Get up close and personal with your favorite YA authors, and ask them all your burning questions. Will your favorite couple ever get together? Why did the heroine’s best friend have to die? Whatever happened to that hot immortal guy in book two — and what is the title of that top secret e-novella anyway? This is your chance to hang out, chat and enjoy photo ops with some of the coolest authors around. You’ll find out their secrets (Cake or pie? Gale or Peeta?) in a lightning-fast round of questions.
Event Date: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 – 3:45pm to 4:45pm
Host(s): Erica Cameron, Kresley Cole, Kady Cross, Lindsay Cummings, Abbi Glines, Tessa Gratton, S.E. Green, Tara Hudson, Tonya Hurley, Christina Lauren, Jamie McGuire, Lea Nolan, Natalie C. Parker, Diana Peterfreund, Sara Raasch, Juliana Stone
Moderator: Mari Mancusi
LGBTQ: How to Write Realistic Queer Characters
Can a straight woman write about gay men? Can a cis-gendered person create a realistic trans* character? Should someone who is not part of a community create characters and write stories about that community, and if so, how? This panel of bestselling authors of queer fiction will discuss whether and how to write realistic queer characters, whether or not you’re queer yourself.
Event Date: Thursday, May 14, 2015 – 11:15am to 12:15pm
Captain: Sarah Frantz (Riptide Publishing, Editorial Director)
Panelist(s): Melissa Brayden, Erica Cameron, Anne Tenino