STEP 1: CHOOSE YOUR Mentor

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• Historical Fiction (specializing in historical mystery)
• Horror
• Thriller

Rebecca Cantrell is a New York Times bestselling thriller author who has won the Macavity, the Bruce Alexander, and International Thriller Writer's Best Ebook Original awards, and been nominated for the Barry, the RT Best Historical, the APPY, the Mary Higgins Clark, and the GoodReads Choice award. Her novels include the Order of Sanguines series [co-written with James Rollins], starting with THE BLOOD GOSPEL; the Hannah Vogel mystery series, starting with A TRACE OF SMOKE; and the Joe Tesla thrillers, starting with THE WORLD BENEATH. 

www.rebeccacantrell.com

• Speculative Fiction/Sci-Fi
• Crime Fiction/Thriller
• Literary Fiction

Rob Hart is the author of THE WAREHOUSE, a speculative thriller that sold in more than 20 countries and was optioned for film by Ron Howard. He also wrote the Ash McKenna crime series, the food-noir collection TAKE-OUT, and SCOTT FREE with James Patterson. His work has been included in Best American Mystery Stories and he was nominated for a Derringer Award for best flash fiction. He also runs the online writing program at LitReactor.com, and is a former editor and publisher for Mysterious Press.

www.robwhart.com

• Horror
• Crime Fiction/Noir
• Poetry
• Bizarro
• Online Content

Gabino Iglesias is a writer, journalist and book reviewer living in Austin, Texas. He is the author of ZERO SAINTS and COYOTE SONGS, and editor of the anthology BOTH SIDES, dealing with border issues. He is the book review editor for Pank Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, and NPR, as well as a columnist at LitReactor. You can find him on Twitter at @Gabino_Iglesias

• Young Adult
• Romance
• Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Alex Harrow is a queer, trans, and non-binary author of adult science fiction and fantasy with LGBTQ+ protagonists. Alex's pronouns are he/him and they/them. When not writing queerness with a chance of explosions, Alex is a high school English teacher, waging epic battles against comma splices and misused apostrophes. His debut science fiction novel, EMPIRE OF LIGHT is out now from NineStar Press. Alex is an LGBTQ+ advocate and educator, specializing in the areas of bisexual, pansexual, asexual, and aromantic representation in addition to transgender and non-binary issues. As a sensitivity reader, Alex offers in-depth knowledge on current queer and trans/non-binary issues and representation, along with his own lived experience.

www.alexharrow.com

• Traditional Mystery
• Paranormal
• Humor (Fiction)

Kris Neri is the award-winning author of the Tracy Eaton mysteries, featuring the daughter of eccentric Hollywood stars, and the Samantha Brennan & Annabelle Haggerty paranormal mysteries, starring a questionable psychic who teams up with a modern goddess/FBI agent. Her novels have been finalists for the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity awards, to name a few. She has received three Lefty Award nominations for Best Humorous Mystery Novel. Kris has also had some sixty-plus short stories published in the US and overseas, her short fiction has been nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize and won two Derringer Awards. Kris also teaches writing for the Writers’ Program of the UCLA Extension School and is a popular freelance editor. 

www.krisneri.com

• Young Adult
• Urban Fantasy

Jean Rabe is a USA Today bestselling author with more than 30 novels and nearly 100 short stories to her credit. She's published in the fantasy, science fiction, adventure, urban fantasy, and mystery genres; has edited several dozen anthologies; and edited more magazine issues than she cares to count. She lives in a tiny town in the middle of Illinois surrounded by farm fields and train tracks. The sky is huge, the yard is just the right size for her cadre of dogs, and the back porch is perfect for writing. She is a WWI buff, gamer, and a devotee of warm weather. Her urban fantasy POCKETS OF DARKNESS was recently nominated for an ITW award.

