LepreCon 46 | Guests of Honor

Artist GoH: James A Owen

James A. Owen is founder and executive director of the art and design studio Coppervale International. James has written and illustrated two dozen StarChild comics, the award-winning MythWorld series of novels, the bestselling series The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, the inspirational nonfiction trilogy The Meditations, and more. More than a million copies of his publications are in print, and are sold all over the world.

James is also in discussions to develop several of his projects for both film and television, and previously wrote a screenplay for Warner Brothers (under the guidance of David Heyman and David S. Goyer) adapting his own novel Here, There Be Dragons, for the screen.

His newest release is the eighth Imaginarium Geographica book, THE DRAGON KNIGHT. Currently, he is working on his Patreon periodical, Words & Pictures, the next Meditations book, EVERYTHING IS SIGNAL, and his illustrated magnum opus, FOOL'S HOLLOW.

All of these projects are being developed at the Coppervale Studio, a 14,000 square foot, century-old restored church in Northeastern Arizona.

Author GoH: Robert McCammon

Robert McCammon is the author of 23 novels and two short story collections. Starting with his first novel, Baal, in 1978, McCammon quickly became one of the bestselling horror authors of the 1980s, with three consecutive novels hitting the New York Times Bestsellers List: Swan Song, Stinger, and The Wolf's Hour.

During that time, he also won several Bram Stoker Awards for Best Novel and Best Short Story.

As the '90s dawned, McCammon expanded his writing away from the horror genre, and his 1991 classic Boy's Life won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. After Gone South in 1992, McCammon decided to try historical fiction, which had always interested him. After clashing with a new publisher over the direction of his new books, McCammon retired from publishing for ten years. He returned in 2002 with Speaks the Nightbird, which became the first book in a planned nine-book series about Matthew Corbett.

The Corbett books are set in the early 1700s, and each volume has explored different genres: mystery, adventure, chase, pulp, thriller, and more. In addition to the Corbett books, McCammon has also written contemporary novels, including The Five, The Border, and The Listener. Cardinal Black, book seven in the Matthew Corbett series, was published by Cemetery Dance on April 30, 2019. McCammon is working on the next Matthew Corbett book.

Local Artist GoH: David Ayres

I'm a Makeup EFX Artist specializing in character, creature, and monster designs. I have a company called David Ayres Studio in Scottsdale, AZ, where I do commission work. I create special makeup FX for film and the entertainment fields, sell masks and special makeup accessories, teach workshops, and lecture. I'm branching out into new areas of fantasy sculpture and items related to the films I've worked on.

I started as a monster kid watching all the wonderful films of monsters, science fiction, and fantasy on "The World Beyond" Saturday morning local Arizona TV. I moved to LA/Hollywood and worked at Don Post Studios, a large maskmaking company as a sculptor and lab tech. I later worked on Close Encounters of the Third Kind at The Burman Studios. More work started to come in.

My major film credits are: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, EMPIRE OF THE ANTS, SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, TOURIST TRAP (Original), THE HILLS HAVE EYES (Original), BUCK ROGERS, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (Original), HALLOWEEN (Original)

Music GoHs: Margaret & Kristoph

SUGO MUSIC recording artists Margaret Davis and Kristoph Klover perform original arrangements of Celtic music from the British Isles and the Medieval and Renaissance melodies of the European courts and countrysides. Their entrancing sound features tight harmonies and is built on the interweaving of soaring vocals with Celtic harp, octave mandolin, 6- and 12-string guitars, flute, recorders, and tin whistle.

Margaret & Kristoph have performed extensively throughout the Northwest at concert halls and festivals including Herbst Theatre, Grace Cathedral, Freight & Salvage, the Walnut Creek and Mill Valley Art & Wine Festivals, the Redwood Mountain Fair, and the Harmony Festival. They have performed in Britain and Germany and for hundreds of weddings and private events. They have recorded 12 CDs on the Flowinglass Music label, as the duo and with their bands Avalon Rising and Broceliande, and in 2008 they performed in the Disney movie Bedtime Stories.

Science GoH: Dr. David A Williams

David A. Williams is an associate research professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the director of the Ronald Greeley Center for Planetary Studies, the NASA Regional Planetary Information Facility at ASU. He is also the director of the NASA Planetary Aeolian Laboratory at the Ames Research Center in California. Professor Williams is currently performing research in volcanology and planetary geology, with a focus on planetary mapping, geochemical, and remote sensing studies.

He was involved with NASA’s Magellan Mission to Venus and Galileo Mission to Jupiter. He is a Co-Investigator on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter mission, and he is a member of the Science Team on NASA’s Dawn Mission to asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. Also in 2014, the International Astronomical Union named asteroid 10,461 DAWilliams in his honor. Professor Williams is also a Science Team member of NASA's Psyche mission, visiting the metal asteroid (16) Psyche in 2026. In 2017 he received the Ronald Greeley Distinguished Service Award from the Geological Society of America.

Toastmaster / Author Guest: Weston Ochse

The American Library Association calls Weston Ochse “one of the major horror authors of the 21st Century.” His work has won the Bram Stoker Award, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and won four New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. A writer of more than thirty books in multiple genres, his Burning Sky Duology has been hailed as the best military horror of the generation. His military supernatural series SEAL Team 666 has been optioned to be a movie starring Dwayne Johnson and his military sci fi trilogy, which starts with Grunt Life, has been praised for its PTSD-positive depiction of soldiers at peace and at war. Weston has also published literary fiction, poetry, comics, and non-fiction articles. His shorter work has appeared in DC Comics, IDW Comics, Soldier of Fortune Magazine, Cemetery Dance, and peered literary journals. His franchise work includes the X-Files, Predator, Aliens, Hellboy, Clive Barker’s Midian, and V-Wars. Weston holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and teaches at Southern New Hampshire University. He lives in Arizona with his wife, and fellow author, Yvonne Navarro and their Great Danes.