Gen Con is delighted to host dozens of distinguished writers at the 2026 Writers Symposium this summer.
In our new blog series, Meet the Writers, you’ll get to know the esteemed participants in the 2026 symposium, gain insights from their triumphs (and blunders!), and perhaps uncover a surprising secret or two…
Tim Waggoner
What inspired you to become a writer, and how did you find your unique voice as an author?
I’ve been telling stories one way or another all my life. As a kid, I used to make up scenarios for my friends and me to enact on the playground, and I created sagas with my action figures that went on for days. In junior high, I started drawing my own comic book featuring my friends and me as superheroes.
I figured I’d have a built-in audience this way. I wanted to be a comic book artist. My friends said my art was terrible, but my stories were good. When I was sixteen, I read an interview with Stephen King in an old black-and-white Marvel Tomb of Dracula magazine. It was the first time I realized that someone could choose to be a writer as a career, and that I could, too.
I found my voice as a writer through the Groundhog Day method. I kept writing day after day, and I slowly got better. One day, I saw a call for submissions to an anthology called Young Blood. The idea was that the submissions should be horror stories and written by writers under thirty. I wrote one terrible story that got rejected, so I was determined to make my next submission the best story I’d ever written. I wrote a surreal horror story about a serial killer who thought he was Punch of Punch and Judy fame.
The ending was weird and abstract, but I loved it. My writers’ group, however, did not. They wanted me to change the story, especially the ending, and make it clearer and more realistic. I stuck to my guns, though, and didn’t change anything. I submitted the story, and it was accepted. It was my first professional-level sale, and Ellen Datlow selected it for an honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. That was the last time I was in a writers’ group.
If you could have dinner with any character from your books, who would it be and what would you talk about?
Matthew Richter, the zombie detective from my Nekropolis urban fantasy series. Nekropolis is an extra-dimensional city of monsters, and I’d love to learn more about Matt’s adventures there.
What’s the most unusual or unexpected place you’ve found inspiration for a story, and how did it shape your writing?
It’s hard to say since I find inspiration in all kinds of weird places. I suppose the earliest inspiration came from my mother. She once told me that when my sister and I were very young, one of us was afraid of feathers, while the other feared Band-Aids.
She couldn’t remember which of us feared what, though. I’d always wanted to write a horror story about feathers or Band-Aids, but it took me decades to come up with an idea for feathers. It resulted in a story called “Feathers,” oddly enough, and it appeared in Weird Tales. I still haven’t come up with a story for Band-Aids.
If you could switch genres for a day, which genre would you choose to write in, and what kind of story would you create?
I think I’d try horromance. Most of my horror novels have a romance in them, although it’s not the focus of the plot.
I’ve long wondered what would happen if I strengthened the romantic elements in my horror. I might write a story about a character who falls in love with a demon possessing someone. That would be an extremely problematic love triangle!
What advice would you give to aspiring writers looking to get published in today’s evolving literary landscape?
Write what burns in your gut, because that will produce your best work, and your best work will be your most competitive and marketable. Write the stories only you can tell, so you’re not a pale imitation of other writers. Try both traditional and indie publishing and see which works better for you.
Learn how to persist in the face of rejection and career setbacks. I read a quote online recently (though I can’t remember who said it): “If you stay in publishing long enough, everything — good and bad — will happen to you.” It’s easy to get through the good, but you need to survive the bad, too.
Learn more about Tim at timwaggoner.com, and follow him on Instagram and YouTube.
Karen Menzel née Bovenmyer
What inspired you to become a writer, and how did you find your unique voice as an author?
I had a love of stories, even though reading was frustrating due to my dyslexia. From an early age, I found ways to imagine and tell stories to myself as well as listen to stories that didn’t involve the written word. In fifth grade, I was introduced to Dungeons and Dragons, which was an incredibly rich way to tell stories. However, the rules were so very dense (the books from the 1980s were rather cramped) that reading them was far beyond my skill.
Wanting to play D&D was the motivation I needed to struggle through and find my adaptations and coping strategies. I went on to read Tolkien, Tad Williams, Raymond Fiest, and never stopped. I’ve earned six higher degrees related to storytelling (a BS in anthropology, English, and history; an MA in literature and creative writing; and an MFA in popular fiction). I’ve published over 70 stories and have won awards and scholarships based on my imagination. If this story inspires a child in your life who is struggling to read, please share! Don’t give up on yourself. Keep exploring, imagining, trying. There are strategies out there to help you level up your reading (and storytelling).
I have never given up my first love of D&D and still find it useful as a writing tool. When I’m stuck on a character, I imagine I’m going to embody an NPC for my players. Imagining how I would describe their clothes and what patterns of speech I would use for them brings that character to life and helps me translate them to the page.
Discover more about Karen at karenbovenmyer.com.
Aaron Rosenberg
What inspired you to become a writer, and how did you find your unique voice as an author?
When I was in third grade, I won a school-wide writing award. It still hangs above my desk. That was when I realized how powerful stories are, and how words and characters can reach people.
Around the same time, I discovered the fantasy/science fiction nook at my local public library. I read Le Guin, L’Engle, and Norton and was immediately hooked. That’s when I knew.
As far as voice, I’m still working on it. I write in so many different genres and tones that my authorial voice is always shifting a little, adapting to each new story. But years of studying, writing, critiquing, editing, and teaching taught me to be precise with my word choice, and preferences for clean, spare writing have certainly shaped my own style.
If you could have dinner with any character from your books, who would it be and what would you talk about?
Ha, it’d have to be DuckBob Spinowitz, the protagonist of my SF comedy series starting with No Small Bills. Because with DuckBob you never have to worry about carrying the conversation—he’ll do it for you! He has no filter and often goes off on odd, looping tangents, but it’s always entertaining.
What’s the most unusual or unexpected place you’ve found inspiration for a story, and how did it shape your writing?
Considering the DuckBob books were born out of the single, randomly spoken phrase “A duckheaded man surfs the galactic wave,” and my Twin Cities Cryptids books began with the notion “what if a bloodthirsty monster just wanted cold beers, microwave pizzas, and the sports channels?” — I think it’s fair to say I can draw inspiration from just about anywhere. But it’s often a stray thought or phrase that tickles my fancy and gets me thinking, “Hm, okay, what if?”
If you could switch genres for a day, which genre would you choose to write in, and what kind of story would you create?
I can’t answer that because I have already written almost every genre. I used to say I did everything but military and romance—then last year I wrote a Regency romance novel. I like switching genres because it keeps things interesting for me; same for my reading—I’ll work on a lighthearted urban fantasy novel, then a dark occult thriller, then an SF heist story, then a period mystery, and so on. For me, it’s all about the story that pops into my head, whatever genre that might fit.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers looking to get published in today’s evolving literary landscape?
Be true to yourself, but if you can, be flexible. That doesn’t mean “write what people tell you to write” or “change your story into something you didn’t want because someone offered to publish it if you did.” It means “don’t shut yourself off to possibilities.” If someone suggests something or offers an opportunity, at least consider it, and see if it’s a good fit for you.
You might be surprised and discover something you love that you didn’t know existed or something you hadn’t realized would be a perfect fit for your interests and talents.
Learn more about Aaron at gryphonrose.com, and follow him on Facebook, BlueSky, and Instagram.