www.jeanrabe.com

• Comic Books/Graphic Novels
• Crime Fiction

Alex Segura is an acclaimed writer of novels, comic books, and podcasts. He is the author of Star Wars Poe Dameron: Free Fall, the Pete Fernandez Mystery series(including the the Anthony Award-nominated crime novels Dangerous Ends, Blackout. and Miami Midnight), and the upcoming Secret Identity (Flatiron Books). He has also written a number of comic books, most notably the superhero noir The Black Ghost, the YA music series The Archies, and the “Archie Meets” collection of crossovers, featuring real-life cameos from the Ramones, B-52s, and more. He is also the co-creator/co-writer of the Lethal Lit crime/YA podcast from iHeart Radio, which was named one of the best podcasts of 2015 by The New York Times. By day he is Co-President of Archie Comics. A Miami native, he lives in New York with his wife and children

www.alexsegura.com

• Science Fiction
• Fantasy
• Media Tie-In

Michael A. Stackpole is the multiple New York Times bestselling author of over forty fantasy and science fiction novels, his best known books written in the Star Wars® universe, including I, JEDI and ROGUE SQUADRON, as well as the X-Wing graphic novel series. He has also written in the Conan, Pathfinder and World of Warcraft universes, among others. A former the Virginia G. Piper Center Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, Stackpole’s other honors include: Induction into the Academy Gaming Arts and Design Hall of Fame, a Parsec Award for “Best Podcast Short Story,” and a Topps’s selection as Best Star Wars® Comic Book Writer. Stackpole is the first author to sell work in Apple’s App Store, and he’s been an advocate for authors taking advantage of the digital revolution.

www.michaelastackpole.com

• Western
• High Tech (Fiction)
• Sports (Non-Fiction)
• Media Tie-In

Robert E Vardeman has published 150 westerns and more than 100 science fiction, fantasy, mystery and high tech thrillers. He has worked as editor for My Family Magazine, the SFWA Forum, and still works on the editorial staff for four magazines, including the 2013 FSTA award-winning Fantasy Football ProForecast and the 2016 FSWA award-winning Fantasy Sports Diehards. Vardeman's awards nominations include five Arizona-New Mexico Book Awards nods, in addition to Scribe, Peacemaker and World Science Fiction Convention Hugo fan writer nominations.He has taught at Longridge Writers Institute and has served as judge for the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers and awards chairman for the Western Fictioneers. He holds a BS in physics and an MS in materials engineering, and worked at Sandia National Laboratories in solid state physics research before becoming a full-time writer.

www.cenotaphroad.com

• Literary Fiction
• Narrative Non-Fiction
• Memoir

John Vercher is the author of the novels THREE-FIFTHS (Agora Books, 2019) and ATER THE LIGHTS GO OUT (Soho Press, 2022). THREE-FIFTHS has been nominated for an Edgar award for Best Debut Novel, an Anthony award for Best First Novel, a Strand Critics’ award,  a Lefty award for Best First Novel, and named a Best Book of 2019 by The Chicago Tribune, a Best Book of the Week by the New York Post, a Top 10 Crime Fiction Debut by Booklist, and has sold internationally, including France, Japan, and the U.K. The novel also received starred reviews from Booklist and the Library Journal, and a cover reveal in Entertainment Weekly online.  John is a contributing writer for Cognoscenti, through NPR affiliate WBUR Boston. Two of his personal essays on race, identity, and parenting were picked up by NPR. His non-fiction work has also appeared in Entropy Magazine and Booklist. As a ghostwriter, he's worked for: former NFL executives, social change agents, retired Navy Seals, former hostage negotiators, CEOs, television personalities, physicians and other health care providers.

www.johnvercherauthor.com

• Screenplay
• Science-Fiction
• Non-Fiction
• Comics/Graphic Novels
• Media Tie-In

Bryan Young (he/they) works across many different media. His work as a writer and producer has been called "filmmaking gold" by The New York Times. He's also published comic books with Slave Labor Graphics and Image Comics. He's been a regular contributor for the Huffington Post, StarWars.com, Star Wars Insider magazine, SYFY, /Film, and was the founder and editor in chief of the geek news and review site Big Shiny Robot! IN 2014, he wrote the critically acclaimed history book, A Children’s Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination. He co-authored Robotech: The Macross Saga RPG in 2019 and in 2020 he wrote a novel in the BattleTech Universe called Honor's Gauntlet. He teaches writing for Writer’s Digest, Script Magazine, and at the University of Utah. 

www.swankmotron.com