New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Darynda Jones has won numerous awards for her work including a prestigious RITA®, a Golden Heart®, and a Daphne du Maurier, and her books have been translated into over 17 languages. As a born storyteller, she grew up spinning tales of dashing damsels and heroes in distress for any unfortunate soul who happened by. Darynda lives in the Land of Enchantment, also known as New Mexico, with her husband and two beautiful sons, the Mighty, Mighty Jones Boys.

Janice Hardy Janice Hardy is the founder of Fiction University, and the author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, where she tapped into her own dark side to create a world where healing was dangerous, and those with the best intentions often made the worst choices. Her novels include The Shifter, (Picked as one of the 10 Books All Young Georgians Should Read, 2014) Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The first book in her Foundations of Fiction series, Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure is out now.  

Susan Donovan is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of twenty-seven novels and novellas published by St. Martin’s Press, Penguin USA/Berkeley Books, HQN, Amazon, and Hachette. She’s a former newspaper reporter with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Northwestern University. Susan is a writing coach, editor, and the artist-in-residence at the Adobe Cottage Writer’s Retreat in Placitas, New Mexico, a private space for peace, beauty, and word count. Learn more at: www.susandonovan.com www.adobecottageretreat.com sdonovanauthor@twitter.com www.facebook.com/SusanDonovanFanPage

An encourager at heart, author, editor, and writing coach Lori Freeland holds a BA in psychology from the University of Wisconsin and lives in the Dallas area. She’s presented workshops at multiple writing conferences, including North Texas Christian Writers, Orange County Writers, SoCal Writers, Mount Hermon, Romance Writers of America National, and the West Texas Writers’ Academy. An acquisitions editor for Armonia Publishing, former editor for The Christian Pulse, and regular contributor to Crosswalk.com, she writes everything from non-fiction to short stories to novels from YA to adult. You can find her blog and writing tips at lafreeland.com and her young adult fiction at lorifreeland.com. When she’s not curled up with her husband drinking too much coffee and worrying about her kids, she loves to mess with the lives of the imaginary people living in her head.

Julie writes cozy mysteries and young adult fiction. Her debut YA novel, Sharing Hunter, was a Golden Heart® finalist, and her award-winning Daring Charlotte will be coming soon. Under the pen name Jules Lynn, Julie is also co-writing the Muse Island novellas, an adult mythology-based series that begins with Mark of the Gods. Julie has presented workshops at RWA chapters, conferences, and a writing cruise, and taught a YA character course for the online Lawson Academy. She is one of four hosts of the blog Writers in the Storm, consistently named a Writer’s Digest best website for writers. She is represented by Louise Fury of The Bent Agency.

Donna M. Johnson is the author of Holy Ghost Girl, a memoir deemed “enthralling” by the New York Times and “compulsively readable” by Texas Monthly. The book made the Oprah.com Memoirs We Love list twice and won the Mayborn Creative Nonfiction Prize. Holy Ghost Girl also took top honors at the New York Books for a Better Life Awards. Donna’s work had been collected in several anthologies. She has written about religion, family and culture for Shambhala Sun, Huffington Post, The Rumpus.net, the Psychology Today blog, the Dallas Morning News, and other publications. She lives in Austin with her husband, the poet and author Kirk Wilson, and is at work on a second memoir.

Angela Ackerman is a writing coach, international speaker, and co-author of the bestselling book, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression (now an expanded 2nd edition), as well as six other thesaurus guides. Her resources are available in six languages, are sourced by universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. Angela is also the co-founder of the popular site Writers Helping Writers, as well as One Stop for Writers, an innovative online library packed with tools and resources to help writers elevate their storytelling. A Canadian who loves supporting writers, paying it forward, and being part of the chain in our fantastic writing community, Angela loves connecting, so please say hello on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Becky Martinez is an Emmy award-winning former broadcast journalist who currently writes fiction as well as non-fiction books on writing. Her non-fiction books include the Let’s Write a Story series, which focuses on creating great characters, different ways to plot and how to develop great villains. She also regularly teaches writing classes and presents workshops on writing. She has appeared at the RWA National Conference, the Emerald Cities Writers’ Conference, the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Conference and Rom-Con. She writes fiction for the Wild Rose Press, including a romantic suspense series set in New Mexico as Rebecca Grace and her fictional short stories have appeared in several anthologies including The Trouble with Romance, which was a New Mexico Book Award finalist.

Larry D. Sweazy (pronounced: Swayzee) is the author of fourteen mystery and western novels, including See Also Proof: A Marjorie Trumaine Mystery, A Thousand Falling Crows, Vengeance at Sundown, and The Rattlesnake Season. He won the WWA (Western Writers of America) Spur award for Best Short Fiction in 2005 and for Best Paperback Original in 2013, and the 2011 and 2012 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction for the Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series. He was nominated for a Derringer award in 2007, and was a finalist in the Best Books of Indiana literary competition in 2010, and won in 2011. He also won the inaugural Elmer Kelton Book Award in 2013. Larry has published over eighty nonfiction articles and short stories. He is also a freelance indexer and has written back-of-the-book indexes for over nine and fifty hundred books in twenty-one years, which served as inspiration for the Marjorie Trumaine Mystery series. Larry speaks and teaches at writing workshops across the country. He lives in Indiana with his wife, Rose, two dogs and a cat. More information can be found at www.larrydsweazy.com.

Anne Mateer has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember. She is the author of four historical novels and two historical romance novellas. Her book At Every Turn was a Carol Award finalist. Anne enjoys sharing her knowledge of writing through freelance editing and judging writing contests. She is a member of ACFW, Historical Novel Society and Writers League of Texas. Anne and her husband are currently living their empty nest adventure in Austin, Texas.