Allie Millington
Allie Millington is an author, artist, and entrepreneur. She enjoys telling stories from unique, unexplored points of view and strives to share relatable truths through a quirky lens, all while bringing a balance of humor and heart. Her debut middle grade novel, Olivetti, now represented by the William Morris Endeavor for TV/Film, was released on March 26th, 2024, and was an instant USA Today and Indie bestseller. Soon to follow are her next middle grade novels, Once For Yes in the Winter of 2025, Earl Grey in the Winter of 2026, and another MG grade in 2027– all at Feiwel & Friends, Macmillan. She also two picture books, When You Find A Hope and When You Find A Question (Hachette Book Group, 2025, 2026). Allie lives near Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and a collection of clacking machines. You can find her on Instagram here: @allieinink or on her website: https://www.
AJ Skelly
AJ Skelly (also writing as April J. Skelly) is an author, reader, and lover of all things fantasy, medieval, and fairy-tale-romance. And werewolves. She has a serious soft spot for them. As an avid life-long reader and a former high school English teacher, she’s always been fascinated with the written word.
She lives with her husband, children, and many imaginary friends who often find their way into her stories. They all drink copious amounts of tea together and stay up reading far later than they should.
Her Romantasy goes on submission soon. You can read more about AJ at www.ajskelly.com.
BONNIE CLARK
Bonnie Clark loves books that make her laugh, cry, or think for a long time. She wrote her first book, “The Lifeguard Who Couldn’t Swim,” in the third grade, and it is proudly displayed in her writing room. Bonnie is an author, inventor, wife, mother, (former contestant on Wheel of Fortune), and was once a lifeguard who could actually swim.
Bonnie’s debut picture book, Taste Your Words, is a fan favorite and was recently added to the “Teacher’s Pick” list on Amazon. Author Visits are always fun and memorable for everyone. Students get a kick out of watching their teachers do the “Taste Your Words” challenge with the Bean Boozle © jelly beans (and secretly hope they taste a gross one!)
Bonnie’s picture book, Catching Thoughts, was featured on Good Morning America as a book recommendation to help kids cope after a tragedy. This mental health book inspires and instructs kids on how to catch thoughts that bring peace and joy into their lives while releasing those that pull us down.
Bonnie enjoys writing for children because she believes that childhood is the most important time in a person’s life–the time that shapes who we become as adults. She hopes that kids will read her books and remember them when they grow up.
When she isn’t writing, Bonnie is working out, reading books, shuttling three kids to their activities, going on dates with her husband, and drinking lots of coffee. Bonnie is a member of the SCBWI, her kid lit critique group “Trail Mix” and is also co-host of The Author Visit Podcast with her best book buddy: Shanda McCloskey (https://authorvisitpodcast.com/). She lives in Canton, GA with her family.
Her latest PB, Casting Cares, releases in 2026 with Waterbrook, a Penguin Random House imprint and she has other picture book projects on submission. You can find out more here: https://bonnieclarkbooks.com/
Brooke shaden
Brooke is an internationally celebrated artist practicing writing, fine art photography, and mixed media. All of her work deals with the relationship between nature and grief, highlighting how beauty can be found in the darkest of places. Brooke first received international notoriety for her fine art photography, creating evocative and moving self-portraits that went on to help define a new genre of contemporary art.
Along with creating art, Brooke is a motivational speaker and educator. She co-founded The Light Space, a photography school for those vulnerable to human trafficking, and uses her skills as an artist to teach self-expression tools to those who need them most.
Brooke is represented by six galleries internationally, as well as by brands like Sony and Microsoft, with clients ranging from HarperCollins and Penguin Random House to RCA Records. Her work can be seen on book covers and album art, as well as in museum collections.
Most of the time, Brooke can be found in a Victorian gown gallivanting in the forest or jumping in a freezing lake for a crazy photo shoot, or caught in long hours of writing. Brooke resides in Flagstaff, AZ where she has been a foster parent to six kids, and when she’s not traveling, she’s content with a huge cup of tea and a long fantasy book. Her debut YA fantasy is on submission. You find out more about Brooke here: https://brookeshaden.com/gallery/
charissa bateS
Charissa resides in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN. She’s married and a mother to three beautiful children. Her faith, children, and family are what fuels her existence.
