FaerieCon East is excited to welcome Aprilynne Pike, author of the bestselling “Wings”, and its sequels, “Illusions,” and  “Destined.”

“I am proudest of the fact that I can honestly tell people that they have never seen faeries like my faeries. My faerie mythos came first with this series.” – Aprilynne Pike

Critically acclaimed, internationally best-selling author Aprilynne Pike has been spinning tales since she was a child with a hyper-active imagination. At the age of twenty she received her BA in Creative Writing from Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. When not writing, Aprilynne can usually be found out running; she also enjoys singing, acting, reading, and working with pregnant moms as a childbirth educator and doula. Aprilynne lives in Arizona with her husband and four kids; she is enjoying the sunshine.

“My brain has always been a well of strange — and often very strange — ideas. I can’t really say that I know where they come from. But I think one thing that helps is that I am always pondering, “what if.” Often about simple things like, “What if I had worded that question differently?” Or, “What if I had turned around two seconds earlier.” But sometimes it wanders more. “What if that guy really wasn’t human; what if the love of her life had to kill her.” Constantly juggling “what-ifs” leads to all kinds of fantastical answers and every answer can be developed into a story.” – Aprilynne Pike

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Christopher Penczak is a Witch, teacher, writer and healing practitioner. His practice draws upon the foundation of both modern and traditional Witchcraft blended with the wisdom of mystical traditions from across the globe as a practitioner and teacher of shamanism, tarot, Reiki healing, herbalism, astrology and Qabalah. He is the founder of the Temple of Witchcraft tradition and system of magickal training based upon the material of his books and classes. He is an ordained minister primarily serving the New Hampshire and Massachusetts pagan and metaphysical communities through public rituals, private counsel and teaching, though he travels extensively teaching throughout the United States.

“My writing is based on real world experience plus a foundation of occultism and metaphysics.  A lot of this is practiced out with coven work and students. I want to see if what works for me will work for other people, and develop better ways to explain it to other people.” – Christopher Penczak

In 2000, Christopher Penczak was ordained as a minister by the Universal Brotherhood Movement, Inc. He has been a part time faculty member at the North Eastern Institute of Whole Health and was a founding member of the Gifts of Grace Foundation, a non-profit organization in New Hampshire made up of individuals from diverse spiritual backgrounds dedicated to joyful service to the local communities. He also serves on the Town Council of the Between the Worlds Queer Pagan Brotherhood Festival as director of publicity.

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We are pleased to once again welcome scholar and award-winning author Raven Grimassi to share his magic and wisdom at FaerieCon.

Raven Grimassi Award-winning author Raven Grimassi is the author of seven books on Wicca and Witchcraft, including Wiccan Mysteries (awarded Best Book of the Year & Best Spirituality Book 1998 by the Coalition of Visionary Retailers), Wiccan Magick, Italian Witchcraft (previously titled Ways of the Strega), Hereditary Witchcraft, Encyclopedia of Wicca & Witchcraft (awarded Best Non-Fiction Book 2001 by the Coalition of Visionary Retailers), Beltane, and the recently-published “Old World Witchcraft: Ancient Ways for Modern Days.”

Raven Grimassi has been a teacher and practitioner of the Craft for nearly 30 years. He is trained in the Family tradition of Italian Witchcraft (also known as Stregheria), and is also an initiate of several Wiccan Traditions, including Brittic Wicca and the Pictish-Gaelic Tradition. He is currently the Directing Elder of the Arician Ways. Raven considers it his life’s work to ensure the survival of ancient witch lore and legend along with ancestral teachings of the Old Religion.

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FaerieCon East is excited to welcome New York Times bestselling author Julie Kagawa to our event for the very first time!

Born in Sacramento, California, she moved to Hawaii at the age of nine. There she learned many things: how to body board, that teachers scream when you put centipedes in their desks and that writing stories in math class is a fantastic way to kill time. Her teachers were glad to see her graduate. Julie now lives near Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband and a plethora of pets. She still laughs whenever she sees a centipede.

Kagawa’s best know work to date has been the Iron Fey series, which tells the tale of a half-human teenage girl caught in the middle of a battle for survival when the traditional rivalry of  Summer and Winter fey, the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, is challenged by the new, fearsome, Iron fey.

“Faeries, the old, ancient fey, not the glittery winged sprites, have always fascinated me. But I wanted to write a book that was different than other faery books. So I began thinking: what are the fey afraid of? The answer, in most ancient mythos, is iron. Faeries can’t stand the touch of iron and steel. So, what if there was a new type of fey that had evolved with progress over the years? What if they weren’t only immune to iron, their existence was slowly poisoning and corrupting the lands of the traditional fey? And I realized we already have “monsters” in machines: gremlins, bugs, viruses, ect. And from that thought, the Iron fey were born.”

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FaerieCon is pleased to once again welcome Stephanie Taylor-Grimassi, well-versed in the ways of myth and magic, to our event!

Stephanie Taylor-Grimassi is a 3rd degree initiate of a Celtic Traditionalist system of Wicca, and is a 3rd degree initiate of Italian Witchcraft (the Arician Tradition). She is a legally ordained clergy of Witchcraft. Stephanie has studied, taught, and used the magical arts as tools of transformation throughout her lifetime. She is also a professional Tarot reader, astrologer, and a teacher of Old World Witchcraft through the Fellowship of the Pentacle.

Stephanie is the co-author and co-creator of the divination and teaching systems The Well Worn Path Oracle kit (2005) and The Hidden Path Oracle Kit, (2007). She currently lives in New England with her husband (author Raven Grimassi) and divides her time between operating Raven’s Loft cyber store, teaching workshops, managing the House of Grimassi project, co-directing the Mystery School known as the Fellowship of the Pentacle, and developing the Ash, Birch & Willow training system of Old World witchcraft.

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Sibelle Stone, author of “No Ordinary Love,” and “Whistle Down the Wind” makes her FaerieCon debut!

Sibelle Stone is the pen name for award-winning author Deborah Schneider. While as Deborah she writes rip-roaring Western romance, as Sibelle she writes about magic, witches, fae creatures and incredible machines.

 “I’ve always loved paranormal books about magic, fairies, wizards and witches.I was reading about the European witch craze, a time between the 14th and 17th centuries when many women were accused, prosecuted and executed for practicing witchcraft. My “what if” moment was, “what if a woman was accused of being a witch, and she really did possess magical abilities? How different would things turn out?” – Sibelle Stone

Both Deborah and Sibelle live in the Pacific Northwest near the edge of the Cascade Mountains.

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