Program Participant Biographies, Continued

P. C. Hodgell

Fantasy writer P. C. Hodgell, (aka Patricia "Pat" Christine) Hodgell was born in Des Moines into a family of professional artists. She completed her PhD in 19th Century English Literature at the University of Minnesota where she co-produced an audio-cassette based course on science fiction and fantasy which is still available for credit. She has for years taught English literature, composition, and creative writing at the University of Wisconsin. She retired in 2006 in order to devote her time to her writing career.

She lives in the home where she grew up, surrounded a collection of four cats, twenty-five fish, a horse, yarns, knitting, stained glass, and family relics which include assorted cremains.

In addition to numerous short stories she writes the God Stalker Chronicles, the latest volume of which is due to be turned in to the publisher next spring. Library Journal's review of To Ride a Rathorn, (2006) called her lead character, Jame, a "fearless, haunted, and fascinating heroine with a penchant for trouble and a knack for survival." The first two volumes are due to be reissued in hardcover around Christmas, by her new publisher, Baen, with more to follow.
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C. F. Yankovich

Those who have been in fandom for a decade or two may have run into C. F. Yankovich volunteering or on a panel at one of the Phoenix area SF cons. She's even been seen at a few World Fantasy Conventions east of the Mississippi. At one time, her artwork appeared sporadically in publications such as Analog and MZB Magazine. However, for the past few years, she has focused on writing.

If you've ever read something written by C. F. Yankovich, you're probably either an aviation enthusiast – or you worked in a dreary room in Arizona, reviewing PDQs, RFPs, and other assorted alphabet soup for the state government. But everyone has dreams, and C. F. aspired to writing SF novels since she discovered "Childhood's Dream" in her high school library. When she finally started, she didn't realize that a decade and five novels pass before a typical author gets published. She's now halfway there and has learned a lot about the journey from "I can write better than that" to seeing one's name on a book cover. Currently she's revising her latest novel, Assassins, a blend of science fiction, suspense, mystery and even romance. Meanwhile, the sequel, Assassins' Children, and an un-named fantasy novel clamor for attention.

When she isn't writing, she renovates a 1914 bungalow and plays with a polydactyl cat named Hoke Bhat (Six Bits).
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Jim Young

Jim Young is a writer, actor, and a former U.S. diplomat with a Ph.D. in history. As a Foreign Service officer, he worked mainly in eastern Europe and Africa, retiring in 2003 as the U.S. Coordinator for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

A native Minnesotan and a long-time science fiction fan, he was one of the founders of the Minnesota Science Fiction Society and created Minicon, the annual Minneapolis regional convention. So far, he's published two novels, the most recent of which is Armed Memory (Tor Books, 1995), and has had several stories published in the magazines over the years.

Trained as an actor as a child, he moved to the Los Angeles area after his retirement from the State Department, and has worked as an extra in numerous films and television programs. He has had small speaking roles in a number of independent films. A short film, "Lost Dolls," in which he played the lead, won the award as best psychological drama in the Hollywood Short Film Festival in 2007. In addition to acting, he enjoys rock music, paleontology, and cultural anthropology.
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Joshua Bilmes

Joshua Bilmes, the Proprietor of JABberwocky Literary Agency, was born and raised in a small New York town 75 miles north of New York City. Little did he know that a family visit to Boston the same weekend as Boskone in 1978 would put him on a path from Omni to Analog and ultimately to his own literary agency. A die-hard fan of baseball and tennis and an avid moviegoer, he received a B.A. in History from the University of Michigan, and while attending college worked part-time summers for Baen Books.

Before establishing JABberwocky, Joshua Bilmes worked for nine years at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency. In his time at Scott Meredith, he not only developed his own client list but worked extensively with such agency clients as Carl Sagan, Harry Kemelman, Norman Mailer, Arthur C. Clarke, Jack Anderson, the Estates of P. G. Wodehouse, and Ellery Queen.

JABberwocky Literary Agency was established by Joshua Bilmes in 1994. The JABberwocky client list has particular strengths in genre fiction. In sf/fantasy, his clients include: Charlaine Harris, Elizabeth Moon, Tanya Huff, Brandon Sanderson, Simon Green, Tobias Buckell, Jack Campbell, and Peter V. Brett.
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Charles N. Brown

Charles N. Brown is publisher & editor-in-chief of 28-time Hugo winner Locus magazine, which he founded in 1968. He was the original book reviewer for Asimov's, has edited several SF anthologies, and written for numerous magazines and newspapers. Also a freelance fiction editor for the past 35 years, many of the books he has edited have won awards. He travels extensively and is invited regularly to appear on writing and editing panels at major SF conventions around the world, is a frequent Guest of Honor and speaker and judge at writers' seminars, and has been a jury member for several of the major SF awards.

Brown was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the City College of New York, took time off to serve in the US Navy, and finished his degree (BS in physics and engineering) at night on the G.I. Bill while working as a junior engineer. He moved to San Francisco in 1972, where he worked as a nuclear engineer until becoming a full-time SF editor in 1975. Oddly enough, he has always lived within a mile or so of Robert Silverberg - in Brooklyn, in Upper New York City, and in Oakland, California, the latter where he and the Locus offices, and his extensive book and magazine collection, have been located since 1973.

Locus was started because the New England Science Fiction Association was bidding for a Worldcon in Boston. It was only supposed to last a year, helping the Boston bid, which had lost in 1967. Explained Brown, "I said I'd edit if the group published and paid for it. Then I found out it was fun. It was also nominated for a Hugo that first full year (in 1970 for 1969), and I liked that, too." (Boston won its 1971 Worldcon bid as well.)

