LEGACY — What Happens When Your Works Live On Well Beyond Your Lifetime
Lawrence C. Connolly & Karen Heuler, (authors)
Christine Cohen & Vaughne Hansen (agents)
Saturday, September 19, 2026
Time: 11 AM – 12:30 PM
Good Shepherd Episcopal Church
Not every writer is a household name. But every published author — from Charles Dickens to Stephen King to your neighbor Harriet — shares a common bond: your published works will live on centuries after you have left this realm. What does it mean to have an everlasting legacy? And how do you safeguard your works for eons?
The discussion will cover the ethereal sentiment of knowing that your works are forever. That you won’t be here when/if they suddenly become a TV series, a film, or popular again after ‘disappearing’ for a few decades. Some works slip into the subconscious of the public mind, some disappear for decades, centuries, and others never leave the spotlight. How does it feel to know that the book you wrote in the 1980s may be a zeitgeist of pop culture forty years later? (Examples: H.G. Welles’ works are continuously filmed as series and feature films. George R.R. Martin’s GAME OF THRONES books, first published in 1996, became a hit series on HBO in 2011, which phenomenon sold millions more copies than the first print-runs. Alice Hoffman’s PRACTICAL MAGIC, first published in 1995, was filmed in 1998 to moderate reviews. Over the years, it became considered a cult classic and is getting a brand new sequel this autumn 2026. )
The second part of this discussion will be the tools needed to protect your works; set up a literary estate; safeguard your copyrights, etc.
Lawrence C. Connolly
Lawrence C. Connolly, author. (Lawrence Connolly is returning for his third MRAW. A crowd favorite known for his riveting recitals (not readings!) at Books & Brews, his latest novel, MINUTE MEN, is soon to have a sequel. Three of his works are currently garnering serious film interest. Larry is a fellow Pennsylvanian who travels to Milford as often as he can visit.
Lawrence C. Connolly’s books include the Veins Cycle novels Veins (2008), Vipers (2010), and Vortex (2014). His collections include Visions (2009), This Way to Egress (2010), and Voices (2011), which feature his stories from Amazing Stories, Cemetery Dance, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Twilight Zone, Year’s Best Horror, and other top magazines and anthologies of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Voices was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award.
His screenplay “This Way to Egress,” co-authored with director David Slade (executive producer of Hannibal and American Gods) is featured in the anthology film Nightmare Cinema (2019). He is also the writer of Mystery Theatre, a podcast produced by Prime Stage, who also staged his new adaptation of Frankenstein in November 2022. He is currently developing a science-fiction film with his brother Christopher Connolly and producer Jonathan Sanger (producer of The Elephant Man and Vanella Sky).
Karen Heuler
Karen Heuler, author. Karen also returns to MRAW, her second. She has published a myriad of stories and novels in many genres: literary, science fiction, urban fantasy. Her novel, THE SPLENDID CITY (Angry Robot) has a sequel in the wings.
Karen Heuler’s stories have appeared in over 120 literary and speculative magazines and anthologies, from Conjunctions to Asimov’s to Fantasy & Science Fiction, as well as a number of Best Of anthologies. She has received an O. Henry award, been a finalist for the Iowa short fiction award, the Bellwether award, the Shirley Jackson award for short fiction, and others. She has published six novels and six collections. See “The Splendid City,” a satiric look at what happens when Texas secedes, and “A Slice of the Dark,” stories about the interaction of the strange and the everyday.
She lives in nearby Sandyston, NJ.
Christine Cohen, agent
Christine has been with the Kidd Agency for 28 years. She has handled deals for domestic publication, foreign/translation, and film. She has watched authors and works become bestsellers, then fade away from the spotlight, and then get resurrected with new life. She finds legacy in the arts fascinating. Christine grew up in Lackawaxen, PA, and has lived in Milford for decades. She is the “keeper of the flame” at the Kidd House, Arrowhead. You’ve likely seen her in its garden, cursing at weeds, her cats nearby. She once shouted into the phone at her dear, nearly deaf friend, author Phil Klass (William Tenn) the following: Phil, your works will live on centuries after you and I are gone!” And they remain in print sixteen years after his passing.
Vaughne Hansen, agent
Vaughne Hansen has been with the Virginia Kidd Agency, Inc. for 38 years. She has handled the contracts and rights for works spanning the last hundred years and knows a thing or two about legacy — she authored a how-to guide on how to safeguard your literary estate for your heirs. Over the years she has worked with authors Anne McCaffrey, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gene Wolfe, and Alan Dean Foster. Vaughne is a lifelong resident of Pike County and lives in Matamoras, PA.