Tara K. Harper was born in 1961, in the year of the first, manned, suborbital hop. Although she was raised in northwest Oregon with cats, dogs, chickens, rabbits, and horses, hers was a truly nuclear family. Her father had worked in a nuclear lab analyzing radioactive cloud samples from Russian atomic test blasts; her mother had been a uranium buyer. Tara K. Harper's first electronic toy was an oscilloscope.

Competitive, driven, and passionate about her beliefs, she freely admits that she can be as irritating as a two-ounce flea in a sleeping bag. She enjoys a good discussion, refuses to take herself too seriously, and is often accused of being a thrill-seeker. In four words? Eclectic, eccentric, opinionated, blunt--but as some say, that's just her dark side...

In 1979, Harper won a journalism honor and a communications scholarship, and enrolled at the University of Oregon. She worked nights in a cannery, fished to feed her cat, and lived in a filbert orchard while studying physics, mathematics, and journalism. Uncertain as to whether she should pursue a career in physics, music, writing or space science, she attended the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. At the same time, she served an internship as science journalist on The World newspaper (Coos Bay, OR).

In 1984, Harper graduated from U of O with a Bachelor of Science. She returned to northwest Oregon and immediately took a job with a company in R&D high-tech, test and measurement. This allowed her to make enough money to support her personal research (aka vacations) in engineering, genetics, virology, and other disciplines. Her fiction writing was, at that time, a hobby--something for weekends and evenings.

By the end of 1988, Harper had completed four science-fiction novels. Under forcible pressure from a friend, she sought an agent. Her first novel was accepted at Del Rey Books (an imprint of Random House) six months later, and she saw Wolfwalker published in 1990. The novel was an immediate best-seller, and Harper's career moved quickly forward.

Currently, Harper is the author of nine science-fiction novels, including the best-selling and critically acclaimed Wolfwalker series and Cat Scratch series, as well as other stories. Her work is available internationally in a variety of languages and as books on tape. Two of her novels, Cat Scratch Fever and Wolf's Bane, were nominated for the Oregon Book Awards. She has also received numerous awards for science writing, has been Guest of Honor at several conventions, and was nominated in 1999 to a University of Oregon inaugural Hall of Achievement. In late 1999, she was a Guest Speaker at the Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C.

Harper credits the realism of the action in her novels to a lifetime of competition and participation in outdoor and athletic activities. She attributes her overall success as a novelist to a diverse academic background; extensive experience in fending off wild and feral animals; a continuing involvement in science; and in-depth experiments in drowning. Other activities have included archery, shooting, rock-climbing, waterpolo, soccer, sailing, scuba diving, fencing, and martial arts. In the latter two fields, she competed nationally and internationally. (She also earned the nickname TKO, but that is a different story.) Active in community service, Harper currently teaches creative writing for an alternative school, trains youth in wilderness skills, and serves on the board of directors for a youth treatment center.

In winter, she travels with heavy-duty hiking boots, snowshoes, and an emergency stove; in summer, she leaves the snowshoes behind--sometimes. She refuses to buy any more fire extinguishers--she claims that buying an extinguisher guarantees she will have a fire. Upon reflection, she says she really doesn't know why so many things keep happening to her. Although she claims to have only one good joint left in her body (her left elbow), Harper continues to hike, shoot, camp and canoe, and still claims she wants to be a stunt-person.

Aaron Williams’ first cartoon was published in Dragon magazine in 1989. He was 19 years old, and it was drawn on typing paper with a flair-tipped pen. He’s come a long way since then. His work has been published in Dragon Magazine, Dungeon Magazine, and Amazing Stories. While starting his career in cartooning, he worked as an artist for Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages. In 2000 he took a leap and decided to take the Nodwick cartoon strip he’d created and turn it into a comic book. It’s the story of a henchman used and abused by his companions on their many quests to save the world, find treasure, and right the wrongs done by evil.

The bulk of his work today involves putting out two comic books on a bi-monthly basis. Taking real life and turning it into something funny is a talent he has always had. Aaron grew up in a home full of educators, and then he decided to marry one. What would any normal person in this situation do? Why, create a comic book about all of the stories you are bombarded with on a daily basis. And so, ps238 was born. This is a comic about a school for the children of super heroes. Training, mentoring and educating children can be a task; add flight, laser beams, and super strength to the mix and you get nothing but pure hilarity.

Aaron has been know to dabble in watercolors occasionally, and when his wife pulls him away from the studio, he’ll often head down to the workshop for feats of mad science and carpentry. He has lived in Kansas City for almost 10 years now, and in Missouri most of his life.

