Program Participant Biographies, Continued

E. Hogan

E. Hogan’s novels have been published under three pen names. As Emily Devenport, she wrote Shade, Larissa, Scorpianne, EggHeads, The Kronos Condition, and GodHeads, all published by ROC/NAL. Her short stories appeared in ASIMOV'S SF MAGAZINE, the FULL SPECTRUM anthology, and ABORIGIANL SF, whose readers voted her a Boomerang Award.

As Maggy Thomas she wrote Broken Time, published in the U.S. by ROC/NAL and in Italy by URANIA. Broken Time was nominated for the Philip K. Dick award.

As Lee Hogan she wrote Belarus and Enemies, published in the U.S. by ROC/NAL and in Israel by OPUS.

She lives in Arizona with husband, artist/writer Ernest Hogan. They are both currently working on several projects, both separately and together (as E. E. Hogan). She'll be doing a reading from their new YA Fantasy novel, The Terrible Twelves.
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Elissa Malcohn

Elissa Malcohn's work extends over 30+ years and across dozens of publications. In 2006, Tampa's Necronomicon marked her return to SF conventions after an almost 20-year absence. In 2007 Aisling Press published her novel Deviations: Covenant and this fall will release the sequel, Appetite. "Rich character development and fascinating central conflict quickly addict the reader to this story," wrote Lady Emily at the Redbud Book Club.

Elissa's novelette "Lazuli" (Asimov's, Nov. 1984) made her a finalist for the 1985 John W. Campbell Award. Her story "Moments of Clarity" (Full Spectrum, Bantam, 1988) reached the Nebula's preliminary ballot and was nominated for a Locus Award. "This one story is worth the price of the entire book," wrote Bruce D. Arthurs in the November, 1988, Out of This World Tribune.

A four-time Rhysling Award nominee, Elissa edited the Science Fiction Poetry Association's journal Star*Line from 1986-1988. Two of her poems appear in a "best of" collection from SFPA's 2007 sonnet contest. Poetry also appears in Space and Time #104 and We'Moon '09, and is forthcoming in Asimov's.

Elissa's story "Hermit Crabs" in Electric Velocipede #14 was praised by Marshall Payne in The Fix. Charles Tan at Bibliophile Stalker called it "a strong opener … still resonates with me once I was through with the magazine."

Fiction also appears in Riffing on Strings: Creative Writing Inspired by String Theory (Scriblerus Press) and elsewhere. Stories are forthcoming in Helix and Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (Dark Scribe Press). Elissa's story "Cog" (Tales of the Unanticipated #4) will be reprinted in a "best of" anthology from TOTU's first ten years. "Cog" followed up Elissa's sonnet "Labor Intensive," published in the Harvard Business Review and reprinted in Prof. John K. Shank's widely-taught case "Jones Ironworks Inc."

Elissa began writing science fiction after Star Trek went off the air in 1969. New York's 1972 Star Trek convention saw her schlepping dozens of used books bought for a dime or a quarter apiece on the subway home to Brooklyn. That year she also received a Read Magazine Creative Writing Award, her first of various prizes. She took out her first magazine subscription, to Galaxy, which supplied her first (and exciting!) rejection slip. Along the way, she picked up a BA and MS in psychology.

After the 1980s, she vanished into years of multiple-shift work but continued writing outside the genre. While training for (and completing) the first Boston-New York AIDS Ride in 1995, she served on the Ride's newsletter committee. Elissa performed corporate writing and editing at and in addition to her day job and is currently a fulltime freelancer providing communications services. She also exhibited and sold photography and mixed-media art.

In 2003, Elissa moved with her partner Mary from Boston, MA, to Citrus County, FL, where she can be found scatting at open mikes and photographing bugs. She will give the keynote on her 50th birthday at this year's Florida State Poets Association conference. Search for "Malcohn's World" to reach her website.
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Ellen Klages

Ellen Klages was born in Ohio, and now lives in San Francisco.

Her story, “Basement Magic,” won the Nebula Award in 2005. Several of her other stories have been on the final ballot for the Nebula and Hugo Awards, and have been translated into Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese, and Swedish. A collection of her short fiction, Portable Childhoods, was published in 2007.

Her first novel The Green Glass Sea, won the Scott O’Dell Award for historical fiction and the New Mexico State Book Award. It was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award, the Quills Award, and the Locus Award. A sequel, White Sands, Red Menace, will be published by Viking in the fall of 2008.

Her Web site is www.ellenklages.com.
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Evan Friedman

Evan Friedman is a Human Resources Manager for an Aerospace Contractor. This gives him a lot of opportunity to work with engineers who are solving tough problems.

Currently a generalist, he has also been a specialist in training, Affirmative Action planning & reporting, HR information systems, and HR policy development.

Evan’s first science fiction read was A Wrinkle in Time. His first purchase was Starship Troopers. In between was The Hobbit and most of the Tom Swift Jr. books borrowed from (and returned to) his older brother’s collection. Since then science fiction and fantasy have dominated his entertainment choices.

After a mid seventies exposure to Dungeons & Dragons and all the extra rule books, Evan picked up fantasy gaming and war gaming as hobbies. Both fell mostly by the wayside during college but returned later as an avenue to publication. Games Workshop provided the inspiration with Talisman: The Magical Quest Game.

Evan worked with his friend Paul Morrow and designed the 5th and 6th expansions: Talisman City and Talisman Dragons.

