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1998
Program Participants |
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Steven R.
Boyett
Treks
Not Taken
 Steve
is the author of Ariel, The Architect of Sleep and The
Gnole (with illustrator Alan Aldridge). His shorter works have
appeared in literary, science fiction and horror magazines, as well as
newspapers and comic books. Most recently he completed the screenplay
for Toy Story 2: Collector's Edition for Pixar/Disney. The
parody Treks Not Taken is due from HarperCollins this summer.
Steve's fiction is known for its irreverence, intelligence, iconoclasm
and other impressive words beginning with the letter I. He
lives in Burbank, California, where he drinks gallons of coffee, types
110 words per minute and waves his arms around a lot. |
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Paul
Cotcher
Star
Trek Modelling How-To Workshop III
Paul is the president of a local Atlanta
chapter of the International Plastic Modeling Society (IPMS). Paul and his
club, the Northmen, are active in scale modeling and the promotion of the hobby.
The Northmen are made up of several different modelers and interests. They
meet weekly to show off their latest projects, discuss techniques and review new
products.
Paul personally has been interested
in science fiction all his life, and while the Star Wars trilogy is his
favorite "universe," he still is very interested in Star Trek.
Paul has been modeling most of his life, with short breaks for his later high
school and college years. He has won awards at every major modeling show
held around the southeast and has won at each of the past three IPMS regional
conventions, including a first place in the Sci-Fi division at the 1997 regionals.
While Paul can argue "treknology" with
you all night, he is more concerned with having fun with the hobby and acknowledges
that Sci-Fi modeling is about being creative and not having a historical benchmark
to judge against.
Ed
Cox
Artist
Showcase
Ed has painted over fifty boxtops for the
Ertl Company's line of Star Wars and Star Trek scale models in the
last two years and recently had his boxtop art on display at the 20-year anniversary
of Star Wars at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
He was recently artist guest of honor at Visions '97 in Chicago and guest artist
at several others this year. He has taught airbrush at night school for
the local board of education and has had "how-to" articles published in airbrush
trade magazines.
Robin
Curtis
An
Hour with Robin Curtis
Robin
came to the Star Trek fold with a difficult task: to pick up the mantle
of Lieutenant Saavik after it had been dropped by Kirstie Alley. This she
did with considerable skill, bringing a grace and understanding to the character,
as she joined with David Marcus (the late Merritt Buttrick) in Star Trek: The
Search for Spock. Robin reprised the role briefly in Star Trek: The
Voyage Home. During The Next Generation's final season, Robin
once more joined the Federation universe, this time as a renegade Romulan, Tallera,
in the two-part episode "The Gambit." More recently, her association with
television science fiction has continued with an appearance in the first season
of Babylon 5 as Kalika, the representative of the League of Non-Aligned
Worlds, and in 20th Century Fox's Space: Above and Beyond.
Away from science fiction, Robin has
appeared in numerous television series, including Dream On, Herman's
Head, Night Court, Macgyver and Johnny Bago.
She also appeared in General Hospital as Carol Pulaski. Her film
credits include Dark Breed, Ghost Story, Ground Zero, No
Man's Land, Unborn II and Hexxed. She also co-starred
in the television films LBJ, Showdown and In Love with an Older
Woman.
In addition to acting, Robin has done
over 75 commercials, including campaigns for American Express, PaineWebber and
International Coffees. Away from the cameras, she enjoys wide-ranging
hobbies which include cooking, gardening, pottery, computer games, travelling,
romance, women's issues and her family.
Peter
David
An
Hour with Peter David
Peter has written nearly two dozen novels
and hundreds of comics books, including The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man,
Star Trek, Aquaman, X-Factor, Sach & Violens,
Soulsearchers & Company, The Atlantis Chronicles, Dreadstar,
Wolverine and The Phantom. Peter has written several popular Star
Trek novels including Q-Squared, Q-in-Law, Vendetta,
A Rock and a Hard Place, The Rift, Imzadi and The Siege,
which have spent a combined six months on the New York Times Bestseller
List. His other novels include Knight Life, Howling Mad, the
Psi-Man and the Photon adventure series and novelizations of Batman
Forever, The Return of Swamp Thing and The Rocketeer.
