October 6-8, 2006
ConClave Room Block Opens September 1, 2006
Crowne Plaza Hotel
Detroit Metro Airport
Romulus, Michigan USA
Guests
Literary GoH: Catherine Asaro
Artist GoH: Voltaire
Music GoH: Emerald Rose
Fan GoH: Rene and Carol Gobeyn
Literary Guest of Honor
Catherine Asaro
Award winning author, physics professor, research scientist, and ballerina. ConClave is pleased to welcome Catherine Asaro, our 2006 Literary Guest of Honor.
Catherine Asaro earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics and MA in Physics, both from Harvard, and a BS with Highest Honors in Chemistry from UCLA. Among the places she has done research are the University of Toronto in Canada, the Max Planck Institut für Astrophysik in Germany, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Her research involved using quantum theory to describe the behavior of atoms and molecules. Catherine was a physics professor until 1990, when she established Molecudyne Research, which she currently runs.
Catherine Asaro's fiction is a successful blend of hard science fiction, romance, and exciting space adventure. Her novel, The Quantum Rose, won the Nebula Award for best novel of 2001. She is a three-time winner of the Romantic Times Book Club award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
When not writing and making appearances at conferences, Catherine also serves as the president of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA).
Website for appearances, awards, and bibliography: http://www.sff.net/people/asaro/
Artist Guest of Honor
Voltaire
Voltaire is a
prominent artist/animator of alternative culture, and a touring musician signed
to the Projekt label. He is the
creator (words and artwork) of the Chi-Chian, Oh My Goth!
and Deadly comic book series.
Inspired by the films of Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad), Voltaire began animating at the age of ten on a super8 camera. At that time, he says, "no three dimensional object was safe. My brother's action figures, my sister's dolls, silverware, et cetera ... If it was missing, chances were that it was in the basement in front of my camera."
Eventually, piecing together snippets of information from fanzines, he was able to teach himself how to make foam rubber animation models and animate them with fluidity and realism. The films of his childhood landed him his first directing job in 1988. That project was the classic MTV ID called MTV-Bosch. The stop-motion tour of the hellish Garden of Earthly Delights went on to win several awards including a Broadcast Design Award and helped to establish Voltaire's style of animation.
His strange stew of gothic darkness, baroque lushness and whimsical surrealism has been seen in a score of television commercials for clients such as Cartoon Network, USA and The Sci-Fi Channel. His short films, which he describes as being "an opportunity for me to be as strange and demented as I care to be," have been seen at animation festivals around the world, including the sinister Rakthavira which toured as part of Expanded Entertainment's Too Outrageous Animation.
Voltaire lives in New York City, where he is reputed to drink far too much coffee. He teaches stop-motion animation at The School of Visual Arts in New York and continues to direct and animate for television.
Website: http://www.voltaire.net/
Music Guests of Honor
Emerald Rose
Emerald Rose is a four-man Celtic folk rock band with a rich, original "world fusion" sound.
Brian Sullivan, Arthur Hinds, Larry Morris and Clyde Gilbert formed Emerald Rose in 1996. Sharing a common interest in ancient religions, musical styles, fantasy, and Celtic mythology, the four began to explore music as a creative outlet. Blending chorus vocals, pennywhistle, Irish pipes, drums, driving guitars and bass, their music ranges from traditional jigs and reels to original folk rock and pop numbers.
Emerald Rose is known for rousing, high-energy live performances. They have performed to capacity crowds at Atlanta venues such as Dragon*Con, the Variety Playhouse, Eddies Attic and numerous Celtic festivals.
Emerald Rose was the headline band at the Academy Awards cast party for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in 2003, and again at the Oscars-sweep celebration cast party for Return of the King in 2004.
Website for gigs and music downloads: www.emeraldrose.com
Fan Guests of Honor
Rene and Carol Gobeyn
Since
the Gobeyns fled, New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina barking at their
heels, ConClave is overjoyed to welcome Rene and Carol Gobeyn back to
Michigan!
For decades, Rene and Carol have been pillars of Mid-West Fandom, and anchors of the Dorsai Irregulars, operating from their home in upstate New York. Then, a few years ago, the siren song of employment lured Rene to the Big Easy's sultry climes. (Down South, Rene administers payroll databases for the US Navy. He doesn't handle the money, but since no-one gets paid if the databases go down, the Navy treats Rene very, very well.)
Rene (Renegade) and Carol (Mamasan) have attended ConClave longer than anyone can remember. They've been honored as ConClave Fan GoHs before, at ConClave XIX, in 1994. We've missed them since the Navy talked Rene into working in the Big Swamp (excuse me, they call it the Bayou).
ConClave is honored to bring them back, if only for a week-end. Because Rene and Carol are wonderful folk, truly the epitome of Mid-Western Fandom.