Missoula's Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention

MisCon 38: the Dark Forest, May 24 - 27, 2024 Missoula, Montana

Writing Guests, Pros, and Panelists

MisCon 38

These panels include everything related to writing. Most of the time famous authors are the ones talking,l giving you tips on how to get published. They discuss craft, the publishing business, etc. They include MisCon's Writers' Workshop.

Lynn Bailey
Lynn Bailey

Lynn, or Lil Snik Snak graduated with a major in Costume Design and Technology. She often jokes that costuming is her only life skill but also has hobbies in poetry, history, fashion, and performing. Snak proudly invites everyone to follow and join Zootown Tea and Missoula Cosplayers to get in on the Missoula costuming scene! For more details or to ask questions about cosplay feel free to ask her in person at Miscon!

About Lynn Bailey

Carol Berg
Carol Berg

Former software engineer Carol Berg (aka Cate Glass) never expected to become an award-winning author. But her seventeen epic fantasy novels have won national and international awards, including multiple Colorado Book Awards and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. She’s taught writing in the US and Canada and received reader mail from the slopes of Denali and beneath the Mediterranean. All amazing for one who majored in math and computer science to avoid writing papers. Her newest novels are Cate Glass’s fantasy adventure Chimera novels from Tor Books, most recently A Conjuring of Assassins. Carol/Cate lives in Colorado at the foot of the Rockies, and on the internet at www.carolberg.com.

About Carol Berg

LJ Bonham
LJ Bonham

LJ Bonham is a freelance author, novelist, publisher, magazine editor and publisher, and film producer who lives in the northern Rocky Mountains. Credits include: Sector 21, Shield of Honor, The Debt, Wolves of Valhalla, numerous short stories, and many non-fiction articles.

About LJ Bonham

M. H. Bonham
M. H. Bonham

M. H. (Maggie) Bonham is an award-winning author and editor of more than 35 books and thousands of short pieces. She is the publisher of Sky Warrior Book Publishing LLC. She is also the author of the bestselling novels Prophecy of Swords, Lachlei, and Howling Dead.

About M. H. Bonham

Brenda Carre
Brenda Carre

Brenda Carre writes stories with heart that stretch the imagination into the realm of the romantic, the weird and the funny. She has over 40 published works of short fiction. Some can be found in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Pulp Literature Magazine, Fiction River Anthologies, and elsewhere. Her debut adventure fantasy Gret of Roon launches in Fall 2023. sign up for Brenda's newsletter here at www.brendacarre.com or follow her author page on facebook here https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086982381547

About Brenda Carre

Katie Cross
Katie Cross

Katie Cross grew up in the mountains of Idaho, where she still loves to play when she gets the chance.

Her mission is connect women with their best selves, to seek the divine in each one of us, and to prove that we can love ourselves—and accomplish all—despite opposition.

If she's not writing, you can find her traveling, adventuring with her kiddos, trail running with her husband and vizla dogs, or curled up with a good book and a cup of chai.

About Katie Cross

Jayel Draco

Jayel Draco (he/they) is a multi-disciplinary visual artist and storyteller. Along with Lynsey G, he is the co-founder of Oneshi Press. As the co-creator of the epic sci-fi-fantasy series Children of Gaia (COG), he wrote and illustrated COG: The Great Nations of Rendaraia and co-illustrated COG: War & Horses. He has also worked on several short COG comics, with many more COG projects lined up. He’s the co-creator and illustrator of both Tracy Queen and PACK, two comic book series written by Lynsey G. He is the writer, designer, and lead illustrator of the zom-com caper comic book Mr. Guy: Zombie Hunter.

About Jayel Draco

Deby Fredericks
Deby Fredericks

Deby Fredericks has been a writer all her life, but thought of it as just a hobby until the late 1990s. Her first sale, a children's poem, came in 2000. Since then she has published six fantasy novels, two YA novels, short stories and poetry in magazines and independent publishers. Her current project is a fantasy novella series, Minstrels of Skaythe.

Find out more on her blog, wyrmflight.wordpress.com or her web site, debyfredericks.com

About Deby Fredericks

Manny Frishberg
Manny Frishberg

Manny Frishberg has been making up stories since he first stared out a window. He spent the first half of his life learning how to write them and the second half learning what to write about, He is now spending the third half of his life making up stories, just like when he was eight years old.

About Manny Frishberg

Julie Frost

Julie Frost is an award-winning author of every shade of speculative fiction. She lives in Utah with her family--six guinea pigs, three humans, a tripod calico cat, and a "kitten" who thinks she's a warrior princess--and a collection of anteaters and Oaxacan carvings, some of which intersect. She enjoys birding and nature photography, which also intersect. Her short fiction has appeared in Monster Hunter Files, Writers of the Future, The District of Wonders, StoryHack, Unlikely Story, Stupefying Stories, and many other venues. Her novel series, "Pack Dynamics," is published by WordFire Press. She whines about writing, a lot, at http://agilebrit.livejournal.com/

About Julie Frost

David Gerrold
David Gerrold

David Gerrold is the author of over 50 books, hundreds of articles and columns, and over a dozen television episodes. He is a classic sci-fi writer that will go down in history as having created some of the most popular and redefining scripts, books, and short stories in the genre.

