Tag: speculative fiction

Texas Horror Lit Festival–ATTENDING

TX Horror Lit Fest

TEXAS HORROR LITERARY FESTIVAL Jun 27 at 10 am to Jun 28 at 6 pm CDT Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas Irving, TX Texas Horror Lit Fest is a […]

Researching vat material

As you know, my research go-to source is Claude.ai. Here’s what I asked him this morning… “I need the type of material that would make giant see-through vats where my […]

P-CON SciFi Fantasy LitCon — ATTENDING!

P-Con

P-CON SciFi Fantasy LitCon–ATTENDING! Sept. 19-21, 2025 Holiday Inn DFW South 14320 Centre Station Dr, Fort Worth, TX, 76155 Welcoming P-Con Guest of Honor David Weber! Join us September 19-21, 2025 at […]

FenCon–Attending!

FenCon — Attending! February 20-22, 2026 New hotel venue, stay tuned for more info FenCon is a literary science fiction and fantasy convention with quite a lot of filk programming, […]

ArmadilloCon 47 — ATTENDING!

ARMADILLOCON 2025 — ATTENDING! Austin, Texas – Sept. 12-14, 2025 Austin Southpark Hotel: 4140 Governors Row, Austin, TX 78744. Phone: 512-448-2222. Catch me at Austin’s long-running convention for SF, fantasy […]

Ama-Con

Ama-Con 2025 August 2-3, 2025 Amarillo Civic Center Complex Amarillo, TX Comic Convention with Gaming and Video Gaming programming AMA-CON started in 2012 and has been growing ever since! In the […]

Steampunk November

Steampunk November 2025 November 15-16, 2025 492 Cordes Drive Venus, TX Steampunk Event Steampunk November is a 2-day outdoor festival brimming with live music, captivating entertainment, unique shopping, special events, […]

SoonerCon 33

Soonercon 2025 June 20-22, 2025 Embassy Suites by Hilton Norman Hotel & Conference Center   View on MapNorman, OK Science Fiction Convention with Comics, Fantasy, and Gaming programming Soonercon is Oklahoma’s […]

GalaxyCon

See you in Oklahoma for GalaxyCon 2025! May 23-25, 2025  Oklahoma City Convention Center 100 Mick Cornett Drive Oklahoma City, OK 73109 United States What is GalaxyCon? It’s a 3-Day FESTIVAL OF FANDOM […]

Start Date: Monday, October 5, 2026
End Date: Friday, October 30, 2026

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Bestsellers are bestsellers for a reason. Bestselling authors use their writing toolbox and skills to create a fascinating story. In this class, we will analyze bestselling authors and see how they created their bestseller and apply those techniques to our own. Bestseller here we come!

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Generating Gorgeous Genre-Using Genre Elements and Tropes to Enhance Your Stories

Start Date: Monday, July 6, 2026
End Date: Friday, July 31, 2026

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Your readers crave the essential elements that make their favorite genres irresistible—and it’s your job to deliver them brilliantly. Genre fiction thrives on tropes: those familiar yet powerful building blocks that readers expect and love. Master these elements, and you’ll have the tools to craft stories that satisfy genre expectations while standing out from the crowd. In this workshop, we’ll explore how to identify, adapt, and elevate classic genre tropes to create fiction that keeps readers hungry for more.

She’s running from the darkness. But what lurks inside her is darker.

The debut novel from award-winning author Pat Hauldren explores questions of who we think we are vs the truth of who we are, and the price we pay no matter the path taken.

Life is not simple for Zarachiel, freshly escaped from her drug-dealing foster parents in deep South Texas. In Dallas, she stays off the grid. She finds a new family in Gracie, from whom she leases an extra bedroom, and Katie, Gracie’s four-year-old daughter.

The cartel attacks just as Zarachiel makes contact with her biological father. They want what she stole from them.

Amid chaos and survival for both her and her new family, Zarachiel discovers her true nonhuman self as she fights for her freedom and the freedom of humanity.

Read Excerpt >