He has Stage Managed the Masquerade at Lunacon for the past 10 years, Arisia for the past 2 years, the Historical Recreation Masquerade at CostumeCon 27, and the Hugo Awards Ceremony at Noreascon 4 in 2004. He was also the Technical Director for Arisia 2005–2008 and for CostumeCon 29 in 2011.

Sat 11:00am Working with Tech

 

Don MacDonald—I am an artist who lives in Boston. I like drawing and painting things on paper, history, and comics; hence my graphic novel based on the life of Machiavelli. My work has appeared in the Harvard Review, SPX 2002, HBR.org, and HBR Press. I'm working on a second graphic novel, also historically themed.

Fri 5:30pm Tell the Truth: Non-Fiction Comics

Sun 11:30am No Capes! Non-Superhero Comics

Sun 1:00pm Watercolor and Pen & Ink Workshop

 

James Macdonald—James Douglas Macdonald was born in White Plains, New York, the second of three children of W. Douglas Macdonald, a chemical engineer, and Margaret E. Macdonald, a professional artist. After leaving the University of Rochester, where he majored in Medieval Studies, he served in the U. S. Navy. Macdonald left the Navy in 1988 in order to pursue writing full-time. Since then he has lived with his wife and co-author, Debra Doyle, in a big 19th-Century house in Colebrook, New Hampshire, where they write science fiction and fantasy for children, teenagers, and adults. From 1991 through 1993, as Yog Sysop, he ran the Science Fiction and Fantasy RoundTable on the GEnie computer network; after the death of GEnie, he was the managing sysop for SFF-Net. These days, when not writing novels or running as an EMT with the local ambulance squad, he blogs at Absolute Write.com and Making Light.

Sat 4:00pm Reading: Linzner, Macdonald, & Sakers

Sat 5:30pm Autograph—Macdonald, Sawicki & Wooldridge

Sun 10:00am Disaster Preparedness for Fans

Sun 1:00pm Jack Arnold at 100

 

Bruce Mackenzie is a software and aerospace engineer. He has held positions in the National Space Society, AIAA, Mars Foundation, and Mars Society. Bruce is currently working on the Mars Homestead settlement design for the Mars Foundation, and an entrepreneurial venture. His past work includes use of rotating space tethers to establish industry on the Moon.

Sat 11:30am The 100-Year Starship Study

Sat 5:30pm SF Spaceship Design for Artists

Sat 7:00pm One Way to Mars

Sat 8:30pm The Race to the Moon

 

Alan MacRobert has been an editor at Sky & Telescope—the world's leading astronomy magazine, based in Cambridge—for almost 30 years. He has covered the last generation of astronomy research findings as they break, as well as the changing amateur-astronomy world. Ask him about the latest developments in cosmology, SETI, exoplanets, or more mundane astro-topics all the way down to how to buy a telescope (and when not to). An SF fan going back to Heinlein.

Fri 8:30pm Sky Searching

Sun 10:00am 2,326 Worlds And Counting

Mon 1:00pm Alternative Activism

 

Glenn MacWilliams—Business Director for the past 17 plus years of The Teseracte Players of Boston, New England's Premier Traveling Shadowcast, performing The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and others. Webpage: teseracte.com. Glenn is always available for charity and fund raising events, and is the General Manager of Magic Dragon Comics in Arlington MA, THE place for new comics.

Sat 12:00am The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Rated R

Sun 12:00am REPO: The Genetic Opera: Rated R

Sun 10:00pm The Nightmare Before Christmas: Rated PG

Mon 12:00am Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog: Rated PG-13

Mon 1:00am Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Sing-Along

 

Mark A. Mandel has been a fan since the fifties and a filker since the nineties (thank you, Lois Mangan!). Professionally and avocationally a language scientist, Mark sometimes morphs into Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoepist, and Philological Busybody. He currently lives in Philadelphia, which is why he hasn't been so active around here in recent years.

Fri 10:00pm NESFA Songbook Sing-a-long

Sat 11:30am Language & Linguistics in SF/F

Sat 7:00pm Mad Science Song Circle

Mon 2:30pm Dead Dog Open Filk

 

Peter Maranci—Founder and editor of the Interregnum RPG APA (RIP). Winner of a few amateur video prizes at Arisia over the years. Publisher of "Pete's RuneQuest & Roleplaying!" (www.runequest.org/rq.htm), one of the oldest RPG sites online. Longtime Arisia panelist. Sold a story to a semi-pro mag long ago, but it folded before publishing it (or paying for it, unfortunately).

Fri 5:30pm Reading SF/F to Your Kids

Fri 10:00pm Party Origin Stories

Sat 10:00am Avatar: The Last Airbender

Sat 1:00pm How to Design a Fun Roleplaying Adventure

Sat 4:00pm Designing A Memorable Role-Playing Character

Sun 2:30pm Introduction to Tabletop Roleplaying

Sun 4:00pm The Hobbit

Mon 11:30am Attending a Con with Kids

Mon 1:00pm The Plight of the Older Gamer

Mon 2:30pm The Relevance of Livejournal

 

Joy Marchand holds a B.A. in Classical Studies from the University of the Pacific. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts where she takes photos of odd signage, churchyards and the occasional roadside shrine. Joy's poems and short stories have been featured in Bare Bone, Writers of the Future Volume XX, The Elastic Book of Numbers, Modern Magic, Time for Bedlam, Polyphony 5, Interfictions, Talebones, Apex Digest, and Interzone, among others.

Fri 7:00pm Interstitial Fiction: Dancing Between Genres

Sat 7:00pm Plot and Structure

Sat 8:30pm Reading: Brusso, Marchand, & Wilson

Sun 2:30pm Use Your Words: Dialogoue, Prose, and Tone

Sun 4:00pm Poly 279: Poly Parenting

Sun 7:00pm Building a Poly Home

 

David Marshall was published by Fantagraphics Books, SpiderBaby Graphix and, more recently, by The Boston Comics Roundtable. This lecture is a selected portion of "Art of the Comic Book," a college-level studio and history comics class. Details on http://www.inkystories.com/

Sat 10:00am I'm Just Wild about Kirby

Sat 11:30am Webcomics 101

Sat 2:30pm Comics Reading

Sun 2:30pm Creating Minicomics

Mon 11:30am The History of Comics

 

Brennan Martin—I have painted miniatures since a teen and after a college/life hiatus have jumped back into miniatures even to the extent of even playing a few games with the little things. Also in the last few years I was a game rep for Z-Man until this Summer when I had less time after the arrival of my daughter (my favorite miniature!).

Sun 4:00pm Miniatures in Gaming: Painting Tips & Techniques

 

Gail Z. Martin is the author of The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven, and Dark Lady's Chosen (The Chronicles of The Necromancer series). A new series set in her world of the Winter Kingdoms, The Fallen Kings Cycle, debuts from Orbit Books in 2011 with Book One: The Sworn. For book updates, tour information and contact details, visit www.ChroniclesOfTheNecromancer.com. Gail is the host of the Ghost in the Machine Fantasy Podcast, and you can find her on MySpace, Facebook, GoodReads, BookTour, BookMarketing.ning, Shelfari and Twitter. She is also the author of a series on book marketing; The Thrifty Author's Guide to Launching Your Book comes out in early 2010. Gail's short fiction has been featured in two anthologies: Rum and Runestones from Dragon Moon Press and The Bitten Word from New Con Press.

Fri 5:30pm Parapsychology in Genre Fiction

Sat 10:00am World Building 101

Sat 1:00pm Autograph—Eldredge & Martin

Sat 7:00pm Plot and Structure

Sat 7:00pm Reading: Costello, Gilman, & Martin

Sat 8:30pm Death Personified

Sat 10:00pm Social Media

 

Samara Martin—In real life Samara is a tribal fusion bellydancer, living statue and consummate theatre geek (primarily acting, directing, and costuming), and is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Theatre Education. Her "geek cred" includes ten years of tabletop gaming (mainly Dungeons and Dragons), five years of LARPing including two and counting on staff at the New Hampshire chapter of Alliance, minor obsessions with Doctor Who and Neil Gaiman and a blossoming interest in steampunk under the alter ago Abigail Mycroft of the Wandering Legion of the Thomas Tew. For more information, find her online at http://www.facebook.com/samara.dancing.frozen/.

Sun 3:00pm Belly Dance Show

 

Donna Martinez is a freelance artist originally from New Mexico and has been a resident of Boston for 11 years. She's continually working on something, be it clever ideas for fan art or short stories for various web comics. Donna is also a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable and contributed the story "Wish Me Luck" to issue #3 of their anthology comic Inbound. At present she's working on (among other things) Garry: The Legend Continues with her husband of 3 months, Joey Peters. Her various illustrations and scribblings can be found at donnamartinez.net.

Sat 2:30pm The DC Reboot

Sat 4:00pm Female Fandom in Comics

Sat 7:00pm Race, Gender & Disability Politics in Comics

Sun 1:00pm Wonder Woman

 

Erik Matson is a local Boston area author who specializes in science fiction for kids. He is currently writing the RoboBattlePets book series and enjoys sharing his stories with children of all ages.

Sun 10:00am RoboBattlePets

 

Rev. Matthew—Darkteddybear is an ordained minister and lifelong geek who found his first theological insights from Star Wars and first learned the mental aspects of BDSM from David Bowie in Labyrinth. He has spent many years examining interconnections of sexuality, religion, polyamory and kink, particularly in regard to science fiction and fantasy, and has taught previously in both kink and vanilla settings, particularly on what it means to be a feminist male kinkster. If left alone with a guitar, he is liable to break out into renditions of songs from Jonathon Coulton or the Whedonverse.

Fri 11:30pm Sacred Sexuality

Sat 4:00pm Alternative Lifestyles and Fandom

Sat 11:30pm Non-Monogamy: A Diverse Set of Options

Sun 8:30pm The Future of Religion

Sun 10:00pm Religion and Kink

Mon 1:00pm Alternative Activism

 

Marlin May—I was born a poor, black child. OK, not exactly poor, more middle class. The child part is true; it was far easier on my mom that way. I'm far closer to a luscious, chocolate brown than ebony. I'm a currently an employed (!) web apps developer. I'm no scientist, but I've consumed a steady diet of science books/media as long as I can recall. The first book I remember reading was Man in Space about Mercury 7. My favorite kids' t.v. show? Mr. Wizard. Lately I've been exploring the promise/problems of transhumanism/post-humanism. I've been reading/watching genre fiction a long, long time. My first convention was in Feb. 1979; a tiny gathering in Southern California called "Science Fiction Weekend." I wandered into a room where they were screening episodes of Commando Cody. I was transfixed, hooked, captured… doomed. Since then I've attended many a Westercon, Worldcon, NASFic, Galacticon, Gaylaxicon, Balticon, Equicon, Filmcon, Albacon, Fantasmacon, Boskone and Arisia.

Mon 2:30pm Science Fiction as Mainstream Meme

 

Michael McAfee is an actor, writer and managing director for the Post Meridian Radio Players. His poetry has appeared in Space and Time Magazine. He has been on panels dealing with a variety of topics at Arisia and other conventions since the mid-1990s. He has been active in all aspects of fandom since 1990, particularly in the SCA, LARPing and filking. Feel free to talk with him about future projects.

Fri 10:00pm Red Shift in "Beyond the Edge of Beyond"

Sun 1:00pm Arisia Lightning Talks

Sun 4:00pm Punday!

Sun 11:30pm "No Sh*t, There I Was!": Oral Storytelling

 

Alan McAvinney

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Sun 5:30pm Arisia Corporate Meeting

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Dennis McCunney is a longtime SF fan, and has been helping to run cons like Arisia since the 1970's. For the past ten years he's been a member of Arisia's Hotel Liaison Staff, and for five of those years he edited and designed the Arisia Souvenir Book. He's been involved on one level or another with Arisia, Capclave, Lunacon, Philcon, WorldCon and World Fantasy, and in the process has come to know a lot of the folks involved in writing, illustrating, and editing SF. When he isn't working on cons he has variously been a graphic designer, iron worker, museum exhibit builder, alternative energy worker, system/network/telecom administrator, and web journalist and moderator. He currently spends too much time on Google+.

Sat 5:30pm Anne McCaffrey Memorial Panel

Sun 4:00pm A "Self" or "No Self?" Neuroscience in SF

 

John G. McDaid's short story, "Umbrella Men," appears in the current issue of F&SF. He attended Clarion in 1993, and sold his first story, the Sturgeon Award-winning "Jigoku no mokushiroku" to Asimov's in 1995. A webmaster by day, he lives in Portsmouth, RI where he juggles writing, work, citizen journalism, and politics. For downloads and blog visit http://www.torvex.com/jmcdaid.

Sat 1:00pm Army of Davids: The Role of New Media

Sat 7:00pm The Legacy of Steve Jobs

Sat 10:00pm Kolchak the Night Stalker

Sun 2:30pm Marshall McLuhan Centennial

 

Little Mel—Chameleon, writer, hooper, fire lover, and geek.