For anyone interested in Aaron’s work, his webpage can be found at www.nodwick.com. It is updated weekly, with a chance for fans to chat with him through Live Journal. Both Nodwick and ps238 can be found across the United States and internationally at a comic shop near you. If not, look on-line. Aaron will ship them to you, complete with autograph.

For darn near two decades, Tom Smith, The World's Fastest Filker, has been breaking hearts, crippling minds, and dropping jaws across the country and around the world.

Sometimes it's with the slow, gorgeous stuff ("Starlight & Saxophone", "Storm Dancing", "A Dragon's Lullaby"). Sometimes it's the dark and dramatic ("Hellraiser", "PQR", "Bullet Time"). Sometimes it's the flat-out rockin' ("Bermuda Triangle", "Rocket Ride", "And They Say I've Got Talent").

But mostly it's the puns. And the godawful jokes that make you choke on your own laughter. And the audacity with which he throws 'em around. "Smurfin' Safari", "Five Years", "I Want To Be Peter Lorre", "Domino Death", "Sheep Marketing Ploy (The Ballad of Fenton)", "Divine Irregularity", "Telly Taley Heart", "Honey-Glazed Ham", "House At Cthulhu Corner", "Psychic Voicemail Hotline", "Dead Potters", "Badger Pajama", "The Illuminati Polka", "Talk Like A Pirate Day"....

Tom's got ten albums, dozens of other unrecorded songs, twelve Pegasus Awards for Excellence in Filk, an animated music video ("Enterprising Man" from the second Babylon Park video), and hundreds of stunned, delighted onlookers in his wake.

Tom's concerts are always high-energy, and because the news of the day usually has him cranked up (or off) about something, he usually has at least two or three new pun-filled ditties, and if he doesn't he'll make something up on the spot. His turns at the late-night filks get even more insane, because his philosophy is that if you've been up all day at the con the LAST thing you need is some monotonous, gore-filled dirge to put you to sleep, and he starts dragging out the really bizarre stuff, and he starts doing voices, and call-backs, and quotes from cartoons or The Muppet Show or Rocky Horror or MST3K, and... look, trust us, it just gets wild.

Rocketed to Earth as an infant to escape the destruction of his home world where his parents had been brutally murdered before his eyes one night in a dark alley, Rob's ship crash landed in a jungle where he was adopted by a friendly gorilla and raised to learn the ways of the jungle. As a teen-ager, Rob re-joined society and quickly enlisted in the army where he was given an experimental formula designed to create the ultimate soldier. After being put on ice for a number of years, Rob ditched the military and got a job at a scientific research facility where he was unfortunately exposed to gamma radiation, beta radiation, delta radiation, cosmic radiation, and a really nasty bite from a radioactive spider.

Well, sort of.

Rob's been bouncing around InConJunction for a number of years now and you can normally find him hosting the "Top 10 Worst Sci-Fi & Horror Movie" panel with Jeff Thompson and Chris Canary. As a mild mannered scientist, Rob's secret identity allows him the chance to develop his plans for world conquest while conducting some pretty twisted experiments. In the past, he's warped the fragile minds of college students at Morris Brown College, Clark-Atlanta University, and Emory University and you can now find him in the Molecular Pathology Laboratory at Ohio State.

"Aaaaaarrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh"
Godzilla in Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, 1974

There is no bigger star of the silver screen than Godzilla, and InConJunction is excited to again have him return as co-host of opening ceremonies.

Few people actually know that the same actor has played Godzilla for 50 over years including all the feature films and both animated television shows. It would also surprise most people to learn that The Big G really isn’t as tall as he is in the movies where he easily towers over most skyscrapers. No, in reality, Godzilla is actually a 65 year old, 13 inch tall actor from Toledo, Ohio who looks like a lizard. And his first name is Steve. When he showed up 4 years ago, we were just as surprised as you are. It was kind of like having a little, green, cranky Garrison Keeler open the show. Doesn’t that sound like something you’d want to see again?

Well, he works cheap so he’s coming back anyway! InConJunction is proud to welcome Godzilla back to help our Toastmaster co-host Opening Ceremonies.

Go, Go, Godzilla!

Updated! Godzilla retires!

Following the completion of his latest film Godzilla: Final Wars, Godzilla has announced his retirement from the entertainment industry and checked himself into the Betty Ford clinic for treatment for an addiction to Flintstone’s Chewable Vitamins. Godzilla has refused all interviews and his whereabouts are currently unknown, although empty vitamin bottles can occasionally be found outside the clinic gates.

Will Godzilla honor his contract and show up at opening ceremonies? Will he kick his 5 tablet a day habit? How did he get hooked in the first place? What about the rumors of him coming between Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt? Who exactly am I talking to? Come to opening ceremonies and find the answers to these and other more relevant questions.