D.L. (Dee Leana) Carter was decanted from her incubation pod in the outback of Australia many decades ago. This terrifying event was closely followed by shrieks of “there, there it goes. Hit it with a brick!”
These valiant attempts to correct the existence of D.L. were, unfortunately, unsuccessful and she now resides in New Jersey, in a box with her toys, two human beings and a variable number of cats writing humorous romances in the regency, elvish and paranormal universes. If she appears distracted when you speak to her please wave coffee under nose.
Born into a Navy family in Washington, D.C., Leslie Roy Carter lived all over the United States, as well as in Argentia, Newfoundland, while growing up. After receiving a B.S. in Physics from the College of William and Mary, he was commissioned as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy. While serving as a naval officer, he earned an M.S.E.E. from the Naval Postgraduate School. His career as a surface line officer took him to many ports such as Pearl Harbor, Long Beach, San Diego, and Charleston, culminating in command of the Oliver Hazard Perry Class Frigate, U.S.S. Reid. He then switched to the acquisitions specialty, eventually becoming a major program manager before his retirement in 2002 with the rank of Captain. After retiring from the Navy, he worked for ten years as a defense contractor in the Washington area and turned his attention to writing. Holding a private pilot’s license, he also serves in the Maryland Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Reading Dracula at the age of twelve ignited Margaret L. Carter’s interest in a wide range of speculative fiction and inspired her to become a writer. Vampires, however, have always remained close to her heart. Her first published book was an anthology of vampire stories she edited, Curse of the Undead. Her work on vampirism in literature includes Dracula: The Vampire and the Critics, The Vampire in Literature: A Critical Bibliography, and Different Blood: The Vampire as Alien. She holds a PhD in English, and her dissertation contained a chapter on Dracula. In fiction, she has written horror, fantasy, and paranormal romance on vampires, werewolves, Lovecraftian entities, and other “monsters.” Her stories have appeared in various webzines and anthologies, including several of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover and Sword and Sorceress volumes. Her vampire novels include Dark Changeling and its sequel, Child of Twilight (now available in an omnibus edition, Twilight’s Changelings), as well as several vampire romances. With her husband, Leslie Roy Carter, a retired naval officer, she co-authored a fantasy series beginning with Wild Sorceress. Her recent novellas include a Victorian-era Christmas romance, A Ghost in the Green Bestiary; a contemporary light paranormal romance, Summertide Echoes; and a YA ghost story, Her Death Was Doubtful. Her most recent novel, Against the Dark Devourer, is a dark paranormal romance with Lovecraftian elements. She and Les, who live in Maryland, have four children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Lexi Cleveland is the Executive Vice President at ARtGlass, a leading software technology company with headquarters in Richmond, VA, and Milan, Italy. With a passion for early American history and interactive programming. She holds a B.A. in History from the College of William & Mary, where she also earned a certificate in Early American History, Material Culture, and Museum Studies from the National Institute of American History and Democracy. Additionally, she furthered her academic pursuits by obtaining an M.A. in American Studies from Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Throughout her career, Lexi Cleveland has been actively involved in groundbreaking projects that aim to interpret and bring to life the experiences of enslaved Virginians. She has used her expertise to launch initiatives at renowned historical sites such as Colonial Williamsburg, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, James Monroe’s Highland, and Richmond’s Monument Avenue. By combining her extensive knowledge of early American history with her skill in interactive programming, Lexi has successfully fostered a deeper understanding of the lives and legacies of those who have shaped our nation’s past.
Lexi Cleveland’s unwavering commitment to historical preservation, coupled with her proficiency in software technology, has established her as a respected authority in the field. With her vast experience and notable contributions to the intersection of history and technology, she continues to make valuable strides in making the past accessible and engaging for audiences worldwide.
