Guests

• Jump Down the Page •
Guests of Honor: Carole Nelson Douglas • Brian C. Hailes • Joey Shoji
Ghosts of Honor: Alexandre Dumas • Bob Kane
Special Guests: Farland • Hickman • Mar • Modesitt • Tayler • Wasden • Wolverton
Participating Guests | Panelists

Guests of Honor

Carole Nelson Douglas, Author Guest of Honor

Carole Nelson Douglas was a daily newspaper reporter and feature writer, and the "first woman" on the paper's Opinion Pages and Editorial Board, the local Newspaper Guild board, and annual Gridiron Show chair. She was also the first author to make a woman from the Holmesverse a series protagonist, with the New York Times Notable Book of the Year Good Night, Mr. Holmes, which also won mystery and romance awards.

"I've written bestselling high fantasy, and now urban fantasy, two thrillers with an SF element, and edged into Victorian steampunk with the Irene Adler series, they tell me," she said.

Her 23-book (so far) Midnight Louie feline PI mystery series uses the fantasy construct of a cat as partial narrator, "Sam Spade with hairballs." Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator, is her new noir urban fantasy protagonist.

She's also written a lot of mystery and fantasy short fiction, even a story on the caped Zorro.

"With current contracts, I've written 60 novels in multiple genres," she said, "and usually combine elements of fantasy, mystery and romance with inventive world-building, history, action, underlying social issues, humor and sometimes horror."

Her work has won or been short-listed for more than fifty writing awards. For more information, see her official website and Wikipedia.

Brian C. Hailes, Artist Guest of Honor

After graduating from High School, Brian C. Hailes attended classes at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and received his BFA degree from Utah State University. Before his graduation, he also spent a full semester to study in New York City, interning at the Society of Illustrators.

Hailes has worked as a freelance illustrator, designer, commission artist and writer for over fifteen years, and has received numerous awards for his art from all across the country, including Winner in the USPS National Stamp Design Competition, the Best of Show Award at the Brigham City Statewide Art Competition, and in 2002, he won the L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest out of Hollywood.

Hailes has written and illustrated two of his own series, entitled Dragon's Gait and Devil's Triangle, as well as the graphic novel, Continuum (published in 2011 by Arcana Studios). He also compiled and illustrated Passion & Spirit: The Dance Quote Book with Artwork by B.C. Hailes.

He has worked on many other projects for companies such as American Girl and WriteWise Publishing. He currently resides in Salt Lake City. To view his work, you can visit his website.

Joey Shoji, Filk Guest of Honor

Joey Shoji has been a fan of science fiction/fantasy/horror from as far back as he can remember, and he still enjoys science fiction and fantasy and horror in almost equal measure.

Joey attended his first convention, a 1-day fan-run Star Trek event in San Francisco, in 1975. The following year he attended a Star Trek/science fiction/science convention in Oakland, California, and was hooked. Despite having attended more than a few since then, including over a dozen Worldcons, he will still on occasion, transform into a geeky fanboy when getting author autographs.

Although having read about filk in fanzines and books for a few years beforehand, the first filksing Joey actually attended was in 1980 at Octocon 3 in Santa Rosa, California. Not only did he get to hear fun songs, he got to share a songbook with the legendary Bjo Trimble. Joey had sung before (in choirs, barbershop groups, and with his guitar), but filk brought together his respective loves of music and of sf/f/h.

In the early '80s Joey's participation in filk music led to his involvement in the recordings of Off-Centaur Publications, and then later with other companies such as Wail Songs and Thor Records. He has had the pleasure and privilege of working with many other filk performers including: Cynthia McQuillin, Julia Ecklar, Kathy Mar, Leslie Fish, and even Urban Tapestry.

One of Joey's songs, "Uhura," was included on Star Trek Comedy: The Unofficial Album (with the likes of Kevin Pollak and Bobby "Boris" Pickett), and the track had been played on the Dr. Demento radio program. Another, "Bloodchild," based on the short story by Octavia E. Butler, co-won a Pegasus Award for Excellence in Filking.

A life-long resident of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, he currently lives in the wacky, wonderful college town of Berkeley.

Ghosts of Honor

Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas (often mispelled as "Alexander Dumas"), born 24 July 1802 in Villers-Cotterêts, Aisne, Picardy, France as Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world. Many of his novels, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne, were originally serialized. He also wrote plays and magazine articles and was a prolific correspondent.

