For Renée Witterstaetter, it was supposed to be another impressive yet typical weekend at a comic convention in Dallas. It was not her first, and certainly not her last, but surprisingly brought on a moment that changed her outlook on them. She unfolded the small white paper inside her fortune cookie and read, “It is better to have remorse than to have regret.”

Witterstaetter was studying journalism in college and looking for an arts community to get involved in when friends suggested the comic convention in her hometown of Texarkana, Texas. It had not been something that was on her radar, but she immediately felt that she had found that community she was searching for.

“I was embraced by a group of people within that city who just took me in and showed me the artwork,” she said. “[They] taught me about comic books, taught me about painting, and I’ve made some lifelong friends from that association.”

From there, she began working for a convention in Dallas that led her to the infamous fortune cookie. It is something that she has tried to live by ever since. She believes that it is better to have tried something and failed than to have never tried at all, and there are two instances in her life that have proved that. She keeps the details of those instances to herself but hopes that she might inspire others in their journeys.

Her career as a colorist, editor, producer and writer has given her the opportunity to work alongside equally talented creators for a number of comics. The most rewarding aspect is receiving feedback from comic fans, and what better way to receive feedback than in person. Although a particular moment with a young girl stands out, she has interacted with a number of fans that tell her how her work made them feel accepted. Whatever was going on in the world, comic books were their escape and helped them through difficult times.

“I would write the columns in a lot of my books and I would try to have an interaction with the fans,” she said. “What [the young girl] said to me was, ‘I felt like I knew you’ and that’s what I was going for.”

Witterstaetter is particularly proud of her work on the Marvel Comics series The Sensational She-Hulk. She loves telling She-Hulk fans that she is featured as a fourth wall-breaking character, making her both a real person and comic book character in the Marvel database.

When she first started in the comic industry, women were few and far between. She has had a front row seat to the change in the industry and the change in the attendance at conventions. One door opened a whole new life for her, and she knows how important it is to recognize that door is open in addition to deciding to walk through it.

Sharing her work, and ultimately a piece of herself, is why her booth at comic conventions around the country brings together an eclectic group of people. Those interactions allow for a one-of-a-kind encounter that leaves both parties feeling neither remorse nor regret.

“I’ve maintained that spirit about conventions that no matter where I’m going, no matter what part of the world, that there are people in that room that are going to be friends but I just don’t know them yet… They can come here and find the fandom just for them.”

Shortly after the release of the live action fantasy adventure television series One Piece, four of its stars made their convention debut at 2024’s MegaCon Orlando, including Aidan Scott. The South African native went in with zero expectations regarding his appearance - his character, Helmeppo, recurred in the eight episodes - but was pleasantly surprised with the fan reception.

“I was [at MegaCon] with quite big characters in the show and I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “I didn’t know if anybody wanted to see me. I didn’t even know if they knew who I was!”

He quickly adapted to the convention lifestyle and learned small tips and tricks, such as staying hydrated and making sure to always have a hat handy to keep the harsh artificial lighting from shining down on him all weekend. His biggest takeaway from attending conventions, however, has been forming a connection with everyone he meets. He makes sure to take his time with each individual that lines up to say hello, take a photo or receive an autograph.

“You start realizing that people are people wherever you go,” he said. “You get to connect with people, and that’s been the most rewarding thing for me.”

An unexpected moment for him was meeting his first Helmeppo cosplayer, a six-year-old child complete with a tiny blonde wig and sailor suit. Helmeppo is considered a minor character, especially in the original anime, and Scott did not expect to see anyone dressed as him.

He also admits to having fan moments of his own, such as being in the same room as Rainn Wilson at MegaCon. His latest convention experience, FAN EXPO Cleveland, found him in the same restroom as David Tennant, where he joked that he was tempted to deliver his Helmeppo line, “Do you know who I am?” (In our fantasy world, Tennant responded, “A shithead Marine with a bad haircut.”)

While he may not collect a traditional piece of memorabilia sold at conventions, he has started to collect something equally as valuable. Any time a fan gifts him something, he asks them to sign it for him. Any time he has a meaningful conversation with a fan at his autograph table, he asks them to sign one of his headshots or items at his table. That way, both parties go home with a prized possession.

As Aidan Scott dives more into the world of conventions, the more he recognizes the impact these weekends have on fans. He has the pleasure of being in a new take on a beloved series, and getting to interact with fans gives him a chance to truly understand how deep that passion goes.

“You never know what your character means to people,” he said. “You might think you know, but you have no idea.”

