Author Guest of Honor:Â Connie Willis
Connie Willis is an internationally-known science fiction author and the winner of an unprecedented total of seven Nebula Awards and eleven Hugo Awards and is the first author to have ever won both awards in all four fiction categories. She has also won numerous Locus Awards (given by Locus Magazine), and was named by them Best Science Fiction Author of the Nineties. She has been named to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and last year was made a SFWA Grand Master of Science Fiction.
Willis is the author of Doomsday Book, winner of the Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Science Fiction Novel; Lincoln's Dreams, winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel; Remake; Uncharted Territory; Bellwether; To Say Nothing of the Dog, winner of the Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and Passage, and the short story collections Fire Watch, Impossible Things, Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, and The Winds of Marble Arch, but she is probably most famous for her short stories, including "Fire Watch", "Even the Queen", and "The Last of The Winnebagos".
Her most recent novel, a two-volume work entitled Blackout and All Clear, is set in World War II, in the middle of the evacuation of Dunkirk, the intelligence war, and the London Blitz. Blackout/All Clear recently won the Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Novel. It made the New York Times Bestseller List and was described by the Washington Post as "bravura storytelling by...a novelist who can plot like Agatha Christie and whose books possess a bounce and stylishness that Preston Sturges might envy."
She is currently working on a new novel about telepathy. It is, of course, a comedy. She's also working on a non-fiction book about romantic comedy and a short story about a mysterious bookshop.
Ms. Willis lives in Colorado with a very nice husband who collects antique sewing machines, an even nicer bulldog, and two cats who are the spawn of Satan. She loves screwball comedies, Shakespeare, Dorothy Parker, church choirs, chocolate, Mark Twain, and Andrew Lee Potts, not necessarily in that order.
Artist Guest of Honor:Â Tara Rueping
Tara Rueping is a science fiction/fantasy artist who has worked as a concept artist for various companies, including Raven Software/Activision, Turbine Entertainment and Lucas Arts. Starting off as an intern for video game projects, Tara has progressed to full-time positions in video games and television. She has participated in developing such games as Star Trek Voyager Elite Force, Star Wars Jedi Knight 2 Outcast, Star Wars Bounty Hunter, and was the Lead Concept Artist for D&D Online, and Lord of the Rings Online. Tara's latest project as concept artist has been at Lucasfilm Animation for the Star Wars Clone Wars television series.
In Tara's own words, from her blog:
I am currently working as concept artist in the San Francisco area. You may ask how I got in this field? Well I came from a family where there wasn’t anybody in the artistic profession but my loving parents still put a strong important value on imagination and creativity. My parents would always take my brother and me to art museums, movies and theater plays. Having these experiences as a child opened my mind to a world of wonder and made me realize that I wanted to be part of this world were ideas could be pushed and expressed. I feel lucky because this dream is coming true...an artist I am :) Thank you Family!
This is her first time being a guest of honor for a science fiction convention, but we feel confident it won't be her last!
Toastmaster Guest of Honor:Â Dylan Nigh
Dylan Nigh thinks he's awfully serious business. He's been the Activities Director for Anime NebrasKon from 2005 on through 2012, and currently is the Vice President of the Nebraska Japanese Animation Society, the non profit that puts on Anime NebrasKon every year. He loves the fandom scene in Nebraska, and wants to see it grow and flourish.He is also an aspiring writer, and we all know what that means; he's procrastinating and should really be writing instead of playing video games. When you see him at Constellation, be sure to deflate his ever increasing ego, because if you do not, it will grow to Godzilla size and Neo Tokyo will be doomed.
Doomed, I say.
(And he's super excited to be at Constellation to see everyone!)