Guests

Literary Guests

SPOTLIGHT: Jan Scott-Frazier:

We put Jan here with the authors because she has so many amazing talents, we almost needed a category just for her! Jan joins us as AnomalyCon's MC for 2014!

Jan worked in the anime industry in Japan for 13 years in a number of different positions. Jan was the first foreigner to work in the production department in a Japanese studio - Artland - on RikiOh 2, Locke the Superman (OVA), Shurato (OVA), Bubblegum Crash (OVA) and Tottoi (feature) then trained animation studio staff in China, Thailand and other countries. She founded her own full production company, TAO Corporation Ltd., in Bangkok, Thailand, which did work on Moldiver,Diary of Mikan, Genocyber and SWAT Kats amongst others. She also co-founded GENESIS Digital Publishing Company with Izumi Matsumoto (Kimagure Orange Road) where they created Comic ON, the first digital manga, on CD-ROM in which Jan made her manga debut with her original digital graphic novelTranscendence. Comic ON went on to be the one of the top selling non-game CD-ROM titles in Japan in 1996.

She then worked for Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, Blood) as the president of Production I.G. USA and as a producer and technical director on the Japanese side. She was technical director of the animation for the Grandstream Saga, Madou Monogatari, and Kyoushin Senki games as well as working on the Panzer Dragoon OVA. As a freelance director, Jan directed episodes of Susie-chan & Marvy (TV) and worked on the development of original TV series projects.

She also consulted on the development of computer assisted (2D) animation production systems and helped transition the anime industry into digital production.

Jan has written textbooks, magazine articles, technical manuals ans screenplays, translated manga (Scryed, Psychic Academy, Here is Greenwood, Pink Sniper) and the movie Dead Leaves. Her work has been published in 8 languages. She has traveled extensively throughout Asia, Canada, the UK and the US teaching animation techniques and has been a guest and panelist at over 200 conventions. She also founded and produced two albums for non-profit Voices For, www.voicesfor.org

Jan can be found on the web at www.janscottfrazier.com

Guy Anthony de Marco:

Guy Anthony De Marco is a nocturnal Bram Stoker Award® nominated author living in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. He writes across multiple genres and in multiple mediums. An award-winning author, he is a member of SFWA, IAMTW, HWA, ASCAP, the Science Fiction Poetry Association, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and Northern Colorado Writers. Additional information can be found at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Anthony_De_Marco and GuyAnthonyDeMarco.com, or at participating panels at numerous conventions throughout the year.

O.M. Grey:

Olivia M. Grey lives in the cobwebbed corners of her mind writing paranormal romance with a Steampunk twist. Dreaming of the dark streets of London and the decadent deeds that occur after sunset, Olivia focuses both her poetry and prose on alternative relationship lifestyles and deliciously dark matters of the heart and soul. Her work has been published in various anthologies and magazines like Stories in the Ether, Steampunk Adventures, SNM Horror Magazine and How The West Was Wicked.

Ms. Grey dons a tight corset, fluffy bustle, and a teeny-tiny top hat for fantasy and sex-positive conventions where she presents controversial topics, interacts with fans, and participates on panels discussing fiction, writing, steampunk, mental illness and emotional insecurities, sexual health and safety, and relationship styles and tools.

Read more by O. M. Grey on her blog Caught in the Cogs, http://omgrey.wordpress.com

Travis Heermann:

Freelance writer, novelist, award-winning screenwriter, poker player, poet, biker, roustabout, Travis Heermann is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop and the author of the Heart of the Ronin and Rogues of the Black Fury, plus short fiction pieces in anthologies and magazines such as Weird Tales, Historical Lovecraft, and Shivers VII. As a freelance writer, he has produced a metric ton of role-playing game work both in print and online, including Legend of Five Rings, d20 System, and the MMORPG, EVE Online. His most recent novel, The Wild Boys, was released in December, 2012, from Damnation Books.

He enjoys cycling, martial arts, torturing young minds with otherworldly ideas, and zombies. He has three long-cherished dreams: a produced screenplay, a NYT best-seller, and a seat in the World Series of Poker.

Paul Lell:

Born and raised in and around Denver, Colorado, Paul grew up with a family that encouraged imagination and looking at the world with a questioning nature.

As a result, he confounded all of his teachers and was always the last to be picked when lining up for sports in gym class. But that was okay, because it gave him more time to figure out what sorts of animals might live in the methane seas of Titan!

