Anne's career at Blackstone Publishing began in 2001. Rising rapidly, she became Head of Retail Sales, where her leadership and strategic initiatives led to a fourfold sales increase in just five years. In 2008, Anne transitioned to managing Digital Sales, propelling the sector to rapid growth due to her innovative approach. This success paved the way for her eventual role as Chief Sales Officer, where she continues to excel by adapting to the dynamic marketplace and leading her team to develop new strategies that strengthen relationships with customers and partners. Outside of her professional life, Anne's French heritage enriches her personal interests, particularly in sharing French cuisine with friends. Her deep understanding of the publishing industry is enhanced by her cultural insights and academic background, making her a key player in Blackstone's success.

Cindy Gunderson is a voice actress and award-winning author. Since she has commitment issues, she writes both sci-fi and fantasy, as well as contemporary romance and women's fiction under the pen name, Cynthia Gunderson.

When she is not typing away in a quiet corner of her local library, you can find her traveling with her family, narrating audiobooks, or happily digging in her garden. She loves acting and performing, beating her kids in card games, and playing ultimate frisbee with her handsome husband, Scott.

Cindy grew up in Alberta, Canada, but has lived most of her adult life between California and Colorado. She currently resides in the Denver metro area.

Cindy's first novel, Tier 1, was awarded First Place in Science Fiction at the 2021 CIPPA EVVY Awards, and her women's fiction novel Yes, And was honored with the Indie Author Award's first place prize for the state of Colorado, 2023.

Dana Claire, a marketing and sales expert, public speaker, and young adult author, founded The INKfluence, a specialized marketing agency for authors. The INKfluence offers special edition design & production, Kickstarter campaign management, and direct sales website build-outs. Passionate about author education, Dana empowers writers to succeed in the ever-evolving publishing landscape.

David R. Slayton (He/Him) grew up in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where finding fantasy novels was pretty challenging and finding fantasy novels with diverse characters was downright impossible. Now he lives in Denver and writes the books he always wanted to read. His debut, White Trash Warlock, was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. In 2015, David founded Trick or Read, an initiative to give out books along with candy to children on Halloween as well as uplift lesser-known authors or those from marginalized backgrounds. His latest release, Dark Moon, Shallow Sea, is an epic fantasy that won the Colorado Book Award.

Find him online at www.DavidRSlayton.com.

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David Sherrer is a born storyteller and has been an obsessive gamer ever since he was seduced by Magic the Gathering at the tender age of fourteen. He has alternately owned a gaming store, street performed for a living, and survived eleven years in the soul crushing world of telecommunications. He lucked out by marrying a force of nature who was determined to making living off writing, and has since escaped his 9-5 to become the Marketing Director and Lead Game Designer of Chenoweth Press. His debut card game "Cat Magic: The Game" released in 2022 and was funded on Kickstarter within hours of launching. David considers himself an Atlantan, but currently lives in Louisville, KY with his family, feline overlords, and a mountain of board games that he swears he actually plays.

Eric Madrid started audio engineering at a young age, pirating songs off the radio. With that ramshackle set up he recorded 1000 hours of book to tape for the Colorado deaf and blind school for his Eagle Scout project, Enharmonic studios was born. While dabbling in the touring rock band world for a couple decades and releasing/appearing on nearly 30 records and producing hundreds more for local and touring acts. Eric settled in Colorado Springs in 2002 keeping the tradition of his youth endeavors built Enharmonic studios an analogue/digital home studio catering to all things audio.

J. M. Tompkins is an independent publisher who started her company, Creativity Untamed, in 2019. Since then, J. M. has been dedicated to helping writers achieve their goals. J. M. is the founder and director of the ASPC (Atlanta Self-Publishing Conference) and has organized multiple writing groups, including the Next Level Writing Group and The Indie Group, and has published sixteen books. J. M. teaches classes on the various aspects of self-publishing, social media branding, and on writing science fiction.

J. M.’s writings combine several of her passions including people, nature, science, and technology. Within her writing, she loves to combine what she refers to as interesting science with her fears of what our future society might be like. Interesting science, according to J. M., is the possibilities of current science including Artificial Intelligence, personal data, biohacking, genetic modifications, and more.

I make badass art for badass stories and authors. Full of grit and storytelling, my work is geared to instantly capture attention. Using 3-d modeling software combined with digital painting and host of other assets, my fully custom creations play with perspective and scale in a way few other covers in the industry do.

Jayrod P. Garrett (they/them) is a storyteller with an MFA in English: Creative Writing from the University of Nevada Reno. A transplant in Utah, they came on a three-week vacation as a child and incubated here for 40 years to bloom into a Nonbinary, Black, Atheist, U.S. Veteran with PTSD and ADHD. These intersections they’ve discovered over time have made them work towards a world where all of us can be comfortable, safe, and free. They have published work with the League of Utah Writers and currently work on poetry, novels, editing, and storytelling projects. They live in northern Utah with their spouse and three children.

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Jim Butcher is the author of the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera, and a new steampunk series, the Cinder Spires. His resume includes a laundry list of skills which were useful a couple of centuries ago, and he plays guitar quite badly. An avid gamer, he plays tabletop games in varying systems, a variety of video games on PC and console, and LARPs whenever he can make time for it.

Jim goes by the moniker Longshot in a number of online locales. He came by this name in the early 1990′s when he decided he would become a published author. Usually only 3 in 1000 who make such an attempt actually manage to become published; of those, only 1 in 10 make enough money to call it a living. The sale of a second series was the breakthrough that let him beat the long odds against attaining a career as a novelist.

All the same, he refuses to change his nickname.

jim-butcher.com

Joshua Essoe is a full-time editor who has edited for NYT bestsellers including Piers Anthony, David Farland, and Dean Lorey. He has edited for USA Today bestsellers, Writers of the Future winners, and many independents.

He was lead editor at Urban Fantasy Magazine and founded the weekly writing podcast Hide and Create with Michael J. Sullivan, Diana Rowland, Jay Wells, and Debbie Viguie.

The 1st two of his books on writing, Action Sequences & Sex Scenes, and Worldbuilding & Mood and Atmosphere, funded in just hours on Kickstarter, each covering two subjects of the most-common issues he sees in fiction writing.

You can find Joshua teaching at the Superstars Writing Seminar every February in Colorado.

Kevin J. Anderson has published more than 175 books, 58 of which have been national or international bestsellers.

He has written numerous novels in the Star Wars, X-Files, and Dune universes, as well as unique steampunk fantasy novels Clockwork Angels and Clockwork Lives, written with legendary rock drummer Neil Peart. His original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series, the Wake the Dragon and Terra Incognita fantasy trilogies, the Saga of Shadows trilogy, and his humorous horror series featuring Dan Shamble, Zombie PI.

He has edited numerous anthologies, written comics and games, and the lyrics to two rock CDs.