Presenters R - S
KIM RICHARDS
Kim
Richards currently resides in
DINDY ROBINSON
Author & Publisher of Swimming Kangaroo Books
Dindy Robinson is the Publisher of Swimming Kangaroo
Books. She has wanted to be a writer ever since she could hold a book in her
hands and wrote her first book at the ripe old age of six, a classic called THE
DOG WHO MARRIED A WOMAN. Mercifully, no copies of this epic work remain. She is
in awe at the terrific writers with whom she works and would love to nurture
more authors to best selling status.
Robinson has several books to her credit. Her
teacher’s resource book, WORLD CULTURES THROUGH ART ACTIVITIES was published by Teacher ideas Press in
1995. She has also written two science fiction books under the name of Mari
Atherton and, with her husband, has written a mystery under the name of Lorene
Robbins.
Check out the Swimming Kangaroo website at:
SUSANNE ROSE
"Susanne
Rose" is the romance writing alter ego of a free-lance writer who's been
published in print and online venues for readers of all ages for more decades
than a proper lady should acknowledge.
If
you read any of the no byline stories in magazines like TRUE ROMANCE, TRUE
CONFESSIONS, TRUE STORY, TRUE LOVE, AND TRUE EXPERIENCE, you've read my work.
I
blog Thursdays for Sweeter Romantic Notions.
Here's the link:
http://www.sweeterromanticnotions.com/blog Just scroll down to find entries from Susanne
Rose.
Want
to read some of my bylined romances?
Here are the links:
http://tinyurl.com/2wlc43
"Lucki In Love," a Wild Rose Press
Champagne Rosette
http://tinyurl.com/33ndbl
"The Christmas Promise," a Wild Rose Press Champagne Rosette
Keep the spirit of the holidays going strong and take advantage of this bonus
offer: Just send an e-mail to the author: Susannerose@wildrosepublishing.com)
with "The Christmas Promise" in the Subject Line. You'll have to read
the story first so you can identify the secret recipe when you send your
e-mail. Santa will send you a copy of the secret recipe.
http://tinyurl.com/3d2gsc
"Forever Love," a Wild Rose Press
Champagne Rosette
You
can reach me at:
Susannerose@wildrosepublishing.com
LAURIE SANDERS
CEO/Editor Black Velvet Seductions Publishing
Laurie Sanders has a passion for creating. The need to create has been a driving force in her life for as long as she can remember. In elementary school she frequently got into trouble because even then she was a consummate dreamer, who was much more interested in the stories that filled her own head than the story about Tip and Mitten that the rest of the class was reading.
Her need to create continued into high school when she wrote and submitted her first manuscript to Mills and Boon. The manuscript was eventually rejected but the rejection didn’t stand in Laurie’s way. She continued to write and has written and published numerous articles and several short fiction pieces, as well as a cookbook which she sold through the mail when she was still in high school.
Laurie’s need to create and her love of the romance genre continued and blossomed when she moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa and found a small group of friends who were also aspiring authors. The group founded the Heart of Iowa Fiction Authors, an RWA chapter. Laurie served as newsletter editor for the group until an out of state move necessitated giving up that post.
Years continued to pass and Laurie remained creative, her passion to create turning away from writing and toward quilting for awhile. She was a prolific quilter, though she has only one quilt that she made, and it actually belongs to her husband. Most of Laurie’s early quilts were made as gifts for family and friends but most of her later quilts were distributed to needy children throughout the world through online organizations such as Sunshine Quilts and Wrap them in Love.
In 2004 Laurie’s focus again turned to writing when she discovered that the romance industry had changed dramatically in the years she had been focused on quilting. The erotic romance genre had been born and that genre, with it’s greater creative freedom was a genre that Laurie was eager to write in. She began a new book, this one an erotic romance with a sweet, emotional edge. Her story had the deep characters and heavy backstory that she liked in the more traditional romance novels she read but also included more eroticism than traditional publishers were allowing at that time.
As she neared the end of her book she began looking at the publishing options. As she looked at the publishers that were then available she found that there wasn’t one that was everything she wanted in a publisher. Those that she found most attractive either didn’t publish paper books, or didn’t distribute their books beyond their own websites. Others didn’t publish erotic romance with the depth that her book contained. After some thought, she began researching the possibility of creating her own publishing company. Much research later she approached her husband, a business analyst by trade, with the idea.
Laurie’s husband Orville who has been a steadfast supporter of all of Laurie’s creative endeavors was very supportive of this idea too and encouraged her to move forward. Plans were made, a name for the company was chosen, the company was incorporated, and then Laurie turned a new corner in her life of creative endeavor. She realized that though she loved the raw process of creating characters and stories from scratch she also enjoyed working with authors to strengthen and perfect their stories.
Laurie continues to serve as both CEO and Editor-in-Chief bringing her creative energy and vision to both roles.
LEA SCHIZAS
Author of the Young Adult Fantasy Novel THE ROCK OF REALM
Co-author & Editor of THE MUSE ON WRITING
http://leaschizasauthor.tripod.com Email: museitupeditor@yahoo.ca
Lea Schizas is an award-winning author/editor, a short story competition winner, living in Montreal with her husband Jimmy and their five children. She describes herself as “finally woke up after a 23-year self-induced coma taking care of the family, and rediscovered my passion for writing.”