He has written several episodes of the acclaimed television series Babylon
5 and is screenwriter of the award-winning science fiction film spoof Oblivion.
His television series, Space Cases, was co-written with Bill "Lennier"
Mumy. He also writes a weekly column, "But I Digress..." for the Comics
Buyers Guide. This is Peter's fifth year on TrekTrak.
Leslie
Fish
Star
Trek FilkSing V
If there's one name that's practically
synonymous with "filk" (fandom's own folk music), it's Leslie Fish. Leslie
has written literally hundreds of songs covering almost every subject, from the
space program ("Hope Eyrie"), to Star Trek ("Banned from Argo") to urban
life, history and space fantasy ("Carmen Miranda's Ghost"), as well as writing
music for poems by authors from Rudyard Kipling on up to contemporary fantasy
writers. Leslie is also a fine performer, guitarist and storyteller.
Her professional writing credits include the novel A Dirge for Sabis with
C. J. Cherryh, a number of stories in Cherryh's Merovingen Nights anthology,
and a story in an anthology inspired by one of her songs ("Carmen Miranda's Ghost
Is Haunting Space Station Three"). In addition to being a bard, Leslie is
an anarchist (really) and has worked as everything from a gun-runner to a dominatrix.
Jerry
Garrison
Treks
Not Taken
A local musician and published composer,
this is Jerry's third appearance on TrekTrak. He has been the accompanist
and arranger for several choral groups and his compositions have been performed
by many choral organizations throughout the world. His composition "Keep
Alive the Flame" recently premiered at the Various Voices Musical Festival in
Munich, Germany. Jerry is currently employed as a computer specialist.
Daniel
Greenberg
Star Trek Interactive Gaming
Deep Space Nine: The Verdict
Star
Trek Authors' Showcase
Star
Trek: Voyager: The Verdict
Daniel wrote the interactive screenplay
for the computer game Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, starring members of
the original series. He co-designed Star Control 3 and worked on many other
computer games, like the AD&D game Al Qadim, the Genie's Curse. He's
written dozens of RPG titles for games like Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Wraith, AD&D,
Star Wars and many others. His games, which include the Malkavian
Clanbook, the Giovanni Chronicles: The Last Supper, Children of the Inquisition,
Elysium, Rage Across New York, Digital Web, Umbra, Tatooine Manhunt and Who Watches
the Watchmen have been popular and critical successes, winning the RPGA and the
GAMA/Origins awards. He also writes on technology issues for publications
like the Washington Post and Digital Video magazine.
Harry
Knowles
www.startrek.com
A self-professed "film geek" and movie
fanatic from Austin, Texas, Harry started his movie news site www.aint-it-cool-news.com
in April 1996. Quoted in everything from Variety to The New York
Times, Harry has inspired his own media watch. He rubs shoulders with
an army of anonymous sources in the film industry with code names like Rorschach
and the Brussels Babe -- in actuality, everyone from hairdressers to executive
assistants. They feed the "Ain't It Cool News" with hundreds of industry
tidbits each week: casting decisions, location scouting items, post-production
nightmares and what went down at the test screening -- the kinds of things that
studio executives like to keep secret. "I want to be a journalist, filmmaker
and ruler of the known world," says Harry. "I'm 25. I stuck the shovel
in cyberground and said, 'My foundation is here.' We all start somewhere,
this is where I begin."
Dirk
Loedding
Court-Martial!
