2013 Guest Panelists
Guest panelists subject to change.
GOH Laurie R. King started writing in 1987 and had her first novel published in 1993. Her background is as mixed as any writer’s, from degrees in theology and managing a coffee store to raising children, vegetables, and the occasional building. It is no accident that characters in her books spend time in the Bay Area and England and are interested in theology, architecture, and travel.
In 1994, "The Beekeeper’s Apprentice" was published, featuring young Mary Russell who becomes an apprentice, then partner of Sherlock Holmes in early 20th century England. Books in that series appear regularly, taking the duo and their cohorts on into the Twenties and around the world, winning admiration far and wide. These historical novels allow King to explore all sorts of ideas: the roots of conflict in the Middle East and Afghanistan; feminism and early Christianity; patriotism and individual responsibility, while also having a rousing good time with revisiting the scenes of The Hound of the Baskervilles and Kim, setting a pair of Bedouin nomads down in a grand country house in England, and forging an unlikely relationship between two remarkably similar individuals who happen to be separated by age, sex, and background.
GOH Leslie S. Klinger is the New York Times-best-selling editor of the Edgar®-winning New Annotated Sherlock Holmes and the critically-acclaimed New Annotated Dracula, as well as numerous other books and articles on Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, vampires, and the Victorian age. He has been the technical adviser on many film and literary projects, including the two Warner Bros. “Sherlock Holmes” films starring Robert Downey, Jr. Klinger also authored live “Tweetnotes” for PBS during the broadcasts of the BBC's Sherlock. His newest books are the four-volume The Annotated Sandman with Neil Gaiman for Vertigo and The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft for W. W. Norton (to be published in 2014). He is Treasurer of the Horror Writers Association and former Chapter President of the SoCal Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. Klinger is a tax and business lawyer who lives in Malibu with his wife Sharon, a large dog, and three cats.
GOH Lee Eric Shackleford is a playwright and screenwriter with over 150 produced scripts to his credit. His work for television has ranged from obscure documentaries about UFOs to controversial stories for Star Trek: the Next Generation -- including the one that would eventually become "Ship in a Bottle," which featured the return of Professor Moriarty in the holodeck. As a playwright Lee is best-known for his script Holmes & Watson, which was produced off-Broadway with Lee in the role of Sherlock Holmes. He also wrote the modern adaptation of Karel Čapek's science-fiction drama R.U.R., also produced off-Broadway. A passionate devotee of radio drama and comedy, he was Head Writer and Producer of the syndicated radio soap opera Bodylove, and has directed and performed in several recreations of the notorious 1938 "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. Lee's efforts as a cartoonist have included his Sherlockian series "From the Doctor's Diary," which ran for several years in The Baker Street Journal.
Abundantlyqueer has been writing fanfiction forever, and consuming Sherlock Holmes canon and adaptations for slightly longer, but it took the BBC modernization (specifically the John Watson part of it) to galvanize her into producing her first novel-length story. Her lifelong obsessions include narratives of the British Empire and military culture, past and present, both of which dovetail nicely with her drive to see John Watson universally appreciated, admired, and desired.
Alison Luhrs, daughter of a Trekkie and the world’s biggest Brideshead Revisited fangirl, was raised in Eastern Washington by her parents and beloved adoptive mother, The Internet. Alison graduated from Western Washington University in with a degree in English and Theatre. While in school she performed internationally as part of the British Arts Tour, and competed on the national level as an improvisor. She and her team of five won the National College Improv Tournament in 2011, and Alison has hosted the National Finals every year since. She and eight friends from WWU founded Mirum Mirum productions last year, and successfully produced their first play, (dis)Order, last year.
Ben Signpost is a freelance writer and amateur queer advocate who just can't stop writing Alternate Universe fanfiction. He's best known in the Sherlock fandom for his fics "Watches 'Verse," "Stranger at the Gate," and "Bel Canto", written under the name bendingsignpost. In the future, he plans to attend graduate school and hopes to become a professional queer advocate.
Berlynn Wohl has been writing fan fiction since since 2002, slashing her way through LOTR, U2, and MST3K, among other alphanumerics. Fandom has also compelled her to cross-stitch TARDISes, crochet the Avengers, and make comics about New Wave bands. She has babbled about these things on panels at Norwescon, TolCon, Nine Worlds, and Sherlock Seattle. Berlynn is actually quite docile, and can be approached by humans. You can find her writing on AO3.
