Waynetta Ausmus
A Texan for 40 years and an Oklahoman by birth, Waynetta Ausmus hails from
Pawhuska and Bartlesville in Osage country where the love of the West was
instilled in her from an early age. She lives on the Lucky Me Ranch. For
twenty years as a teacher and principal, she was a positive influence on
the lives of hundreds of elementary students. She now does workshops on
journaling and storytelling and has radio shows celebrating the Western
Lifestyle.
Irma Ned Bailey
Irma Ned Bailey, professor of English at San Antonio College, is the author
of Fire in the Bones, a novel published in 2004 by Panther Creek Press.
The novel concerns life in a Texas oil boom in the early twentieth century.
Currently, she is writing a travel narrative based on her experiences as
a Fulbright lecturer in Italy at the University of Salerno.
David W. Balsiger
David W. Balsiger is a TV producer-director, international rights supervisor,
and the author of 40 major literary works including 25 nonfiction books
(latest The Evidence for Heaven, Case for Christ’s Resurrection, and Miraculous
Messages). He is the vice-president/senior producer at Grizzly Adams Productions,
the producers of 500 family friendly movies, TV specials, and series episodes
since 1999. His books and TV shows have won 160 national awards for journalistic,
literary or production excellence.
Stephanie Barko
Stephanie Barko is a literary publicist based in Texas. She accepts nonfiction
and historical fiction, and particularly enjoys marketing Western authors
and Texana. Her skills include creating comprehensive platforms, acquiring
influential reviews, leveraging the media, and launching custom virtual
tours. Clients include authors under contract with traditional publishers,
small presses, and independently published writers. Stephanie lives with
a Western aficionado and two cats near Austin, where she founded a book
group. Visit Stephanie at www.authorsassistant.com.
Velda Brotherton
Velda Brotherton has been writing for 20 plus years. Her love of history
and the West has produced ten books of fiction and nonfiction. She also
conducts workshops and is a member of a critique group that has helped new
writers for 20 years. She is a native of Arkansas and lives there with her
husband.
Carol Buchanan
Descended from Montana pioneers and homesteaders, Carol Buchanan is a long-time
nonfiction writer and student of Montana history. Now she turns to historical
fiction in God’s Thunderbolt, The Vigilantes of Montana. Her story, “Comes
a Stranger,” based on her grandmother’s encounter with the Sundance Kid,
appeared online in the summer issue of New-Works Review. A Web designer
since 1997, she has made extensive use of online publishing opportunities.
Laurie Wagner Buyer
Poet and novelist Laurie Wagner Buyer divides her time between Woodland
Park, Colorado, and Llano, Texas. Laurie is the author of three collections
of poetry, Glass-eyed Paint in the Rain, Red Colt Canyon and Across the
High Divide, which won the Western Writers of America Spur Award in Poetry
and was named a WILLA Literary Award Finalist. Her novel, Side Canyons,
was released by Five Star Publishing in 2004. Laurie received the Beryl
Markham Prize for Spring’s Edge, a memoir published in 2008.
Donis Casey
Donis Casey, author of the award-winning Alafair Tucker Mystery series,
was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After three decades as a teacher,
an academic librarian, and an entrepreneur, she now devotes herself full-time
to writing. Donis lives in Tempe, AZ, with her husband.
Ron Chrisman
Ron Chrisman began his publishing career at Syracuse University Press, moving
to the University of Oklahoma Press to acquire and edit the paperbacks program
and, later, acquire new manuscripts in military history. In 2000, he became
director of the University of North Texas Press in Denton, Texas, which
is part of the Texas A&M University Press Consortium. He acquires in
the fields of Texas history, western history, military history, criminal
justice, and multicultural topics, among others, and publishes fifteen new
books a year to a national and international audience.
