Lori Foster Reader & Author Get Together 2008
Agents/Editors/ Publishers/Special Guests
Cindy Hwang
Berkley Publishing
A graduate of Smith College and the Radcliffe Publishing Course, Cindy is currently Executive Editor at the Berkley Publishing Group. She acquires romances, women's fiction, mysteries, young adult novels as well as general fiction and non-fiction. Some of her authors include Lori Foster, Christine Feehan, Alyssa Day, Elizabeth Bevarly, Barbara Bretton, Emma Holly, Erin McCarthy, Nalini Singh, Eileen Wilks, Pamela Clare, Anya Bast, Donna MacMeans, Shiloh Walker, Lora Leigh, Angela Knight, MaryJanice Davidson, and Karen White.
Angela James
Executive Editor at Samhain Publishing
A former harem princess, Duchess of York and globe-trotting superhero, Angela James has lived an extensive fantasy life thanks to the world of books. But after all that, she settled for the job of Executive Editor at Samhain Publishing, where she's worked since its inception in 2005.
In love with everything involving the world of publishing, and most especially epublishing, every day is a new adventure for Angela as she is constantly learning something new about editing, publishing and the digital age.
Laura Bradford
Bradford Literary Agency
Laura began her career as a literary agent at Manus and Associates Literary Agency and is a member of the Romance Writers of America. She is a former board member of the San Francisco Area RWA chapter and an RWA-recognized agent. During her own misadventures as a writer, Laura came to understand the importance of having a friendly but critical eye on your side, a career strategist in your corner and a guide who can lead you through the travails of publication. With these qualities in mind, Laura delivers the personal and hands-on attention that a large corporate agency cannot offer. As an editorial-focused agent Laura works closely with her clients developing proposals and manuscripts for the most appropriate markets.
The Bradford Literary Agency is a boutique agency which offers a full range of representation services to authors who are both published and pre-published.
We specialize in all types of romance (including category), romantica/erotica, women’s fiction, mystery, thrillers and young adult. We also represent non-fiction and other fiction genres. All queries sent to us will be considered with the exception of poetry, children’s books, screenplays and short stories. We do not charge reading fees for evaluating your material. Our mission at the Bradford Literary Agency is to form true partnerships with our clients and build long-term relationships that extend from writing the first draft through the length of the author’s career.
DeNita Tuttle
Author Island
DeNita Tuttle published her first dark suspense, SWEET DREAMS under the name DL Edwards and then discovered the work had just begun. After two Laura Bradford has fourteen years of professional experience as a literary agent, editor, writer and bookseller years of learning the ropes of promotion the hard way, she created AuthorIsland.com as an affordable place where authors can create an on-line presence to reach new readers every day.
She developed the site with the reader in mind and that's why it's unique, easy to move around in and full of great books, fun contests and fabulous authors! That might also be why AuthorIsland.com is currently averaging well over a half a million hits a month and seems to grow every single month! There are treasures waiting to be discovered on AuthorIsland.com - stop by and be ready to explore!
Rae Morgan
Liquid Silver
After twenty-something years of practicing law, Monette decided that she was tired of a justice system that had become more and more political. Thus, she turned to writing books where the good guys always come out on top and the bad guys get their comeuppances - - that's why they call it "fiction."
She also acquires books for Liquid Silver and is the Senior Editor of its Terran Realm line
Her Coven of the Wolf series, features a large midwestern coven fronted by a Fortune 500 Company and is published by Liquid Silver Books. She is currently working on an urban fantasy for Liquid Silver's Terran Realm
Roberta Brown
Brown Literary Agency
Roberta Brown of the Brown Literary Agency is located in Naples, Florida. She's been an agent for fourteen years, specializing in women's fiction, romance, and erotica. Several of her authors appear regularly on the USA Today and New York Times Lists. Member AAR, RWA, and Authors Guild. www.brownliteraryagency.com
Jennifer Schober
Spencerhill Associates
Jennifer Schober is an agent with SPENCERHILL ASSOCIATES, whose president is Karen Solem. Prior to joining SPENCERHILL in 2006, Jennifer received a BA in Religious Studies at Ithaca College and an MA in Counseling Psychology from Lesley University. Jennifer has been actively acquiring since October 2006 and in that time has sold over 30 books with recent sales to Mills & Boon, Kensington and Harper Collins. Jennifer is looking for books that reach out and hook her emotions-work with fantastic storytelling and dynamic characters that leap off the page. She is accepting submissions from published and unpublished authors in women's fiction including literary fiction; category, contemporary, historical, erotic and paranormal romance, mystery/suspense, as well as fantasy/urban fantasy. She is accepting YA. She does not accept Children’s or non-fiction.
