October 17 – 23: “How do you develop scientific / technological plots?”

“How do you develop scientific/technological plots? How far can imagination go and not fall into the realm of science fiction?” These are the questions on tap this week when we’re joined by ITW Members Benjamin Dancer, John Hegenberger, Stephanie Osborn, Rich Zahradnik and James Marshall Smith.

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Award-winning author, John Hegenberger has produced more than a dozen books since mid-2015, including several popular series: Stan Wade LAPI in 1959, Eliot Cross Columbus-based PI in 1988, and Ace Hart, western gambler in Arizona in 1877. He’s the father of three, tennis enthusiast, collector of silent films, hiker, Francophile, B.A. Comparative Lit., ex-Navy, ex-marketing exec at Exxon, AT&T, and IBM; and happily married for 46 years and counting. Active member of SFWA, PWA, SinC and ITW. His novel SPYFALL won a 2016 award at Killer Nashville.

Benjamin Dancer is the author of the literary thriller Patriarch Run, the first book in a series that will include Fidelity and The Story of the Boy. He also writes about parenting, education, sustainability and national security. Benjamin works as an Advisor at a Colorado high school where he has made a career out of mentoring young people as they come of age. His work with adolescents has informed his stories, which are typically themed around fatherhood and coming-of-age.

Rich Zahradnik is the award-winning author of the critically acclaimed Coleridge Taylor Mystery series (A Black Sail, Drop Dead Punk, Last Words). The second installment, Drop Dead Punk, won the gold medal for mystery/thriller ebook in the 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs). It was also named a finalist in the mystery category of the 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Last Words won the bronze medal for mystery/thriller ebook in the 2015 IPPYs and honorable mention for mystery in the 2015 Foreword Reviews IndieFab Book of the Year Awards.

Stephanie Osborn, the award-winning Interstellar Woman of Mystery, is a 20+-year space program veteran, with multiple STEM degrees. She has authored, co-authored, or contributed to more than 30 books. She currently writes the critically-acclaimed Displaced Detective Series, described as “Sherlock Holmes meets The X-Files,” and the new Gentleman Aegis Series, a Silver Falchion winner. She “pays it forward” through numerous media including radio, podcasting and public speaking, and working with SIGMA, the science-fiction think tank.

James Marshall Smith is a physicist whose critically-acclaimed thriller, Silent Source, was an international finalist for the Clive Cussler Grand Master Award. James was a chief scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta for two decades and has served in consulting or advisory roles for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, the G7 Global Health Security Action Group, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.