Author Chat Schedule
 

(Chats are 50 minutes long unless otherwise noted.)
9 AM​

​Serra Wildheart and R J Mirabal

How To Do World-Building
Location: Fahrenheit

Description: What is the nature of the landscape? How does it resemble the "real world;” how does it go beyond

the real world; what are its physical properties; what are its limitations that challenge characters and plot; what

are the elements of the traditional fantasy world; what are the features of more recent "new age," urban and other wrinkles on the fantasy sub-genres?

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Terry Nichols and Antonio Farias

Bungles and Blunders: Writing Cultural Diversity in Children's Books
Location: Kilgore American Indian Art

Description: Ensuring cultural authenticity and sensitivity while writing for young readers requires careful thought and effort. Two authors discuss how parents and educators can talk about cultural sensitivity in books with kids.

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Susan Noble Carpenter

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Location: Wrightsman House

Description: In writing both fiction and memoir, Susan Noble Carpenter will discuss situations that lead to good stories.​​

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Crisosto Apache and Meredith Clark
Animacy, Attention, Queerness, Neurodivergence, The More-than-Human World.
Location: Bomdiggity Mancos Mystical Marketplace

Description: Two poets discuss (and read poems about) animacy, attention, queerness, neurodivergence, and

the more-than-human world.

10 AM

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Crisosto Apache

Readings by Colorado’s Poet Laureate
Location: Sundog Gallery

Description: A chance to hear award-winning Crisosto Apache read form his works.
 

10:30 AM

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Special 90-Minute Author Chat

Kat Wilder, Renata Golden and Amy Irvine

Writing the Unwanted Critters

Location: Millie's 

Description: A discussion about the challenges, both during the writing and after publication during the marketing/reception of the book, about positioning cattle ranching as an eco-friendly endeavor, as well as about writing about the critters most people would rather see dead, including rattlesnakes, ants, and prairie dogs. The authors will speak from personal experience about the reception their nonfiction work in these areas has received, both welcoming and not so much.

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11 AM

 

Michele Battiste and Art Goodtimes

Telling Other Truths

Location: Kilgore American Indian Art
Description: Very often, mainstream mediums don't reflect our own experiences, perspectives, or beliefs.

Poetry--with its multiple meanings, associative leaps, and sensory focus—can be the perfect genre to tell the story differently.

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Dorinda Wegener & Jonathan Fink
The Inspired Reader: How to Read and Write Poetry for Maximum Enjoyment
Location: Bomdiggity

Description: Come celebrate the written word! Both poets will discuss the joys of reading and writing individual

poems and poetry collections by demonstrating the choices and considerations an author makes when writing. Audience members will leave with a broader understanding of poetry as craft that will deepen the delight

of personal reading and writing going forward. Please bring questions for a lively Q&A!

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Monica Barron and Lisa C. Taylor

All Voices Matter: Agency Through Reading and Writing

Location: Sundog Gallery

Description: How is writing a path to agency? By agency we mean the capacity to act and assert power, to accomplish something and feel heard, and to work with both words and silence. Two writers who write in multiple genres will share their process in representing emotional truth rather than just literal truth. This talk is relevant for all makers: artists, musicians, chefs, quilters. How can reading and the creative process alter perceptions? What

are the implications for our greater world?

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Carla Chung Mattix and Christopher Barns

National Park Histories - Unknown Stories

Location: Painted Turtle Patio

Description: Whether across the National Park System or specific to one Park, uncovered histories play an important role. Why are they unknown, and what should you know about them? Christopher Barns, author of Mesa Verde's Secret Garden: A History of Managing the Backcountry and Wilderness of a National Park, and Carla Chung

Mattix, author of National Parks and the Supreme Court: Groundbreaking Legal Battles, will discuss these questions and the unknown stories revealed in their books.

​

Catherine Dilts and Merida Bass

A Mother-Daughter Writing Team
Location: El Rio Cantina

Description: Co-authoring sounds like a great way to “share the load” of creating a book manuscript. Half the

work, double the fun. What is the reality of writing a book with a family member? Who does what, or are

all tasks shared equally? How do you keep from killing each other when you disagree?

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1:30 PM

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Jenny Dandy and Tom Andes

Underdog Detectives: When Unlikely Heroes Solve Crimes
Location: Fahrenheit

Description: Who needs a superhero when you have flawed, complex protagonists solving the crime? Both Tom

Andes and Jenny Dandy offer fresh twists on the amateur detective trope and the detective genre, writing characters whose outsider status gives them a unique lens on the worlds they inhabit, and also–sometimes–the skills to help

them solve crimes.

 

Scott Graham and Nina Simon

Deadly Fun Learning:  Mysteries that Champion Our National Parks

Location: Hand in Hand

Description: Two crime fiction writers discuss using National Parks as a backdrop for entertaining mysteries.

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Frank Huyler

Ideas to Audience

Location:Sundog Gallery

Description: Is your idea a story? A poem? An essay? A novel? A writer who produces words in a variety of styles talks about his process.

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Sherry Kenney & Deidre Bjorson

Writing Cozies – Or Not

Location: El Rio Cantina

Description: What makes a mystery cozy? Join two writers as they discuss how to keep a mystery “cozy,” where

the bodies aren’t bloody and the sex happens off the page.

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DelSheree Gladden, Skye Griffith, Bethany Turner

Reality Matters

Location: Wrightsman House

Description: A mystery writer and two romance writers share how they “keep it real” in each genre.

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Stoney Compton and T.O. Paine

Where Ordinary Goes to Die

Location: Kilgore American Indian Art

Description: Writers are constantly meeting circumstances, or hearing fragments of conversations, or a scene in

front of them that instantly trigger the precious response—that could be a story? How do writers take unusual ideas and situations and turn it into a book?

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Preston Hood & Jacqueline Loring

From Both Sides Now

Location: Millie's

Description: A Navy Seal and a medic, both wounded and scarred, returned home to their families, proud of their service to their country from the American War in Vietnam. Join a veteran and the wife of another veteran as they discuss through their poetry and writings their climb from post-war struggles.

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2:30 PM

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Travis Tougaw & Caitee Cooper

Edge of Your Seat Writing

Location: Painted Turtle Patio

Description: Two writers talk about the mechanics of tension and narrative pacing--how to strategically deploy information, control the clock, and structure scenes that compel readers to turn the page. 

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Annette McGivney and Betsy Gaines Quammen
Grappling With Ghosts and Grifters: How denial of America's dark past haunts us in the present
Location: Hand in Hand Shop

Description: Two non-fiction writers discuss their investigations of notorious tragedies that captured a nation

and shine a light on the roots of America’s current cultural divisions.

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PK Stuart & Fleur Bradley

Outline First or Character First?

Location: Kilgore American Indian Art

Description: For PK Stuart, writing starts with detailed character. For Fleur Bradley, it starts with an outline.  Let the fireworks begin.

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R.E. Burillo and Molly Sturdevant

Narrative Collisions: Truth Reimagined
Location: El Rio Cantina

Writers dwell in emotional truth, not literal truth. In every type of writing, inner and outer conflicts are necessary. These authors will define truth as represented in their own writing journeys as they give themselves permission to write from feeling which isn’t always the same as fact.

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Kase Johnstun & Jennaye Derge

The Endurance of the Writing Life

Location: Sundog Gallery

Description: Using movement in prose to push plot and narrative, moving forward in a writing career, and how the writing life is like training for a marathon or packing up your bike and heading out on a long distance a ride.