2022 Conference Presenters

Special Guest Presenters:

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Molly McGhee

Molly McGhee is from a cluster of unincorporated towns outside of Nashville, Tennessee. She completed her M.F.A. in fiction at Columbia University, where, in addition to receiving a Chair’s Fellowship, she teaches in the undergraduate creative writing department. She has worked in the editorial departments of McSweeney’s, The Believer, NOON, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Tor, where she was the editor of the instant New York Times Bestselling series, The Atlas Six. Currently living in Brooklyn, her work has appeared in The Paris Review. Her debut novel, JONATHAN ABERNATHY YOU ARE KIND, is forthcoming from Astra House in 2023.

Presenters:

Amy Collins

Amy Collins, Associate Agent with Talcott Notch Literary Services, has over 30 years of experience matching books with readers. As a former book buyer, publisher, and sales director (for one of the largest non-fiction publishers in the US,) Amy has been focused on market and sales potential research for authors for over ten years. As an agent, she represents many authors who have signed deals with major publishers and is currently negotiating book to film as well. Amy is the author of several non-fiction books and is currently traveling the country with her two dogs meeting with editors and authors. She can be found on Twitter at @askamycollins.

Andre Gonzalez

Andre Gonzalez is the author of all things thriller and horror. He has penned the Wealth of Time series and the Insanity trilogy, and is the recipient of RMFW’s 2021 Independent Writer of the Year award. Andre has served as the PAA Liaison since 2019. You’ll likely find him buried under a long to-do list or his three young (and energetic) children.

Arielle Haughee

Arielle Haughee (Hoy) is a six-time RPLA-winning author and the owner of Orange Blossom Publishing. She is an editor, speaker, and writing coach, and was previously the Executive Vice President and Marketing Chair for the Florida Writers Association. She was honored with the President’s Award from FWA in 2020, and in 2021 Pling’s Party was awarded Children’s Book of the Year. Her press, Orange Blossom Publishing, publishes books about love, humor, and wellness for women and children. She is currently taking submissions for romance, women’s fiction, young adult, and nonfiction of interest to the female audience. More information at orangeblossombooks.com.

Bernadette Soehner

Bestselling Author, Bernadette Marie is the 2020/2021 IWOTY, author of over 45 titles, and known for building families readers want to be part of, including her bestselling Keller and Walker Family series. Owner of 5 Prince Publishing, she enjoys sharing her knowledge of writing and publishing.

Brenda Hardwick

Brenda M Hardwick is an award-winning Indie author who began writing at the age of ten. She won second place in RMFW’s Colorado Gold Contest with the first three chapters of Harlem Angel: Book 1 of The Circle in 1993. Twenty-five years later after retiring from a twenty-seven-year career in state government, Harlem Angel was published in 2018. The Conductor: Book 2 of the Circle, was released during the pandemic lockdown in April 2020. Brenda self-published a total of two fiction and two non-fiction titles, three of which won CIPA EVVY awards. Freedom Rings: Book 3 of The Circle will be released in 2022. Brenda lives in Colorado with her dog Lelu and has two sons, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Caitlin Berve

Caitlin Berve is the author of When Magic Calls: A Collection of Modern Fairy Tales and the owner of Ignited Ink Writing. She edits novels, creates video tutorials, teaches, and writes. She seeks to fill the world with the kind of writing that lingers with readers and find magic in modern times.

Connie Bauldree

Connie Bauldree is a hybrid author writing under the pen names, Emersyn Kane, Payton Rome, Connie Connolly and Connie Bauldree. Connie loves to help other authors and thus founded of Author by Design, home of the Builder Series and the Writer’s Block Box. When she’s not writing or curating boxes, she can be found volunteering for RMFW and chasing kids in Eastern Colorado.

Dan Grant

Dan Grant is a member of RMWF and a bestselling author of two parallel thriller series. He has a master’s degree with an emphasis in creative writing, has taught college courses, and presented craft-focused story workshops for RMFW, PPW, and Denver Pop Culture Con. For his debut science/medical thriller, The Singularity Witness, Pacific Book Review said, “Devilishly clever, and good, this is Dan Grant” and New York Times international bestselling Author James Rollins said, “blew me away. It has everything I love in a novel (and so much more). Don’t miss it!”

