All writing welcome, including screenplays. Bring anything. Bring it in any state. Bring yourself in any state. Just come for a listen. Or for a snack. These are friendly pirates. (The only requirement is that you bring respect for the people sharing their work.) Message to Students You will experience a complete hero's journey in a week if you let yourself. You'll rejoice and despair. You will abandon hope and find it. The only "don't" is don't hide in your room. The main "do" is to have respect for people sharing their work.

Norm Thoeming's (pen name August Norman) debut thriller, Come and Get Me - A Caitlin Bergman Novel, was released by Crooked Lane Books in 2019. The second, Sins of the Mother, was released in 2020. He's an active member of the Mystery Writers of America, the International Thriller Writers, and Sisters in Crime, and regularly attends the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Originally from central Indiana, author August Norman, also has called Los Angeles home for two decades, writing for and/or appearing in movies, television, stage productions, web series, and commercial advertising.

Trey Dowell is an award-winning author of both short and novel-length fiction.  His short stories have been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Abyss and Apex, MetaStellar, and Mystery Magazine, among many others, and he won the 2022 Derringer Award for Best Crime/Mystery Short Story of the year.  An avid competition writer, Dowell has won the NYC Midnight's Flash Fiction, WritersWeekly.com, Bethlehem Writer's Roundtable, and Bardsy's short fiction contests. His debut science-fiction thriller, The Protectors, was published in 2014 by Simon & Schuster.  You can learn more at www.treydowell.com, or follow him on Twitter @treydowell3.