Dumas' paternal grandmother was an Afro-Caribbean Creole of mixed French and African ancestry, and he alluded to this ancestry in his 1843 work, Georges. His 1844 fantasy, The Nutcracker was adapted by Tchaikovsky into the ballet by the same name.

Dumas died 5 December 1870 and was originally buried in his hometown. In 2002, his body was reinterred at the Panthéon of Paris next to fellow authors Victor Hugo and Emile Zola.  —adapted from Wikipedia

Bob Kane

Bob Kane was an American comic book artist and writer, best known as the creator of the DC Comics superhero Batman. He was inducted into both the comic book industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1996.

Robert Kahn was born in New York City, New York of Eastern European Jewish parents. He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School, where he was friends with fellow cartoonist and future Spirit creator Will Eisner, and legally changed his name to Bob Kane at age 18. He studied art at Cooper Union before becoming a trainee animator at the Max Fleischer Studio in 1934.

In early 1939, DC's success with the seminal superhero Superman in Action Comics prompted editors to scramble for more such heroes. In response, Bob Kane conceived "the Bat-Man". Kane said his influences for the character included actor Douglas Fairbanks' movie portrayal of the swashbuckler Zorro; Leonardo Da Vinci's diagram of the ornithopter, a flying machine with huge bat-like wings; and the 1930 film The Bat Whispers, based on Mary Rinehart's mystery novel The Circular Staircase.  —adapted from Wikipedia

Special Guests

These are past guests of honor at CONduit who are returning to attend again.

Tracy and Laura Hickman

Tracy Raye Hickman (born November 26, 1955, in Salt Lake City) is a best-selling fantasy author, best known for his work on the Dragonlance as a game designer and co-author with Margaret Weis, while he worked for TSR.

He graduated from Provo High School in 1974, served two years as an LDS missionary in Hawaii and Indonesia before returning to the States to marry his high school sweetheart, Laura Curtis, with whom he has four children. He then attended Brigham Young University. In addition to his more well-known work as an author and game designer, he has has worked as a supermarket stockboy, a movie projectionist, a theater manager, a glass worker, a television assistant director, and a drill press operator in a genealogy center.

After a business failed, Tracy was hired in 1982 by TSR after sending them two modules he and and Laura had written: Rahasia and Pharaoh. This led to the production of the immensely-popular Dragonlance series of Dungeons & Dragons modules and novels.

Hickman has gone on to author multiple unrelated fantasy series with Weis as well as with his wife, Laura. Many of these works have been ranked on the New York Times Best Seller lists.  —adapted from Wikipedia

Kathy Mar

Kathy Mar worked as a professional folksinger and street performer in Denver, Colorado for many years before she discovered filk. Her first recordings were for Off Centaur Publications (Songbird, On a Bright Wind, Bamboo Wind) and she went on to do two albums with Thor Records (Plus Ca Change, Plus C'est Les Meme Chose) which have recently been re-released as a CD double. She also did an album for Dandelion Digital (Made by Magic) with British songwriter Zander Nyrond which was one of the first filk CDs ever produced. Her cover album of her favorite filk and folk songs on Prometheus (My Favorite Sings) has been her most successful to date. She was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame in only the second year of its existence. With Lindy Sears, she instigated the "Dandelion Conspiracy" to promote filk to general SF conventions.

She was Filk Guest of Honor at Denvention 3, the 66th World Science Fiction Convention.

Kathy lives in San Leandro, CA in a commune and is the mother of four children. Her primary life partner Dean Dierschow (familiar as her most devoted roadie) lives there with her in what she refers to as "a wonderful ongoing courtship." She was very involved in the antiwar movement in the sixties and sang in Kansas City for the first Moratorium. She has appeared as filk GOH at almost every filk convention and many regular SF conventions as well.  —adapted from Wikipedia

L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

L. E. (Leland Exton) Modesitt, Jr. (born in 1943 in Denver, Colorado) is an author of 58 science fiction and fantasy novels. He is best known for the fantasy series The Saga of Recluce. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts, lived in Washington, D.C. for 20 years, then moved to New Hampshire in 1989 where he met his wife. They relocated to their current residence in Cedar City, Utah in 1993.

