Teresa Bodwell

After more than 20 years as an attorney, she officially changed to
“inactive” status. She works as an instructor for an online law school
and runs Athena Critique Services. No more court and no more dealing
with other lawyers. She still can’t wait to finish her paper grading
and turn to writing stories with happy endings guaranteed.
 
She's been married to her own prince charming for 23 years and has
degrees from UCLA, The University of Oregon and The University of Tennessee.

Robin Burcell

Robin Burcell has worked as a police officer, a detective, and a criminal investigator. After more than 20 years in California law  enforcement, including work as an FBI-trained forensic artist and a hostage negotiator, Burcell is now writing full-time. She is the author of the SFPD Homicide Inspector Kate Gillespie novels: Every Move She Makes (nominated for an Anthony), Fatal Truth (winner of the 2002 Anthony Award, BPO), Deadly Legacy (winner of the 2003 Anthony) and Cold Case (nominated for an Anthony).

Cynthia Lea Clark

Cynthia Lea Clark continued school, graduating from Northwestern University (multiple degreed), attended nursing school, and became a Firefighter Paramedic. She was once stalked which led her to work in Forensic Psychopathology. She has over 70 interviews with serial killers, mass murderers, and other criminals. Today she mixes Forensics with writing and acting. 

Cynthia is a member of SF RWA and KOD RWA Suspense Chapter. She is also a member of ACFEI (American College of Forensic Examinersand Investigators), DOE Network, SAG, AFTRA, ATAS (Academy of Television Arts and Sciences), MWA (Mystery Writers of America), IFP, and the International Thriller Writers, Inc.

Martha Engber

Martha Engber is the author of Growing Great Characters From the Ground Up. A journalist by training, she’s interviewed former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos, astronaut James Lovell, actress Marlo Thomas and other celebrities. Besides teaching workshops and editing books, she’s an active writer who’s had a short story nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a full-length play produced in Hollywood. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in Watchword, Iconoclast, Bookpress, the Berkeley Fiction Review, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies and other literary journals.

Blythe Gifford 

After many years in public relations, advertising, and marketing, Blythe Gifford returned to her first love, writing historical novels.  The author of THE KNAVE AND THE MAIDEN and THE HARLOT’s DAUGHTER, both from the Harlequin Historical line, she writes what the Chicago Tribune called “the perfect balance between history and romance.”

Her next book, INNOCENCE UNVEILED, will be released in June 2008.  Reviewers have praised her ability to select fresh settings that capture history “without bogging the reader down in trivial details” (RoundtableReveiews.com) and “vividly re-create{s} the medieval …experience” (Booklist).  Visit her at www.blythegifford.com

Marcia James

Marcia James, an author of hot, humorous romances, finaled in 11 RWA chapter contests before selling her first comic romantic suspense, AT HER COMMAND.  In June 2009, a short story of hers will appear in a Berkley charity anthology.  In her “day job,” Marcia is an advertising copywriter and PR consultant.  In her eclectic career, she has shot submarine training videos, organized celebrity-filled nonprofit events and had her wedding covered by People Magazine.  She proudly travels the PR road not commonly taken and squeezes her budgeted marketing dollars until they squeak.

Jill Marie Landis

Known for the emotional intensity of her stories and the depth of her characters, Jill Marie is considered one of the country's foremost authors of women's fiction. She has two walls full of writing awards, one in her Long Beach home.  Jill broke into publishing in 1988 with SUNFLOWER, the first of many books to earn distinguished awards and slots on such national bestseller lists as USA Today's Top 50 and the New York Times' Bestsellers Plus.

CJ Lyons

Trained in Pediatric Emergency Medicine, CJ Lyons has assisted police and prosecutors with cases involving child abuse, rape, homicide and Munchausen by Proxy. She has worked in numerous trauma centers, on the Navajo reservation, as a crisis counselor, victim advocate, as well as a flight physician for Life Flight and Stat Medevac.

A finalist for RWA’s prestigious Golden Heart and winner of the Golden Gateway award, CJ has received numerous accolades for her writing.  Watch for her debut medical suspense novel, LIFELINES, coming from Berkley in March 2008!

Laurie Schnebly

Laurie Schnebly Campbell enjoys workshops that draw on her Master's in Counseling and her experience as an RT "Five-Star Gold" romance novelist. She also enjoys writing for a Phoenix ad agency, teaching a catechism class, narrating for Talking Books and playing with her husband and son. "People ask how I find time to do all that," Laurie says, "and I tell them it's easy. I never clean my house!"
 

Anne Schroder

Anne Schroeder has had over forty published short stories and essays in national print markets. She edited Scent of Cedar: Promising Writers of the Pacific Northwest for Russell Dean and Company.  She evokes the drama of her close-knit Southern California farming community in her memoir, Branches on the Conejo: Leaving the Soil after Five Generations, which earned a William Saroyan Persie Award.  Her 2008 release, Ordinary Aphrodite, is a "Love Goddess-meets-Bridget Jones's-Diary" memoir for today's women as seen through the heart and eyes of a non-status-quo woman coming of age in the '60s Social Revolution.  

Anne edits and teaches creative writing through community college and writing conferences. Professional affiliations include Women Writing the West, National Association of Baby Boomer Women, and National Association of Women Writers.
 

Lucinda Schroeder

Lucinda Delaney Schroeder has a BA in Criminology and is a retired federal agent who during her thirty-year career conducted numerous undercover investigations and was the only female member a specialized undercover unit.  She has taught undercover techniques to other agents at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, GA and continues to train law enforcement officers through her private business “Bulletproof Covert Identities.”  She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Lucinda is the author of "A Hunt for Justice," (Lyons Press) a true story of one her undercover cases in Alaska, in which clever deception was her only protection.

Janet Wellington

Janet Wellington is an award-winning author, writing teacher, line-editor, and writing coach.

Janet started learning the art of pitching stories in 1995 when she attended her first Romance Writers of America national conference, and hasn’t stopped since! She has presented workshops on the art of pitching both regionally and nationally, and teaches privately as well as through the online school: Long Story Short School of Writing.

In addition to her own writing, Janet also enjoys assisting other writers in critiquing and line-editing their unpublished manuscripts, and she also does some one-on-one coaching of other writers through her business “Wellington Word.”

Karen Wiesner

Karen Wiesner is an accomplished author with 47 titles published in the past 9 years, which have been nominated/won 58 awards, and 19 more under contract spanning many categories and formats.  She was named a "leading romance writer" in The Writer Magazine.  Her fiction books have been nominated for Romantic Times' Reviewer's Choice Award, the Frankfurt Award and multiple EPPIE's.  Karen's best-selling nonfiction includes THE POWER OF PROMOTIONAL GROUPS, FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS, and the upcoming COHESIVE STORY BUILDING.  http://www.karenwiesner.com. 

Linda Winfree

How does an English teacher end up plotting murders? She becomes a writer of romantic suspense!

Best-selling author Linda Winfree spent ten years’ honing her craft before selling in 2006. All that practice paid off, as soon she’d sold seven manuscripts. Her first novel, What Mattered Most, debuted to critical acclaim, and her ongoing Hearts of the South series has become popular with both readers and reviewers.

Linda, a classroom teacher with more than ten years’ experience, has taught intensive writing workshops for the past six years, which provided her with an in-depth appreciation for the levels of craft. She credits the resulting intuitive understanding of story and style with her recent success.

 To learn more about Linda and her work, visit www.lindawinfree.com.