Guests of Octocon

Ken MacLeod is an award winning Scottish science fiction writer with a diverse background including zoology and biomechanics. Author of the Fall Revolution and Engines of Light series he regularly explores political and social issues in a space opera setting. He is well known for using his experience in computing to paint a more realistic future involving a technological singularity ("the rapture for nerds") and Strong AI. His latest book The Execution Channel has already been shortlisted for the BSFA Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

For those who have seen him (Or rather experienced him)at previous Octocons will know John Vaughan is a one man entertainment engine , he’s fast, funny and often furious. A long time Octocon regular, John will be hosting his annual Vault of Horror Saturday Night. ( He swore to us this was a once off SEVEN YEARS AGO!)

John started off as your more or less typical manic movie enthusiast, spending a lot of time telling everyone how he would make his own movies. But unlike so many others, however, John has since become a Award winning film maker, honing his craft with short films such as "The Boogieman" and "Valour" (a war story which recieved it’s world premiere at 2004’s Octocon and has been shown at Twenty Six International Festivals worldwide representing Irish Cinema). His Latest film “My Dad” was premiered at last years Octocon, and was enjoyed by all.

In September 2007, Peadar Ó Guilín published his first novel, The Inferior, which the Times Educational Supplement called "a stark, dark tale, written with great energy and confidence and some arresting reflections on human nature." Foreign editors liked it too, and over the coming year it is to be translated into seven languages, including Japanese and Korean.

His fantasy and SF short stories have appeared in numerous venues, including Black Gate magazine and an anthology celebrating the best of the iconic Weird Tales. He is currently working on a sequel to his first novel and a comic about a secretive elephant.

Peadar lives in Dublin, where he toils day and night for a giant computer corporation.

Derek Gunn was born in Ireland in 1964. He lives in Dublin, Ireland with his wife and three children and by day works for a multi-national telecommunications company. An avid fan of Horror and Science Fiction from an early age, and dabblings at writing short stories as a teenager, he began writing again in earnest, in 2001.

Derek has had stories published in horror antholoogies from Black Death Books and Permuted Press and his debut novel, Vampire Apocalypse: A World Torn Asunder, was released in the US and UK last year by genre publisher, Black Death Books and has been described as “….one of the best debut novels.... an incredibly original piece of fiction that keeps the reader turning the pages. “ Horror-web, June ’07, ”This is the book that takes Vampires and turns them into a Summer Blockbuster..... If you want horror that is laced with action then go no further", Gorezone, September ‘07

Within 3 months of it’s release, Vampire Apocalypse was optioned for film/tv by veteren Hollywood producer/screenwriter, Richard Finney. “this novel puts forth a [new] take on the universe….The original concept will allow us as filmmakers to explore new terrain in the subgenre”.

Michael Carroll is five hundred and two months old and has not had a proper job since before the turn of the century.

Michael has written a large number of SF and fantasy novels for the Young Adult market, as well as one for the Old Adult market. Under the name Jaye Carroll he has written four not-entirely-rubbish romance novels.

His most recent project is the successful and highly-praised New Heroes series, including the recently published, limited-edition, short story collection Superhuman. These books are the first superhero novels in the world, ever, and you should read them (visit the New Heroes website at www.TheNewHeroes.co.uk for lots more information about the series!).

Like many writers of imaginative fiction, Michael suffers from single-personality disorder. Despite this, he has had some success with his novels, especially the ones that have been published.

Michael has contributed to a huge number of newspapers, websites, magazines, comics and small-press publications, many of which are actually quite respectable. Less respectable titles he has been published in include 2000 AD, FutureQuake, SFX, Judge Dredd Megazine and Solar Wind.

Michael lives in Dublin with his staggeringly beautiful wife Leonia.

Robert Curley has been selling comics for over a decade. From humble beginnings in the Grafton Flea market in 1993, to opening up Sub - City in 1994 and then a second branch in Galway in 1997. Sub - City is the only comic store in Ireland with 2 branches.

Rob set up publishing companyAtomic Diner in 2003 and released In Dublin City and the fantastic Naked Lunch. In 2004, he launched his flagship title, Freak Show, which he also writes and which garnered international success and was nominated for an Eagle award, the comic book Oscars. Freakshow is so far the only Eagle nominated Irish Title.

