When Words Collide 2026

Join Gemma for a blood-curdling hour on writing epistolary horror for the 21st century.

FYI
Epistolary horror builds its scares through "found documents"—diaries, letters, emails, police transcripts, recordings—rather than a traditional narrator. By stripping away omniscience, the form turns readers into investigators, forcing them to assemble fragments of evidence into a terrifying whole.

Classic examples include Dracula, Carrie, and World War Z—each using documents like diary entries, committee testimonies, and oral histories to build dread from the ground up.

About Gemma
Gemma Files is a Canadian horror writer, journalist, and film critic. Her short story, "The Emperor's Old Bones," won the International Horror Guild Award for Best Short Story of 1999. Five of her short stories were adapted for the television series The Hunger.

You've created a world, but what about the fauna in it?  Let's use our imaginations to furnish an enviroment filled with unique--yet realistic--wildlife.

Everyone thinks writers are intelligent, well-informed, and clever — but what do they really know? Laugh along with host Kevin Weir and a panel of hilarious writers as they try to answer unfair trivia questions, unravel groanworthy puns, and play ridiculous minigames all to win the Goard of Knowledge (see: nothing) and an uneasy sense of satisfaction. 

Writers are all about writing. Other aspects of the business, like contracts, are often mysterious and intimidating.

The object of this seminar is to give writers a crash course in writing and publishing contracts, exploring the history and evolution of these contracts, the key elements in a publishing contract, what it means, what you don't worry about, what you are giving, what you are getting in return, and what you fight for. It's about teaching you to tell good contracts from bad and what kinds of clauses to look out for. Along the way, we'll explore other sorts of writer-related contracts and how to approach and understand them. Useful for new writers, but everyone will get something out of it. D.G. Valdron, the seminar proponent has been an active writer and a lawyer for over thirty years.

Fear doesn’t just make a person feel unsafe; it rewires perception, disrupts logic, and shapes behavior. Learn how to show your character’s fear on the page by understanding how it manifests and leads to specific responses.

Most authors don’t need more marketing advice, they need a clear, sustainable plan they can actually follow. This in-depth session guides writers through creating a personalized, realistic 12-month marketing strategy that aligns with their goals, resources, budget, and available time.
Building on foundational principles of author branding and audience engagement, this workshop walks participants step-by-step through a practical decision-making framework: choosing what to do, when to do it, and how to prioritize tasks throughout the year. We will explore a wide range of marketing options, including social media, newsletters, events, ads, collaborations, publicity, and retailer optimization, and assess each through the lens of financial investment, human resources, and time commitment. The goal is not to do everything, but to identify the right mix of strategies that fit each author’s capacity and career stage.
Participants will receive a checklist/customizable planning template that maps key marketing actions across a 12-month time frame. Together, we will break down how to set measurable goals, batch tasks, schedule seasonal opportunities, and create a plan that feels achievable rather than overwhelming. By the end, each attendee will walk away with the start of their own year-long marketing roadmap, and the confidence to adapt it as their career grows.

The prospect of bringing a graphic novel to life can feel daunting, but with practice, perseverance and plenty of self-care, you too can create the graphic narrative you've been dreaming of (or furiously wrestling with). Aaron Navrady's talk will focus on the steps taken from initial inspiration to finished product, using samples of process from his most recent self-published work, The Cold Fire. The story is a fictional medieval epic about a Norman Crusader tasked with pursuing heretics across the Alps during the Albigensian Crusade.
 
Highlighting each stage of the project, the presentation will explore story research and development, rough sketches, layout design, pencilling, inks, watercolours, final page prep, pitching to publishers, self-publication and distribution of finished chapters, and useful anecdotes from other creators that helped along the journey. Included will be a segment on what writers should bring to the table when procuring artists to illustrate their graphic novel script. Aaron will also share the experiential highs and lows that come with carrying forward a 10 chapter epic. He'll focus in on the satisfaction found in the process, and balancing self-care with dragging your book kicking and screaming across the finish line. 

Book banning and censorship have become hot-button items in Alberta in 2026 as the United Conservative government continues to announce new measures for limiting access to books deemed to be controversial. In this session, Kit Dobson sets these issues into context by examining how these limits on books fit into a long history of censorship, a practice that has also come back into vogue in jurisdictions across North America. Dobson teaches on this subject at the University of Calgary and has done media commentary about it for CTV, the CBC, the Globe and Mail, and elsewhere. 

This interactive and entertaining presentation will introduce mystery writers and readers to the world of mystery building, from the ins and outs of how police might investigate your fictional crime, to choosing your victim, your sleuth, your setting and more. 

A great book is more than just good writing—it’s a complete package that includes strong editing, professional design, and smart branding. How many times have you been turned off from buying a book because the layout or design was just . . . not great? It screams amateur, right?


This session will cover the must-have elements of creating a well-designed, pleasing product so you’re taken seriously in the book world. We’ll discuss the importance of cover design, levels of editing, formatting, blurbs, metadata, and marketing as well as how to use the IBPA Industry Standards checklist to make sure you don’t hit a sour note when your opus makes her debut on the world stage. Readers really do judge a book by its cover (and pretty much everything else within the covers)! 

You’ve loved taking your RPG character through adventures.

Now it’s time to give their story a novel. Learn how to make the transition.