I have attended a science fiction convention this past weekend.
There was a lady there making figures from polymer clay. I would
love to learn this. Are there any books that teach this sort of
thing?

Achbar

There are several books out there on sculpting lifelike and cartoonish
figures in polymer clay. Just go to amazon.com and put 'polymer clay
sculpt" or "polymer clay figures" into the search box and you'll come up
with all kinds of hits.

Barbara
Beader and Polymer Clay Junky

http://www.penguintrax.com and http://www.backseatgrammarian.com