Inside Tracy Clark’s childhood bedroom was a notebook - hidden between the mattress so no one could find it - with stories inspired by some of her favorite authors. When she wasn’t visiting the library every Saturday to pick out as many books as possible with her brother, she was writing her own.

It would be many years before she voiced her interest in becoming an author. She was constantly working on her craft, but never admitted out loud to anyone that she was writing with the intention of getting published. Her debut novel, Broken Places, started a four-book series of Chicago mysteries before pivoting to Hide, another four-book series featuring Chicago homicide detective Harriet Foster. The third book in the series, Echo was recently released.

Echo brings Detective Harriet Foster to Hardwicke House, home to Belverton College’s exclusive Minotaur Society. When a body turns up in the field next to the mansion, the scene looks chillingly familiar. With no suspects or leads, Foster and her partner, Detective Vera Li, will have to dig deep to find answers.

Prior to publishing Broken Places, there were two things that motivated Clark: the first being a stack of rejection letters. She recalls a rejection letter in particular that was just one too many for her, resulting in Broken Places sitting in a drawer for nearly two years. She convinced herself that her life was going a certain path and that she should stick to it, but in her mind she knew that she was not done writing.

“You can quit,” she said. “It’s easy to quit, in fact. That’s the easiest thing you can possibly do, just to stop. But you have to keep going if you believe in what you’re doing. If you think that you’ve got a talent for it, if that’s what motivates your life, if it fills you up when you do it, then you have to keep at it until your shot comes.”

Her second piece of motivation came from authors Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky. She credits them as writers who inspired her to learn everything she could about detective fiction. She was lucky enough to meet Grafton at a book signing and looked at that autographed copy as much as the rejection letters for inspiration. It would become a full circle moment when she became the recipient of the Sue Grafton Memorial Award twice.

“She was one of the beacons out there who was doing what I wanted to do,” she said of Grafton. “I held onto these two writers, read everything that they wrote, and tried to emulate the pacing and how they developed the characters. I did that for years, studying what they were writing, how they were writing it, how it felt when I read it… you want readers to be impacted about what you’re writing about so I had to sit down and figure out what that thing was.”

While she may not be the first author to do so, she does take a groundbreaking approach to creating a main character that is a Black, female police detective. She credits the authors who came before her, such as Valerie Wilson Wesley and Eleanor Taylor Bland, for giving legitimate voices to underrepresented people.

When creating her characters Cassandra Raines and Harriet Foster, they both began with a voice. One day she heard them, and she knew it was her job to figure out how to put that voice into words on a page. She was insistent that the characters not only seem real to her in that moment, but to any future reader. She made sure the characters had some sort of complexity that translated easily.

After years of hearing the voice of Cassandra Raines, the thought of making room for a new voice was daunting. It felt like there were more days staring at a blank page than actually writing, and she admits that Harriet Foster is still a difficult character to break. She likens the character to using a pick axe in order to figure out where she should go next, but she enjoys the dig.

The novel was meant to be a stand-alone, but Foster was far too interesting to be a one-and-done type of story. However, Clark does write her novels with the intention of them being stand-alone stories. Readers can start from the beginning in either of her series, or they can just read one and still have a solid grasp on the characters and storyline.

Something all her novels have in common is what some might consider a silent character: the city of Chicago. Clark is a born and raised Chicagoan, and knows that it is easiest to write a familiar setting. However, she believes that if the characters had been placed in another city, they might not have the same voice that they do now. The city is part of the character’s personalities, and she believes that Chicago compliments them.

From a hidden notebook under the mattress to several published works, Tracy Clark always knew that her interest in writing could be something more. She has taken what she knows and what she’s learned, combining them to create characters with heart.

Photo courtesy of Heather Saitz

When I was very young my parents put me into guitar lessons, and I HATED it. My poor instructor struggled to teach me to play “When The Saints Go Marching In” from sheet music and it was just never happening. But this foundation served me well a few years later when that second wave of indie-sleaze/neo-garage rock bands were all the rage. My friends suddenly were picking up instruments and I could half-truthfully say, “I play the guitar!”

Making noise in the basement with the buds was just the best feeling in the world. That first group even played an instrumental “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in the junior high talent show. We got a standing ovation from the grade schoolers and the girl I had a crush on came up to me after and said, “you’re pretty good.” It felt like a movie. Though I never got up the nerve to ask her out, that first performance switched something on in me and it hasn’t been switched off yet.

Shortly after this seminal performance the new guitar teacher I started seeing - a young bohemian who just showed me how to play the power chords of songs I liked on the radio - told me possibly the greatest advice I’ve ever been given: “You should sing. It doesn’t matter if you suck at your age. If you are the guy who is just willing to sing, everyone will want you in their band.” His pragmatic guidance enabled this young boy - who would whisper-sing Green Day covers behind his closed bedroom door - to step in front of a microphone.

