| The Library | ||
| Thursday | ||
| 10am | The Rules of Writing Michael A. Stackpole |
Crafting Memorable Characters Dylan Birtolo, Sheryl Nantus, Donald Bingle, John Helfers |
| 11am | Worldbuilding Tracy Hickman |
Writer’s Block and You Bryan Young, Dylan Birtolo, R.T. Kaelin, Jennifer Brozek |
| 12pm | Finding the Story Michael A. Stackpole |
Storytelling and Plot Jennifer Brozek, Tracy Chowdhury, Sheryl Nantus |
| 1pm | 101 Ideas in an Hour Timothy Zahn |
Point of View Sheryl Nantus, John Helfers, Don Bingle |
| 2pm | Screenplays and Narrative Fiction: Bridging the Divide Bryan Young |
Werewolves, Vampires, and Krackens. Oh My! Gregory A. Wilson, Aaron Rosenberg, Richard C. White |
| 3pm | Them’s Fightin’ Words Timothy Zahn, Janine Spendlove |
Heroes, Villians, and Antiheroes Addie J. King, Gregory A. Wilson, R.T. Kaelin |
| 4pm | Don’t Tell Your Story–Show It Maxwell A. Drake |
Women in Fiction Jennifer Brozek, Tracy Chowdhury, Richard C. White |
| 5pm | Food in Fiction Daniel Myers |
The Importance of Names Sheryl Nantus, Donald Bingle, Gregory A. Wilson |
| 6pm | Story Hour Maxwell A. Drake, Donald Bingle |
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| 7pm | Story Hour John Helfers, Richard C. White |
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| Friday | ||
| 10am | Medieval Combat Dylan Birtolo |
Writing Romance Sheryl Nantus, Janine Spendlove, Addie J. King |
| 11am | Plotting Michael A. Stackpole |
Military Tactics Janine Spendlove, Ronald Garner, Dylan Birtolo, John Helfers |
| 12pm | YA Fiction:Making it Work in Publishing Today Janine Spendlove |
History in Fiction Dylan Birtolo, Jennifer Brozek, John Helfers, Daniel Myers |
| 1pm | Write on the Edge Tracy Hickman |
Writing the Other Sheryl Nantus, John Helfers, Gregory A. Wilson, Don Bingle |
| 2pm | 21 Days to a Novel Michael A. Stackpole |
Magic and Technology R.T. Kaelin, Tracy Chowdhury, Gregory A. Wilson |
| 3pm | Character Creation–Who Is that Masked Man? Maxwell A. Drake |
Religion and Science Tracy Chowdhury, Bryan Young, R.T. Kaelin |
| 4pm | How to Create a Realistic Fictitious World Maxwell A. Drake |
Governments and Law Donald Bingle, Addie J. King, Ronald Garner |
| 5pm | Podcasting Gregory A. Wilson |
Outfitting your Characters Janine Spendlove, Dylan Birtolo, Addie J. King, Richard C. White |
| 6pm | Story Hour Kelly Swails, Janine K. Spendlove |
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| 7pm | Story Hour R.T. Kaelin, Addie J. King |
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| Saturday | ||
| 10am | Advanced Characterization Michael A. Stackpole |
Building a Network Bryan Young, Gregory A. Wilson, Aaron Rosenberg |
| 11am | Elements of Epic Structure Tracy Hickman |
Writing Tie-In Fiction John Helfers, Jennifer Brozek, Maxwell A. Drake, Richard C. White, Aaron Rosenberg |
| 12pm | So, I’ve got the Idea. Now What? Timothy Zahn |
Anthology Creation Workshop Jennifer Brozek, John Helfers |
| 1pm | Crowd Source Funding Your Publishing Future Ronald T. Garner |
Writer Beware: Avoiding Con Artists Richard C. White |
| 2pm | Collaboration and Tie-in Novels Timothy Zahn, Michael A. Stackpole |
Writers and the Art of Time Management Dylan Birtolo, Addie J. King, Aaron Rosenberg, Sheryl Nantus |
| 3pm | Story Analysis and Critique Timothy Zahn, Michael A. Stackpole |
Q and A with Tracy Hickman Tracy Hickman |
| 4pm | Social Media and the Writer Bryan Young, Donald Bingle, Addie J. King, John Helfers |