Dani Coleman

Dani Coleman has been learning the craft of writing since childhood and  is a three-time finalist in the Colorado Gold Rush Literary Awards. She works as a scientific programmer, karate instructor and mother, and has many hobbies that attempt to steal time from her writing.

Gary McBride

Gary McBride founded and leads Writers Who Read, a monthly workshop for writers in Boulder that by September 2022 will be 44 books, er, 5 years old. We perform Literary Forensics on the corpora, to learn everything we can through deep reading.

Grayson Towler

I’m Grayson Towler, a senior copywriter for the independent publisher Sounds True, where I’ve been working since 2004. I’ve written copy for books, music, videos, original audio programs, online courses, live events, and marketing campaigns, including our company’s first New York Times bestseller, The Wim Hof Method. I’ve trained numerous freelancers, editors, and junior copywriters in the best practices for writing persuasive, authentic, and effective sales copy. I’m the author of the Middle Grade novel The Dragon Waking, and have published numerous short stories in anthologies, including Wings of Change and Water Faeries. Since 2016, I’ve been an editor for the online speculative fiction magazine, Electric Spec.

Heather Webb

Heather Webb is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of eight historical novels. In 2015, Rodin’s Lover was a Goodread’s Top Pick, and in 2018, Last Christmas in Paris won the Women’s Fiction Writers Association STAR Award. Meet Me in Monaco, was selected as a finalist for the 2020 Goldsboro RNA award in the UK, as well as the 2019 Digital Book World’s Fiction prize. To date, Heather’s books have been translated to seventeen languages. She is also a freelance editor of over a decade and an adjunct in the MFA in Creative Writing program at Drexel University. She lives in New England with her family, a mischievous kitten, and one feisty rabbit.

Jacob Schriver

Being a six-year veteran in a combat MOS in the United State Army, I trained with and worked with many different contracting groups. I have extensive weapons, close combat, and small unit tactics knowledge and experience. I am currently working for a security company as an Armed Guard/Executive Protection Agent. I have attended the best Executive Protection Academy in the country called Pacific West Academy in Los Angeles. Currently also a part of a contracting group, Tier One Recon. Shortly after this conference takes place, I will be leaving for another contracting group that operates in the most hostile waters around the world.

Jason Evans

Jason Evans grew up in Southern California, attending UCSB and receiving bachelors in History & Renaissance studies. After teaching in Southern California for a few years he moved to Denver with his wife, where Jason continued his career in teaching.After discovering a passion for storytelling, Jason had his first short story published in 2014. Eight short stories, four novels, an editor’s credit on an anthology, as well as a collection of short stories of his own. In addition, Jason has blogged for Pikes Peak Writers and RMFW, while becoming a fixture at local conventions. Jason currently sits on the RMFW Board as its Education Chair.

Johnny Worthen

Johnny Worthen is an award-winning, multiple-genre, tie-dye-wearing author, voyager, and damn fine human being! Trained in literary criticism and cultural studies, he writes upmarket fiction, long and short, mentors others where he can, and teaches writing at the University of Utah.

Joy Jarrett-Meredith

Joy Jarrett is the author of the horror romance, Old Cravings, winner of a Paranormal Romance Guild Reviewers Choice Award. She enjoys imagining something creepy in every situation, starting with a fourth-grade theater production when she became convinced a monster lived under the stage. Even though she won’t let different foods touch on her plate, she’s fearless when it comes to mixing love stories and horror. Joy works in a library and has a Zoology degree from UC Davis. Past jobs have been at a pet store, an animal science barn, a safari park, and vet hospitals so it’s no surprise animals always feature in her writing.