TV credits include episodes from Star Trek ("The Trouble With Tribbles" and "The Cloud Minders"), Star Trek Animated ("More Tribbles, More Troubles" and "Bem"), Babylon 5, Twilight Zone, Land Of The Lost, and Logan's Run.

He has won both Hugo and Nebula awards for his fiction.

About David Gerrold

James Glass
James Glass

Jim won the Golden pen award of wotf in 1991, has published ten novels and over sixty stories in magazines and anthologies. He is a retired physics professor and dean. His most recent novel, SYNTHS, came out in November of 2018.

About James Glass

Lynsey Griswold

Lynsey G is an award-winning writerly type with publications ranging from mainstream journalism (Rolling Stone, Playboy, Glamour) to indie comics (Tracy Queen, PACK) to fiction (Dwayne, Monkey Maids), nonfiction (Watching Porn), and beyond. She is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Oneshi Press, a seasoned editor for Big 5 publishers, a double Aquarius, a druid, and a veggiesaurus.

About Lynsey Griswold

Jeff Grubb
Jeff Grubb

Jeff Grubb is an author of novels, short stories, comics, and is an RPG and video game designer. Grubb worked on the Dragonlance campaign setting under Tracy Hickman, and the Forgotten Realms setting with Ed Greenwood. His written works include The Finder's Stone Trilogy, the Spelljammer and Jakandor campaign settings and contributions to Dragonlance and the computer game Guild Wars 2. He now works at Amazon Game Studios.

About Jeff Grubb

Valerie Guyant

Valerie Guyant is an Associate Professor at Montana State University Northern where she teaches a broad range of courses ranging from World Cinema to Harry Potter to Serial killers in popular culture. Her research interests include vampires, monsters, murder, mayhem, Victorian mores, fairy tales, and numerous popular culture touchstones. Her most recent two articles are on the Twilight Zone series and Shakespeare's use of folktales in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

About Valerie Guyant

Rhiannon Held
Rhiannon Held

Rhiannon Held writes urban fantasy, along with space opera and weird western (as R. Z. Held). She lives in Seattle, where she works as an archaeologist for an environmental compliance firm. At work, she mostly uses her degree for copy-editing technical reports; in writing, she uses it for cultural world-building; in public, she'll probably use it to check the mold seams on the wine bottle at dinner.

About Rhiannon Held

Michael Hodges
Michael Hodges

“Michael Hodges is a novelist and internet personality. He’s reached 70 million people on Meta platforms since July 2022, eclipsing most TV shows in annual viewership. His nature thriller “The Puller” was optioned for film by legendary movie producer Sonny Mallhi.”

About Michael Hodges

Andrea Howe
Andrea Howe

Andrea Howe has been a professional editor since 1997, starting on her college newspaper. Since then, she has worked on hundreds of projects including novels, newsletters, textbooks, corporate documents, and children's books. Notable texts include several Dragonlance novels and Brian Rathbone's Dawning of Power series. She's happy to be back at MisCon after a pandemic-induced absence. If you see her in the halls, feel free to say hi.

About Andrea Howe

Paul Jenkins
Paul Jenkins

Paul Jenkins is a British born comic writer who lives in Atlanta, GA. He began his career at Mirage Studios working on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Jenkins has written some of the biggest characters for Marvel and DC Comics, including Spider-Man, Batman, Incredible Hulk, Wolverine, and Hellblazer. He is best known for reviving The Inhumans as part of Marvel Knights and creating the Sentry for Marvel Comics. He also writes for video games on hits like The Darkness, Incredible Hulk, and God of War.

About Paul Jenkins

GS Jennsen

G. S. JENNSEN lives in Montana with her husband and two dogs. She has become an internationally bestselling author since her first novel, Starshine, was published in 2014.
While she has been a lawyer, a software engineer and an editor, she’s found the life of a full-time author preferable by several orders of magnitude. When she isn’t writing, she’s gaming or working out or getting lost in the mountains that loom large outside the windows in her home.

About GS Jennsen

Frog Jones
Frog Jones

Frog Jones is the acquisitions editor of Impulsive Walrus books and the co-author of the Gift of Grace series, recently a featured project on the front page of Kickstarter. He has appeared in several anthologies and edited two, both published by Impulsive Walrus Books. He and his wife have been named a "Hidden Gem" by fantasybookreview.uk, and they're looking to become a little less hidden.

About Frog Jones

Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Over the past four decades, Nebula and Stoker Award-winning writer Nina Kiriki Hoffman has sold novels, novellas, and more than 400 short stories. Her works have been finalists for the World Fantasy, Mythopoeic, Sturgeon, Philip K. Dick, and Endeavour awards.

