Kenneth Oppel
Keynote 10:30-11:15 a.m. (History Reference Room)
Book Signing Session 11:15-11:45 a.m. (Upper Level – Great Hall)

Kenneth Oppel is the Printz-Honor winning author of Airborn, Silverwing, This Dark Endeavor, and numerous other books for children and young adults. His novelHalf Brother was the first book to win both the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year for Children, as well as its Book of the Year for Young Adults. Oppel’s Silverwing trilogy, told entirely from the point of view of bats, has sold over a million copies worldwide. His other books include The BoundlessThe Nest, and Every Hidden Thing. His latest novel is Inkling. 

 This Dark Endeavor and its sequel Such Wicked Intent are prequels to one of the most famous stories of all time: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Using Powerpoint interspersed with short readings, I will introduce the audience to my 16-year-old Victor Frankenstein, and talk about the process of adapting Shelley’s characters to tell the origin story of the archetypal “mad scientist”. I also talk about the fascinating mythology of Mary Shelley herself, and how I used elements of her tumultuous personal life in my books.

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Mike Mullin
Reading 11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. (History Reference Room)

Book Signing Session 12:15-12:45 p.m. (Upper Level – Great Hall)

Mike Mullin first discovered he could make money writing in sixth grade. His teacher, Mrs. Brannon, occasionally paid students for using unusual words. Mike’s first sale as a writer earned 10 cents for one word: tenacious.

Since then, Mike has always been involved with literature. One of his early jobs was shelving books at Central Library in Indianapolis. Later, he paid his way through graduate school in part by serving as a reference assistant for Indiana University’s library. Mike has worked in his mother’s business, Kids Ink Children’s Bookstore, for more than twenty years, serving at various times as a store manager, buyer, school and library salesperson, and marketing consultant.

Mike wrote his first novel in elementary school—Captain Poopy’s Sewer Adventures. He’s been writing more or less non-stop ever since, but fortunately for his readers, Ashfall is his first published novel.

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Julia Karr
Reading 12:30 – 1:15 p.m. (History Reference Room)
Book Signing Session 1:15 – 1:45 p.m. (Upper Level – Great Hall)

Julia Karr is the published author of two young adult novels, various essays, and a small amount of poetry. Her love of words started at a very young age, and has never stopped. When she was in elementary school, one of the things she was known for was reading the dictionary - for fun. She still does that. Her talk will focus on building a future world out of the world we know now including details of how she built the fictional Chicago of 2150. She will give examples/readings from the book about actual places and how they morphed into the future.

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Mark Marimen
Reading 1:30 – 2:15 p.m.  (History Reference Room)
Book Signing Session 3:15  – 4:00 p.m. (Upper Level – Great Hall)

Mark Marimen grew up in Merrillville Indiana, the youngest of 3 children. He grew up surrounded by stories and fell in love at an early age with folklore and ghost stories. He attended Merrillville High School, received his BS from Valparaiso University and his Masters degree from Duke University.

As an adult, his love of ghostly tales led him to write 7 books on Indiana history and ghostlore. These include Haunted Indiana, School Spirits, Haunted Indiana 2, Haunted Indiana 3, Haunted Indiana 4, Weird Indiana and Haunted Travels of Indiana.

Mark now lives in Crown Point Indiana with his wife and 2 dogs. He is a frequent speaker at local schools, inspiring students to write using ghost stories as a genre. He also continues to research ghostly stories and locations, but his chief love lies in the telling of the old tales to audiences across the state.

Saundra Mitchell
Reading 2:30 – 3:15 p.m. (History Reference Room)
Book Signing Session 3:15 – 4:00 p.m. (Upper Level – Great Hall)

Saundra Mitchell has been a phone psychic, a car salesperson, a denture-deliverer and a layout waxer. She’s dodged trains, endured basic training, and hitchhiked from Montana to California. The author of more than fifteen books for tweens and teens, Mitchell’s work includes Shadowed Summer, The Vespertine series, the non-fiction They Did What? series, and two anthologies for teens, Defy the Dark and All Out. She always picks truth; dares are too easy. 

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Maurice Broaddus
Reading 3:30 – 4:15 p.m. (History Reference Room)
Book Signing Session 4:15 – 4:45 p.m. (Upper Level – Great Hall)

A community organizer and teacher, his work has appeared in Lightspeed Magazine, Weird Tales, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Asimov’s, Cemetery Dance, Uncanny Magazine, with some of his stories having been collected in The Voices of Martyrs. He is the author of the urban fantasy trilogy, The Knights of Breton Court, and the (upcoming) middle grade detective novel series, The Usual Suspects. He co-authored the play Finding Home: Indiana at 200. His novellas include Buffalo Soldier, I Can Transform You, Orgy of Souls, Bleed with Me, and Devil’s Marionette. As an editor, he’s worked on Dark Faith, Dark Faith: Invocations, Streets of ShadowsPeople of Colo(u)r Destroy Horror, and Apex Magazine. His gaming work includes writing for the Marvel Super-Heroes, Leverage, and Firefly role-playing games as well as working as a consultant on Watch Dogs 2

Mr. Broaddus’s talk is titled “Five Lessons Learned Along the Way of my Journey as an Artist” will include a reading from Buffalo Soldier.

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