Writer Guest of Honor:
Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock is a British writer, editor, musician and publisher, best known for his stories and novels featuring the characters Elric of Melniboné and Jerry Cornelius. His body of work contains around 75 novels, countless short stories, and he has appeared on a variety of rock albums, including several of his own.
Born in 1939 in London, Moorcock began self-publishing his own fanzines – mostly on Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard and Jazz – from the age of ten. In 1956 he became the editor of Tarzan Adventures which published his own Sojan the Swordsman stories. In 1958 Moorcock became Assistant Editor of Sexton Blake Library. In 1959 Moorcock’s first professional SF story, ‘Peace on Earth’ (with Barrington Bayley) appeared in John Carnell’s New Worlds, which would be the start of a long association with the magazine. With the encouragement of Carnell, Moorcock created his most famous character, Elric of Melniboné, who débuted in the short story ‘The Dreaming City’ (Science Fantasy #47, June 1961).
More fantasy and sf stories followed over the next three years, including ‘The Eternal Champion’ and ‘The Sundered Worlds’, which culminated in Moorcock cementing his fantasy legacy with the four-part Elric epic, Stormbringer. In 1964 Moorcock succeeded Carnell as editor of New Worlds and for the rest of the decade would spearhead the New Wave of British Science Fiction, publishing writers like J.G. Ballard, Philip K Dick, John Brunner, Langdon Jones, Thomas M. Disch, Roger Zelazny, M. John Harrison, and many others.
Moorcock has written an astounding number of series, including the Elric Saga, the Eternal Champion series, the Michael Kane series, the Runestaff series, the Jerry Cornelius series, the Corum series, and the Dancers at the End of Time series. His four novel ‘Colonel Pyat’ series, written over a period of 25 years, seeks the causes of the Nazi holocaust. Many consider his Warlord of the Air, part of the Bastable series, to be the first steam punk novel.
Moorcock has received numerous awards in his career, as well. In 1967, Moorcock won the prestigious Nebula Award for Best Novella with his SF story ‘Behold the Man’ (NW #166, Sept 1966). He has also received the British Fantasy Society’s August Derleth Award for Best Novel four times (1972, 1973, 1975, and 1976), the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and the World Fantasy Award (Best Novel) in 1979 for Gloriana, British Fantasy Award in 1993, the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2000, the Prix Utopiales “Grandmaster” Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004, the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in the horror genre in 2004, and the SFWA Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award in 2008. The London Times named him one of the top fifty British novelists since 1945.
Although his heroic fantasies have been his most consistently reprinted books in the United States, he has also achieved prominence in the UK as a literary author, with the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1977 for The Condition of Muzak, and with Mother London which was short-listed for the 1988 Whitbread Best Novel Award.
Website: www.multiverse.org
Artist Guest of Honor:
Robert Gould
For over thirty-five years, Robert Gould has been involved with the development, creation, and production of art and story for all entertainment media. For over twenty years, Robert worked as an internationally award winning book designer and illustrator for publishers in the US and Europe, completing well over 200 cover designs and creating numerous designs for international best-selling books, most notably the works of British fantasy writer Michael Moorcock.
From 1991 to 2000, Robert served as Vice President of the Lynda Guber Organization under a film production deal at Sony Pictures Entertainment. During his tenure at Sony, Robert developed numerous projects for film and television including Dinotopia, based on the international best-selling book by Jim Gurney. Robert was instrumental in all aspects of the cross media development of the property, including script development, production budget, motion platform/site based entertainment, theme park attractions, and a toy line with Hasbro Toys that spanned five divisions. It was the presence of Dinotopia at Sony that motivated major talents in the special effects business, including multiple Oscar-winning effects producer Ken Ralston, to join the then fledgling Sony Imageworks, now the premier digital effects facility in the entertainment industry.
In 2001, Robert formed Imaginosis, a transmedia arts company that strategically develops entertainment intellectual properties and brands. Through Imaginosis, Robert serves as manager, producer, strategist, art director, designer, and creative and marketing consultant to his clients. Drawing from his deep experience in the media arts, publishing, artist rights and licensing, literature, philosophy, and mythology, Robert has worked with major entertainment companies in film, television, publishing, licensing, and live theater including: Brian & Wendy Froud, Terryl Whitlatch, Brom, Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Columbia Television, Lucasfilm, The Jim Henson Company, The Creature Shop, The Walt Disney Company, Sony Imageworks, Sony Animation, Cyan, MGM Resorts, Michael Curry Design, IMAX, Landmark Entertainment, Ride & Show Production Services, Attraction Media & Entertainment, CMS, Hasbro Toys, Simon & Schuster, Harry N. Abrams, Stuart, Tabori, and Chang, Insight Editions, and Noesis Publishing. Robert is the co-producer and co-owner of Faerieworlds and FaerieCon East and West, international musical and theatrical events that attract over 30,000 guests annually. He is the creative director for Siegfried & Roy Productions and is currently developing themed entertainment and narrative concepts for several international touring shows.
Spotlight Publisher:
47 North
For avid readers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, Amazon’s 47North imprint offers a wide array of new novels and cult favorites, from urban fantasies and space operas to alternate histories and supernatural horror. Launched in 2011, 47North publishes original and previously published works, as well as out-of-print books in Kindle, print and audio formats.
This local publishing house will be represented by Editorial Director Jason Kirk and Editor David Pomerico.
