When Words Collide 2026

When Words Collide 2026

A Festival for Writers, Readers, and Fans

12:00pm MDT

Gemma Files Lecture Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 7Gemma Files It's a Bird. It's a Plane -- Crafting Realistic Imaginary Creatures for Sci-Fi and Fantasy Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Shelly Campbell You're Write About It! Hyatt Regency Calgary - Stephen BMegan Baldrey • Kevin Weir • Erin Weir

1:30pm MDT

A CRASH COURSE IN CONTRACTS FOR WRITERS Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 7D.G. Valdron Fear Factor: How Fear Rewires Your Character’s Behavior, Logic & Responses Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Angela Ackerman Game Theory 101 for writers Hyatt Regency Calgary - Stephen BRon S. Friedman

3:00pm MDT

From Overwhelmed to Organized: Your 12 Month Marketing Plan Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 7Angela Douglas Let's Talk About Sex: Writing Effective Sex Scenes Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Brenna Bailey-Davies Practice Makes Perseverance: Steps to Creating a Graphic Novel Hyatt Regency Calgary - Stephen BAaron Navrady

4:30pm MDT

Book Banning and Censorship: Looking at the Bigger Picture Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 8Kit Dobson Bucket of Bones: Building the Skeleton of Your Murder Mystery Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Dave Sweet • Charlotte Morganti The Whole Package: Creating a Top-Quality Published Book That Jumps Off the Shelf and Attacks Your Reader (Nicely) Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 7Jennifer Sommersby

5:00pm MDT

Take your character from an RPG to a Novel Hyatt Regency Calgary - Stephen BDarren Tenor

9:00am MDT

Selling Your Book Without Platform Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 7Jessica Waite What's Under the Bed - Creating monsters who'll haunt readers long after they've closed the book Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Shelly Campbell

10:30am MDT

15 Ways to Make Money in the Writing World Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 7Suzy Vadori Level Up or Die Trying: Writing and Succeeding in Progression Fantasy & LitRPG Hyatt Regency Calgary - Stephen BBlake Ravenhart The Modern Hero - Virtues of Uncommon People Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Dave Sweet

12:00pm MDT

A CRASH COURSE IN COPYRIGHT Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 7D.G. Valdron An Author's Guide to Longevity and Adapting to the Changing Publishing Landscape Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 5Mark Leslie Lefebvre • Robert J. Sawyer Bored of Your Book? How to Fall in Love With Your Story Again Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Nicole Bross Make a Killer Movie: Writing Genre Films For Yourself (and the Market) Hyatt Regency Calgary - Stephen BMichael Peterson

1:30pm MDT

Butterflies and Plot Twists: Chaos Theory for Writers Hyatt Regency Calgary - Stephen BRon S. Friedman Confessions of a Pants-aholic — How to Plot a Novel When You’d Rather Do Anything Else Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Claire Bonneau

3:00pm MDT

Beyond the Bottom Line: Running an Anticapitalist Author Business Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 7Brenna Bailey-Davies Offstage Characters: What Are They Up To? Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Susan Forest

4:30pm MDT

Making an Audiobook: Getting your Words off the Page Hyatt Regency Calgary - Stephen BBrian E Pearson Breaking Barriers: Writing, Developing, and Creating Despite Disabilities Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 7Steffanie Costigan Resurrecting Religious Legends for a Modern Audience Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Donna D. Conrad The Most Powerful Characterization Detail You're Overlooking: A Character's Job Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 8Angela Ackerman

9:00am MDT

A Quiet Hour of Reflection and Poetry Hyatt Regency Calgary - Stephen BJosephine LoRe What Next? Self-editing Strategies for Moving Your Manuscript Forward Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Sandra McIntyre

10:30am MDT

Building RPG Props Without Breaking the Bank Hyatt Regency Calgary - Stephen ADarren Tenor Designing Interactive Stories: An Intro to Visual Novels with Em Williamson Hyatt Regency Calgary - Stephen BEm Williamson Embrace the cringe of the Canadian identity to find success Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Lexie Angelo Ten Ways to Market Your Book on a Budget Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 7Faye Arcand

12:00pm MDT

The Do's and Don'ts of Cover Design Hyatt Regency Calgary - Stephen BCrystal Kladreau When Dark Clouds Roll In Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Dave Sweet Working with a Freelance Editor: What to Expect When You’re Expecting (a Manuscript Edit) Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 7Jennifer Sommersby

1:30pm MDT

How to Make Readers Fall in Love (or Hate) Your Characters Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Chris Corvan Leveling Up Your TTRPG Storytelling Hyatt Regency Calgary - Stephen BHailey P. Foss • Kathy Enriquez • Jacob Breitmeier Your Process, Your Way: The Busy Wordsmith’s Sustainable Writing Practise Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 7Nicole Bross

3:00pm MDT

The Resilient Writer Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 7Jodi McIsaac Write What You Know: Transform Lived Experience into Powerful Fiction Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 9Julie A. Christiansen

4:30pm MDT

Developmental Editing Your Book Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 7Suzy Vadori The Hidden Architecture of Character Desire: How Want, Fear, and Contradiction Drive Every Scene Hyatt Regency Calgary - Stephen BSarah Brinley “How Do You Say…”: Writing With a Bilingual Mind Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 4Lavinia Leon Something in the Air Tonight: Using Setting to Reflect Emotion Hyatt Regency Calgary - Imperial Ballroom 8Fiona McTaggart