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| 5pm | Dialogue: It’s Not Just People Talking Maxwell A. Drake |
Writing a Series R.T. Kaelin, Janine Spendlove, Aaron Rosenberg |
| 6pm | Story Hour Gregory A. Wilson, Ronald Garner |
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| 7pm | Story Hour Michael A. Stackpole, Bryan Young |
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| Sunday | ||
| 10am | 10 Ways to Improve Your Fiction Today John Helfers, R.T. Kaelin, Gregory A. Wilson |
Writing for RPGs Donald Bingle, Jennifer Brozek, Richard C. White, Aaron Rosenberg |
| 11am | But it Worked Great as a Campaign! Aaron Rosenberg, Dylan Birtolo, Richard C. White, Tracy Chowdhury |
Pitch Session for Small Press Jennifer Brozek |
| 12pm | Plot Structure – Buildding the Foundation to a Page-Turning Story Maxwell A. Drake |
Making Old Tropes New Sheryl Nantus, John Helfers, Daniel Myers |
| 1pm | What’s the Next Big Thing? R.T. Kaelin, Jennifer Brozek, Donald Bingle |
The Future of Publishing Ronald Garner, Maxwell A. Drake, John Helfers |
Donald J. Bingle: Best known as the world’s top-ranked player of classic role-playing games for fifteen years, Donald J. Bingle is an oft-published author in the science fiction, fantasy, horror, thriller, steampunk, romance, and comedy genres, with three novels (Net Impact, Forced Conversion, GREENSWORD) and more than forty stories, primarily in themed and tie-in anthologies.
Many of Don’s stories are electronically available, individually or in his Writer on Demand TM collections by genre, including “Tales of Gamers and Gaming,” “Tales of Humorous Horror,” “Tales Out of Time”, “Grim, Fair e-Tales,” “Tales of an Altered Past Powered by Romance, Horror, and Steam,” and “Not-So-Heroic Fantasy.”
Dylan Birtolo: Dylan Birtolo resides in the Pacific Northwest where he spends his time as a writer, a gamer, and a professional sword-swinger. He has published a few fantasy novels, several short stories, and gaming fiction. He trains with the Seattle Knights, an acting troop that focuses on stage combat. Endeavoring to be a true jack of all trades, he has worked as a software engineer, a veterinary technician in an emergency hospital, a martial arts instructor, a rock climbing guide, and a lab tech. He’s had the honor of jousting, and yes, the armor is real.
Jennifer Brozek: Jennifer Brozek is a freelance author for numerous RPG companies. Winner of both the Origins and the ENnie award, her contributions to RPG sourcebooks include Dragonlance, Colonial Gothic, Shadowrun, Serenity, Savage Worlds, and White Wolf SAS as well as the long running Battletech webseries, The Nellus Academy Incident. When she is not writing her heart out, she is gallivanting around the Pacific Northwest in its wonderfully mercurial weather. Read more about her at www.jenniferbrozek.com or follow her on Twitter at @JenniferBrozek.
T.R. Chowdhury: Tracy Chowdhury is one of the authors of two fantasy /adventure series: Shadow Over Shandahar and Dark Mists of Ansalar. Before beginning her writing career, she graduated from Miami University with a bachelor’s degree in Zoology. Since then she has worked for the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and the University of Cincinnati. Currently she manages the family real estate business. In her spare moments she is either writing the next novel in her series or one of the many short stories that go along with the books. For more information about her books, go to her website at www.worldofshandahar.com.