Karen Lin

Karen is a hopeless foodie, award-winning novelist, and produced screenwriter. Many of her stories are inspired by her experience marrying into a Taiwanese family. Food is often a subplot. Mu Shu Mac & Cheese and American Moon: A Chinese Immigrant Story are available on Amazon. She was honored to appear alongside other writers in the anthology, Fresh Starts. She, her husband, and their two boys have traveled the world as she researches recipes for a literary cookbook. She’s published magazine articles, poems, shorts, and flash fiction in many genres. She’s a freelance editor for award-winning and bestselling authors. She teaches for cruise lines and writers conferences. http://www.karenalbrightlin.com

Kate Jonuska

Kate Jonuska is an indie author, freelance writer and yoga teacher as well as the current Vice President of the RMFW Board. Her debut novel (Transference) was a finalist for the 2017 BookLife Prize, and the second edition of her Dictionary of Fiction Critique published in 2020.

Kelley J.P. Lindberg

Kelley J. P. Lindberg writes adult and YA fiction, nonfiction, and award-winning how-to books. She’s also a freelance/contract writer. When she isn’t writing, she’s traveling as far and as often as she can. She blogs about the writer’s life and writing craft on her website: www.KelleyLindberg.com.

Kendra Griffin

Kendra Griffin enjoys writing about underdogs, social inequality, and family dynamics. She recently published two novels in her dystopian YA series: The Pox Ward and Apocalypse Thoughts. Kendra teaches creative writing for Aims Community College and is a member of RMFW and Borderlands Writers.

Kerry Schafer

Kerry Schafer (who also writes a Kerry Anne King) was the RMFW Writer of the Year in 2020. She is a best-selling hybrid author with twelve novels in print. She is a retired RN, a licensed mental health counselor, and a certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach. In addition to writing, Kerry provides writer coaching, online classes, and virtual assistant services through her Author Genie business. She is active in the podcasting community and is the host of Taming the TBR. When not absorbed in creative pursuits, you’ll find her hanging out with her real life Viking on their little piece of heaven just outside Colville, Washington.

Laura Manuel

Laura Manuel was a law enforcement officer (LEO) for 21 years in Virginia & Colorado. She taught Criminal Justice and Psychology at FRCC after earning her Ph.D. She established and was the Director for the first LEA (Law Enforcement Academy) at FRCC. Now retired, she still teaches at the LEA.

Laurie Marr Wasmund

LAURIE MARR WASMUND holds an M.A. in Literature from the University of Denver. She has worked as an editor, community college instructor, and national writing workshop presenter. Her short stories have appeared in literary magazines such as CIMARRON REVIEW and WEBER STUDIES. She is the author of MY HEART LIES HERE, a novel of the Ludlow Massacre; CLEAN CUT, A Romance of the Western Heart; and the WHITE WINTER TRILOGY, which is set in Colorado during the Great War and the 1920s. The third book of the Trilogy, TO WALK HUMBLY, was a 2020 finalist for the Mainstream/Literary book award from the Colorado Authors League. It also received a 2020 EVVY third place award in Historical Fiction from the Colorado Independent Publishers Association.

Lisa Adams

Lisa Adams is an attorney and author. specializing in historical fantasy and fiction. She wrote her first book when she was eleven and, as an attorney, continues to frame cases as stories for the jury. She is married and lives in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Lisa Hawker

LS Hawker is the author of USA Today bestseller and ITW Thriller Awards finalist THE DROWNING GAME, BODY AND BONE, END OF THE ROAD, and THE THROWAWAYS. Visit LSHawker.com to read about her adventures as cocktail waitress, traveling Kmart portrait photographer, and witness to basement exorcisms.

M.H. Boroson

Author of THE GIRL WITH GHOST EYES and THE GIRL WITH NO FACE. Work-in-progress: WORLD WITHOUT GHOSTS; screen adaptation of THE GIRL WITH GHOST EYES. Obsessed with Hong Kong cinema. Transnational geek; social justice wizard. He/him.

Mandy Miller

Mandy is an attorney, editor, and the author of the Grace Locke Legal Mystery series. She holds a J.D. and a PhD in Psychology. She participates in ultramarathons, an endeavor much like writing a novel writing in that the journey is long and requires dedication, not to mention a dash of madness.

