Past Participant Bios and Websites
NOTE: If you wish to be a participant at LTUE, please send us a short bio with your full name, qualifications, city/state of residence, your website/blog URL, anypast or present affiliations with BYU and how long you’ve been attending/participating in LTUE. Thanks!
FORMER LTUE PANELISTS
Lee Allred's award-winning fiction has appeared in ASIMOV'S magazine and numerous book anthologies. He's also scripted for DC Comics and Image Comics. Lee is a graduate of BYU and serves full time in the National Guard.
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April Argyll
Has a degree in English. Her first novel, “Witch Song,” comes out September 1, 2011 from Rhemalda Press.
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Jason A. Anderson
Mr. Anderson began writing extended-length fiction by hand while still in grade school. Throughout Jr. High and High School, he worked hard to polish his wordcraft, which is when he penned the original version of "Starriders 1: Dragon Fire". Following school, he started Chalice Publications, which he used to publish the art and literature magazine "Beyond...and then some", and later on the gaming magazine "Masters of Role Playing". In 2002, Chalice Publications published a much different version of Starriders 1, after leaving the magazine publishing business. He has since focused his efforts on the SoulChaser Universe, the first of which will be released in early 2011 by National Writers Press. It is titled "SoulChaser: Good Blood...Bad Blood" and is the first in a supernatural/urban fantasy trilogy. His non-writing interests include off-roading, scuba diving, loud music, fast cars and riding motorcycles. Mr. Anderson lives in Utah.
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Checking in as the fifth of six brothers, Bron Bahlmann began writing a novel at age 11. By the time he was 14, he'd finished "Bone Warriors," which was published a year later. Now that he just turned 16, he's nearly completed two more manuscripts with another half done. He loves to draw characters, settings, and equipment from his story ideas, and spends time building a variety of real-life items, such as Halloween costumes, waterfalls, swords, knives, and paper buildings. Visit his website at bonewarriors.com - or - bronbahlmann.com
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Bobbie is an artist who works in pen and ink but is most noted for her jewelry. She is a graduate of BYU.
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Nearly a native of Idaho, she was born in Iowa and moved to Idaho at age four. She graduated from Ricks College with an Associates degree and from Boise State University with a Bachelor degree in Biology as well as certification to teach all science subjects in secondary education in the state of Idaho. Älvor is her first novel and was released May, 2009 and more books are on their way.
In her backyard stands a dance studio where she teaches youth of all ages the lesser known, but much loved sport of clogging. She lives in Boise with her husband and five young children, including her own set of boy/girl twins.
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Writer Jake Black grew up in Utah and graduated from BYU. A recent cancer survivor, his writing credits include several episodes of Cartoon Network's TV series "Chaotic," "Ben 10: Alien Force," and "Batman: The Brave and the Bold." Since 2001, Black has been associated with the TV series "Smallville" writing DVD documentaries, online viral campaigns, canonized short stories, trading cards, and magazine articles. He has written numerous comic books for publishers DC Comics, Marvel, and several independent publishers, including comics featuring Superman, Spider-man, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He is also known for writing comics in Marvel's "Ender's Game" series based on the popular sci-fi books by Orson Scott Card. In 2009, Black's "The Authorized Ender Companion" (the encyclopedia of the aforementioned Ender's Game series) was published by Tor. In addition to all of this, Black is also the author of many licensed projects for franchises such as "Twilight," "Star Trek," "Heroes," Hannah Montana," "WWE," "TMNT," and more.
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James Brown
*James Brown: Presentation: Using FREE and open source software (open office,
abiword, etc.) to reduce your expenses. Discuss the availability of
reliable and easy to use open source alternatives to the traditional
writer's tools (word, excel, photoshop, etc.). How to find good
quality open source alternatives. Sources for FREE software.
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John Brown
John Brown is a novelist and prize-winning short story writer. The first book in his epic fantasy series was published October 2009 by Tor Books. It's set in a world where humans are ranched by creatures of immense power and is called SERVANT OF A DARK GOD. Other forthcoming titles are CURSE OF A DARK GOD, and DARK GOD'S GLORY. He currently lives with his wife and four daughters in the hinterlands of Utah where one encounters much fresh air, many good-hearted ranchers, and an occasional wolf.
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Laura Card / Dene Low
Laura Card aka Dene Low decided to be a writer while in elementary school and has since written for newspapers, magazines, and academically, all the while harboring a fascination with science fiction and fantasy. Her first book is a satirical, historical fantasy, The Entomological Tales of Augustus T. Percival: Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone. It is an Edgar Award finalist and a Cybil Award nominee this year, as well as being a top pick for the Junior Library Guild and the Historical Novel Society. Laura aka Dene received her BA and MA from BYU and her PhD from the U of U. She teaches English at BYU and UVU.
