Nate Southard – Convention Chair

Nate Southard is the writer of Just Like Hell, Broken Skin, and the graphic novels Drive and A Trip to Rundberg. His short stories have appeared in a number of venues both online and in print, including Cemetery Dance. 2009 will see the release of the novella He Stepped Thru from Bloodletting Press and the novel Lights Out from Delirium Books. A graduate of the University of Texas with a degree in Radio, Television, and Film, Nate lives in Austin with his girlfriend and a quartet of lazy pets. You can learn more at www.natesouthard.com

To contact Nate Southard: registration@whc2011.org

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Lee Thomas – Convention Chair

Lee Thomas is the Bram Stoker Award and the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Stained, Parish Damned, and The Dust of Wonderland. Dark Scribe Press will publish his short story collection In the Closet, Under the Bed in Autumn 2009, and Burning Effigy Press will release his novella The Black Sun Set in 2010. You can find him on the web at www.leethomasauthor.com

To contact Lee Thomas: info@whc2011.org

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Shawna Blount – Goodie Bags and Merchandising

A graduate of Southwest Texas State University, Shawna Blount is an avid reader and genre fan. In the past, she has helped with Austin’s independent comics and literature convention, STAPLE!. Shawna volunteers for the Austin Humane Society when she’s not raising her own pets.

To contact Shawna Blount: merchandising@whc2011.org

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Gabrielle Faust – Website and Graphic Design

Gabrielle Faust is best known for her acclaimed dark fantasy vampire series ETERNAL VIGILANCE. Her previous work has also included two collections of poetry, BEFORE ICARUS, AFTER ACHILLES and CROSSROADS. Her work has appeared in the sites SciFi Wire, Fatally Yours, Examiner and Fear Zone, as well as various anthologies and magazines. Faust has been a professional member of the Horror Writers Association since 2007. She was the Guest of Honor at the Queen of the Damned Vampire Ball in 2008. In 2009 she was a Special Guest of the Endless Night Festival in New Orleans and was crowned “New Orleans Vampire Royalty” by the Vampire Lestat Fan Club at the Tru Blood & Gold vampire ball alongside Charlaine Harris. Currently, while awaiting the release of the third installment of the ETERNAL VIGILANCE series, BOUND IN BLOOD (September 2010) and a new novella entitled REGRET from Dark Regions Press (release date TBD), she is working as the primary graphic designer for the 2011 World Horror Convention planning committee. She also maintains the Eternal Vigilance horror blog, which was ranked the #1 horror blog by BlogRank in 2010. Faust is currently touring as a Special Author Guest and event hostess at a variety of conventions and special events throughout the United States and will begin her new Official Book Tour in October of 2010 with her attendance to the UndeadCon, Endless Night Festival, Vampire Film Festival and Memnoch Resurrection events in New Orleans during Halloween week. More information about Gabrielle Faust and her work can be found on her website www.gabriellefaust.com

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Boyd Harris – Program Book

Boyd E. Harris peddles ice cream by day and horror by night. He is the president of KaleidoScoops Inc., a retail ice cream chain with outlets in 21 states. When people ask, he explains that he doesn’t carry product around with him, because he hasn’t figured a way to keep it from melting. Boyd also owns Cutting Block Press www.cuttingblock.net a small press publishing company that specializes in horror fiction anthologies. His book, +Horror Library+ Volume 3, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for best anthology in 2008. He has plans to release Butcher Shop Quartet II in the second half of 2009 and +Horror Library+ Volume 4 in early 2010. Additionally, he is the publisher for Dark Recesses Enterprise, an award winning online horror magazine found at www.darkrecesses.com. Boyd resides in Austin, Texas with his 50 Lb, long-tailed brindle boxer, Phoebe, who manages to dominate what little time he has left, and she is okay with the ice cream melting.

To contact Boyd Harris: programbook@whc2011.org

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Nick Mamatas – Programming (Panels)

Nick Mamatas is the author of two novels, Move Under Ground and Under My Roof, more than fifty short stories, novelettes, and novellas, and hundreds of essays and feature articles. Much of his short fiction is collected in You Might Sleep… Nick’s work has been nominated for the Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild awards. As editor of Clarkesworld, he was also a 2008 Hugo nominee. For more information on Nick Mamatas visit: www.nick-mamatas.com

To contact Nick Mamatas: programming@whc2011.org

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Joe McKinney – Dealers’ Room

Joe McKinney is a homicide detective for the San Antonio Police Department who has been writing professionally since 2006. He is the author of Dead City (Kensington Publishing Corp., 2006) and Quarantined (Lachesis Publishing, 2009). He has also written more than thirty horror, crime, and science fiction short stories. Joe McKinney has a Master’s Degree in English Literature from The University of Texas at San Antonio, and has received extensive professional training in disaster mitigation, forensics, and homicide investigation techniques. Before promoting to Detective-Investigator, he was a member of the San Antonio Police Department’s Critical Incident Management Team, where he helped coordinate San Antonio’s official response to a variety of natural and manmade disasters, including floods, hazardous material spills, and train wrecks. He currently lives in Helotes, Texas, a small country town northwest of San Antonio with his wife and two daughters. An Active Member of both the Horror Writers Association and the International Thriller Writers Association, he is a frequent guest at regional science fiction and horror conventions.

To contact Joe McKinney: dealers@whc2011.org

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Martel Sardina – Programming (Readings)

Martel Sardina lives near Chicago, Illinois. She hosted the Reading Café at WHC 2007-8 and 2010 and is back to do it again in Austin. She is a Contributing Editor for the online Dark Scribe Magazine and her fiction
and poetry have been published in several small press anthologies,
as well as Space and Time. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association, and in her spare time she loves to sell books and help authors promote their work.

To contact Martel Sardina: readings@whc2011.org

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Bev Vincent – Guest of Honor Liaison

Bev Vincent is the author of The Road to the Dark Tower and
The Stephen King Illustrated Companion. He has been a contributing
editor with Cemetery Dance magazine since 2001 and has published over fifty short stories, numerous essays and countless book reviews. His work has been nominated for a Bram Stoker Award and he shared the award for “Best Adaptation” at the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival in 2004. His website is www.bevvincent.com.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Chad Savage – Art Show Manager

Chad Savage is a professional designer and dark artist with horror, haunted attraction and Halloween credentials too numerous to list here. He ran the art show for WHC 2005 & 2006, as well as co-Chairing WHC 2006. He has also run the art show for Chicago’s Flashback Weekend, Convergence 10 and Baltimore’s HorrorFind Weekend. A native Texan, Chad now lives a bit east of Chicago, where he conducts evil experiments on the internet. Find out more at www.sinistervisions.com.