He has worked as a US Navy pilot, lifeguard, delivery boy, unpaid radio disc jockey, real estate agent, market research analyst, director of research for a political campaign, legislative assistant for a Congressman, Director of Legislation and Congressional Relations for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, a consultant on environmental, regulatory, and communications issues, and a college lecturer and writer in residence.

In addition to his novels, Modesitt has published technical studies and articles, columns, poetry, and a number of science fiction stories. His first short story, "The Great American Economy", was published in 1973 in Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact. In 2008, Tor Books published his first collection of short stories, Viewpoints Critical: Selected Stories.  —adapted from Wikipedia

Howard Tayler

Howard V. Tayler (born February 29, 1968 in Florida) is the award-winning creator of the hugely successful webcomic Schlock Mercenary. He worked as a volunteer missionary for the LDS Church, then graduated from Brigham Young University. Using his degree in music composition, he started an independent record label.

While working at Novell, Tayler began online publication of Schlock Mercenary. He quit his job at Novell several years later in order to work on the webcomic full time. Schlock Mercenary has been nominated multiple times and won the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards in two different categories. The webcomic has also been nominated twice for a Hugo Award.

Tayler spends time regularly during the week drawing at Dragons Keep, a Provo comic book and gaming store, as well as producing Writing Excuses, a weekly writing tips podcast with fellow Utah authors Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells.  —adapted from Wikipedia

Kevin Wasden

Kevin Wasden is a local science fiction and fantasy artist, illustrator, and comics artist. He has illustrated book covers, magazines, and gaming manuals. He attended Utah State University in Logan where he studied psychology before switching to art and illustration. His first major illustration job was for a professor at USU, after which he moved to New York City where he illustrated several books and studied oil painting.

Wasden has been inspired by many artists, including Alfons Mucha, Brom, Gustav Klimt, Edgar Degas, and his favorite fantasy artist is John William Waterhouse. Wasden provided guest art for the third Schlock Mercenary collection.

Wasden is the creator and writer of the Technosaurs web comic, and illustrated several books by Charlotte Emerson based on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  —adapted from Wikipedia

David Wolverton (aka David Farland)

David Wolverton (born 1957) began writing during college. His career began in 1987 when he won the top award in the L. Ron Hubbard "Writers of the Future" contest. He then became a judge for that contest in 1991 and edited the annual anthology before passing on the role to Algis Budrys.

He was been nominated for a Nebula Award in the Best Novellette category for his short story After a Lean Winter. Wolverton was also nominated for a Hugo Award. In 1999, Dave set the Guinness Record for the world’s largest book signing with the science fiction novel A Very Strange Trip.

Under his pseduonym "David Farland", he writes fantasy, and is most well known for his Runelords series. He is currently working on the ninth book in the series, as well as continuing to pursue the possibility of turning the novels into a film series.

Wolverton is currently a full time writer, though he also runs a series of writing workshops as well as appearing at other workshops and seminars.  —adapted from Wikipedia and the Runelords site

Participating Guests

We have many amazing local professionals who come to CONduit every year. Please note that not everyone listed below is coming this year. If they are not coming, it will be noted at the entry. CONduit would not be the same without all the great support from our amazing local (and not-so-local) professionals. Please be sure to thank them for coming every year. Thanks!

If you are coming and you are not listed here (or if you don't have a blurb), please 1) forgive the poor, overworked webmaster for the oversight, and 2) let him know (or send a blurb).

Andrew Adams

More information coming...

Paul F. Anderson

More information coming...

Amber Argyle

Amber Argyle grew up with three brothers on a cattle ranch in the Rocky Mountains. She spent hours riding horses, roaming the mountains, and playing in her family's creepy barn. This environment fueled her imagination for writing her debut novel. She has worked as a short order cook, janitor, and staff member in a mental institution, all of which has given her great insight into the human condition and has made for some unique characters.