Web: www.amazon.com/47North or Amazon: 47North
Twitter hashtag: #47north
Special Guest of Honor:
Seanan McGuire
Seanan McGuire was born and raised in Northern California, which explains her passionate love for creepy-crawly things and her equally passionate fear of weather. She began writing as soon as she figured out that books could be written, having previously assumed that they were some kind of fruit. Her first book, Rosemary and Rue, was published in 2009; since then, she has released more than a dozen more, in a variety of genres and under two different names. (Her alter-ego, Mira Grant, is mostly known for hard and sociological science fiction with a strong medical slant.)
Currently, Seanan lives in the San Francisco Bay Area in a crumbling old farmhouse which she shares with too many books, a lot of horror movies, even more comic books, and three enormous blue cats, two of whom originated in Seattle. She spends her relatively limited leisure time traveling, visiting Disney Parks, and lurking in haunted cornfields, where she often serves as a bonus scare for the unwary.
Seanan can be followed online at www.seananmcguire.com, or on Twitter at @seananmcguire.
Web: www.seananmcguire.com
Twitter: @seananmcguire
LiveJournal: Rose-Owls and Pumpkin Girls
Tumblr: Seanan’s Tumblr
Science Guest of Honor:
Catherine S. Plesko
I am a research scientist in the Applied Physics division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. I use the supercomputers there to study what happens when asteroids and comets hit a planet and how to prevent them from hitting the earth. I grew up in north-western Washington state, where I loved to explore the beaches and mountains with my mom, go on geology club field trips with my grandfather, and was often allowed to stay up late to watch the auroras or look at the planets through my telescope. I first became interested in asteroids and comets as a teenager, when comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter, and comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp made close approaches to the Earth.
In high school I focused on classes in math, science, and languages, especially writing and literature. I was a proud member of Thespian Troupe 860, a plankowner in the BEHS NJROTC Tiger Company, and president of the debate club. If you have any doubts, I can tell you that I have used the math, science, and communication skills I learned from those classes and clubs almost daily ever since. In the summer of 1997, I was invited to participate in the Earthwatch Student Challenge Awards program, which allowed me to work for two weeks at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Fenton Hill Observatory. This was the first time I had a chance to participate in research astronomy, and I was hooked. In my junior and senior years of high school, I applied to every scholarship I could find, and was awarded enough to pay for nearly all of my college education.
I graduated from the University of Washington in 2002 with a Bachelor of Science in astronomy and physics. While at UW, I volunteered for a variety of internships in order to explore research both inside and outside of my majors. I worked on projects in particle physics, virtual reality interface technologies, and even botany. In my junior year I was invited to work with Dr. Conway Leovy studying impact craters on Mars. During the summers I worked as an undergraduate research student in astrophysics and computer science at Los Alamos. The research I did as part of these internships became the basis of my Ph. D. dissertation later on in graduate school.
In 2009, I completed my Ph. D. in Geophysics and Planetary Sciences at the University of California Santa Cruz, on the effects that large asteroid and comet impacts had on the climate of the planet Mars early in the history of the solar system. During graduate school I continued collaborating with scientists at Los Alamos, and eventually moved there full time to use the supercomputer facilities to finish my Ph. D. research.
After graduate school, I was invited to stay at Los Alamos to study asteroid and comet impact hazard mitigation. As part of my work there, I have appeared on the Discovery Channel and have spoken at scientific conferences in the United States and Europe. When I’m not doing science, I enjoy backpacking, cooking, reading, running, shopping, martial arts, and dancing salsa.
Costuming Guest of Honor:
Anima! X
Nationally recognized as a musician, dancer, and costumer for the stars, Anima! X has been delighting audiences for decades with her award-winning creations. An icon of the 1970s Manhattan punk scene, Anima!’s band Xerox headlined the opening of the Mudd Club alongside the B-52’s. After the breakup of Xerox, she went on to form Animal and the Amazons, whose “June Brides” US tour reached such success as to merit a mention in the movie Party Monster. She can be seen in movies such as Sid and Nancy, Crocodile Dundee, and the Woody Allen film Stardust Memories.
As a fashion designer, Anima! is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Costumer’s Guild. Her costumes have appeared in rock videos such as Madonna’s “Like A Virgin”, Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield”, and Def Leppard’s “Rock of Ages”. She and her creations have been featured in spreads in the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and Us Magazine, and on shows such as NBC’s “Real People” and CNN’s “Fashion America”.
A well-known performance artist in the 1970s and 1980s, Anima! has received a number of grants for her work, including an NEA fellowship. She is returning to her performance art roots again with her latest piece Bomb, inspired by her father’s work with nuclear explosives.
Through her touring company DreamWeaver Productions, Anima! is now keeping the magic of faeries alive. Since 1990, her shows have been seen at Disney, Six Flags, state and county fairs, and family festivals across the country. Her hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind fairy wings, crowns, and paraphernalia help children of all ages display their love of Faerie magic to all who see them.
Anima! was a staple at masquerades throughout the 1970s. She then GAFFIATED but returned in 1986 to win just about every major award for costuming. She was at the second ever Star Trek convention, made her worldcon debut at Torcon 2, was chairman of CostumeCon ‘11, and has worked on a number of ConComs. Now, with her hectic performing schedule, she rarely gets the opportunity to go to conventions, so she is grateful and excited to be coming back to Seattle for Norwescon.