As I’m writing this, it occurs to me how fortunate I was to have such wonderful educators who enabled and emboldened my early musical journey. Cheers to the teachers.


My mother is from Cape Breton, on the east coast of Canada, and I was lucky to spend a lot of time there growing up. In the summers I was surrounded by live music of the traditional kind, with the fiddle generally being the main event. I got to witness early on how music gathers people and therefore forms a community.

Hailing from this Celtic music mecca, it was of course important to my mother that my siblings and I took music lessons. I was no different from most kids though, where practicing the piano was a chore and I wasn't connecting with the classical tunes my piano teacher had on offer. I started connecting the dots one summer, however, when I was encouraged to attend a summer camp at The Gaelic College in St. Ann's, Cape Breton. I know, so cool right? I definitely wasn't telling my friends back home I was going to Gaelic camp. But it turns out learning how to jam and perform with a bunch of other kids who loved music, singing in Gaelic or step dancing unapologetically was indeed very cool. The seed had been planted.

Whenever I would have big feelings in the following years I would always turn to music. I picked up the guitar and started writing songs without really thinking twice about it. Then there you are, with a body of work, all dressed up and nowhere to go. I think you can only sing in front of the mirror so many times before feeling compelled to share.

Kelsie Watts was born into a musical family, and at just two years old her parents knew she was destined for the stage.

Her first love was musical theater, where she had the opportunity to be the lead in school plays while also performing in her church choir. She went on to study opera, vocal performance and commercial music at Belmont University, but during her sophomore year she found herself inspired by artists such as Demi Lovato, Lady Gaga and Mariah Carey. Suddenly she realized that she wanted to write and perform her own music.

“I developed the dream to sell out arenas and give people a place where they feel like they belong,” she said. “Although, I will say, I owe all of my vocal technique to opera. Studying classically is a big reason that I sing like I can and not have vocal damage.”

High school would be the last time she took center stage. That is, until she made her Broadway debut as Queen Jane Seymour in the globally acclaimed SIX The Musical.

Watts was performing in a variety show on the Nashville Showboat a few years ago when a woman in the audience handed her a business card. That woman was SIX Musical Director Roberta Duchak. Watts had never heard of the musical, but after listening to the West End recording she immediately fell in love.

SIX The Musical is a British musical comedy that gives a modern retelling of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII. It is presented in the form of a singing competition that allows each wife to share their story in order to determine who suffered the most at the hands of their husband. After debuting on the West End, it made its Broadway debut in 2020 and has toured the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States.

In early 2023, Watts was invited to a week-long intensive workshop for SIX. They dove into the music, choreography and script, but at the end of the week Watts didn’t believe that anything would progress further than that.

“I took the experience as a blessing to learn so much from elite instructors in the industry and to better my craft,” she said.

It wasn’t until October of 2024 that she would hear from her manager that she had been offered the role of Jane Seymour. She remembers the day clearly, as she got the call while out running errands with her husband. The salesperson assisting them in their purchase celebrated with them as she hung up the phone.

When she was first introduced to the character of Jane Seymour she admits that she made premature judgements on who she was. But as she delved into the character, she began to appreciate her. She even performed the character’s song, “Heart of Stone”, as her audition for Duchak.

She loves that she is able to bring so much of herself to the character of Jane Seymour. However, she also has to keep in mind that she was a real person and the show’s ultimate goal is to give these women their identities back.

“I love meshing my pop vocal style into a character, but also love bringing in my awkwardness,” she said. “It makes it so fun! The most challenging part was finding a way to be vulnerable so quickly. There are many parts of Jane I relate to and I had to make a decision to allow myself to feel in order to bring out the authenticity of the character.”

Kelsie Watts never gave up on her Broadway dream, and with a little bit of luck and a whole lot of perseverance, audiences can see her every night at the Lena Horne Theatre.

Tickets are available here.

Photo courtesy of Joey Wharton

Promoting the release of new music can be equal parts daunting and exhilarating, but for Whitney Caroline, her 2022 burwell EP was nearly the end of her musical career.

Her debut EP, boxes, was written and recorded in the throes of grief after the passing of her mother. It took a serious toll on her mental health and by the time it was released, she had enough. She stepped back to focus on herself, and during that time she came across a nonprofit organization that centers on grief counseling. She immersed herself in their services, eventually taking on a role at the organization. Stories of other people’s grief and overcoming gave her hope, and she wished to give that hope to others.

