Writers Conference

Presenting Crafting a Novel

James O. Born is a graduate of Florida State University and received a Master’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in Psychology.  He started his career in police work as a US Drug Agent (DEA) and was part of the late 1990’s Miami drug war.  He then moved on to become a Special Agent with the elite Florida Department of Law Enforcement.  During his law enforcement career, Born received the Law Enforcement Officer of the Year award from the US Attorney’s Office, the Silver Medal of Valor, The Distinguished Service Award and the Life Saving Medal after rescuing a family from a SUV, which had plunged into a canal. Born has delivered talks to a number professional writing organizations as well as taught writing at conferences across the country.  He has written articles for magazines and newspapers.  He was chosen as one of Florida’s 21 most intriguing people by Florida Monthly Magazine.

In 2004, Putnam published his first novel, Walking Money, which was a finalist for the Barry Award. The darkly comic series continued with Escape Clause, which won the gold medal in the inaugural Florida Book Award in 2007.  2009, Born published the first of several thrillers under the pseudonym James O’Neal.  The first novel, titled The Human Disguise and the sequel, The Double Humanreceived critical praise with Publisher’s Weekly calling them, “Wildly entertaining.”

In 2014, Born coauthored the popular Border War with TV commentator Lou Dobbs.  In 2016, Born started as a cowriter with James Patterson.  The 2017 releases were both in the top five mystery books for sales.

Presenting Graphic Novels & Children’s Illustrations

Andre Frattino is a native of Florida, who balances his skills and trade across three areas: Storytelling, Education and the Paranormal. Since 2012, Andre has been publishing his ongoing Florida-based graphic novel series with Pineapple Press (to this date, Andre is the first and only graphic novelist published by the veteran publishers) which include the titles: The Reaper of St. George Street, Lost Souls of Savannah and most recently, The Vampirate of Matanzas Inlet. Andre is a graduate of both Savannah College of Art and Design (BFA, Sequential Art, 2009) and the University of Florida (MA, Art Education, 2013). Andre continues to write and illustrate for comics and children’s books and has worked for a number of other clients including Award-Winning Author Shelley Fraser Mickle, The Marjorie Rawling’s Foundation and Firehouse Subs. When Andre is not hard at work on his next illustrative project, he can be found conducting ghost tours in Savannah, GA, where for the past 10 years, he’s walked tourists through the darker parts of the city’s history. His artwork can be found on his website.

Presenting Creating Screenplays

Allan Marcil launched his Film and TV career in the graduate film program at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema.
Subsequently, Marcil developed a producing career in both film and television, where he has produced, executive produced and created over 100 hours of award winning and/or nominated television. Marcil, with his then partner in Stonehenge Productions, Richard Berg, pioneered the mini-series format with productions that included A Rumor of War, the first Television drama to examine the Vietnam War, based on Philip Caputo’s celebrated memoir, James Michener’s SPACE, Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story. Marcil has also produced a number of provocative and award winning movies-for television and has worked extensively with literary artists such as Elmore Leonard, Norman Mailer, Philip Caputo, Israel Horovitz, and Peter Benchley in developing material for the medium.