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Tom Carr is the founder of Wasatch Paranormal Investigators, has been interested in the paranormal most of his life and remembers watching In Search of with his Dad. Served a mission for the LDS church to Independence MO and just finished his first book on the Basic Ghost hunting. He also teaches a basic ghost hunting class for Granite Peaks Community Ed. A huge Science fiction fan and loves European foot ball.
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Frank L. Case
Frank L. Cole was born in a quiet town in Kentucky where he spent most of his childhood sharing exaggerated stories for show and tell. He now lives in Utah with his wife and three children.
Frank's the author of three published children's books: The Adventures of Hashbrown Winters, Hashbrown Winters and the Mashimoto Madness, and Hashbrown Winters and the Phantom of Pordunce. His newest title, The Guardians of the Hidden Scepter, comes out in March 2011.
You can also visit Frank online at: franklewiscole@blogspot.com and www.hashbrownwinters.com.
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Blake Casselman:
After growing up on a steady diet of science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels, comic books, and films, Blake Casselman submitted his first story for publication at the age of eighteen. Since then, he has written a number of short stories and feature-length screenplays, and a three-act stage play for children. He co-authored a television pilot intended as a starring vehicle for the former Mr. Universe-turned-actor, Roland Kickinger, and writes a blog chronicling the adventures of a character he created for his children, Rodney the Rat, Samurai Super-Spy.
Blake has worked as a bookseller, an educator, a film critic, a copy writer, a promotional script writer, and a professional tutor. He is the Creative Director for PALAMS Studios, the parent company to Castle Calendars, who produces the "His First Year" and "Her First Year" baby scrapbook calendars. He received a Bachelor's degree in Film from the University of Utah and later earned an MFA in Education. He lives in Utah with his family, where he has recently penned a sci-fi graphic novel, is working on a new comic book series, a horror/western screenplay for Mr. Kickinger, and the script to a 12-hour educational documentary film, as well as his first novel.
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Patricia Castelli
Pat is a librarian at the Orem City Library. Her book, She is the author of “Angie,” a young adult novel. She is a graduate of BYU>
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Ami Chopine
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She earned a BS in Geology from BYU in 1992, with an emphasis on Earth Science Education and Math Education. She now spends her time writing new stories, reading old stories, teaching children the wonders of astronomy and physics, and running a starship simulator for Alpine School District's Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center, and doing whatever else is necessary to pay the bills.
Her first book, Nexus Point, is now in print from Cyberwizard Productions. She also has four short stories currently in print in Abandoned Towers Magazine, Darwin's Evolutions Magazine, and Bewildering Stories Magazine. You can find more information at
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Michael R. Collings is an Emeritus Professor of English at Seaver College, Pepperdine University, where he directed the Creative Writing Program for over two decades. He has published multiple volumes of poetry, novels, short fiction, and scholarly studies of such contemporary writers as Stephen King, Orson Scott Card, Dean R. Koontz, and Piers Anthony. His most recent works include Singer of Lies, a science-fiction novel; The Art and Craft of Poetry; and a Book of Mormon epic, The Nephiad. He has attended the BYU Symposium for nearly 25 years. He is now retired and lives in his native state of Idaho.
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Frank L. Cole
Frank L. Cole was born in a quiet town in Kentucky where he spent most of his childhood sharing exaggerated stories for show and tell. He now lives in Utah with his wife and three children.
Frank's the author of three published children's books: The Adventures of Hashbrown Winters, Hashbrown Winters and the Mashimoto Madness, and Hashbrown Winters and the Phantom of Pordunce. His newest title, The Guardians of the Hidden Scepter, comes out in March 2011.
You can also visit Frank online at: franklewiscole@blogspot.com and www.hashbrownwinters.com.
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Larry Correia is an accountant and firearms instructor turned writer. His first novel, Monster Hunter International, was originally self published and did extremely well, bringing him to the attention of the traditional publishing industry. He has since sold three books to Baen. MHI has been on the Entertainment Weekly and Locus bestseller lists. The sequel, Monster Hunter Vendetta, will be released in Fall 2010. Larry has written books from two other series, an alternative history/fantasy based in the 1930s and a contemporary thriller.
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Kathleen has published six short stories in anthologies.
She moderates the Hatrack River Writers Workshop at Orson
Scott Card's science fiction and fantasy website, and the Nauvoo Workshop for LDS Writers at Orson Scott Card's LDS
website.