Charissa was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer on her 13th wedding anniversary. She is now a Triple Negative Breast Cancer survivor. Charissa feels driven to educate and support others during their cancer journeys. In 2020, Charissa was the Keynote speaker at “Pursuit for a Cure” at Ashley for the Arts.
She and her children wrote We Find Joy: Cancer Messed with the Wrong Family, a children’s book to help other families gain some control and find joy while fighting cancer.
Charissa now works as a children’s mental health therapist and absolutely feels this is the job she was called to do. Before transitioning to that role, she was a school social worker.
charlotte pence
Charlotte is a writer drawn to stories that explore overcoming adversity, mental health awareness, and the transformative power of the natural world. Her poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have been published in Harvard Review, The New York Times, Poetry, Southern Review, Brevity, The Slowdown, and many other publications. A graduate of Emerson College (MFA in creative writing) and the University of Tennessee (PhD in English), she is now the director of the Stokes Center for Creative Writing at the University of South Alabama and serves as Mobile Alabama’s Inaugural Poet Laureate.
Her awards in poetry include fellowships from the Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow (2024), Sewanee Writers Conference, MacDowell, the Alabama Arts Council, and many others. Charlotte Pence’s most recent poetry collection, Code (Black Lawrence Press), received the 2020 Book of the Year award from Alabama State Poetry Society and was shortlisted for Best Indie Poetry Books of 2020 by Foreword Reviews. Her first book of poems, Many Small Fires (Black Lawrence Press, 2015), received INDIEFAB Book of the Year, Silver Medal, from Foreword Reviews. As in Code, Pence weaves together personal experience and scientific exploration.
Charlotte began writing picture books with her daughter, who is dyslexic, as a way to enjoy the power of language without the constraints for decoding. Making up stories together is their favorite activity while sitting around a camp fire. One of their picture books is currently on submission.
Charlotte is also the writer of two academic nonfiction books and several essays, one of which received a Notable Essay of the Year from Best American Essays. Charlotte is currently working on a full-length memoir titled Gardening in the Dark about her childhood when she and her brother secretly ran the house while caring for their bed-ridden mother and raising enough vegetables to sell at the local farmer’s market in Rome, Georgia. Woven through this gripping story are reflections from the latest research on how neglectful parenting characteristic of the 80s has now transformed into the trend toward overparenting.
When Charlotte isn’t writing, she can be found reading on her screened-in back porch, no matter the temperature, swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, exploring new cities, hiking, gardening, and hanging out with family, friends, and her stubborn terrier (Is there any other type of terrier?).
You can find her on Instagram at charlottepencewrites, Facebook, and at https://charlottepence.com/
Dan Gleason
Dan Gleason is listed in the Notable Alumni of the Iowa Writers Workshop, where he learned his craft under authors such as Kurt Vonnegut and William Price Fox. Gleason’s fiction/non-fiction has appeared regularly in national magazines, among them Esquire, the New York Times magazine, Travel & Leisure, Sports Illustrated and many others. A significant number of his articles were about crime, one of which won a state bar association’s Indigent Defense Journalism Award.
Gleason’s published books are non-fiction, among them The Great, the Grand and the Also-Ran (Random House), which went into a second printings; and Fast Eddie, (ghosted for TV news anchor Wes Sarginson), a paperback bestseller about infamous Cleveland bank robber Fast Eddie Watkins.
Dan’s received a B.A. Journalism and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa with English/Creative Writing, the University of Iowa Program in Creative Writing. He now teaches for three universities as an adjunct professor of English.
His True Crime project, LIFE WITHOUT, the True Story of Sandy Shaw, will be published with Rowman & Littlefield, a Bloomsbury imprint.
deana sobel lederman
Deana is an author, cartoonist, and illustrator who lives in San Diego, California with her husband and two young sons.
Her artist grandmother taught her to paint at an early age. She has been mentored by many wonderful artists over the years, among them New Yorker cartoonists. She was a nationally recognized staff cartoonist as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, graduated from UC Berkeley School of Law, and later worked for the New York City Department of Education, where she illustrated the Chancellor’s holiday cards. Her work has been exhibited in galleries in Brooklyn and New York.
As an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, Deana illustrated and cartooned for The Daily Californian. She earned national recognition for her editorial cartoons and was a finalist for both the John Locher Memorial Award and the Society of Professional Journalism Mark of Excellence Awards. Her comic strip, Roomies, based on the lives of Deana and her six college roommates, was a finalist for MTV U’s comic strips contest.
