Guests of Honour

The Guests of Honour for Au Contraire 2013 were Jennifer Fallon as NZ GoH, Anna Klein as Fan GoH... and you!

Jennifer Fallon

Jennifer Fallon is the author of 15 full-length novels, and a number of published short stories. In addition to her own fantasy series - the Demon Child trilogy, the Hythrun Chronicles, the Second Sons trilogy, the Tide Lords quadrilogy, and the Rift Runners series - she has written both a tie-in novel and short fiction for the TV series Stargate SG1, an official Zorro story for Disney, a novella for the Legends of Australian Fantasy anthology, and has her own superhero - the Violet Valet.

A mainstream bestseller in Australia, Jennifer has a Masters Degree from the Creative Arts faculty of QUT. She has been shortlisted three times for the Australian Aurealis Award, the US Romantic Times Fantasy Fiction Award, and the David Gemmel Legends of Fantasy awards, and has been longlisted almost every year since 2000 for the World Fantasy awards. Her novels are notable for strong female characters, an emphasis on politics, and a more subtle use of magic. Her writing has been described as "non-stop adventure".

With world-wide sales approaching a million books, Jennifer's works have been translated into several languages. She is currently working on the last Rift Runners book, and has just signed a new 4 book deal with a major international publisher.

Jennifer moved to New Zealand from Central Australia in 2010 because she was sick of the desert heat, doesn't like bushfires or floods, and figured nothing like a natural disaster ever happens in Christchurch...

See her website for more information.

Anna Klein

Our Fan Guest of Honour for 2013 has been instrumental in the development of both the Auckland and the wider national live action roleplaying community. She has been a driving force behind the New Zealand Live Action Roleplaying Society, a funding and advisory organisation for the hobby. Additionally, she has run a popular three year larp campaign "St Wolfgang's Vampire Hunters," along with writing and running one-off games. Anna has also led the organisation of Chimera, the original larp convention in New Zealand. Since its inception in 2008, it has grown to attract around 130 people annually. Anna is also a fantastic larper, costumer, cat herder, and a literary geek with her master's in Lovecraftian literature.

You

Au Contraire is a celebration of fannish creativity. It doesn't matter what you do, whether it's writing fanfic, cosplay, editing music videos, sketching dragons, making CGI models, knitting daleks, or even just contributing to a discussion on last night's episode of your favourite show; if you do anything beyond passively absorbing entertainment, we salute your effort. And if you don't, hopefully by the end of the convention you'll have been inspired to try something.

No, that doesn't mean you get a free membership, sorry!