Guests of Honor
Award-winning author, editor, and publisher Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for longer than she cares to admit. In 2014 she joined forces with husband Mike McPhail and friend Greg Schauer to form her own publishing house, eSpec Books (www.especbooks.com).
Her published works include seven novels, Yesterday’s Dreams, Tomorrow’s Memories, Today’s Promise, The Halfling’s Court, The Redcaps’ Queen, Daire’s Devils, and Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn, written with Day Al-Mohamed. She is also the author of the solo collections Eternal Wanderings, A Legacy of Stars, Consigned to the Sea, Flash in the Can, Transcendence, Between Darkness and Light, The Fox’s Fire, The Kindly One, and the non-fiction writers’ guides The Literary Handyman, More Tips from the Handyman, and LH: Build-A-Book Workshop. She is the senior editor of the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, Gaslight & Grimm, Side of Good/Side of Evil, After Punk, and Footprints in the Stars. Her short stories are included in numerous other anthologies and collections.
In addition to her literary acclaim, she crafts and sells original costume horns under the moniker The Hornie Lady Custom Costume Horns, and homemade flavor-infused candied ginger under the brand of Ginger KICK! at literary conventions, on commission, and wholesale.
Danielle lives in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail and four extremely spoiled cats.
The Blibbering Humdingers draw inspiration from the Harry Potter series, Dr Who, the SCA, medieval fantasy, science fiction and all kinds of delightfully, geeky fandomness. Scott and Kirsten Vaughan began performing together in 1992 in the SCA, where they are known as Efenwealt Wystle and Maîtresse Aénor d’Anjou.
With the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 2007, and upon encountering bands like Draco & the Malfoys, The Mudbloods, and The Moaning Myrtles, they decided to form their own wizard rock act. From there they’ve branched into all kinds of nerd rock, filk, folk and fun.
They live in Cary, NC (under the name Sanderz) with two kids and a cat named Rosemerta. (That s the cat s name. Neither of the kids are named Rosmerta.)