Program Participant Biographies, Continued

John Hemry

John G. Hemry is the author, under the pen name Jack Campbell, of the NYT and USA Today national best-selling Lost Fleet series (Dauntless, Fearless, Courageous and most recently Valiant). His next book will be the fifth in the Lost series, Relentless.

Under his own name, he's also the author of the 'JAG in space' series, the latest of which was Against All Enemies. His short fiction has appeared in places as varied as the last Chicks in Chainmail anthology (Turn the Other Chick) and Analog magazine (which published his Nebula Award-nominated story Small Moments in Time). His humorous short story, As You Know Bob was selected for Year's Best SF 13. John's nonfiction has appeared in Analog and Artemis magazines.

John had the opportunity to live on Midway Island during the 1960s, then later attended a trade school (the US Naval Academy) and served in a variety of jobs including gunnery officer and navigator on a destroyer, with an amphibious squadron, at the Navy's anti-terrorism center, and in a number of intelligence assignments. After retiring from the US Navy and settling in Maryland, John began writing and within a few years sold his first novel (Stark's War). He's also a SFWA Musketeer. John lives with his long-suffering wife (the incomparable S) and three great kids. His oldest son and daughter are diagnosed autistic.
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Jana G. Oliver

A person with a "hands-on" approach to life, Jana Oliver began her writing career as a self-publisher. She started her own publishing company, and published her first three novels in that fashion.

Because she's equally at home with Jack the Ripper and the Fey, Oliver knows no boundaries when it comes to her writing. Her Time Rovers™ Series sends a time traveler from 2057 into the mean streets of Victorian London during the time of the Ripper murders. SOJOURN, the first book in the series, was a finalist for ten awards. It won ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Award and a Gold Medal for Science Fiction in the Independent Publisher Books Awards. It also garnered four romance awards, including the Booksellers' Best, Daphne du Maurier, a Golden Quill and the Prism Award for Time Travel. SOJOURN also earned the Pluto Award for Best New Voice in Science Fiction and was a finalist for the Compton Crook Award. The second book in the series, VIRTUAL EVIL, was published in October 2007 and the third, MADMAN'S DANCE, will be available October 2008.

Visitors are always welcome at her website: www.janaoliver.com
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Jeff Fennel

Jeff Fennel's an artist, a Dad and a husband (in no particular order - they all take 100%). He loves science and science fiction, music, the outdoors, visual arts, oh, and rockets.

He primarily paints plein air landscapes, weird aluminum stuff, digital things and the occasional figure. He has a degree in Visual Communication.

He used to make video games and has a terribly out of date website (JeffFennel.com). He teaches Drawing and Painting "here and there." He says when he grows up, he wants to be an astronaut, but, with an FTL drive only, please. He's also the Artist Guest of Honor at Orycon 30 in Portland, Oregon.
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Jennifer Dunne

Jennifer Dunne has swum with dolphins, climbed volcanoes, learned to hang-glide, been abandoned on the rocks while white-water rafting, piloted a sailing ship solo, created an AI to model Kantian philosophy, and done a lot of other interesting and intriguing things.
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John Jos. Miller

John Jos. Miller was born and grew up in rural New York state. He came to science fiction through his generation's usual gateway: Edgar Rice Burroughs and Andre Norton.

When he was fourteen, he collected his first rejection slip, and sold his first story at sixteen. Sadly, the magazine that bought it folded before the story was printed, the first in a long-standing tradition that lasted for many years.

Miller graduated S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook Magnum Cum Laude with a degree in anthropology, and moved to New Mexico to attend graduate school at the University of New Mexico, which at the time had one of the best archeology programs in the United States. The following year, he met Gail Gerstner on an archeological dig and, as they say, the rest is history. The two were married the next summer and returned to New Mexico, where they've lived ever since.

Miller has worked as an archeologist all over the southwest United States, and in New York state and Great Britain. Gail became manager of a Walden Books. At some point, Miller met a number of science fiction writers in New Mexico, and they gradually seduced him to the dark side. He's written about ten novels and about twice as many short stories, many of them in the popular Wild Cards series. He's also written two Role Playing Game Sourcebooks and a number of comic book scripts for Marvel, DC, Avatar, and Kitchen Sink Press.