Dirk has been an avid Star Trek
fan since he saw his first episode back in the early '70s, shortly after returning
from living in South and Central America. He has been to many conventions,
starting way back in 1981, when he attended the Atlanta Fantasy Fair, and has
been to at least one convention every year since then... and has the badges to
prove it! He's also been a very devoted Babylon 5 fan, since before
the pilot even aired, thanks to the magic of BBSs and Usenet. From 1994
onwards, Dirk has been running a mailing list consisting of compilations of posts
from the creator and executive producer of Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski.
He's also been running mailing lists for Babylon 5 viewers, so they can
keep up with when Babylon 5 is on. This is Dirk's second year of
running the Babylon 5 programming track for Dragon*Con. Dirk is currently
employed as a programmer/analyst for a large telecommunications firm. He's
been married for nearly six years, and he and his wife are expecting their first
child in mid-September, mere weeks after Dragon*Con.
Dave
McConnell
Star
Trek FilkSing V
Dave has been active in fandom since 1968
and is Dragon*Con's Director of Filk Programming. He co-authored with Ken
Kessler his first filksong, What Do You Do with a Drunken Hobbit?, in 1972.
Dave was the rhythm guitar player for the all-filk band Timelines, which he founded
in 1993 and who released an album, Timelines Takes Flight, in 1994.
This is Dave's third filk performance on TrekTrak, having performed with
Timelines at the very first TrekFilk four years ago and again with Leslie
Fish last year.
Tim
McKenny
Deep Space Nine: The Verdict
Star
Trek: Voyager: The Verdict
A frequent convention attendee, Tim has
appeared on TrekTrak panels for all five of its years. He is the
commanding officer of the IKV Nemesis chapter of the Klingon Assault Group
and is the longest-serving member of that organization in Atlanta. Tim is
also a member of the infamous "Nitpickers' Guild" and a contributor to The
Nitpickers' Guide for Next Generation Trekkers, Volume 2. As an actor,
Tim has appeared on stage in productions ranging from Romeo & Juliet
to Sweet Bird of Youth. He has also been a member of the UGA dramatic
improv troupe "Brief Encounters."
Bill
Ramsey
How
to Play Klin Zha
Bill, a.k.a. "Major QorToq vestai-Chang,"
has been a fan of Star Trek since the early 1970s and has been attending
small conventions such as GenCons and the Euro GenCon since the late 1980s.
He is a member of the International Federation of Trekkers (IFT) and the Klingon
Assault Group, for which he is currently the Quadrant Fencer (Quadrant Marine
commander) for its Dark Phoenix Quadrant (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Florida)
in the Dark Moon Fleet (Eastern seaboard and southeastern U. S.). The Klingon
Imperial Marine Force provides security for many conventions in the south.
Bill has been a gamer since the days of Chain Mail, which predates Dungeons &
Dragons. He is a Masters-ranked Dungeon Master and a player with the RPGA,
and was the Regional Director for the RPGA East Anglia U. K.
Patty
Ritz
How
to Play Klin Zha
Patty is the Commanding Officer of Clarksville,
Tennessee's IKAV Dragon's Sword. This is her first appearance on
TrekTrak.
