Presenters

Donald Maass

Donald Maass founded the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York in 1980. He is the author of The Career Novelist (1996), Writing the Breakout Novel (2001), Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (2004), The Fire in Fiction (2009), The Breakout Novelist (2011), Writing 21st Century Fiction (2012) and The Emotional Craft of Fiction (2019). He is a past president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, Inc.

Erik Keevan

Erik Keevan is a writer, playwright, and digital artist living in Seattle, WA. Erik serves as the chair for HWA Seattle, President of Gamut literary series, and writer for the Victorian horror troupe Phantasmagoria. His work has been featured in Horror Tree’s Trembling with Fear series, Clamor literary magazine, and won the 2025 Camp Crypticon writing contest for best horror story. He recently achieved his MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics at University of Washington to make sure he becomes sufficiently pretentious

• What the f#%k is this? How to use liminality to improve your horror writing: This starts with a discussion on how liminality has been used in film, stories, comics, and novels, and then attendees will work on their own story. We will review a few selections of liminal writing, get some tips on forming your most liminal thoughts, and then create an outline for your own liminal story. 
• The Body Remembers: How We Use Body Horror to Express Humanity: An in depth look and writing process focused on how body horror teaches us about our humanity. Based on the teachings of Julia Krestiva, we will discuss why body horror resonates with modern audiences by discussing works such as The Substance, Uzumaki, You Weren’t Meant to Be Human, Monstrilio, and more. This will culminate in a writing section lead by prompts based on our discussion. You’ll leave with some fresh writing which you’ll be able to staple into a fresh new story. 

Leslie Copeland

Leslie Copeland is a fulltime writer and editor who has edited over 120 speculative fiction novels, including LitRPG, fantasy, science fiction, romantasy, and horror. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association, the Editorial Freelance Association, and she is an editor on Reedsy. She regularly edits for several small presses, including Fairfield Publishing and Dark Forest Press. She has an MA in English Studies and taught English at Western Washington University and Northwest Indian College. She also regularly attends cons and has attended Norwescon, Crypticon, and Bizarro Con.

Leslie will present:

• Learning LitRPG: Learn about the new speculative fiction form of LitRPG, how to write it, and work on your own LitRPG idea.

LitRPG is the genre of fantasy writing inspired and based around table-top roleplaying games. Think Dungeon Crawler Carl or He Who Fights with Monster. 

• The Second Book: Generating Speculative Fiction Series explores the challenge of developing a speculative fiction series. How does a writer create a story structure that can sustain more than one book? 

Clay Vermulm

Clay Vermulm is a Montana-born, Washington-based author of horror and contemporary dark fiction. He has been published in Sleyhouse Magazine, Grendel Press, Reader Beware, Redacted Tales, True Northwest, and elsewhere. Clay is a staff writer and producer with Itchy Rodent Films, an assistant editor at Nightmare Magazine, and the managing editor for the annual Crypticon Seattle Writing Contest Anthology. He also hosts and produces two podcasts: Beneath the Rain Shadow and Fermented Fiction. When he’s not doing all that, he enjoys hiking, climbing, surfing, and gaming with his wife while his cat judges his every decision.   

Clay will present:

• Isolation Horror: In-depth, horror-centric analysis of how to utilize isolation to amplify pressure, stakes, and tension on your characters and how to use the setting itself as a menacing element of the story on both the thematic and semantic levels.
• Unconventional Publishing Paths: Learn from someone who has been there, following unusual paths to success in the industry. This class will cover podcasting, filmmaking, and the difference between indie and traditional publishing.

Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor

Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor’s non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction have appeared in print and online in several journals and anthologies including Katipunan Literary Magazine, Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults, Kuwento: Small Things, and Beyond Lumpia, Pansit, and Seven Manangs Wild: An Anthology. Her poetry chapbook Pause Mid-Flight was released in 2010 and her collection Dancing Between Bamboo Poles was released in 2019. She was also the co-editor of True Stories: The Narrative Project Vol. I-IV. She has been performing as a storyteller since 2006 and specializes in stories based on Filipino folktales and Filipino-American history.

Rebecca will present:

• Future Folklore: Urban Legends. Memes. Dis-information. Where does folklore end and a contemporary story begin? What knowledge do we want our descendants to know about our world now that might help them survive in our future? How are we shaped by the folklore created today on social media? From origin and just-so stories to trickster tales, folklore can provide a template to create powerful stories to help the next generations with their challenges. In this generative workshop, traditional folklore becomes a template for new folklore for the modern age.

Rio Lombana & Kaitlin Schmidt

Rio Lombana writes speculative fiction from Seattle, where they like to hike in the dry season and train martial arts while it rains. Raised in the Carolinas in the Southern Baptist church, they are the apostate eldest daughter of a Latina mother and a white father. Their stories are published in Escape Pod, Adventitious, Small Wonders, and elsewhere. They’re a Viable Paradise alum and NYC Midnight winner. Find them at riolombana.com and everywhere online @riolombana.

Kaitlin is a queer, neurodivergent author and editor from the Pacific Northwest. Her short fiction has appeared in Adventitious and Wyngraf and placed in NYC Midnight twice. She is also the author of The Cartomancer’s Curse, a sapphic romantasy novella. When she’s not writing or falling in love with the latest book she’s editing, she’s swing dancing the night away. You can find her online at kaitlin-schmidt.com and @kaitlin.schmidt4.

Rio and Kaitlin will be presenting:

• The Art of Brevity, Part I: Writing Speculative/SFFH Micro and Flash Fiction. Micro and flash fiction is the craft of telling a complete story in (usually) less than 500-1000 words, or sometimes as few as 100. We’ll learn how to take a science fiction, fantasy, horror, or otherwise speculative story with both an internal and external arc—complete with setting, character, voice, conflict, plot, resolution, and even world building—and distill it down as much as possible, but no further. Attendees can leave with a tightly crafted opening sentence for their own micro fic, an outline for the rest, and maybe even a complete story.

Rio will be presenting: 

• The Art of Brevity, Part II: Publishing and Contests for Short Speculative/SFFH Fiction. Learn about publishing and contest opportunities for your short fiction (100-7500 words) in genres like science fiction, fantasy, horror, speculative-literary, slipstream, weird fiction, etc. We’ll discuss how and where to submit your short stories to find professional-rate paid publication and wide readership, as well as what contests are worth the entry fee, and how to give yourself the best chance of winning. Come with any questions you have about the short fiction publishing industry, awards, contests, and promoting your work.

Brianna Malotke

Brianna Malotke is a horror and romance author. She’s an editor for Letters to the Gods and has contributed to the Hallow Ian Horror Hour TV show with Tapped House Media. Her writing is rooted in love and nightmares, often weaving the two together. She has multiple poetry collections out as well as a vampire novella series titled Wicked Bites. Last year she was a Costume Judge for the MoPop’s Fashionably Undead Halloween party and won the international Azerate Poetry Prize. This year she won the Seattle Erotic Art Festival’s Poetry Foundation Award. 

Brianna will present: 

• You’ve Been Published, Now What? Whether you’ve been published in a magazine, an anthology with a small press, or have decided to self-publish your novel – you still need to market it. Which also includes marketing yourself or your “brand.” In this workshop we’ll go over narrowing down your target audience, figuring out which platforms you should focus on, drafting a marketing plan for your release (or other events such as a sale or convention appearance), and walking through helpful tools.