Fri 8:30pm BDSM 101: A Beginner's Guide

Sat 7:00pm Poly 201: Theory and Practice

Sun 4:00pm Harry Potter: The Films

 

The Marvelous Merv got tagged with his nickname in '85 and it has stuck ever since. A common man of good will, Merv entered Fandom through Star Trek in '92, discovered there was SO much more to life than 'Trek, and hasn't looked back since. A sometimes-employed career Chemist, Merv highly recommends reading most anything by Ball, Carey, Friesner, Isaak, Lackey, Moon, Pierce, Rowling, Sherman, Shwartz, Snicket, or Weiss. Merv has been an enthusiastic volunteer for Arisia since '94, and has enjoyed it enough to mention it here in the hopes of luring you into volunteering, too.

Fri 10:00pm Issues in Modern Mad Science

 

Katrina Meyer

Sun 3:00pm Belly Dance Show

 

Dale Meyer-Curley has been an Arisia attendee, volunteer, panelist, and participant since 2004, when her now-husband Erik brought her to her first con. Her fannish interests touch all forms of media, including Discworld, Doctor Who, and comics. She incorporates her geekiness into her crafting hobbies of knitting and making unique shirts. She is now trying to make the con a family affair by having the "geeky playdates," a place for her one-year-old daughter to enjoy Arisia.

Sat 8:30am Geeky Play Date

 

Daniel Miller is a local attorney, gamer, comics aficionado, and SF/F fan who keeps coming back to Arisia because he enjoys it. He has been "living this lifestyle" since high school, and lives it in Brookline. He has just completed his first manuscript, out for editing at the present, and he still likes alternate histories, humorous SF/F and rollicking good adventures with good worldbuilding.

Fri 5:30pm E.T. at 30

Fri 8:30pm Batman Through the Ages

Fri 10:00pm Party Origin Stories

Fri 11:30pm When Series Jump the Dragon

Sat 11:30am Language & Linguistics in SF/F

Sun 4:00pm Copyright/Trademark 101

Sun 10:00pm What Makes a Game "Classic"?

Sun 11:30pm The Law, Risk Assessment, and Fun

Mon 10:00am Star Wars at 35

Mon 11:30am The Lighter Side of Adventure

Mon 1:00pm The Plight of the Older Gamer

 

Troy Minkowsky is a local comics writer, a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable, and an aspiring stand-up comedian. His work has been featured in the Boston Comics Roundtable's publication Inbound and Fat Cat Funnies's The Left-Overs of the Living Dead.

Fri 7:00pm Elseworlds and What Ifs

Sat 1:00pm Short Story Contest!

Sat 11:30pm For the Love of the Geek

Sun 7:00pm How to Write a Comic

Sun 8:30pm Guilty Pleasures

Sun 10:00pm Marvel Movies

Mon 11:30am The History of Comics

Mon 1:00pm The Alien as Metaphor

 

James Mobius is a multimedia artist and multi-instrumental musician. A licensed Tattoo artist and published comic book artist/writer/colourist/inker, he has degrees in music and electronics; so he fixes houses for a living. He plays 6 string bass and Chapman Stick with Mojoceratops, is a former chocolatier, has lived in Japan and currently has 0.2 cats. Oh, he also does theatrical lighting for Rocky Horror and more. If you need a handyman, a tattoo, murals, portraits or progressive music, please visit his site (he made that too, from scratch) mobiusbandwidth.com.

Sun 2:30pm Making Art on Commission

 

John Monahan is a science writer and editor. He is a former science teacher, who taught in Baltimore City public schools for over 12 years. His current book They Called Me Mad: Genius, Madness and the Scientists Who Pushed the Outer Limits of Knowledge deals with the lives of the real life scientists, like Nikola Tesla, Isaac Newton and Werhner von Braun, who inspired our image of the mad scientist. Further information about John Monahan and his books may be found at his blog, mad4science.wordpress.com or on his Facebook page.

Fri 5:30pm Tell the Truth: Non-Fiction Comics

Fri 10:00pm Issues in Modern Mad Science

Sat 1:00pm How to Design a Fun Roleplaying Adventure

Sat 2:30pm City Design—Ancient and Modern

Sat 4:00pm Mad Science!

Sun 8:30am Create Your Own Alien!

Sun 10:00am Creepy Crawlies Time!

Sun 1:00pm Extremophiles

Mon 1:00pm The Plight of the Older Gamer

 

Josephine Monreal

Sun 11:30am Homeschooling: An Alternative Education

 

E. F. Morrill is a white, middle-aged conservative and proud of it. He is willing to discuss any and all views throughout the genre. He is the Producing Partner for C-Squared Pictures, LLC, producers of The Chronicles of Bob and Marie's Zero-Gravity Bar and Grill, the latter starring Amber Benson and Jonathon M. Woodward.

Fri 5:30pm E.T. at 30

Sat 4:00pm If You Liked Part 1…

Sun 1:00pm Jack Arnold at 100

 

Mitchell Morris—I am a brilliant computer science PhD student at Columbia University (no relation to the football team). I have a game design firm called Ninja vs. Pirates and a podcast of the same name where we interview game designers. Until recently I was living in solitude in this mutating swamp until a ruddy young lad stepped into my mouth and was lodged there. My favorite Science Fiction movie of all time is Newsies.

Sun 11:30am Great Games without the M Rating

Sun 2:30pm Introduction to Tabletop Roleplaying

Sun 10:00pm What Makes a Game "Classic"?

Mon 10:00am Watson, Jeopardy, and the Future of Computing

Mon 1:00pm The Future of Old Age

 

Sarah "Tashari" Morrison is an aspiring fantasy and children's book illustrator, currently building up her portfolio. In her "spare time," she sews gowns with hoop skirts. Find her work at Tashari.Org.

Sat 1:00pm Attaching This to That

Sat 2:30pm From Concept to Completion

 

The Higgins Armory Sword Guild (http://www.higginssword.org) is a volunteer organization dedicated to the historically accurate interpretation of medieval and Renaissance martial arts from surviving texts. Convention members will have the opportunity to witness combat techniques forgotten for hundreds of years. We invite you to join us to learn these martial arts. Safety and body-mechanics courses are required of all new participants. Worcester's Higgins Armory Museum (http://www.higgins.org) is the only museum in the Western Hemisphere wholly devoted to the study and display of medieval and Renaissance arms and armor. Our founder, John Woodman Higgins, housed his collection in a unique building now on the National Register of Historic Places. Museum visitors will see objects ranging from ancient Greek helmets to ornate Renaissance armors while our programs help interpret the artifacts in a broad cultural context.

Fri 6:00pm Air-Pirate Combat!

Fri 6:30pm Viking Fighting Moves: Fiction vs Fact

Fri 7:00pm "Reclaiming the Blade" and Q&A

Sat 10:00am Massachusetts Bay Colony 1630 Pike Drill

Sat 11:00am A Roman Legion: Legio III Cyrenaica

Sat 12:30pm The Martial Arts of A Game of Thrones

Sat 1:30pm A Gaslamp Grand Assault of Arms

Sun 11:00am Lightsaber Combat of the Sword Masters

Sun 11:30am Salem Zouaves: Civil War Bayonet Drill

Sun 2:30pm Swords and Combat from Steam to Space

Sun 8:30pm The Martial Arts of "Girl Genius"

 

Maddy Myers is a journalist for the Boston Phoenix; she reviews video games, writes geek culture pieces, and is a regular contributor to the Phoenix's geek blog, "Laser Orgy." She has also been published in the video game magazine Kill Screen. She plays keytar and sings in a nerdcore synth pop band called the Robot Knights.

Sat 10:00am Gender and Video Games

Sat 1:00pm Army of Davids: The Role of New Media

Sat 2:30pm My Bizarre Writing Process

Sat 10:00pm Death of PC Gaming May Be Greatly Exaggerated

Sun 1:00pm Beyond the Controller

Sun 5:30pm Creating and Maintaining Your Public Persona

Sun 8:30pm Women in Gaming

 

Thomas Nackid—I am a graphic designer and illustrator who lives in Bethel, Connecticut with my fannish wife Terri and my raised-in-fandom children Alex (14) and Emma (11). Over the years I have created illustrations and layout design for various publishers including Terrific Science Press, Scholastic Books, Sumner Communications, Firewheel Editions, Cynterpubs Information Resources and I recently created cover art for the Mundania Press's re-release of the best-selling Bad-Ass Fairies anthology series. I also recently completed a cover for Dragon Lure, the first book in a new anthology series from Dark Quest Books. I am a regular contributor of artwork to Space and Time Magazine as well. When not working with publishers, I design various marketing and informational materials for businesses and organizations. You can always find me at www.tomnackidart.com or look for me on Facebook.

Sat 10:00am Judging a Book By Its Cover

Sat 11:30am Incorporating Photography into Art

Sat 5:30pm SF Spaceship Design for Artists

Sun 11:30am SF/Fantasy Pictionary

 

Ira Nayman is a Canadian writer and journalist, writeing satirical, alternative reality news stories. He also writes on his own website, Les Pages Aux Folles. Ira is also the 2010 Winner of the Boyne Writer's Group Switf Satire Competiton.

Sat 8:30pm Humor in SF/F

Sat 10:00pm Politics in Science Fiction

Sun 11:30am UnCONventional Rapid-Fire Reading

Sun 2:30pm Marshall McLuhan Centennial

Sun 10:00pm Is There Anything Verboten Left?

Mon 10:00am Watson, Jeopardy, and the Future of Computing

 

Lawrence Nelson—Larry Nelson, also known as LORDLNYC online, is a long time member of the leather/queer/poly communities as well as a longtime queer/kinky/poly rights activist. He attended his 1st con (Lunacon) in 1984 where he went on to help run gaming from 1991–2003. In 2006 he attended his first Arisia where he put in over 30 hours helping out in the con suite. In 2007 he put his longtime activism to good use and stated doing panels at Arisia, Lunacon as well as for TES (a major Leather group in NYC). He currently lives in Queens, NYC.

Sat 4:00pm Alternative Lifestyles and Fandom

Sat 8:30pm Getting Started in the Public BDSM Scene

Sat 11:30pm Home Depot in the Bedroom

Sun 5:30pm Coming Out

Mon 1:00pm Alternative Activism

 

Resa Nelson is the author of the Dragonslayer series, a 4-book series based on two short stories published in Science Fiction Age, the first of which ranked 2nd in that magazine's first Readers Top Ten Poll. The Dragonslayer's Sword (Book 1) was Nominated for the Nebula Award and was an EPPIE Award Finalist for Best Fantasy Novel. The Iron Maiden (Book 2) has just been published. Nelson also has a standalone novel about a modern-day society based on ancient Egypt called Our Lady of the Absolute. Her short fiction has been published in Fantasy Magazine, Paradox, Brutarian Quarterly, Science Fiction Age, Aboriginal SF, Tomorrow SF, Oceans of the Mind, and many anthologies. Nelson is a graduate of the Clarion Workshop. She has also sold over 200 magazine articles. She was the TV/movie columnist for Realms of Fantasy for 13 years. Visit her website at http://www.resanelson.com.

Sat 11:30am Character Building

Sat 4:00pm Writer's Clinic

Sat 5:30pm Reading: Nelson, Silva, & Taaffe

Sun 2:30pm Use Your Words: Dialogoue, Prose, and Tone

Sun 4:00pm Harry Potter: The Films

 

Shava Nerad is a polymath autodidact who likes obscure vocabulary, online life, weird science, and social issues. She's been working online since 1982, and has spent most of her career at the intersection of tech and society. She's CEO of an indy game company, Oddfellow Studios (http://oddfellowstudios.com) that has discovered something very much like Snow Crash (for good, not evil!) for real life.

Fri 10:00pm Party Origin Stories

Fri 11:30pm Sacred Sexuality

Sat 8:30pm Improvisation and Role-Playing

 

The legendary Alex Newman was raised on a parallel Earth where his plane crashed in the Himalayas—er, the parallel Himalayas. Not ours. There he was taught the secret of clouding mens' minds by monks. Parallel monks. Stop laughing. He fought crime for many years until a group of his arch enemies (can you have a "group" of arch enemies?) banded together in a sinister plot to bounce him into a parallel universe. That is, parallel to that one, which they thought of as the real universe but which you think of as a parallel universe. Unless you're also from there, in which case you think of this one as the parallel… Oh, screw it. Alex Newman is the founder of The Boston Babydolls (www.BostonBabydolls.net), a former comic book writer, gamer, and LARP author. He has been involved in Arisia in various aspects for many years.

Sat 2:30pm Steampunk and Costuming

Sat 11:30pm Burlesque!

Sun 1:00pm Costuming on the Cheap

 

Christa J. Newman received a Bachelors in Fine Arts for Animation from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2009. Along with her love of animation, she has been a member for the costuming community since 2002 as Sweet-Pea. Completing over 100 costumes for herself and others in her 9 years of participating in the hobby, she has also judged craftsmanship for local conventions in the past few years. After graduation she has become a professional catalog photographer and also branched out into costume photography using her film degree to create images with narrative depth.

Fri 8:30pm Wigs for Costuming

Sat 10:00am Avatar: The Last Airbender

Sat 11:30am What Every Parent Should Know About Anime

Sat 2:30pm Is Glee Fantasy?

