Program Participant Biographies, Continued

Ed Bryant

Ed Bryant grew up as a ranch kid in southeastern Wyoming, which he describes as “very much a Lincolnesque environment with no electricity, no indoor plumbing, and use of horses instead of a tractor.  Later on, civilization arrived.”  Disillusioned about a degree in engineering, he turned to the arts, earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English.

Ed started writing in high school and college.  His first professional publication was a short story sale to Harlan Ellison’s Again, Dangerous Visions when he was a student at the very first Clarion Workshop in 1968.  Since then there have been many, many more pieces of short fiction along with a dozen story collections and novels, considerable nonfiction, and some TV work for CBS and Disney.  He’s been awarded a couple of Nebulae and an American Mystery Award along the way.

With a predilection for nonspecialization, Ed has been described as a short fiction writer, a horror writer, a reviewer of books and movies, an Internet interview host.  He’s also dabbled in TV and film, and he’s a perennial emcee at conventions.  They're all apt descriptions.  Ed says “I like knitting a career like a crazyquilt.”

Ed’s latest publication is the twenty-first installment of his media coverage essay in the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthology from St. Martin's Press.  He is also working on a new collection of suspense and horror, Flirting With Death.

Photo ©2007, Ellen Datlow. Used with permission.
Return to Index

George R.R. Martin

George R.R. Martin was born September 20, 1948 in Bayonne, New Jersey. His father was Raymond Collins Martin, a longshoreman, and his mother was Margaret Brady Martin. He has two sisters, Darleen Martin Lapinski and Janet Martin Patten.

Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. He began writing very young, selling monster stories to other neighborhood children for pennies, dramatic readings included. Later he became a comic book fan and collector in high school, and began to write fiction for comic fanzines (amateur fan magazines). Martin's first professional sale was made in 1970 at age 21: "The Hero," sold to Galaxy, published in February, 1971 issue. Other sales followed.

In 1970 Martin received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to complete a M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Northwestern.

As a conscientious objector, Martin did alternative service 1972-1974 with VISTA, attached to Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation. He also directed chess tournaments for the Continental Chess Association from 1973-1976, and was a Journalism instructor at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, from 1976-1978. He wrote part-time throughout the 1970s while working as a VISTA Volunteer, chess director, and teacher.

In 1975 he married Gale Burnick. They divorced in 1979, with no children. Martin became a full-time writer in 1979. He was writer-in-residence at Clarke College from 1978-79.

Moving on to Hollywood, Martin signed on as a story editor for Twilight Zone at CBS Television in 1986. In 1987 Martin became an Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast at CBS. In 1988 he became a Producer for Beauty and the Beast, then in 1989 moved up to Co-Supervising Producer. He was Executive Producer for Doorways, a pilot which he wrote for Columbia Pictures Television, which was filmed during 1992-93.

Martin's present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (he was South-Central Regional Director 1977-1979, and Vice President 1996-1998), and of Writers' Guild of America, West.
Return to Index

Guy Lillian

Guy Lillian got into fandom at 12, by writing a letter to THE FLASH, a comic book edited by the legendary science fiction fan and agent, Julius Schwartz. Little did he dream that that letter would lead him to friendship with Schwartz, a year working at DC, forty years of doing fanzines, three terms as President of the Southern Fandom Confederation, three tours of duty as Official Editor of the Southern Fandom Press Alliance, the opportuntiy to edit two worldcon program books, five stints as Fan Guest of Honor at various SF conventions, a trip to Australia as a Down Under Fan Fund (DUFF) delegate, eleven Hugo nominations, including nine for his genzine, CHALLENGER, and marriage to the most beautiful and wonderful person in the world, Rose-Marie Green, whom he met at the 1976 worldcon and who held his hand on the Australia flight as his fellow DUFF delegate. She has made bright and beautiful every moment of their life together.

An attorney for 19 years, he loves serving the people of northwest Louisiana as a public defender, but still looks forward to getting high at Denvention 3, his 19th World Science Fiction Convention.
Return to Index

Helen E. Gbala

Helen E. Gbala is a librarian and giver of Awards for Children's Science Fiction (Golden Duck Awards for Excellence in Children's Science Fiction) . . . not a writer. She has a BA, MLS and MBA. She was born in Washington State and received her Master degrees from the University of Minnesota. She is on panels about libraries and the Golden Duck awards. All of her jobs have been library related. She’s worked in all types of libraries, plus for three library automation vendors. Also, she’s raised four children, two boys (step) and two girls (hers), and now has several grandchildren. She’s also lived and traveled overseas. Her current husband brought her into science fiction on their first date.
Return to Index