Her picture book is on submission. You can check her out here: https://deanasobel.com/
Denise Gallagher
Denise was born in New Orleans during the heart of Mardi Gras. When given a creativity test as a young child, her mother was told, “Denise will never fit into any mold.” Luckily, her parents continually encouraged her with a pencil in one hand and a sketchbook in the other.
Later, Denise moved to Lafayette, Louisiana to study art at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. It did not take long for her to fall in love with Lafayette and choose to make it her home. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree of Fine Art and spent the first part of her career as an art director and graphic designer in the advertising industry.
In 2013, Denise changed gears and opened her own design shop with a focus on illustration and creative graphic design. She also began pursuing another passion—writing and illustrating for children. She joined the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and now serves as the Illustrator Coordinator for the Louisiana/Mississippi Region of SCBWI.
Denise has a special story book coming out with Watkins Publishing’s imprint, Moon & Bird. And with a few other picture books already under her belt, her debut MG story is now on submission. You can check her out here: https://www.denisegallagher.com/
Hallie bertling
After copious amounts of coffee and preparing a bouquet of freshly-sharpened colored pencils for a day in the studio, Hallie loves absorbing stories of all kinds—particularly faerie tales, magical middle grade books, and swoony YA romcoms. (Okay, she reads a lot of grown-up books, too.)
Whether in NYC or around the world (often traveling with her fellow-artist and book nerd of a husband), Hallie likes to sneak away to museums, indie bookstores, coffee shops, and rush ticket lines for new plays or her favorite: a razzle-dazzle sparklefest of a feel-good musical.
Hallie is writing her next arts-centric middle grade novel and developing a number of author-illustrator picture books—projects all inspired, of course, by her love of old films, theatre, and travel.
You’ll find her hands smudged in ink & paint and her shiny shoes surrounded by cookie crumbs & rainbow sprinkles wherever you can smell the coffee.
Website: halthegal.art
Caffeinated travels and weekly reading book review videos: find Hallie on instagram @halthegal_storyart
For monthly sticker mail, and even more behind-the-scenes studio and book-making fun, check out The Crayon Box—Hallie’s author-illustrator Patreon community. (patreon.com/halthegal)
Hayley Reese Chow
Hayley is an award-winning author, mother of wild boys, wife, mechanical engineer, Air Force Reserve officer, four-time All-American fencer, ex-ultramarathoner, world traveler, and super nerd with three older sisters who are way cooler than her.
As an Air Force brat, Hayley grew up in Japan, Virginia, Alabama, Alaska, and then Kentucky, where she was sucked into the world of international fencing. She got her BSME from the University of Notre Dame while she earned an individual silver medal in the NCAA championships and led her team to gold as a team captain.
From there, Hayley continued her family’s legacy of military service by commissioning into the USAF as an active-duty officer. Off duty, her adventures took her into ultra-marathoning while she earned her MSME. It was then she discovered her passion for writing and never looked back.
Since beginning her writing journey, Hayley’s microfiction has won an honorable mention in the NYC Midnight Challenge and her books have won the 2020 YA Florida Author Project, a Wishing Shelf Book Award bronze medal, a Literary Titan Gold Award, an indie BRAG medallion, and fifth place in the 2021 Book Blogger Novel of the Year awards.
If you see her running around with her hair on fire, don’t panic, that’s her preferred do. Her YA contemporary romance is on submission, and you can find out more about Hayley here.
Heather morris
Heather is the grateful author of multiple books for kids. She enjoys writing fiction, nonfiction, picture books, and middle grade stories that feature wonder, imagination, and a smattering of science. Her debut picture book, Trunk Goes Thunk! A Woodland Tale of Opposites published by Gnome Road Publishing will release on October 1, 2024. Her ghost story, “White Thing,” represents her home state of Alabama in the Haunted States of America Anthology published in July 2024 by Godwin Books/Macmillan. She is an active member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), the Middle Grade Hub, and the 12×12 picture book challenge.
Prior to writing full-time, Heather obtained her B.S. in Biology and her Master’s of Science in Molecular Microbiology. She spent more than a decade working in NASA laboratories, designing experiments that flew on the International Space Station, and conducting tests in extreme environments. She is passionate about showing kids and adults alike that it is possible to pursue interests that may not seem related (like her background in laboratory science and her love for writing fiction).
