Regular Contributors

  • John DeNardo (john at sfsignal dot com) – John is an avid reader and reviewer. (See John’s review criteria.) His book reading comes second only to his book buying, which some (including John himself) might call compulsive. (We often use the B-word.) His frequent jaunts to the local bookstores are legendary in his own mind. Although John reads an occasional fantasy/mystery/non-fiction book, his tastes lean heavily toward science fiction. John’s tastes within any genre vary, but he is fond of classic sf even though he has a hit-and-miss experience with classic award-winning sf. John also likes to alternate novel-length fiction with shorter works, so he frequently reads anthologies between reading sessions. John’s favorite authors tend to be Golden Age authors like Theodore Sturgeon, Isaac Asimov etc., but he also likes the new kids on the block like Alastair Reynolds, John Scalzi, etc. For a better idea of what he likes, see John’s Year in Review for 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
  • JP Frantz (jp at sfsignal dot com) – A lifelong SF fan, well, at least as far back as he can remember, he decided it would be cool to start a weblog about SF and stuff. So, together with a few friends, he did, and SF Signal was born!

SF Signal Irregulars

  • Fred Kiesche - Fred runs The Lensman’s Children and contributes to TexasBestGrok and is one of SF Signal’s original fanboys. His love and knowledge of classic science fiction is exceeded only by his desire to consistently point out our spelling and grammatical errors, an ability we give him the opportunity to exercise every chance we get. A former grievance administrator for a academic union, a former technical writer, and now perpetually underemployed in the financial industry, he hopes someday to get a “real job” working for a quality science fiction publisher. Until then he’ll gloat over his multi-thousand volume book collection and play with his HALO dolls…ummm…”action figures”. His current project is turning his daughter into a raving fangrrrlll.
  • Karen Burnham - Karen Burnham left all she knew behind in California and crossed the Great Western Desert to get to Houston. She did it solely to get into the good graces of the masters of SF Signal. Totally. (A Master’s Degree wouldn’t hurt either.) She kept one thing with her on her quest, a cyber-totem if you will: her sf reviewing blog, Spiral Galaxy Reviews. Her experiment in reversing the American Western Migration in the name of science fiction seems to be working out spiffily so far.
  • Larry Ketchersid - Larry Ketchersid is CEO of a security software and services company and the author of the novel Dusk Before the Dawn. He plays rugby, does martial arts, writes tech articles, reads a lot, and has degrees in Math, Physics and Computer Science. In other words, he still hasn’t decided what he wants to do and is in no hurry to do so. His career includes 15 years at Compaq, the greatest computer company that used to be.
  • Jeff Patterson - By some fortuitous circumstance Jeff Patterson was born on September 1, 1962, the day the White House announced that the world population had exceeded three billion people, so he figures that was him. In ancient days he had stories published in obscure, short-lived, low-paying and generally unread periodicals. These days he runs Bad Day Studio, known mainly for its annual Holiday Cards. These were collected in a book called Solstice Chronicles. He hopes to get his blog Gravity Lens back up to speed soon.
  • Lisa Paitz Spindler - Lisa Paitz Spindler is a science fiction author, web designer, blogger, and pop culture geek. Her debut space opera novella, The Spiral Path, is available from from Carina Press. In addition to contributing book reviews and television recaps to SF Signal, she also maintains the Danger Gal Blog hosted by her alter ego, Danger Gal, whose stiletto heels are licensed weapons and whose ninja stars travel faster than light. Lisa, however, gets through each day on caffeine and science blogs. Lisa can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
  • Derek Johnson - Derek Johnson‘s critical works have appeared in Nova Express, SF Site, RevolutionSF and Her Majesty’s Secret Servant. He lives in Central Texas with the Goddess.
  • Andrew Liptak - Andrew Liptak is a longtime science fiction fan, and writes regularly at Words in a Grain of Sand on any number of topics, namely speculative fiction and history. He currently holds a degree in History and a master’s degree in Military History from Norwich University, and resides in the green (or white, depending on the season) mountains of Vermont with a growing library of books.