Susan Grimshaw
Borders/Book Buyer
Susan Grimshaw is the romance fiction & audio book buyer for Borders Group, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, generating $3.9 billion in sales annually. BGI operates more than 1000 bookstores including Borders, Borders Express and Waldenbooks. She has been with BGI over a decade, with the last seven years devoted to buying romance books. As a girl growing up in rural Wisconsin, she developed an interest in most outdoor sports, but more often than not she is found curled up on the couch with a good romance book.
Michelle Buonfiglio
Romance Buy The Book
Whether she’s encouraging “Romance: B(u)y the Book” (RBTB) viewers to embrace and explore their sexual fantasies – or praising alpha male heroes who are “big in all ways” – Lifetime Television’s online Romance Columnist Michelle Buonfiglio’s day is made when you join in the discussion at RBTB. Hang with Michelle at myLifetime.com!
Christina Brashear, Publisher
Samhain
Born and raised two miles from a uranium processing plant, Crissy swears she really isn’t glowing, it’s just your imagination.
Crissy has been a lifelong lover of books—a born reader. She was maliciously tricked into going to kindergarten on a promise that she would be taught how to read. She came home that first day still unable to read and has not forgiven her family to this day, she has a long memory. Romance novels helped Crissy survive the years of being an active duty military wife and the long periods of separation from her own real life hero. He who moves a library with every relocation and with minimal complaint has to be considered a hero.
Crissy’s been educated in office management and as an administrative assistant, though she refuses to obtain a degree because of the speech course requirement—fear of public speaking. Her job history covers a plethora of subjects ranging from retail, admin in a Total Quality office (Great experience), banking, insurance and finally to information technology before applying all her learned skills to the e-publishing arena. She applies not only her life experiences, common sense but also her own judgment as to what an average reader would want or think—after all, that’s what she is—when making decisions or thinking of new ideas for her companies.
Rhonda Penders
Editor-in-Chief of Wild Rose Press
Rhonda Pender is co-founder of The Wild Rose Press, a publishing company that publishes in both electronic and print. The company has been open since May 2006 and has quickly grown from a two person organization to close to 80 staff members. Penders has been involved with RWA and their conferences and chapter contests for well over ten years. It was her love of judging contests, and helping writers that led her to open her own publishing house with her long time friend, RJ Morris.
TWRP prides itself on never issuing form rejection letters and on being a kinder and gentler publishing house. Their web site, which is referred to as “the garden” is truly a community garden where everyone feels as if they have a part in its growth. Writers, authors, readers and editors come together in weekly chats, on loops, on blogs, and on email to discuss ideas, thoughts, concerns and plans for growing the company. The editors and the owners are completely accessible to their writers.
Penders enjoys reading romance of any kind but her first love would be stories set around ranches. “Put a cowboy on the cover and you’ve got me,” she confesses. Penders lives in Upstate NY with her husband of 23 years and her three sons, ages 12 – 20. The Wild Rose Press has fourteen individual subgenres of romance and is accepting submissions in all of them. For more information and their current guidelines you can visit their web site at www.thewildrosepress.com
Michelle Witvliet
Wild Rose Press
Michelle has been an editor with The Wild Rose Press for over a year and an author with them for almost as long. Damn the Man, her first contemporary release with TWRP, was a 2006 RWA Golden Heart finalist.
She lives in Northwest Indiana with the love of her life--her husband of thirty-plus years.
Nan Swanson
Wild Rose Press
Nan Swanson has lived in and traveled to many places, garnering all sorts of experiences along the way. She’s done everything from stuffing newspaper ads to teaching high school English, scrubbing floors in a German kinderheim to playing social worker in the Adirondacks to transcribing insurance statements in Seattle. Nan now lives in the Midwest with her two cats and large personal library and enjoys quilting, playing Boggle with her mother, and visiting with friends. As Senior Editor for the Vintage Rose line of The Wild Rose Press, she also loves reading all the wonderful submissions set in the 1900s.
Susan Yates
Wild Rose Press
Susan Yates edits for the Vintage, Climbing and Yellow Rose lines of The Wild Rose Press. Her various careers include high school English teacher, website developer, and Naval officer but her first love has always been the written word. She and her husband, John, live in Indianapolis but run away to the Florida beach as often as they can.
