Daniel José Older

Boston born, Brooklyn based Daniel José Older is the author of the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series from Penguin’s Roc Books and the Young Adult novel Shadowshaper (Scholastic, 2015), a New York Times Notable Book of 2015, which was shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize in Young Readers’ Literature and named one of Esquire’s 80 Books Every Person Should Read. He co-edited the Locus and World Fantasy nominated anthology Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History. His short stories and essays have appeared in the Guardian, NPR, Tor.com, Salon, BuzzFeed, Fireside Fiction, the New Haven Review, PANK, Apex and Strange Horizons and the anthologies Subversion and Mothership: Tales Of Afrofuturism And Beyond. You can find his thoughts on writing, read dispatches from his decade-long career as an NYC paramedic and hear his music at http://danieljoseolder.net/, on youtube and @djolder on twitter.

 

Dave Ellis

Dave Ellis has been a video game addict since he first dropped a quarter in an Atari Breakout machine at the local bowling alley when he was nine years old. Like every kid in the 80s, he dreamed of having his own arcade and, after seeing a 60 Minutes story on game testing at Atari, he also dreamed of working in the game industry. And he eventually got to do both.

Dave got his start in 1992 at MicroProse Software in Hunt Valley, Maryland. In his 23 years in video games, he shipped over 30 games on 15 different platforms—PC, Mac, and every console and handheld since the PlayStation 2—as either a writer or game designer. Often as both.

As a writer, Dave wrote the story, VO, and in-game text for dozens of games based on movies and television shows including Star Trek, Adventure Time, Despicable Me, Ben 10, and Flushed Away. He has also worked on many original titles. As a writer on the noir black comedy action game Dead Head Fred, Dave won the first-ever Writers Guild of America award for video game writing in 2008. And Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, an original title he designed and wrote (and which starred the voice talents of Will Arnett and Neil Patrick Harris) won the Spike TV Video Game Award for Best Comedy Game in 2009.

Apart from game writing, Dave has authored 16 published books; written both regular and guest columns for a number of national magazines including GameRoom Magazine and Official Xbox Magazine; and has guest speaker and panelist at several game writing events.

An avid Star Trek fan, Dave has been going to conventions regularly since he attended Starbase Baltimore in 1980…but he’s way more used to meeting the guests than being one. You can check out Dave’s work at www.thegamewriter.com, and his home arcade at www.davesclassicarcade.com.