Tag: guests

Posted on

2019 Guests: Diane Duane and Peter Morwood

We will be joined at Octocon 2019 by some of our previous Guests of Honour: Diane Duane and Peter Morwood.

If you’re going this week to Dublin 2019, an Irish Worldcon, don’t miss Diane Duane’s many appearances as Guest of Honour!

Diane Duane has been a science fiction and fantasy writer for nearly forty years. Her best known works include her long-running (since 1983) “Young Wizards” series — its (sort of) eleventh and twelfth novels Young Wizards: Lifeboats and Interim Errantry 2: On Ordeal, having come out in 2017.

She’s also known for the nine bestselling Star Trek novels for which, among many other works, she was awarded the Grand Master / lifetime achievement award of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers.

She is presently working on completing the epic fantasy series begun almost forty years ago with The Door Into Fire, and hopes to publish book 4, The Door Into Starlight, in the near future.

Novelist and screenwriter Peter Morwood was born in Northern Ireland, but has lived in various parts of County Wicklow for more than half his life. He’s been married to fellow-guest Diane Duane for even longer.

Besides his own fantasy series The Book of Years, its prequel series The Clan Wars, the folktale-inspired Tales of Old Russia, several short stories and even a brief venture into comics, he has co-written half a dozen novels with Diane (including one on their honeymoon), as well as episodes for Gargoyles, Spider-Man Unlimited and Batman: The Animated Series, and the award-winning live-action miniseries Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King.

He’s keen on medieval military history and the sharp pointy stuff that involves; he likes foreign travel and the interesting places, foods and drinks that involves; and he does half the cooking and most of the photography for their hobby-foodblogs EuropeanCuisines.com and RealIrishDesserts.com.

Posted on

2019 Guests: Peadar Ó Guilín and Ruth Frances Long

Octocon is delighted to announce its first guests for 2019, both of whom know more than a thing or two about the folklore, mythology and fairy tales that we’ll be discussing this year.

Peadar Ó Guilín

Irish writer Peadar Ó Guilín is the author of the YA novel, The Call, inspired by the beautiful northwest of Ireland where he grew up. The Invasion, a sequel to The Call and the end of the duology, was published in March 2018 and is a finallist for the 2019 Lodestar Award for Best Adult Book, to be awarded at Dublin 2019, an Irish Worldcon.

In September 2007, Peadar published his first novel, The Inferior, which the Times Educational Supplement called “a stark, dark tale, written with great energy and confidence and some arresting reflections on human nature.” Foreign editors liked it too, and over the coming year it is to be translated into eight languages, including Japanese and Korean.

His fantasy and SF short stories have appeared in numerous venues, including Black Gate magazine and an anthology celebrating the best of the iconic Weird Tales.

Ruth Frances Long

Ruth Frances Long writes young adult fantasy such as The Treachery of Beautiful Things (Dial, 2012) and The Dubh Linn trilogy set in the world of demons, angels and fairies that exists alongside our own in modern day Dublin (A Crack in Everything , A Hollow in the Hills and A Darkness at the End (O’Brien, 2014-2016)).

In 2015 she was the winner of The European Science Fiction Society Spirit of Dedication Award For Best Author of Children’s Science Fiction and Fantasy for A Crack in Everything.

As Jessica Thorne she writes fantasy and space opera romance – The Queen’s Wing (Bookouture, 2018) and The Stone’s Heart (Bookouture, 2019)

As R. F. Long she writes fantasy & paranormal romance such as The Scroll Thief, Soul Fire and the Holtlands stories (The Wolf’s Sister, The Wolf’s Mate and The Wolf’s Destiny).

She lives in Ireland and works in a library of rare, unusual & occasionally crazy books. But they don’t talk to her that often.