She serves on the board of the Association for Mormon Letters and is the managing editor for their publication, Irreantum.
She earned a B.A. degree in mathematics and an M.E. degree in
mechanical engineering, both from the University of Utah. She
taught a short story writing course for her local high community
school for many years and has done first reading for a few fiction
magazines.
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James is the author of The Maze Runner, a Junior Library Guild selection and the #1 pick for Indiebound’s Indie Next list for winter of 2009/2010. He’s also the author of The 13th Reality series and The Jimmy Fincher Saga. You can find out more about him and his books at www.jamesdashner.com.
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Jessica is a freelance fantasy artist. Her work is on display at many science fiction convetniosns, including the World Fantasy Convention and hte World Horror Convention. She has help orgsanize and run art shows for conventions both locally and nationally.
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Robert J Defendi has worked on many projects. We was one of the writers for Savage Seas for the game Exalted. He's done a good bit of work for Spycraft, Shadowforce Archer and the Stargate SG-1 roleplaying game. He's also done fiction for Writers of the Future and When Darkness Comes, as well as Spacemaster (and the game's current incarnation.)
Robert J Defendi was born in Dubuque, IA to parents who, frankly, should have known better. After a bleak, early period, punctuated by too much bad science fiction produced by Walt Disney, he began to read such greats as Tolkien, Niven, Clark, Asimov and Clavell. He's been influenced by dozens of writers, from Tom Clancy to Barbara Hambly. He studies bad fiction as well as good in every medium but poetry (with which he is abysmally bad). He feels that writing is a constant process, continuing through every aspect of one's life, and that the time spent at the keyboard is only a small part of the process.
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Anna del C. Dye
Anna is an accomplished, multi-award winning author. She received the Edito’s Choice Award from the International Library of Poetry and her article, A New American Mother, was published by Desert Saints Magazine. Her short story entitled Amerine—Fairy Princess won an award in the Oquirrh Writers contest and was published by Katkion Magazine.
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Karen C. Evans
Karen has written since she was in third grade and wrote a story about finding a leprechaun. She has a BA in English, was assistant editor then editor of the college literary magazine, and won four awards for poetry. For the next twenty years, she still wrote things, but never got the nerve to send them in anywhere. In 2007 She was recruited to write alternate history for Eric Flint's 1632 universe and has over seventeen sales of fiction and non fiction to the Grantville Gazette.
Karen has worked as a library assistant, teacher, waitress, ice cream truck driver, and full-time mom. She and Kevin have two children, both in their twenties. At least now when she hides in her room with the computer, they are able to fend for themselves. This writing stuff is helping her sleep at night, and perhaps it can be her "retirement plan." Whether she sells or not, she will continue writing something. Keeps the voices in her head busy.
Karen C. Evans, SFWA Active member, Attended LTUE every year since 2007
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Kevin Evans
Kevin H. Evans
Is an Airways System Specialist for the FAA. And has been writing for the
past five years. Hobbies include hot air ballooning and restoration of steam locomotives. Writing credits include over sixteen sales of fiction and non fiction to Eric Flint's Magazine "The Grantville Gazette".
Kevin H. Evans, SFWA Active member, attended LTUE every year since 2007
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Newt is an artist. He has done art for collectible card games as well as freelance art.
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New York Times bestselling author. Has written multiple books, including the most recent Runelords saga.
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David L. Ferro. David was born and brought up in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. He has a 1984 Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Tech from 2001. He spent over 15 years in the computer industry in capactities as diverse as software engineer, project manager, researcher, and director of web operations in contexts as diverse as real-time operations, natural langauge processing, educational games, and econometric forcasting. He currently is an associate professor in Computer Science at Weber State University. He has presented and written on, among other things, User Interface Design, Technological Culture, History, and Economics. He is the co-author of two books: a history of computing entitled "Computers: A Life Story" currently published by Johns Hopkins and an introductory textbook for computer science entitled "Connecting with Computer Science", and currently working on the second edition of that book for Cengage Learning. He is the co-editor for an upcoming book from McFarland examinin the influence of science fiction on computer development and culture.
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Suzy Gehring
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A toy castle is what sent fantasy author Paul Genesse over the edge and into madness. Dragons and castles gave him reason to live from elementary school through college. Paul’s many short stories have been published in various large press anthologies from DAW Books. The first two novels in the IRON DRAGON SERIES, THE GOLDEN CORD and book two, THE DRAGON HUNTERS are out now. THE GOLDEN CORD has become the bestselling fantasy novel his publisher has ever had, and in book two: The last of an order of dragon hunters must track down dragon king’s daughter and stop her from getting the Crystal Eye, an ancient artifact that will cause the destruction of their world.
