Technicon 27

The Plaid Avenger is an international fighter for freedom. He is a college professor by day, but by night roams the planet to fight international injustices and solve instances of international intrigue. To protect his powers as an ace crime fighter, his true identity must be kept a secret...and the university that serves as his home base/crime lab must never be divulged. A last minute addition to the list, we're not sure exactly which of the Plaid Crew will be attending.

A geologist turned web programmer turned writer and marketer, Nancy Brauer has yet to decide what she wants to be when she grows up. She’s been writing, drawing, and cracking open rocks for as long as she can remember. Nancy divides her spare time between writing the sci-fi/romance serial Strange Little Band with co-author Vanessa Brooks, working on Tori’s Row and other stories, and helping steer 1889 Labs as COO. Photoshop trembles at the mention of her name.

White Plectrum is just a guy named Keith playing and singing and having fun. But at the same time, it's more than just that as well. It's something that involves a group of people backing me up and helping me give the best show possible for the fans.
(For those not familiar with filking, the linked wiki article is a good start. A much better followup would be to attend the participatory Filking 101 panel on Saturday afternoon!

T Campbell is the editor of Graphic Smash, a subscription-based webcomic anthology site; and a writer of several webcomics including Faans and Penny & Aggie.

Jerry Conner attended RoVaCon, the first convention is south central Virginia back in 1976. The next year, he did a filmmaking workshop (with real film!) and was one of the con's first costumers. Years later, he was running RoVaCon's descendant, Rising Star.

In between, he has dabbled in traditional art, digital art (which he also teaches), SF model building, costuming for others, television production (which he also teaches), SF trivia, and filking (as a member of White Plectrum). He is a powerful proponent for Apple computers; Moebius, Pegasus and Round 2 plastic model manufacturers; and equal rights for ring-tailed lemurs.

Galtham Films are best known for "Space Rogues T.S.E." and "Whoman". A significant fraction of the cast and crew from these productions will be at Technicon this year.

Angela Kessler has worked in the publishing industry for fifteen years. She was the assistant publisher of DNA Publications as well as the editor of Dreams of Decadence and The Whole Cat Journal. She is currently an aqusitions editor for Wilder Publications And will edit the relaunched Dreams of Decadence.

Warren Lapine has worked in the publishing field for more than eighteen years. Fifteen of those years were spent running DNA Publications (Absolute Magnitude, Weird Tales, Dreams of Decadence, Fantastic Stories, SF Chronicle, KISS Quarterly (which was a joint venture with Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons' company KISS ltd.) and several others. He is now the publisher of Wilder Publications. Wilder Publications' books pretty much cover the entire publishing spectrum. We currently have more than 1,000 books in print. Fantastic Books is Wilder Publications' genre imprints and it publishes writers such as Roger Zelazny, James Gunn, Damien Broderick, and has books forthcoming from Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Norman Spinrad. In March 2009 Warren founded Tir Na Nog Press and purchased Realms of Fantasy the top magazine in sf/f genre fiction. As of February 2010, we are relaunching Dreams of Decadence as a bimonthly Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance magazine.

Mikhail Borg O'Brien

Michael O'Brien has been attending Technicon since 1987 or thereabouts, originally as part of USS Pathfinder and McKay, once as Fan Guest of Honor, and the rest of the time as a sometimes-official staff member. He has presented the con's Mature Attendees track for the last few years, and works to erase the cliche that a Starfleet uniform in the closet has to mean an dull or empty sex life. Michael now lives in Chesapeake, near Virginia's coast, with his wife Starr and more cats than he meant to live with.

Greg Porter

President and creative monomaniac behind the Blacksburg Tactical Research Center, a small game company operating out of a solar powered geodesic dome on a remote mountaintop in the wilds of southwest Virginia (antisocial little cuss, ain't he?). Greg is a VT alumnus from '87, past prez of the Tech Wargaming Society, tunnel delver and all-around C student. He is also the designer of the EABA and TimeLords role-playing systems, the Infinite Armies customizable card game, along with freelance work for GURPS, Hero System, Blue Planet, Sovereign Stone and Traveller. However, he will be haunted to his grave by being only remembered as the creator of the tasteless and award-winning Macho Women with Guns RPG. At past Technicons he's playtested in-development games on topics from unionized evil minions to the first Caliphates to global warming, geopolitics and school buses trapped on train crossings; find out what he's got in store this year. Learn more about Greg and the BTRC at www.btrc.net

Parker Stafford is the owner and founder of Stafford Art Glass, with a teaching and production studio in Newport, VA just 6 miles from Blacksburg. Of particular interest to fans are his astronomy-inspired pieces, which have been chosen as the trophies for the ASFA Chesley Awards.

According to Ripley's Believe It or Not, a sign outside the base hospital maternity wing at Schoffield Barracks, Oahu, Hawaii read, "Children Not Allowed". Robert was born there, nonetheless, and has been searching for his inner child ever since. In that context, if it is one, Robert is a freelance writer, author, artist, and maverick theorist. His wild ideas have appeared in The Fire and the Rose (HarperCollins, 1996), Nearvana: A User's Guide to the End of the World (Booklocker, 2008), and in all kinds of places in his lecture notes. For, you see, Robert holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in sociology and, thereby, has been licensed to inculcate unspeakable ideas into the minds of students who, all unawares, have been fated to stumble into his classes on sociology, social psychology, and research methods. No doubt, heavy karma awaits him.

Studio Unseen: Chris Impink and Barb Fischer

Studio Unseen is made up of two carbon-based creatures: Chris Impink (art, web design) and Barb Fischer (writing). They recently premiered their new project, Sledgebunny: a sports-anime-inspired comic that takes place in the fast-paced world of flat track roller derby. On December 30, 2009, they closed the book on Fragile Gravity, a strip that featured independent comics, conventions, and (in an earlier arc) an invasionary force of penguins. Oh, and an extra-bitter stoat.