Panelist and Participants
To see a list of our panels in progress click here
More panelists will be annonced shortly
Eric Bilodeau
Eric Bilodeau is an independant director/Producer specialized in digital cinematography and visual effects. He is also a full time teacher at ATM Television at Jonquiere’s College. He teaches special effects shooting / lighting and editing / compositing with Smoke / Flame, After Effects and Nuke. Eric has produced numerous short films and one feature lenght film that have been selected in various film festivals in Canada and around the globe. He also worked on many independant and commercial films as either director of photography, editor, Visual effect artist, art director or technical consultant within the last 10 years.
Marie Bilodeau
Marie Bilodeau loves to make things up, which is why she's both a performing storyteller and author. She's performed in bars, pubs and tea shops across Canada, telling modernized fairy tales, discombobulated myths, and stories about that time she went lock-picking in a convent. To breathe new life into her tales and to expand her audience, she's also translated some of her stories into podcasts. Her published works include a fantasy trilogy, the Heirs of a Broken Land series, and a space fantasy novel, Destiny's Blood. Her short fiction has also appeared in several anthologies and magazines. For more information on Marie and to follow her latest endeavors, go to www.mariebilodeau.com.
Rebecca J. Blain
Rebecca J. Blain is a fantasy and science fiction writer with one published short story. When she is not busy writing of other worlds and far-off places, she works as a non-fiction author and editor. Her first love is the epic fantasy with the classic space opera coming in a close second. She is an avid supporter of National Novel Writing Month and spreading the art of fiction
writing to anyone wishing to learn how to write.
Keith Braithwaite
Keith Braithwaite, a life-long sci-fi fan with a passion for 1950s-era movies, has been involved with MonSFFA, the Montreal SF&F
Association for over 20 years, serving variously as the organization's president, vice-president (currently), treasurer, fanzine editor, and news bulletin editor (currently). He is writer/director of the club's popular fan-film shorts, which include the award-winning Plant 9 From Outer Space (1996), Beavra (2003), and MooseMan (2004). Ask him about the films of Ray Harryhausen!
Lena Breijer
Lena Breijer has been a fibre artist and costumer for many years. She started as a historical (SCA) costumer and when her sister dragged her to a convention back in '87 she won "best in show", much to her sister's annoyance. She spent several years making costumes for the "Short order Opera Company" In Nova Scotia. The last few years her daughter has gotten her into making interesting corsets. Lena also makes dolls (AKA Fibre sculptures) which can be seen on her website www.lena-arts.ca
Rupert Bottenberg
The music editor at the /Montreal Mirror/ newsweekly, Rupert Bottenberg (lostmyths.net/rupert) has also written for /Vice/ magazine and the /National Post/ newspaper, among others. A devoted comics artist and enthusiast, he has created strips for
anthologies in the US, Canada, and Europe, founded the Montreal Comic Jam events, served as comics correspondent on CBC Radio's /Brave New Waves/ show, and overseen comics-related events for several Montreal festivals, including the
Fantasia genre-film festival, with which he has worked since its inception in 1996. He is currently co-director with Jason Botkin of the En Masse (www.enmasse.info) art initiative. In 2009, Bottenberg provided the interior illustrations for Claude Lalumière's story collection, /Objects of Worship/, with whom he also co-created Lost Myths (lostmyths.net).
Erik Buchanan
Erik Buchanan is a professional writer and the author of Small Magics (2007)and Cold Magics (2010), both published by Dragon Moon Press. He started writing in grade three and refuses to say how many years passed between then and his first novel being published because he likes to maintain his illusions about his youth. Along the way, he did have time to get a degree in theatre, earn two black belts, hitchhike in England, move across the country, spend 13 years working as a
professional actor and fight director, and have a beautiful daughter.
Jean-Philippe Cardin
Jean-Philippe Cardin has been a Fan from his very early years, having spent his youth reading and watching science fiction in all possible media. At 16, he discovered that he was not alone were sharing his passion when he joined an e-mail role-playing club, which allowed him to develop a talent for writing. Later, he dabbled in LARPs, such a Bélénos and Mythes et Légendes de Béliandre, and discovered the pleasure of interacting face to face with other Scifi and Fantasy geeks. All this and his move to the Greater Montreal area have lead him to join the convention circuit, where he is currently co-chair of Con*Cept..