She is the co-founder and Editor in Chief of two Writer’s Digest 101 Top Writing Sites of 2005 & 2006 and recipients of the Preditors and Editors Most Useful Writing Sites Award: Apollo’s Lyre, an online writer’s Zine: http://www.apollos-lyre.com and the online writing critique community The MuseItUp Club, http://museitupclub.tripod.com/
-Founder of The Muse Online Writers Conference, http://www.freewebs.com/themuseonlinewritersconference/
-Founder of The Muse Marquee, http://themusemarquee.tripod.com
-Founder of The Muse Book Reviews, http://themusebookreviews.tripod.com
-Co-founder of Coffee Cramp eZine http://coffeecrampmagazine.tripod.com
-Reviewer for the award-winning site AllBooksReviews.com
-copy editor for Double Dragon Publishing
You can read more of Lea’s bio and accomplishments at: http://leaschizaseditor.com
Forrest Wayne Schultz, a self-taught writer, inherited his skills from his great-great-great-great-grandfather, Christopher Schultz. Most of his writings until recently were academic research papers and a few short stories. Most of his current writings consist of news releases written for the Coweta Writers Group, The Grantville Better Home Town organizations, The Grantville Playmakers, and the Coweta Arts Tidbits news releases he writes on his own, which he formerly wrote under the auspices of the now defunct Newnan-Coweta Arts Council.
His interest in fiction is indicated not only by his prolific reading but also by his membership in various literary societies: he served as President of the C.S. Lewis/J.R.R. Tolkien Society of Philadelphia in the late 1960s and as President of Alternate Dimensions: Southside Science Fiction and Fantasy Society in Riverdale, GA during the late 1980s. In December 2002 he had an article on Tolkien published in a national magazine, which, interestingly, was the same article he had written (and then put in a drawer to await more enlightened times) 32 years earlier in December 1970.
During the late 1980s and during the entire decade of the 1990s he delivered speeches on the Realtionship Between Space and The Environment to several science fiction societies and to all the science fiction conventions which were then held in Atlanta, including Dragon Con, the largest SF Con in the world, as well as to local civic organizations in Clayton County, where he then resided. During that time he also served for two years as the President of the Environmental Chapter of the National Space Society (NSS), and he wrote the Position Paper on the Environment for the NSS and served as the delegate of the NSS on the Georgia Earth Day 1990 Committee, the only member who did not represent an environmental organization. He also was the Chairman of the Earth Day 1990 event sponsored by a coalition of environmental laboratories and environmental engineering companies in the
In 2002 he researched and then wrote an article about one of the most interesting concatenations of events he had ever heard of, the result of which was so far out that probably no publisher would accept it because it sounds so incredible. This was the 1932 Robbery of the Bank of Grantville which was re-enacted 70 years later during the Grantville Day community festival. His article about this was so interesting that it was published all over the state including the largest circulation magazine, which resulted in a crowd of unprecedented size on Grantville Day. He also delivered speeches on it all over the County, which were very well received. That was perhaps his most interesting experience in writing.
He has a real concern for the fact that almost all history books omit interesting things like that so that a lot of people conclude that history is boring. he had an article published in the 4th of July issue of a national magazine in which he made this point and then said that we need a Declaration of Independence From Banality and a Declaration For The Freedom of Inclusion Of Interesting Things In History.
One more thing. He likes to poke fun at stuff. His most recent fun in that regard was to make fun of a writer who wrote a super-adulatory article about Oliver Cromwell, which omitted all of his faults. He hoisted the writer on his own petard by quoting what Cromwell himself said to his portrait painter who omitted the warts on his face: "Paint me as I am -- Warts and All".
AUDREY SHAFFER
Audrey
Shaffer is a Business Consultant by day, and writer by night. She also heads up
The Writer's Chatroom ( www.writerschatroom.com
).
After
beating breast cancer for the second time, Audrey decided she could do anything
she wanted. So far, so good. She started out by ghostwriting two training
manuals for the restaurant business and three short stories. Once she decided
to use her own name, she published an essay in an online magazine, an essay
on the "This I Believe" website, and an article in Funds For
Writers. She is currently collecting rejection letters for her short
stories, letting her novel rest and trying to find time to work on a self-help
book for single women.
In between
her various careers, she tries to spend time with her three grown children and
four growing grandchildren. Dating seemed to disappear from her life around the
time she started her business. She just might find it again if she ever manages
to get her desk cleaned off.
Audrey
lives in rural western
Business website - http://audreyshaffer.com
Writing samples - http://www.audreyshaffer.com/my_writing.htm
Blog - http://audreysays.blogspot.com/
Book Reviews - http://audreyshaffer.blogspot.com/
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/audreyshaffer
JERRY D. SIMMONS
Jerry D. Simmons is a
25-year veteran of
Over the years he has worked on books written by such bestselling authors as:
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He has also worked on
such multi-million copy bestselling titles as:
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Jerry is the founder of
the informational website for writers www.WritersReaders.com and the internationally
recognized newsletter TIPS for WRITERS. He is also the founder of the largest
Social Networking site for writers, authors, and readers: www.NothingBinding.com.
