Guests of Honor

James P. Blaylock, born and bred in the heart of the southern California wilderness, has been publishing stories and novels since around 1975 – more than twenty novels and story collections in all.  In 1977, UnEarth magazine published his story “The Ape-box Affair,” arguably the first American steampunk story.  Over the years he has won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award for his steampunk novel Homunculus and two World Fantasy Awards.  His short story “Unidentified Objects” was nominated for an O.Henry Award. 

His most recently published novels are Knights of the Cornerstone, set in the California desert, and The Ebb Tide, a steampunk adventure set in London and the Lake District.  In the works is another steampunk novel titled The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs. 

He has been a teacher for 35 years, and is currently a professor at Chapman University in the city of Orange, where he has lived for more than half his life.  Also, he directs the Creative Writing Conservatory at the Orange County High School of the Arts, the most extensive school-year-round creative writing program in the known world, with 160 students and ten faculty, including master teacher Tim Powers.  Jim has been married to his wife Viki for nearly forty years.  They have two sons, both actors and aspiring writers, who live in New York.