Peter Cohen
A familiar face at Concept, Peter Cohen is infamous for being our resident pornographer, though in truth his 'R' rated material more properly fits the definition of fetish erotica. Peter has published over 300 photo stories, and produced nearly 100 hours of 'soap opera' quality video. Peter has a studied interest in several fields ranging the gamut from economics to physics. He has also spent decades in the study of various martial arts and martial philosophy. He is opinionated, but will not tend to hold an opinion on a subject unless he has read at least a few text books about it.
Karen Dales
Karen Dales is the Author of The Chosen Chronicles which includes Changeling: Prelude to the Chosen and Angel of Death: Book One of the Chosen. She has been an Author Guestat Polaris23 and Polaris24, an Author Guest at AdAstra2010, a
Special Guest at Can-Con and an Author Guest at FanExpo 2009 and 2010. Karen is married, has one son and two cats, and
lives in Toronto, Canada. Currently she is at work writing the next novel in the series, Shadow of Death: Book Two of the Chosen. Visit her website at: www.thechosenchronicles.com
Lloyd Deane
In this universe, Lloyd Deane is an independent filmmaker currently residing in Ottawa. Lloyd is a graduate of the University of Waterloo, where he studied environmental issues and economics. Environmental concerns have steered his career and volunteer interests, and are reflected in his first film, M-Theory.
François Desharnais
An author since childhood, François has always been a participant or leaderin theatre, role-playing games, text editing, and multi-media productions. He has an impressivelist of credits for amateur productions in all these fields. François is currently working onhis master's degree in comperative Canadian literature at the University of Sherbrooke.
Glenn Grant
Glenn Grant's story "Burning Day" was reprinted in the Hartwell/Cramer Year's Best SF 10 and selected for the 2005 Tiptree Award's Long List of Recommended Fiction. Glenn's stories have appeared in Interzone, Northern Stars, ArrowDreams, Island Dreams: Montreal Writers of the Fantastic, and (in French) in Solaris. With David G. Hartwell, he co-edited Northern Stars:
The Anthology of Canadian Science Fiction and a second volume, Northern Suns. He has been nominated for the Aurora Award for his editing and for his illustrations. Born in London, Ontario, he now lives in Montreal. At the Burning Man festival his name is "Science," and he is one of two Montreal Regional Contacts for the Burning Man organization.
Nancy Kilpatrick
Award-winning author Nancy Kilpatrick has published 18 novels, 200 short stories, 5 collections, 1 non-fiction book, and she has edited 10 anthologies, including the recent and mega popular EVOLVE: VAMPIRE STORIES OF THE NEW UNDEAD. She is author of the newly released graphic novel NANCY KILPATRICK'S VAMPYRE THEATER. She is currently working on 2 new novels and is editing another anthology of vampire stories. www.nancykilpatrick.com
Claude Lalumière
Claude Lalumière (lostmyths.net/claude) is the author of the story collection /Objects of Worship/ and the chapbook /The World's Forgotten Boy and the Scorpions from Hell/. He has edited eight anthologies, including the Aurora Award finalist /Tesseracts Twelve: New Novellas of Canadian Fantastic Fiction/. He has published hundreds of articles and reviews, and he's the Fantastic Fiction columnist for /The Montreal Gazette/. In the 1990s, Claude owned and managed two Montreal bookshops, danger! and Nebula. With Rupert Bottenberg, he?s the co-creator of Lost Myths (lostmyths.net).
Derwin Mak
Derwin Mak co-edited, with Eric Choi, The Dragon and the Stars, the first anthology of science fiction and fantasy written by ethnic Chinese outside China (DAW, 2010). His story “Transubstantiation” won the 2006 Prix Aurora Award in the category of Best Short Form Work in English. His novel The Moon Under Her Feet was a finalist for a 2008 Prix Aurora Award, and its
sequel The Shrine of the Siren Stone was published in 2010.
