Phoenix Convention

Colin Smythe was born in Berkshire in 1942, and was educated at Bradfield College near Reading and subsequently at Trinity College Dublin from which he graduated in 1963. By then he had started collecting books by W.B.Yeats and in 1966 he sold his collection to the Dublin City Library and started his publishing company, Colin Smythe Ltd, on the proceeds. He moved to Gerrards Cross (about 20 miles N.W. of London) in 1967.

Juliet E McKenna, the Empress of P-Con, was born in Lincolnshire in July 1965, but now lives in West Oxfordshire with her husband Steve and their two sons, Keith and Ian. Even from an early age her interest in folk tales and mythology was evident. Her favourite subjects at school (Parkstone Girls' Grammar School, Poole) were History, English, and Latin. This led fairly naturally to a classics degree at St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she studied Greek and Roman history and literature.

AJ Healy, the author of the Tommy Storm books (see www.tommystorm.com) was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland.

David Clare obtained a Masters in Anglo-Irish Literature & Drama in 2008 with a thesis called "C.S. Lewis: An Irish Writer". He is currently pursuing his PhD, with an eye towards becoming a full-time academic.

R.F. Long

R.F. Long, author of romantic fantasy tales, has always had a thing for fantasy, romance and ancient mysteries. That combination was bound to cause trouble. In university she studied English Literature, History of Religions and Celtic Civilisation; which merely compounded the problem.

 Laura Anne Gilman has accepted an invitation to be a Guest at P-Con 7.    Read about Laura's work at her website, here.

Bob Neilson lives in Dublin, where he runs a successful retail business in partnership with his wife, Stacey. His first professional publication was in 1989 and since then he has been published extensively in Ireland, the UK and the US, including a graphic novel (Spell Maffia) and four comics (over a ten year period).

George Green was born in Ireland in 1956. He grew up in Tipperary, where he lived in a house built on an ancient burial ground. He now lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Lancaster.

George has two novels and a non-fiction book to his credit, namely: “Hound” (2003); “Hawk” (2005); and “Writing a Novel and Getting Published for dummies” (2007).

John Kenny has been co-editor of Albedo One since its inception in 1993, and a fan of science fiction since the late 70s.

Before his involvement with Albedo One, he wrote extensively for Stargate, the magazine of the Irish Science Fiction Association, and was editor of FTL, the successor to Stargate.

David Murphy has had two novels published in the USA. Arkon Chronicles was published by Silver Lake, a small press, in 2003. Longevity City appeared from Five Star, and was well received, in 2005. The best of his award winning short fiction (almost ninety appearances in magazines and books worldwide) was collected in the 2004 collection Lost Notes from Dublin's Aeon Press. He has stories forthcoming in Doorways and Midnight Street magazines and is currently working on a new novel. David's website can be found here.