Sun 11:30am Handmade Faerie Wings

Sun 5:30pm Judging and Being Judged in Costume Contests

Sun 7:00pm Costume Presentation: Is Humor Always Best?

Mon 11:30am Costuming & Body Type: How to Hide/Accentuate

 

Daniel Noe

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Mimi Noyes—Convinced as a child that she was left on this planet by aliens and picked off the street by a kind lady who became her mother, Mimi has always been a bit different. Naturally drawn to the bizarre, the fantastic, and the unordinary, she has grown up (physically, if not mentally) to be an artist, muralist, film buff, and movie reviewer, amongst other odd and less desirable career choices. Both running her own mural company and working for such illustrious film sources as SIFF and Scarecrow Video, Mimi spends an inordinate amount of time being silly and adding sound effects to every day life. Approach at your own risk.

Fri 5:30pm Apples to Apples Junior

Sat 10:00am What Anime is New Now?

Sat 11:30am The Movie Year in Review

Sat 1:00pm Monster Mash

Sun 2:30pm Making Art on Commission

Sun 4:00pm Anime as Art

Sun 5:30pm 3D Art & Sculpture

 

David Nurenberg, Ph.D. just does too much stuff. He's a freelance writer for White Wolf, a self-published novelist, a high school English teacher and an occasional adjunct professor. That explains all the twitching. He's been a GM for 21 years, which explains the severe twitching. He has traveled to over 30 countries and runs two international exchange programs, which explains how he can twitch in several languages. Do not stare directly at David, as contents are under pressure and may detonate, causing minor to moderate injuries. But David comes in peace, really—at least, that's what he'll insist in court.

Fri 5:30pm I Married A Mundane

Fri 10:00pm Party Origin Stories

Fri 11:30pm Reading: Grant, Nurenberg, & Wilk

Sat 1:00pm How to Design a Fun Roleplaying Adventure

Sat 2:30pm Fantasy and Horror in Shakespeare

Sat 4:00pm Designing A Memorable Role-Playing Character

Sat 11:30pm GM Helpline

Sun 2:30pm The Future of School

 

Elizabeth O'Malley is a longtime video game and anime fan, avid costumer, and she attends far more conventions every year than she should. She is part of AnimeCons.com, the leading web site dedicated to news and information about anime conventions, contributing to both their website and AnimeCons TV. She is also the Vice President of the Northern Lights chapter of the International Costumers Guild.

Fri 7:00pm Viewing Anime Online

Fri 8:30pm Wigs for Costuming

Sat 10:00am Surviving Your First Masquerade

Sat 9:30pm Tactile Tour: Masquerade

Sun 4:00pm Northern Lights Costumers' Guild Meet-up

Mon 10:00am What is Cosplay?

 

Tuna Oddfellow was born in Second Life in mid-2005 as the online alter ego of local and well-known magician, Fish "the Magish" Fishman. When a magician enters virtual space, his first thought is, "How do you get that WOW feeling from folks in a place where they learn to fly on day one?" So coming from a thimbleful of knowledge of Photoshop, Fish and Tuna conspired to create a new art form, and the Odd Ball was born. Today, Fish's company, Oddfellow Studios, Inc. has patents in the works, they've created a way to alter brain waves through immersive 3D—it's gorgeous too. Having uncovered a previously unspecified principle of perceptual psych, Oddfellow Studios weds science to art in virtual space to the benefit of the real world, with posited applications to therapies for PTSD/anxiety disorders, drug addictions, insomnia… But to someone without that need, the alpha/theta-like trance feels like getting stoned over the Internet. He still does magic in the real world—too.

Fri 10:00pm More Terrible SF/F Movies We Love

Sat 11:30pm Non-Monogamy: A Diverse Set of Options

Sun 8:30pm Guilty Pleasures

Mon 10:00am Collaborating Couples

 

Jennifer Old is an amateur costumer with a taste for recreating sci-fi/fantasy characters and historical dress (particularly Victorian). A medical technologist by day, it's the fannish endeavors that make life more fun. She's never read the instruction manual that came with the sewing machine and can't make herself follow a the instructions of a pattern or recipe to save her life. There's also a very unhealthy obsession with puff paint, but we don't talk about that. Jennifer lives in Kansas City with her wife and four-legged children.

Fri 5:30pm Corsets, Hoops, & Other Undergarments

Fri 10:00pm Costume Failures, Horror Stories, and Lessons

Sun 11:30am Getting Ideas for Costumes and Presentations

Sun 7:00pm Costume Presentation: Is Humor Always Best?

Mon 11:30am Costuming & Body Type: How to Hide/Accentuate

 

Peter Olszowka is Technical Director of Arisia for the first time this year. He was the equivalent for the New England Folk Festival from 2004–2009 and was Arisia's assistant TD last year. He has participated in tech for several other events including Dance Flurry, Lunacon, Balticon, Anticipation, and Renovation. Finally, he is the architect and lead developer of Zambia, the software used by Arisia and several other events to coordinate the schedule.

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Ken Olum is a research professor in the Tufts Institute of Cosmology, where he studies cosmic strings, the possibility of time travel in general relativity, and philosophical issues in cosmology. He lives in Sharon, MA with his partners, Valerie White and Judy Anderson, and his children, Jocelyn and Perry.

Sat 11:30am The 100-Year Starship Study

Sun 1:00pm Being a Sex-Positive Parent

Sun 4:00pm Poly 279: Poly Parenting

Sun 8:30pm Poly in Sci-Fi

 

Sheila Oranch has been involved in fandom since 1979 when she innocently volunteered for NE2. Sheila has been known as Con Mom and Tarot Talk moderator, served as A95 conchair and many other positions. Current interests include energetic healing, memetics, sustainability, psycho-social communications, how tech changes daily life, and… more. Sheila and Bill operate Coppertoppe Inn & Retreat Center overlooking Newfound Lake in Hebron, NH with the help of good friends, two cats, and a changing cast of diligent teens and contractors.

Sat 8:30am Mask Making

Sat 2:30pm Caricatures

Sat 7:00pm Evolution Beyond Biology

Sun 10:00am Trash to Treasure!

 

Joshua Palmatier is a fantasy writer with a PhD in mathematics. He has three novel out from DAW under his real name—The Skewed Throne, The Cracked Throne, and The Vacant Throne—as well as two anthologies co-edited with Patricia Bray—After Hours: Tales from the Ur-bar and The Modern Fae's Guide to Surviving Humanity (March 2012). In addition, he has two novels from DAW written under his pseudonym: Well of Sorrows and Leaves of Flame. He has written a few short stories in various anthologies under both names. Find out more at www.joshuapalmatier.com and www.benjamintate.com.

Sat 1:00pm Don't Quit Your Day Job

Sat 10:00pm Mud and Blood: The Grittier Side of Fantasy

Sun 1:00pm Point of View

Sun 10:00pm Consistent Magic Systems in Fantasy

 

Suzanne Palmer—SF/F author and artist.

Fri 10:00pm Reading: Palmer, Smith & Schneyer

Sat 1:00pm Don't Quit Your Day Job

Sun 8:30am Create Your Own Alien!

 

Eddie Paradise

Sat 11:30pm Burlesque!

 

Shelli Paroline escaped early on into the world of comics, cartoons, and science fiction, bringing back a working knowledge of Acme instant holes, snappy comebacks, and laser swords. Shelli now lives in the Boston area as an unassuming illustrator and designer. Her books include Muppet Snow White, Tricky Fox Tales, and the comic book version of the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time!

Sun 10:00am The Best Young-Adult and Children's Comics

 

Nicole Peeler received an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Boston University, and a PhD in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland. She's lived abroad in both Spain and the UK, and lived all over the USA. Currently, she resides outside Pittsburgh to teach in Seton Hill's MFA in Popular Fiction. When she's not in the classroom infecting young minds with her madness, she's writing the Jane True series for Orbit Books.

Sat 11:30am Autograph—Hunt & Peeler

Sun 10:00am Humor in Writing

Sun 5:30pm Creating and Maintaining Your Public Persona

Sun 7:00pm Reading:D'Entremont, Kingsgrave-Ernstein& Peeler

 

Jennifer Pelland is a Boston-area science fiction writer, bellydancer, and occasional radio theater performer. She's published several dozen short stories, two of which have been Nebula finalists, and her debut novel Machine was released at the end of 2011 from Apex Publications. For more info, visit www.jenniferpelland.com.

Fri 5:30pm Gender Limitations in SF/F

Fri 7:00pm When Authors Critique the Critic

Sat 10:00am Reading: Eldredge, Longyear, & Pelland

Sat 1:00pm Don't Quit Your Day Job

Sat 7:00pm How Not To Suppress Women's Writing

Sat 8:30pm SF vs. the Body

Sun 5:30pm Belly Dance Class

 

Misty Pendragon is the founder of The Legal Assassins a Repo Shadowcast group, wanting to bring all different types of people together to celebrate the love of the film Repo! The Genetic Opera. She is a published writer and editor. Currently she writes for the website, www.goodtobeageek.com, and Carpe Nocturne Magazine. She has been doing panels at cons for too many years now, and you would find her on pretty much every Joss Whedon panel! Currently she works in the real life as an Tech Support rep for the area's largest cable company. Current favorite quote is, "We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty," by Joss Whedon.

Fri 11:30pm The Vampire Zone

Sun 1:00pm TV Year in Review

Sun 7:00pm Doctor Who Companions

 

Israel Peskowitz—Izzy is a professional photographer, dabbling plumber, and amateur fan.

Fri 8:30pm Batman Through the Ages

Fri 10:00pm Victorian Age Science in Steampunk

Sat 5:30pm Winter Is Coming

Sat 11:30pm The Moral Aesthetics of Steampunk

Sun 7:00pm How the Political Process Works—and Doesn't

Sun 10:00pm Is There Anything Verboten Left?

Mon 2:30pm The Relevance of Livejournal

 

Joey Peters is a writer, cartoonist and beauty contest champion from Boston. His work has appeared in the Boston Phoenix, Leftovers of the Living Dead, Inbound: Comics from Boston and all across the internet. Visit his website at tacolicious.net

Fri 7:00pm Elseworlds and What Ifs

Fri 8:30pm Batman Through the Ages

Sat 11:30am Webcomics 101

Sat 2:30pm Comics Reading

Sun 2:30pm Creating Minicomics

Sun 7:00pm How to Write a Comic

 

Katherine Pfeffer—Kati Pfeffer, called Ket, has been a volunteer, a truck-unloader, a writer, an artist, a musician, and a maker-of-another-convention's-badges (she did not, however, add a scratch and sniff). She is often found cosplaying, wandering Dealer's Row in a kimono, or forming a people pile with her fellow goth and not-so-goth teens. Ket adores shiny things, metalcore, metal in general, and sugary things.

Sat 11:30am Make a Byzantine Bracelet

Sun 2:30pm Mail 'n' Flail

Mon 10:00am Beginning Chainmail

 

Solveig Pflueger—As the owner of The Lady and The Leopard, I design and sell costumes for historical re-enactment and theatrical productions. Although I originally started making medieval and renaissance clothing for sale at renaissance faires, my theatrical pursuits have pushed me into the more recent eras. I have a particular weakness for 18th century men's clothing (I cannot resist a great fop or pirate coat) and am intrigued by the evolution of ladies' fashions from the early Victorian through the late Edwardian periods, and how it has become the basis for modern steampunk styles.

Fri 10:00pm Costume Failures, Horror Stories, and Lessons

Sun 11:30am Getting Ideas for Costumes and Presentations

Sun 1:00pm Costuming on the Cheap

Sun 2:30pm Make a Catnip Mouse

Sun 8:30pm Costume and Costuming Space

 

Laurel Pickard is a geeky, bi/queer, poly, kinky, little dead girl with a penchant for finding trouble, or, as she would prefer to put it, Adventure. When she's not at her day job as an environmental engineer, she can be found working on the Transcending Boundaries Conference. The rest of the time she plays with chainmail, reads comic books, and pretends to be domestic. She lives in central Connecticut with her husband and their tail-less cat.

Fri 8:30pm BDSM 101: A Beginner's Guide

Sat 8:30pm Getting Started in the Public BDSM Scene

Sun 8:30pm Your Kink is OK!

Sun 11:30pm Bootblacking 101

Mon 1:00pm Alternative Activism

 

Don't tell me you don't know who KT Pinto is! How is that possible? We need to get you up to speed about this brightly attired novelist. Find out more about her at www.ktpinto.com

Fri 11:30pm The Vampire Zone

Sat 11:30am Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading

Sat 1:00pm Don't Quit Your Day Job

Sat 7:00pm Autograph—Pinto & Tan

Sun 5:30pm Creating and Maintaining Your Public Persona

 

Steve Popkesn, his wife, son, and cat breed turtles on two acres in Massachusetts.

Fri 7:00pm The Future of Bioethics as Portrayed in Film

Sun 10:00am Trash to Treasure!