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Jessica Day George is an Idaho-born BYU graduate with naturally red hair and a penchant for black clothing. Her interests include knitting, books, travel, books, chocolate, books, movies, and books. She used to write 800+ page fantasy tomes in which no one was happy and nearly everyone died at the end, then she located her missing sense of humor, switched to writing YA, and actually got published. Her books are: Dragon Slippers, Dragon Flight, Dragon Spear, Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, and Princess of the Midnight Ball. She has a husband, a small dog, two children, and a house that needs dusting, if anyone wants to lend a hand.
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PO Box 71443
Salt Lake City, UT 84171
(435)512-6465
Email: bchailes@gmail.com
After graduating from High School, Brian C. Hailes attended classes at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and received his BFA degree from Utah State University. Before his graduation, he also spent a full semester to study in New York City, interning at the Society of Illustrators.
Hailes has worked as a freelance illustrator, designer, and commission artist for over a decade, and has received numerous awards for his art from all across the country, including Winner in the USPS National Stamp Design Competition, the Best of Show Award at the Brigham City Statewide Art Competition, and in 2002, he won the L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest out of Hollywood.
Hailes has written and illustrated two graphic novel series, entitled ‘Dragon’s Gait’ and ‘Devil’s Triangle’ and is currently working on a new series called ‘Continuum’ to be published in 2010 by Arcana Studios. He is also finishing up a series of dancer drawings to be showcased in his upcoming book, ‘Passion & Spirit: The Dance Quote Book with Artwork by B.C. Hailes.’ He currently resides in Salt Lake City where he works full time doing commission work, graphic design, illustration, as well as conceptual art.
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Charlene C. Harmon
Charlene writes poetry and short stories. She is a member of SFWA. She has worked on the LTUE committee for 25 years. She is a greaduate of BYU>
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Jessica L. Harmon
Jessica grew up attending LTUE. She is a fan of anime and manga and is currently in college hoping to become an archaeologist.
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Mette Ivie Harrison is the author of MIRA, MIRROR (2004, Viking), THE PRINCESS AND THE HOUND (2007, HarperEos), THE PRINCESS AND THE BEAR (2009, HarperTeen), adn the forthcoming THE PRINCESS AND THE SNOWBIRD (Harper 2010). She has a new trilogy coming out with Harper in 2011, beginning with TWO PRINCESSES. Since she is not very princessly herself, nor are her "princesses," the new trend toward princess novels is somewhat puzzling to her. Orson Scott Card has said THE PRINCESS AND THE HOUND is "powerful, surprising, moving, deep" and is "a classic."
Mette is also a competitive triathlete and survived (barely!) a PhD program in Germanic Languages and Literatures at Princeton University (1995). She has five children and lives in Layton, Utah. For fun, she tries out new vegan recipes, crochets, draws, and plays the piano badly. She loves Amish quilts, black and white illustration, chocolate, and Jane Austen everything. Her website is www.metteivieharrison.com. She is also available for novel manuscript critiques.**≈
Karen E. Hoover has loved the written word for as long as she can remember. Her favorite memory of her dad is the time he spent with Karen on his lap, telling her stories for hours on end. Her dad promised he would have Karen reading on her own by the time she was four years old, and he very nearly did.
Karen took the gift of words her dad gave her and ran with it. Since then, she's written two novels and reams of poetry. Her head is fairly popping with ideas, so she plans to write until she's ninety-four or maybe even a hundred and four.
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HEATHER HORROCKS lived overseas for her first seventeen years, water skied through an oil slick in the Arabian Gulf, partied with a Kuwaiti princess, and crossed the finish line first at Utah's Miller Motorsports Park. She's written two inspirational books (Women and Men Who Knew The Mortal Messiah), a line of romantic comedies (How To Stuff A Wild Zucchini in 2009, Sunbeams on the Loose in 2010), along with The Bad Mothers Club and WhoDunHim Inn mystery series. She loves clever titles and beginnings that entice a reader in.
