Brian A. Hopkins
Brian A. Hopkins began his professional writing career in 1990. BAH, as he's often called, has since won four Bram Stoker Awards and been a finalist for the Nebula Award, the Ted Sturgeon Memorial Award, the International Horror Guild (IHG) Award, and the Locus Award. He's lived in Oklahoma City since 1983 and recently retired from a 35-year civil service career where he managed a thousand-person software development organization. Now that he's retired, you'd think he'd be doing more creative writing, but he wastes far too much time on Facebook, playing with his dogs, collecting and practicing with shiny steel toys that go boom or slice, and keeping what he calls "The Great Recycler" at bay. "Old age," he'd be quick to tell you, "sucks donkey ass." Primarily a writer of short stories, BAH's work can be found in his collections THESE I KNOW BY HEART, SALT WATER TEARS, PHOENIX, ROAD'S END AND OTHER FANTASIES, and ESCAPE VELOCITIES. His newest book is nonfiction, THE JOURNEY, chronicling his 20+ year battle with lymphoma.
10:00 AM | Location: Boomer B
When The Story Writes Itself
Sometimes it just happens. You're writing the story, maybe you even worked out an outline, then suddenly the pen writes something else. Authors tell tales of when a book or series decided to go rogue.
Moderator: Rhonda Eudaly
Panelists: Brian A. Hopkins, David J. Pedersen, Madilynn Dale, Rhonda Eudaly, Steven E. Wedel
Tracks: Writing & Publishing
2:00 PM | Location: Embassy Hotel: JQH Boardroom presented by Morningstar Storage
Author Readings
Authors read selections from their various works.
Moderator: Linda Donahue
Panelists: Brian A. Hopkins, Craig Wolf, Jan S. Gephardt, Linda Donahue
Tracks: Writing & Publishing
5:00 PM | Location: Boomer B
2023: Welcome to the Singularity. Sorta.
We've talked for a long time about how AI would someday reach “the Singularity.” With things like the recent deployment of ChatGPT, is that day today? Whether this is a positive development or a negative one remains unknown. As a society, what's our role in steering this technology towards a positive direction rather than one that destroys our perception of facts, critical thinking, and language composition? Are things that desperate?
Moderator: Daniel Erickson
Panelists: Brian A. Hopkins, Daniel Erickson, Loretta McKibben, THE james k burk, William Ledbetter
Tracks: Writing & Publishing, STEM, Culture & World Affairs, General Interest