Sun 10:00am Autograph—Popkes, Sakers & Vanderhoof

Sun 4:00pm A "Self" or "No Self?" Neuroscience in SF

 

Dr. James Prego, ND practices on L. I., NY. Dr. Prego is a recipient of the NYANP's Physician of the Year award. He is also a Biology professor at Molly College. Dr. Prego is a longtime fan of science fiction and has been a guest at various conventions, where he has been on panels discussing xenobiology, health in space, life extension, fusions of biology and technology, and how natural ways of healing fit in a sci-fi/high-tech world. Dr. Prego has also been on various fan-related and culture panels. He is the New York Delegate to the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, and spent 6 years as a board member of the NY association of Naturopathic Physicians. Dr. Prego has given talks, written articles, and been a guest on radio and television shows, discussing naturopathic medicine, children's health, detoxification, and other health-related topics. To learn more about Dr. Prego and naturopathic medicine, visit www.doctorprego.com

Sat 4:00pm Alternative Lifestyles and Fandom

Sat 7:00pm Evolution Beyond Biology

Sat 11:30pm For the Love of the Geek

Sun 1:00pm Extremophiles

Sun 4:00pm The Near Future of Organ Transplants

Sun 7:00pm Flirt Like a Pro!

Sun 8:30pm Our Weird Biology

Mon 11:30am Keeping Cool: Cryonics and Hibernation in SF

Mon 1:00pm The Future of Old Age

Mon 2:30pm Soldiers Made to Order

 

Antonia Pugliese is a girl of may talents. She once went for 125 days of school wearing a different costume each day and never repeating. She has costumed two productions for the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert & Sullivan Players, demonstrates 18th smallsword with the Higgins Museum Sword Guild, and teaches vintage dance and performs with the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers.

Sat 4:00pm Napoleonic Fantasy Ball

 

Barbara Menard Pugliese is a historian of both clothing and dance. She is an intrepid guide for time-travelers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. She is active in steampunk in the Boston area.

Fri 10:00pm Victorian Age Science in Steampunk

Sat 11:30am Fashion Throughout History

Sat 1:00pm Modifying, Making, and Using Sewing Patterns

Sat 2:30pm Steampunk and Costuming

Sat 4:00pm Napoleonic Fantasy Ball

Sun 10:00am What is the Society for Creative Anachronism?

 

Karen Purcell DVM—Most commonly known in fandom and elsewhere as Dr. Karen, I have been active in veterinary medicine since my early teens. Sometime during my unending college years, I went to my first convention and my spare time became non-existent. Busy in past years with Masquerade, Costuming, and the Art Show, I'm now back leading the Masquerade with Sharon Sbarsky.

Fri 5:30pm The Heinlein Juveniles

Fri 7:00pm Hall Costumes: Everyday Wear for Conventions

Sun 5:30pm Bioethics in Today's World

 

Kyle R.—A feminist, sadist, geek, dominant, communist, and activist, Kyle has always been exploring the dark side of himself and the world. His background in anti-racism and other leftist causes has served him well since joining the public BDSM scene, where he has become the Secretary of the New England Leather Alliance, a greeter for BTNG (a Boston-area group for kinky people aged 18–35), and a student of Lord Percival.

Fri 8:30pm BDSM 101: A Beginner's Guide

Fri 11:30pm Fun With Rope

Mon 1:00pm Alternative Activism

 

As a queer, poly, transmasculine boy, rabbit has never fit well into standard boxes and enjoys spending time with others who are expanding the options and building their own. Over the last decade, he has bootblacked or presented at events such as Transcending Boundaries Conference, FFF, Dark Odyssey, Leather Retreat, Smartfest, Ohio Leather Fest, Winter Wickedness, and for groups such as NELA, Adventures in Sexuality, and Purple Rose Society. He considers transition to be one of his biggest and most rewarding adventures.

Sat 11:30pm Home Depot in the Bedroom

 

Richard Ralston—Rick Ralston has been a fan of science fiction and anime since the late 60's. Rick has been staffing conventions the past 10 years on the local and regional level. Rick is also the organizer of the local anime group in Albany, NY. Rick also brings a unique point of view to the fandom community.

Fri 7:00pm Viewing Anime Online

Fri 10:00pm Intro to Anime's Adult Forms—Hentai, Yaoi

Sat 10:00am What Anime is New Now?

Sat 7:00pm Man-in-the-Machine Anime

Mon 11:30am Manga—Is It Dying?

 

Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert writes speculative fiction from her little corner of Massachusetts. Her poetry has been published in Tales of the Zombie War, Strong Verse, newWitch, Pagan Edge and High Coup Journal. Her first published short story "Essie" appeared in Luna Station Quarterly. She's currently writing a novel about the teenage embodiment of the Goddess Kwan Yin. She owns Seed Media Consulting, a social media consulting and content creation business. She also works as an editor for Pagan Writers Press. Suzanne is blessed with a tolerant husband, two mischievous black kittens, and two amazing kids. Although she has spent most of her life writing (in her head, if not on paper), she's earned degrees in Communication and Sociology in lieu of anything "literary." She is a lifelong speculative fiction and sci-fi fan and science geek. Find her online: http://suzannereynoldsalpert.blogspot.com/

Fri 5:30pm Gender Limitations in SF/F

Fri 10:00pm The Nature of Gender: Past, Present & Future

Fri 11:30pm Sacred Sexuality

Sat 10:00am Can You Like Literary SF Without Being a Snob?

Sat 11:30am Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading

Sat 1:00pm Our Grim Meat-Hook Future

Sat 10:00pm Politics in Science Fiction

 

Julia Rios writes speculative prose and poetry. She's also the staff interviewer for Stone Telling: The Magazine of Boundary-Crossing Poetry, and hosts the Outer Alliance Podcast (celebrating LGBTQIA content in speculative fiction). She's half-Mexican, but her (fairly dreadful) French is better than her Spanish. She has blue hair and brown eyes, though these things are subject to change without notice. Visit her online at http://www.juliarios.com.

Fri 5:30pm The Heinlein Juveniles

Fri 7:00pm Interstitial Fiction: Dancing Between Genres

Sat 1:00pm Reading: Amundsen, Lipkin, Rios

Sat 7:00pm How Not To Suppress Women's Writing

Sun 2:30pm Speculative Poetry Slam

Mon 10:00am Queer SF&F

Mon 11:30am Setting as Character

 

Sparr—At Arisia in order to feed his girlfriend's mad scientist fetish, TBF.

Fri 11:30pm Fun With Rope

Sat 11:30pm Home Depot in the Bedroom

Sun 10:00am Origami Fun

 

Santiago Rivas is currently celebrating 30 years as a sci-fi enthusiast, ever since his exposure to works like Tron, Empire Strikes Back, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. However, it was his time at MIT that he became an avid film, theatre, and gamer geek. He has been involved with the Theatre@First acting troupe for over six years and the Heinlein Society Naughty Nurses for four years. In his copious spare time, when he's not blogging, acting, writing short stories, writing one-act plays involving lightsabers, spending time with his Fabulous Redheaded wife, raising their advanced male prototype, and going out with hot Goths, he takes every opportunity to indulge in RPGs, Steve Jackson/Rio Grande games, and anything related to Star Wars or Final Fantasy.

Fri 8:30pm Batman Through the Ages

Sat 5:30pm Filmation Studios

Sun 4:00pm Poly 279: Poly Parenting

Sun 7:00pm Doctor Who Companions

Sun 11:30pm StarCraft!

 

Margaret Ronald is the author of Spiral Hunt, Wild Hunt, and Soul Hunt, as well as a number of short stories. Originally from rural Indiana, she now lives outside Boston.

Sat 11:30pm The Moral Aesthetics of Steampunk

Sun 10:00pm Consistent Magic Systems in Fantasy

Mon 10:00am Boston in SF/F

 

Ian Cooper Rose is the Chairperson of the 2012 Transcending Boundaries Conference. He is a bi, poly, kinky activist focusing on the education within these communities and the public. Ian currently lives as part of a kinky, poly quad in Springfield, MA where they are discovering on how to run a complex household in the process.

Sat 7:00pm Poly 201: Theory and Practice

Sat 11:30pm Home Depot in the Bedroom

Sun 7:00pm Building a Poly Home

Sun 11:30pm Bootblacking 101

Mon 1:00pm Alternative Activism

Mon 2:30pm Co-Housing: Beyond the Commune

 

Kristen Rose Morris—I love reading and writing science fiction, making my own games, and making costumes. I studied Psychology as an undergrad at Harvard. I once dressed up as Captain Picard for the premiere of the new Star Trek movie even though he wasn't in it because he is WAY better than Captain Kirk. I was disappointed no one noticed. Fail for you, BOSTON. I have a website, Landtitanic.com, where I write about my life and sell self made jewelry and purses, many with a nerdy theme.

Sun 10:00am DIY and Fandom

Sun 11:30am Homeschooling: An Alternative Education

Mon 11:30am MST3K The Panel

 

Noel Rosenberg has been running conventions for more years than not. He has worked on several major regionals, including Philcon and Balticon, as well as Gaylaxicon, several gaming conventions, and a couple of Worldcons. Arisia is his home convention. Proving he has no friends, he has worked on every Arisia since '90, filled almost every division head position at least once, held several officer positions in Arisia Corporate, and in a past life was the Conchair. He also chaired the Corporate Hotel Search Committee, and has negotiated hotel contracts for a few conventions.

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Mon 2:30pm Co-Housing: Beyond the Commune

 

A. Joseph Ross has been in fandom since the 1960's. In 1964, he founded the University of Massachusetts Science Fiction Society, then later became a member of MITSFS and NESFA, serving as Vice President of NESFA from 1970–72. He edited Volume I of the NESFA Hymnal in the late 1970's. He was Clerk of Arisia, Incorporated from 1990–92 and President from 1992–94. He is a practicing attorney and figures that if he practices long enough, he may get good at it.

Sat 2:30pm Science in Politics

Sat 5:30pm Forensic Science and the Courts

Sat 8:30pm The Race to the Moon

Sun 7:00pm Disabilities in Science Fiction

Mon 2:30pm Why not 1812?

 

Joan Ruland Donnelly—Among many things, Joan is a mother, spouse, insurance professional (someone has to do it), hula dancer, former morris dancer, pub singer, flautist, martial artist, and rennie. She is a High Priestess in the Blue Star tradition of Wicca, and has also been involved with the Boston Pagan Community for the last 10 years, participating in and occasionally leading public events and innumerable closed events. She has also written rites of passage for children and adults. Her regular activities include beading; crocheting; making candles, soaps, sachets, bath salts, oils, and bath bombs; decorating cakes; brewing mead; making yogurt and cheese; and has recently added preserving her own foods and homemade bread. Joan is endlessly fascinated with why people do what they do, in many areas of life.

Sat 1:00pm Magickal Traditions: A Review

Sun 8:30am Geeky Play Date

 

Jon Sagotsky

Sat 8:00pm Sassafrass & Stranger Ways Concert

 

Don Sakers was launched the same month as Sputnik One, so it was perhaps inevitable that he should become a science fiction writer. A Navy brat by birth, he spent his childhood in such far-off lands as Japan, Scotland, Hawaii, and California. In California, rather like a latter-day Mowgli, he was raised by dogs. As a writer and editor, he has explored the thoughts of sapient trees, brought ghosts to life, and beaten the "Cold Equations" scenario. In 2009, Don took up the position of book reviewer for Analog Science Fiction & Fact, where he writes the "Reference Library" column in every issue.

Fri 10:00pm Asimov vs. Heinlein: Which Future?

Sat 10:00am Avatar: The Last Airbender

Sat 4:00pm Reading: Linzner, Macdonald, & Sakers

Sun 10:00am Autograph—Popkes, Sakers & Vanderhoof

Sun 11:30am Why You Should/Should Not Self-Publish

Sun 8:30pm The eBook Ecosystem

Mon 10:00am Queer SF&F

 

Carol Salemi has been involved in costuming for over 30 years, trying her hand at everything from creating and competing to judging and masquerade directing. Each competition costume has usually involved some new, fun, or challanging techique that keeps it fresh. While best known for Media recreations and Native American clothing, her more recent forays have been into the Haunt Industry with a growing interest in Steampunk (check out her jewelry in the art show).

Fri 8:30pm Wigs for Costuming

Sat 10:00am Fabric Dyeing

Sun 1:00pm Costuming on the Cheap

 

Colin Sandel is a self-published author and video game industry professional. He began writing stories set in the city of New Washington in the early 2000s, culminating in his self-published 2010 novel, Tales from the Securemarket. He has deep investment in the study of narrative design, both in traditional and interactive media. He has professed a desire to become 'internet famous,' but hems and haws when asked what, precisely, he means by that.

Sun 8:30pm Reading: Amidon, Lieder, & Sandel

 

Steve Sawicki—Writer and screenwriter. His short fiction been featured in Future Washington, Transversions, and Electric Velocipide, and a novella in Absolute Magnitude. Reviewer of books, movies, and small press, and the Creator of the Damn Aliens, Steve currently has two screenplays under option and negotiating a reality television series with production companies. His reviews appear in SFRevu and Gumshoe.

Fri 10:00pm Issues in Modern Mad Science

Sat 1:00pm Our Grim Meat-Hook Future

Sat 5:30pm Autograph—Macdonald, Sawicki & Wooldridge

Sun 10:00am Reading: Dawn, Feinman, & Sawicki

 

Ian Schleifer is the author of a science and technology blog called The Grok Project (http://grokproject.net). He works at the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory at Brandeis University. He is a bachelor of the sciences with a major in computer science and a minor in mathematics. Ian has a passion for figuring out how things work and he loves to share it.