Jed Hartman

Jed Hartman is a fiction editor for Strange Horizons . His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Clean Sheets, Wet, Strange Horizons, Flytrap, Fishnet, and All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories. For more about him (or to read his blog), see his website: http://www.kith.org/logos.
Return to Index

Jeff Carlson

Jeff Carlson is the author of the internationally acclaimed sci fi thrillers Plague Year and Plague War, hailed by New York Times bestselling author James Rollins as "Harrowing, heartfelt, and rock-hard realistic. Not to be missed." Jeff's short stories and nonfiction have appeared in top publications such as Asimov's, Boys' Life, and Writers of the Future XXIII. To date, his work has been translated into six foreign languages. Plague Year is also available as an audiobook on CD from Recorded Books. Readers can find free fiction and more on his web site at www.jverse.com, where he welcomes correspondence.
Return to Index

Jim Mann

Jim Mann has a been reading SF for forty years and got into fandom in 1975. He's also an editor for NESFA Press, where he has edited volumes of the works of Cordwainer Smith, John W. Campbell, William Tenn, James Blish, and others.

As a fan, he has been a division head at a number of Worldcons (including co-running program with his wife Laurie at the 2001 Worldcon in Philadalphia). This year he is running Program Ops for Denvention3.

He has been married to Laurie for 31 years (they got married 3 days before Star Wars opened) and has one daughter, Leslie (27). He used to be a technical writer and is now a manager for a very large high tech company.
Return to Index

Joe Pearce

Joe Pearce has been a professional programmer for 22 years and in 1991 was co-founder of The Dreamers Guild, developers of the award-winning adventure game I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream based on the Harlan Ellison short-story. Joe has been involved in the development of over 30 products, on over 10 different computer platforms, and in roles as varied as designer, producer, writer and technical director.

Joe is currently the co-author of the webcomic Inherit the Earth (http://www.InheritTheEarth.net) and the visual reasoning software Flying Logic (http://flyinglogic.com).

He calls Costa Mesa, CA his home and likes to take long walks and play poker when not programming (although not at the same time).
Return to Index

Kate Paulk

Kate Paulk pretends to be a mild mannered software quality analyst by day. Her true evil author nature comes through for the short time between finishing with the day job and falling over. She lives in semi-rural Pennsylvania with her husband, two bossy cats, and her imagination. This isn't necessarily a good thing.

Paulk was born in Australia, but has spent the past 5 years or so in the US. She has two undergrad degrees and one post-grad. Technically speaking, she's qualified to be a geologist, teacher, and software engineer. Why she's in QA instead mystifies her, but she's not complaining.

Paulk's been dubbed by some as "that mad Aussie woman." All because she drove 1,500 miles on an untreated broken right ankle. When her leg ballooned and demonstrated every possible color of "bruise" she figured it must be more than a sprain. "And we don't need to dwell on my other colorful exploits--being a 'mad Aussie', I'll save that for a more appropriate time. In my family that's dinnertime."

Writing's been a part of Paulk's life all along. She says, "Not writing would be like not breathing." She discovered SF and F in her teens, and realized she was home. Her latest short story sale "Night Shifted" is in DAW's anthology, Better Off Undead.
Return to Index

Leigh Ann Hildebrand

Leigh Ann Hildebrand is not just a costumer and Regency dancer, oh no! A Georgian by birth and Californian by choice, Leigh Ann is also a second generation feminist, mother, meatatarian, student, theologian and myth theorist. In the past, her roles have included sex educator, professional dressmaker for debutantes, leather travel agent, customer service goddess, First Runner Up Miss MOC Bimbo, and Stonewall 25 State Co-chair. She even co-wrote a gaming supplement, Pax Dei, a sourcebook on medieval theology for the RPG Ars Magica. Her other published works are just for grown ups with err, special interests. These days she keeps busy as a elections inspector and public transit geek. She's also an Erisian force for chaos, conversational provocateuse and a charmingly robust drinking companion. At cons like Denvention, you can find her plying exactly those skills in the Fanzine Lounge.
Return to Index

Laurie Mann

Laurie Mann has been helping to run conventions since 1975. She's worked on Boskones, Confluences and Worldcons, and has run Registration, Programming, Press Relations, and, for Denvention 3, the Hugo Awards Ceremony and the Denvention website. She plans to take a fanac sabatical for the next year. She will continue running various websites, such as Dead People Server, AwardWeb and the Programming Brain Trust. She's been married to Jim for a long time; they live in suburban Pittsburgh.