COFOUNDERS/CONTRIBUTORS
Tasha Seegmiller – Managing Editor
Tasha Seegmiller believes in the magic of love and hope, which she weaves into every story she creates. She is passionate about helping women nourish their creativity and is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. The former high school English teacher now assists in managing the award-winning project-based learning program (EDGE) at Southern Utah University. Tasha married a guy she’s known since she was seven and is the mom of three teens. She is represented by Annelise Robey of Jane Rotrosen Agency.
Elaine Vickers
Elaine Vickers is the author of Like Magic and Paper Chains (HarperCollins). She loves writing middle grade and chapter books when she’s not teaching college chemistry or hanging out with her fabulous family. You can find her at elainevickers.com on the web, @ElaineBVickers on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, or generally anywhere there are books and/or food for her consumption.
Rosalyn Eves
Rosalyn Eves is a part-time writer, part-time English professor, and full-time mother of three. She loves all things BBC, especially costume dramas and mysteries. When not wrangling children (and sometimes when she should be wrangling children), she’s often found reading. Her debut novel, BLOOD ROSE REBELLION, is currently available from Knopf/Random House and the sequel, LOST CROW CONSPIRACY comes out 3.27.18. She’s represented by Josh Adams of Adams Literary.
CONTRIBUTORS/SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATORS
Helen Boswell
Helen Boswell loved to get lost in the pages of a story from the time she could sound out the words. She credits her dad, an avid fiction reader, with encouraging her to read ALL OF THE BOOKS on his shelves from the time she was a teenager. An author of both urban fantasy and contemporary romance, she loves to read and write characters that come to life with their beauty, flaws, and all. She is the author of the upper YA MYTHOLOGY trilogy and new adult contemporary romances. You can find out more about her books at www.helenboswell.com.
Wendy Jessen
Wendy Jessen is a survivor. She is passionate about helping other survivors by helping victims of sexual abuse find hope and healing on her website. She loves Dr Pepper, toe socks, yoga, gummy bears, and accomplishing goals. She reads like she’s running out of time, especially YA, romance, thrillers, and books with something terrible that turns hopeful. Wendy has written over 600 articles for familyshare.com and the Deseret News and has a few books in the works. She does all that while juggling a household of 8.
CONTRIBUTORS
Amanda Rawson Hill
Amanda Rawson Hill grew up in southwest Wyoming with a library right out her back gate, which accounts a lot for how she turned out. Her debut novel, THE THREE RULES OF EVERYDAY MAGIC, will be published by Boyds Mills Press September 2018
Annette Lyon
Annette Lyon is a USA Today bestselling author, a five-time Best of State medalist for novels and short stories in Utah, and a Whitney Award winner. She’s a cum laude graduate from BYU with a degree in English and is the author of over a dozen novels, at least as many anthologies, a chocolate cookbook, and a grammar guide. Annette is represented by Heather Karpas at ICM Partners. Her favorite chocolate is Fazer’s Blue bar, but as that’s not readily available in the States, she typically settles for See’s and Guittard.
Camille Di Maio
Camille Di Maio recently left and award-winning real estate career to be a full-time writer. She’s been married to her husband Rob for twenty years, and they enjoy raising their four children. She has a bucket list that is never-ending, and uses her adventures to inspire her writing. She loves finding goodies at farmers markets (justifying them by her support for local bakeries) and belts out Broadway tunes whenever the moment strikes. There’s almost nothing she wouldn’t try, so long as it doesn’t involve heights, roller skates, or anything illegal. Her debut novel THE MEMORY OF US became a bestseller, and was followed by BEFORE THE RAIN FALLS. Her third book, THE WAY OF BEAUTY will be released on May 1.
Christie Perkins
Christie Perkins is a survivor of boy humor, chemo, and faulty recipes. She loves freelance writing and is a nonfiction junkie. A couple of national magazines have paid her for her work but her biggest paycheck is her incredible family. Christie hates spiders, the dark, and Shepherd’s Pie. Bleh. Mood boosters: white daisies, playing basketball, and peanut butter M&M’s. You can find out more about her at howperkyworks.com.