"Now I feel pretty at peace with depression enough to talk about it,” she said. “I journeyed through and found light at the end of the tunnel. Having something that I believed in to focus on was really good for me to keep me busy, to get out of my head and find any way to express my passion in a way that was making a difference.”

Immersing herself in this new role changed the way she looks at the boxes EP. She can hear the emotion that was channeled into those songs, but it is honestly something that is too sad for her to currently listen to. She is in a different headspace than she was when she created those songs, and she chooses to focus on honoring her mother versus grieving her. She believes there is a line between processing and dwelling, and a bit of time has passed where she understands that now.

“There’s not really anything you can do when you lose a loved one, but having this job has been a tangible way for me to process,” she said. “It doesn’t really affect me the way that it used to. I don’t know if you ever fully heal from grief; I think you process it and you manage it but you don’t ever fully heal. It’s still there - it doesn’t go away - but grief is not really a challenge anymore.”

Working through the stages of grief eventually brought her back to music, and particularly a song that she wrote in 2017. “sing it back” was always a song that she believed in, and when she rediscovered it, she found the message was still relatable.

The inspiration behind it was a time in her life where she felt like she was shouting into the void, asking for answers and receiving nothing in return. The luxury of hindsight is seeing how answers came when they were supposed to, but being in that moment and pleading for a sign can feel useless. Faith, hope, whatever it may be; “sing it back” is about trusting that everything will work out the way it’s intended.

She originally wrote it with Corey Pavlosky and placed an unfinished version with a music licensing company. When it was chosen to feature on the Amazon Prime television mini series Sweethearts, it gave her the push to head back to the studio with Pavlosky to write a second verse, mix and master the song.

The album art concept was always meant to be a telephone; a symbol of an unanswered call. When she discovered that March 10 was National Landline Telephone Day, it all came together. It was finally time to release “sing it back”.

burwell was a project that nearly ceased to exist. After a deeply emotional debut EP and a few years to sit in those emotions, Whitney Caroline made the decision to make music a part of her journey again. With more new music to come, she hopes listeners find the same sense of hope that she has.

Photo courtesy of Nolita Studios

There is nothing wrong with keeping your head above the clouds sometimes. While the definition may mean spending too much time thinking about impractical ideas, those ideas may not be far off from reality. There are moments that can keep someone on the ground - marriage, sobriety, fatherhood - but being able to dream while staying in the moment can be just as important. At least, it is for Alex Runions.

Runions has spent the past 15 years writing and recording commercial country music that has earned him national recognition across Canada. The milestones of his personal life, however, led to his latest album, Above the Clouds and On the Ground.

Not only would this album become his most personal to date, but it would be the first time that he didn’t write music from a commercially successful standpoint. This time around he intended to focus more on expressing his feelings and less on trends.

“Deep down I could feel a pull that the music I was doing in the past - I’m proud of it and I’m happy with it - just wasn’t really speaking to me anymore,” he said. “There have been a lot of changes in my life around the last four or five years that really brought about some changes in my music as well.”

He credits a few major milestones for bringing him to this conclusion, one of them being sobriety. He found a lot of clarity from this decision, and it inspired him not only to write about it but to dive into his previous work and see if there was enough material to create his third album.

He remembers going into the studio with producer Chris Burke-Gaffney, a frequent collaborator of his. He brought a batch of songs with him and took the time to explain why he felt each song belonged on the album. He received great insight from Burke-Gaffney, including the thought to narrow down the songs about sobriety. The two of them were able to turn the track list into an eclectic mix of love songs, breakup songs and songs about personal life moments.

The album starts somber before transitioning into cheerful love songs and then comes back down into a song that encapsulates the message of the album, titled “Settling Up”. The song brings a sense of hope that the other songs don’t necessarily have. For many of the songs, they have no resolution. They have that sense of grounding, while “Settling Up” is in the clouds.

One of the more grounding songs is “Agreeable Grey”, written primarily by his wife, Erin Hill. Runions said her style of writing tends to lean more towards melancholy, and this song was inspired by real-life events between the two of them.

“That’s a really special experience, just to be able to sit in a room with your partner and be able to collaborate,” he said. “It’s even more special when songs do come to life. That is not something everyone gets to experience.”

A song that ended up being incredibly important to Runions and the album was the one dedicated to his beloved dog, Kinsey. “A Song for My Dog” was written days after her passing, and when he went to record it he became more emotional than he had anticipated. Even speaking about her nearly three years later makes him emotional. He hadn’t realized how much he leaned on her and when that support was gone when he felt like he needed that the most, it made for a powerful recording session.

