Writers in Paradise - Conference
January 18 - 25, 2025
eckerd college, st. petersburg, FL
Writers in Paradise mission is to provide talented and hardworking writers of all levels and genres the opportunity to learn from and work with other writers under the guidance of masterful authors.
For an entire week, they strive to provide an open and nurturing environment where creativity, critical awareness and writing techniques can be exercised, fostered, and encouraged.
Every year they grow the conference to include new voices and ways of looking at writing and what it means to write in today’s market, while maintaining a core faculty of proven authors who are both successful in their genres and gifted in the classroom.
Their central premise has always been to help talented writers reach their intended audiences. They understand the complexities of putting together effective stories and poems, and this understanding and sensitivity makes their workshops popular and coveted.
One of their most important goals is to create community among participants, which is why the workshops are closed to all but those participants who submit manuscripts and are accepted into the workshop—one long time faculty member calls it “having skin in the game.” They believe that keeping workshops small allows for focus, productive criticism, and honesty .
Lisa Unger - Book Launch
february 25, 2025
I am so excited for Lisa Unger’s latest book launch. I recently attended a book club event where none other than Lisa herself came and discussed her current novel, “The New Couple in 5B,” a must read for lovers of psychological thrillers.
Close Your Eyes and Count to 10
Tthe real game begins, who will make it to the count of 10?
Charismatic daredevil and extreme adventurer Maverick Dillan invites you to the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. But as the players gather on Falcao Island, the event quickly spirals into a chilling test of survival. A storm rages as a deadly threat stalks the contestants, turning the challenge into something far more sinister than the social media stunt it was intended to be.
Enter Adele, a single mother with a fierce determination to protect her children at all costs. When she begins the game, she unwittingly enters a twisted web of deception and intrigue. Can she maneuver through the treacherous storm and the relentless competition and get home to her family? In a ruthless battle for survival where the stakes are higher than ever, the blurry line between the virtual and the real proves that the only person we can trust is ourselves.
Early Praise
"Lisa Unger just gets better and better! In Close Your Eyes and Count to 10, we see her masterful hand at work as she weaves a compulsively readable story packed full of tension from the very first page. As an extreme game of hide and seek quickly turned from stunt to survival, I held my breath as the plot twisted and turned to its dramatic conclusion. Pacy and gripping, I couldn’t read fast enough. Take it on holiday and savor every deliciously dark page.”
—Sarah Pearse, New York Times bestselling author of The Wilds
SleuthFest
May 14 - 18, 2025
Hilton bayfront, st. petersburg, fl
SleuthFest provides writers at any point in their publishing journey with techniques to improve their craft, information on publishing, marketing, and the business of writing, along with insight from best-selling authors, industry professionals, and forensics experts.
SleuthFest helps attendees achieve their publishing goals.
Scheduled speakers include:
Lisa Unger, New York Times and internationally bestselling author of twenty-one novels. With books published in thirty-three languages and millions of copies sold worldwide, she is regarded as a master of suspense.
Dr. Katherine Ramsland, forensic psychology and behavioral criminology teacher in the graduate program at DeSales University, where she is Professor Emerita. She has appeared as an expert on more than 200 crime documentaries and is the author of more than 1,500 articles and 72 books,
Isabella Maldonado, author and graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico and the first Latina to attain the rank of captain in the Fairfax County Police Department. She uses her law enforcement background to bring a realistic edge to her writing, which includes the bestselling FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera series (soon to be a Netflix feature film starring Jennifer Lopez.)
Lou Berney, author of the novels Dark Ride, November Road, The Long and Farawa, y Gone, Whiplash River, and Gutshot Straight. His books have won the Edgar, Hammett, Steel Dagger, Barry, Macavity, Lefty, and Anthony awards, and he has been a finalist twice for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He teaches in the MFA program at Oklahoma City University.
Florida WritersCon 2025
October 2025
Hilton Orlando/Altamonte Springs
The Florida Writer’s Association Annual Conference is a weekend jam-packed with networking opportunities, workshops, awards, book signings, a Youth Summit, and more.
Activities include featured speakers, writing sprints, writing workshops, book signings, and an agent and publisher Q&A.
Past topics have featured fiction, non-fiction, screenwriting, poetry, craft instruction, and freelance opportunities.
Exhibitors will showcase character development, ways of giving feedback, screenwriting, comics, poetry, the power of story, and how to pitch an agent, Youth Royal Palm Literary Awards Lunch Banquet, Youth Collection Author Signing and much more.
Florida Writers Association (FWA) is a nonprofit 501(c)6 serving writers of all genres and all levels. FWA provides a professional atmosphere, a vast networking system, and valuable tools to succeed in today's publishing industry.
FWA continues to grow and encompasses some fifty chapters, two writing competitions, annual anthologies, a renowned annual writers conference, a program for youth writers, and more.
It’s motto, “Writers Helping Writers,” is demonstrated daily by their volunteers across the state of Florida and beyond. The Florida Writers Association embraces the diversity of its membership and faculty from across the State of Florida, the nation, and the globe.
