Bio:

Jodie Renner was brought up in BC and moved to Ontario when she was 32, but has recently moved back to Kelowna. Jodie is a former teacher and school librarian with a master's degree in literature and a lifelong passion for reading fiction. She is now a freelance fiction editor and the author of popular writing guides and blog posts on writing captivating fiction.

Jodie has published two books to date in her series, An Editor's Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction. The multi-award-winning Fire up Your Fiction (formerly titled Style That Sizzles & Pacing For Power) is very reader-friendly and offers concrete tips with examples for streamlining your writing, picking up the pace, avoiding style blunders, and bringing your story to life with various techniques. Her other book, Writing a Killer Thriller, provides tips for writers of any genre to enhance your story by adding tension, suspense, and intrigue. Jodie's third book in the series will be out in 2014.

When she's not editing, writing, or reading, Jodie loves to pursue her two other passions, photography and traveling. She has traveled extensively throughout North America, Europe, and the Middle East, and continues to sneak away whenever she gets a chance.

For more information on Jodie's books, please visit her author website. For craft-of-writing advice, visit Jodie at The Kill Zone blog or her own blog: Resources For Writers.

Workshop:

"Spark up Your Scenes and Stories" - In this interactive workshop, Jodie will provide concrete tips with examples on how to bring your stories to life and engage readers by picking up the pace (deleting or energizing the bits that drag); writing tighter (attacking wordiness); adding tension, conflict, & intrigue; using close point of view; showing character reactions; using snappy dialogue, and more.

Bio:

Will Schlackl received his Diploma in Jazz Studies from Malaspina University - College and went on to achieve his B.Ed from Simon Fraser University. While in college at Malaspina, Will was enrolled in the Theatre program. After taking on the music director position for the fall show and being cast as a musician in the spring, he decided he should likely follow music. Although music has been a great focus, other art forms have been a part of Will's career. While in university, Will studied literature, more theatre and art history. He has an extended minor in Music, a minor in English, and a minor in Education.

This is Will's 19th year as a public school teacher. His current position finds him teaching Music, English, French, Social Studies, and Science at Skaha Lake Middle School in Penticton. He co-teaches the school concert and jazz band programs. Although this is his twelfth year at the same school, Will has also taught in Richmond, Hope and for five years in Bella Coola. His students have been on band trips to Port Alberni, Nelson, Terrace, Prince George, Calgary, Ottawa, Hull, Toronto, Edmonton, and L.A. He has been with his groups to the Nationals several times scoring Gold and Silver awards. Will has been a member of the Okanagan Concert Band Festival committee for the past twelve years. His groups have also taken part in The Interior Jazz Festival for the past twelve years.

In addition, Will has been running The Penticton Guitar Program, Rock Skool, and Jazzcool for twelve years. This has most recently been done in conjunction with The Okanagan School of the Arts. Will has also taught writing at The B.C. Youth Writers Camp at Okanagan College in Penticton. Currently, over 40 private students study at his home. The B.C. Music Educators Association and The Okanagan Skaha Professional Development Committee have had Will present at numerous conferences for Educators over the years.

Will is a passionate artist and practices and performs in numerous performing groups. Will is the guitarist in the jazz trio "Cube," "The Thursday Night Jazz Band," and the rock band "Fluxx." He also does vocal / guitar work on his own and with other fine artists in the Okanagan including Gord Mclaren and Ari Neufeld. In addition to his busy teaching schedule, he finds himself playing over 75 nights a year. Past venues include: Township 7 Winery, Dirty Laundry Vineyards, Sumac Ridge, The Copper Mug, Slack's Show and Shine, The Gunbarrell, Anthony's, The Rock Oven, Decoys, Whiskey Jacks (Kelowna), Original Joes (Abbotsford), Martinis, Ottos, Bar One, The Barking Parrot, The Barley Mill, Las Casa Ouzeria, The Black Pearl, The Blue Mule, Peachfest, The Fest of Ale, and dozens of private functions.

Will is a proud father of five and he is very grateful to his wife for being so supportive of his passion for the arts and education. He is currently continuing with all aforementioned projects and working on a few new ones. His rock band "Fluxx" is working on an EP. Simultaneously, he is doing a solo acoustic / vocal recording tribute to Canadian recording artists. Finally, he is hoping to complete a book of short stories with a focus on youth and a realistic view of the world.

