Susan is a semi-retired graphic designer with a life-long love of art, painting, literature, and fiction—reading and writing. 

She wrote her first chapter book at 10 years old (called Mopsy and Me) which her grandmother typed up and submitted to Highlights Magazine, garnering Susan’s very first rejection letter.

As an adult, Susan took quite a few evening classes and seminars at the Stanford Continuing Studies Creative Writing program, where she learned from fantastic writers including Ryan Harty, Julie Orringer, Eric Puchner, Adam Johnson and many others. She was also accepted into the UC Davis-sponsored Writers Workshop at Tomales Bay, and had encouragement from Glimmertrain Press by making their Top 25 list of 2008’s Spring Fiction Open, and the Top 50 of their 2009 Best Start.

She has one unpublished novel and many short stories under her belt, with another novel underway.

Robb Lightfoot began his writing career in 1983 as a reporter for The Bakersfield Californian, writing daily breaking news and numerous feature articles.  In 1986 he began work as the PR Assistant at the Kern County Museum, writing news releases and writing/producing their newsletter. In 1988, he completed a master’s degree in communications, and has since taught at Modesto JC and later Shasta College. He placed as a top-ten finalist in the national Writer’s Digest Screenwriting Competition of 1991 with his entry, “One Little Indian.”

In the Writer’s Digest 2010 short story competition, he was one of the winners in the humor (genre) category, also placing in their YA fiction category.  2011 saw the first of several national publications of Robb’s humorous works in The Funny Times, and from 2012-14 he had a weekly humor column in ANewsCafe. The 2021 Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop anthology Sisters included his prize-winning story “My Sister’s Roller Skates.” He has self-published numerous books.

Presently, he is revising a first-draft novel, Wiley and Me, and Me, Too, an exaggerated retelling of the exploits and private life of the famous aviator Wiley Post.

Cam Douglas (no relation to actor Michael or Kirk) writes historical fiction, non-fiction, short stories, and more. He grew up in Cleveland. Cam drove a cab in New York City, and became a hippie-gypsy transplant to California in 1976. He’s worked a variety of jobs and been self-employed three times.

Cam spent 5 years as the assistant editor/reporter/photographer/floor sweeper for the weekly Cedar Street Times in Pacific Grove, covering everything from police activity to seal poop. He wrote more than 60 installments of CST’s environmental column The Green Page to raise awareness about electric cars, fracking, green building, water management, and other environmental topics. His interviews and stories have been published in The Salinas Californian, 65 Degrees magazine, and Backroads magazine. He worked with retirees who wanted to tell their stories and helped them put their books together. Those included L’arte Della Vita, JB’s Journal, A Small Circle, Helen Guillou, and My Name is Shirley.

Cam is semi-retired and devoting more time to his craft, and to his hobbies of swimming, photography, and building model cars. He recently completed his first novel, and is looking into its publication. https://camdouglas.com/  

C. S. Lakin is a writing coach, copyeditor, and author of more than thirty books (traditionally and indie published). She works with thousands of writers in six continents and does more than two hundred manuscript critiques a year. Her award-winning blog, Live Write Thrive, has more than one million words of instruction for writers. Her online school, Writing for Life Workshops at cslakin.teachable.com, offers courses for fiction writers seeking to improve their craft and write well-structured, unforgettable novels and short stories. C. S. (Susanne) is the fiction track coordinator for the SF Writers’ Conference and she also teaches workshops and master classes both in person and online.

MP Smith is a lifelong lover of the English language.

She served as a technical writer/editor for engineering and water firms for 35 years. Throughout her career, she marveled that she was paid to read—she was the kid with the flashlight under the blanket who read and reread anything she could get her hands on! MP retired in October 2021 and published her first cozy mystery novella a month later.

MP has recently established her freelance editing business. Her first two clients were an engineering firm requiring 16 podcasts in an under-the-wire project, and editing a 100,000-word thriller set in Sacramento that had her on the edge of her seat!