C. M. Alongi
Christina M. Alongi is a sci-fi/fantasy author and content creator, best known for her ongoing TikTok series CaFae Latte. Her debut novel Citadel was nominated for the 2023 Minnesota Book Award, and The Official CaFae Latte Cookbook (written alongside her mother and fellow author Maryjanice Davidson) hit several Amazon bestseller lists. This year, she has two fantasy novels coming out: The Witch Who Trades with Death (by Angry Robot Books) and the long-anticipated CaFae Latte novel Heart of Iron. She lives in Minneapolis, MN, and when she’s not writing or creating, she’s getting tangled in yarn projects and protecting her furniture from her roommates’ evil cats. You can check out her website www.cmalongi.com and find her on social media.
T. Aaron Cisco
2024 Guest of Honor.
T. Aaron Cisco is an Amazon Bestselling author, a multi-award-winning TV producer, and even a former touring musician. Working primarily in the genres of contemporary Afrofuturism, science fiction, and fantasy, Cisco crafts narratives that are as captivating as they are groundbreaking. Cisco sees his work as a megaphone for the overlooked and marginalized—giving voice to characters, themes, and stories that challenge stereotypes and upend prejudices. When you dive into a T. Aaron Cisco tale, you’re not just reading a story; you’re engaging with an art form that treats identity and equality as its narrative backbone. From his debut work, Teleportality, to his latest enigmatic pieces like The Unbanished, The Unrested, and Before Asleep You Fall, you’re stepping into worlds where the merit of each character—be they male, female, white, or non-white—is not up for debate; it’s simply a given.
If you find Cisco’s storytelling unusually concise yet potent, there’s a reason: His origins in the frenetic world of television have sharpened his craft to a fine point. Back in his news and talk show days—and later as a writer of snappy marketing copy and compelling commercials—Cisco learned to captivate an audience in a handful of minutes. This experience has shaped his unique literary style, making each book a tightly woven tapestry of intricate but compact storytelling. Add to this a childhood love affair with the works of Edgar Allan Poe, a master of the novella, and you get a literary style that delivers each story like a well-aimed arrow; short, piercing, and on target.
From Minneapolis by way of Chicago, Cisco has achieved much, not just as an author but as a cultural influencer. His works have frequently adorned Amazon’s bestseller lists, with The Unbanished, Rod String Nail Cloth: An Afrofuturist Mixtape, and Black Nerd Blue Box: The Wibbly Wobbly Memoirs of a Lonely Whovian clinching the number one spot. But his influence extends far beyond the printed word. His work has been showcased across various media platforms, including NBC, ABC, KSTP, TPT, Insight News, Axis of Logic, and Twin Cities Geeks. A collection of accolades decorate his career—local Emmy awards, international speaking engagements, the MN Society of Professional Journalists Page One Award, a distinguished spot on Hennepin County Libraries’ Minnesota Black Authors list, and a title as one of the Ten Black Change-Makers Influencing the Twin Cities Arts Scene. More than anything, T. Aaron Cisco is an ardent advocate of the simple yet profound concept he calls “squee”—the utter joy and excitement that comes from sharing stories and life with others…
Debbie David
1999 Guest of Honor
Debbie David is an actress who appeared as a regular background performer on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. She also appeared in Star Trek Generations and the 1996 video game Star Trek: Klingon. In addition, she worked as a stand-in for Brent Spiner on The Next Generation, for Robert Duncan McNeill on Voyager, and for several guest actors. As a background performer she received no credit for any of her appearances.