He began writing (very, very badly) when he was in grade school, and continued ot write, on and off throughout his school career and beyond. He has not formally studied writing, or literature (yet), but has always had a keen interest in the worlds that other people created, leading to an obsessive consumption of books ever since his first encounter with a good fantasy novel in junior high school.

In his early teens, or maybe before then, Paul started playing role playing games, and instantly took to world-building and plot-mapping. And he's been doing it ever since, using time as a GM to flesh out the world of the Kalijor novels, and visa versa. He still games to this day, and is play-testing the Kalijor RPG and source books with a group of great friends and excellent critics!

Steven Harper Piziks:

Steven Harper Piziks was born in Saginaw, Michigan, but he moved around a lot and has lived in Wisconsin, Germany, and (briefly) Ukraine. Currently he lives with his three sons in southeastern Michigan.

His novels include In the Company of Mind and Corporate Mentality, both science fiction published by Baen Books. Writing as Steven Harper for Roc Books, he has produced The Silent Empire series. He’s also written books based on Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and The Ghost Whisperer, as well as the movie novelization Identity, which he managed under a deadline of only three weeks. His numerous short stories have appeared, among other places, in all but one of Esther Friesner’s Chicks in Chainmail anthologies and in all of her humorous suburban fantasy anthology. Currently he’s working on The Clockwork Empire steampunk trilogy for Ace Book, and The Doomsday Vault, the first in the series, is due out in November, 2011.

Most recently, he’s branched into the field of romantic suspense with Trash Course, written under the pseudonym Penny Drake, a name he swiped from his mother.

Booklist calls his novels “fast, furious, and absorbing,” and “intelligent enterntainment.” Strange Horizons says his work is filled with “fast-paced adventure filled with intrigue and populated with characters you care about,” and The Romantic Times writes that “Harper . . . creates a compelling universe.”

Mr. Piziks currently teaches high school English in southeast Michigan. His students think he’s hysterical, which isn’t the same as thinking he’s hilarious. When not writing, he plays the folk harp, dabbles in oral storytelling, and spends more time online than is probably good for him.

A. M. Schilling:

A.M. Schilling is a computer geek by day and writes urban fantasy and horror fiction by night–though she won’t stop herself from typing if something else comes out. Born in a town where people were proud to claim their houses were haunted, and told tales of gory battles of the Revolutionary War, she quickly developed an unhealthy affection for gargoyles, poisons, and things that go bump in the night.

The transplanted New Yorker now lives in Colorado with her husband, daughter, and way too many pets. She’s working on a dark fantasy series that brings the monster from Beowulf to life in a near-future world, and is exploring just how many characters she can kill off in each book. She tweets odd words that make her smile under AMSwrites, and can be found blogging about things of no consequence at http://www.amschilling.com.

She is a member of RMFW, and is currently stalking agents for representation.

Jeanne Stein:

Jeanne Stein is the bestselling author of the Urban Fantasy series, The Anna Strong Chronicles. She lives in Denver where she is active in the writing community, belonging to Sisters in Crime, Romance Writers of America and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. In 2008 she was named RMFW's Writer of the Year, with a follow-up nomination in 2012. Her character and books have been nominated for and won several awards from RT Booklovers Convention. Her books are published in three foreign countries besides the US and UK and she has several stories in anthologies that have made the USA and NYT Bestsellers lists. Her next full length Anna Strong novel, Blood Bonds, debuts in the fall of 2013, followed by the first in a new series, tentatively titled the Cursed Siren series, written under the pseudonym S J Harper.

Josh Vogt

A full-time freelance writer and editor, Josh Vogt has seen all sides of the publishing industry and is working to get his fantasy novels to readers. A book reviewer and SFSignal contributor, you can find him at JRVogt.com, Write-Strong.com, or on Twitter @JRVogt.

Performance Guests

SPOTLIGHT: Matthew Ebel:

He calls himself a piano rocker, but he's really just kind of a goofball. Matthew has been playing the piano since age 5, discovered electronic music at 12, and made this stuff his career in 1999. Since then he's played at the Grand Ole Opry, been quoted in Rolling Stone, and made a name for himself in new media circles. He's been able to play piano rock full-time since 2007 and since then he's never looked back.

People tell him that they’re fans because he writes some funny stuff, some emotionally charged stuff, and tends to experiment with his sound a lot. He’ll take their word for it, but you can find out for yourself by listening to the samples or buying an album. All we know is that he likes to get on stage and have a good time, getting the crowd involved whenever possible.