Jack is a former English teacher, naval officer, Philadelphia taxi driver, customs officer, and motivational trainer.
With the nomination of Echo, his work has been on the final Nebula ballot nine of the last ten years. He won the award in 2007 for Seeker. His first novel, The Hercules Text, was published in the celebrated Ace Specials series, and won the Philip K. Dick Special Award.
In 1991, he received the first $10,000 UPC International Prize for his novella "Ships in the Night."
The Engines of God was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and his novella "Time Travelers Never Die" was nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula.
Omega received the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best SF novel, 2003.
McDevitt's novels frequently raise questions which he does not attempt to answer. He prefers to leave ambiguities to puzzle and intrigue his readers: "Some things are best left to the reader's very able imagination."
McDevitt lives in Georgia with his wife Maureen, where he plays chess, reads mysteries, and eats lunch regularly with his cronies.
Raymond Swanland is a freelance illustrator who began his career working on the Oddworld Inhabitants series of video games and has created artwork for Magic: The Gathering, World of Warcraft, Aliens vs. Predator, ImagineFX, Disturbed, many sci-fi/fantasy novels, and more. He won a Spectrum award in 2004 and the David Gemmel Legend Award in 2012. His recent work includes a series of covers for Games Worshop's Warhammer 40,000 and the marketing artwork for the DC Comics animated movie, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.
Jon Schindehette has been the Senior Creative Director for Dungeons & Dragons, with Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro since 2007. He has provided art direction, graphic design, and management of various art-related teams producing material used in products brought to market. He has received numerous awards for his work in publishing, gaming, and marketing. He has worked as an illustrator, potter, photographer, graphic designer, 3d modeler and animator, art director and creative director. He is dedicated to mentoring young artists, and growing the creative community. And yet finds time to enjoy Motorcycling and Blacksmithing.
Jon was honored with the 2010 Chesley award for Best Art Director. As well he was asked to serve on this years esteemed jury panel for the 2012 artist selection process as part of IlluXcon. And more recently His participation was requested in the jury for the upcoming Spectrum 19 art selection process.
Nancy Louise Freeman was born in Tacoma, Washington, at a time in history when the Pacific Northwest was known primarily for rain and geoducks. She worked briefly as a pickle-sorter and later as host of a world beat radio show on a 10-watt college station before world beat music existed.
She moved to Arizona in the mid-80's, where she met Elizabeth Burnham – thanks to a zine Nan had edited titled Don't Crush That Elf, Hand Me the Filksongs – just as Elizabeth was beginning to organize housefilks in the Phoenix area. During this time Nan also committed several low-budget Doctor Who musicals to videotape; they remain excellent blackmail material to this day.
Nan has four albums out; Anchored to the Wind, Logick, and Blues For Dumuzi, the latter produced by Jeff Bohnhoff and also features Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff and Debbie Baudoin. In 1999, Nan completed her "fantasy novel in song", the folk opera Stardust County, which premiered to a packed house at Fiddler's Dream Coffee House in Phoenix.
Not one to stick to a single musical style, Nan has earned distinction on the filk circuit for her blues stylings and dry wit. Comfortable performing for both fannish and non-fannish audiences, she is recognized by the Arizona acoustic community as one of the best songwriters in the state.
By day she works as a systems engineer. In her spare time she volunteers with FIRST Robotics and Project Linus, and works on her goal to run a marathon on each of the 7 continents. She lives in Mesa with three cats and a mortgage.
