The pre-festival workshops have begun. There is room for more and we will be accepting cash registration at the door before each workshop begins. Please note that if we are late returning from lunch on Wed or Thurs, at-door registration may be a bit late as well. All workshops are on the 2nd floor of the hotel, except for The Friday morning Whyte workshop, which is in the main floor boardroom and the Friday morning ARWA workshop, which is in the Victoria ballroom.

The results of the Pitch Session / Blue Pencil Café pre-signup are in. Most people received at least 1 session they requested. The Blue Pencil Café sessions are now completely full with 1 exception on Sunday. There is still plenty of room in several of the Pitch sessions. Sign-up sheets for remaining spots will be available near registration starting at 12 PM on Friday. Please be aware that at 1 PM Friday, the Friday sign-up sheet will be taken to the Wedgewood Boardroom. The Saturday and Sunday sign-up sheets will be taken to the Wedgewood Boardroom at 10 AM on their respective days. Please check with the volunteer outside the Boardroom for that day's availability, including cancellations. To see what session times will be available at the festival or what session(s) you may be sign up for, click here.

Blue Pencil Café

Friday

1 PM	FULL	Jessica Corra-Larter	Samhain Publishing
3 PM	FULL	Adrienne Kerr		Penguin/Random House Canada
4 PM	FULL	Adrienne Kerr	        Penguin/Random House Canada
6 PM	FULL	Barb Galler-Smith	OnSpec Magazine
Saturday
10 AM	FULL	Edward Willett		Author
3 PM	FULL	Ella Beaumont		Edge of Speech freelance editor
Sunday
10 AM		Garry Ryan		Author
1 PM	FULL	Rhonda Parrish		Niteblade Fantasy & Horror
2 PM	FULL	Caralee Hubbell		CAFE - Calgary Association of Freelance Editors
3 PM	FULL	Robert Runté		Five Rivers Publishing
4 PM	FULL	Clare C. Marshall	Faery Ink Press

Pitch Sessions
Friday
2 PM		Brian Hades		Edge SF&F Publishing
5 PM		Brian Hades		Edge SF&F Publishing
7 PM		Tina O’Connor		Be That Books Publishing
Saturday
11 AM	FULL	Robert Runté		Five Rivers Publishing
12 PM	FULL	Adrienne Kerr		Penguin/Random House Canada
1 PM	FULL	Adrienne Kerr		Penguin/Random House Canada
2 PM	FULL	Margaret Curelas	Tyche Books
4 PM		Justyn Perry		Breathless Press/Lycaon Press
7 PM		Tina O’Connor		Be That Books Publishing
Sunday
11 AM		Hayden Trenholm		Bundoran Press
12 PM	FULL	Naomi Davis		Inklings Literary Agency

The following authors have signed up for the autograph session.

Calling Brandon Sanderson fans — Brandon is an avid gamer and has agreed to participate in a Magic the Gathering Limited Draft Tournament on the Sunday evening of the festival. This tournament is limited to 16 people and will start at 8 PM Sunday evening and likely run past midnight.

Cost to enter is $10. Cards will be supplied as well as prizes for participants. Registered festival members who would like to 'play with Brandon' can email us at info@whenwordscollide.org to get on the tournament list. Once the tournament is full, we'll keep a waiting list in case someone doesn't show up. For people who may be new to Magic or a bit rusty, we will be reviewing the cards and rules from 7-8 PM.

When Words Collide has sold out and we are no longer selling weekend passes, but there are still opportunities to participate. For readers we have several public events that do not require registration:

• On Thursday, August 7th at 7pm at the Fish Creek Library (11161 Bonaventure Drive SE), this year's festival guests will be reading from current works, taking questions, and signing books.
• On Friday, August 8th from 1pm-3pm at the Carriage House Inn (9030 Macleod Trail South), Thursday's event will be repeated.
• On Saturday, August 9th from 8pm-9pm, our festival guests and many of our attending authors will be signing books at our mass autograph session.
• Our Merchants Corner is also open to the public. Books by our festival guests and many attending authors are available for purchase. It is also a great opportunity to say hello to booksellers, small presses, and writers organizatons. Hours are Friday 12pm-7pm, Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 10am-4pm.

For writers and aspiring writers, we still have room in our pre-festival workshops on August 6th, 7th, & 8th.

• Adrienne Kerr (Penguin) - The Author-Publisher Relationship ($40)
• Mark Leslie (Kobo Canada) - Marketing Best Practices ($20)
• Mark Leslie (Kobo Canada) - Hybrid Publishing ($20)
• D. J. McIntosh (Author) - How to Get Published ($20)
• Jacqueline Guest (Author) - On the Write Track ($20)
• Jack Whyte (Author) - Manuscript Strengths & Weaknesses ($50)
• ARWA (Alberta Romance Writers Association) - Monochrome or Tapestry ($10)

Workshop details are here.

As mentioned in last month's News & Notes, Diana Gabaldon, due to the release schedule of her Outlander television series, is no longer able to visit Calgary in August. Luckily, Jack Whyte has agreed to take her place in our guest lineup.

Like Diana, Jack is an international bestselling author of historical fiction and is a knowledgeable and entertaining public speaker. His Arthurian saga, the nine volume Camulod Chronicles, continues to fly off bookstore shelves, as does his Templar series. His current Bravehearts Chronicles deals with 14th-Century Scotland during the Wars of Independence and features the Scots heroes of those wars: William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, and Sir James the Black Douglas. Jack is also hosting a manuscript workshop on the Friday morning before the festival. Let us know if you are interested in joining him.

Though Diana Gabaldon's schedule continues to look busy for the foreseeable future, we should know early in the new year if she is able to join us in 2015. If anyone has purchased a 2014 festival membership for the sole purpose of seeing Diana, please let us know and we will happily transfer your membership to our 2015 festival. Also, please note below that on June 26th, Diana is briefly in Calgary for a signing event.

The next 2014 festival planning meeting is on Sunday, July 13th in the Community Room of the MacLeod Trail Co-op (8818 MacLeod Trail South) from 10 AM - 12 PM.

Anyone who would like to drop in and comment on how to improve the festival for 2014 is welcome.

Note: Planning meetings are usually on the 2nd Sunday of the month