Josepha
Sherman
Star
Trek Authors' Showcase
Josepha is a fantasy and science fiction
writer, folklorist and storyteller. Her fantasy novels include The Shining
Falcon (Avon, 1989), winner of the Compton Crook Award; Child of Faerie,
Child of Earth (Walker, 1992), an ALA Best Book and a New York Public Library
Book for the Teen Age; the national bestseller Castle of Deception (with
Mercedes Lackey, Baen Books, 1992); A Strange and Ancient Name (Baen Books,
1993), a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age; Windleaf (Walker,
1993), an ABA Pick of the List, a Junior Library Guild Selection and a New York
Public Library Book for the Teen Age; the national bestseller A Cast of Corbies
(with Mercedes Lackey, Baen Books, 1994); Gleaming Bright (Walker, 1994),
a Junior Library Guild Selection; the national bestseller The Chaos Gate
(Baen Books, 1994); King's Son, Magic's Son (Baen Books, 1994), a New York
Public Library Book for the Teen Age; The Shattered Oath (Baen Books, 1995),
a Nw York Public Library Book for the Teen Age; Forging the Runes, the
sequel to The Shattered Oath (Baen Books, 1996); a dark urban fantasy novel,
Son of Darkness (Roc Books, 1998); a Xena book, Everything I
Needed to Know in Life I Learned from Xena, by Gabrielle, "translated from
the Athenian Times" (Pocket Books, 1998); and a Highlander novel, The Captive
Soul (Warner Aspect, 1998). In addition, she co-authored with Susan
Shwartz the national bestselling Star Trek novel, Vulcan's Forge,
together with the audio script for the novel, read by Leonard Nimoy. Josepha's
folklore titles are all from August House: A Sampler of Jewish-American
Folklore (1992), Rachel the Clever and Other Jewish Folktales (1993),
Once Upon a Galaxy (1994), Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts: The Subversive
Folklore of Children (with T. K. F. Weisskopf, 1995), Trickster Tales
(1996), and Merlin's Kin: Tales of the Hero Magicians (1998). Nonfiction
works include First Americans (Smithmark Publishers/Portland House, 1988),
and Puerto Rico (Marshall Cavendish, 1999), as well as two articles on
fantasy writing commissioned by The Writer. Forthcoming in mid-1999
will be a new Star Trek title, Vulcan's Heart. Josepha has
sold over 125 short stories and articles to books and magazines, and has written
for the animated television show Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers.
In addition, she's done storytelling for all ages and lectured on folklore, fantasy
and science fiction across North America, including speaking engagements at the
Library of Congress and American Folklore Society conferences. She's an
active member of The Authors Guild, SFWA, the American Folklore Society and the
SCBWI, as well as a fan of all things SF, equine, computer-oriented, aviation
and of the long-suffering ("wait till next year, or possibly this year!") New
York Mets.
James
J. Simonelli
Star
Trek: Our Modern Mythology?
In his profession, Jim develops and presents
training courses for Business and Systems Analysis, as well as Methodology Implementation
and Project Management. He is a collector of the Star Trek videotapes
and Decipher Cards and is fairly well read in Latin and Greek mythologies.
Tonya
Spanks
Classic
Trek: Gone and Forgotten?
Tonya is the Chief of Security for the
USS Republic and has been a member of Starfleet Atlanta for over four years.
She perfected the recipes for Romulan Ale, Klingon Bloodwine, Ferengi Bug Juice
and her latest concoction, Nelix's Super Nova. Born two months before the
airing of the very first Star Trek episode 32 years ago, Tonya has been
a resident of Atlanta all her life and has enjoyed Dragon*Con for the last six
years.
Jeff
& Susan Stringer
Caution! Speed Bumps
A Head!
 As
a team, Jeff and Susan have been costuming since 1986, but as individuals,
they go way back. Jeff began costuming as an "adult" in 1979 with
the Darth Vader costume he and his mom put together from so much sheet
plastic, black fabric and his now two-decade old Don Post Vader helmet.
Jeff discovered science fiction conventions in 1982 and has been involved
ever since. Susan has been costuming and attending cons since 1980
and has been the guiding force in Jeff's life for nearly twelve years.
Jeff says there is "damn near nothing" she can't sew together, and she
drafts patterns from scratch. Jeff and Susan opened Beauty and the
Beast Custom Costumes in Chattanooga, Tennessee in September 1989, and
Susan has been its primary creative force for the past nine years.
Visit them on the Internet at www.cdc.net/~stringer. |
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Patricia
Tallman
An
Hour with Patricia Tallman
Patricia hails from a strong theatrical
background. Her father, an off-broadway director and her mother, a young
actress, met in New York City, where he was directing. They gave up their
New York careers for a calmer life and returned to their native Illinois to await
the arrival of their first daughter, Patricia. Her father, now a successful
businessman, supported his young family by selling hearing aids and making doughnuts,
and he was a local deejay. The lattermost pursuit led to Patricia's acting
debut at the age of two singing "Bicycle Built For Two" on her father's radio
show. Although she went through phases of wanting to be everything from
a vet to a nun to a dancer, by the ripe old age of fifteen, she had decided upon
her career and was unshakeable in her resolve.