Christine Hayes
Cindy Baldwin
Cindy Baldwin is a Carolina girl who moved to the opposite coast and is gamely doing her part in keeping Portland weird. As a middle schooler, she kept a book under her bathroom sink to read over and over while fixing her hair or brushing her teeth, and she dreams of someday writing just that kind of book. She writes middle grade and young adult magical realism in addition to the occasional poem or creative non-fiction essay. She is represented by Elizabeth Harding of Curtis Brown LTD. Find her online at www.beingcindy.com and on Twitter at @beingcindy.
Crystal Liechty
Crystal Liechty is the mastermind behind the Please Don’t Call Child Services webtoon, which details the always funny and often inappropriate hijinx involved in homeschooling three mischievous children. If you’ve been to college lately, you might have seen one of her essays in the Elements of Arguments textbook (Macmillan Press). When not homeschooling or torturing college students with argumentative essays, Crystal can be found watching Korean dramas, teaching herself Kpop dances or in general working as an unofficial ambassador for South Korean culture. Find out more about her online comic by visiting pleasedontcallchildservices.com. You can also find it on Facebook.
David Baker
David Baker is an author, playwright, marketing professional, blogger and freelance editor. He has ghost-written several books and authored dozens of published articles on such topics as business technology, the insurance industry, marketing and data security. He writes both YA and “grown-up” fiction and is actively querying several projects. He also edits the monthly journal of a national trade organization. In his spare time, he runs marathons, volunteers with young people, cooks curries, paints shoes and builds things. He has an A.A. in theater, a B.A. in English and an M.A. in linguistics. Born in Arizona, raised in Hawaii, currently living in Utah, David is actively involved in theater. His stage play, Inside Al, won the Henry Fonda Young Playwright Award and premiered at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. The play was subsequently published by Samuel French and has been in near-continuous production for more than two decades, with hundreds of performances across the US and Canada. You can find his personal blog at blog.bakerdavid.com.
David Powers King
David Powers King was born in beautiful downtown Burbank, California where his love for film inspired him to be a writer. An avid fan of science fiction and fantasy, David also has a soft spot for zombies and the paranormal. David’s works include Woven, The Undead Road, and Full Dark: An Anthology. He now lives in the mountain West with his wife and four children.
Dennis Gaunt
Emily R. King
Ilima Todd
Ilima Todd was born and raised on the north shore of Oahu and currently resides in the Rocky Mountains. She never wanted to be a writer even though she loves books and reading. She earned a degree in physics instead. But the characters in her head refused to be ignored, and now she spends her time writing science fiction for teens. Ilima is the author of the REMAKE series (Simon Pulse/Shadow Mountain) and is represented by Lane Heymont of The Seymour Agency. When she is not writing, Ilima loves to spend time with her husband and four children.
Jenilyn Collings
Jenilyn Collings loves to read and is always looking for books that will make her laugh. She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She enjoys watching Korean dramas, BBC period pieces, and thinks Avatar: the Last Airbender is the best show ever made.
Jolene Perry
Jolene wears worn out Chucks, juvenile t-shirts, and eats too much chocolate. She loves to go fast, loves french fries dipped in Frosties, and stories that keep her guessing. She writes for Entangled, Albert Whitman Teen, and Simon Pulse. Her YA titles include Out of Play, The Summer I Found You, Stronger Than You Know and Has to be Love. Look for Love Blind and A Forever Thing in 2016. She is represented by Jane Dystel and Rachel Stout of Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. You can learn more about her pen names and other publications on her website.
Kimberly VanderHorst
Kimberly Vanderhorst is a speculative fiction author with a flair for writing evocative sentences. She wrote her first book when she was seven, and her second when she was twenty-seven. When asked to account for the intervening decades, she likes to suggest the possibility of alien abduction with as straight a face as possible. Represented by the incomparable Lorin Oberweger of Adams Literary, and currently serving on the committee for the annual Storymakers Conference, Kimberly continually associates with people even awesomer than she is in hopes they’ll rub off on her. This is likely why she decided to be born in Canada.
