DreadFul Teen Writing Program
Inviting ALL writers between the ages of 11 to 18 to a special program resulting in getting your work published! Writer-artist teams will write and illustrate one short story over a series of 4 workshops. The end result will be published in BiblioBoard's Indie Florida digital collection. This program is funded by a grant from the Horror Writers Association. Writer-artist teams will pick one of the following genres for their work: science fiction, suspense, fantasy or horror.
Author Amy Christine Parker and Illustrator Jon Pinto will be on hand at the first workshop to help teams get started. Register once for all four workshops here: www.mylakelibrary.org (select Programs & Events, then Event Calendar, then Locations - W.T. Bland Public Library). Following the initial workshop, local writing coach Mary Ann Revell will guide the teams in three following workshops.
Schedule:
Sunday, January 21, 2018, 2:00 PM Program kickoff with Amy Christine Parker and Jon Pinto!
Sunday, January 28 2018, 2:00 PM Workshop #2
Sunday, February 4, 2018, 2:00 PM Workshop #3
Sunday, February 11, 2018, 2:00 PM Final workshop
Speaker Biographies
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Amy Christine Parker is the author of the critically acclaimed Gated, Astray, and most recently, Smash and Grab, all with Random House Children's. While she spends much of her time dreaming up new stories, she also likes to travel, go to the movies, and read scary stories late into the night - preferably under the covers with a flashlight. She writes full-time from her home near Tampa, Florida, where she lives with her husband, their two daughters, and two very mischievous cats. Find out more about Amy and her books at www.amychristineparker.com |
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Jon Pinto was born and raised in Northern New Jersey. He studied art at the School of Visual Art in New York City, the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon Art in Dover, New Jersey and received a BFA and graduated with honors from the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. Since graduating he has worked as an animator for children's interactive CD-ROM games including Fisher Price and Jump Start, McGraw-Hill Publishing's online, and has been a merchandise designer for companies such as Disney, Universal, M&M's, Margaritaville, and Kellogg's. He has illustrated posters for independent movies and major book publications. Jon tours the country making appearances at comic and pop conventions. |
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Mary Ann Revell, a native Ohioan, holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati. She is a State of Florida certified writing teacher and an adjunct instructor of English and Speech at Lake Sumter State College in Leesburg, Florida. Her publications include numerous newspaper and magazine articles. Her latest book, Surviving the High School Jungle, is an extended memor of her experiences as a teacher in the Orange County Public Schools. She is married and lives with her husband in Mount Dora, Florida. They have two grown children and three grandchildren. |
DreadFest 2017
Celebrating the Dark Side of Fiction
DreadFest celebrates the creeping sense of dread that good horror writing inspires: the fear of the unknown and the likelihood of an unhappy ending. Horror fiction is much more than slash-and-scream; it can be exquisitely suspenseful, other worldly, rich in descriptions, and more. DreadFest spotlights the artistic and literary elements of good horror writing, featuring writer panel discussions, a nanofiction contest, and most importantly, a published author showcase of fresh and terrifying horror fiction.
Congratulations to the DreadFest Nanofiction Writing Contest Winners!
1st Place, John Hope
2nd Place, Mark McWaters
3rd Place, Susan Parker
Honorable Mention, Jeanne Fluegge
Honorable Mention, Beda Kantarjian
Honorable Mention, C. Terese Teisberg
DreadFest Sponsors
A special thank you to our 2017 sponsors:
Victoria Nations, Writer, Leaves and Cobwebs
Mount Dora Library Association
Coffee Shop of Horrors
Copacabana Cuban Cafe
Gianni's Italian
Maggie's Attic
One Flight Up
Pisces Rising
Featured Authors
Scott M. Baker was born and raised in Everett, Massachusetts and spent twenty-three years in northern Virginia working for the Central Intelligence Agency. Scott is now retired and lives in Gainesville, Florida as a full-time writer along with his wife and fellow author Alison Beightol and his stepdaughter. He has written Yeitso, his homage to the giant monster movies of the 1950s that he loved watching as a kid; Rotter World, Rotter Nation, and Rotter Apocalypse, his post-apocalyptic zombie trilogy; The Vampire Hunters trilogy, about humans fighting the undead in Washington D.C.; as well as the novella Nazi Ghouls from Space (the title says it all), his zombie-themed anthology Cruise of the Living Dead, and his anthology of non-zombie horror Incident on Ironstone Lane. He is currently working on a series of dark techno-thrillers and is planning a second series about Allied intelligence officers fighting Nazi occultism in World War II. Follow Scott's blog at scottmbakerauthor.blogspot.com
John Catapano is an author, an artist, and an engineer. He has been a genre movie fan since his first double feature at age 3. Fifty -eight years later he has traveled extensively, consulted on feature movies, and dug for Dinosaur fossils in the badlands of Montana. His genre trivia book and short stories are available at smashwords.com. His new book, "The Unusual Suspects" is the follow up to his popular Dr. Sarcophagus story "Clarence". He currently is working on two novels, both with Central Florida locales.
