Yes, our team is called ZAPS

What is the SPSFC?

It’s an annual competition for self published science fiction books, the Self Published Science Ficion Competition, where sci fi readers form teams to judge the entries and select a winner from the pool of entrants.

This is the 5th year of SPSFC and I’m the Team Lead of Team Zombies and Pirates in Space.

Team ZAPS

Without further ado, let’s meet the team!

Cory Rathbun

Cory reads constantly, mostly Sci-fi and Fantasy though there are a LOT of LitRPG, GameLIT, and progression fantasy lately.  He also does ARC reviews for self published or independent authors, enjoys all manner of gaming and nerdery, and wants to see more books featuring Eastern Philosophy.

Cory has been a judge last year for another team, and he’s back for another stint this year.

You can find Cory at Goodreads and Bluesky.

Daniel Ruffolo or Dan 1

Dan goes by he/him, and is a lifelong SFF reader, giant dork, and huge nerd. After spending most of his younger years working in bookstores, he had a run as the owner of a boardgame and cardgame shop, and has spent time in game design, and production/copy editing, before going back to school and becoming a paralegal and law clerk. Outside all the reading, and writing, he’s a musician and gamer, though wishes he could do more of both of those than he’s had time for lately. Dan can’t wait to get into a whole pile of cool and interesting indie fiction!

Dan prefers character driven books, and if they involve marginalized communities, all the better! He reads during his commute, and this is his first year judging SPSFC and he has been a judge for Small Spec Book Awards previously.

You can find Dan on Bluesky and at his website, Strange Currencies.

Dan Roop or Dan 2

Dan goes by he/him, and is a retired public school educator, having taught high school mathematics for 11 years and served as a school administrator for the last 19 years. He teaches a couple of college courses part-time, but otherwise loves to read! He is married to a wonderful, supportive woman and they have two adult children.

Dan loves high stakes books with action and adventure and his dream job is to be a spaceship mechanic/engineer. He’s an avid Sci Fi and fantasy reader and this is his first time judging the SPSFC.

You can find Dan on Instagram, Threads, Twitter/X, and Bluesky.

Devin Ford

Devin goes by He/Him. Dad of 2 amazing little girls, he enjoys reading fantasy, sci-fi, and romantasy. He runs bromantasy.com which is aimed at bridging the genre gap between traditional fantasy/sci-fi and Romantasy by focusing on the stories instead of the genre tag. He’s also trying to use the platform to showcase the incredible stories from self published authors that don’t have the “machine” of traditional publishing behind them.

Devin loves high stakes character driven fiction and a special love for grimdark. This is his first year as an SPSFC judge.

You can find Devin on Instagram and Twitter/X and on hisBromantasy site.

Rari aka Niranjan aka Zombie

(Did I name the team after me? Yes, I did!)

Rari goes by both she and they and she loves reading. She has been reading nearly all her life, and while she used to read just about anything, of late, she finds unable to read anything other than SFF.

Rari loves character driven books and the queerer the better. She rarely reads traditionally published books these days and is a voracious reader of indie SFF. This is her second time as a judge in SPSFC and the first time as a team lead.

You can find Rari on Bluesky and Instagram and her reviews on her blog.

Rari is also an indie author in her spare time.