Pride on the Page

Worlds Beyond, Unknown and In Between: 
Sci-Fi, Fantasy and the Fantastical

Moderator: Rosalind Helfand

Panelists: David Church, Jean-Paul L. Garnier and J.D. Horn

Rosalind Helfand is the director of the Omega Sci-Fi Awards, a nonprofit program that engages emerging writers worldwide, as well as budding teen writers in Los Angeles, in the craft of short science fiction writing. She's a co-founder of LitCrawl LA, a former director of LitFest Pasadena, and a past advisor for Lambda LitFest. An expert in global environmental issues including climate change and biodiversity loss, Rosalind currently consults for the United Nations as Thematic Lead of UN Women's Feminist Action for Climate Justice Action Coalition. Having also worked extensively on diverse human rights issues, especially LGBTQ+ and reproductive and environmental justice issues, Rosalind is interested in the power of science fiction to explore and connect us with such issues with nuance and imagination. 

David Church is the author of the award-winning novel, Thomas Edison and the Purgatory Equation, the first installment in ‘The Edison Trilogy.’ A former advertising executive, he has written for publications as wildly diverse as Soap Opera Digest and Interview, authored an environmental children’s book, Larue and the Brown Sky (illustrations by Toby Bluth), and co-authored the cult-musical, Judy’s Scary Little Christmas (with Jim Webber and Joe Patrick Ward) and developed a variety of films for United Artists, CBS, and NBC, including Psychic Housewife and Saving Grace. David is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America West. He lives and works in Palm Springs, California.

Jean-Paul L. Garnier lives and writes in Joshua Tree, CA where he is the owner of Space Cowboy Books, a science fiction bookstore, independent publisher, and producer of Simultaneous Times podcast. In 2020 his first novella Garbage In, Gospel Out was released, and in 2018 Traveling Shoes Press released Echo of Creation, a collection of his science fiction short stories. He has also released several collections of poetry: Future Anthropology, Odes to Scientists (2019), Betelgeuse Dimming (2020), and Utopian Problems (2021). He is a five-time Elgin Nominee and also appeared in the 2020 Dwarf Stars anthology. He is a regular contributor to DreamFoundry.org's blog and is the current editor of Star*Line Magazine.

J.D. Horn is the Wall Street Journal best-selling author of the Witching Savannah series (The Line, The Source, The Void, and Jilo), the Witches of New Orleans Trilogy (The King of Bones and Ashes, The Book of the Unwinding, The Final Days of Magic), and the standalone Southern Gothic horror tale Shivaree. A world traveler and student of French and Russian literature, Horn also has an MBA in international business and formerly held a career as a financial analyst before turning his talent to crafting chilling stories and unforgettable characters. His novels have received global attention and have been translated into Turkish, Russian, Romanian, Polish, Italian, German, and French. Originally from Tennessee, he currently lives in California with his spouse, Rich, and their rescue Chihuahua, Kirby Seamus. Learn more at J.D. Horn's website.