"Everything I do at Locus is predicated on 'SF is important,'" said Brown, "SF isn't about science, it's more about philosophy, writing about important things - who we are, where we're going, what we're doing; the meaning of life."

Check out Locus Online.
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Michael Flynn

Michael Flynn began selling science fiction in 1984, rapidly becoming a mainstay of Analog SF. His stories have also appeared in Asimov's, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Weird Tales, and other venues. Author of nine novels and two story collections, Flynn is best known for the four-book Firestar series, the critically praised The Wreck of the River of Stars, and the Hugo-nominated Eifelheim.

Flynn was born in Easton, PA, and ived in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Denver, and New Jersey before returning to Easton. He got started in SF when his father told him bedtime stories based on the works of Ray Bradbury, Damon Knight, and others. Soon, he and his brother were scribbling their own efforts in spiral notebooks, liberally illustrated with Magic Markers™. Flynn noted, "Over the years, I accumulated a small collection of form rejections – and one two-page rejection from John C. Campbell."

He took a BA and an MS in mathematics, and so far they have not made him give them back. His first publication was an original theorem in general topology. ("Universal Range Spaces and Function Space Topologies," for those who follow such things.) He has worked as a printer's devil, and knows the lost art of letterpress printing. After several years as a quality engineer in industry, he joined STAT-A-MATRIX, Edison, NJ, as a consultant in quality management and applied statistics. He has worked with clients on five continents and in industries ranging from parts manufacturing to nuclear inspections.

The January Dancer, a far future space opera, will be released from Tor in October 2008. A second book in the same universe, Up Jim River, is in the works.

Flynn lives in Easton, PA, with his wife Margie. He has two grown children and three grandchildren whose beauty and intelligence are not to be questioned.
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Michael Kabongo

Michael Kabongo is a literary agent, who got into the industry because a friend was in need. He reads a great deal (occupational hazard) and he estimates he's read at least 4000 novels in his lifetime. He especially admires the works of Lois McMaster Bujold, Dave Freer, and C.E. Murphy.

Michael adores music, noting that Antonin Dvorak is his favorite classical composer, Dr. Dre is near the top of his list for rappers, and Bon Jovi tops his list for rock musicians. His educational background is in psychology and history.

As a career salesman and "geek" Michael "can talk about nearly anything intelligently at length." He also admits that his sense of humor gets him into more trouble than he'd like.
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Jean Lorrah

Jean Lorrah has published over twenty books, several of which have won awards. She teaches writing workshops, and is a frequent international traveler, going to Japan for last year's WorldCon. With Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Jean runs simegen.com, a website dedicated to all aspects of creativity. With Lois Wickstrom, Jean runs www.lochness-monster.com, which not only supports their award-winning series of children's books, but is also one of the most visited and used Nessie sites on the Internet.

Lorrah noted, "I've been writing since earliest childhood, but I first was published while I was in graduate school. I published non-fiction, but could not get my fiction published until I was mentored by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Jacqueline Lichtenberg--connections I made via the early years of Star Trek fandom. Jacqueline and I now pay that help forward through the WorldCrafters Guild, a free writing school we run online."

Lorrah lives in Kentucky with her dog, Kadi Farris ambrov Keon, and her cats, Earl Gray Dudley and his little brother Sir Splotch, who are therapy pets for the local humane society. You can get her latest news at her website.
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Jody Lynn Nye

The eldest of four children, Nye was born in Chicago and has always lived there, apart from college in LA and summer camp in Wisconsin. She graduated from Loyola University and now lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, with her husband Bill Fawcett, a writer, game designer, and book packager, and two cats, Jeremy and Miles.

Before breaking away from gainful employment to write full time, Jody worked as a file clerk, bookkeeper at a small publishing house, freelance journalist and photographer, accounting assistant and costume maker. For four years, she was on the technical operations staff of a local Chicago television station, WFBN (WGBO), serving the last year as Technical Operations Manager.

Since 1985 she has published 37 books and more than 100 short stories. Said Nye, "I have been writing all my life. I used to tell stories to my three younger brothers, and later to the kids in my summer camp when I was a junior counselor. It doesn't seem to have warped any of them permanently."

Jody also wrote The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern, a non-fiction-style guide to the world of internationally best-selling author Anne McCaffrey's popular world and has collaborated with Anne McCaffrey on four science fiction novels. She co-authored the Visual Guide to Xanth with best-selling fantasy author Piers Anthony, and edited an anthology of humorous stories about mothers in science fiction, fantasy, myth and legend, entitled Don't Forget Your Spacesuit, Dear! She has written seven books with Robert Lynn Asprin, including License Invoked, a contemporary fantasy set in New Orleans, and six set in Asprin's Myth Adventures universe.

Her newest book is An Unexpected Apprentice, first half of a fantasy duology for TOR Books. The second volume is due out in December 2008.
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L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

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 worldwide, and have been translated into German, Polish, Dutch, Czech, Russian, Bulgarian, French, Italian, Spanish, 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.

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 speedy Saluki mix, a regal feline named Guinevere, 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 opera program at Southern Utah University and he continues to create and manage chaos.

In addition to new books in both the Recluce Saga and the Corean Chronicles this year, Tor will publish Imager – the first book of an entirely new fantasy series – in March 2009. Visit his website.
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