Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025

Bestselling authors. Writing professors. Publishing industry professionals. Medical, firearms and investigative experts. And for the first time ever, a Young Writers' Track for students ages 12-20.

Whether you are a veteran writer who publishes independently or traditionally, or are just starting on your writing journey, our one-day conference has something for you. 

9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Rancho Cordova City Hall

2729 Prospect Park Drive

Rancho Cordova, CA 95670

Keynote Speaker: Bestselling Author Catriona McPherson

Catriona McPherson, a multi-award-winning author of suspense thrillers and historical mysteries as well as humorous whodunits set in a fictional Davis, is also past national president of Sisters in Crime.

SPEAKERS WILL INCLUDE: 

Simon Wood, award-winning, USA Today bestselling thriller author, on creating conflict and suspense in your narrative. 

Laurie McLean of Fuse Literary, literary agent specializing in middle-grade, young-adult and adult genre fiction (including romance, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, suspense, thrillers, and U.S. westerns), on how the agenting side of the writing business works. 

Eileen Rendahl, national-bestselling, award-winning author and experienced developmental editor, on why writers might need developmental editing and what to expect from the process.

Karl Henwood, a U.S. Army veteran and firearms expert, will cover a brief history of firearms as a technology; a short history of American gun culture; basic marksmanship; terminal ballistics–what bullets actually do when they hit things; types of firearms and where and why they are used; and weapon choice and maintenance and their implications for writing.

A former sheriff deputy/missing persons investigator on how a person disappears, and how to find them.

An emergency medicine physician on what different kinds of injuries do to the body and how to write realistic scenes.

Bryan Patrick Avery, award-winning poet and author of stories and books for children and teens, presenting “Get Started on Your Mystery." Attendees will create an amateur sleuth, identify their Obsession, and give them a Secret or Condition that drives the story. Then, they create a crime for them to solve, and give the sleuth some suspects that will make solving the crime challenging. Attendees leave with the major building blocks to get started writing their own story or novel.

Dale Berry, acclaimed graphic novelist and comic book artist/author of Tales of the Moonlight Cutter, with an introduction to the art forms and an overview of both writing and drawing.