Tyson Hanks is a fan of horror—both literature and film. He has yet to receive a literary award, but he did get a gold star on a middle school English paper once. He is also an Army veteran and served in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. His work has been published in Sanitarium Magazine, as well as the World War I horror anthology “Kneeling in the Silver Light.” His fist novel, “Greetings from Barker Marsh,” was released in September, 2016. He lives in Florida with his beautiful wife and daughter. Follow Tyson at www.tysonhanks.com and https://www.facebook.com/authortysonhanks
Alethea Kontis is a princess, author, fairy godmother, and geek. Author of over fifteen books and contributor to over twenty-five more, her award-winning writing has been published for multiple age groups across all genres, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, humor, contemporary and paranormal romance, poetry, graphic novels, Twitter serials, and non-fiction. A former child actress, Alethea hosted over 55 episodes of “Princess Alethea’s Fairy Tale Rants” on YouTube, and continues to host Princess Alethea’s Traveling Sideshow every year at Dragon Con. She enjoys audiobook and podcast narration, speaking at middle schools across the country (in costume, of course), and one day hopes to make a few more movies with her friends. Alethea currently resides on the Space Coast of Florida with her teddy bear, Charlie. Find out more about Princess Alethea and the magic, wonderful world in which she lives here: https://www.patreon.com/princessalethea
Cynthia Lott is a professional researcher and writer. She loves hiking, exploring new places, vegan cuisine and hearing life stories over a glass of good wine. A member of Sisters in Crime, Inc. and International Thriller Writers, Inc., she also holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from LSU and an MLS from UW-Madison. Cynthia shares her time between Atlanta and Orlando. Learn more at www.cynthialott.com
Tom Lucas was born and raised in Detroit, and although currently enjoying the lack of snow and ice in Florida, remains a son of the post-industrial apocalypse.
He is the author of the bizarro books Leather to the Corinthians and Pax Titanus. He can also be found in several horror and weird fiction anthologies.
When not writing, he likes to drive fast and take chances. Learn more at www.readtomlucas.com
Mark McWaters is a self-described writer of “strange stuff” along the lines of Stephen King and Dean Koontz—and offers sincere apologies to those excellent authors for invoking their names. He is a member of the Florida Writers Association, leads a Novel Writer’s Group in Seminole County and has several writing awards to his credit from FWA’s RPLA competition for novels and short stories. Mark is also an advertising copywriter/creative director with 25+ years’ experience dreaming up brands and ad campaigns for a wide variety of clients and products—everything from cow udder ointment to coffee to computer systems. He lives in Longwood, FL with his editor, a surprisingly literate and accomplished West Highland Terrier named Bentley.
Arylias Nova is a SciFi/Fantasy and Horror writer from Charleston, SC. She has the first two installments of her Stories of Ghardar SciFi series, Spark and Ignition, and soon releasing the third, Combustion. Loving the horror genre herself, she has her A Peek Inside collection and her dark-humored novella series Parenting During the Apocalypse. Nova has quickly become a rising star in the author world, being the number one selling author during the Barnes and Noble BFest in Mount Pleasant, SC, featured guest at Low Country Giga-Toshou Con, as well as several interviews in the Savannah Quill and Post and Courier for Charleston. Nova has more horror collections and two new novel series to premier during 2017. Learn more about Arylias at www.five6publishing.com/events.html
Jeff Strand is the four-time Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of over thirty books, including Blister, A Bad Day For Voodoo, and Cyclops Road. He mostly writes horror/suspense, comedy, and young adult fiction. Cemetery Dance magazine said, “No author working today comes close to Jeff Strand’s perfect mixture of comedy and terror.” He lives in Tampa. Check out Jeff's more or less official website at jeffstrand.wordpress.com/
Sidney Williams is the author of ten novels, a host of short stories, comic book scripts and more. He has worked as a newspaper reporter, reference librarian and corporate marketing writer and currently teaches creative writing with a focus on horror, mystery and suspense. His books include Azarius, Night Brothers, Blood Hunter and When Darkness Falls. He wrote three young adult novels under the name Michael August. Williams newest works include Midnight Eyes, Dark Hours and Disciples of the Serpent for Crossroad Press. Learn more about Sidney at sidisalive.com/