Debut authors Stephen Jay Schwartz and Attica Locke have both had phenomenal success with their first novels. What's behind their instant rise to success? Is it masterful storytelling? Powerful marketing? Or more? Schwartz with his L.A. Times Best Selling novel Boulevard and Locke with Black Water Rising, which was nominated for both a 2010 Edgar and the 2009 L.A. Times Book Award. "Soon-To-Be" debut author Darrell James will moderate. Together they will explore behind the scenes and discuss their fast track to success.
 

Stephen Jay Schwartz spent a number of years as Director of Development for the film director Wolfgang Peterson where he worked with writers, producers and studio executives to develop screenplays for production. Among the film projects he helped develop are “Air Force One,” “Outbreak,” “Red Corner,” “Bicentennial Man,” and “Mighty Joe Young.” A film maker in his own right, Stephen has worked as a screenwriter and freelance script doctor. His writing credits include Inside The Space Station, narrated by Liam Neeson. His L.A. Times Bestseller Boulevard is a very dark crime thriller set in modern day Los Angeles. It is Stephen's first novel, and was sold as part of a two-book deal to Forge Books (an imprint of MacMillan Publishing). He lives in Southern California with his wife and two young boys.

Attica Locke is a writer whose first novel, Black Water Rising, was nominated for a 2010 Edgar® Award, a 2010 NAACP Image Award, as well as a Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was long-listed for an Orange Prize in the UK. Attica is also a screenwriter who has written movie and television scripts for Paramount, Warner Bros, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, HBO, Dreamworks and Silver Pictures. She was also a fellow at the Sundance Institute's Feature Filmmakers Lab and is a graduate of Northwestern University. A native of Houston, Texas, Attica lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and daughter. She is currently at work on her second book.

Darrell James (Moderator) has had twenty-four short stories published in numerous mystery magazines and book anthologies. He is a 2009 Derringer Awards finalist for his story “The Art of Avarice” and his personal odyssey to publication appears in the Writer's Digest book How I Got PUblished, along with J.A. Jance, David Morrell, Clive Cussler, and many other notable authors. His first novel in the Del Shannon series of mystery/thrillers is currently under contract with Midnight Ink (an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Publishing). Book one is scheduled for release in September 2011. Darrell holds residence in both Pasadena, CA and Tucson, Arizona with his wife and publicist Diana.