Keynote Speaker: Matt Coyle:
Matt Coyle, author of bestselling Rick Cahill crime series whose books have won Ben Franklin Silver, Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Silver, and the San Diego Book Awards, will discuss his long road to publication, life as an author, as well as share tips that he has learned from his experience in the writing field.
Session 1:
Alonso Nunez, founder and Executive Director of Little Fish Comic Book Studio, a nonprofit comic art studio and advocacy group, will present: Into the Comic-Verse: A Comic Book Writing Workshop! In this workshop, students will be taught the fundamentals of comic writing and how to take the writing and prose you already have and turn it into a comic.
Greg van Eekhout, award-winning author of nine novels, including Weird Kid, COG, Voyage of the Dogs, and the California Bones trilogy, will present: Blasting Through Writers Block, a breakdown of Writers Block and how to overcome it in your writing!
Naz Kutub, Young Adult author of THE LOOPHOLE (Bloomsbury 2022) and author of the short story THE HAWK’S REASON as well as co-author of the anthology MAGIC HAS NO BORDERS, will present How to Become an Idea Generator. in this workshop, students will learn how to find ideas in every day life and adapt them to their stories, walking away with dozens of new ideas by the end of the workshop!
Online Conference:
Amy Spalding, award-winning author of several novels, including the bestselling We Used to Be Friends and The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles), will present: Taking the Tragedy out of LGBTQ Young Adult Fiction, where students will learn how to write joyful LGBTQ+ stories.
Adam O’Davis, author of INDEX OF HAUNTED HOUSES (Sarabande, 2020), winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Poetry Prize and a finalist for the Big Other Book Award for Poetry, will present: Writing With Ghosts: Supernatural Strategies for Writing Poems. Why wait for the muse to arrive when you can summon plenty of friendly ghosts to help you with your poems? In this workshop, award-winning poet, Adam O. Davis, will share insights from his work and guide students through a series of exercises guaranteed to generate poems that will haunt writers and readers alike in the best of ways.
Tammy Greenwood, author of 13 award-winning novels including Keeping Lucy, Rust & Stardust, Where I Lost Her and Bodies of Water, will present: The 6 Cs of Plotting Your Novel (Concept, Character, Conflict, Crisis, Climax, Conclusion) Online on the 18th. This workshop will examine the six fundamental elements of plotting your novel. From Concept to Conclusion, we will focus on the key components to creating a strong foundation for your novel.