Mark Graham

Marc Graham is an author, actor, story coach, shamanic practitioner, and the developer of the Runes for Writers creativity method. When not in the studio or bound to his computer, he can be found traipsing about the Colorado Front Range. His titles include Of /Ashes and Dust/; /Song of Songs: A Novel of the Queen of Sheba/; /Son of the Sea, Daughter of the Sun/; and /Runes for Writers: Boost Your Creativity and Destroy Writer’s Block/.

Mariah Ankenman

Mary Gillgannon

Mary Gillgannon began writing historical romance soon after she discovered the genre. She loves how these stories allow her to portray the adventure and high stakes of past eras, yet focus on relationships and create a happy ending. She’s written twenty novels, including romances set in the dark age, medieval and Regency time periods, time travel and historical fantasy. She worked at a public library for over thirty years acquiring adult fiction.

Michael Haspil

Michael F. Haspil is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a science fiction and fantasy author. He hosts the Quantum Froth Dispatches podcast which examines storytelling through pop-culture classics and shares author interviews. His novel from TOR books, Graveyard Shift, an urban fantasy story about an immortal pharaoh out to stop an ancient vampire conspiracy in modern-day Miami, was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. Michael is currently working on several tie-in fiction projects and other assorted novels and short stories. His stories have made numerous anthology appearances including in Gunfight On Europa Station and the upcoming No Game For Knights from Baen. His Warhammer 40,000 stories are currently available from Games Workshop’s Black Library.

Nicole Kramer

Nicole Kramer is a writer and photographer dedicated to helping other creatives connect to their community and speak to the people who need their work. An entrepreneur at heart Nicole ran her own photography company from 2013-2020 and recently co-founded Sea Dust Media to focus on helping Authors and Artists build sustainable marketing practices and communities. She is currently the Production and Venue manager for the Colorado Conservatory of Dance where she manages the theaters marketing, handles venue operations, oversees the company’s productions and runs the high school internship program. She holds a Bachelors in Performing Arts and a Masters of Communications in Media Management both from Colorado State University.

Pam Nowak

Pamela Nowak confronts the difficult task of combining fact and fiction with a strong commitment to both. Her solid research allows her to discover the hidden stories within history; her character- and scene-development skills bring those stories to life. She is a past RMFW Writer of the Year and was awarded a Colorado Book Award, multiple HOLT Medallion Awards, a WILLA Finalist Award, and dual Feathered Quill Finalist Awards.

Peggy Waide

#1 Amazon bestselling author Peggy entered her first book in the Colorado Gold. The editor offered a contract. She has published four romances with Dorchester. Montlake now publishes her books. She is shopping an amateur sleuth and contemporary romance. She’s also been a trainer, coach and speaker.

Rachel Dempsey

Rachel Dempsey has written and directed over a dozen plays for numerous acclaimed theater organizations such as Imagination Stage and ArtStream. Her prose won first prize in The Colorado Gold Rush Literary Awards and also won the Denver Women’s Press Club Emerging Writers Contest. She holds a BFA in Drama and English from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a Master’s degree in Journalism from Georgetown University. Currently, she lives in Denver with her husband and three daughters and attends the MFA program at Regis. She also participates in the local writing community and homes her craft through Lighthouse Writers Workshop and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers.

Rod Martinez

Author of middle grade & young adult, Rod Martinez grew up on Marvel Comics and Twilight Zone, the inspiration was inevitable. Challenged by his son to write a story about him and his friends like the Goonies but in Tampa, his first novel The Juniors was picked up by a publisher and the rest is history. Rod was recipient of the 2017 Jerry Spinelli Scholarship, the 2018 Professional Development for Artists Grant in Tampa and several WOC scholarship/awards. A self-proclaimed Ambassador of the Literary Arts, he speaks at schools, conferences, comic-cons and libraries promoting the love of the written word.