Julianne Couch
Julianne Couch is the author of Jukeboxes & Jackalopes: A Wyoming Bar
Journey. Her work has appeared in High Country News, Owen Wister Review,
Heritage of the Great Plains, Peaks & Plains, Ahead of Their Time: Wyoming
Voices for the Wilderness and other publications. She is the editor of the
UW Alumnews, co-hosts a literary radio program on a local community station,
and teaches in the English department at the University of Wyoming.
Elizabeth Crook
Elizabeth Crook is the author of three novels: The Raven's Bride (Doubleday
1991), Promised Lands (Doubleday 1993), and The Night Journal (Viking/Penguin
2006). Elizabeth has written for Texas Monthly and the Southwestern Historical
Quarterly, and has served on the council of the Texas Institute of Letters.
The Night Journal was awarded the 2007 Spur Award for Best Long Novel of
the West and the 2007 Willa Literary Award for Historical Fiction. Elizabeth
lives in Austin with her husband and two children.
Lou Dean
Lou Dean, who grew up in Osage County Oklahoma, is an award-winning writer
and “Cowboy Poet” with countless articles in print. Among her credits include
articles in Family Circle and Ladies Home Journal. Her first book, Angels
in Disguise, was a 1999 nominee for the prestigious Colorado Blue Spruce
Award. An excerpt from the book won article of the year at the 2000 Western
Heritage Awards in Oklahoma City's Cowboy Hall of Fame. Her first novel,
Reaching for the Reins, won "Top Hand Award" from the Colorado
Authors' League for young-adult book-length fiction in 2001. Lou divides
her time between a mountain retreat in northwest Colorado and a home on
the Arkansas River in Oklahoma.
Lee Emory
Lee Emory, author, and publisher of Treble Heart Books, lives in Arizona
with her husband and two pussycats who run the household. She has been a
technical writer, fiction writer and professional editor for nearly 40 years.
Lee enjoys presenting interactive workshops at conferences and looks forward
to meeting new and established writers. She wishes she still looked like
this picture.
Kathleen Ernst
WWW President Kathleen Ernst is a writer, social historian, and educator.
She has published fourteen novels for young readers, an adult nonfiction
book, articles, essays, and poetry. She has also scripted instructional
video programs for public television. Honors for her work include a WILLA
Finalist Award; Emmy, Flora MacDonald, and Arthur Tofte Awards; and Edgar
and Agatha Award nominations. Kathleen lives, writes, and gardens in Wisconsin.
Mike Farris
Mike Farris is an entertainment attorney (www.tiptonjoneslaw.com), as well
as a literary agent at Farris Literary Agency, Inc. (www.farrisliterary.com).
He is actively seeking fiction projects (thrillers, suspense, mysteries,
mainstream, action/adventure, literary, Christian, westerns) as well as
non-fiction (how-to, self-help, law, true crime, current affairs, popular
culture, women's issues, biography, history, travel, sports, politics, entertainment,
spiritual and inspirational).
Gail L. Fiorini-Jenner
Gail Jenner is the author of Across the Sweet Grass Hills, winner of the
2002 WILLA Literary Award for Best Softcover Fiction. She is also the co-author
of Western Siskiyou County: Gold & Dreams; Images of the State of Jefferson;
and The State of Jefferson: Then & Now (a finalist in the Next Generation
2008 Indie Book Awards for Regional Non-Fiction), all released by Arcadia
Publishing. A secondary English/history teacher, she writes a bi-weekly
historical column for her local paper. Gail served as president of Women
Writing the West in 2004.
Carolyn Wing Greenlee
In 1985, Carolyn Wing Greenlee established Earthen Vessel Productions. Since
then has published more than thirty books, twelve she wrote, the rest she
edited. An award-winning photographer, Carolyn was Lake County's Poet Laureate
for 2004–05, and Lake County Stars’ Best Professional Artist of 2007. Speaking
for Fire, which she edited and illustrated, was awarded Best Children’s
Book for 2007 from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.
