As a lifetime storyteller, Jackie has been the playwright of professionally produced plays and vignettes, Executive Editor for the award-winning Meadowhawk Press, professional blogger for English Tea Store, and is an award-winning author of poetry, short stories and novels and screenplays. Jackie’s love for storytelling is at the heart of her gift for teaching it. As MidSouthCon Writers’ Conference Coordinator, she established the writers’ conference, and expanded the three hour education track to a cross-curriculum 10-hour seminar approved for Continuing Education Units by University of Memphis. She has taught workshops and seminars around the country.

Jackie is a science fiction, fantasy, and horror geek through and through, and it reveals itself in her screenplays. Her scripts have produced film products from merchandise and program commercials, fundraising promos, short films, and feature-length movies.

She also steps behind the camera to direct her own scripts, many adapted from her published writing. Her approach to directing reflects her fiction; driving the story to reveal itself through its characters. Her films have showcased in festivals from the Mid-South to Boston and New York.

Jackie’s hobbies usually make her messy; in the kitchen baking sweets, in the art studio splashing paint, or using her beloved power tools to make an object into something else. She’s also a gamer girl from the days of Atari. Her favorite sort of Saturday is spent with a stack of books, a cup of tea, and couch time with her boxer, Effie.

Ellen has been editor for Teenage Magazine by Double-Edged Publishing, has been published in “Beauty and Dynamite” by Apex Books, has organized makeup workshops for MidSouthCon, and has served on the board of WordCatchers, a Memphis-based writers’ group.

She is a professional User Experience Designer, combining beauty and geometry to tell stories in single frames. Her favorite part of her career is helping others to have a joyful user experience.

Ellen grew up using myriad media and was often covered in paint, but feels her brain is more adapted these days to a tablet and digital painting pen. She has an unshakable love of character design, concept art, fantasy, and science fiction; despite keeping busy with art commissions, she still finds time for drawing just for fun.

Ellen had the opportunity to be involved with an experimental theater group as a teen, and has gone on to perform in music videos, and short and feature films. She loves being covered in prosthetics and creature makeup most of all, but also enjoys playing characters of all personalities. In her spare time, Ellen enjoys video games (both playing and designing them), and cuddling on the couch with Archer, her rescued greyhound.

Dan has been Executive Director of Meadowhawk Press, an award-winning indie publisher, Creative Director of the media studio Second Light, and sat on the Board of Directors for the 501(c)3 Ovarian Cancer Awareness Foundation. His expansive set of skills has enabled him to envision and implement signal-boosting strategies from business development to website, graphics, and visual effects with marketing.

He is also a professional designer with over 20 years of design and innovation–and the holder of over a dozen international patents! Dan has been on a lifetime trajectory through the arts, including piano and music theory, Industrial Design, and photography, to name a few. As a filmmaker, his roles have included cinematography and post-production for commercials, music video and films. His true love as a storyteller is as a documentarist, because he’s able to combine two passions: travel, and exploring the infinitely varied lives of ordinary people.

He’s a self-proclaimed gear head who enjoys collecting and experimenting with cameras, lenses, and light. He also finds down-time on the seat of his Spyder motorcycle (who he’s named Charlotte), and is a firm believer in the regenerative properties of its “wind therapy.”