Sat 11:30am The 100-Year Starship Study

Sun 11:30am The Generation and Utilization of Steam

Sun 5:30pm Mars or Bust!

Sun 7:00pm Disabilities in Science Fiction

Mon 1:00pm The Alien as Metaphor

Mon 2:30pm Science Fiction as Mainstream Meme

 

Micah Schneider—Micah joined the Programming Staff for Arisia four years ago. A longtime activist, he has worked with many different types of organizations in the past. He is currently the Director of Operations for Transcending Boundaries, a regional GLBT conference. Micah recently completed his Masters degree in history and public history from UMass Amherst, and works as a freelance writer. In his free time, Micah enjoys video and board gaming, geocaching and highpointing, and being polyamorous as often as possible.

Fri 10:00pm BDSM 201: Hurting the Ones You Love

Sat 4:00pm Alternative Lifestyles and Fandom

Sun 8:30pm Poly in Sci-Fi

Mon 11:30am Self-Objectification and the Geeky Girl

 

Dr. Jason Schneiderman has a BS in Psychology from Stony Brook University and PhD in Neuroscience from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Over the last decade he has worked on a variety of research and educational projects sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Space Biomedical Research Institute, and NASA's Space and Life Sciences Directorate. His research has focused on the biological basis of psychiatric disorders, brain imaging techniques, and the effects of microgravity on the nervous system and his research has appeared in scientific journals including The Journal of Vestibular Research, Psychological Medicine, Biological Psychiatry, Neuropsychobiology and Schizophrenia Research. Currently, he is working at the Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School on using advanced imagine techniques to study schizophrenia, PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

Sun 5:30pm Mars or Bust!

Sun 7:00pm Strange and Unusual Research

Sun 8:30pm Our Weird Biology

Mon 2:30pm Soldiers Made to Order

 

Kenneth Schneyer forgot he wanted to be a writer for 25 years, until a gang of plot bunnies ambushed him in 2006. He's sold stories to Analog, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Abyss & Apex, Clockwork Phoenix 3, Daily Science Fiction, The Pedestal, Bull Spec, The Drabblecast, Ideomancer, GUD, and elsewhere. He attended Clarion in 2009 and joined the Cambridge Science Fiction Workshop in 2010. He's been an actor, dishwasher, corporate lawyer, IT project manager, and the Assistant Dean of a technology school. Born in Detroit, he now lives in Rhode Island with one singer, one dancer, one actor, and something striped and fanged that he sometimes glimpses out of the corner of his eye. He's interested in astronomy, history, bicycling, presidential trivia, feminist theory, constitutive rhetoric, and practically anything else. He gives a decent Tarot reading and cooks better than you do. He blogs, sort of, at ken-schneyer.livejournal.com.

Fri 5:30pm Schools for Magicians

Fri 10:00pm Reading: Palmer, Smith & Schneyer

Sat 10:00am Can You Like Literary SF Without Being a Snob?

Sun 2:30pm Use Your Words: Dialogoue, Prose, and Tone

Sun 5:30pm "But That's Not Science Fiction, Is It?"

Sun 7:00pm Making Politics Work in Fiction

 

Meredith Schwartz's short fiction appeared in Strange Horizons, Reflection's Edge, and Sleeping Beauty, Indeed. She edited Alleys & Doorways, an anthology of homoerotic urban fantasy, available from Lethe Press. She is running program for Lunacon, is a screenwriter for Accidental Heroes and other CSquared Pictures projects, has been known to commit fanfiction, and ran Buffycon once upon a time.

Sat 8:30pm SF vs. the Body

Sat 10:00pm Negotiation and BDSM

Sun 10:00am Traditional Stories, Modern Audiences

Sun 8:30pm Poly in Sci-Fi

Sun 10:00pm Ethics of Science Fiction

Mon 10:00am Queer SF&F

Mon 2:30pm Mainstream Fiction for Fen

 

Selkiechick has been lurking around the edges of fandom and the SCA for just over 20 years, dabbling in costuming and cooking and fanfiction, among many other things. Her day job is working with Adaptive Technology for Harvard University, where she gets to read a wide variety of books and articles, and learns something new almost every day.

Sun 2:30pm Disability and Fandom

 

Frances K. Selkirk has written several published fantasy erotica stories, several unpublished fantasy novels, and rather a lot of fanfic in Robin of Sherwood and Harry Potter fandoms. She enjoys carpentry, cooking, keeping pretty chickens, and climbing walls.

Fri 5:30pm Reading SF/F to Your Kids

Sat 10:00am Harry Potter in the Future

Sun 1:00pm Being a Sex-Positive Parent

Sun 2:30pm Harry Potter, My Love for You Will Never Die

Sun 4:00pm Diana Wynne Jones: In Memoriam

 

Jude Shabry (aka peacefrog) found Arisia in 1994 and hasn't been able to stay away since. She has attended as an artist, vendor, techie, panelist, yoga teacher, climbing guide, bride, and more. This year she is thrilled to add mama to the list.

Fri 8:30pm A Game of Thrones

Sat 10:00am Walk the Labyrinth

Sat 2:30pm Is Glee Fantasy?

 

Nicholas "phi" Shectman is Clerk of Arisia, Inc.

Sun 5:30pm Arisia Corporate Meeting

 

Judah Sher has wanted to be an inventor since he was little. With a degree in industrial design under his belt, he's decided to fulfill his dreams by starting Sindrian Arts, a business that not only lets him bring his inventions to life but help others to do the same!

Sat 10:00am So, What's New?

Sat 4:00pm Nerf Gun War

Sun 10:00am DIY and Fandom

Sun 11:30am Steampunk: Boom or Bust?

Sun 4:00pm Flying High with Paper

Sun 8:30pm Aboard All That Glitters:Foglio's Illegal Aliens

Mon 10:00am Collaborating Couples

Mon 11:30am Spoon-A-Pults

 

Hillary Sherwood is a filker, harper, knitter, and needlepointer. She has been reading Science Fiction and Fantasy for as long as she can remember, and watching it for nearly as long. She currently lives in the western suburbs of Philadelphia.

Fri 11:30pm Pick, Pass, Play Open Filk

Sat 10:00pm Pick, Pass, Play Open Filk

 

Cynthia A. Shettle-Meleedy—I play Kingdom of Loathing daily. Old favorite shows include Heroes, Angel, Highlander, and Misfits of Science. I roleplay with the Western Avenue Irregulars.

Fri 7:00pm Elseworlds and What Ifs

Sat 10:00am Harry Potter in the Future

Sat 8:30pm 10 Years of Smallville

Sun 2:30pm On The Fringe

Mon 11:30am The Lighter Side of Adventure

 

Cris Shuldiner

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Sun 5:30pm Arisia Corporate Meeting

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Rachel L. Silber has been volunteering for Arisia for many years. This year you can find her being Guest of Honor Liaison. She's excited and proud to be conchair for Arisia 2013.

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Sun 5:30pm Arisia Corporate Meeting

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Gynn Stella Silva—Comic writer, artist, co-owner of Dandelion Studios. Wife of Rick Silva and mom of one adorable three-year-old boy.

Fri 5:30pm Tell the Truth: Non-Fiction Comics

Sat 5:30pm Comics: Not How You Start, But How You Finish!

Sat 7:00pm Race, Gender & Disability Politics in Comics

Sun 2:30pm Creating Minicomics

Sun 5:30pm Building the Perfect Beast: How Comics Get Made

 

Richard A. Silva has been involved in small press publishing since his college days. He published and edited Kinships Magazine. Along with his wife Gynn, Rick is a partner in Dandelion Studios (www.dandelionstudios.com), a small press comic book company. Rick co-writes the Dandelion Studios comics Zephyr & Reginald: Minions for Hire, Stone, Kaeli & Rebecca, and Perils of Picorna. He publishes his own 'zine, Caravan, and he was a featured contributor for five years at the fiction webzine The Edge of Propinquity (www.edgeofpropinquity.net). Rick's prose short stories have appeared in the anthologies Close Encounters of the Urban Kind from Apex Books and Space Tramps from Flying Pen Press. Rick Silva grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, attended Cornell University, and currently teaches chemistry at a high school on Cape Cod, where he resides with his wife and son, and three cats.

Sat 5:30pm Reading: Nelson, Silva, & Taaffe

Sun 10:00am The Best Young-Adult and Children's Comics

Sun 5:30pm Building the Perfect Beast: How Comics Get Made

Mon 11:30am Attending a Con with Kids

Mon 1:00pm Marketing Independent Comics

 

Hildy Silverman is the publisher of Space and Time, a 4-decade-old magazine featuring fantasy, horror, and science fiction. She is also the author of several works of short fiction, including "Damned Inspiration" (2009, Bad-Ass Fairies, Ackley-McPhail, ed), "The Vampire Escalator of the Passaic Promenade" (2010, New Blood, Thomas, ed.), "The Darren" (2009, Witch Way to the Mall?, Friesner, ed), and "Sappy Meals" (2010, Fangs for the Mammaries, Friesner, ed). She is the Vice President of the Garden State Horror Writers and member of the literary programming committee for Philcon. In the "real" world, she is a freelance consultant who develops corporate training and marketing communications materials.

Fri 11:30pm Eye of Argon Reading

Sat 11:30am Fantasy Before Fantasy, SF Before SF

Sun 10:00am The Who, the Whole Who, and Nothing but the Who

Sun 1:00pm Reading: Cole, Hairston, & Silverman

Mon 11:30am MST3K The Panel

Mon 1:00pm Baby Vamps: The New World of Teen Vampires

 

Jamila Sisco is an award-winning costumer with a specialization in Anime costumes. She has worked on costumes for over 5 years and is a member of the Northern Lights chapter of the International Costumers' Guild.

Fri 5:30pm Corsets, Hoops, & Other Undergarments

Fri 8:30pm Wigs for Costuming

Sun 8:30pm Costume and Costuming Space

 

David Sklar writes in the places between the impossible magic of legend, the inscrutable magic of dreams, and the breathtaking everyday magic of the world in which we live. His works include fiction in such publications as Space and Time and Cabinet des Fees, and poetry in Wormwood Review and Paterson Literary Review, among others. His first novel, Shadow of the Antlered Bird, is available as an e-book from Drollerie Press. He is currently co-editing the two-headed anthology Trafficking in Magic/Magicking in Traffic. David lives in New Jersey here he works as a freelance writer and editor. For more information, see http://davidwriting.com

Sat 10:00pm Reading: Cambias, Freedman & Sklar

Sun 1:00pm Point of View

Sun 5:30pm Autograph—Letersky & Sklar

Sun 10:00pm Consistent Magic Systems in Fantasy

 

Joshua Slocum

Mon 10:00am Watson, Jeopardy, and the Future of Computing

 

Brad Smith is a professional Linux nerd by day, and does musical theater, voice acting, LARP, drumming, and just about any other kind of performance he can get involved with by night. He currently does vocals and percussion in the folk group Stranger Ways, and has recently performed on stage as Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar and Jake in Evil Dead: The Musical, both with the MIT Musical Theater Guild. He is the technical producer of and principle voice cast in the online audio theater podcast, Second Shift (http://www.secondshiftpodcast.com). Occasionally, he sleeps.

Sat 8:00pm Sassafrass & Stranger Ways Concert

 

Sarah Smith's first YA, The Other Side of Dark (ghosts, interracial romance, and a secret from slavery times) won the Agatha (for best mystery) and the Massachusetts Book Award. She has also written Chasing Shakespeares, The Vanished Child and The Knowledge of Water (both New York Times Notable Books), A Citizen of the Country, and horror, SF, and hypertext short stories. "The Boys Go Fishing" appears in NY Times best-selling Death's Excellent Vacation (ed. Charlaine Harris and Toni Kelner). Two of her books are being made into plays. She is still working on that Titanic book, and has recently published the nonfictional A New Shakespeare Poem? Visit her at www.sarahsmith.com, FB and Twitter, and www.bookviewcafe.com, where a lot of her stories are free for the reading.

Fri 7:00pm Interstitial Fiction: Dancing Between Genres

Fri 10:00pm Reading: Palmer, Smith & Schneyer

Sat 10:00am So, What's New?

Sat 11:30am Panel in the Pool

Sat 1:00pm Don't Quit Your Day Job

Sat 4:00pm Writer's Clinic

Sat 5:30pm Winter Is Coming

Sat 8:30pm Self-Publishing Snares

Sun 1:00pm Autograph—Lieder, Linzner, & Smith

Sun 2:30pm The Future of School

 

Elayna Jade Smolowitz—I am a second-generation geek, a writer, a singer, and an actress. I'm an anime geek, a band geek, and a literature geek, and have a certain passion for musicals. Many of my short stories are stored in my journal on Gaia Online (gaiaonline.com), which is where I get much of my inspiration anyway.