  • Charles Tan - Charles Tan’s fiction has appeared in publications such as The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories and Philippine Speculative Fiction. He has contributed nonfiction to websites such as The Nebula Awards, The Shirley Jackson Awards, Fantasy Magazine, and The World SF News Blog. In 2009, he won the Last Drink Bird Head Award for International Activism. You can visit his blog, Bibliophile Stalker, or the Philippine Speculative Fiction Sampler and Best of Philippine Speculative Fiction.
  • Ashley Crump - Ashley Crump has the requisite two black cats, but cannot seem to keep up with her broomstick. Thus, her travel is a little more limited than she’d like. She consumes science fiction and fantasy – along with renegade mystery novels – on the banks of a Louisiana bayou. Reading three or four books a week keeps her busy when she’s not teaching young minds how to manipulate the English language. She escapes to England when the stars align just right so that she can wander around London and luxuriate in the fullness of real bookstores. Maybe that’s where the broomstick is…
  • Jay Garmon - Jay Garmon is a writer, editor and consummate trivia geek. He’s been cited as a source by the Wikipedia (which is to damn with faint praise) and appears weekly on TechTalk radio in Chicago. You can follow his pedantic ramblings at www.jaygarmon.net.
  • Matthew Sanborn Smith - Matthew Sanborn Smith is a dead-sexy writer of short stories whose work has appeared at Chizine, Albedo One and Challenging Destiny and will soon appear in GUD Magazine and Tor.com. He regularly swabs the decks of the StarShipSofa and sometimes contributes to its podcast. He podcasts his own damn self at Beware The Hairy Mango.
  • Jessica Strider - Jessica Strider works once a week at a major bookstore in Toronto. The other 6 days are spent reading books, taking pictures, acting as a pillow for 2 kitties and cooking. Her in store SFF newsletter, the Sci-Fi Fan Letter, eventually evolved into a blog for author interviews, themed reading lists, book reviews and more. She plans to have a novel published one day.
  • John H. Stevens - John H. Stevens is a writer, bookseller, fantastika geek, and bibliophile who is in his fourth decade of being an SF fan. When not doing something bookish or writerly he is raising a disarmingly precocious toddler. He is working on a novel and several short stories and is a contributor to the Apex Book Company blog.
  • Paul Weimer - Not really a Prince of Amber, but rather an ex-pat New Yorker that has found himself living in Minnesota for the last 8 years, Paul Weimer has been reading SF and Fantasy for over 30 years and exploring the world of roleplaying games for over 25 years. Almost as long as he has been reading and watching movies, he has enjoyed telling people what he has thought of them. In addition to his reading and gaming interests, he can be found at his own blog, Blog Jvstin Style, the Functional Nerds, the SF Signal Community, Twitter, Livejournal and many other places on the Internet. And one day he will write his own “trunk novel”.
  • Josh Vogt - Josh Vogt is a fantasy author alongside freelance writing and editing. He’s represented by Folio Lit to get an urban fantasy novel on the shelves. In the meantime, he reviews genre books as the Speculative Fiction Examiner. Aside from his author website, JRVogt.com, he also compiles writing and publishing resources at Write-Strong.com and can be found on Twitter @JRVogt.
  • Regan Wolfrom - Regan Wolfrom is a writer, startup cofounder, and fair-weather political hack. His fiction can be found in On Spec Magazine and his blog, but most often in half-completed documents on one or more of his many “vintage” computers.
  • Brian Ruckley - Brian is an author with a tiny handful of short stories and four novels to his name: the fantasy trilogy The Godless World, and a stand-alone historical horror thriller The Edinburgh Dead, all four published by Orbit. He lives in Edinburgh, where he divides what little reading time he has almost equally between books and comics. He blogs at www.brianruckley.com, and occasionally as a guest at Orbit’s blog, has both a personal page and a Godless World fan page on Facebook, and is thinking about twittering but hasn’t taken the plunge just yet. His favourite food is spaghetti carbonara, and his favourite drink is usually tea but sometimes coffee.