His latest book, WHAT
WRITERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PUBLISHING is described by the #1 New York Times
Bestselling author Sandra Brown as “The good, the bad, and the ugly aspects
of book publishing, told in a straight-from-the hip manner. New writers take
note.”
Jerry teaches on a variety of topics
including:
What Writers Must Know
About Publishing
The Real Secrets of Book
Marketing
7 Things Every Writer Must Know
About Publishing
3 Myths of Book Publishing
ROSALIE SKINNER
Rosalie Skinner has
taken a break after painting portraits professionally for twenty years, to try
her hand at writing Fantasy and Science Fiction. Passionate about language,
history, art and science her novels take readers on an
epic journey of human adventure, struggle and triumph. When samples of her fiction became available
online, readers around the world clamored for more. Self published, her novels
attracted the attention of a publisher and Rosalie is in the process of
completing her first series ‘Exiled: The Chronicles of Caleath’ for Enspiren
Press. When not writing articles or reviewing online Rosalie enjoys being a
member of Nitewriters, a global writing group that meets regularly in her local
area. Lady Rosalie Skinner, Laird of Lochaber, can be contacted through her
website www.rosalieskinner.com
where she hosts a Showcase for aspiring writers. She lives on the East Coast of
Australia.
Kim Smith was born in
She has worked in many fields in her life, from fast food waitress to telephone sales. “I always got the seniors on the phone who were lonely and wanted someone to talk to. My boss couldn’t understand why in the world I spent so much time talking to them and not enough time selling. That was when I realized I love people and care deeply about their lives.”
After the birth of her two children, she gave up working outside the home for the more important domestic duties of wife and mother. When her kids decided they wanted to pursue theater as an extracurricular activity, she gave up her free time to drive them to rehearsals, training classes, and plays. During those years, she found herself bored with nothing to do to while away the hours stuck in a car. She began thinking of stories to entertain herself and pass the time. Before long she started telling her husband about her stories and he assured her she could write a book if she really wanted to. She put the idea away once she landed a job as a network administrator for a small corporation, and together the Smith’s started their own video production company.
Writing was a dream, hidden but not forgotten, and soon Kim began to talk again of trying her hand at it. She played with words, and wrote several poems, one of which was picked up for an anthology
One day in the early nineties her husband came home with a
desktop computer and sat her in front of it. “Now you have no more excuses,” he
said, and she realized the truth in his words. Procrastination, now no longer
an option, she took off on the pursuit of penning her first book. Though that book, a young adult fantasy, was
lost due to unforeseen circumstances, she kept going, writing a historical
romance, and another YA.
When she decided to try out her hand at mystery writing, she discovered her true love and niche in the writing journey. She has since had four short stories, and her first mystery novel accepted for publication.
Kim is a member of Sisters in Crime, and the Short Mystery
Society. She still lives in the Mid South region of the
SUSAN K. STEWART
Susan's
writing career began with a neighborhood newspaper, drawn and written by hand.
Her first published work was a poem in her elementary school
"literary" booklet.
Since these
humble beginnings, she has written for newspapers and magazines, including a
regular column in The California Parent Educator. Her articles have also
appeared in The Teaching Home, Tehachapi News, and Sacramento Bee, and she has
contributed to several projects. With her husband Bob, Susan self-published Y2K
in the City. Her most recent book is Science in the Kitchen. Susan also
proofreads and edits for Christian Home Educators Press.
Since 1985,
Susan has been bringing her realistic, yet encouraging messages to conferences,
retreats, and small groups.
Susan’s trademark
is inspiring practical solutions. She
brings her experience and openness to each topic. Inspire your audience with
Susan’s practical and encouraging presentations.
CLAUDIA SUZANNE
A recognized book-industry authority, Claudia Suzanne
has written or ghosted approximately 100 titles, including four editions of her
own critically acclaimed title, This Business of Books: A
Complete Overview of the Industry from Concept Through Sales, currently required or recommended
by college and university instructors across the country and around the world.
Her definitive book on ghostwriting and editing, Secrets
of a Ghostwriter,
is the only known volume to address the full range of theory, skills, and
politics for editorial service providers. Through her books, teaching, and
mentoring, Claudia has launched or expanded dozens of ghostwriting and
editorial-service careers.
Ms. Suzanne’s editing and ghosting knowledge has made
her a recurring guest lecturer at
Ms. Suzanne helped found Professional Writers of
Orange County (PWOC) and served two terms as president of Independent Writers
of Southern California (IWOSC), OC Chapter. She currently sits on the board of
directors of PEN
Ms. Suzanne spearheads Wambtac Communications (WC) and is on
the Advisory Board of Wambtac IT & Design (WITD). After enjoying a long and
satisfying business relationship with literary agent Judy Semler, she
also began representing selected authors in association with JLM Literary
Agents.
With one of her more affable clients, Ms. Suzanne will soon
launch ReadAsWritten.com, an educational site for aspiring authors, writing and
publishing-track students, and aspiring visual artists.