She received her bachelor's degree in English and physical education from Utah State University. Amber currently resides in Utah with her husband and three small children. Her first novel, Witch Song, will be released on 1 September 2011 by Rhemalda Publishing.  —from (with minor editing) the bio on her official site

Lillian J. Banks

Lillian J. Banks was born and raised in Utah. She knew she wanted to be a writer before first grade, and wrote her first story about a pirate who did not want his gold. It wasn’t until later in life she decided to make writing her living. Lillian has won various writing contests in Utah and the feedback was always the same.: the story is amazing, but the technical writing needs help. She took time from entering contests to fix her technical writing. Her writing has improved thanks to her awesome writing group, the crew of the Writing Snippets podcast (which she produces for writers, and which feature monthly giveaways). Lillian has published poetry and articles in various magazines, her favorite being an article for a motorcycle magazine. Lillian lives sleep-deprived in Utah with her supportive and patient husband, their four children, and loves every minute of it.  —from (with minor editing) her podcast bio

Alice Beesley

Alice Beesley grew up in Washington State. She has published around thirty stories and poems in magazines. Several of her short stories and novels have placed in League of Utah Writer’s contests, and Dutton Children’s Books and Tu Books are currently considering one of her novels. When she’s not writing or reading, she enjoys playing guitar, cross-country skiing, and hiking and camping with her family.

She now resides in Utah with her husband of twenty years, her three children—two teenage daughters and a son, and a schnoodle named Kizzy. She has a bachelor’s degree in writing from Brigham Young University and is now pursuing her dream of being a writer by day, while teaching English as a Second Language at night.  —from (with minor editing) her podcast bio

AJ Bell

AJ Bell (aka Jonny Bailey) is a founding member of Rook Fabrication, the studio responsible for Pocket Hole and the upcoming Cherry Tree. He is the lead storyboard artist for much of what The Rooks produce. Classically trained, he has eschewed what some might call fine art, for the much more demanding path of graphic novel artist.

Laura Bingham

Laura Bingham was born in Iowa and moved to Idaho at age four. She graduated from Ricks College with an associates degree and from Boise State University with a bachelor's degree in biology as well as certification to teach all science subjects in secondary education in the state of Idaho. She has a dance studio in her backyard where she teaches the much loved sport of clogging.

Her grandparents and other relatives live in the beautiful Pennsylvania hills where she adores visiting. Laura lives in Boise with her husband and five young children, including her own set of boy/girl twins.  —from (with minor editing) her bio on her site

Laura Bingham will be unable to attend CONduit this year.

Jake Black

Jake Black is a screenwriter and writer for comics. You can read his official blog and we also strongly suggest helping out with the Black Family Cancer Fund.

Jake Black will be unable to attend CONduit this year.

John Brown

John David Brown (born 1966) is a fantasy fiction author born in Cottonwood, Utah and raised primarily in Bountiful, Utah. He spent many years working in the family floral and nursery business. He served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Netherlands and Belgium and graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a Masters degree in Accountancy. After college Brown worked as a business consultant and instructor in Livermore, California and Westerville, Ohio. He current lives in Laketown, Utah, a ranching environment that inspired one of the core ideas in his debut novel.

Brown explored writing as a student at BYU, and after attending a transformational writing workshop offered by Dave Wolverton, he began to submit his stories for publication. In 1996 he won a quarterly first prize in the annual Writers of the Future contest and published his first piece of fiction. His short story "The Scent of Desire" appeared in the contest's 1997 anthology of winners under the pseudonym Bo Griffin.

Brown focused much of his time from 1997-2002 establishing his career as a business consultant and instructor. In 2002 he attended his second pivotal workshop: Orson Scott Card's Literary Boot Camp. After that workshop, Brown began to turn again to writing for publication, this time focusing on novels.

In 2007 he signed with his agent Caitlin Blasdell and in 2008 he signed a three-book contract with Tor Books for an epic fantasy series which begins with Servant of a Dark God. While building his writing career Brown continues to work as a senior instructor with a large ERP software company.  —adapted from Wikipedia

John Brown will be unable to attend this year.

Dr. Al Carlisle

More information coming...

Tom Carr

Tom Carr is the founder of Wasatch Paranormal Investigations. His interest in the paranormal started at the age of 16 when he went on a ghost hunt with a few of his friends. Tom has a passion for the paranormal and enjoys teaching others about his passion.  —adapted from his bio on the WPI site

Blake Casselman

See his blog for more information about him.

Ann Chamberlin

Ann Chamberlin, born and raised in Salt Lake City, is writer of historical novels. Her website states that the "purpose of storytelling...is to support positions in exact opposition to the views prevailing in a culture's powerhouses, whatever those views happen to be." This belief has led her to provide a feminist perspective on Middle Eastern affairs.