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Clint Johnson
Clint Johnson is a writer and editor of fiction, non-fiction, and technical work who ranges genres and audiences from children to adults. His first nationally published children's novel, Green Dragon Codex (Mirrorstone, an imprint of Wizards of the Coast) released in June, 2009. He is both an Active member of SFWA and a Published and Listed member of SCBWI. Currently, he teaches writing in one-on-one tutorial sessions at Salt Lake Community College. There he works with students of all natures and at all levels of writing experience and English acquisition. In the last three years he has conducted over 3,000 individual tutorial sessions. His past writing experience includes professional technical writing for Atlantic Marketing in San Diego, work on academic editorial staffs, and freelance editing. He is also the recipient of many awards, including 2007 Young Adult Novel of the Year and 2006 Novel of the Year from the League of Utah Writers. A frequent conference speaker, workshop presenter, and writing teacher--for children and adults--he lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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Elana Johnson
Elana Johnson’s debut novel, Possession, will be published by Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster) in June 2011. Her popular ebook, From the Query to the Call, is also available for download. School teacher by day, Query Ninja by night, you can find her online at her personal blog or her website. She is a co-organizer of the popular online children's conference WriteOnCon, a founding author of the Query Tracker blog and a contributing author of the League of Extraordinary Writers. Elana is represented by Michelle Andelman of Regal Literary.)))
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Jenn R. Johansson is a YA supernatural psychological thriller author represented by Kathleen Rushall of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. Her debut novel, INSOMNIA, just sold to Heyne (Random House) at auction in Germany, and to Newton Compton in Italy. She maintains a writing blog at www.jennjohansson.blogspot.com. She loves writing, playing board games, and sitting in her hot tub. Her dream is that someday she can do all three at the same time.
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Aaron Johnston. I am a published author and BYU graduate. I coauthored the novel INVASIVE PROCEDURES with Orson Scott Card. I've also written science fiction and fantasy comic books for Marvel and EA Comics. An original series from Marvel written by me and Orson Scott Card launches in February. I'm currently writing the first of a trilogy of novels with Orson Scott Card for TOR. He and I have partnered on many other projects, and I've written half a dozen screenplays based on his literary properties. I'm also a graduate of OSC's Literary Boot Camp and have done panels before, including at San Diego Comic Con and a writing festival at Southern Virginia University. You can read more about my projects at my website: www.aaronwjohnston.com.
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Amy Jones graduated from BYU in 2008 with a degree in English Teaching. She has always been an avid bookworm and often wished that she had wings. Now she teaches seventh grade English in Tooele, UT while she writes her first novel and discovers more ways to connect science fiction to education.
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Joshua Keele
Joshua Keele – 3D Artist/Animator
Joshua has been with Big Brainz (a educational software company) for 3 years creating 3d levels, characters, animations, and UV textures. Since Josh has worked there he has been the lead artist over the vast projects the company has worked on. Other things Josh has done throughout his career include long board design, and many athletic T-shirts.
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Kevin Keele – Illustrator/Game Artist
Kevin has worked in game development for seven years and has been with Disney Interactive Studios for five. He has worked on ten published video games, including Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, Van Helsing, Tak 3, Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons, and Bolt. Most of his time in the game industry has been spent as an environment artist, though he has also done animation, character modeling, and concept art.
Kevin is also a published illustrator who has worked on numerous publications and books. He is proficient and experienced in Maya, Photoshop, and Painter. In his spare time he enjoys playing video games. He lives in Lehi, Utah with his wife and son.
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Steven Keele – Illustrator/Animator
Steve has been with Neways for 6 years creating 2d and 3d illustrations, animations, and special effects for print and video. Previous projects saw him creating 3D computer generated models for games (Van Helsing, Abe’s Oddysee, Gauntlet Legends), multimedia (3D Body Adventure, 3D Dinosaur Adventure), television (Jonny Quest, Nike, Steven King’s, The Stand) and film (ANTZ, Batman and Robin, The Shadow, Godzilla). Other things Steve has done throughout his career include art directing for a university newspaper, layout cartoonist, billboard painter, and set design.
Steve has worked in many traditional mediums (watercolor, acrylic, airbrush and pen) and digital. He is quite proficient in 2D (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects) and 3D (Maya and others) computer programs. Weather it is a simple one color illustration or a full on 3D character animation he does a professional job and meets deadlines.
Steven holds a Bachelor of Arts from Brigham Young University.
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Lynn Kurland is the New York Times bestselling author of 23 award-winning paranormal romances and 7 romantic fantasies/fantasy romances (she can't tell the difference). She can be reached through her website at www.LynnKurland.com.Dan Lind
Dan Lind is a lab tech, which means he does sciencey things for a company that tells him he can't claim them, or else he'll get fired. Dan comes from a "just folks" family of scientists, and prides himself on his ability to put science in layman's terms. He is however, quite scatterbrained and absent-minded. So feel free to ask him questions, or bring him back to the subject at hand, whenever you feel the need. Dan's formal training in science was conducted at Utah State University in Logan, UT, and at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. Dan's main interests are playing with ideas, making things, and his wife Laura. And he really, really, really, really, really likes to talk... way too much.