Sun 2:30pm Speculative Poetry Slam

Sun 4:00pm Flying High with Paper

Mon 11:30am Spoon-A-Pults

Mon 1:00pm Baby Vamps: The New World of Teen Vampires

 

Charlie Spickler is a Brooklyn based independent filmmaker. He has written and directed three feature films a number of short films and two TV pilots; and co-wrote and directed Accidental Heroes, the highly acclaimed web series; and recently finished another Syfy TV pilot titled The Chronicles of Bob, which is currently being shopped to a number of networks. Charlie is a partner in C-Squared Pictures, and currently in pre-production on a new web series called Marie's Zero Gravity Bar and Grill, starring Amber Benson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Jonathon Woodward (Angel, Firefly). Charlie has also just published his first book, So You Want To Be a Filmmaker… Forget Film school.

Sat 7:00pm Plot and Structure

Sat 10:00pm Kolchak the Night Stalker

Mon 2:30pm Snag It, Bag It, and Tag It

 

Michael Sprague is the Assistant Division Head of Programming for Arisia 2012. He has been involved as staff for Arisia for several years and as an attendee for even longer. He likes long walks on the beach, sunsets, and AC/DC.

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Richard Stallman—Founder of the Free Software Movement in 1983, a movement for software users' freedom; and launched development of the GNU operating system (gnu.org), often mislabeled as "Linux" and attributed to someone else. President of the Free Software Foundation (fsf.org).

Fri 7:00pm Reading: Hunt, Kirschbaum, & Stallman

Sat 7:00pm The Legacy of Steve Jobs

Sat 8:30pm Autograph—Dr. Chris & Stallman

Sun 1:00pm Copyright, Satire, and the Public Domain

Sun 4:00pm Punday!

Sun 5:30pm Bioethics in Today's World

 

Twisting Star has been a voracious reader since before she can actively remember. She relies on a constant stream of fantasy, science fiction, and comic books of all kind to keep herself sane. With that said, she has exactly zero connections to the professional side of fandom, but she babbles with the best of them. She came to her first Arisia when she was far too small, and the hotel far too large.

Fri 7:00pm Viewing Anime Online

Sat 2:30pm Is Glee Fantasy?

Sat 5:30pm Anne McCaffrey Memorial Panel

Mon 2:30pm The Relevance of Livejournal

 

Rachael M. Stark

Sun 8:30am Being a Morning Person in Nocturnal Fandom

 

Lisa J. Steele is a criminal defense attorney and author based in Massachusetts. She represents clients accused of crimes ranging from minor traffic offenses to capital murder. Ms. Steele is the author of several legal articles about criminal defense, two Cumberland Games source books: Fief and Town (available at www222.pair.com/sjohn/fief.htm), GURPS: Cops and GURPS: Mysteries (both available from e23.sjgames.com). She was a contributing author to White Wolf's Dark Ages: Europe and Dark Ages: Spoils of War. She is currently working on a project with Evil Hat (the publishers of the Dresden Files RPG).

Sat 5:30pm Forensic Science and the Courts

 

On top of being a special effects Makeup Artist, Propsman, and Costumer/Cosplayer, Raven Stormbringer is also a dancer and ballroom dancer instructor. Raven studied Art, Architecture, and theatre at various universities, graduating in '82 from William Paterson University. An avid costumer and prosthetics makeup artist, Raven is the owner of Raven Design/Ram FX Studios in New Jersey (http://ravendesigngroup.com). Following the death of Suzanne, better known as Nightfrost, Raven took a break from conventions and costuming, slowly rebuilt Ram FX Studios, and is ready to launch a full product line this Spring; he still does custom work and welcomes commissions. Raven has worked with such notable figures as Mr. T, James Earl Jones, Danny Filth, and Tim McGraw in commercials and print film, and is currently working on several projects including commercials, theater, and short film. (Yeah, ZOMBIES of course.) New film makers are always welcome!

Fri 10:00pm BDSM 201: Hurting the Ones You Love

Sun 8:30pm Your Kink is OK!

Sun 11:30pm The Law, Risk Assessment, and Fun

 

Ian Randal Strock is the editor and publisher of SFScope.com and the publisher of Fantastic Books (www.FantasticBooks.biz). Random House published his first book, The Presidential Book of Lists, in 2008, and his short fiction has appeared in Nature and Analog (from which he won two AnLabs).

Sat 2:30pm Science in Politics

Sat 10:00pm Politics in Science Fiction

Sun 11:30am Why You Should/Should Not Self-Publish

Sun 7:00pm How the Political Process Works—and Doesn't

Mon 2:30pm Snag It, Bag It, and Tag It

 

Julia Suggs—Member of the a cappella filk group Sassafrass.

Fri 7:00pm Introduction to Arisia

Fri 8:30pm Convention Feedback 1

Sat 2:30pm Convention Feedback 2

Sat 8:00pm Sassafrass & Stranger Ways Concert

Sun 11:30am Braiding Voices: Singing Rounds & Related Forms

Sun 4:00pm Convention Feedback 3

Sun 8:30pm Aboard All That Glitters:Foglio's Illegal Aliens

Mon 2:30pm Convention Feedback 4

 

Karen Sullivan is a pop culture expert who specializes in the study of American iconography, the history of space exploration, animation, TV, film, and music and their effect on Science Fiction and Fantasy (and vice-versa). A pharmaceutical editor residing in New Jersey, Karen holds a BA in English and an MAED in Education. As a second-degree Wicca priestess and legally ordained interfaith minister, she spends her free time championing religious and cultural diversity by volunteering with various public service organizations. By night, she is a professional Tarot reader and is the personal assistant to three innocuous-looking but iron-pawed felines immersed in plotting world domination and Cat Chow consumption.

Sat 5:30pm Sexual Harassment and Assault in Fandom

Sun 1:00pm Jack Arnold at 100

Mon 11:30am Self-Objectification and the Geeky Girl

 

Sean Sullivan is a software entrepreneur, science journalist, and art photographer with ten patents in communications technology and particle physics. He was home-schooled, and triple-majored at Amherst College in computer science, astronomy, and cultural evolution.

Fri 8:30pm Sky Searching

Sat 8:30pm The Race to the Moon

Sun 11:30am Homeschooling: An Alternative Education

Sun 2:30pm The Future of School

 

Sonya Taaffe's short stories and poems have won the Rhysling Award, been shortlisted for the SLF Fountain Award and the Dwarf Stars Award, and appeared in such anthologies as The Moment of Change: An Anthology of Feminist Speculative Poetry, People of the Book: A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction & Fantasy, Last Drink Bird Head, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, The Alchemy of Stars: Rhysling Award Winners Showcase, The Best of Not One of Us, and Trochu divné kusy 3. Her work can be found in the collections Postcards from the Province of Hyphens and Singing Innocence and Experience (Prime Books), and A Mayse-Bikhl (Papaveria Press). She is presently on the editorial staff of Strange Horizons. She holds master's degrees in Classics from Brandeis and Yale, and once named a Kuiper belt object.

Fri 7:00pm The Exiled Character

Sat 11:30am Fantasy Before Fantasy, SF Before SF

Sat 1:00pm Chantey Sing

Sat 2:30pm Fantasy and Horror in Shakespeare

Sat 5:30pm Reading: Nelson, Silva, & Taaffe

Sat 8:30pm Death Personified

Sun 11:30am Myth and Folklore in Fantasy

Sun 2:30pm Speculative Poetry Slam

Sun 4:00pm Diana Wynne Jones: In Memoriam

 

Cecilia Tan is "science fiction's premiere pornographer," according to Walter Jon Williams, and "one of the most important writers, editors, and innovators in contemporary American erotic literature" according to Susie Bright. She is the author of many books that combine the erotic with the fantastic, including the novels The Siren and the Sword, The Tower and the Tears, The Incubus and the Angel, Mind Games, and The Velderet, the collections of short stories Edge Plays, White Flames, Black Feathers, and Telepaths Don't Need Safewords, and the web serial The Prince's Boy. She is the founder and editor of Circlet Press, erotic science fiction and fantasy, and has edited anthologies for Alyson Books, Thunder's Mouth Press, Carroll & Graf, Ravenous Romance, Masquerade Books, and others. Her short stories have appeared everywhere from Asimov's to Ms. Magazine. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or http://blog.ceciliatan.com

Fri 5:30pm Schools for Magicians

Fri 8:30pm Circlet Press 20th Anniversary Retrospective!

Sat 10:00am Harry Potter in the Future

Sat 2:30pm My Bizarre Writing Process

Sat 7:00pm Autograph—Pinto & Tan

Sun 2:30pm Harry Potter, My Love for You Will Never Die

 

Tchipakkan—I am an artist, a writer, a healer. A student of history—especially the European Dark Ages, healing, psychic phenomena, magick and divination, and ancient and neo-pagan religions. I also have skills in sustainable self-sufficiency. I teach everything from Divination to Dressing small game. I am willing to work with kids, but not to the exclusion of other activities.

Fri 5:30pm Parapsychology in Genre Fiction

Sat 7:00pm The Autism Spectrum

Sun 5:30pm Food Communicating Culture in Literature

 

Timothy J. Tero—I have been attending Arisia cons for about 10 years now. I'm a painter and photographer, and have traveled extensively; I have been to Europe about a dozen times and Japan 3 times. I'm an assistant organizer for an international arthouse film meetup group in the Boston area. I would say my special interest would be the culture of Japan (old and new)—Japanese Sci-fi/horror films and some anime (especially old Anime). Also, I have a keen interest in European Sci-fi films.

Fri 7:00pm SF and Horror: Where Do You Draw the Line?

Sun 2:30pm History in Japanese Anime and Manga

Sun 4:00pm Anime as Art

 

Persis L. Thorndike—As the mother of an accomplished 16-year-old Novice costumer and filker, I am busy sharing my sewing machines, singing (with the NCFO), playing music, worksharing on my local CSA and Fish Share, cooking good food for my extended family, and homeschooling my child. Oh, I am also holding down several part time jobs ATM. I am not only raising a costumer, but have a background of sewing, organizing, music, and graphics. I collect children's literature and read avidly, and love good food and wine. I have experience in fannish and music publishing, run non-profit charity auctions for Interfilk (a filk fan fund), have been on the ConCom of the local Boston area gen and filk cons, and am currently Tech Mom to Arisia and Balticon. Free time? Over-committed? Who, me? Don't tell me not to burn the candle at both ends; just tell me where to get more wax! (a Nancy Button in my collection.)

Sat 10:00am Kamikaze Costuming

Sun 1:00pm Alice "Badger" Washburn Memorial Filk Sing

 

Michael Toole—Mike Toole watches anime every single day. He's currently a bi-weekly columnist, sometime producer, and onscreen personality for Anime News Network, the world's #1 anime website, and an occasional reviewer and features writer for Otaku USA Magazine.

Fri 8:30pm Religious Icons in the World of Anime

Sat 10:00am What Anime is New Now?

Sun 10:00am The Leiji-verse

 

Thomas Traina is an attorney practicing law in Massachusetts. He has experience in the areas of labor law and business law, and practices in an area he likes to call "fandom law": legal issues of special interest to fandom, conventions, and event hosts. Academically, he also focuses on civil liberties, constitutional law, speculative bioethics, and comparative law and government in science fiction. Tom got into science fiction through Star Wars, then Star Trek TNG, and snowballed from there. He is also an avid roleplayer and theatre-style LARP writer. When he can afford it, he also enjoys wargames.

Fri 5:30pm SF/F, Prior Art, and Patents

Sun 11:30pm The Law, Risk Assessment, and Fun

 

Jenn Tuomala is in her second term as an AmeriCorps member. For the MLK Day of Service, she has organized a knitting project for Arisia 2012 with Judy Gentry from Warmer Winters. Warmer Winters is based in Leominster, and projects made by participants will benefit people in need of warm garments in north central MA.

Sat 10:00am Crochet & Knitting Basics

 

Bonnie Barlow Turner has a Masters in Counseling and is a certified high school Biology teacher. She is currently doing research in Psychology. Bonnie has worked in biotech and tutored ESOL students. She volunteers informing the public about environmental and other social justice issues. She met James Turner at Arisia 1 and has been married to him for 19 years.

Sun 11:30am Homeschooling: An Alternative Education

Sun 2:30pm Disability and Fandom

 

Born in a log cabin he built with his own hands, Carsten Turner expects to have it finished any day now; certainly by the time he's finished reinventing himself (again). In 2004, he chaired Arisia, and then went on to serve as president. He has been, and remains, an EMT, teacher, artist, hacker, and student.

Sat 11:30am Incorporating Photography into Art

Sat 1:00pm Attaching This to That

Sat 2:30pm From Concept to Completion

Sun 10:00am Disaster Preparedness for Fans

Sun 5:30pm 3D Art & Sculpture

 

James Turner, contributing editor for oreilly.com, is a freelance journalist who has written for publications as diverse as the Christian Science Monitor, IEEE Spectrum and WIRED Magazine. In addition to his shorter writing, he has also written two books on Java Web Development (MySQL & JSP Web Applications and Struts: Kick Start). Recently, he has also started writing semi-regular DIY columns for IEEE Spectrum (anyone for a homemade projection TV?). In addition, he has spent more than 30 years as a software engineer, and currently works as a Senior Software Engineer for a company in the Boston area. He lives in a 200-year-old Colonial farmhouse in Derry, NH along with his wife and son. He is an open water diver and instrument-rated private pilot.

