This session features John Helfers and Jennifer Brozek, Marie Bilodeau, RJ Thomas, and Jason M. Hardy, as well as you and four other guests. These experts are ready to answer your questions about writing for established media and major IP; games writing and TTRPGs; freelance writing and editing; and so much more. Access to people with this kind of experience is rare and an opportunity not to be missed!

Bios:

John Helfers has been working in branded IP development and publishing for more than twenty-five years. During his eighteen years at Tekno Books, at one time the largest book packager in the nation, he managed several New York Times-bestselling novel series, working with such authors as Tom Clancy, Charlaine Harris, Dale Brown, Mercedes Lackey, Stephen Coonts, and many others, as well producing hundreds of anthologies and novels.

Currently he’s the Executive Editor at Catalyst Game Labs, where he oversees the fiction lines for BattleTech and Shadowrun, publishing more than a million words of original fiction between both IPs every year. He lives and works in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

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Marie Bilodeau is an Ottawa-based author, TTRPG game writer, and storyteller. Her speculative fiction has won several awards and has been translated into French (Les Éditions Alire) and Chinese (SF World). Her short stories have also appeared in various anthologies and magazines like Analog Science Fiction and Fact and Amazing Stories. Her IP and TTRPG writings have been published by Catalyst Game Labs, TinyZine, Archvillain Games, amongst others, and in a past life not-so-long ago, she was Deputy Publisher for The Ed Greenwood Group (TEGG). She’s also the chair of Ottawa’s speculative fiction literary con, Can*Con. More at www.mariebilodeau.com.

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Jennifer Brozek is a multi-talented, award-winning author, editor, and media tie-in writer. She is the author of Never Let Me Sleep and The Last Days of Salton Academy, both of which were nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. Her YA tie-in novels, BattleTech: The Nellus Academy Incident and Shadowrun: Auditions, have both won Scribe Awards. Her editing work has earned her nominations for the British Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and multiple Hugo Awards. She won the Australian Shadows Award for the Grants Pass anthology, co-edited with Amanda Pillar. Jennifer’s short form work has appeared in Apex Publications, Uncanny Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, and in anthologies set in the worlds of Valdemar, Shadowrun, V-Wars, Masters of Orion, Well World, and Predator.

Jennifer has been a full-time freelance author and editor for over seventeen years, and she has never been happier. She keeps a tight schedule on her writing and editing projects and somehow manages to find time to teach writing classes and volunteer for several professional writing organizations such as SFWA, HWA, and IAMTW. She shares her husband, Jeff, with several cats and often uses him as a sounding board for her story ideas. Visit Jennifer's worlds at jenniferbrozek.com or her social media accounts on LinkTree.

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Jason M. Hardy has been both a writer and editor in tabletop gaming for a quarter-century, which means he has regular arguments with himself where first he tells himself to straighten up and pay attention to grammar, then he tells himself that grammar is for the weak and words should just flow, and he goes back and forth like that while deadlines speed ever closer. He has published ten novels, including the BattleTech novel The Scorpion Jar and the recent Shadowrun novel Bad Faith, and he contributed to numerous anthologies including the award-winning Spells & Chrome. He was the line developer for Shadowrun for 15 years and currently is the creative director for roleplaying games at Catalyst Game Labs.

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Hailing from northwest Ohio (don’t hold that against him), RJ Thomas is an award-winning game author and the current line developer for the Shadowrun TTRPG line published by Catalyst Game Labs. In 2011, he started his professional insanity gaming career as a member of the Catalyst Demo Team and soon became a freelance writer and later project developer for the Shadowrun game line. Since then, he’s contributed to over fifty Shadowrun projects across three different editions. Additionally, he’s penned several Shadowrun short stories, including "Butcher’s Bill," "My Brother’s Keeper,” “SNAFU," and "Neon Reflections." He’s also written for the Drawing Destiny and Magic, Machines, and Mayhem anthologies with the stories "One for the Other" and "Life at 9000 RPM." In 2022, he crossed into Catalyst Game Lab’s other major product line BattleTech with the short story "The Space Cowboys from Quatre Belle," published in Shrapnel (the official BattleTech magazine), Issue #11.