When Heather’s not reading, typing, or doodling, you’ll find her hiking the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains with her husband, their three kids, and their rescued border collie.
Ian Sandusky
Ian grew up in the small town of Holland Landing, Ontario. He was an avid reader and writer, but leaned more towards combat sports – earning a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Karate and becoming an instructor at 14.
Ian attended Brock University for sociology, working as a night club bouncer on the side before managing Isaac’s – the Brock University campus bar. It was there he wrote his first novel, GREY DOGS: ZOMBIE SURVIVAL – which sold and was published by Severed Press out of Australia in 2010 when he was only twenty-two years old.
Before graduating, Ian would have three more novels published. After university, Ian signed on to work full-time as a CNC machinist at the family business, Lakewood Machine & Tool in Newmarket, Ontario. There, he began making YouTube videos on the trade and manufacturing business, which were soon picked up by Practical Machinist – the largest manufacturing community in the world.
In 2017, Ian married his wife, Brooke, and moved up north to cottage country, where he lives with his wife, two dogs, and two cats.
Ian has five Horror novels coming out in 2025 and 2026 with Roan & Weatherford.
Ilona Bray
“Oh, boy!” were Ilona’s first words upon seeing her family’s candlelit Christmas tree, and she hasn’t lost that sense of wonder since. In her early years, she learned life lessons from fairy tales told by her Lithuanian mother and grandmother. Her family’s ability to apply life lessons helped them through some of the 20th century’s wickedest periods—including the Nazi annexation of Lithuania and Soviet aggression and attempted genocide in the same region. The interplay of darkness, light, and magic is woven into Ilona’s writing. Her latest project, a middle grade historical novel set in WWII Lithuania, CALL ME MAGPIE CROW: SPY IN TRAINING, is on submission now.
Ilona is also working on picture book texts as well as an MG novel about a chess-playing cat (co-written with her husband Stephen Soong, a former chess teacher and tournament player) that is on submission now.
Ilona’s family background also led to an interest in international human rights issues. She became a lawyer, did a six-month internship at Amnesty International’s Legal Secretariat in London, and then practiced immigration law in the United States, mostly representing asylum seekers from south of the border and beyond.
Online, you can find Ilona at www.instagram.com/ilonamariame/ and www.ilonabraylit.com.
ira blumenthal
Ira collects quotations. One of his favorites is, “The true measure of a man is how many lives he can jam into one lifetime.” Ira has certainly jammed many lives into his productive, successful life. From college football and lacrosse coach to business executive… from consultant to talk show host… from university professor to public speaker… from author to philanthropist… and more… lots of lives here… diverse, distinctive and dynamic.
After serving as the CMO of a division of Sara Lee, then the President of a $300-million food company, Ira founded and presided over CO-OPPORTUNITIES, an Atlanta based consulting company that advised companies such as Nestle, Tyson, Kroger, Harrah’s, American Airlines, Disney, United Artists, Exxon, Walmart and more. He is the recipient of the highest honors in the food industry, “The Key Person Award” and “President’s Award” and a “Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Having published over 200 magazine articles and three books, Ready, Blame, Fire! (Myths and Misses in Marketing), Managing Brand You (best seller), and Your Best Is Next. Ira is a respected author who received “The George Washington Honor Medal for Literary Excellence” (Freedoms Foundation). Ira has been featured and quoted in media such as CNN, The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, BrandWeek, USA Today, and more.
In 2021, Ira became a columnist for the Times-Journal organization with his YOUR BEST IS NEXT column which now runs in multiple business publications. He is now working on a book that’s been brewing for quite a while. He was Zsa Zsa Gabor’s memoir writer and later family friend with hundreds of stories from their time together (most on tape!). It’s time to tell her story which is also a part of his… Not Writing Zsa Zsa: Confessions of a Collaborator is on submission.
Jenn Suen Chen
Jenn is a speaker and leader in the area of spiritual formation and cross-cultural ministry work. She is co-director of Summit Clear, an organization focused on mentoring, coaching in the area of cross-cultural leadership development, and provides spiritual direction for Christian mission leaders. She has led over 60 retreats both internationally and in the US with ministry leaders with a particular focus on the intersection between spiritual formation and leadership development.