She began performing in summer stock
at the Red Barn Theatre in Saugatuck, Michigan, doing ten shows in eleven weeks.
She was in every one of her high school's plays and spent every summer in professional
summer stock. She went on to earn her BFA from the theatrically acclaimed
Carnegie Mellon University and worked her way through college performing eighteen
musicals with the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. In one landmark week,
she was given CMU's Outstanding Achievement in Acting award and was named CMU's
homecoming queen.
Immediately after college, Pat moved
to New York City and landed a role in a long, successful run of an off-broadway
show, Big, Bad Burlesque. She performed in numerous shows in New
York, but her favorite role was Rosalind, in the Riverside Shakespeare Company's
As You Like It. She was subsequently cast in a recurring role on
the CBS soap opera The Guiding Light. This led to roles on virtually
every New York-based daytime serial.
Pat's good friend and stunt coordinator
Danny Aiello, Jr., aware of Pat's physical agility, persuaded her to work stunts
with him between acting jobs. "It was great fun," Pat recalls. "While
my friends were waiting tables between acting jobs, I was able to earn my living
in front of the camera. I learned more about the film business than I
ever learned in school!" She's doubled such stars as Mimi Rogers, Joan
Cusack and Laura Dern. She has jumped off a cliff into the Rogue River
in Oregon, jumped from one six-story building to another in New York City, hung
from dinosaur bones for Spielberg and got hit by "Thing" driving a car in the
Addams Family sequel. A swordswoman supreme (she picked this up
while at Carnegie), she was able to do her own swordfighting in Ring of the
Musketeers.
It was at this time that an old CMU
buddy and special effects wizard, Tom Savini, called Pat to audition for a George
Romero film that he was working on called Knightriders, starring Ed Harris.
Pat was cast in a lead female role, which led to a longtime working relationship
with Mr. Romero. While in New York, she also worked with him on Monkeyshines
with Janine Turner and a cult favorite, Tales from the Darkside.
After moving to Los Angeles on the advice of friends, she again worked with
Romero on Creepshow II with George Kennedy. She then starred in
his remake of the cult classic Night of the Living Dead.
The move to L. A. proved to be a successful
one; Patricia was cast as undercover cop Christy Russell on NBC's Generations
and as an evil, sexy swashbuckler in Ring of the Musketeers, starring
David Hasselhoff. She was recently seen as Josie O'Reilly in Paramount's
Sweet Justice. In Benefit of the Doubt, she plays the alcoholic
wife of Donald Sutherland and in Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness, she plays
the "Horrible Hag" who terrorizes Bruce Campbell.
She can be seen in a completely different
light as the beautiful and gifted telepath Lyta Alexander in the pilot episode
of Babylon 5, and as a regular on the show since then. She has
also appeared as the exotic terrorist Kiros in an episode of Star Trek: The
Next Generation entitled "Starship Mine." The very busy Ms. Tallman
can also be seen as the no-nonsense gadget genius Alshaine in the USA pilot
Star Runners.
Meanwhile, Pat keeps her wits about
her by keeping her roots in theater. She is an organizing member of the
Faculty Theatre Company and co-produced their first showcase production with
Charles Nelson Reilly, her teacher and mentor, as director.
