Carrie Vaughn HorrorFest 2009 Guest

Carrie Vaughn

Carrie is the New York Times bestselling author of a series of novels about a werewolf named Kitty. The fifth and sixth installments were released earlier this year.

Carrie has other projects in the works, including a young adult novel about rock climbing and dragons, due out next year. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her dog, Lily, and the usual passel of books and hobbies that make her house quite messy.

She has also authored many short stories found in Weird Tales, Realms of Fantasy, Talebones, and others. She is a contributor to the online blog Warp Section. It's about Science Fiction and covers a large range of subjects: movie developments, reviewing past television show episodes, merchandise, and video games. Specifically, Warp Section is about anything related to the science fiction genre.

On her web site,Carrie says she is always ready to battle the forces of galactic evil... in retro style. I happen to know there were a lot of evil battles at our 2006 Starfest and I didn't hear anything about Carrie in the brig at that show. I guess, like most authors, she's more into verbally battling evil than actually landing a physical blow for truth and justice. Because of THAT good wisdom - she's earned her ticket back to Starfest and back onto our guest list at the convention.

Her favorite authors (you can tell so much from a person by this list): Ray Bradbury, Robin McKinley, Charles Dickens, Joseph Conrad, John Steinbeck, Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, Patricia McKillip, Connie Willis, Ursula LeGuin, Steven Brust, Phillip Pullman, Guy Gavriel Kay, Lois McMaster Bujold, Neal Stephenson, Jonathan Lethem, Arthur C. Clarke, Peter Beagle, Iain Banks, etc. etc.

She describes her childhood as that of a typical Air Force Brat. "When I was born in January 1973, my father was co-piloting a B-52 all over southeast Asia and my mother was having her umpteenth nervous breakdown at Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento, California. That explains so much, doesn't it?

She credits her parents for her writing. "My mother gave me Heinlein's Red Planet when I was eight. Shortly thereafter my father sat me down to watch 2001. My brain just hasn't been the same [since]."

She's worked as a Renaissance Festival counter wench, a theater usher, an ditor, a buyer at an independent bookstore, and administrative assistant. Furthering her studies at CU Boulder, she proudly puns, "Once, I was the student. Now, I am the Master. ('Only a Master of English, Carrie.') Doh!"

She currently lives in Boulder and still does her own laundry. For more information about Carrie and her current projects, visit www.carrievaughn.com.