But she is foremost a mom of 4 adult children, two of whom are now married. She raised her 4 kids on the mission field, homeschooling them for most of their years until her husband’s cancer nearly took his life and they relocated from China to Thailand where they have been until recently.
Her Spiritual Growth book, Dim Sum on Sundays, releases August 12th with IVP. Order her book by clicking below! You can check out more about Jenn here: www.jennsuenchenn.com
Jenny Fulton
Jenny is a published freelance writer, content editor, an award-winning author of children’s books, and a multi-genre author of a Bible study, memoir, and YA fantasy book. In 2007, she received a B.S. in Bible, a B.S. in elementary education. Jenny has worked as a teacher in a variety of cultural and educational settings, both abroad and in the United States. She is a storyteller, a follower of Christ, and a seeker of truth.
An enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, Jenny grew up in Kansas but regularly visited family and friends on the reservations where she fell in love with the lands and its people. This heritage inspired an early love for other cultures and languages. While in college, she worked with Sudanese and Hispanic populations and spent three months in Mexico learning the language, teaching elementary English classes, and connecting with various people and ministries. In 2007, Jenny moved to China where she taught ESL at an international school, coached middle school and high school athletics teams, and worked with an international youth group.
In 2010, she moved to the Navajo Nation where she taught at a grant school, working with various ages and coaching their middle school athletics teams.
Jenny began pursuing her dream of writing and publishing books in 2008. She currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband and three daughters.
Her books, Hymn Stories for Kids and Natives, Then & Now are on submission.
Jessie fanczi latimer
Jessie Fanczi Latimer spent her childhood searching for portals to magical worlds like Hogwarts, Narnia, and Camp Half Blood. She never found one, but writing fantasy worlds of her own turned out to be the next best thing.
After earning her MFA and a brief stint working at a Colorado dude ranch, she settled down in the foothills of Georgia. When she’s not writing whimsical stories with unusual narrators, you can find her hanging out with her husband and son, murdering innocent house plants, and rereading her favorite books eighty-seven times instead of making progress on her TBR.
Her debut YA fantasy novel, Again Behold the Stars, will be out in 2026 (Quill and Flame).
KARA LUCAS
Kara Lucas is an emerging voice in women’s fiction, who enjoys weaving together stories infused with mystery, a touch of the paranormal, and the enduring themes of family, hope, and love.
Kara’s debut YA issue-driven novel, Finding Pony, published in 2015 by a small indie publisher, follows Jesse, a teen boy, on his journey to find his sister in foster care, showcasing her deep understanding of family dynamics drawn from her 20 years of experience in the adoption field. With a Masters in Social Work, Kara has written home studies for over 300 families, giving her a unique perspective on the complexities of relationships and the power of connection. Now pivoting to women’s fiction, she is excited to explore new narratives that resonate with readers looking for heartfelt stories that inspire. Kara is a member of SCBWI, is actively involved in her local writing community, and participates in two committed critique groups.
Kara lives in Central California and when not writing, she enjoys being in nature, hiking in the Sierra Nevadas, and spending time on her family’s 160-year-old heritage farm. She and her husband love traveling to visit their five kids (living in five different states!), puttering around their country home, and teaching yoga. Her debut women’s fiction novel is on submission. You can find Kara here: karalucasauthor.com
Melissa miles
Melissa Johnston Miles has always loved kids. In fact, during middle school she’d get into trouble for sneaking out of church to take care of the babies in the nursery. When she graduated from The Medical University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, she went straight into the neonatal ICU because she still loved the babies! When her own kids were in school, Melissa earned a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education and taught school for 5 years before returning to nursing. No matter what job she’s had over the years, working with kids has been the common denominator. Melissa continues to keep both her nursing license and teaching certifications current—just in case!
Melissa began writing books for kids in 2016. She joined SCBWI, attended a Highlights Foundation course and began taking every opportunity to study the writing craft. She began volunteering in her SCBWI region in 2017 and moved through several roles until becoming the Regional Advisor. In addition to this role, she serves as Board Chair for the nonprofit she created, Superhero Success Foundation. Through the nonprofit, she’s written and published picture books featuring a superhero with a tracheostomy. Over 4,000 copies of the books have been sold (mostly through corporate sponsorships) and hundreds of books have been donated to children’s hospitals, schools, libraries, and camps for kids with tracheostomies. Melissa’s work can also be found in The School Magazine and several flash fiction anthologies from Vine Leaves Press.