So far, Freak Show has sold in excess of 18000 copies, the majority of sales in America.

His latest project is Atomic Rocket Group 66, a 1950s superhero pastiche, and he also has planned a new ongoing title set in Ireland in the 1860s called Hibernia which will weave together Ireland's political past, her rich history and numerous fables.

This is Rob's third appearance as a guest at Octocon and we are delighted to have him return, his panels are always informative and humorous in equal measure!

Though C.E. Murphy was born and raised in Alaska, she has never watched a single episode of Northern Exposure or helped a film crew simulate terrorist attacks on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. She has, though, been forced to convince people that she neither lives in an igloo, rides a polar bear, nor has a penguin for a pet. Those who are surprised by the last detail should consider perusing a National Geographic after they have finished reading her book.

C.E., who goes by Catie in real life, has held the usual grab-bag of jobs usually seen in an authorial biography, including public library volunteer (at ages 9 and 10; it's clear she was doomed to a career involving books), cannery worker, and web designer, the last of which her employers saw fit to dismiss her from just as she sold a new series of books and promised to turn them in every four months. She is grateful for the karmic justice done there.

. Catie has written the fantastic Walker Papers series, and has a new urban fantasy trilogy almost out, with the first book Heart of Stone published in November 2007, and the second title, House of Cards launched a mere four months later.

She also writes the action-adventure romance novels The Strongbox Chronicles as Cate Dermody.

Her hobbies include swimming, walking, travelling, drawing, and moose-wrestling. Catie is always funny and bubbly, and you should have no problem tracking her down during the con - you'll be able to hear her laughing from some distance away...

Sarah Rees Brennan was born and raised in Ireland by the sea, where her teachers valiantly tried to make her fluent in Irish, but she chose to read books under her desk in class instead. After living briefly in New York and doing a Creative Writing MA and library work in Surrey, England, Sarah has returned to Ireland to write. Her Irish is still woeful, but she feels the books under the desk were worth it.

Her first book is The Demon's Lexicon.

There can’t be many science fiction fans who haven’t heard of Harry Harrison. He was born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1925, then at the age of eighteen was drafted. Thanks to his high academic scores, Harry was given the choice of where he would serve: army, air force or navy. Harry chose the air force because “they had thiry-five men on the ground for every one in the air – much better odds than being a grunt!”

In Air Corps Harry worked on top-secret military computers, as an armorer and gunnery instructor, and – promoted to sergeant – as a Military Policeman.

After the war, Harry began his SF career as an illustrator: he teamed up with Wally Wood to draw comics for Fox and EC, and soon found himself re-writing the often barely-literate scripts. It wasn’t long before he was writing his own scripts, and then editing and publishing comics.

Harry’s first short story was published in 1950 in Worlds Beyond, written because he’d been stricken with the flu and was too ill to draw. Within a couple of years he’d stopped illustrating completely to focus on his writing.

The author of over 60 novels and 120 short stories, Harry is one of those rare writers who is equally accomplished in a wide variety of styles, including adventure (The Deathworld Trilogy), parody (Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers), manic humor (Bill, the Galactic Hero, The Technicolor Time Machine), drama (Make Room! Make Room!, Skyfall), fantasy (The Hammer and the Cross, Stonehenge), and alternative history (West of Eden, Stars & Stripes).

Harry’s most enduring creation – The Stainless Steel Rat – began life as a short story in 1957, was expanded to a novel in 1961, and has since spawned a further nine novels chronicling the life and crimes of the legendary interstellar crook. In November 2008, Gollancz will be reprinting an omnibus edition of the first three Rat novels – an ideal opportunity for new fans to catch up on Slippery Jim’s hilarious adventures.

Since Harry’s first appearance at an Octocon in 1997 he has consistently been one of the convention’s most popular guests, and we are delighted to have him return this most appropriate year, for 2008 is The Year of the Rat!

See Harry’s official website at www.harryharrison.com and Harry Harrison News Blog at http://harryharrison.wordpress.com/