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Laura Swift Lind is one of the founders of the StarHouse Discovery Center in Logan, UT. For the last year, she has been taking the portable planetarium to schools in Cache County, UT and Franklin County, ID as a volunteer. She has a Master's in Space Studies from the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, and has
been involved with Reading for the Future since 1999. While an undergrad at Utah State University, she worked on several experiments which flew on the space shuttle, and on the _Explorer_ and _Discovery_ space simulators. She married Dan Lind last May Day.
i just thought of one more thing to add to my bio: You can find Laura on Twitter as cachestarhouse.
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Lesli Muir Lytle, former President of the Utah Chapter of Romance Writers of America, has won awards for screenplays, stage plays, and historical romance. She currently writes time travel romance and YA.Lesli Muir Lytle
www.writersblockbuster.blogspot.com
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Lisa Mangum has worked with books ever since elementary school,
when she volunteered at the school library during recess. Her first
paying job was shelving books at the Sandy Library. She worked for five
years at Waldenbooks while she attended the University of Utah,
graduating with honors with a degree in English. In 1997, she was hired
at Deseret Book Company and has worked in various roles in the
publishing department ever since. She is currently working as an
Assistant Editor. One of her favorite parts of her job is working with
such great authors as James Dashner, J. Scott Savage, Obert Skye, Jason
F. Wright, and Josi S. Kilpack.
Lisa is also an author herself and her debut YA novel, The
Hourglass Door, was released May 2009.
Besides books, Lisa loves movies, sunsets, spending time with
her family, trips to Disneyland, and vanilla ice cream topped with fresh
raspberries. She lives in Taylorsville, Utah, with her husband, Tracy.
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D. Michael Martindale
L. E. Modesitt, Jr., is the author of more than 50 novels – primarily science fiction and fantasy, a number of short stories, and numerous technical and economic articles. His novels have sold millions of copies in the U.S. and world-wide, and have been translated into German, Polish, Dutch, Czech, Russian, Bulgarian, French, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, and Swedish. Mr. Modesitt was born in 1943 in Denver, Colorado, and later graduated from Williams College under the delusion that poetry was considered respectable and that fantasy and science fiction were not, a mistake he now attributes to youthful enthusiasm.
He has been a delivery boy; a lifeguard; an unpaid radio disc jockey; a U.S. Navy pilot; a market research analyst; a real estate agent; director of research for a political campaign; legislative assistant and staff director for U.S. Congressmen; Director of Legislation and Congressional Relations for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; a consultant on environmental, regulatory, and communications issues; a college lecturer and writer in residence; and unpaid treasurer of a civic music arts association.
Shortly after his tours as a Navy amphibious officer and then as a pilot, he returned to Denver as a market research analyst and economist, which experiences generated the idea for his first published story – “The Great American Economy” – printed in ANALOG in 1973. He then pursued a career in another kind of fantasy by becoming the Legislative Assistant for Congressman Bill Armstrong in Washington, D.C., and later staff director for Congressman Ken Kramer. During his years in Washington, he attempted to regain some hold on reality by writing increasingly more science fiction. Not totally by coincidence, his first novel was published while he was serving as the head of Legislation and Congressional Relations at the U.S. EPA during the Reagan-Burford controversies. There he was responsible for coordinating EPA’s response to Congressional inquiries and hearings and for accepting midnight telephone calls from various individuals terming themselves journalists. This experience led to the writing of The Green Progression, a book almost totally factual and yet termed more fantastic than any of his fantasy novels. Such public and critical action confirmed his fundamental belief in the reality of science fiction and fantasy.
Along the way, Mr. Modesitt has weathered eight children, a fondness for three-piece suits [which has deteriorated into a love of vests], a brown Labrador, a white cockapoo, an energetic Shih-tzu, two scheming dachshunds, a capricious spaniel, a crazy Saluki-Aussie, and various assorted pet rodents. Finally, in 1989, to escape nearly twenty years of occupational captivity in Washington, D.C., he moved to New Hampshire. There he married a lyric soprano, and he and his wife Carol moved to Cedar City, Utah, in 1993, where she directs the voice and opera program at Southern Utah University and he continues to create and manage chaos.
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Joe Monson
Joe is a former chair of CONduit.
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Helge Moulding
Many years ago Helge received a degree in Physics and Applied
Mathematics. Since then he's had a paying job as computer
programmer. He writes, games, plays several instruments badly,
and has been coming to LTUE since last century. He contributes
book reviews at http://overdriveslc.blogspot.com/.
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Writer of the popular “Fablehaven” booiks.
Charlotte Randle
J Scott Savage is the author of six novels, two mysteries, a high-tech
thriller, a family drama, and two books in the Farworld YA fantasy series.