She spent time as a child in Europe, where her father was visiting professor of mathematics. Her interest in Islamic culture began on a summer archeology dig excavating the biblical city of Beersheva, an ancient Ottoman settlement in Israel. On the trip, she met the matriarch of an Islamic family "who, in spite of her hidden features, seemed to radiate a power and command a respect much greater than one might expect of a Muslim woman." After flitting from school to school and major to major—including theater, history and English—she finally majored in Archaeology of the Middle East at the University of Utah.

She reads Hebrew, Arabic, Egyptian hieroglyphs and ancient Akkadian as well as French and German. With her husband, she has traveled across all of North Africa, Turkey and Jordan. They have two sons and twelve chickens, and live in an old farm house on nearly two acres near Salt Lake City.  —adapted from Wikipedia and her official site

Ami Chopine

Ami Chopine is a collection of cells that cooperate enough to knit pretty things, gaze at clouds, and write. She's the happy wife to Vladimir and the lucky mother of four brilliant children. When not writing stories, she writes articles and books about 3D computer graphics.  —from her official site

Vladimir Chopine

Please see his official site

Jaleta Clegg

Visit her website and blog.

Dr. Michael R. Collings

Dr. Michael Robert Collings (born 1947) is an author, poet, literary critic, and bibliographer, and a former professor of creative writing and literature at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He was Poet in Residence at Pepperdine's Seaver College from 1997-2000. After graduating with a Master's degree in English from the University of California, Riverside in 1973, Collings received his Ph.D. in English literature from UCR in 1977, specializing in Milton and The Renaissance.

Collings has had multiple collections of his poetry published on subjects such as Mormon theology, Joseph Smith, Christmas, science fiction, and horror. He is known for his literary critiques and bibliographies of the works of Orson Scott Card and Stephen King, though he has also published critiques and bibliographies of the works of Peter Straub, Dean Koontz, C. S. Lewis, Brian W. Aldiss, and Piers Anthony. His In the Image of God: Theme, Characterization and Landscape in the Fiction of Orson Scott Card was the first book-length academic look at Card's works.  —from Wikipedia

Michaelbrent Collings

Michaelbrent Collings is a novelist, screenwriter, martial artist, practicing lawyer, and has a killer backhand on the badminton court. He published his first "paying" work—a short story for a local paper—at the age of 15. He won numerous awards and scholarships for creative writing while at college, and subsequently had more screenplays advance to quarterfinals and semifinals in the prestigious Nicholls Screenwriting competition in a single year than anyone else in the history of the competition.

Collings has written numerous novels, dozens of non-fiction articles, and optioned and rewritten a number of screenplays for major Hollywood production companies.  —adapted from his official site

Larry Correia

Larry Correia is a novelist who originally self-published in 2008. His self-published novel, Monster Hunter International, reached the Entertainment Weekly bestseller list in April 2008. He then received a publishing contract with Baen Books. Monster Hunter International was rereleased in 2009 and was on the Locus bestseller list in November 2009. His first book in "The Grimnoir Chronicles", titled Hard Magic, was just released at the beginning of May 2011. He has also coauthored (with Mike Kupari) a military thriller, Dead Six, scheduled for released in September 2011.

Correia's work tends to include monsters, such as vampires and werewolves, as well as a strong magical theme. They are also notable for the amount, and accuracy in detail, of their firearms usage.

Located in Utah, Correia now spends his time as a writer and accountant, as well a part-time firearms instructor. He is one of the finalists for the 2011 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author.  —adapted from Wikipedia

Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury

More information available on her website and blog

James Dashner

James Dashner is an author of children's fantasy series and adult books, including The 13th Reality series and the Jimmy Fincher Saga. His novel The Journal of Curious Letters was chosen for a 2008 Borders Original Voices pick. He has been published by Cedar Fort and by Shadow Mountain Press, known for their popular children's novels series Leven Thumps and Fablehaven.

Delacorte—a division of Random House—is publishing his new series, The Maze Runner, with the first volume released in Fall 2009. The New York Times best selling sequel, The Scorch Trials, was released in Fall 2010, and the final book in the series will be release in 2012.

Dashner was born in Georgia and attended Brigham Young University. Dashner currently lives in South Jordan with his wife and four children.  —adapted from Wikipedia

James Dashner will be unable to attend this year.