Diana López
Diana López is a native of Corpus Christi, Texas. She now teaches English
at St. Philip’s College in San Antonio. Her novel, Sofia’s Saints, was published
by Bilingual Review Press in 2002, and other works include short stories
published in Chicago Quarterly
Review, The Sycamore Review and New Texas Fiction. Her latest book, a young
adult novel titled Confetti Girl, will be published by Little, Brown in
spring 2009.
Cynthia Leal Massey
Cynthia Leal Massey, who was born and raised in San Antonio, won the 2008
Lone Star Award for magazine journalism for her Scene in SA article, “Is
UT Holding Our History Hostage?” and is the award-winning author of Fire
Lilies, a novel of the Mexican Revolution, and The Caballeros of Ruby, Texas,
a WILLA Award finalist. Her first nonfiction book, Helotes, Where The Texas
Hill Country Begins, was released this year by Old American Publishing.
Tim Draves
2008 winner of the Texas State Historical Association’s Fred White Research
Fellowship for his work on the life of Mary Menger, Tim Draves will present
"Bed Board and Beer, Mary Menger, 1816-1887" to attendees on the
Friday morning tour. Draves, has a master’s degree in history, and teaches
History of San Antonio at the University of the Incarnate Word, and Advanced
Placement English at MacArthur High School.
Ann Parker
Ann Parker writes high-tech verbiage by day and historical mysteries at
night. Her award-winning Silver Rush mystery series, featuring saloon owner
Inez Stannert, is set in the 19th-century of Leadville, Colorado. Silver
Lies won the 2004 Willa for Historical Fiction; Iron Ties won the 2007 Colorado
Book Award for Popular Fiction. Strangely enough, given her obsession with
Leadville, she lives (and has always—except for two years—lived) in the
San Francisco Bay Area. Website: http://www.annparker.net.
Harriet Rochlin
After launching her landmark social history, Pioneer Jews: A New Life in
the Far West, Harriet Rochlin turned to fiction to probe the inner lives
of these pioneers in the acclaimed Desert Dwellers trilogy, Her fifth book
will be A Mixed Chorus: Jewish Women in the American West. See www.rochlin-roots-west.com.
Mark Stepp
Mark Stepp, owner of Old American Publishing in Houston, has been a full
time writer and publisher for 30 years in both Texas and Oklahoma. Before
that, he spent seven years working as a newspaper reporter and editor. He
has written grammar and style guides for five of Houston’s Fortune 100 companies
since 1995. “Old American Publishing is the culmination of a lifetime of
dreams,” he says. “When I was a young boy moving from town to town with
my military family, I used to wonder about all the towns and cities we drove
through. Today, I only publish history books about small to medium-sized
cities in North America. It’s a genre I understand, and I know how to market
the books.”
Stefanie Von Borstel
Stefanie Von Borstel is a literary agent with Full Circle Literary (co-founded
with Lilly Ghahremani). Prior to agenting, she worked in various editorial
and marketing positions with Penguin and Harcourt. She represents nonfiction
and children's books, including
parenting, green living, women's interest, how-to, as well as multicultural
children's picture books, middle grade and young adult. She is also interested
in Latino fiction and nonfiction. One of Stefanie's recent projects include
Diana López's middle grade
novel, Confetti Girl (Little, Brown).
Florence Byham Weinberg
Florence Byham Weinberg, Professor Emerita of French and Spanish literature
at San Antonio's Trinity University, is the author of historical mysteries
featuring a Jesuit priest sleuth. Her historical novel, Apache Lance, Franciscan
Cross, was a 2006 WILLA Literary Award Finalist in Historical Fiction and
earned finalist designations in two categories of the 2007 New Mexico Book
Awards: Historical Fiction and Best Book on the Southwest.
Conference Registration deadline:
October 3, 2008
(No refunds after this date)
Contact Cindy Massey at cmassey2@satx.rr.com
for more inforamtion.