Caitlin Obom is a purveyor of nerd music jingles on the internet. After writing her first-ever fandom songs in honor of Sherlock, she caved to her base, television-loving nature and wrote a ten song compilation called The Sherlock Song Compendium. She’s written theme songs for The Baker Street Babes and the Undershaw Preservation Trust; and most recently put out an album about her other favorite fandom, Supernatural. Directly after the convention, she will be locking herself in a cave to write another bunch of songs for season two. She’s pretty jazzed at the prospect.
Cara McGee is a graduate of SCAD where she spent many years learning how to draw comic books. She now puts that knowledge to use creating fandom based tea blends because why not, life is weird like that. She still enjoys comics and draws them frequently, and most of them concern food. You may have seen her crying over Sherlock and other fandoms and pushing tea on her tumblr.
Chelsea Robinson (aka makokitten) is a fanfiction writer, cosplayer, and budding “consulting social media expert.” When she was thirteen, someone gave her a copy of the complete stories of Sherlock Holmes; she’s been a lost cause ever since. Her most visible contribution to the Sherlock fandom is the interactive fanfic "Texts from John and Sherlock," which she co-writes with her partner-in-crime, Seth, and its related stories: "The Sigerson Letters" and "The Duplicitous Detective," an Elementary/Sherlock crossover. In her spare time, she’s pursuing her undergraduate degree in Comparative Media Studies and Computer Science at MIT, focusing on fan studies and transmedia storytelling. Her ultimate life goal is to cosplay every incarnation of Irene Adler.
Eddy Dughi is a semi-professional photographer and video artist whose work explores the deep and satisfying emotional experiences she's had with people from the internet. At Sherlock Seattle '12, she re-discovered cosplay, which totally changed her life, and she now works regularly with several groups of costumers in the Seattle area. Sharp-dressed, morally ambiguous antagonists are her catnip and at conventions she can be in a flawless suit herding cosplayers.
Evelyn Clemente (known to most of her adoring fans as "Inchells") is from Los Angeles, California and loves drawing our two detectives, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, which is obvious to anyone who follows her on tumblr. She makes adorable animated gifs and drawings and you can often find her doing livestreaming sessions, which she does as many times a week as humanly possible.
Feyuca is well-known to Sherlock fandom as an artist and an illustrator with a lush and painterly style to her work. In addition to her own self-inspired pieces, she takes commissions and creates artwork for all different popular fandoms including Gravity Falls, Adventure Time, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, The Hobbit, DC Comics, Green Lantern, James Bond, Elementary, and, of course, Sherlock.
Gordon E. Frye has always been fascinated with both History and Weapons. Found “talking guns” with some “Old Timer” in Death Valley when he was 3, he hasn’t changed much. Gordon’s interests led him to film work where he has assaulted the Alamo, commanded Horse Cavalry, and has portrayed soldiers, sailors, cowboys and even an Afghan Freedom-fighter. He earned a Master’s Degree in Western History and teaches US and Naval History at Navy College at Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, WA. He currently lives in Kingston with his wife Nancy, along with assorted horses, cats and chickens.
James Romnes shares a Watsonian interest, surgical pathology. For the last 30 years he has been what Victorians might have referred to as a surgical 'dresser' or Physicians' Assistant. Recently he authored a moderately boring article on 'Dedifferentiated Liposarcomas' for a medical journal. Somewhere James contracted a severe case of Webley obsession and became feverish over the history of the British revolver. This lead to an article entitled, 'Sherlock Holmes the Armed Citizen' published in 'Gun News' journal of the Washington Arms Collector. When not ranting about the products of Birmingham gun manufacturers James is usually in tweeds and always in good spirits, usually something bottled in County Antrim.
John Longenbaugh is a Seattle-based writer and director. His plays include "Scotch and Donuts," "How to Be Cool," the short plays collected as "Arcana" (published this year by Dramatic Publishing) and "The Sound in the Next Room," which premieres this fall at Tacoma's Dukesbay Productions. His play "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol" (published by Dramatists Publishing) has broken box office records in both Seattle and Portland, and this Christmas has both its Canadian and British premieres. John's novel "The Private Library" also concerns a surprise visit from his favorite fictional detective. He is a member in good standing of The Sound of the Baskervilles, the Seattle scion chapter of the Baker Street Irregulars.
