Guests of Honor

David Weber - Writer Guest of Honor

David Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1952. He started writing poetry and short fiction in the fifth grade, and a lifetime of reading, writing, and studying has given him a love of storytelling that shows in his work. In his stories, he creates a consistent and rationally explained technology and society. Even when dealing with fantasy themes, the magical powers are treated like another technology with supporting rational laws and principles.

Many of his stories have military, particularly naval, themes, and fit into the military science fiction genre. He challenges current gender roles in the military by assuming that a gender-neutral military service will exist in his futures, and by frequently placing female leading characters in what have previously been seen as traditionally male roles, he has explored the challenges faced by women in the military and politics.

His most popular and enduring character is Honor Harrington, whose story, together with the "Honorverse" she inhabits, has been developed through 17 novels, four shared-universe anthologies, a young-adult series, and an upcoming "historical" series, written with Timothy Zahn.

Ursula Vernon - Artist Guest of Honor

Ursula Vernon is an author and illustrator, creator of the Hugo award winning webcomic "Digger" and the children's graphic novel series "Dragonbreath." She's also the creator of the painting "The Biting Pear of Salamanca," which those of you on the internet may know as the meme "The LOL WUT pear." She has written one novel, "Nine Goblins" under the pen-name T. Kingfisher. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, beagle, and a great many looming deadlines.

Sally Woerhle - Fan Guest of Honor

I discovered fandom in 1985, after my children decided it really wasn't cool to hang with Mom anymore. Although being an SF fan since my 3rd grade teacher read Heinlein's The Red Planet to the class, it took an appearance of the Dr Who Fan Club of America and The Society of the Rusting Tardis for me to discover "fandom"

I started going to conventions in 1986 when I attended my first Norwescon. Since then I have helped to start Anglicon, a British Media convention and ConComCon, a local convention runners' convention. I have also been on staff for the last 14 Norwescons, 4 Westercons (1 as Chair), a Nasfic and now a WorldCon (as Chair).

Tom Merritt

Tom is an award-winning independent tech podcaster and host of regular tech news and information shows. Tom hosts Sword and Laser, a science fiction and fantasy podcast, and book club with Veronica Belmont. He also hosts several other independent podcasts.