Currently, Miller is working on a number of publications, including a story in the new wild card volume, SUICIDE KINGS (due out in December), a new Wild Card Sourcebook for RPG published by Green Ronin (due out in August), a follow-up Wild Card biographical encyclopedia also published by Green Ronin Press, called ACES AND JOKERS (scheduled for publication in April 2009), and a graphic novel adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s IN THE HOUSE OF THE WORM for Avatar (scheduled for publication whenever the artist finishes drawing it).

Onto this project list is also a novel called BLACK TRAIN COMING set in the West Virginia coalfields of the early 1920s, which has, among other things, coal miners, detectives, strikebreakers, gunfighters, vampires, a half-man, and a race of immortal dogs. John and Gail live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with their eight cats, three dogs (the latest addition being Skippy the Halloween Chihuahua), and more books than they can count.
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Julia Phillips

Born in Texas, Julia Phillips has lived in Longmont, Colorado for most of her life. As an only child, her parents took great care with her education, both inside and outside the classroom. Her dad worked rotating shifts, so every once in a while; they would take Julia out of school for the day and do a private field trip. These trips could range anywhere from going down to the National Western Stock Show in Denver or out to the movie set for "Centennial." The places didn't matter as much as the experiences, and they were always full and fun.

While the B.S. in Biology she received isn’t doing her as much good as she planned, the research skills she learned have come in handy for her current projects, especially medieval history and world mythology.

The second book in her series, Miranda, Queen of Argyll: Unlikely Saints, was published in September, answering the cliff-hanger ending of her first novel, Miranda, Queen of Argyll: Past Sins. Both books show that history will haunt you, gnomes can be funny, friends always have your back, and life can still surprise you, whether you’re immortal or not.

Something in the rarified air up here has her already working on her next projects, including a couple of screenplays, an anthology piece and the beginning of Miranda III. She also plans on releasing e-book versions of her series in the fall. Until then, she’ll be busy with projects, including screenplays and television scripts, with her most tolerant supporter nearby, her cat Seuss.
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Joseph Martino

A founding member and President of the Miami University Science Fiction Association, Joseph Martino is an associate member of First Fandom, and the current newsletter editor. The first con he attended was New Orleans WorldCon in 1951. Joseph was fortunate to know both Robert Heinlein and John W. Campbell personally.

Martino has a Ph.D. in mathematics, and is a Fellow with the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, and works as a professional technological forecaster. He has 25 years of military experiance, and is a retired Colonel with the US Air Force. He has written military science fiction, and has written about rocketry and guided missles.
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April Faires

April Faires was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. She has a bachelors degree in Anthropology/Archaeology with post graduate work in Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics; a bachelors degree in Education with majors in Fine Art and Earth Science; and a certificate in Editing.

For the last 22 years she has worked as a graphic designer, illustrator, editor. She is working as graphic designer, writer, photographer for a Caterpillar dealer.
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Barry Short

Barry Short is a fan, convention organizer, retailer, and part-time curmudgeon - it's just another typical fandom story.

After spending nearly 20 years owning and managing 21st Century Comics in southern California, Barry and wife Theresa Mather relocated to southwest Utah, from where he manages the business side of Theresa's career, and sells leftover store junk... er, fine collectibles on eBay. From Spider-Man he learned that with great power comes great responsibility, which has inspired him to always minimize his power.

He is known to quote author Edward Abbey with little provocation, and finds more than a little satisfaction in watching Lake Powell evaporate.
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Brad Templeton

Brad Templeton was born in 1960, grew up near Toronto and now lives in Silicon Valley in California. He holds a Bachelor of Mathematics degree from the University of Waterloo.

Brad founded ClariNet Communications Corp (the world's first "dot-com.") He also created and publishes rec.humor.funny, and its web site, www.netfunny.com, the world's longest running blog. He is currently chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the leading cyberspace civil rights foundation, and involved with the Foresight Institute and BitTorrent, Inc.

Brad published the first large science ficton E-book anthology in 1993, a collection of all the Hugo and most Nebula nominees. He recently published a series on the future of robot cars and how they will change society.

When he’s not involved with the computer, Brad does fine-art panoramic landscape photography. For this, and other projects, he is a popular artist at the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada.
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