Lori Summers is a scientist and published author from Columbus, Ohio who's been active in fandom and fanfic writing for almost twenty years. Under her fannish name MadLori she's written several fics in the Sherlock fandom, including "Alone on the Water" and "Performance in a Leading Role." Her other fannish output includes Doctor Who, Star Trek, Criminal Minds, Brokeback Mountain, and Harry Potter. Lori is also an avid hiker and a volunteer docent at the world-famous Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, and she hopes to cram in visits to both Mt. Rainier and the Woodland Park Zoo during her visit to Seattle.
Liz Eckhart reads and writes fanfiction and posts informal media studies under the name professorfangirl. She also portrays an adjunct professor of Shakespeare, media, and popular culture at Southern Oregon University. Her long investment in erotic writing and detective stories began in 1989 with a college thesis on "The Erotics of Reading in Literary Theory," through a partial dissertation titled "Wanted Men: Same-Sex Relations and the Epistemology of Desire in Detective Fiction"; she recently began a new project, "The Elements of Slash: Reading and Writing Erotic Fanfiction." She does most of her work in the Sherlock fandom, but is also coping with a serious Ben Whishaw situation.
Lyra Ngalia (aka lyrangalia) is a girl engineer by day and a fangirl by night. She was handed a copy of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at age 9, at which point her reaction was "BUT HOW DID HE DO THAT. GIMME MORE". She has been flitting through fandom since the mid 90s, along the way flirting with cosplay, fanfiction, roleplaying, convention running, and media analysis. And while she always finds herself returning to her first love of fanfiction, she's finding the lure of sourcing that perfect cosplay accessory to be very hard to resist. Her contributions to Sherlock Holmes fandom include "The Adler Conundrum: How Elementary Solved the Problem of The Woman", co-authoring the ongoing "Death Takes A Holiday," and proving to last year's Seattle Sherlockians that it is, in fact, possible to walk in 5 inch stiletto heels. You just can't corner very well.
Mallory Turner (aka Lascaux) is a fan artist and sculptor who has long participated in fandom and drawing Sherlock and John on tumblr. She is also the artist behind the Basil of Baker Street puppet featured in Vicious & Vulgar.
Sammy Scott is a native Seattlite with theater and fandom in her blood. An alumni of Western Washington University (where she studied stage management and playwriting), Scott is busy breaking into the professional world of theater. Most recently, she was invited to the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut for her work in theatrical journalism and criticism. A firm fan of anything fictional, Scott spent her youth trolling fan websites and text-based roleplaying message boards. She is excited to explore one of her favorite obsessions with Luhrs, and hopes the fans and audience will share in their adventure!
Sketchlock is a student at RCAD and her two main goals are to become an illustrator and not get deported out of the US. She loves video games and puzzles and is obsessed with Rubix Cubes, puns, and baby seals. She is infamous for her "seals" (instead of "feels") sketches and her primary fandoms currently are Sherlock and Hannibal. She struggles every day with how to hold all the seal feels.
Songlin has been writing fanfiction on and off since she was about twelve. She is pleased to announce that the quality thereof has substantially improved. After a lifetime of mild enthusiasm towards the Sherlock canon, she fell headfirst into the fandom just before the airing of series 2 of BBC Sherlock and took up fanfiction again with a vengeance. Her likes include fancy tea and unresolved romantic tension. One day she plans to teach children and raise a generation of justice-minded nerds.
Tom Keogh is an arts journalist and critic for The Seattle Times. He is also a contributor to various arts-industry (Symphony; SDC Journal) publications and Humanities magazine. Tom formally wrote for Seattle Weekly and Eastsideweek, was a film critic for KUOW-FM and has contributed to Rolling Stone, MSN, Chicago Reader and Village Voice. He is touring Washington state as a Humanities Washington speaker, presenting "Dr. Doyle and Mr. Holmes: The Cultural Staying Power of Sherlock Holmes". Tom has taught film history at NSCC, co-founded the Seattle Filmhouse and was an assistant director for SIFF. He is currently writing a play about Sherlock Holmes for the Seattle Children’s Theatre.
Teabeforewar loves to create silly, playful, and often irreverant art based off of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson and is a proud creator and supporter of such AUs as Tunalock, BatJohn, OctoJohn, OtterLock, HedgehogJohn, and many others. Not only does she make adorable art, but she also does animation, so her creations can run and frolic over the internet.