LDWriter2: Thanks! This is great! I've seen a few of the names before, but don't know anything about them. I guess you can check out my list and I'll check out yours. I notice your list is mostly women, where mine is all men. I think I have this misconception that female writers are more into the UF/romance thing. Guess that may not be quite accurate.
First: Yeah, my favorites do seem to be female writers with two big exceptions as listed, well Jim is one of those two. But there are two other men who are close to my favorites. One is Mark del Franco who has two series both of which take place in the same universe. Unlike Gilman they are not in the same city and I'm not sure if they are in the same time either.
The other guy I'm going to have to look up he has a complicated name.
Second: Some men do some romance, Jim as a touch of romance. But then again a lot of the new UF is heavy romance type, I usually reject them though.