David spoke her first line in The Slumber Party Massacre (1982). She further appeared in several films including the 1990 action thriller Catchfire, with Dean Stockwell and stunts by Janet Bradyand Tom Huff, television series such as Cheers(1990, episode “Bar Wars III: The Return of Tecumseh” with Kirstie Alley, Kelsey Grammer, Bebe Neuwirth, Keith Rayve, Ree Kai, Ivonne Perez, Don Bennett, Alex Landi, Joycelyn Robinson, Nyra Crenshaw, Natalie Wood, Alex Zimmerman, Mark Watson, and Melba Gonzalez, 1991 episode “Cheers Has Chili” with Kirstie Alley, Kelsey Grammer, Bebe Neuwirth, Don Bennett, Bruce Dobos, Randy James, Ray Petersen, Keith Rayve, and Rebecca Soladay, and 1991 episode “Get Your Kicks on Route 666” with Kirstie Alley, Kelsey Grammer, Bebe Neuwirth, Jay Crimp, Harry Young, Rebecca Soladay, Renna Bogdanowicz, Lee Allen, Don Bennett, Mikki Val, and Curt Truman), Angel and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and television commercials for labels such as McDonald’s (1980). In 1991, David appeared as a prison guard in the first part of Dynasty: The Reunion.
Together with her wife, she took over the aaah!Capella theater in the Noho Arts district in North Hollywood, California in 1996. The club became famous as the “Club Dragopolis” with a special fan community of transgender people and several famous guests who stepped onto the stage of the club, including Jack Nicholson, Steve Guttenberg, and B.B. King. She took the name Debbie David and served as emcee and hostess after she revealed that her gender assigned at birth was different than her actual identity. David continued to appear in films such as I Was a Teenage Dragqueen as well as working as a director, writer, and talent scout. Debbie was our very first Media Guest of Honor at MarsCon.
Catherine Lundoff
2022 Guest of Honor
Catherine Lundoff is an award-winning queer writer, editor and publisher from Minneapolis where she lives with her wife, artist Jana Pullman, and the cats who own them. By day, she is a professional computer geek, and by night, she does…a lot of other things. She is the author of over 100 published short stories and essays which have appeared in such venues as Fireside Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, the SFWA Blog, Dream Foundry, Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives, American Monsters Part 2, World of Darkness: Ghost Hunters, Haunting Shadows (Wraith the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Anthology) and The Cainite Conspiracies (Vampire the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Anthology) and is the winner of a 2021 writer’s grant from Ladies of Horror Fiction.
Her books include the Wolves of Wolf’s Point Series: Silver Moon and Blood Moon, Unfinished Business: Tales of the Dark Fantastic, Out of This World: Queer Speculative Fiction Stories and A Day at the Inn, A Night at the Palace and Other Stories. She is also the editor of the anthologies Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space) and Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories and co-editor (with JoSelle Vanderhooft) of Hellebore and Rue: Tales of Queer Women and Magic. In addition, she has written erotica and erotic romance as Emily L. Byrne, including the novel Medusa’s Touch and the short story collections Desire and Knife’s Edge.
She is also the publisher at Queen of Swords Press, a genre fiction publisher specializing in fiction from out of this world. Queen of Swords Press publishes work by Jennie Goloboy, Rem Wigmore, A.J. Fitzwater, Heather Rose Jones, Alex Acks and Catherine’s own books, as well as work by other authors, including author Michael Merriam. She also teaches writing and editing workshops at the Rambo Academy, Springboard for the Arts, Clarion West (online) and other venues. Sometimes, she also sleeps, reads, goes to cons and performs in online amateur theatrical productions.
Queen of Swords Press: https://queenofswordspress.com
Author website: https://catherinelundoff.net
Faith MacGregor
Faith MacGregor loves that stories connect readers to struggles and ideals. Her stories focus on finding purpose while fighting prejudice, heartache, and pain – a goal which reflects our journey through life. Despite being fantasy stories, the characters she writes are deeply rooted in human behavior – behavior she is very familiar with after completing several tours in the U.S. Army both as Infantry and later in military intelligence. Faith has continued to study human behavior as a civilian and still works in intelligence to this day.
During her free time, Faith is an instructor in historical martial arts, president of Women in Cyber Security Pride-LGBTQ+ Affiliate, and founder of the women veteran’s task force in Minnesota, where she lives with her wife and two dogs. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Ancient History and two Master’s degrees, one in Intelligence Studies and another in Cyber Security.