In 2011 he has four novels coming out, including a YA historical, and a horror novel. He figures if he could only publish a straight romance, and say, maybe, a how-to book, he'd be truly multi-dimensional. Savage has presented at dozens of writers conferences, workshops, and classes. He has held over sixty jobs from CEO of a 200 person internet company to a French Chef. "I believe that a huge part of success is truly learning to believe in yourself. Before you can sell anyone else on your work, you need to sell yourself. The people I see succeeding the most are the people who believed in themselves before anyone else did."
Berin Stephens was born (in spite of what the Utah DMV thinks). He grew up in a community called Chugiak, outside of Anchorage, Alaska. It was a magic land filled with moose, bears, porcupines, salmon, and other mythological creatures, so he has always had an interest in fantasy literature. After serving an LDS mission in the savage and uncivilized jungles of Southern California (the Mickey Mouse Mission), Berin attended BYU where he received a bachelors and a masters degree in music performance and pedagogy before being chased out. He returned to the frozen north to teach saxophone and clarinet lessons and even a Music Depreciation course at the University of Alaska. In 2005, Berin and his wife, Vicky, bundled up their five kids and force-marched them to Orem, Utah. Berin currently performs with several jazz groups and The Mundy Mourning Blues Band in addition to teaching music lessons in his home and at Utah Valley University. He enjoys taking long walks off short piers, not asking for directions, and putting his foot in his mouth. His first book, The Dragon War Relic, came out in November of 2009 from Bonneville Books and is a sci-fi/fantasy/action/comedy. For more information, visit www.DragonWarRelic.com.
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One of Eric James Stone's earliest memories is seeing an Apollo rocket launch on television. That might explain his life-long fascination with astronomy and space travel. His father's collection of old science fiction ensured that Eric grew up on a full diet of Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke.
Eric attended Orson Scott Card's Literary Boot Camp in 2003 and the Odyssey Writing Workshop in 2007. He has sold stories to the Writers of the Future Contest, Analog, and Intergalactic Medicine Show. In 2009 Eric became an assistant editor for Intergalactic Medicine Show.
Eric lives in Utah. His website is www.ericjamesstone.com.
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Eric G. Swedin is an associate professor at Weber State University in the Information Systems and Technologies department, specializing in information security and interdisciplinary studies. He teaches students how to be hackers so that they may defend against hackers. His doctorate is in the history of science and technology and he regularly teaches history classes at Weber State. His publications include numerous articles, three history books, and a historical mystery novel, The Killing of Greybird (2004). Two other books are under contract. Eric lives in a 128 year old house with his wife Betty and four children. His web site is http://www.swedin.org/.
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Howard Tayler is the author and artist of the Hugo nominated science fiction comic strip Schlock Mercenary (www.schlockmercenary.com), which has been running daily online since 2000. Prior to becoming a full-time cartoonist, Howard ran a small record production company and worked as a product manager for Novell. When Howard has spare time he paints pewter miniatures and plays role-playing games. Howard lives in Orem, Utah with his wife and four kids
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Sandra Tayler
Sandra is the business manager for the Schlock Mercenary comic business. Her normal business days include book layout, editing, shipping, inventory control, customer support, laundry, dishes, and parenting four kids. Sandra is also a regular blogger (onecobble.com), children's author, speculative fiction writer, and essayist. When she has spare time, Sandra enjoys gardening, birdwatching, and reading.
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Brad R. Torgersen -- Bio
Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, Brad started dreaming of being a professional fiction writer while doing unpaid work on a local community radio science fiction serial called Searcher & Stallion. It was while working on Searcher & Stallion that Brad also met the woman who would become his biggest fan -- and his wife -- and together they moved to the Puget Sound of Washington State in 1993.
For the next 14 years Brad toiled at various occupations ranging from front desk clerk at a motel to computer support at a well-known Seattle hospital -- including enlistment in the United States Army Reserve in the wake of September 11, 2001. Along the way Brad nursed his writing habit, accruing a significant pile of rejection slips, such that he stopped doing short fiction altogether in 1999 and made several abortive attempts at doing novels before, in 2005, he almost quit in frustration.
Brad's wife Annie wouldn't let him give up on his dream, however, so with a little spousal butt-kicking on her part he began attending local writing workshops and conventions such as NorwesCon, in an attempt to revive his production.
In 2007 Brad submitted his first story to Writers of the Future, garnering four Honorable Mentions and a Finalist placement before finally winning 3rd Place for the 3rd Quarter of 2009 -- his first professional success.