Maxwell Alexander Drake: Maxwell Alexander Drake is an award-winning Science Fiction/Fantasy author, Graphic Novelist and Playwright. He is also the lead tie-in writer and game story consultant for Sony Online Entertainment’s massive online game EverQuest Next. He is best known for his fantasy series, The Genesis of Oblivion Saga. Drake teaches creative writing at writers’ conferences and fan conventions around the country. For more, please visit www.maxwellalexanderdrake.com, more about the Genesis of Oblivion Saga at www.genesisofoblivion.com, more about his latest graphic novel at www.downfallthecomic.com, or read what he is doing for Sony at www.everquestnext.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
Ron Garner: Ron Garner grew up in Vicksburg, Mississippi, but for the past thirteen years of his life has moved around the country in various billets as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. He holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and a Juris Doctorate from UNC-Chapel Hill. Ron spends way too much time running races around the country and building things that are of questionable use. He currently resides in Washington, DC with his wife and daughter, operating the small press Silence in the Library LLC and writing science fiction and fantasy whenever possible.
John Helfers: John Helfers is an author and editor currently living in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He’s edited more than a dozen anthologies, and published more than forty-five short stories. He’s written both fiction and nonfiction, including the third novel in the first authorized trilogy based on The Twilight Zone™ television series, the YA novel Tom Clancy’s Net Force Explorers™: Cloak and Dagger. His fiction has appeared in anthologies, game books, and on websites for the Dragonlance™, Transformers™, BattleTech™ and Shadowrun™ universes. Currently he’s working on several tie-in and original projects in both the adult and YA genres. He also operates Stonehenge Art & Word, an editorial and literary fiction management company.
R.T. Kaelin: R.T. Kaelin is an accidental writer. In 2009, while in search for a hobby, he joined a local gaming group and soon found himself writing short stories for his fellow players. When urged to try his hand at something larger, R.T. went at it and self-published Progeny, the first volume in The Children of the White Lions series, in late 2010. The book garnered critical acclaim and hit top 10 top-rated historical fantasy at Amazon. He published the second in the series, Prophecy, in September, 2012. In February, 2013, he signed with a literary agent to pursue a traditional publishing deal for the series. www.RTKaelin.com
Addie King: Addie J. King (www.addiejking.com) is an attorney by day and author by nights, weekends, and whenever she can find a spare moment. Her novels THE GRIMM LEGACY, THE ANDERSEN ANCESTRY, and THE WONDERLAND WOES are available from Musa Publishing. Her short fiction has appeared in MYSTERY TIMES TEN 2011, available from Buddhapuss Ink, and in TRIUMPH OVER TRAGEDY, a charitable anthology to raise money for victims of Hurricane Sandy. An essay entitled “Building Believable Legal Systems in Science Fiction and Fantasy” has appeared in EIGHTH DAY GENESIS; A WORLDBUILDING CODEX FOR WRITERS AND CREATIVES available from Alliteration Ink.
Daniel “Doc” Myers: Daniel Myers writes cookbooks and short stories, a combination that has his characters well-fed. He has spent the past dozen years seriously studying medieval cooking. He is a member of the SCA, a medieval re-creation organization, and practices his craft by cooking feasts, researching, and giving occasional lectures. Daniel lives in Loveland, Ohio, with his wife and two children. He is currently employed as a database programmer, and would be happy to accept large grants of cash to start a medieval themed restaurant. His co-workers in the IT department are still quite baffled by the whole thing.
Sheryl Nantus: Sheryl Nantus was born in Montreal, Canada and grew up in Toronto, Canada. She met Martin Nantus through the online fanfiction community in 1993 and moved to the United States in 2000. She enjoys writing haiku and playing board games though not necessarily in that order.
In 2011 she won two Second-Place Prism Awards from the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter of RWA for her superhero novel, “Blaze of Glory” and her steampunk romance “Wild Cards and Iron Horses”. In 2013 she won a Third-Place Prism Award for the first book of her paranormal series, “Blood of the Pride”.