Nina does production work for the The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. She teaches fantasy, science fiction, and horror short story classes through Wordcrafters in Eugene and Fairfield County Writers' Studio. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, with two cats and a mannequin.

For a list of Nina's publications, check out: http://ofearna.us/books/hoffman.html.

About Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Sanan Kolva
Sanan Kolva

Sanan Kolva is a technical editor by day, and writer of epic and steampunk fantasy the rest of the time. She is the author of The Chosen of the Spear series and The Silverline Chronicles, and her short fiction appears in a number of anthologies. When not writing, she enjoys baking and decorating cakes. She can be found at http://sanankolva.com.

About Sanan Kolva

Tod McCoy
Tod McCoy

Tod McCoy is a Seattle-based writer whose work has appeared in Asimov’s, Starward Tales II, The People’s Apocalypse, and Bronies: For the Love of Ponies. A Clarion West graduate and current board member, he’s the publisher behind Hydra House Books, which publishes Pacific Northwest fantasy and science fiction.

About Tod McCoy

Danith McPherson
Danith McPherson

Danith McPherson is often distracted from her writing by snowshoeing, kayaking, and star gazing. In keeping with her Scottish heritage, she is a kilt maker, and proudly wears McPherson tartan, especially at science fiction and fantasy conventions.

Her novels include the YA fantasy Blade of Mad Vision, adult fantasy Monarch of Lightning, and mystery novel Averted Vision. Her stories have appeared in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Amazing Stories, Revolution SF, & other places. Some of them are collected in Roar at the Universe. A second book of short stories, Through the Wall, will be out soon.

She's a member of the Science Fiction Writers

About Danith McPherson

D.L. Solum
D.L. Solum

D.L. Solum - I'm the author of the upcoming series: Persephone - A Tale of Darker Seattle.

I currently live in Seattle but will always be from Butte, Montana. I'm a lifelong collector of odd friends and odder hobbies, including – armoured medieval combat, fishing, hunting and computer games.

I run the South Seattle Fiction Writers Online group and am intermediate-level competent with the Scrivener program.

This latest obsession with writing Epic-Urban Fantasy is made possible via the encouragement and tolerance of my life-partner, Kate.

About D.L. Solum

Patrick Swenson
Patrick Swenson

Patrick Swenson edited Talebones magazine for 14 years, and he still runs Fairwood Press, a book line, which began in 2000. A graduate of Clarion West, his first novel The Ultra Thin Man appeared from Tor. The sequel is The Ultra Big Sleep. He has sold stories to the anthology Unfettered III, Like Water for Quarks, and magazines such as Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, Figment, and others. He runs the Rainforest Writers Village retreat every spring at Lake Quinault, Washington. He's been a high school teacher for 35 years. He lives in Bonney Lake, Washington with his son Orion.

About Patrick Swenson

G.R. Theron

G.R. Theron is a Pacific Northwest based author and member of the Mythopoeic Society. He graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Ancient History and Classical Studies. His first short story, The Murder of Derek Volynsky, found in Well It’s your Cow: An Anecdotal Anthology by Impulsive Walrus Press, 2018. His short story, Blood and Ashes, was a 2021 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award Finalist. He is the co-author of the Tales from the Cockerel’s Fist, a comic coming in 2022.

He cherishes the best writing advice he ever received from his grandfather; the truth should never get in the way of a good story.

About G.R. Theron

Krista Wallace
Krista Wallace

Krista is a fantasy writer, musician, audiobook narrator, actor, podcaster, mother, Gran, lover of pie, dark chocolate, and fine single malt scotch. She hails from Port Coquitlam, BC, where she writes and records in a closet, and sings with the big band FAT Jazz, or her duo, the Itty Bitty Big Band. She is the author of the Gatekeeper fantasy series, Griffin and the Spurious Correlations, and short stories in Pulp Literature, Heart's Kiss, electricspec, and 49th Parallels. She can often be heard humming a tune, or tap dancing. Learn more at kristawallace.com.

About Krista Wallace

Dean Wells
Dean Wells

Dean Wells is an author, educator, and workshop leader. His published work has appeared in Queer Sci Fi, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 10Flash Quarterly, and other fine venues of speculative fiction, including the anthologies Ink, Ceaseless Steam, and The Best of BCS. He has also written for the performing arts in various media, and is an active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Dean and his wife live in the Pacific Northwest with a cat, rabbits, mountain beavers, and a socially indifferent family of raccoons.

About Dean Wells

Jim Wright
Jim Wright

Jim Wright is a retired US Navy Chief Warrant Officer and freelance writer. He lives in Floridaa where he watches American politics in a perpetual state of amused disgust. He's been called the Tool of Satan, but he prefers the title: Satan's Designated Driver. He is the mind behind Stonekettle Station. You can follow him on Twitter @stonekettle, or you can join the boisterous bunch he hosts on Facebook at Facebook/Stonekettle. Remember to bring brownies and mind the white cat, he bites. Hard.

About Jim Wright