Sat 7:00pm The Legacy of Steve Jobs

Sun 10:00am DIY and Fandom

 

Eric M. Van was a 2010 nominee for the World Fantasy Award for his work as Program Chair or Chair Emeritus for the first 21 Readercon—the only convention ever to be so honored. The outline for his novel Imaginary has passed the 75,000 word mark, and a handful of critical pieces for New York Review of Science Fiction (where his observations on Philip K. Dick appeared back in the 90's) are just as unfinished. At the turn of the millennium, he spent four years back at Harvard studying psychology; he's just begun work on the first of a trilogy of theoretical neuroscience books, Feeling the Future, on the evolutionary rationale and cognitive structure of feeling states. He's also a popularizer of theoretical physics (his original Harvard major), earning wild praise from Roger Ebert for posts on Ebert's blog, and writes film and rock criticism online and for local 'zines. In the real world, he is a former statistical consultant for the Boston Red Sox, and lives in Watertown, Mass.

Fri 7:00pm What Makes a Good Panel

Fri 8:30pm Forests & Trees: How the Asperger's Brain Thinks

Sat 10:00pm The Mind of the Nerd: Psychology and Fandom

Sun 4:00pm A "Self" or "No Self?" Neuroscience in SF

 

James B. Van Bokkelen—Outside of my career as a software developer and entrepreneur, my list of hobbies is at risk of overflowing this space: farming fruit, hay, grain, vegetables and meat animals; restoring old farm equipment and tools; historic research, documentation and preservation; forestry; genealogy; foreign languages; metalworking; woodworking; model railroading; massage; science fiction; travel; beer; cider; photography; electronics; solar energy; astronomy; local government; open space preservation; and nursing as many MPG as possible out of my hybrid cars.

Sat 10:00pm The Role of Albedo in Climate Change

Sun 11:30am The Generation and Utilization of Steam

Sun 7:00pm Alternative Energy

 

Pamela van Hylckama Vlieg is not a superhero, but she would love to play one on TV. She resides in the beautiful Bay Area of California where fog plays a large part in prodding her imagination. Pam blogs about books at Bookalicious and partners with her local independent bookstore Hicklebee's, where magical things happen daily. She is the mother of two cape-wearing children and one Jack Russell with an intense Napoleon complex. Pam is married to a Dutchman and tends to use the Dutch language for much needed evil wording. "Super Soaker" is her first foray into writing. Contact Pam anytime on Twitter (@BookaliciousPam).

Fri 7:00pm When Authors Critique the Critic

Sun 11:30am UnCONventional Rapid-Fire Reading

Sun 2:30pm Harry Potter, My Love for You Will Never Die

 

Mercy E. Van Vlack has been a comics pro since 1980, including working as a writer for Richie Rich; an artist on Green Ghost & Lotus (set in Boston), creator of Miranda for Leg Show and Puritan magazines; inker for DC, Malibu, and others; illustrator for numerous fanzines, APAs, anthropomorphics, and SF cons; and artist of many Celtic Calendars and the Celtic Coloring Book. She also draws for private collections, bakes Gluten-Free cookies and cakes that taste good, and makes Celtic jewelry.

Sat 2:30pm From Concept to Completion

Sat 4:00pm Female Fandom in Comics

Sun 1:00pm Wonder Woman

Sun 2:30pm Making Art on Commission

Mon 11:30am The Lighter Side of Adventure

Mon 1:00pm Birding 101

 

Drew Van Zandt is an engineer, roboticist, and general geek. He's also the Electronics & Robotics Craft Lead at the Artisan's Asylum, a hacker/makerspace in Somerville, MA. Drew is happiest when he's teaching you to make something or making things himself.

Sat 4:00pm Designing A Memorable Role-Playing Character

Sun 5:30pm Technology and the GM

Sun 7:00pm Flirt Like a Pro!

 

JoSelle Vanderhooft is a poet, author, and editor of several anthologies of fantasy stories—most of them having to do with lesbians. These include the well-received Steam-Powered series (lesbian steampunk) as well as Bitten by Moonlight, Sleeping Beauty, Indeed, (with Catherine Lundoff) Hellebore & Rue, and (with Steve Berman) Wilde for Her, a collection of the best lesbian spec fic published in 2010. Her poetry collection Death Masks is forthcoming from Papaveria Press and her second novel, Ebenezer, a lesbian re-telling of A Christmas Carol, will be released from Zumaya Books in 2012. Her third novel, Bluebeard: A Biography, will be released soon from Norilana Books. She lives in South Florida with her partner and one gloriously orange cat.

Sat 2:30pm Fantasy and Horror in Shakespeare

Sat 7:00pm How Not To Suppress Women's Writing

Sat 8:30pm Death Personified

Sat 10:00pm Yin and Yang: Yuri and Yaoi

Sat 11:30pm The Moral Aesthetics of Steampunk

Sun 10:00am Autograph—Popkes, Sakers & Vanderhoof

Sun 2:30pm Speculative Poetry Slam

Sun 7:00pm Disabilities in Science Fiction

Sun 8:30pm The eBook Ecosystem

Sun 10:00pm Reading: Kane & Vanderhooft

Mon 10:00am Queer SF&F

 

Carolyn VanEseltine has been fascinated by interactive narrative since playing Colossal Cave Adventure at age six, which helps explain why she now works professionally in the video games industry (Harmonix Music Systems) and writes text adventures on the side. In her spare time, she reads voraciously and pursues a long list of kaleidoscopically changing hobbies.

Sat 10:00am Gender and Video Games

Sat 11:30am Character Building

Sun 10:00am Ending the Epic

Sun 1:00pm Beyond the Controller

 

Michael A. Ventrella's second fantasy novel The Axes of Evil (a sequel to Arch Enemies) was released in 2010. He is editor of the Tales from Fortannis anthologies, and his pirate short stories have appeared in the anthologies Rum and Runestone and Cutlass and Musket, Tales of Piratical Skulduggery. He's currently working on a novel about a vampire who runs for President. Michael is one of the founders of the biggest fantasy medieval live action roleplaying group in North America and currently runs the Alliance LARP. His Rule Books and Players Guides are available in all formats. He is also the founder of Animato which, in the late 80s, was the first major magazine dedicated to animated films. He has been quoted as an animation expert in Entertainment Weekly and in various books. At his website's blog he interviews other authors, editors, agents, and publishers to get advice for the starting author. In his spare time, he is a lawyer.

Fri 11:30pm Eye of Argon Reading

Sat 10:00am Harry Potter in the Future

Sat 11:30am Character Building

Sat 2:30pm Science in Politics

Sun 11:30am Why You Should/Should Not Self-Publish

Sun 1:00pm Point of View

Sun 4:00pm Harry Potter: The Films

Sun 7:00pm Making Politics Work in Fiction

 

Margarita de Ville—I'm a founding member of Happy Hour Burlesque and have a different spin on burlesque. It's not about how many clothes you take off, but how you do it. I'm also a frequent con-goer with a love of Steampunk, web comics, and costumes!

Sat 11:30pm Burlesque!

 

Mark "Justin du Coeur" Waks is a rapidly moving particle. If one pins down his position enough (and doesn't worry about his velocity), one finds him focusing on programming, SCA, fandom, LARP, and Freemasonry. He is seeking the gentle synthesis of Buddhism and Quantum Mechanics.

Fri 8:30pm Paneling 101: A Primer

Sun 10:00am What is the Society for Creative Anachronism?

Sun 11:30am No Capes! Non-Superhero Comics

 

René Walling is a fan of SF, animation and comics. Being a fan has led him to co-chair Anticipation, the 2009 Worldcon, to be involved with fps magazine for more than a decade, to blog on Tor.com, to write reviews of francophone short fiction for The Portal, and to start Nanopress, a Canadian small press. He looks forward to living on Mars, where he would benefit from having more than 24 hours in a day.

Sat 10:00am Avatar: The Last Airbender

Sat 5:30pm Anime for Kids

Sat 7:00pm Man-in-the-Machine Anime

Sun 10:00am The Hugo Awards: An Introduction

Sun 1:00pm Meet the Worldcon Bids

 

Jeff Warner stands accused of being a President Emeritus of the Science Fiction Forum, of knowing the names of the cons that preceded I-Con at Stony Brook, of witnessing a "Panel in the Pool" being held on dry land, of being a "Hero of Arisia" only once, of writing panel blurbs for cons he doesn't go to, of being a "Special Assistant" to the NYC in '17 Worldcon Bid, of being a not recently published writer, and of committing the SMOF Hat Trick of helping start 3 SF conventions. He pleads both Diminished AND Excessive Mental Capacity.

Fri 7:00pm The Future of Bioethics as Portrayed in Film

Sat 11:30am Panel in the Pool

Sat 7:00pm Man-in-the-Machine Anime

Sun 1:00pm Meet the Worldcon Bids

Mon 1:00pm The Alien as Metaphor

 

John C. Watson—A longtime fan of SF/F, Mr. Watson was infected with the anime and manga bug in the early 1990s, and remains a virulent carrier of all three.

Fri 5:30pm Con-Going 101: Planning, Budgeting, & Surviving

Fri 10:00pm Intro to Anime's Adult Forms—Hentai, Yaoi

Sat 11:30am What Every Parent Should Know About Anime

Sun 7:00pm Surviving an Anime Con

 

Abigail Weiner has many pseudonyms, most of which start with M.

Sat 11:30am Fashion Throughout History

Sat 11:30pm Burlesque!

 

Susan Weiner is a post-doctoral researcher in sociogenomics, a LARP writer with Alleged Entertainment, a fiddle player and songwriter with the band Twice Illegitimate, and somehow also manages to date far too many people. She's not exactly sure how she does all that either.

Fri 11:30pm Music in LARPs and Tabletop

Sat 11:30am Poly 101: An Introduction

Sat 7:00pm Evolution Beyond Biology

Sun 11:30am Braiding Voices: Singing Rounds & Related Forms

Sun 4:00pm Funniest Songs Sing-Along

Sun 8:30pm Good Story Songs

 

Syd Weinstein was a mentor at the American Film Institute Digital Content Lab and is video designer for Arisia and many Worldcons. He has more than 15 years' experience teaching television production techniques to both children and adults. He has directed countless productions and produced several documentaries. He has been part of Techno-Fandom since 2001.

Sat 10:00am Video 101: Camera Work for Cons and Home

Sun 10:00am Video 201: Director & Technical Dir. Instruction

Sun 11:30am Video 201 Lab: Directing & Tech. Dir. Hands-On

 

Morven Westfield is a writer who fuses her love of computing, vampire mythology, and modern witchcraft in a series set in the suburbs west of Boston. When not writing non-fiction at her day job as a technical writer or traveling, Morven writes at the home she shares with her husband and geriatric cat. Morven is also a member of the Motherboard of Broad Universe and the New England Horror Writers.

Sat 11:30am Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading

 

Alan Wexelblat is a poly parent, an amateur photographer, and a writer on intellectual property issues.

Fri 5:30pm SF/F, Prior Art, and Patents

Sat 5:30pm RPG Gaming: Rails vs. Sandbox

Sun 1:00pm Copyright, Satire, and the Public Domain

 

Michelle Wexelblat—If Michelle began her life with the date she started going to conventions, she'd be old enough to vote and drink. Given that she started attending them when she was old enough to drive… Besides attending cons, Michelle is a mother, wife, friend, extrovert, clinical social worker, poi spinner, and has the ability to see any problem from all sides, all at once. Her brain is a very busy place, and she's happy for distractions, so talk to her.

Sat 10:00am All About Poi

Sat 5:30pm Sexual Harassment and Assault in Fandom

Sun 1:00pm Being a Sex-Positive Parent

Mon 11:30am Attending a Con with Kids

 

Nightwing Whitehead was born in 1958. The Barbie doll was "born" in 1959; so for a year she had nothing to do. Since then, she's been making up for lost time by dressing anyone and anything that comes within her reach. She's worked for several theaters, dressed some stars, done some teaching, and has her own business designing and creating costumes for life.

Fri 10:00pm Costume Failures, Horror Stories, and Lessons

Sat 10:00am Fabric Dyeing

Sat 11:30am Fashion Throughout History

Sat 1:00pm Modifying, Making, and Using Sewing Patterns

Sat 4:00pm Helpful Sewing References and Resources

Sun 1:00pm Costuming on the Cheap

Mon 11:30am Costuming & Body Type: How to Hide/Accentuate

Mon 1:00pm Costume Weathering

 

Doug Wilder has been attending conventions for over a decade, hosting panels for nearly as long, and watching anime for more years than he should probably admit openly. As the resident mecha fan of AnimeCons.com's podcast, AnimeCons TV, he can often be found talking about giant robot shows to anyone who will listen. On the rare occasions that he does shut up about his mechanical friends, Doug has run other panels such as "The Aging Otaku" and "The Best of Depressing Anime." Will anyone still want to listen to what he says after an intro like that?

Sat 7:00pm Man-in-the-Machine Anime

Sun 10:00am The Leiji-verse

Sun 2:30pm History in Japanese Anime and Manga

Sun 4:00pm Punday!

