This week, Patrick and Tracy are live from Capricon 42 with a very special, super-sized show filled with great conversations from all of these amazing people:
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- Lauren Jankowski – author of The Shape Shifter Chronicles (Follow Lauren on Twitter)
- Megan Mackie – author of The Finder of the Lucky Devil (Follow Megan on Twitter)
- KM Herkes – author of Rough Passages (Follow KM on Twitter)
- Michi Trota – a 5-time Hugo Award winning and British Award winning editor and writer (Follow Michi on Twitter)
- The Original Cannoli Joe – enabler of cannoli habits (Follow Cannoli Joe on Twitter)
- Todd French – an awesome human being and Extra Nerdy Patron (Follow Todd on Facebook)
- Jason Youngberg – another awesome human being and Extra Nerdy Patron
- Gary K Wolfe – an American science fiction podcaster, editor, critic and biographer, and an emeritus Professor of Humanities at Roosevelt University (Follow Gary on Twitter)
About Lauren Jankowski: Lauren Jankowski, an openly aromantic asexual, adoptee, feminist author from Illinois, has been an avid reader for most of her life. She holds a degree in Women and Genders Studies from Beloit College. In 2015, she founded “Asexual Artists,” a site dedicated to highlighting the contributions of asexual identifying individuals to the arts. To date, she has interviewed over 900 artists.
She has been writing fiction since high school, when she noticed a lack of strong women, particularly queer women and women from non-traditional families, in the popular genre books. When she’s not writing or researching, she enjoys reading (particularly anything relating to ancient myths), playing with her pets, watching ballets, or working on her next cosplay. She hopes to bring more strong heroines to literature, including badass asexual women. As an adoptee, she also hopes to bring more accurate and positive portrayals of non-traditional families to genre.
Her ongoing series, The Shape Shifter Chronicles, is published through Crimson Fox Publishing. Signed paperbacks of the series can be purchased via Lauren’s Square Marketplace or the Crimson Fox Online Store. The books can also be purchased in ebook or paperback format through all major retailers.
About Megan Mackie: Megan Mackie is a writer, actor, and playwright. She started her writing career as an indie author and had such smashing success in her first year with her inaugural book The Finder of the Lucky Devil, that she made the transition to traditional publishing. She has become a personality at many cons, recognizable by her iconic leather hat and engaging smile. She has recently joined Bard’s Tower, a mobile con bookstore, and has sold her books next to great authors such as Peter David, Melinda Snodgrass, Dan Wells, Claudia Gray, John Jackson Miller, and Jim Butcher, to name a few.
Outside of writing she likes to play games: board games, RPGs, and video games. She has a regular Pathfinder group who is working their way through Rapanthuk. She lives in Chicago with her husband and children, dog, three cats, and her mother in the apartment upstairs.
About KM Herkes: K. M. Herkes is mostly quiet with a thirty-percent chance of loud. The rest is subject to change without notice.
Creating imaginary worlds has been a passion since childhood, but bugs, plants, computers, and chemistry also rank high on her list of life interests. Professional development has included lab work, classroom teaching, animal training, aquaculture, horticulture, retail operations, and library work. Personal development is ongoing. Cats, cookies, and flowers are involved. Her favorite stories dance in the open spaces between genres, so her books play in the literary traffic, dodging between science fiction, fantasy, thrills, and realism.
About Michi Trota: Michi Trota is a five-time Hugo Award winner, British Fantasy Award winner, and the first Filipina to win a Hugo Award. Michi is Editor-in-Chief of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and Senior Editor of Prism. She is also co-editor of the WisCon Chronicles Vol. 12 with Isabel Schechter (Aqueduct Press), has written for Chicago Magazine, and was the exhibit text writer for Worlds Beyond Here: Expanding the Universe of APA Science Fiction at the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle, WA. She’s been featured in publications like the 2016 Chicago Reader People Issue, Chicago Tribune and The Guardian, and has spoken at the Adler Planetarium, the Chicago Humanities Festival, and on NPR. Michi is a firespinner with the Raks Geek Fire+Bellydance troupe, past president of the Chicago Nerd Social Club Board of Organizers, and lives with her spouse and their two cats in Chicago.
About The Original Cannoli Joe: Born in the distant future, Cannoli Joe traveled back in time to save the human race from annihilation. Unfortunately, he arrived just outside of a bowing alley and, mesmerized by the sound of balls crashing against bowling pins, wandered inside and instantly fell in love with the game. Completely forgetting about his mission, he joined a league and has been chasing a badger ever since. Which is why 2016 happened. And COVID. It can all basically be laid at the foot of bowling’s sweet, seductive call…
About Todd French: Like Cannoli Joe, Todd failed to provide Patrick with a bio, so, this one time, he was at the crossroads and buried a mojo bag. He wanted a publishing contract. Unfortunately, not even a crossroads demon has that kind of power, so, like the rest of us, Todd is toiling away on his writing while listening to The Functional Nerds and backing us as a patron. We heart him!
About Jason Youngberg: Jason is another patron of the Functional Nerds podcast. He’s an active gamer, and has a sweet fur-child who is totally Patrick’s best friend. We also heart Jason!
About Gary K Wolfe: GARY K. WOLFE, Contributing Editor for Locus Magazine, has received both the Eaton Award and the Science Fiction Research Association’s Pilgrim Award for his science fiction criticism and scholarship. His books include The Known and the Unknown: The Iconography of Science Fiction (1979), Science Fiction Dialogues (editor, 1982), Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy (1986), Harlan Ellison: The Edge of Forever (with Ellen Weil, 2002), and a collection of his Locus Magazine reviews, Soundings: Reviews 1992-1996 (2005), which was a Hugo Award nominee and won the British Science Fiction Association award. In 2007 he won a Special Award, Non-Professional from the World Fantasy Convention for his reviews and criticism. A Locus columnist since 1991, he is Professor of English and Humanities at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He is the co-host of The Coode Street Podcast, a bi-weekly hour-long podcast co-hosted by Jonathan Strahan, which won a Hugo Award for Best Fancast in 2021.
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