Melissa’s debut Middle Grade Novel-in-Verse is on submission now.
Micah brocker
Micah Brocker is a debut author and screenwriter who gravitates toward stories where imperfect characters deal with the messiness of being human. She is an Associate Literary Agent for authors and a Lit Manager for screenwriters at Corvisiero Literary Agency where she bridges the gap between publishing and film &TV. Micah specializes in cinematic adaptations and has developed documentaries and features for sale. She lives in Seattle with her husband, Andrew, and her cat, Bean.
Micah’s YA Contemporary is on submission now. You can find out more about Micah here: https://micahmichelleauthor.com/#home
Mimi Simon
Mimi Simon is an illustrator and visual development artist who has worked in comics, animation, and games. She loves telling stories and creating worlds that are full of magic and adventure. She is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she studied illustration and painting. When not drawing, she enjoys reading, watching cartoons, and climbing trees. She is from Richmond, Virginia.
Mischa Fox
Mischa Fox currently haunts Atlanta, GA. Her writing projects blend upmarket horror with atmospheric dark fantasy. She prizes a deep point of view, lyrical prose, and diversity in her characters. She likes to tackle social issues with imagination and metaphor.
An award-winning poet, she taught and performed for years as a spoken word artist. She also regularly writes and speaks about her experiences in the neurodivergent, hypermobility Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, and LGBTQ communities.
Her short story “Blood of the Barghest” was published in 2011 under a pseudonym. Currently, she is an active member of Broadleaf Writers Association, Horror Writers Association, and an avid supporter of Writing Day Workshops. She’s working on her MBA part-time at Georgia State University and will finish her Reiki Master certification this summer.
In earlier incarnations, she has been a celebrated stage actor, model, musician, and dancer. She is still an active artist and photographer.
Her current non-writing interests include coffee, hiking, restorative yoga, weightlifting, spirituality, comparative religion, reading, enjoying rainy days, snuggling her three ferrets, and daydreaming about adding Sphynx or Devon Rex kittens to her furry family.
You can find out more here: www.mischafox.com
Nancy Alspaugh-jackson
Nancy is an Emmy Award winning television executive and producer who pioneered the magazine show format with the syndicated show PM Magazine and served as the Executive Producer on the long-running talk show, Leeza. In those capacities, then known as Nancy Alspaugh, she helped foster the careers of many people who run the television industry today. She graduated with an English Literature Major with honors from Virginia Commonwealth University.
In 2004, Alspaugh-Jackson’s (as she became known) adopted son, Wyatt, was diagnosed with autism. She gave up her career, rolled up her sleeves, and did everything she could to help him. She produced a fundraiser called Denim and Diamonds for Autism in the backyard of her gated equestrian community (home of The Kardashians, Drake, The Weeknd, and others) for a new autism foundation called ACT Today! or Autism Care and Treatment Today where she served as the Executive Director from 2005 until October of 2019. The annual fundraiser became so star-studded it was renamed Denim, Diamonds and Stars and became one of Southern California’s most publicized events.
Under Nancy’s leadership, Autism Care Today has distributed close to three million dollars in grants to families around the country.
Currently, Alspaugh-Jackson is the director of Recovery at The Ranch at Special Spirit, Inc. (www.specialspirit.org), an animal and equine-assisted program for those in recovery for addiction issues. She also leads women’s spiritual and empowerment retreats. Alspaugh-Jackson stays busy as the “momager” of the blossoming art business of her son, Wyatt Jackson, called “WyArt.” Her nonfiction book with her son, Wyatt, and artist friend, Paola Luther, called ALL DOGS GET LOLLIPOPS IN HEAVEN is on submission.
Paola Luther
With over 500k followers across her art-centered Instagram accounts reaching 100M in the first quarter of 2023 alone, Paola is an established marketer and influencer in her field. She is a force online, but her beauty and talent go way past the digital screen. She positively impacts people daily through her paintings and teaching students, especially those with special needs like Wyatt Jackson.