For over thirty years Gary Cohn’s business card has read, “writer, teacher, fencer, motorcyclist.” He says that he has had two careers as a comics writer. The first was in the early eighties, when he co-created Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld and Blue Devil at DC Comics. His second comics career came a dozen years later, when he got aboard the Crusade Entertainment bandwagon early on, editing Shi and writing Shi: Senryaku as well as his own Demon Gun. Additionally, he has written a wide variety of other work, including several Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew paperbacks, short fiction, essays, history articles, ad copy, and more. In 2014, after retiring from teaching in NYC, he moved to Richmond, VA, where he has returned to writing. Current projects include Magic Bus, a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories; Playing With My Friends, an anthology of comics stories in the old House of Mystery model; New Devil, with Blue Devil artist/co-creator Paris Cullins and artist Derwin Roberson; and Nemesis, with former NYC teaching colleague and BronxHeroes Con founder Ray Felix. Gary is currently also doing writing/editorial/consultant work for Udderly Ridiculous Productions(udderlyridiculousproductions.com).
Bryant Cox of BC Photography, LLC is the owner and lead photographer. Since 2020, he has proudly served the cosplay community, specializing in creatively lit portraits and dynamic digital art composites that bring characters to life.
Bryant provides his services at numerous conventions throughout the DMV area, where his cosplay photography booth welcomes cosplayers of all levels and all ages. Whether someone is stepping into costume for the first time or is a seasoned competitor, Bryant is committed to delivering high-quality, impactful images.
His work has been featured in various cosplay magazines, reflecting both his technical skill and dedication to the craft.
Aaron K. Crocker is an award-winning author and director based out of Fredericksburg, VA. In 2021, he started 669 Productions, a creative house devoted to psychological horror and experimental nightmares on screen. That same year, he sparked Campfire Publishing, which aims to gather writers from every shadowed corner of the world—novices and well-seasoned alike—to stitch together anthologies that carve horror into hauntingly personal niches. Whether on the page or the screen, Crocker’s work aims to walk the thin veil between real-world horror and the monster in the closet.
Tomas Cruz-Melendez is a science fiction author and technology entrepreneur from Virginia. He published nine science fiction novels in 2025—stories he had been carrying since 1997—and used AI-generated cover art created through Midjourney. When he submitted all nine books to the U.S. Copyright Office under identical disclosure, two were rejected and seven were approved, with no standardized explanation for the difference. That experience sent him down a research path that revealed a far deeper problem: there is no infrastructure connecting content creators to the AI companies training on their work, no system for fair compensation, and no reliable way to verify what is authentic and what is fabricated.
Drawing on 35 years of telecommunications and systems architecture experience at AT&T, Verizon, Avaya, and CACI International, Tomas founded Rights Clearing House (RCH) to build that missing infrastructure. RCH is developing a universal platform for intellectual property verification, attribution, and licensing—giving authors and creators the tools to catalog their work, set their own licensing terms, and receive fair compensation when AI systems train on their content. The company holds four patents filed with the USPTO and has been called “the NASDAQ for intellectual property.”
Tomas is also writing Content Creators Be Damned: The Story of Building Infrastructure Big Tech Ignored, chronicling the journey from rejected copyright registrations to building the verification systems that new laws like the EU AI Act and proposed U.S. legislation are already demanding. He lives in Fauquier County, VA, with his family, and believes that creators deserve infrastructure as sophisticated as the AI systems consuming their work.
Lori D’Angelo is the author of the 2024 feminist sci-fi horror short story collection, The Monsters Are Here, which was published in 2025 by ELJ Editions. She is also a grant recipient from the Elizabeth George Foundation, a fellow at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts, and an alumna of the Community of Writers. She holds an MA from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and an MFA from West Virginia University. Her work has appeared in various literary journals including BULL, Drunken Boat, Gargoyle, Moon City Review, Reed Magazine, and Rejection Letters. She teaches composition at Eastern Mennonite University, writes about books for The Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg and is a fan of many sci-fi TV shows including Travelers, 12 Monkeys, and Person of Interest. Some of her favorite authors are Ray Bradbury, Jane Austen, and Shirley Jackson.
