Carl William Thiel is a former member of The Fibs, Buffalo, New York’s premier comedy rock band. His first experience with filking was when Ookla the Mok introduced The Fibs at OVFF in Oct 2002. Subsequent appearances at FilkOntario and Conclave in Michigan, among others, endeared them to the filk community and they performed at the 62nd Worldcon in Boston in 2004.

Carl’s songwriting walks a thin line between love and hate (“Either you love it or you hate it!”) and includes tales about the end of the world, monster snails, ex-presidents, and divorce. He has recorded a solo CD of “your basic, heartbreak songs” called DEARTH.

Carl is the author of THE BASIC 100, a guide to the 100 essential books about Sherlock Holmes, as well as the editor of THE SHERLOCK HOLMES ALMANAC, both published by the Silicon Dispatch Box (Shelburne, Ontario). Carl has more than five thousand books, although the fear of paper cuts precludes him from opening many of them. He spends his days as editor of technical reports for an archaeological survey firm and his weekends cruising the refreshment tables at art openings in Western New York. He lives in Buffalo without a cat named Pookie.