Paola is an award-winning artist with a delicate touch and a sense of light and color. She can usually be found painting in her studio in Los Angeles, CA, but has been painting since childhood. She became a professional artist in fine arts by attending several years of intense ateliers training in the Washington DC area and Los Angeles. Paola participated in multiple workshops with talented artists around the world and her work has been featured in solo and group shows, as well as galleries on the East Coast. She has produced colorful plein-air pieces and commissioned many paintings and portraits.
Her original works can be found in private collections across the United States and Europe. Her nonfiction book with Nancy & Wyatt Jackson called ALL DOGS GET LOLLIPOPS IN HEAVEN is on submission.
Phyllis Harris
Phyllis Harris was born and raised in the suburbs of Kansas City, Missouri. She feels most creative in nature and prefers the songs of birds rather than the noise of traffic. She lives on an open green pasture with trees, wildflowers, and big blue skies along with her husband and wonderful pup, Brinkley. And yes, he was named after the dog in YOU’VE GOT MAIL, one of her favorite movies. She loves romantic comedies, British period dramas, and classical music while painting.
Phyllis first started her career in graphic design at a newspaper while also freelancing at Hallmark Cards. She then shifted to illustration full time where she has happily continued for the past 20 years creating the art for over 30 children’s books. In recent years, she has focused more on her work as author-illustrator of picture books. Her debut as author-illustrator is The GIFT SHOP BEAR. A couple of her favorite books she illustrated include a best-selling celebrity children’s book and a never-before-published Margaret Wise Brown book.
Sandy Feit
When Sandy entered Nathan Bishop Junior High School in Rhode Island, she had no idea seventh grade would be such a defining year. Three encounters were about to set the direction of her life. First, art class was no longer all about crayons and everyone drawing the same thing. Instead, Miss Rose fearlessly introduced materials like clay, wire, paints, and plastic and ignited creativity. Then, in language arts, Sandy (unlike her peers) took great joy in diagramming sentences and discovered a love for words and grammar. And finally, she made friends with that cute boy named Elliot, who would one day become her husband.
After getting a B.A. in art, Sandy worked as a toy designer, art teacher, and commercial artist—her word skills came in handy on book layouts and promotional pieces and eventually opened the door to a new career. She now lives in Atlanta, where she’s been a writer and senior copy editor for more than 20 years. To encourage professional development, her team leader instituted writing days for extracurricular projects—it was a great opportunity to play with words in a new way and resulted in several stories for early readers.
Sandy is delighted to live near her three children and nine grandchildren, who happen to be a pretty terrific built-in test audience for her writing. Her picture book is now on submission.
Samira Shakib-Bregeth
Samira is an Iranian-American writer whose love of stories propelled her into a career as an award-winning high school literature teacher. After earning her Masters degree in English, Literary Studies from Georgia State University, she directed her passion for global voices into a grant-writing campaign that allowed her to introduce a diverse literature curriculum to her students and peers. Samira won Teacher of the Year in 2016 and has been the goodwill ambassador in various school programs across Georgia.
Outside of the classroom, Samira considers her family her full-time job. Though she doesn’t hold a degree for that important work, she leads with her heart most of the time and finds it’s a pretty solid guide.
When Samira moved from Chicago to Atlanta in her senior year of high school—an upheaval that initially left her feeling unmoored in strange land—she had no idea that she’d choose to plant roots in the South or that she would develop a deep love for Southern culture, recognizing links between mehmoonnavazi–a Farsi word rooted in the concept of navazi, a tender caress–and Southern hospitality. Now, after nearly a quarter century on Georgia soil, she’s earned the nickname “The Persian Georgia Peach.”
Samira has been writing consistently for years and has a range of fiction and non-fiction pieces published. Check out Samira’s author Instagram to learn more.
More than anything, Samira especially loves to listen to women. A collector of stories, she spent much of her childhood gathering the perspectives of mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and cousins. Her debut novel, A Season of Uncertainty, marries her love for characters who navigate a complex web of cultural identities with what interests her the most—the underbelly of marriage, intimacy, and female relationships. This Literary Fiction novel is on submission now.
Shanah salter
Shanah grew up in Sydney, Australia surrounded by love and books and a backyard filled with fruit trees and chickens.
She trained as a family physician with a specialization in women’s health. The role was fast-paced and required exceptional communication skills, empathy, compassion, and the ability to be detail-oriented, time-efficient, and a great collaborator—much like the skills required of a successful author.
