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Delilah S. Dawson

Home Featured Authors & Panelists Featured Participant Lineup 2025 Delilah S. Dawson

Delilah S. Dawson is the New York Times-bestselling, award-winning author of novels and comics for all ages, including Star Wars: Phasma, Dungeons & Dragons Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd, The Violence, Midnight at the Houdini, Mine, Ride or Die, the Minecraft Mob Squad series, and the Hit series. With Kevin Hearne, she writes the Tales of Pell series. Her comics include Marvel Action Spider-Man, Adventure Time, Star Wars Adventures, Disney Descendants, and the creator-owned Ladycastle. 

Schedule

9:00 am to 9:30 am
A.Z. Young Park, Author Tent D
Young Readers’ Choice Award Ceremony for Grades 6 to 8
Winner – Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas
Honor – Camp Scare by Delilah S. Dawson

10:45 am to 11:45 am
Outside Museum, South Tent
Grave Humor: Cults, Killers, and the Dark Sides of Community
Delilah S. Dawson, House of Idyll
Philip Fracassi, The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre
Jenny Kiefer, Crafting for Sinners: A Novel
with moderator June Pulliam

Noon to 12:45 pm
Cavalier House Books Tent
Book Signing

1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
A.Z. Young Park, Author Tent D
Secrets, Swashbucklers, and Spooky School Nights: Middle Grade Mayhem
Delilah S. Dawson, Ride or Die
Marti Dumas, Nina and the Keeper of the Keystone: Secret Society of Rebel Girls
Cari Galeziewski, Mirabell and the Immortal Pirate Black Sam Bellamy
Allan Wolf, Junius Leak and the Spiraling Vortex
(ages 8 to 14)

2:15 pm to 3:15 pm
A.Z. Young Park, Author Tent D
Everything but Typical: Influential Neurodivergent People Who Have Shaped the World
Join us for an uplifting program for all ages as Margeaux Weston sits down with a phenomenal panel of neurodivergent creators and powerful advocates for this inspirational discussion, including authors and artists Delilah S. Dawson, Britt Gondolfi, Madi Hannan, Becca Hillburn, and K. Ibura. United by a shared commitment to acceptance and strength, they will share their personal stories, professional achievements, and insights on navigating life and offer encouragement and practical wisdom for thriving in a world that needs every kind of brilliant mind.
(all ages)

3:30 pm to 4:15 pm 
Cavalier House Books Tent
Book Signing

Camp Scare

An eerie, twisty ghost story about twelve-year-old Parker, who only wanted a summer of fun and new friendship, and the nightmare she finds instead.

Don't forget your flashlight. . . .

Parker Nelson can’t wait for summer camp. She’ll have fun and make amazing memories, far away from the bullies who made seventh grade unbearable.

But then something terrible happens: The mean girl who made life a living nightmare is in Parker’s cabin. Soon all the other girls turn on Parker, too—no one wants to be her friend. Except Jenny.

Jenny’s the only one who is willing to listen. The only one who understands. The only one who feels the same way Parker does: That there's a deep, dark secret to making friends, and she’s the only one who doesn't know it.

But there’s something else Parker doesn’t know. Something bad happened at the camp a long time ago, and it just won’t stay buried. . . .

Ride or Die

A sleepover at an amusement park turns into a night of terror in this scary middle school read from the New York Times bestselling author of Mine and Camp Scare.

Tonight is Brie’s chance to finally be accepted by the Ems—the most popular girls at school. If she can just keep one potentially reputation-ending secret under wraps, she’ll have the best night of her life, screaming on scary rides and running the Wildwoods amusement park with her new friends.

But when the Ems take a game of truth or dare too far, Brie ends up alone in a creepy abandoned section of the park. There, she meets a group of cool older teens that invite her to join them. They seem friendly enough.

Little does Brie know she’s about to come face to face with a reawakened evil that wants to take her on the ride of her life...make that her death.

House of Idyll

From the New York Times bestselling author of Bloom and Guillotine comes a darkly seductive tale of beautiful rock stars, sinister cults, and a magical oasis where dreams come true... for a price.

Angelina Yves is a struggling singer/songwriter offered the chance of a lifetime to join the experimental luxury compound sponsored by the most famous band in the world, Black Idyll. With her every need accommodated, she finally has the time and space to perfect her music. Her muse? Reclusive rock star Jesper Idyll, who lives up to her every high school daydream. But this paradise has a haunted underbelly heralded by screaming horses, mysterious figures in the night, and dreams too twisted to be real. When people start to disappear and Jesper's ex turns up dead and hideously mutilated, Angelina begins to suspect that something malevolent lurks behind the cult that's grown around the band...

A disturbing, decadent and wickedly compelling tale of a Hollywood dream turned nightmare, Delilah S. Dawson’s darkly delicious prose will seduce you, tie you up, and never let you go….