Sid will be sharing some of the secrets he has imparted to his students over the years and he will offer insights on material that members and guests provide. He has developed a teaching technique he calls “Story Dowsing,” which he will demonstrate with the aid of attendees who bring the first three pages of a short story, novel or screenplay to read aloud.

After his first novel, The Collaborator was published, he was asked to travel the U.S. and write for West magazine. Later, as the L. A. Times’ Crime & Suspense critic, he wrote a column, Thrillseeking for its Sunday Book Review section. He also wrote a column, Eye Spy for the L.A. Herald Examiner Book Review.

With the late Robert Weverka, who novelized The Sting among many other star-studded movies, Sid was a founding partner of a Beverly Hills advertising agency whose clients included Sony-Superscope, Maserati and British Motor Cars.

Sid has authored many novels over the years, including The Widow Master, The Collaborator, The Vorovich Affair, Spring Thaw and Boss’s Wife. He also wrote the thrilling biography of an escaped mental patient, The Shoe Leather Treatment.

Alternating between writing novels and screenplays, Stebel was employed as a Script Consultant in Australia, where he earned writing credits for his work on “Storm Boy” and “Picnic at Hanging Rock”.

As a playwright, Sid wrote Breeding, and Dial One For Sex Talk, which received a legendary workshop production at Actors’ Studio. He also scripted the one-man show Fathers and Sons for a national tour starring Henry Fonda, and adapted two Ray Bradbury short stories (with late director Charles Rome Smith) into the play Next In Line, which Bradbury enthusiastically produced.

His ample television credits include “Columbo,” “Family,” “The Streets of San Francisco”. Movies of the Week as well as pilots for TV series.

Somewhere in this word-packed career, Sid has found the time to teach other writers, starting with his work for the Writers Guild “Open Door” committee. He has since taught weekend screenwriting seminars at the American Film Institute, was a founding workshop leader at the famed Santa Barbara Writers Conference, has run weeklong Secret Story workshops (with his wife, novelist Karen Ford) at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, and is a lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at his alma mater, U.S.C. He is listed in Who’s Who in Entertainment and the international edition of Who's Who of Authors and Writers.

His book about writing, Double Your Creative Power, has been an indispensable learning tool and resource for writers since 1996, and has been used in many college writing programs, including USC’s and Princeton’s. The book now in its second revised edition and fifth printing.