In 2014, she moved with her husband and young family to Chicago. There, inspired by her children and their daily visits to the library for story time, Shanah found herself returning to her creative childhood and dreaming of a second career.
Two years later, she’d taken her first course in children’s writing (at Chicago’s Newberry Library), become an active member in SCBWI-IL, and joined several local critique groups.
Shanah was awarded an Illinois Arts Council Grant for novel development in 2020. This grant funded placement into a six-month novel intensive through The Writing Barn. She loved it so much she accepted a fellowship and remains a fellow there to date.
Her debut YA Contemporary romance is out on submission now. You can check her out here: http://www.shanahsalter.com/
Stephanie Delorme
Stephanie Delorme is an author/illustrator, wife, mama, and taker of way too many pictures. What she lacks in culinary skills she makes up with artistically, creating pancake art for her daughters’ breakfast (but she leaves the dinners up to dad… they’re all safer that way).
Since receiving a B.A. in English from the University of New Mexico, she’s held various positions including elementary school teacher and children’s ministry director. These jobs only grew her love for children and the power of story even more. However, it wasn’t until 2017, while reading with her two young daughters on her lap, that she realized the power of a picture book and decided to merge her two passions of art and writing into one pursuit: creating picture books that both entertain and touch hearts.
Her debut picture book A Million Times, You is on submission.
Stephen Soong
Stephen loves chess. He’s taught it, played it at a high level, and beaten some notable opponents (including a computer, at the U.S. Amateur Team Championships). But he never (until recently) imagined that he’d find himself writing about chess one day. As you’ll see in the entry for Ilona Bray, the two have recently co-authored a middle-grade novel starring a chess-playing cat, on submission to publishers.
At the height of Stephen’s chess career, his United States Chess Federation rating placed him in the top 5% of all rated U.S. chess players. His fondest memory: beating the U.S. chess champion in a simultaneous exhibition. (The fact that this world-class grandmaster was a few moves away from winning before he blundered is lost in the mists of time, right?) Stephen has taught chess to both young people and adults, in private, community, and classroom settings. After he grew up (sort of) and became an attorney, then technical writer, and then media producer, his involvement in tournament chess subsided somewhat. But he still enjoys playing pickup games and giving chess demonstrations (with his neato wall-mounted chess display board) in the tightknit community where he and Ilona live.
No stranger to the world of writing, Stephen has authored books on policy and regulation, and he’s had a number of articles and book reviews published. He likes few things better than a well-crafted sentence or a clearly expressed thought.
Thao nguyen
Thao is an Amerasian memoirist and healthcare professional, born in Vietnam as one of the “Children of the Vietnam War.” After immigrating to the US in 1989 through the Amerasian Homecoming Act, Thao learned English, completed high school at the age of 21, graduated from the Oregon Institute of Technology with honors, and built a 24-year career as a Dental Hygienist.
At 31, a tragic car accident claimed the lives of her family, forcing Thao to confront traumas past and present. This journey led to Thao’s Christian conversion and inspired her memoir, Lotus Rising. Today, Thao lives in Oregon with her husband Louie, their twin boys Henry and James, and their dog Angus, while working as a Hygienist. She is also a keynote speaker and advocate for victims of racism, abuse, and grief.
Thao’s memoir, Lotus Rising, chronicles her path from war-torn Vietnam to suburban America, demonstrating how faith and shifting perspectives can transform trauma into wisdom. This memoir will resonate with readers interested in immigration narratives and spiritual healing. Lotus Rising goes on submission soon. You can learn about Thao here: https://anamerasianlife.com/
Wyatt Jackson
Wyatt is a twenty-two-year-old artist from Westlake Village, CA. He attends vocational school at Agoura High School. He’s been painting since he was a year old. He has autism and works with his mom to raise money for other kids with autism by selling his art. He loves to use acrylic paint on recycled cartons, as well as painting acrylics on canvas. He calls his art WyArt. Mixing different colors is his favorite thing to do.
For the last couple of years, he’s been studying art with the internationally known artist and painter, Paola Luther. He is frequently commissioned to paint people’s pets and has painted over 100 dog portraits, plus many other animals, for people all around the country.
His nonfiction book called ALL DOGS GET LOLLIPOPS IN HEAVEN is on submission.
