Finding the right balance in description can make or break a story’s pacing and voice. Carolyn Rowland, Gay Yellen, John DeDakis, Lois Winston, Maggie Toussaint, and Randy Overbeck discuss how to create vivid scenes without slowing momentum and how to trust readers to engage their imagination. This session explores how thoughtful restraint and purposeful detail can elevate good writing into great storytelling.
Mystery Made in the Midwest
Carla Buckley, Jen Forbus, and Michael Harvey discuss how Midwestern settings influence crime fiction. They explore how landscape, weather, and tight knit communities shape character and plot, and why the region lends itself to stories that feel grounded, tense, and...




