An evening with Redbird authors who are making it happen in spite of the bad news about getting published. As traditional markets grow tighter, new markets, new ways of getting published and new ways of approaching the markets, become more important. These are exciting days for men and women who not only write well, but are finding innovative ways to get noticed and get published.

Meet in an intimate setting in the Marian Center where the panelists can share their experiences and bright ideas with you. They will answer your questions about creating a platform, dealing with agents and publishers, self-publishing, social networking, and more.

Kirk Farber's debut novel, Postcards from a Dead Girl, was published by Harper Perennial in February 2010. "Postcards" was a semi-finalist in the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. His short story "Salting the Walks" was a finalist in a statewide fiction contest which resulted in publication in Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine. His short fiction also appears online in Hobart literary journal. Kirk will be a staff presenter at this year's Pikes Peak Writer's Conference in Colorado Springs, and he'll be participating in Denver's Publishing Institute as a featured author. He currently lives in Colorado and is working on his second novel.

Douglas W. Jacobson is an engineer, business owner and World War Two history enthusiast. Doug has traveled extensively in Europe researching stories of the courage of common people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. His debut novel, Night of Flames: A Novel of World War II was published in 2007 by McBooks Press, and was released in paperback in 2008. Night of Flames won the "2007 Outstanding Achievement Award" from the Wisconsin Library Association. Doug has also published articles on Belgium's WWII escape organization, the Comet Line and other European resistance organizations. Doug is finishing up his second historical novel set in Europe during WWII, focusing on one of history's most notorious war crimes.

Karen McQuestion is the author of six books available on Amazon's Kindle, one of which, A Scattered Life, has been optioned for film. Her other writing credits include essays in Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Denver Post, Wisconsin Academy Review, Generations magazine and several anthologies. In addition, she was awarded a winter/spring 2003 Ragdale Foundation residency for fiction. More recently she's served as a commentator for the local NPR affiliate,WUWM. She lives in Hartland, WI with her husband and children.

Shannon Jackson Arnold is the author of Everybody Loves Ice Cream: The Whole Scoop on America's Favorite Treat, the past editor of OHIO Magazine, a food and travel writer and, for the past decade, a writing teacher and coach through her business, The Inspired Writer. In September 2008, she started a blog and has since branched into Twitter and Facebook. For Shannon, social media is a place to test out new writing, meet people and mine material for her forthcoming series of guidebooks for spiritual seekers.

Eva Augustin Rumpf published her novel Prot U and her memoir Reclamation with the online print-on-demand publisher Booklocker. She has presented workshops on POD publishing for UWM and Alverno, as well as a session on marketing self-published books. Eva has published hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, and several of her essays and articles have been syndicated nationally. She has a Master's degree in journalism from Marquette University and has worked as an English teacher, newspaper reporter, publications editor, public relations executive, and university journalism instructor.

Stacey Kannenberg is an author, publisher, motivator, consultant, spokesperson, blogger, national radio host and mom. She is the Founder/CEO of two publishing companies and visionary of a new media company call HerInsight. Stacey is a media favorite with numerous televisionappearances, along with hundreds of radio, magazine and newspaperstories to her credit: from Radio Disney to Toy Tips Magazine to the Dallas Daily News. She is the co-author of the award winning and state approved, "Let's Get Ready" series with Let's Get Ready For Kindergarten! and Let's Get Ready For First Grade! She is mom to Heidi, 10 and Megan, 8 and wife to Michael and resides in Fredonia, Wisconsin.