Kristina Starmer
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Kristina Starmer lives in Southern Utah and writes renaissance-era historical fantasy. She read—i.e. memorized—her first book, The Owl and the Pussycat, when she was two. She likes to think this is where she got her first taste for thrilling adventures in magical lands, spiced with a touch of romance. When she’s not working as a university chemistry lab manager, she enjoys spending time with her four independent children, an adventure-loving husband, and more dogs and cats than she likes to admit. She is passionate about traveling to new places, ice cream with lots of mix-ins, and the peaches from her garden.
Lauri Schoenfeld
Lauri Schoenfeld’s first love is her little clan of three silly kidlets and her wonderful hubby, Andy. Writing is a close second. In 2014 her short story, Christmas Treasure, was featured in an anthology called, Angels from their Realms of Story. Lauri’s taken online classes at the Institute of Children’s Literature and was the President of the League of Utah Writers, Oquirrh Chapter, from 2013-2015. If she’s not writing, or hanging out with her family, you can find her working at Marissa’s Bookstore in Midvale.
Her favorite genre to write is anything dark, psychological, and suspenseful, but she enjoys expanding her horizons and dipping her feet in other genres as well. Lauri’s a motivation speaker who shares her truths about being a Child Abuse and Scoliosis Survivor. She’s been known to dance around the house with a spoon as her microphone and sneak toppings from the ice cream bar.
Matt Williams
Matt Williams is an avid reader, a collector of many pens, an ever improving father of two, and an all-around fanboy. When he’s not wrestling with cats or building the inkslayer army you can find him hunkered down writing something imaginative. You can read his first book Beyond Here, a middle grade story involving a coma and a singing flower with a bent stem, along with a few projects with his other daughter. Follow him on Facebook and Instagram.
Megan Paasch
When she’s not writing, revising, or banging her head on the keyboard, Megan Paasch can be found playing her ukulele, knitting, or herding two amazing, but rowdy little boys and three mischievous cats. A native to the Pacific Northwest, Megan earned her B.A. in History from the University of Washington. Her favorite history subjects were, and still are, Women in History, the Tudors, and the Celts. You can read more about her here.
Melanie Bennett Jacobson
Melanie Bennett Jacobson is an avid reader, amateur cook, and shoe addict. She consumes astonishing amounts of chocolate and novels. She lives in Southern California with her husband, three kid,s and a series of doomed houseplants. Her eighth novel, Perfect Set, comes out in May 2018. Melanie holds an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her contemporary YA novels are represented by Alyssa Henkin.
Nancy E. Johnson
Nancy E. Johnson is a senior communications leader with an Emmy-nominated, award-winning journalism background. She contributed to O, the Oprah Magazine which published her personal essay. Nancy is an active member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and she served as secretary for Mystery Writers of America Midwest Chapter. When she’s not reading, writing or pontificating about politics, she’s running and eating chocolate, sometimes at the same time. The Chicago native is writing her first novel.
Orly Konig
Patricia Friedrich
Patricia Friedrich is a Professor of English (Linguistics/Rhetoric and Composition) at Arizona State University. She is an expert in the spread of English throughout the world, a researcher of peace in relation to language, and the author/editor of six books, including The Sociolinguistics of Digital Englishes and award-winning The Literary and Linguistic Construction of Obsessive-compulsive Disorder. She has written many chapters in other books and articles in such periodicals as Harvard Business Review and World Englishes. Her short fiction has appeared in literary journals such as The Linnet’s Wings, Birkensnake, and Gray Sparrow. Her novel manuscript, The Art of Always, won first prize in the “Realizing the Dream” competition as a mainstream fiction work (RWA’s Desert Rose Chapter). She is represented by TZLA Literary and Film Agency and lives in the greater Phoenix area with her family.
Shannon Cooley
Veeda Bybee
Veeda Bybee grew up in a military household, collecting passport stamps and dreaming of castles in far off places. A daughter of Asian immigrants, she has been writing and drawing pictures since she was seven years old. She is currently working on an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. A former journalist, she lives with her family in the Mountain West where she reads, writes and bakes.
Yamile Saied Méndez
Thinking Through Our Fingers 