Barbara Barnett, is a well known author and arts blogger and is much in demand as a speaker. As publisher and executive editor of Blogcritics magazine, Barbara Barnett’s pop culture essays and in-depth interviews with leading actors, writers and Hollywood A-listers reach over 300,000 readers per week. Her debut novel, The Apothecary’s Curse, a finalist for the 2017 Bram Stoker Award and winner of the Reader’s Choice Award at the 2017 Silver Falchions, is a Gaslamp Fantasy, which blends her background in biology and chemistry with her love for historical fiction. As blogger, Barbara was an early internet influencer with her blog, Welcome to the End of the Thought Process, which led to her book, Chasing Zebras, the essential guide to the hit television series House, M.D. An annual favorite at MENSA’s HalloWEEM convention, Barbara speaks to standing room crowds on subjects as diverse as “The Byronic Hero in Pop Culture,” “The Conan Doyle Conundrum,” which explored the famous author’s life-long belief in fairies, and the philosophy of “radical amazement.” She was recently the keynote speaker at ARRTCon, a conference of Illinois Librarians, where she talked about the symbiotic relationship of libraries and pop culture. She has given workshops and talks at numerous conferences on the craft of writing and platform building for authors. She recently joined the faculty of the Profitable Authors Institute, where she will be doing a series of video workshops on Blogging for authors. Barbara holds a masters degree in public policy and political science from the University of Illinois. She lives in the Chicago area with her tolerant husband and best critic Phillip and their Australian Shepherd Semra.