Sam J. Jones

Media Guest

Actor Sam J. Jones was born in Chicago, Illinois but grew up in Sacramento, California. He was educated at Mira Loma High School in Sacramento and went on to serve as a United States Marine. Jones made his screen debut in Blake Edwards' comedy film 10 (1979). In 1980, he was cast in the iconic role of Flash Gordon in the cult classic of the same name, Flash Gordon (1980). A solid acting career in mostly television roles followed. Jones came back to moviegoers attention, making a cameo as a version of himself in the comedy film Ted (2012).

Sam made his first film appearance in the 1979 romantic comedy film 10. His appearance in 10 allowed him to beat Kurt Russell and Arnold Schwarzenegger for his most famous role, that of Flash Gordon in the 1980 film of the same name. Jones dyed his hair blonde for this role. The film was moderately successful at the box office grossing $27.1M in North America, and $22m in the UK - double its $20M budget.

He went on to play Chris Rorchek in the TV series Code Red (1981–1982). He had guest roles in other TV shows including The A-Team, Hunter, and Riptide. In 1987, he played the lead role in a TV adaptation of Will Eisner's comics character The Spirit. He also played the title character in the short-lived NBC sci-fi series The Highwayman. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he portrayed Johnny Valentine on the HBO series 1st & Ten.

Jones starred in the 1986 theatrical release My Chauffeur and the straight-to-video movies Jungle Heat (1985), Jane and the Lost City (1987), Under the Gun (1988), Silent Assassins (1988), Whiteforce (1988), Driving Force (1989), and One Man Force (1989). In the 1990s, Jones had roles in films including In Gold We Trust (1990), Maximum Force (1992), Fist of Honor (1993), Hard Vice (1994), Enter the Shootfighter (1995), Texas Payback (1995), The Killer Inside (1996), Earth Minus Zero (1996), Baja Run (1996) and American Tigers (1996), and guest roles in the TV shows Baywatch, Diagnosis Murder and Walker: Texas Ranger.

In 2001, Jones was cast in Animal Planet's family series Hollywood Safari as a park ranger. He appeared in "Deadman Switch", an episode of the television series Stargate SG-1. In 2007, he played the prisoner Krebb in the Sci Fi Channel original television series Flash Gordon. He also had extended cameos (as himself, with his blond Flash Gordon hairstyle) in both the 2012 comedy film Ted and its 2015 sequel, Ted 2.

When not in front of a camera, Sam keeps himself employed as a security professional and consultant, working for a prestigious risk management company protecting VIP’s traveling to high-risk environments throughout the world. This allows him to pick and choose between movies and security operations leaving him with a win-win situation.

As a Goodwill Ambassador, Sam travels extensively throughout Asia, Europe and America, attending speaking engagements; personal appearances; media talk shows and charity fundraisers. Sam is uniquely transparent and very approachable while sharing his personal experiences, encouraging others that they are no longer victims, then passionately illustrating how to rise above any and all of life’s obstacles.

Sam is a former United States Marine and recipient of numerous Entertainment; Civic and Humanitarian Awards, including Citizen of The Year, presented by California State Senate; County of Los Angeles; City of Los Angeles; and North Hollywood Police Department, as well as The Outstanding Achievement Award in The Entertainment Industry, presented by The Southern California Motion Picture Council.

Connect: Twitter - @RealSamJJones | IMDB | Wikipedia

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Claudia Gray

Author Guest

Claudia Gray is the New York Times bestselling author of a number of YA paranormal series (Evernight, Spellcaster, Firebird) as well as the author of two Star Wars books for Disney/Lucasfilm. She writes novels full-time, and hopes to do this forever. Her home is in New Orleans is over a hundred years old and is painted purple. In her free time she reads, travels, hikes, cooks and listens to music.

Claudia wrote the young adult novel Lost Stars, which is part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens multimedia initiative and was released on September 4, 2015. The title depicts events throughout the Galactic Civil War from the points of view of Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell. Gray also wrote the novel Bloodline, published on May 3, 2016.

It was announced at Celebration Orlando that Gray would write Disney–Lucasfilm Press' young adult novel Leia, Princess of Alderaan. The title was published on September 1, 2017.

Some of Gray's other titles include the book series Evernight, Spellcaster, and Firebird.

Gray's novel, Evernight, was published in May 2008 by HarperCollins. Gray's lifelong interests in old houses, classic movies, vintage style, and history all played a part in creating the novel.

The second book in the Evernight series, Stargazer, was published in March 2009, and was ranked No. 4 in the chapter book category of The New York Times list of bestselling children's books in April 2009. Subsequent novels in the series include Hourglass and Afterlife, which were published in 2010 and 2011, respectively, and the spinoff Balthazar, which was published in 2012.

Connect: Twitter - @claudiagray | Facebook | Website | Wikipedia | Wookipedia

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Clayton Snyder

Author Guest

Clayton currently works full-time as a systems administrator for a small business in North Dakota, where he lives with his wife and two dogs. In his off-hours, he occupies his time with writing, gaming, very occasional guitar playing, and of course, reading. He's been writing for roughly 30 years, but only recently decided he wanted to try to publish.

I've written upwards of 120 short stories, some of which have been published. In addition, I recently signed a contract for a three-book deal with a small publisher. The first book was published in Nov. 2017 (Child of Nod), and the second (Queen of Nod) will be released Nov. 2018. The third (Goddess of Nod) is undergoing rewrites. The vast majority of my work falls into fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror genres, sometimes mixing all three.

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Sloth Goth Cosplay (Alaura Klegstad)

Cosplay Guest

When people ask me when I started cosplaying I just tell them I never stopped dressing up for Halloween and it just got worse with age. Valley Con 2017 was my first convention experience and since then I've attended 6 conventions within the past 11 months. Since then I have tripled my cosplay following on social media, grown my cosplay career to the point where I'm making some money each month through Patreon, have averaged 1 completed cosplay a month, started a cosplay-related podcast where I speak Colorado-based cosplayers about their origin and goals and everything in between called The Sloth Goth Thoughts, that I publish free on my Patreon page as well.

I currently have a website in the works, I notably take a lot of my own cosplay photos as well, and am planning to start selling professional prints of my cosplay in early October. Though I've only done one commission for a fellow cosplayer, I've had plenty of experience with sewing and craftsmanship of props and LOVE to tell people about my experiences, my mistakes (there are PLENTY of them!) and how to better yourself in the cosplay game!

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