Workshop:

"Actors are Storytellers" - The old world and the modern world alike have used theatre to share stories. For example, the libretto of "The Opera Buffa" would read like a modern day script for a sitcom. Fairytales are timeless and universal. Participants will act out one of these classics. We will put a modern twist on these stories and share them at Friday's presentation.

Bio:

Lorna Schultz Nicholson has published twenty-nine books. And she has two more coming out in the fall of 2014. She has also been a television co-host and reporter, radio host and reporter, theatre and murder mystery actor, fitness coordinator and rowing coach. Whew!

Thankfully, now she is a full-time writer who loves to sit at her computer and write stories. She writes for children and has published picture books, middle-grade fiction, YA fiction, and also hockey non-fiction. Her books are about kids and their friendships and school and family life and emotions and feelings and... well, the ups and downs of life. We all have those ups and downs, don't we?

Lorna lives in Calgary and Penticton with her hubbie, (their three children are all grown now and don't live at home anymore boo hoo) and two dogs: a whiny bichon shih tzu, and a puppy she rescued from Mexico.

Workshop:

"Tricks for Finding Ideas" - Ideas are everywhere! Sometimes you can even take something that happened in real life and turn it into a piece of fiction like Lorna did with her Indigo series. As a writer, you have to keep your eyes and ears open so you can find that one kernel that might develop into a story. Often just asking "What If?" can lead to a really amazing story. Lorna will share how she gets her ideas, then she will get you working on your ideas!

Bio:

"Human nature naturally reaches for a higher consciousness and in this search we return back to the foundation of nature - the endless cycle of life." Stephen Tulloch

Stephen Tulloch was born in Blind River, Ontario in 1961. His career as an artist spans two decades. Stephen began his art studies at Sheridan College as an animator. Now residing in Penticton - is the owner and designer of a graphic/web company.

Since the late 1980's, he has been faced with many challenges including managing his rheumatoid arthritis and running his own business while developing his fine art skills - honing his extremely refined pointillism technique with pen and brush in black ink.

Stephen has traveled and worked in Mexico, Peru and the USA, and these experiences profoundly affected him emotionally, physically, and mentally. These times found new insights into his philosophy of life and have manifested themselves in the shape and texture of his artwork. These "adventures in wonderland" imparted a rich experiential resource, a renewed purpose, and a unique voice profoundly evident in his life and his art.

Workshop:

"Words to Textile 'two' mind" - Finding words from poetry/writings (from other workshops) and use them to inspire the two art pieces (Collaborative & Personal Fabric Art). We will paint/print onto a canvas bag and/or t-shirt, using mono-printing, tubes, brushes and gadgets that *Stephen has worked with during his textile painting days. We will use the three primary colours and black, using various techniques and methods onto fabric. You will learn basics of illustration, some colour theory and "How to create without a 'stitch' of technical training!" The bag and/or t-shirt having two sides, as the mind - the first side of our bags and/or t-shirt will be the collaborative/ group exercise , the second side of the bag and /or t-shirt - a more controlled and analytical personal art piece. Creativity is to lose yourself into your art and find the beauty between imagination and the process. (*Stephen hand-painted over 5,000 pieces of fabric during his 7 years of owning a t-shirt company.)

Bio:

Endrene Shepherd was born in Vancouver, BC, and grew up in the Okanagan. She received her BFA from UBC Okanagan in 2004, and has been writing and drawing for the entirety of her life. She has exhibited in British Columbia and Japan, and her work is privately collected domestically and abroad. In 2009, Endrene produced her first book, I'm Big in Japan through A-Z Publishing.

Endrene's work is dynamic and evocative. Her goal as an artist is to arouse wonder as the senses reawaken to the world around them. She lives in Penticton, BC, with her partner Dave, two cats, four frogs and a blue tailed skink.

For a more intimate look, "like" Endrene's Facebook fan page. Search: Endrene Shepherd, Artist

Workshop:

"The World of Webcomics" : Webcomics offer artists and writers (and artist/writers) an opportunity to express whatever they want, hone their skills, test ideas, and find an audience. Starting a web comic is as easy as having access to the internet. The workshop will briefly go over some of the different webcomics in existence, and the basics of creating and maintaining one. Students will use an activity to come up with a short narrative, and then use some basic illustrating techniques to visually convey the idea.