2026 C3
Welcome to the Creatures, Crimes & Creativity Con
September 18-20, 2026
Our purpose is to gather readers and writers of genre fiction–mystery, suspense, thriller, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and paranormal – to meet in an informal atmosphere so that everyone can have fun connecting, and learning about writing, the authors and their books. The conference offers panels on the craft and business of writing as well as panels tailored to engage and entertain fans. The registration fee includes Friday’s dinner, 3 meals Saturday and Sunday breakfast, so readers and writers dine side-by-side. Plus: keynote addresses, author interviews, an onsite bookstore, two giant book signings and readings open to the public.
2025 Keynotes
SJ Rozan, a native New Yorker, is the author of twenty novels and eight dozen short stories. Her work has won the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero, and Macavity awards for Best Novel and the Edgar for Best Short Story. She’s also the recipient of the Japanese Maltese Falcon Award and Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Private Eye Writers of America and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. BRONX NOIR, a short story anthology SJ edited, was chosen NAIBA “Notable Book of the Year.” . She also co-authors historical thrillers as Sam Cabot. Rozan speaks, lectures, and teaches widely, including at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and in Assisi, Italy at Art Workshop International as a Writing Instructor.
Ken Bebelle & Julia Vee are a science fiction team. Ken graduated from UCLA with a B.S. in Cybernetics and he has been a practicing prosthetist for over twenty years. Ken has been an avid reader of fantasy, science fiction, cyberpunk, and comic books his entire life. His first foray into writing was in the eighth grade with a sword and sorcery fantasy story stored on a 5.25” floppy disk. After twenty years as a prosthetist he came back to writing, publishing a military science fiction series co-authored with Julia Vee. Julia was born in Macao and grew up in Northern California. Ken and Julia most recently finished Pearl City, the third in their Phoenix Hoard series. Together they love creating rich, immersive worlds filled with the heroes and monsters from their dreams.Local Guest Author
Local Guest Author
Jen Furlong is an author, producer and actor. Jen spent her teenage years learning to inhabit other people’s lives on stage and make them real. Her first published book was a LARP guide to playing truly evil bad guys: Antagonists for Mind’s Eye Theatre, the LARP for Vampire: The Masquerade. This book was a natural integration of both writing and acting. Her debut novel Hidden City was first drafted in 2004 just before the birth of her second son. Jen’s teenaged heroines struggle with truth, possibility and who they are. Now mother to four of them, Jen loves teenagers and writes books that she hopes teens, tweens and adult lovers of YA will enjoy.