“I struggled through it,” he said. “I was really in the moment singing the song and the producer was really encouraging it. I don’t think I’ve ever really had that type of moment in the studio.”

Something all these songs have in common is that their intentions were set the moment the songwriting process had begun. Each co-writer went into a session knowing that Runions had no intention of producing a commercial country song. For the few co-writers that couldn’t break that state of mind, the rest were willing and ready to step outside everyone’s comfort zones. The writing wasn’t forced but was encouraged to become something that he would be proud of.

“I essentially compiled the songs that I’ve always wanted to write,” he said. “When you’re trying to sell your music commercially, trying to get it on radio and playing that game, you’re really trapped in this box. I think a lot of these songs I was very excited about even though a lot of the material are these sad songs. I was very excited to finally not write a standard type of song; I don’t think I really ventured too far out but overall I wasn’t worried about the length of a song, I just wanted to make sure that the songs meant something and with the idea of ‘if I’m going through something then other people are probably experiencing it as well.’”

That’s not to say that this album wasn’t challenging. It may have been freeing in terms of not worrying about song lengths or musical trends, but it turns out that those worries were still present. In the past, perfectionism was key to getting that polished pop sound. Moving away from that to get a more organic, Americana vibe was unlike anything he had done before. That did not stop him from questioning himself the entire time or falling back into a commercial ideology, but having a trusted partner in Burke-Gaffney truly helped bring the vision to life.

In the end, he found that sense of freedom that brought forth an unapologetically Alex Runions album. There is nothing wrong with having your head up in the clouds, hopeful for a better and brighter future. If anything, it helps him live in the moment.

Photo courtesy of Dana Gorab

Artwork courtesy of Ethan Brown

When Senior Marketing Manager Kris English began working at The Salt Shed, Chicago’s indoor/outdoor music venue and creative touchstone, he had an idea before the roof was even installed that combined his love for film and the endless amount of music that would grace their stages.

His day-to-day prior to the opening of The Salt Shed included finding its brand identity, as well as creating unique programming that could speak to the brand. He thought about his passion for film and how he could bring it to the forefront in a meaningful way. A number of venues in the city could screen music documentaries or films about music; this had to be something unexpected. Thus, Crying at the Shed was born.

A concept built around emotional and creative storytelling, the marketing team quickly got to work on the inaugural event in 2024. It absolutely was a group effort, including Alternative Events Program Manager Mary McKeen, who English said was instrumental in bringing the vibe from concept to reality.

English decided to build the programming around Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, partly due to the fact that he had spent years trying to coordinate an event with the film’s composer, Jon Brion. Soon enough, they were announcing the three-day festival nestled on and around Valentine’s Day. They asked their social media following, “Are you all ready to…shed…a few tears?” February 14 included a special solo performance and Q&A with Brion following the screening of Big Fish, while Paris, Texas and a performance by Douglas McCombs of Tortoise took place February 15. The last day of the event, February 16, screened all three films of the Before trilogy.

The inaugural event was a memorable experience for English. Seeing his idea brought to life, and seeing people actually attending and enjoying themselves, was a special moment. He watched along as Brion performed in the city for the first time in more than a decade. He watched the same people sit through Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight - nearly a four and a half hour commitment. It was exactly how he pictured the event and so much more.

“Seeing people come together and share an experience of watching films together, these curated emotional films, was really special,” he said. “It felt like a community; that we were bringing this community together.”

It was important for English and his colleagues to keep the vibe of the event for its second year. They strayed a bit from the tragic love stories to include more that still impacted the viewer emotionally.

“There’s many different ways that you can get emotional when watching films and there’s a lot of stories that can impact you emotionally,” English said. “We wanted to expand the palette a little bit.”

They chose Julianna Barwick for the performance aspect, allowing her ethereal music and visuals to create what English called a "meditative, hypnotic type of an evening.” He felt that she seamlessly fit into the first film of the night, The Tree of Life.

The rest of this year’s lineup of tear jerkers included Bird, Big Fish, Boyhood, Romeo + Juliet, Chungking Express and Two Lovers. Big Fish is one of English’s all-time favorite films, and watching the audience appreciating the film as much as him was his most cherished moment of the festival.

Integral to the success of the event were partnerships with the Music Box Theatre and the Chicago International Film Festival. Not only was their advice and participation a welcome addition to the event, but their audience of independent film lovers had the potential to bring in an entirely new crowd to the venue.

“Reaching those audiences that maybe The Salt Shed isn’t reaching on a daily basis was really beneficial for Crying at the Shed,” English said. “When these influential film groups in Chicago wanted to get behind it, that really made me happy. It was just such a privilege and it has been a privilege to work with them.”