Dianna Gunn is a Canadian fantasy and horror author who has relentlessly pursued her writing career since she first decided she wanted to be a writer at eight years old. She quickly realized how much of publishing is centered around offices in New York City and expensive conferences scattered across the US. She decided it was past time to create more virtual spaces for writers to congregate to enjoy not just community, but the career-building opportunities that come from being part of a vibrant professional network.

Gunn started a Twitter chat under the hashtag #WeeknightWriters to create an accessible, virtual community space for writers to connect and build each other up. This soon grew into a Discord server, and in 2020, she brought on Jade Benjamin to help host the first Weeknight Writers Virtual Conference. Since then, she’s hosted over a dozen virtual conferences, and launched the Writing Roundtables series of in-depth author panels. In 2024, she took this programming to the next level with First Draft Fall, a successor to NaNoWriMo that supports writers through the process of writing a first draft.

Find out more about Gunn by visiting her on Bluesky @DiannaLGunn.Bsky.Social and checking out her author website.

Jade Benjamin is a Canadian writer and editor who is fiercely in love with language, words, and magical worlds. After acquiring a double undergraduate degree in English (and Environmental Sciences), a Postgraduate Certificate in Book Publishing, and interning as an Editorial Assistant at Fitzhenry and Whiteside Ltd. (Markham, Ontario) she discovered that finding a permanent paid position in Canadian traditional publishing was easier said than done. 

Jade now works as a freelance editor, fitting work for independent author clients around her 9-5 expenses-paying job. She has a penchant for collecting interesting names and a fondness for projects that expand her knowledge of story structure and use of evocative language. You can find out more about her editorial work and how to hire her at Eclipse Wordsmything.

When she isn’t working, writing, or editing, Jade can be found reading, keeping up with an inordinate number of podcasts, adopting furry family members, and contributing to Weeknight Writers events.