Sun 7:00pm Surviving an Anime Con

Mon 10:00am Manga's Great Apocalypses

Mon 11:30am Manga—Is It Dying?

 

Scott Wilhelm is a licensed biology, physics, and general science teacher with more than 10 years of experience, mostly with high-school-aged learners with learning disabilities and severe behavioral problems. He combines deeply analytical lessons with fun activities to meet high expectations with no tears for a very wide range of ages and abilities.

Fri 4:00pm Days of Lighting Balloon Car Rally

Fri 5:30pm Days of Thunder Balloon Car Rally

Sun 1:00pm Paper Rockets

Sun 4:00pm The Black Box

 

Critically reviled for his experiments taking high-efficiency laser light and turning it into low-intensity, incoherent, broadband scattering, Stephen R. Wilk continues to work in Optics. He edits for Optics and Photonics News, and writes for The Light Touch, The Spectrograph, and the e-zine Teemings. He's working on his book Sons of God, the follow-up to Medusa, Light Work, and The Creature that Ate Sheboygan. He has appeared on the History Channel's Clash of the Gods.

Fri 11:30pm Reading: Grant, Nurenberg, & Wilk

Sat 1:00pm Monsters in Motion: Ray Harryhausen at Work

Sat 4:00pm Mad Science!

Sun 10:00pm The Year in Bad Science

Mon 10:00am The Many Faces of Frankenstein

 

Connie Wilkins' (sacchigreen@gmail.com) first love was writing fantasy and science fiction, but her alter-ego, Sacchi Green, was seduced by the erotic side of the force, where she's published scores of stories and edited or co-edited eight anthologies. One of them, Lesbian Cowboys: Erotic Adventures, was a Lambda Literary Award winner. She returned to her specfic roots as editor of Time Well Bent: Queer Alternative Histories from Lethe Press. Her own story from that anthology also appears in Best Erotic Fantasy & Science Fiction from Circlet Press, and she has a pirate piece in Circlet's Like A Treasure Found.

Fri 8:30pm Circlet Press 20th Anniversary Retrospective!

 

Trish Wilson publishes with the pen name Elizabeth Black. Her erotic fiction has been published by Naughty Nights Press, Romance Divine, Circlet, Xcite (U. K.), Torquere, Ravenous Romance, Whiskey Creek Press Torrid, and Scarlet magazine (U. K.). She writes paranormal erotic romance, erotica, and horror. On a fun note, she has also worked as a gaffer (lighting), scenic artist, and make-up artist (including prosthetics) for movies, television, stage, and concerts. She worked as a gaffer for Die Hard with a Vengeance and 12 Monkeys. She did make-up, including prosthetics, for Homicide: Life On The Street. She is especially proud of the gunshot wound to the head she had created with makeup for that particular episode. She also worked as a prosthetic makeup artist specializing in cyanotic blue, bruises, and buckets of blood for a test of Maryland's fire departments at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport plane crash simulation test.

Sat 8:30pm Reading: Brusso, Marchand, & Wilson

Sat 10:00pm Social Media

Sun 8:30pm Guilty Pleasures

Sun 10:00pm Is There Anything Verboten Left?

 

Attorney, occasional writer, and all around fan, James A. Wolf was known as Dungeon Master Jim on The Toucher and Rich Show on WBCN, when there was a WBCN. He is presently shopping novels and plotting trouble.

Fri 10:00pm Issues in Modern Mad Science

Sat 5:30pm Filmation Studios

Sun 4:00pm Punday!

 

Jonathan Woodward is the author or co-author of over a dozen role-playing game books, including the Hellboy RPG, Trinity, and GURPS Banestorm. This convention marks his 19th year as an Arisia panelist. He lives near Boston with his wife and daughter.

Fri 7:00pm What Makes a Good Panel

Fri 8:30pm Paneling 101: A Primer

Fri 10:00pm Party Origin Stories

Sat 11:30am Poly 101: An Introduction

Sun 2:30pm Introduction to Tabletop Roleplaying

Sun 7:00pm Building a Poly Home

 

Trisha Wooldridge is the current president of Broad Universe, an international, non-profit supporting women in speculative fiction. She's published in the EPIC award-winning anthologies (2010) Bad-Ass Faeries 2: Just Plain Bad and Bad-Ass Faeries 3: In All Their Glory from DarkQuest books, several poetry and non-fiction venues, and is an editor of the UnCONventional anthology from Spencer Hill Press, being released at Arisia 2012. www.anovelfriend.com

Fri 5:30pm Gender Limitations in SF/F

Sat 11:30am Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading

Sat 1:00pm How to Design a Fun Roleplaying Adventure

Sat 5:30pm Autograph—Macdonald, Sawicki & Wooldridge

Sun 11:30am UnCONventional Rapid-Fire Reading

Sun 4:00pm Writing As Business

Sun 5:30pm Food Communicating Culture in Literature

 

Phoebe Wray has a futurist novel in print JEMMA7729, and the sequel J2, will be released in early 2012. A third volume is in the works, plus stories in Farthing, Andromeda Spaceways, and the anthologies No Man's Land, All About Eve, and Backless, Strapless & Slit to the Throat, online at Fables.org and ChiZine. She serves on the Advisory Board of Broad Universe and lives in Massachusetts.

Sat 11:30am Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading

Sat 7:00pm How Not To Suppress Women's Writing

Sun 7:00pm Making Politics Work in Fiction

 

Brianna Wu—Brianna Spacekat Wu is a 2009 finalist in the Illustrators of the Future contest, and a frequent contributor to science fiction fanzines. She's known for her high-energy art style featuring tall, skinny women. Wu is six foot two, and a dedicated marathoner. She runs over 55 miles every week, and almost 3,000 miles per year. She is married to four-time Hugo-award-winner Frank Wu.

Sat 10:00am Gender and Video Games

Sat 11:30am Dueling Easels

Sun 10:00am Aliens in 20th Century Science Fiction Art

 

Frank Wu is an award-winning artist, writer, and animator. He's married to fellow artist/costumer/gamer Brianna Spacekat Wu. Frank's art has materialized in many magazines and books. Frank won the Illustrators of the Future Grand Prize and four Hugo Awards. He also has four scientific papers to his credit, along with humor published in The Journal of Irreproducible Results and The Annals of Improbable Research. His current project is Guidolon the Giant Space Chicken, which is a movie about a giant space chicken making a movie about a giant space chicken. When not creating stuff, Frank can be found hanging out with monks, hunting for mastodon bones in New Mexico and dinosaur bones and fish fossils in Wyoming, holding Laura Palmer's diary, riding in banana-shaped mopeds, touching art when the museum guards aren't looking, searching for a river of molten lava to drop keys into, or walking the earth, meeting people, and getting into adventures; you know, like Caine in Kung Fu.

Sat 11:30am Dueling Easels

Sat 5:30pm Filmation Studios

Sun 10:00am Aliens in 20th Century Science Fiction Art

Sun 1:00pm Meet the Worldcon Bids

 

Tom Wysmuller forecasted weather at Amsterdam's Royal Dutch Weather Bureau after studying meteorology at NYU and Stanford. Selected for a NASA internship, he worked throughout NASA before, during, and after the moon landings. He worked at Pratt and Whitney and held insurance industry executive positions. The code for his "Polynomial Regression" algorithm is embedded in every high-end Texas Instruments calculator sold today, and apparently, in Microsoft's EXCELL Spreadsheet. He lectures worldwide on the SCIENCE needed to understand Global Warming, and annually adjusts his "Toucan Equations" for predicting Sea-Level rise/fall.

Sat 8:30pm The Race to the Moon

Sat 10:00pm The Role of Albedo in Climate Change

Sun 5:30pm Mars or Bust!

Sun 10:00pm The Year in Bad Science

 

Genevieve Yang—Drawing much of its aesthetic from steampunk fashions and the neo-vintage movement, Psyche Corporation seeks to combine art, fashion, dance, and science within the framework of a technomythological world of life-extension and virtual reality servers full of wonderful nightmares. Psyche Corp. specializes in an unique genre often described as dark victorian fairytale science fiction. The band itself is named after a dream manufacture group from the future where widespread neural implants have allowed people to jack their nerve endings directly into the internet and download dreams. As a performance group, Psyche Corporation has at various times incorporated robot exhibitions, steel origami cranes, contortion, corsets, flashlights, and old radios. The music spans genres; a recent song has mixed tribal singing with classical piano, while embedding the DNA of deadly polio virus into its percussion.

Sat 2:00pm Psyche Corporation

Sun 4:00pm The Near Future of Organ Transplants

 

Bill "Dr. Crash" Yerazunis is a professional mad scientist, doing work in such things as virtual reality, LEDs as pollution sensors, spam filters, reversible fuel cells, beamed power, and sharks with frickin' lasers on their heads. In his spare time, he plays "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" on a huge synthesizer and laughs like a… well, like a mad scientist.

Sat 10:00am Stretch like a Shaolin: Kung-Fu Morning Warm-Up

 

Aimee Yermish, PsyD (aimee@davincilearning.org) is an educational therapist, providing assessment, remediation, enrichment, and overall strategizing for children who are gifted, learning disabled, or twice-exceptional. In her former lives, she was a molecular biologist, a schoolteacher, a black belt, and a Master Assassin, and she is in the process of entering a new life as a clinical psychologist. She also loves to sing, read, ride her bike, and do a great many crafts, and is busy raising a husband and two lovely children.

Sat 10:00am Kamikaze Costuming

Sat 5:30pm Forensic Science and the Courts

Sat 7:00pm The Autism Spectrum

Sat 10:00pm The Mind of the Nerd: Psychology and Fandom

Sun 11:30am Homeschooling: An Alternative Education

Mon 11:30am Attending a Con with Kids

 

Jennifer Yoo—Jennifer Woo is as much a Japanese History buff as she is an anime fan. An anime fan of more than 7 years, she is also an award-winning cosplayer and has studied Japanese History, Culture and Japanese Language for more than 6 years. Currently a student at Wellesley College, Jennifer divides her free time between teaching Japanese Studies classes to teenagers, presenting panels at local conventions, working on cosplay projects with her group, translating Japanese works into English, and writing her novel.

Fri 10:00pm Costume Failures, Horror Stories, and Lessons

Sun 2:30pm History in Japanese Anime and Manga

 

James Zavaglia—I have worked with the media since the age of 15. I currently work at a local university as a media specialist. I have also helped on political campaigns since age 9, and worked on everything from ward councilor to president.

Sat 1:00pm Army of Davids: The Role of New Media

Sat 5:30pm Filmation Studios

Sat 10:00pm Kolchak the Night Stalker

Sun 1:00pm Jack Arnold at 100

Sun 2:30pm Marshall McLuhan Centennial

Sun 7:00pm How the Political Process Works—and Doesn't

Mon 11:30am The Lighter Side of Adventure

 

"Zubie" Zeballos—A guy of many names. At 5 years of age, I thought SF was pretty cool 'cause Capt. Kirk always got the girl. I'm a great fan of "Mampato" and his time-traveling adventures (look that one up). I also loved the hardware from Stingray to Whitestar. I'm keen on paper-folding. I'm not keen on a badly handled X-acto, but it comes with the territory.

Sat 11:30am Scale Spaceship Modeling Workshop

Sat 5:30pm SF Spaceship Design for Artists

Sun 10:00am Origami Fun

Sun 4:00pm Flying High with Paper

 

Mike Ziniti works as an Actuary in Boston and has a degree in Mathematics from Harvard. His first book, Annie McGwire and the Time Flyer, is the culmination of a lifetime obsession with time travel. He wrote the story to entertain his wife and kids, and he hopes that others will find it enjoyable as well. Please visit him online at: facebook.com/AnnieMcGwire

Sun 2:30pm Annie McGwire and the Time Flyer

 

John F. Zmrotchek—Time traveller (strictly forward), dweller in the Fandom Below (twice con chair, proving he has no friends), teller and told-of tall tales, player with words, hacker of code (or perhaps just plain hack), witness to Great Things, Fantastic Places, and Interesting People, suspended upside down twixt heaven and hell (giving him a unique perspective on both), and man who's had his chance to make those people dance… and maybe they were happy for a while.

Sat 11:30pm DJ Johnny Zed's Saturday Night Dance

 

Ariela Zonderman—When not partying scientifically with Ziggurat Labs, Ariela works in software quality assurance. She likes to sing to herself, attend community theater, and read webcomics.

Mon 1:00pm Skin Horse Sing-Along

 

Eric "in the Elevator" Zuckerman is not a real talk show host, but he plays one on TV. His fannish semi-improv comedy project, "Eric in the Elevator" has screened at regional West Coast conventions, several WorldCons, Arisia (where he was 2008 Fan Performer GoH), and LunaCon (where he was 2011 Special Guest). Among his many other nerdly pursuits, he's a geocacher, a gamer, an armchair "fanthropologist", and a compulsive ribbon collector/trader.

Fri 5:30pm Tell the Truth: Non-Fiction Comics

Fri 7:00pm Just a Quick Game?

Sat 5:30pm Video Production and Distribution

Sat 8:30pm Humor in SF/F

Sun 10:00pm What Makes a Game "Classic"?