Author/Artist Taryn Skipper

Taryn Skipper started writing and illustrating picture books a decade ago after a previous decade selling commissioned art and portraits in watercolor and oil. She has written, illustrated and published three childrens books and two tenth-anniversary special editions, and illustrated two others. She signed with Splinter Press for her debut novel for young adults, and continues to write for children and adults while taking limited art commissions.

She’s taught at conferences and other events and won first place in the double-blind Storymakers first chapter contest, as well as runner up in the Aurora Contest for unpublished manuscripts.

Taryn sits on the board of the Storymakers Author Guild as Finance Co-Chair for the Conference, having served previosuly as President of the Whitney Awards for two years, and webmaster for the previous two years.

She graduated with a double bachelors in Philosophy and International Studies with a minor in Spanish and concentrations in Logic and Russian. When she’s not writing or painting, she practices real estate for select clients and enjoys travel, practicing martial arts, rock climbing and hiking with her family in the breathtaking Colorado mountains around her.

See her feature in Shoutout Colorado

Books

Art

2026 Events

February 13-15, 2026
- LTUE SFF Symposium, Provo, UT
  - Solo Presentation: Hook, Line, and Sinker: Reel in Readers with a Winning First Chapter
  - Panel: Build Yourself Up with Your Artwork and Gain Confidence as an Artist
  - Panel: Alternative Sources for Learning Illustration
  - Panel: Writing Character Arcs That Truly Change the Soul
  - Moderator: Avoiding or Fixing Unearned Writing
  - Public mass book signing
February 27-28
- Storycon, SLC, UT
  - Volunteer, publisher attending
March 14
- Local Author Spotlight, Castle Rock, CO
  - Castle Rock Library, 1:00 PM https://go.dcl.org/event/14283183
March 19
- Colorado Teen Writers’ Conference
  - Castle View HS, 8am-3pm https://sites.google.com/s.dcsdk12.org/colorado-teen-writers/meet-the-authors-and-editors?authuser=1
March (3rd week, TBD)
- Elementary School Visit (DETAILS TBD)
April 17-19
- Pikes Peak Writing Conference, Colorado Springs, CO
  - Workshop: Strong Character Voice: What It Is, What It’s Not, and How to Achieve It
  - Workshop: Time to Get Creative: Time Management and Productivity for Writers
  - Workshop: Book Clubs for Writers: Why and How
  - Workshop: Make It Make Sense: Logic, Logical Fallacies and Character Motivations
April 24
- Barnes and Noble (Briargate), Colorado Springs, CO
  - Book Signing (time TBA)
May 14-16
- Storymakers Conference
  - Class: Don’t Fear the Feedback; Crave the Critique
  - Whitney Awards Gala (Attending as Finalist)
  - Public mass book signing
June 16

- Private Book Club visit (zoom)

More to come!

(Sept: FanX)

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Previous Events

2025

Late January, 2025
- Book release
  - The Bear, the Box and the Boy: The Coloring and Activity Book. 108 pages, AC Skye
January 29, 2025
- The Missing Link Writers Group
  - Presenter (remote)
February 13, 2025
- LTUE (Life, The Universe, and Everything) SFF Symposium
  - Panelist: Why Does Utah Produce So Many Successful Authors? (as a non-Utah-based participant)
    With: Dave Doering, Shelly Brown, Taryn Skipper, Jessica Day George, Jennifer Nielsen, J. Abram Barneck
  - Presenter: More Than a Pretty Facet: Jewelry in Worldbuilding
February 14, 2025
- LTUE
  - Moderator: Dynamic Action Poses: The Anatomy of Movement in Comic Art
  - Author paricipant: Mass Book Signing
May 9, 2025
- Storymakers Conference
  - Panelist: Creating a Successful Writing Group
May 10, 2025
- Storymakers Conference
  - Author Participant: Mass Book Signing

August, 2025
- Book Club
  - host of guest author, TBD.
September 5, 2025
- Book club event
September 25-27, 2025
- FanX SLC
  - Solo presentation on Formal Logical Structure for Character Arcs
  - Panel: Illustration
  - Panel: Avatar: The Last Airbender
  - Panel: Schitt’s Creek
September, 2025
- Book Launch Event
  - Between Tungsten and Gold, Splinter Press
October 2, 2025
- Book Launch Party, Castle Rock, CO
  - 6–8 pm, Sudden Fiction Books
October Book Signings
November, 2025
- Black Friday book signing, Colorado Springs, CO

2024
Thursday, Feb 15 2024

LTUE (Life, The Universe, and Everything) SFF Symposium

Panelist: Jewelry for Worldbuilding
Moderator: Illustrations: Seeing through the Artist’s Eyes
Moderator: Looking for Group: Finding a Writing Support Network

Saturday, February 17

LTUE

Panelist: Making Butt-in-Chair Time
Panelist: How to Run a Book Club
Moderator: Lipreading Isn’t Everything: Writing Deaf and HoH Characters

Friday, May 10 2024

Storymakers Conference

Class Instruction: Time to Get Creative: Productivity and Time Management for Writers

Whitney Awards Gala

Opening remarks

Saturday, May 11

Storymakers Conference

Panelist: AI for Writers
Mass Book Signing

Past events include school presentations on writing and illustrating, readings, juried art shows, art nights, painting classes, and presentations on time management, AI for writers, etc.