Guests

Steven L. Sears has worked as a Writer, Story Editor, Producer and Creator in Television, Film, digital media and animation. His lengthy career has encompassed over fifteen separate Television series, and development deals with many major studios in the industry, including Columbia Studios, Sony/Tristar Television, Rhysher Entertainment, Artists Inc., Cookie Jar Entertainment, Digital Pictures and many others.

A popular figure at genre sci-fi/pop culture conventions, Steven has an eclectic fan base as a result of his many series and accomplishments and is a frequent guest speaker at colleges and universities.

A native of Miami, Florida, Kit Steele is a self-taught artist whose work focuses on the whimsical and fantastical. While dabbling in all media, Kit tends to work primarily in watercolors, inks, and liquid alcohol pigments. Her work is characterized by delicate, sweeping lines, desaturated color palettes, and unconventional composition. The heavy influences of classical art, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco run deep and marry with her enjoyment of Japanese animation and manga along with American comics and graphic novels.

Timothy Zahn is the author of more than forty science fiction novels. He has also written many short stories, as well as Cascade Point, which won the Hugo Award for best novella. His other works include the Dragon back series, of which Dragon and Thief was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and the bestselling Star Wars™ novel, Heir to the Empire. Zahn lives in Oregon.

Elizabeth Schechter has been called one of the top erotica and alternative sexuality writers in the world. Her writing credits include the award-winning steampunk erotic romance House of Sable Locks, the Celtic fantasy Princes of Air, and 2021 VIVIAN finalist Written in Water, the first book of the Heir to the Firstborn serial

She was born in New York at some point in the past. She is officially old enough to know better, but refuses to grow up. She lives in Central Florida with her husband and son.

Elizabeth can be found online at http://elizabethschechterwrites.com, or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Elizabeth.A.Schechter. You can also find her on Patreon, at https://www.patreon.com/EASchechter.

Subscribe to Elizabeth’s newsletter at https://www.subscribepage.com/k4u7k2

Richard Lee Byers’s books include The Things That Crawl, The Hep Cats of Ulthar, This Sword for Hire, and the two Marvel Legends of Asgard novels The Head of Mimir and its sequel The Rebels of Vanaheim. He is perhaps best known for his Forgotten Realms fiction. He has also written many pieces of short fiction, a graphic novel, and material for electronic and tabletop games.

Heather Dewey Pettet has been involved with writing organizations in Tampa Bay for over 30 years. As a freelance editor, she has worked for a nonprofit organization, copyediting and proofreading their membership magazine for three years, as well as worked with independent authors and a local independent book publisher. Heather is also working on a Fantasy novel, and as an artist, she loves both photography and physical media, mostly working with watercolors, stamps, and ink, which she uses to create art cards, mixed media pieces, and other art for sale at local cons and her Etsy shop.

Her blog website is  https://heatherdeweypettet.wordpress.com/ and her professional Facebook page where she links her news and posts related to living the freelance life. She has a YouTube channel where she hosts live creative sprints and creates the occasional filmed and edited content, and also has an Etsy shop with the tagline: Art for writers and lovers of fantasy and sci-fi! Whew!

Vito is Principal of 5 th Epoch Publishing and Media. He is Co-Author of the Metal, Magic and Lore (2007) and Vampire’s Codex (2013) Role Playing Games, and Co-Designer of both game systems. His current focus is the Battle Field Ops! Tactical Miniatures Game System (2017), which in its Revised Edition span conflicts from the 20th into the 21st centuries. Vito’s interests have included several Eastern martial arts, firearms, medieval reenactment, fitness. He has recorded and toured the US as a musician, and studied Italian, Korean, and Japanese. He has brought this array of interests into game design.
Nearly retired from his current practice, Vito is founder of a NYC-based consulting firm with 30 years in culture change management. He is the author of the business publication, “Why Is My Coworker So Crazy?” (Spring 2011, Revised 2024), and authoring two (2) additional publications (est. 2025). Vito has served on several non-profit boards and continues volunteer work at
various intervals throughout his life.

Award winning author and artist, H. Gorlitz Scott was born somewhere between orange groves and raised amongst the alligator people of America’s most phallic of states – Australia Lite. There, she and her sentient hair have taken to drawing a land of make believe to live in so that she did not become one of the zombie hoard.

This hobby turned fully-professional after she and her husband spawned a swamp elf that constantly needs to be fed. In addition to creating the world of Sivoa, Scott has provided illustrations for companies such as Rose Portal Games, THGC Publishing, and REDFeather MBS (an Imprint of Schiffer Publishing).

Not wanting to leave the make-believe adventures of her early life behind, she turned to writing them down; a process that was significantly faster, and more effective, than interpretive dance (which she is terrible at).

Scott continues to write, draw, and stare at spaceships from her home in Orlando, Florida to this day.

When I think of the most influential writer as I grew up it would have to be William Shakespeare. I love his tragedies.

Influenced by science fiction, fantasy, fiction and Harlem Renaissance. Love science fiction. Favorite science fiction authors: Ray Bradbury; Isaac Asimov; Robert A. Heinlen; HG Wells; Philip K. Dick; Octavia E. Butler; HP Lovecraft; Mary Shelley; Arthur C. Clarke; Orson Scott Card; William Gibson and Harlan Ellison. Really enjoy fantasy. Favorite fantasy authors: George R. R. Martin; J.R. Tolkien; Piers Anthony and Ray Bradbury. Love fiction. Favorite fiction authors: Walter Mosley; Walter Dean Meyers; Charles Dickens; Herman Melville and Iceberg Slim. Love the Harlem Renaissance authors. Favorite Harlem Renaissance authors: Langston Hughes; Richard Wright; Claude McKay; Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin.

Wish to further the amazing writing experiences through an African American male lens. Wishing to write with passion and desire a varied style of genres with the hopes of being one of the heralded African American authors that others read and enjoy.