  • Jaym Gates – Jaym Gates wears a lot of hats: freelance genre publicist and editor by day, stage manager by night. In the chinks of unoccupied time, she writes, trains horses and collects books in the event of someday having time to read. She can be found on Twitter as @JaymGates, or online at jaymgates.com.
  • Nick Sharps – Nick Sharps is an Advertising major at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He is passionate about movies, video games and music, but literature remains his one true love. More of Nick’s reviews can be found at Elitist Book Reviews and his personal blog, Goatfairy Review Blog.
  • Justin Landon – Justin Landon is the Overlord of the genre blog Staffer’s Book Review (and occasional musings). When he’s not writing things of dubious value, he’s at the gym or being a dad. You can follow him on Twitter (@jdiddyesquire), which is strongly suggested lest you miss out on vital information that could someday save your life.
  • Kristin Centorcelli – Kristin is a mom of 3 whose superpower is useless movie trivia. The inmates run the asylum, but in moments of quiet, she reviews speculative fiction for her own review blog, My Bookish Ways, and contributes to a few other sites where she indulges her other love of crime fiction. She’s known for her massive library which has already taken over the house, and threatens the entire block. Eventually she will finish her English degree and begin raking in the big bucks, but until then, reviewing books makes her deliriously happy, as does boxed wine, Supernatural, and traveling the world as a secret agent. One of those things isn’t true.
  • Carrie Cuinn – Carrie Cuinn is an author, editor, bibliophile, modernist, and geek. In her spare time she reads, draws, makes things, takes other things apart, and sometimes gets a new tattoo. You can find her on twitter as @CarrieCuinn and online at http://carriecuinn.com.
  • Timothy C. Ward – Timothy C. Ward wakes up at 3am for kickboxing, writes SF/F/and Horror during his day job, and podcasts in the evening as AudioTim. His first short story publication will be in the Monsters! anthology by A Flame in the Dark. His first non-trunked novel, Kaimerus, is described as “Firefly crashes on Avatar and wakes up 28 Days Later.” His dream is writing full-time where he can snowboard and play with Huskies. Currently, he lives in Des Moines and his wife lets him have a Husky wall calendar, so he’s “this” close.
  • Bryan Thomas Schmidt – Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an author and editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His debut novel, The Worker Prince(2011) received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club’s Year’s Best Science Fiction Releases for 2011. A sequel The Returning followed in 2012 and The Exodus will appear in 2013, completing the space opera Saga Of Davi Rhii. His first children’s books, 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Jokes For Kids (ebook only) and Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter- Land Of Legends (forthcoming) appeared from Delabarre Publishing in 2012. His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online. He edited the anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 (2012) and is working on Beyond The Sun for Fairwood Press, headlined by Robert Silverberg, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mike Resnick and Nancy Kress, a Ray Gun Revival Best Of Collection for Every Day Publishing and World Encounters and Space & Shadows: SpecNoir with coeditor John Helfers, all forthcoming. He hosts #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer’s Chat) Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on Twitter and is an affiliate member of the SFWA.
  • Carl V. Anderson – Carl V. Anderson of Stainless Steel Droppings traces his love of science fiction to a small Nebraska farmhouse, where his uncle’s small bedroom bookshelf contained paperback portals whose covers and stories transported him to worlds that fired his young imagination. Memories of experiencing certain stories for the first time are like frozen moments in time. He can recall with perfect clarity the scene in which he first discovered The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat, the Harry Harrison creation for which his blog is named. While science fiction and fantasy are the major underpinnings of Stainless Steel Droppings, one is just as likely to find a treatise on the joys of period films like Pride and Prejudice as one is to find the ravings of a speculative fiction fanatic. His passions for art, particularly sf/f illustration, music, film, and literature (read: books!) are what fuel his pontifications. If he can inspire others to these same passions by exposing artists, authors, and musicians to a larger audience through Stainless Steel Droppings, then he is truly over the moon.