Robert J Defendi

Robert J Defendi has worked on many projects, including writing for Savage Seas for the game Exalted.  He's done a good bit of work for Spycraft, Shadowforce Archer and the Stargate SG-1 roleplaying game.  Defendi has had fiction appear in the Writers of the Future collections and When Darkness Comes, as well as Spacemaster (and the game's current incarnation.)

Defendi was born in Dubuque, Iowa to parents who, frankly, should have known better.  After a bleak, early period, punctuated by too much bad science fiction produced by Walt Disney, he began to read such greats as Tolkien, Niven, Clark, Asimov, and Clavell.  He's been influenced by dozens of writers, from Tom Clancy to Barbara Hambly.  He studies bad fiction as well as good in every medium but poetry (at which he is abysmally bad).  He feels that writing is a constant process, continuing through every aspect of one's life, and that the time spent at the keyboard is only a small part of the process.  —adapted from the author's site

Dave Doering

More information coming...

Keri Doering

More information coming...

Jessica Douglas

Learn more about her art at her offical site and her deviantArt site.

Jessica Douglas will be unable to attend this year.

Anna del C. Dye

Anna del C. Dye was born in Chile. She is the author of the "Silent Warrior Trilogy": The Elf and the Princess, Trouble in the Elf City, and Elfs in a Conquered Realm, all of which have been published. Her last book in the series was just released in March. Curse of the Elfs is a stand alone book as are the next three books in that series.

Anna enjoys sharing her knowledge of writing with others through workshops and panels. She actively participates in many online groups like ANWA (American Night Writers), LUW (League of Utah Writers), Gather, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Goodreads, Shelfari and others.

She is a multi-award winning author of fantasy stories and articles on relationships, and is fluent in English and Spanish. For more visit her website.

Kevin & Karen Evans

Kevin and Karen Evans were married twenty years ago, and have lived in Germany, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. They began writing together in 2006 and have produced several stories published in the The Grantville Gazette. They have been attending CONduit for several years now.  —adapted from their author page at the Gazette

Karina Fabian

More information coming...

Colonel Rob Fabian

More information coming...

Stephen Gashler

Stephen Gashler is far cooler than all the other authors. For one, he jumps out of exploding buildings on motorcyles. For two, he has the ability to talk to shadows. Unfortunately, they don't talk back. Thirdly, he is an animorph with an alter ego as an echidna named Favio. Some people think he looks like Cary Elwes from The Princess Bride. They're mistaken; Cary Elwes looks like Stephen Gashler. Watch him battle bees with his fists at stephengashler.com.

Paul Genesse

More information coming...

Jessica Day George

More information coming...

Charlene Harmon

More information coming...

Zachary Hill

More information coming...

Karen Hoover

More information coming...

Rebecca Jensen

Rebecca Jensen is an artist and comic creator. Her work can be seen at purple.mytica.net and read at purple.mytica.net/stories.

Clint Johnson

More information coming...

Michael Kupari

An explosive ordnance disposal technician in the US Air Force, Mike Kupari also served six years in the Army National Guard. He grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and enlisted at the age of seventeen. He has worked as a security contractor with several firms, did a tour in Southwest Asia with a private military company, and is an NRA certified firearms instructor. Mike currently resides in Utah with his iguana.

Dan Lind

Dan Lind is a lab tech, which means he does sciencey things for a company that tells him he can't claim them, or else he'll get fired. Dan comes from a "just folks" family of scientists, and prides himself on his ability to put science in layman's terms. He is however, quite scatterbrained and absent-minded. So feel free to ask him questions, or bring him back to the subject at hand, whenever you feel the need. Dan's formal training in science was conducted at Utah State University in Logan, UT, and at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. Dan's main interests are playing with ideas, making things, and his wife Laura. And he really, really, really, really, really likes to talk...way too much.

Laura Lind

Laura Swift Lind is one of the founders of the StarHouse Discovery Center in Logan, UT. In 2009, she took the portable planetarium to schools in Cache County, UT and Franklin County, ID as a volunteer. Before that, she worked at the Clark Planetarium for 3.5 years. She has a Master's in Space Studies from the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, and has been involved with Reading for the Future since 1999. While an undergrad at Utah State University, she worked on several experiments which flew on the space shuttle, and on the Explorer and Discovery space simulators. She married Dan Lind on May Day 2009, and tweets & blogs under the ID cachestarhouse.