Brad's back in Utah, still doing computer work in healthcare and enjoying his promotion to Warrant Officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. He's plugging into the local SF&F writing community and attending conventions such as CONduit. He thinks Writers of the Future is an excellent opportunity for aspirant science fiction and fantasy writers, and hopes his win is just the first step in a productive professional fiction career.
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JoSelle Vanderhooft:
JoSelle Vanderhooft is a poet and author based in Salt Lake City. She has several poetry collections to her name including: Fathers, Daughters Ghosts & Monsters, The Memory Palace, The Handless Maiden and Other Tales Twice-Told and the Bram Stoker-nominated Ossuary. Her first full length novel, Ebenezer, a retelling of A Christmas Carol will be published by Drollerie Press in time for Christmas 2010. She currently lives in Salt Lake City with her family, which includes four bright, boisterous cats.
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Suzanne Vincent
Suzanne Vincent, Ogden,تwrites a bit of everything, but strays most often into forays with slipstream fantasy, fairy-tale adaptations, and historical fiction, and is, as you probably already guessed, working on a novel. تShe is a stay-at-home mom who wears many hats.ت Of these,تshe is most proud of those of wife, mother, teacher (she homeschools her three children), and writer. She is a graduate of Orson Scott Cardصs Literary Boot Camp, and a published author of short and very short stories.ت Suzanne recently celebrated her 2nd year of working as an editor at Flash Fiction Online--the only SFWA qualifying flash-only marketت(www.flashfictiononline.com) --where she leads one of twoتteams of slush readers in a fairly unique selection process.ت If youصd like to delve deeper into her sometimes warped mind, you can find her blog at http://nightingalescage.blogspot.com.
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Dr. Walker is a professor at Brigham Young University and has spent many years studying the lworks of JRR Tolkien.
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Dan Wells is horror writer who's absolutely HUGE in Europe, I'm not even kidding. His first book, I Am Not a Serial Killer, debuts in the US in April as a Tor Select Title. Dan is a co-host of the popular writing podcast Writing Excuses, serving as the horror/thriller expert and occasional cabbagehead when called upon by the needs of the episode or his own stupidity.
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Roger White
Roger White was a soldier in Vietnam in the 1960's, an MIT engineering student in the 1970's, a Local Area Network pioneer in 1980's, and an English teacher in Korea in the 1990's. More than most people, he's been there and done that, and while he did, he took notes! Today his interest centers around figuring out why people think the way they do.
He has a broad background in history, science, technology, and sociology. He is an accomplished trainer, writer, speaker, and analyst.
His Internet experience started in 1994 when he started this web site.
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Stacy Whitman is the editorial director of Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books. She specializes in fantasy, science fiction, and mystery for children and young adults. In 2009, she founded a small press named Tu Publishing, dedicated to publishing multicultural fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults, which was acquired by Lee & Low Books and became Tu Books. She spent more than three years as an editor for Mirrorstone, the children’s and young adult imprint of Wizards of the Coast in Seattle. She holds a master’s degree in children’s literature from Simmons College. Before that, she edited elementary school textbooks at Houghton Mifflin, interned at the Horn Book Magazine and Guide, and spent a brief stint working as a bookseller.
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Dan always had an affinity for stories.ت Growing up in Maryland in the late 70s, he fell in love with reading at an early age, devouring books as fast as he could get them.ت When his fourth grade teacher challenged his class to write a short story for Halloween, Danصs was pages rather than paragraphs.تت After reading it aloud in class, Dan discovered that many of the student stories read the following day had elements of his story incorporated in them.ت Almost from that moment, Dan was a born storyteller.
Not knowing how, exactly, to become a writer, Dan did the usual things, went to college, got married, designed games, and dreamed.ت While perfecting his craft as a writer, Dan became a computer programmer, technical writer, game designer, software tester, web designer, and even insurance salesman.ت Eventually, after years of hard work and effort, Danصs work caught the attention of Wizardصs of the Coast, who signed him immediately to work on their new YA imprint; DragonLance: The New Adventures.ت Dan produced three books for the YA line, including one of the series best-sellers.ت Recently his book The Survivors was released under Wizardصs original DragonLance brand.ت
These days Dan lives in the west, right at the mouth of a magnificent canyon where the wind always blows.ت He has a lovely wife, four children, and is hard at work on his next book - an original Steampunk novel.
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Michael is a graduate of Brigham Young University with a degree in German Teaching and a minor in Music. He lives in Utah with his wife, Jen, and his son Jarem. Michael enjoys writing fiction, acting in community theater, and spending time with his family. He played for several years with the handbell choir Bells on Temple Square and is now a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.