SF Signallers of Days Past

  • John Anealio – John Anealio writes songs about science fiction and fantasy. Alternate-tuned acoustic guitar picking, soaring synthesizers, and catchy pop hooks power his odes to androids, princesses, and vampires. He posts said songs, along with remixes and podcasts, as free MP3 downloads to his blog, http://scifisongs.blogspot.com/ every week. Anealio’s ascent to Sci-Fi music super-stardom began on that fateful day when he composed a catchy tune to John DeNardo’s (SF Signal’s poet laureate) lyrical tribute to Summer Glau. The sheet music to his song “The Ballad of Wilson Cole” will be appearing in the appendix of Mike Resnick’s upcoming novel: Starship: Flagship published by Pyr.
  • Aidan Moher – Aidan Moher is the editor of A Dribble of Ink, a humble little blog that exists in some dusty corner of the web. He hasn’t won any awards, or published any novels. But he’s, uhh… working on that. Stay tuned.
  • Kevin B. – Kevin is our resident game creator/distributor (check them out at APEGames). No science fiction games though…..yet. Kevin also finds time to read in short supply. He’s usually getting his butt kicked at UT2004 instead of reading. We’re not sure if Kevin can be called a fanboy of anything. Maybe zombie movies.
  • Matt Cardin – Matt Cardin ranks among the foremost authors of contemporary American horror” (Laird Barron). “Matt Cardin is the most underrated horror writer in America” (Tim Lebbon). “It’s a bold writer who, in this day and age, tries to make modern horror fiction out of theology, but Cardin pulls it off” (Darrell Schweitzer). “In the tradition of Poe and Lovecraft, Cardin’s accomplishments as a writer are paralleled by his expertise as a literary critic and theorist” (Thomas Ligotti). “Dark Awakenings offers the dream imagery of the best weird fiction but goes even further beyond the ordinary thanks to Matt Cardin’s fierce intellect” (Nick Mamatas). “Matt Cardin is becoming a kind of expert on the subject of the relationship between religion and horror” (Mario Guslandi). “Matt Cardin’s stories display a thorough appreciation of what cosmic horror is all about” (Brian McNaughton). “Matt Cardin is one of those rare horror authors who is also a true scholar and intellectual” (Jack Haringa).
  • Scott A. Cupp – Scott A. Cupp started collecting books in 1967 when he moved to San Antonio with three paperbacks. He still has one of those initial three volumes. Along the way he has had thousands of titles and volumes, many of them signed. He has purged and bought again, more times than he can remember. He once was even a co-owner of a specialty bookstore, Adventures in Crime and Space, where he placed more money than was good for him and took home way too many books. He counts many writers as close personal friends (which means he cannot knowingly sell their books). He has also been a writer of mystery, fantasy, western, and other stuff, non-fiction, comic books, and other ephemera over the last 20 years. He co-edited Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard with Joe R. Lansdale (his ownself) which earned a World Fantasy nomination for Best Original Anthology. He likes books. A lot. You can see some of his fiction and an old photo on his website www.scottacupp.com.
  • Rhonda Eudaly – Rhonda Eudaly lives in Arlington, Texas with her husband, and stepdog. She’s worked in offices, banking, radio, live sound production, and education to support her writing. She has a varied publication history in both fiction and non-fiction many of which can be found on www.RhondaEudaly.com.
  • Fabio Fernandes – Fabio Fernandes is a writer living in São Paulo, Brazil. Also a journalist and translator, he is responsible for the Brazilian translations of several prominent SF novels including Neuromancer, Snow Crash, and A Clockwork Orange. His short stories have been published in Brazil, Portugal, Romania, England, and USA, and in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded. There’s another story coming up in The Apex Book of World SF, Vol. II, ed. by Lavie Tidhar, in 2011.
