Maxwell Alexander Drake
Maxwell Drake is a dynamic and entertaining speaker always rated as one of the number one speakers of the events he attends. His Creative Writing Sessions have been a huge success to those interested in pursuing a career in writing and his open forum sessions are a pleasure for anyone interested in learning what goes on “behind the scenes” in the publishing industry.
Randall Platt
Randall Platt writes fiction for adults and young adults. Platt has been a full-time writer for thirty years which is certainly long enough to know better. She finds no shortage of fascinating characters and stories that spring from the beautiful Nearly all Platt novels take place in Washington or Oregon. A fi lm, Promise The Moon, has been made of one of Platt’s humorous westerns (The Four Arrows Fe-As-Ko). Platt’s novels have won several national accolades and six have been recently released as audio books. Hellie Jondoe, a historical young adult novel dealing with orphan trains and climaxing with the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918, was awarded the 2010 Willa (Cather) Literary Award and three other nationally recognized nods. Platt’s latest novel, Liberty’s Christmas, is set in Texas and takes young adult readers back to a time when ‘nobody had nothing and everybody borrowed it,’ the Great Depression. It received honorable mention for the Washington State Book Award for young adult fiction.
Maralys Wills
Maralys Wills’ fourteen published books span several genres and publishers. Her fiction works include four romance novels published by Harlequin and Silhouette, and a techno-thriller about airplane sabotage. For the past 27 years, Wills has taught college novel-writing, and in 2000 was voted “Teacher of the Year.” In addition to frequent speaking engagements, she has given numerous writing seminars—at UCLA, UC Riverside, UCI, Orange Coast College, Cerritos College, and at writers’ conferences across the country. She is a past president of the Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America.
Wills is the mother of six children–five boys and a girl. Her husband is a lawyer. She studied at Stanford and UCLA, earning a B.A. and a teaching credential. She once helped her sons run a hang gliding manufacturing business, but after the family tragedies she went home to write books.
Peter Bowerman
Peter Bowerman, a veteran commercial writer, is the self-published author of the
three award-winning Well-Fed Writer titles (www.wellfedwriter.com), how-to standards on lucrative “commercial” freelancing. He chronicled his self-publishing success (70,000 copies of his books in print and a full-time living since 2001) in the award-winning 2007 release, The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn
One Book into a Full-Time Living, and its 2014 updated edition. www.wellfedsp.com. He’s had 300+ articles published, speaks regularly on writing and publishing, and is a professional coach for commercial freelancing and self-publishing ventures. Check out his book titling service at www.titletailor.com
Nicole McInnes
Nicole McInnes is the author of the contemporary YA novel, BRIANNA ON THE BRINK (Holiday House, Spring 2013). She is also a university writing and literature instructor, a mom and a horsewoman.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Nicole received a Bachelor’s Degree in Literature (Creative Writing emphasis) from the University of California at Santa Cruz (go, Banana Slugs!). She also received a Master’s Degree in English (Creative Writing emphasis) from Northern Arizona University (go, Lumberjacks!).
She currently lives and works in northern Arizona.
Mia Thompson was born in Sweden and moved to the United States at the age of 19 to attend the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles. She graduated with a degree in screenwriting in 2007 and has since become the author of the internationally bestselling New Adult Thriller series about Beverly Hills heiress and vigilante, Sapphire Dubois. The series’ first two novels, STALKING SAPPHIRE and SILENCING SAPPHIRE, were published by Diversion Books in 2013.
Mia lives in Las Vegas with her husband and their dog, Oreo.