Sharon Mignerey

Longtime member of RMFW, Sharon Mignerey is a multi-published authors in romance and women’s fiction. She has an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Her most recent title is TOO LOVE A STRANGER

Stant Litore

Stant Litore is the author of Ansible, The Running of the Tyrannosaurs, The Zombie Bible, and Dante’s Heart. Besides science fiction and fantasy, he has written the writers toolkits Write Worlds Your Readers Won’t Forget and Write Characters Your Readers Won’t Forget, as well as Lives of Unstoppable Hope and Lives of Unforgetting, and has been featured in Jeff Vandermeer’ss Wonderbook: An Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction. He has served as a developmental editor for the writers’ collaborative Westmarch Publishing and holds a Ph.D. in English. He lives in Aurora, Colorado with his three children and is currently at work on his next novel.

Sue Hinkin

Co-Chair of the Colorado Gold Rush Literary Awards, Sue Hinkin is a former television news photographer, NBC-TV Art Department manager, as well as a college teacher and administrator. The recently published The Mermaid Broker is her 4th Vega and Middleton thriller.

Susan Brooks

Susan Brooks is editor in chief at Literary Wanderlust, a small, traditional publisher located in Denver. She has loved books since she first got her hands on Go, Dog. Go! By P.D. Eastman as a toddler. She has many years of editorial experience and has a master’s degree in publishing from The George Washington University. She was on the board of directors for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, a non-profit, volunteer-run organization dedicated to supporting, encouraging, and educating writers from 2009 to 2019. She is a lover of cats and cares for Ragnar and Ziggy, two rescues who rule the house and expect breakfast and dinner at exacting times.

Tamara Cribley

Tamara Cribley is a seasoned graphic designer, who operates on the philosophy that beautiful books don’t happen by chance. Over the course of the last decade, Tamara has worked in a variety of roles, including Commercial Photographer, Graphic Artist, and Art Director. Each of these roles has contributed to a unique skill set that enables Tamara to put together classy and professional books that keep the reader focused on the story. She resides in Colorado with her Search and Rescue K9, Sam Sue, where they spend their free time exploring the backcountry.

Tasha Christensen

Tasha Christensen believes the best love stories are found in the geekiest places. Her debut novel, AS YOU WERE, is a marching band romantic comedy. When not composing tuba closet make-out scenes, she enjoys writing music, getting way too competitive about board games, and exploring the gorgeous Rocky Mountains. Tasha lives with her husband, daughters, and an overly affectionate dog named after her favorite Stranger Things character.

Terri Benson

A life-long writer, Terri is traditionally and self-published in novel length, with 3 novels and nearly a hundred articles and short stories published, many award winning. She was the Education Chair for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers for several years, is an irregular blogger (in more ways than one), member of Sisters in Crime and Rocky Mountain Mystery Writers, presents workshops at writer’s conferences, and teaches night classes at Western Colorado Community College. Terri spends her non-writing time working at a Business Incubator, camping, jeeping, and dirt biking with her junior-high-school sweetheart/husband of 40+ years and a succession of Brittany spaniels. You can find more information on her at https://www.terribensonwriter.com/

TH Leatherman

TH Leatherman is a writer from Firestone, Colorado. When not busy writing his next book, he can be found hiking with his wife and rescued dogs. He has released six books, The Burning Son, Marque of the Son, Son Rise, Twin Sons, The Son Set, and 1001 Puns, Dad Jokes, and One-Liners.

Trai Cartwright

TRAI CARTWRIGHT, MFA, is a 25-year entertainment industry veteran and creative writing specialist. She teaches, produces, and writes screenplays and novels, and can be found at www.craftwrite.com. While in Los Angeles, she was a screenwriter, independent film producer, and story consultant and development executive for HBO, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, New Lines Cinema, and 20th Century Fox. She is the producer of multiple short form films and four independent films. Trai currently teaches creative writing, screenwriting, and producing for three online master’s programs, writers groups such as her Denver Screenwriters Meetup, conferences and cons, and one-on-one as a development and story editor.