Faith’s debut novel, Children of Angels, tells a story where mercy, hatred, and vengeance take center stage and characters search for purpose in desperate times. Website: www.faithmacgregor.com
Michael Merriam
2024 Guest of Honor
Michael Merriam is an award-winning author, performer, playwright, and screenwriter. He is the author of the steampunk and Weird Western series Sixguns & Sorcery, and his essays and stories have appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Cast of Wonders, and Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. His latest novel from Queen of Swords Press is Last Car to Annwn Station. He has published a dozen books and over 100 pieces of short fiction and poetry. His scripts have been produced for stage and radio, and he has appeared in the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Not-So-Silent Planet, StoryFest Minnesota, and over the air on KFAI and Minnesota Public Radio. Like most artists, he has worked a variety of odd jobs over the years, including short order cook, late night radio disc jockey, international freight specialist, Rock-a-billy bassist, and manager of a puppet troupe. He lives in Minneapolis, MN, with his wife, housemate, an elderly dog, and two exuberant cats. Visit his website at www.michaelmerriam.com.
G. David Nordley
2013 Guest of Honor
G. David Nordley was born and raised in Minneapolis and Golden Valley, Minnesota. His main interest as a writer is the future of human exploration and settlement of space, and his stories typically focus on the dramatic aspects of individual lives within the broad sweep of a plausible human future. His novella Kremer’s Limit, written with C. Sanford Lowe, appeared in the July/August 2006 issue of Analog. A collection of linked Mars-related stories was published as an electronic book by Scorpius Digital in September 2001, with a print version appearing in 2003 (sold out). His novel To Climb a Flat Mountain(first appearing as a serial in Analog) was published (ebook and print-on-demand) by Variations on a Theme Publishing. He is a four-time winner of the AnLab, the Analog reader’s award for best story or article of the year, and has also been a Hugo and Nebula award nominee.
Website: http://www.gdnordley.com
Ozgur K. Sahin
Ozgur K. Sahin is an internationally award-winning author of the Brethren of the Spanish Main series of historical privateer novels. His first book, The Wrath of Brotherhood won an international Editor’s Choice award from the Historical Novel Society in 2015. More recently, his second book, True Colors, won second place in the Fall 2023 BookFest awards for Historical Nautical Fiction. He is currently working on the final book in his historical pirate series as well as The Narcissism to English Dictionary, with more non-fiction, sci-fi, fantasy and other projects queued up to explore in the future.
Will Shetterly
Will Shetterly is an American writer of fantasy and science fiction best known for his novel Dogland(1997). The novel is inspired by his childhood at the tourist attraction Dog Land owned by his parents. He won the Minnesota Book Award for Fantasy & Science Fiction for his novel Elsewhere(1991),and was a finalist with Nevernever(1993); both books are set in Terri Windling‘s The Borderland Series shared universe. He has also written short stories for various Borderland anthologies.
(Credit: Wikipedia)
Kathryn Sullivan
2020 Guest of Honor
Kathryn Sullivan has been writing science fiction and fantasy since she was 14 years old. Having read her father’s collection of sf and fantasy, she started writing her own. The world set up in The Crystal Throne has been developing since then. Some of the short stories escaped into fan zines, print zines and ezines, but those were collected into Agents & Adepts. And now even more have been added to the expanded Agents, Adepts & Apprentices. She has an essay in the Hugo winning Chicks Dig Time Lords and reviews in Outside In and Outside In Boldly Goes: 117 New Perspectives on 117 Classic Star Trek Stories. “Search and Rescue” and “The Oracle of Cilens” are just a couple of her short stories. Any birdlike beings in her books only slightly resemble her cockatoo owner.
David Walbridge
Ghost and humor writer, specalizing in books for business speakers, David Walbridge writes funny. He can be found in: bigfunshow.com, procomedywriting.com, plus Facebook, Twitter and whatever’s next. His shows include The Big Fun Show! and Dr. R.E. Cycle. He is a former Feast Master for the Minnesota Renaissance Festival and former Lead Teacher at American Comedy Writing Convention. If you have a play writing emergency, he’s probably the guy to call.