Aaron Rosenberg: Aaron Rosenberg is an award-winning, #1 bestselling novelist, children’s book author, and game designer. His novels include the best-selling DuckBob series, the Dread Remora space-opera series, and the occult thriller series O.C.L.T.. His tie-in work contains novels for Star Trek, Warhammer, WarCraft, and Eureka. His children’s books include Pete and Penny’s Pizza Puzzles, the award-winning Bandslam: The Junior Novel, and the #1 best-selling 42: The Jackie Robinson Story. Aaron has also written over seventy roleplaying games, including the original games Asylum, Spookshow, and Chosen, work for White Wolf, Wizards of the Coast, Fantasy Flight, Pinnacle, and others, the Origins Award-winning Gamemastering Secrets, and the Gold ENnie-winning Lure of the Lich Lord. He is a co-founder of Crazy 8 Press. Aaron lives in New York. You can follow him online at gryphonrose.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/gryphonrose, and on Twitter @gryphonrose.
Janine K. Spendlove: Janine K. Spendlove is a KC-130 pilot in the United States Marine Corps. In Science Fiction and Fantasy she is primarily known for her best-selling trilogy, War of the Seasons. She has several stories published in various anthologies and is also the co-founder of GeekGirlsRun, a community for geek girls (and guys) who run, share, have fun, and encourage each other. A graduate of Brigham Young University, Janine loves pugs, enjoys knitting, making costumes, playing Beatles tunes on her guitar, and spending time with her family. She is currently at work on her next novel. Find out more at JanineSpendlove.com.
Kelly Swails: Kelly Swails is an editor, writer, and recovering microbiologist. Her work has appeared in over two dozen anthologies, including The Crimson Pact series, Boondocks Fantasy, and Athena’s Daughters. She also reviews books for blackgate.com. She’s currently writing a young adult series and hopes to warp young minds with it soon. When she’s not writing, reading, or obsessing over Scandal, she hangs out with her husband and friends while exploring the mean streets of Chicago.
Richard C. White: Richard C. White is the author of the For a Few Gold Pieces More collection for Musa Publishing. Other writing includes On Wings of Steel, a steampunk e-novel, which came out Spring 2014 and The Wisp Hunter in the Fall 2013 issue of Spellbound Magazine.
He has done media tie-in writing for Star Trek, Doctor Who, and The Incredible Hulk. His novel, Gauntlet Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil, was the best-selling tie-in for his publisher in 2004.
Richard belongs to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers and serves on the Writer Beware committee for SFWA.
Gregory A. Wilson: Gregory A. Wilson is currently Associate Professor of English at St. John’s University in New York, where he teaches creative writing and fantasy fiction along with other literature courses. His first novel, an epic fantasy entitled The Third Sign, was published by Gale Cengage in 2009. He is currently submitting his third novel to publishers, and has short stories in various anthologies; his second novel, Icarus, is being turned into a graphic novel with professional artist Matt Slay after a highly successful Kickstarter campaign. Finally, along with fellow sff author Brad Beaulieu he is co-host of the critically acclaimed podcast Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers and Fans. He lives with his family in Riverdale, NY.
Bryan Young: Bryan Young works across many different mediums. As an author, he’s written the best-selling comedy “Lost at the Con,” the critically acclaimed pulp sci-fi adventure “Operation: Montauk,” and dozens of short stories in various anthologies.
As a film producer, his last two films (“This Divided State” and “Killer at Large”) were released by The Disinformation Company and were called “filmmaking gold” by The New York Times. He’s also published comic books with Slave Labor Graphics and Image Comics. He’s a contributor for the Huffington Post and StarWars.com, and has a regular column in the Salt Lake City Weekly, and is the founder and editor in chief of the geek news and review site Big Shiny Robot!
Timothy Zahn: Timothy Zahn has been writing science fiction for over a third of a century. In that time he has published forty-five novels, over a hundred short stories and novelettes, and four collections of short fiction. Best known for his ten Star Wars novels, he is also the author of the Quadrail series, the Cobra series, the Conquerors Trilogy, and the young-adult Dragonback series. His latest books are Star Wars: Scoundrels, and Cobra Slave, the first book of the Cobra Rebellion Trilogy.
Upcoming books include Cobra Outlaw, the second Cobra Rebellion novel, and a three-book collaboration with David Weber set in the Honor Harrington universe. You can contact him at Facebook.com/TimothyZahn.