Since then Evan hasn’t been submitting for publication. Instead he’s been using his free time for reading, ice hockey (goaltender—retired, and yes he still has his teeth), sf movies & tv, almost finishing this or that writing project, golf, and geocaching — a new hobby.

Evan has had what he calls the “unpleasant opportunity” of being accidentally defibrillated twice during ambulance calls. “The moral of the story,” he says, “is that you can be electrocuted and live to talk about it."
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Faith Hunter

Faith was born in Louisiana and raised all over the south. She and her husband love to RV, traveling with their blonde Pomeranian, to whitewater rivers where they raft and kayak. The Rogue Mage novels, a dark, urban fantasy series—Bloodring, Seraphs, and Host —were released in trade paperback to great reviews, and will be reissued in mass-market, one a month, starting in November 2008. The Skinwalker series, featuring Cherokee skinwalker Jane Yellowrock, will debut in July 2009.

Hunter fell in love with reading in fifth grade, and best loved SciFi, fantasy, and gothic mystery. She decided to become a writer in high school, when a teacher told her she had talent. Now, she writes a two books a year while working full time (for the benefits) and mentoring five writers. She has high hopes all five will be published soon.

Faith works the weekend shift in the lab of a rural hospital, tries to keep house, and is a workaholic with a passion for travel, jewelry making, writing and for writers. Under her pen name Gwen Hunter, she is currently writing an action adventure thriller, to be released in February, and is tweaking a screenplay with a co-writer. As Faith and Gwen, she has 17 books in print in 22 countries. For more, including a list of her books, see www.faithhunter.net and www.gwenhunter.com.
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Fred Cleaver

Fred Cleaver was born in Japan and raised in Colorado, currently living in Greeley. He has been writing the Denver Post science fiction column since 1991. He is currently editing a collection of Harry Stephen Keeler's short stories. Fred reports that he is a fan of professional sumo wrestling and "the benevolent deity of the Cult of Fred."
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Gerri Balter

Gerri Balter was born and grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her parents escaped from the Soviet Union after World War I. She’s a first generation American. She lived in Denver for a year as a VISTA volunteer and has worked as an administrative assistant at several places including the University of Minnesota and an insurance company. She loves to read especially science fiction, fantasy and mysteries.

Gerri is a stuffed animal collector. She once owned 3,000, but her collection is down to about 500 now. “When I go to conventions, people are more interested what stuffed animals I've brought than what's been happening with me,” she says.

Gerri has been writing since she was a child. She used to entertain the neighborhood children by making up her own fairy tales. She wasn't sure if she could write, so she took a year off of work to find out. When she saw the ads for Clarion, she sent in my applications for both Clarion East and West. She was sure she wouldn't get into either one. When Clarion West sent an acceptance, she decided to go. It was an experience she will never forget. Thanks to what she learned there, she’s decided to write her first novel.
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Haley Elizabeth Garwood

Haley wrote her first story at the age of three about a chicken who could talk. From that time on she’s read science fiction and fantasy. Her novels, however, are medieval historical about real women in history. Her Warrior Queen Series explores the problems women faced in their leadership roles. There’s blood and guts and love, too.

Haley believed that writing would put food on the table and buy books, so she pursued a bachelor’s degree in creative writing/journalism from Purdue University. Imagine her surprise when she couldn’t support herself. She tried an MA in theatre at West Virginia University. No jobs there either. Armed with a doctorate in education from West Virginia University, she found the security of a regular paycheck. She taught special education, became a high school principal, and taught at the university level. Haley teaches creative writing and literature at Western Kentucky University. She loves to warp the minds of her students.

She is currently at work on her fourth book in the Warrior Queen Series as well as a speculative fiction novel about the women who surrounded King Tut to protect him and a modern romance that takes place in India where she used to live.

When she's not writing, Haley is a slave to her farm. She also travels and especially likes the middle east.

Check Haley’s web site, HaleyElizabethGarwood.com. to see an excerpt from the novel she's currently writing.
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John Picacio

John Picacio has illustrated covers for books by Harlan Ellison, Michael Moorcock, Robert Silverberg, Frederik Pohl, Jeffrey Ford, Robert Heinlein, Graham Joyce, Mike Resnick, Joe R. Lansdale, and many, many more. He is currently one of the finalists for the prestigious Hugo Award in the Best Professional Artist category (his fourth consecutive nomination). He has won the Locus Award, the Chesley Award, two International Horror Guild Awards, and the much-coveted World Fantasy Award, all in the Artist category.

Cover Story: The Art of John Picacio a lush, 200-page hardcover collection of his work, was a 2007 Hugo Award finalist.

This past February, Ballantine/Del Rey released a major trade paperback edition of Michael Moorcock’s Elric: The Stealer of Souls, debuting Picacio’s all-new cover and interior illustrations. This year alone, his art has appeared on almost a dozen book covers (with more to come) including Son of Man by Robert Silverberg, Viewpoints Critical by L.E. Modesitt, Jr., and the forthcoming Fast Forward 2, edited by Lou Anders. He and his wife, Traci, live in San Antonio, Texas. For more info, please visit www.johnpicacio.com, or his blog, http://johnpicacio.com/blog.html.
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Julie McGalliard

Julie McGalliard is a 2006 Clarion West grad who lives in Bellingham, Washington, where gas is expensive and Canadians are plentiful. She is a cartoonist (www.gothhouse.org), and also writes the kinds of stories that don't have pictures.

She is extremely pleased to have been published in Talebones (http://www.talebones.com/) because it means she gets to participate in Talebones Live.

Photo by Paul Carpentier, October 2007
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