by Kevin A Davis | Apr 11, 2025 | Authors Workshop
Check out this line up of Guests for the Friday Night Workshop 8:30pm:
Jody Lynn Nye
Darin Kennedy
Janci Patterson
Robyn Huss
Aleksandra (Ola) Hill
Paige L. Christie
JM Paquette
Rosemary Williams
Rey Nichols
Michael Head
October K Santerelli
Ashley Chappell
Mia Tsai
Carrie Callahan
Marisa Wolf
Jez Cajiao
Author attendees: Submit 1000 words and meet with a group of industry professionals for feedback on your work and others. Submit Here
One-on-One Mentors (and limited pitches)
Slots on Friday and Sunday
Fifteen minutes with an industry professional. Discuss career, story ideas, craft questions, etc.
Jody Lynn Nye, John G. Hartness, Janci Patterson, Nicole Givens Kurtz,Jess L. M. Anderson, Sarah J. Sover, JM Paquette, Darin Kennedy, Robyn Huss, Rey Clark, Aleksandra (Ola) Hill, October K Santerelli, Rey Nichols, Milton J. Davis
Sign up here
Saturday Slush
600 words read by a narrator for a panel. We’re getting full, so sign up here!
by Kevin A Davis | Mar 28, 2025 | Authors Workshop
Moderator and Master of Ceremonies, Robby Hilliard, with have some great guests for our two Slush sessions including Jody Lynn Nye, Janci Patterson, John G. Hartness, Karen Ahlstrom, Robyn Huss, and Paige L. Christie. 😲 Jeremy Frazier and Neil Hellegers will use their narrations chops to bring your 600 words to life.
Submit to the Slush pile now – we’re filling up fast.
Saturday Doesn’t Stop There
- Join Regina Kirby, Senior Director of Programming for Dragon Con, and John Hartness, founder of the SAGA conference and publisher at Falstaff, to sculpt a winning bio for your convention applications
- Write a promising opening with publisher John Hartness. Start with that first line.
- Peter Ahlstrom joins the pitch panel.
- Robby Hilliard helps you write Flash Fiction
- JM Paquette leads 10 Things You Can Do to Save Your Editor’s Sanity: A Straightforward Approach to Editing
- Venessa Giunta offers the 18+ night time panel
Don’t forget to submit your 1000 words to the Friday Night Workshop: Guests and peers will review four 1000 word submissions and give valuable feedback. Critique pods of 2 Guests and 4 Attendees. Submit Here
Learn more about the Authors Workshop Track
by Kevin A Davis | Mar 21, 2025 | Authors Workshop
We’re just weeks away from JordanCon! It’s time to plan your weekend.
Friday we’ll have some one-on-one mentorship opportunities with guests like Darin Kennedy, Milton J. Davis, and Sarah J. Sover, and pitches with John G. Hartness and Nicole Givens Kurtz.
Sign up here. First come, first served; we’ll do our best to get you to your preferred choice.
In collaboration with Gaming, we’re hosting a game design workshop on Friday evening with professionals in the industry. Moderated by Ryan Szesny; join Sarah Madsen, Bill Bridges, and Christina Stiles for a workshop to meet and talk about your ideas for your game. Bring a manuscript, 1000 to 3000 words, to discuss in detail with industry professionals. Feel free to discuss content, game design philosophy, mathematical systems, layout, and professional topics related to game design.
For our legacy event, the Friday Night Writers Workshop, we’ve got a line-up of Guest volunteers that include Jody Lynn Nye, Darin Kennedy, Janci Patterson, Robyn Huss, Aleksandra (Ola) Hill, Paige L. Christie, JM Paquette, Rosemary Williams, Rey Nichols, Michael Head, October K Santerelli, Ashley Chappell, Mia Tsai, Carrie Callahan, Marisa Wolf, and Jez Cajiao!
Learn more about this workshop – or –Â Submit your 1000 words here
Curious about our guests and panelists? Check them out here at https://www.jordancon.org/jordancon-guests-2025/
by Kevin A Davis | Mar 14, 2025 | Authors Workshop
Saturday Slush: 11:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.
Even with two sessions planned, we’ll be working on a waitlist soon. This is the Authors Workshop Track’s most popular event. We never know how many readings we can get through in each session.
Friday Night Workshop: 8:30 p.m. (for about 2 hours)
We’ve got a strong list of Guests available for this workshop who will work in pairs with small pods of writers. Submit 1000 words for your pod and get crucial feedback from everyone.
More details.
Submit your work now.
New in 2025:
One-on-One Mentorship: Multiple slots Friday and Sunday
Trying to market your book and need advice? Considering indie, hybrid, or trad? Want the right conference to polish that craft? Get one-on-one advice from an industry professional. Keep checking our social media as we’ll be putting up the form to grab a slot in the next week or so. Sign up here!
Sweet Openings with John Hartness: Saturday 5:30 p.m.
Write a promising opening with publisher John Hartness. Start with that first line.
Winning Author Bios with Regina Kirby and John Hartness: Saturday 1:00 p.m.
Join Regina Kirby, Senior Director of Programming for Dragon Con and John Hartness, founder of the SAGA conference and publisher at Falstaff, to sculpt a winning bio for your convention applications.
by Kevin A Davis | Mar 7, 2025 | LitRPG, Main, Programming
How now, you crusty bag of nature, you egg! Do ye have what it takes to step into an original production of Shakespeare’s ROMEO & JULIET? To explore the shifting yet constant nature of language and dramatic action? Come and take part in a group staging of Act I, Scene 1, wherein the company shall roundly insult each other with Elizabethan screeds and many, many thumbs shall be bit. Cosplay welcome—nay, encouraged!
A collaborative production between the Main Programming and LitRPG Tracks with narrator Neil Hellegers:
This is a group workshop I have done many times with all ages, and with as many as 50 people, and it ends with everyone doing a scene from Romeo and Juliet together! (background: I worked as a university instructor and teaching artist for decades before becoming an audiobook narrator).
It starts with splitting the group in two, taking opposing sides of the room. I’ll then distribute slips of paper with insults from numerous Shakespeare plays, and do a quick review for sense. These are always fun, a little more graphic than people generally expect from Shakes, and an exploration of language and action. We practice firing them at each other at the other group from across the room.
Then I have each group pick two “captains”, with whom I cast and review a shortened version of the first scene from R&J (aka the “Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?” scene). We then choose a fun setting and stage the scene, with each group as rival Montagues and Capulets, and let the insults and biting of thumbs fly, complete with police (The Prince) intervention.
I can fold in a little or as much literary analysis and dramaturgical import as fits the group, while we also have a blast, a rowdy and energetic experience, with a unique version of the play, and tons of archaic insults to keep throwing around the con for the days to follow.
Expect to have a blast at this panel!