  • Clifton Hill – Clifton Hill is an aspiring fantasy novelist and freelance digital artist. You can find him on his blog and twitter where he enjoys a good chat about books and other media in the sci-fi and fantasy domain. Occasionally you can see some of his art which runs the gamut from 3D work, to illustrations and more. Drawn into genre fiction with the works of Asimov in the early years, he moved on to love videogames and drawing. (Recent favorites include Jordan, Martin, Rowling, Sanderson, etc.) Immersion in the media eventually blossomed an epic fantasy story idea, only to be shelved while other pursuits were…well…pursued. Rediscovering the love of writing, Clifton has written a short story, started several others, and is near to finishing an epic fantasy novel on a mythical warrior called Hestea Hammerblood. Excerpts of his writing are available on his blog where he likes to talk about the process, books, and whatever else may pop up.
  • John Ottinger III – John Ottinger III is the proprietor of the popular SF/F blog Grasping for the Wind. His reviews, interviews and articles have appeared in Publisher’s Weekly, The Fix, Sacramento Book Review, Stephen Hunt’s SFCrowsnest, Thaumatrope, and at Tor.com.
  • Jamie Todd Rubin – Jamie Todd Rubin is a science fiction writer, blogger, and software developer. His fiction has appeared in InterGalactic Medicine Show, Apex Magazine, and (forthcoming) in Analog. He fell in love with science fiction at seven, around the same time he fell in love with science. He is especially fond of short fiction. When he is not writing stories, blogging, or creating software, he can be found making not-so-subtle attempts at turning his toddler into a science fiction fan. Jamie vacations frequently in the Golden Age of science fiction.
  • Scott Shaffer – Scott typically plays games or reads, in that order, when he can fit those activities into his busy schedule. This schedule forces him to play games that take about 20 hours to complete and finish them in about 2 days. We think he doesn’t sleep. Scott has also been branded, by a recognizable bank, as a Star Wars Enthusiast.
  • Dave Tackett – Dave is a long time fantasy, science fiction, and horror fan, who can never make up his mind which genre or medium he likes best. He runs the QuasarDragon blog and has numerous other hobbies and interests to drain him of time and money. Dave is an eccentric dilettante.
  • Lee Thomas – Lee Thomas is the Lambda Literary Award and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of the novels Stained, Damage, and The Dust of Wonderland, and the critically acclaimed short story collection, In the Closet, Under the Bed. Current and forthcoming titles include the novellas The Black Sun Set, Focus, and Crisis. His novel, The German, will be released in March 2011 from Lethe Press. You can find him online at www.leethomasauthor.com.
  • T.N. Tobias – T.N. Tobias is a writer and literary aficionado living in Columbus, OH. He blogs about books and writing at tnt-tek.com.
  • Peter Tzinski - Pete is a freelance writer, a wrangler of a small child, and a tea-sozzled, cat-hair-covered gentleman of adventure who is beginning to fear that all of the books in his house will soon topple and bury him. His short fiction can be found in various publications on and off the internet. He is attending university for a degree in literature, because he knows that there are a lot of extremely high-paying jobs in that field and it will make him rich and famous.
  • Terry Weyna – Terry still remembers the moment she first understood how to read. Reading struck her as miraculous then, and she has never had any reason to reconsider that opinion. She currently reads virtually anything that holds still long enough, but has a special interest in fantasy and horror, especially those works that fall into the realm variously described as New Weird, slipstream or interstitial fiction, whether published as genre fiction or mainstream fiction. Terry maintains her personal blog at Reading the Leaves. When she must, Terry practices law, as she has for 28 years; but she’d almost always rather be reading. Terry lives in Northern California with her husband, Fred White, the author (most recently) of The Daily Writer: 366 Meditations to Cultivate a Productive and Meaningful Writing Life (Writer’s Digest Books, 2008). They share their home with the imperious Cordelia Cat Weyna-White, who demands incessant petting, and some 12,000 books, nearly all of which constantly clamor to be read or reread next. While most people would find it a quiet home, for two bookworms and cat lovers with active imaginations the place can get pretty noisy.
  • Tim Z. – We’re not sure how exactly Tim got in, but he’s here and occasionally posts a relevant entry. Tim likes World of Warcraft, even if it is a derivative of EverQuest, and would play games all day if his wife, and work, would let him. He is a self-proclaimed Star Wars fanboy.

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