Donny
Velji
Star
Trek: The Faltering Franchise
www.startrek.com
Deep Space Nine: The Verdict
Star
Trek: Voyager: The Verdict
Donny was first introduced to the world
of fandom in the summer of 1991 and since then has made the rounds to several
conventions, including four Dragon*Cons. Spinning out of those experiences,
he found himself in the world of the Internet, where he became an avid websurfer
and participant in chat rooms on IRC, speaking with members of fandom all over
the world. Donny doesn't maintain a web page of info, but he keeps his eyes
open for the latest scoops and rumors concerning science fiction such as Star
Trek, Babylon 5 and pro wrestling. (Pro wrestling?!)
Donny is also the writer of the science fiction comic book The Guardians
(coming to a comic store near you... as soon as it's published!).
Wayne
Walls
Star
Trek: The Faltering Franchise
Deep Space Nine: The Verdict
Star
Trek: Voyager: The Verdict
Wayne has written for Vault magazine
and contributed pieces to The Wild Hunt amateur press association.
His past illustrious "Fan Boy" highlights include stomping John de Lancie in a
Star Trek trivia contest, a costume contest as the Terminator in an ad
campaign for WD-40 which he described as "less filling but tastes great," and,
in more personal circles, his wedding, where he treated the guests to a showing
of Return of the Jedi with his blushing bride in tow, still in the white
dress. But in all truth, his favorite show is The Big Valley.
Eric
L. Watts
Court-Martial!
 Eric
has been an avid Star Trek fan since 1977. He founded and
was President of the United Federation of Trekkers in Columbia, South
Carolina, the state's largest Star Trek fan club, from 1980 to
1988 and has been Dragon*Con's Director of Star Trek Programming
since 1992. Eric is a former member of the amateur press associations
Apa Enterprise, Talking of Trek, GAPS, Atlapa
and Dragon*Citings. He has been a member of the amateur press
association Imaginapa
since 1980 and completed his eleventh term as its Central Mailer last
summer. Eric is the Editor & Publisher of The
New Moon Directory, an annual index to amateur press associations,
and is a member of both the Southern
Bears and the Atlanta Gay Men's
Chorus. Eric holds an Associate in Arts in Visual Communications
degree from the Art Institute of Atlanta and is currently employed as
the Graphics Coordinator for a major industrial chemicals company in Marietta,
Georgia. He is also a graduate student at the Art Institute of Atlanta,
enrolled in both their Associate in Arts in Web Site Administration and
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design degree programs.
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Archie
Waugh
Star
Trek: The Faltering Franchise
Classic
Trek: Gone and Forgotten?
 Archie
has been with TrekTrak from the beginning five years ago.
He is glad to be back in the heart of fandom, after having spent most
of the last year helping his sister recover successfully from a bone marrow
transplant for leukemia. Filmmaker, columnist, modeler, graphic
artist, writer and actor, Archie's sci-fi film obsessions have led
him to many interesting adventures in his life, from dining with Jonathan
Harris (Lost in Space's Dr. Smith) to hiding Chase Masterson (Deep
Space Nine's Leeta the Dabo Girl) in his hotel room. A television
director for a central Florida cable station, Archie still manages to
find time to win awards for starring in stage musicals such as Chicago. |
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Marc
Scott Zicree
Deep Space Nine: The Verdict
Marc has sold over ninety scripts, including
scripts for The New Twilight Zone, Deep Space Nine, Star Trek:
The Next Generation, Beauty and the Beast, Forever Knight and
Babylon 5, plus he's worked on such series as Friday the 13: The Series
and Beyond Reality. In 1997, following a stint as a producer on the
TNT series Lazarus Man, Marc met with executive producer David Peckinpah
and was offered a job as a writer/producer on Sliders, following the series'
move to the Sci-Fi Channel. He is writing a series of fantasy books, the
first of which is being cowritten with Barbara Hambly.
Boyett
· Cotcher · Cox
· Curtis · David
· Fish · Garrison
· Greenberg · Knowles
· Loedding · McConnell
· McKenny · Ramsey
· Ritz · Sherman
· Simonelli · Spanks
· Stringer · Tallman
· Velji · Walls
· Watts · Waugh
· Zicree
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