Meet Our Dedicated Team
Discover the passionate professionals driving the success of Utah Readers Fest.
Daniel Yocom
President
Daniel Yocom writes about geeky things because people always say to write what you know. Their love of the geeky, nerdy community dates to the 1960s through games, books, movies, and stranger things better shared in small groups. They’re an award-winning writer with hundreds of articles on these topics for blogs, magazines, and gaming companies. They also have published gaming adventures, short stories, and books.
They enjoy attending conferences, conventions, festivals, sharing on panels, and giving presentations. This has included being a board member and presenter for The League of Utah Writers, Life the Universe and Everything (LTUE) Writing Symposium (Gaming Track Lead), and SaltCON Tabletop Gaming Convention (Panel Coordinator). They have also been a panelist and/or presenter at FyreCon, FilmQuest, Authors in the Dungeon, and FanX. They serve on the selection and awards juries for FilmQuest. They have been a guest at ProtoCON, Salt Lake Gaming Con, TimpCon, Southern Utah RPG Summit, St. George Gaming Convention, and GenCon.
Since starting Guild Master Gaming in February of 2012. Dan has attracted followers from all over the world.
Scott Bryan
Committee Member
Scott Bryan is the author of the Foresight Chronicles series available on Amazon from Big World Network. Currently he’s spending a lot of time as the scribe for a 300-year-old vampire child, sharing tales of her endless battles with Dracula across history. He also searches the Multiverse, looking for fascinating narratives to share with this world. He’s met lost fantasy creatures, demonic beings, time travelers and Multiversal agents, each of whom have offered him stories to tell. Scott is the Volunteer Chair of the League of Utah Writers, as well as a member of the Infinite Monkey chapter of that group.
W.D. Kilpack III
Committee Member
Kilpack is a critically acclaimed science fiction and fantasy author residing in Utah. He has received 68 book awards, including the International Firebird Book Award, The BookFest Award, the International Impact Book Award and, in the Outstanding Creator Awards, Fiction Book of the Year, the Ultimate Championship Trophy, Best Fiction Writing, Best Book in these categories: Fiction, Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Myths/Legends, and Romance. He received Honorable Mention from L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest.
He holds bachelor’s and master’s degree from Westminster University. He qualified to represent the USA in Greco-Roman wrestling. For 25 years, he was a communication professor and a nationally recognized wrestling coach. He is happily married to his high-school sweetheart.
Inna Lyon
Committee Member
Inna Valerie Lyon is a Russian bumpkin raised on a steady diet of cabbage and potatoes peppered with the required reading of Chekhov and Dostoevsky. During the day, Inna works as an accountant and specializes in producing colorful aging reports and cute collection letters. At night, she writes stories about life, miracles, and cats. Inna is a member of the League of Utah Writers, the Infinite Monkeys, and currently serves as president of the Blue Quill chapter. She is an award-winning writer in different genres. She writes in both languages, English and Russian. And she loves to see her readers laugh or cry, or at least, remember her story for the next fifteen minutes.
Anna Marasco
Committee Member
Anna F. Marasco has a Master’s of Fine Arts (emphasis in fiction) and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker specializing in trauma and conceptualization. These backgrounds lend her skills as an effective story editor and writing mentor in her freelance work. Her debut novel, LIVELY, was a number one bestseller with Barnes and Noble and Amazon, and her short stories and poems have won awards internationally. Her chaotic neutral personality is why Dean is her favorite Winchester brother, and why her next two manuscripts focus on misunderstood anti-heroes. When not writing, Anna can be found adventuring in the wilderness, plotting, overwhelmed by anxiety, self-medicating on sarcasm, and spending time with her ark—two cats, two dogs, and three horses.
Logan Sidwell
Committee Member
Logan Sidwell is a science fiction and fantasy writer from Utah. He started as a writer and director in Ed-Tech. He now strives to marry his background in Computer Science and his years of storytelling to create fun, compelling ideas that explore new ground in technological and fantastical settings. For more information .
Brent Tubbs
Committee Member
Brent grew up in the small town of Budgeford (or Bridgeford, it’s hard to tell, his mouth was full during that part of the interview), but that didn’t impair his capacity for dreaming big. One of his biggest childhood dreams was to knit a life-sized water buffalo. After thousands of diligent hours, he fulfilled this dream. He named it Bernie. The two are inseparable. He even took Bernie with him when he circumnavigated the world via sail. Twice! Brent and Bernie co-wrote a memoir, Knitting Waves, which will be released soon.
When Brent is not conquering the Seven Seas, he spends time with as many cats as he can cuddle. In fact, he is the world-record holder for the largest single cat cuddle whilst singing Eastern European folk tunes from the early 1300s in an Elmer Fudd accent. Now that’s talent!