Violette Malan
Violette Malan lives in a nineteenth-century farmhouse in southeastern Ontario with her husband. Born in Canada, Violette's cultural background is Spanish and Polish, which can make things interesting in the kitchen. She has worked as a teacher of creative writing, English as a second language, Spanish, beginner's French, and choreography for strippers. On occasion she's been an administrative assistant and a carpenter's helper. Her most unusual job, if you don't count writing fantasy novels, was translating letters between lovers, one of whom spoke only English, the other only Spanish.
Visit Violette on Facebook, or on her website: www.violettemalan.com
Howard Picaizen
Howard has been a huge fan of scifi television and movies since he was first introduced to Star Wars back in 1977. His favorite shows are Doctor Who, Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Stargate SG-1. He joined the fandom community in the early 1990s, taking an active role in the local Montreal clubs 'The High Council of Gallifrey' and 'Warp 9'. He participated in panels at Toronto Trek 11 and 12, and after a 10 year absence, at Polaris 22, 24 and Con*Cept 2008, 2009. Apart from earning a living as a Unix Systems Administrator and spending time with his family, Howard is also currently the head of programming for the Con*Cept 2010 convention in Montreal. (And somehow also finds time to read Marvel and DC comics on a weekly basis!)
Chris 'Feli' Pilgrim
Chris 'Feli' Pilgrim is the current chairperson for What The Fur, a furry convention in Montreal, and has been a long time convention staffer for both furry and sci-fi conventions.
Mark Shainblum
Mark Shainblum is a Montreal-based science fiction, fantasy and comic book writer. His prose stories have appeared in magazines like On Spec, Would That It Were, Thousand Faces and the anthology Island Dreams: Montreal Writers of the
Fantastic. With John Dupuis, he co-edited the Aurora Award-winning alternate history anthology Arrowdeams, published in 1998. In comics he’s known as the writer and co-creator of Angloman, a parody series published in two bestselling books,
and later as a weekly comic strip in the Montreal Gazette. Mark also wrote and co-created the indy superhero series Northguard. In the real world, he’s Research Communications Officer at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, husband to
Andrea, and daddy to Maya. Mark’s website: www.northguard.com/mbs.
Barbara Silverman
I am a writer of current wildlife, prehistoric and ancient cultures dealing with sky lore and animal mythology, with a bit of fan fiction writing. Within the historic area I often write on the true meaning of words used in science fiction, such as Abydos and Unas from Stargate. My writing is educational and fun to read, aimed at the average person.
My web site: www.barbarasilverman.ca
David Stephenson
David Stephenson is a space physicist who came to Canada in 1970 and studied the aurora and winds in the high atmosphere
at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1979 he moved to Germany to build systems for a deep space probe. When the project was cancelled he spent a year as a consultant to Lloyd's space insurance in London before returning to join the Geological
Survey of Canada. When the government sent his file to the 'downsized drawer' in 1996 he moved to the village of Merrickville near Ottawa. He worked occasionally for a start up..Oops,collapse...and start up again hi-tech company in Ottawa until 2009. His publications include twenty reviewed papers, commentaries in the Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, various articles and
reports and the 'Ulysses Speaks' satirical column in "Canadian Research." He has been a guest panelist and lecturer at science fiction conventions for over 25 years. Examples of his previous presentations can be viewed at: www.ncf.ca/~ah728
Rob St-Martin
Montreal author Rob St-Martin has published several short stories, articles, book reviews and eight novels, including his most recent, Sunset Val-Pirate Queen of the Seven Skies, a steampunk adventure of airship piracy. Further information can be found on his website, www.talyesin.com
Jo Walton
Jo Walton won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 2002. She is the author of two poetry collections and nine fantasy andscience fiction novels, including FARTHING, the World Fantasy Award winning TOOTH AND CLAW, the Mythopoeic Award winning LIFELODE and theforthcoming AMONG OTHERS. She comes from Wales but has lived in Montreal since 2002.