Anna D’Arclon
Editor: Faery Rose, Greenhouse Staff
I’ve been with The Wild Rose Press since October of 2006 and have loved every minute of it. I started as an editor on the White Rose line and moved on to head the Vintage Rose line in April of 2007. Currently, I am thrilled to be editing for the Faery Rose line. It’s my first time dabbling in paranormal fiction, although hailing from New Orleans, I’m feeling right at home. I love reading stories that grab me from the beginning, make me fall in love with love all over again and leave me wanting to lag behind in the world you’ve created just a little bit longer. I’ve also edited for the Champagne Rose, Crimson Rose, and Last Rose of Summer lines. As a member of The Greenhouse staff, I’m always looking for new articles to include in our writers’ resources, so feel free to approach me with any ideas you may have or mail your ideas to me at the e-mail address below. And if you have news that you think our readers might find interesting, please send it to me here as well: anna@thewildrosepress.com. I’d love to include it in the Greenhouse main article.
Before editing for The Wild Rose Press I worked on a small weekly newspaper in Montana, but I was writing romance even back then. I have a Bachelor of Arts in English with a Writing Emphasis from Loyola University and a Masters in Library and Information Science from Louisiana State University (LSU) and am a member of Sigma Tau Delta. Down home in Louisiana I enjoy the love and support of a large family and good friends – I find that I’ve found the same at TWRP.
Patricia Rouse, Publicist
Author Promotions & Readers’ Groups List Liaison
9200 Montgomery Rd.
Bldg. H, Suite 25A
Cincinnati, OH 45242
Phone: (513) 984-4420
Fax: (513) 792-2313
Email: Rousepat@aol.com
Patricia Rouse has never gotten over her three childhood loves: books, dolls and music. Growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio she spent Saturdays at her neighborhood library. Pat read GONE WITH THE WIND for the first time at age 12, soon devoured classics by Austen, the Brontes, Dickens, Holt, Seton and Stewart, and in the summer or 1974 she discovered historical romance authors, Rosemary Rogers and Kathleen Woodiwiss. She then pursued a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and was a professional church soloist in the Cincinnati area for over 20 years. In the late 80s, Pat discovered “the Bible of romance reviews” – Romantic Times Magazine – and felt compelled to meet her favorite authors at their convention in San Antonio in 1990. As a doll collector in the early 90s, Ms. Rouse wrote for two national doll magazines – Contemporary Doll and Doll Crafter, articles about doll artists, museums and collectors. From December 1994 – June 2002, Pat wrote two monthly columns for Romantic Times, “Readers Groups” about romance readers groups nationwide and “Personal Keepers” about beloved authors and their “keeper” romances. Pat has established herself as an expert romance reader and her quotes have appeared on several authors’ bookcovers including an SIM by Suzanne Brockmann. She recommends books she enjoys to the Groups’ List contacts in her quarterly e-newsletters. Pat started her own author PR business in 2001 by marketing her list of romance readers’ groups she kept in contact with through the years to authors, publicists and publishers so they know where to send their promotional mailings. She continues to market and update her Groups’ List quarterly which is presently at 128 contacts in five countries. In 2002, Ms. Rouse started doing PR work for authors which have included: Lara Adrian aka Tina St. John, Shelley Bradley aka Shayla Black, Jean Brashear, Jaci Burton, Tori Carrington, Sylvia Day, Cindy Gerard, Brenda Joyce, Jade Lee, Sasha Lord, Gennita Low, Janice Lynn, Julianne MacLean, Lynn Michaels, Marliss Melton, Gena Showalter, Deborah Smith, Sunny and J.R. Ward.
Shelby Morgen (AKA Margaret Riley) must be insane. What else would have led her to start her own business -- as a small online publishing company? Shelby shares her belief in electronic publishing with her long time friend and partner, Bill, her husband of 25 -- err, make that 26 -- years. Perhaps the insanity is contagious.
Shelby loves writing off-beat tales that defy as many rules as possible. She likes chocolate with her peanut butter, Suspense with her Romance, and kink with her sex. She’s always had a hard time keeping Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Paranormal from mixing with her kink. Fortunately for Shelby, electronic publishing has opened many new doors for cross-genre authors and artists.
Visit Shelby’s websites -- www.MargaretRiley.com to see what she’s been up to as an editor, and www.ShelbyMorgen.com for her latest releases. For a head’s up on new stuff, you’re welcome to join her yahell group -- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ShelbyMorgen/join
When you can catch her awake and not buried up to her eyebrows in work, Shelby will assure you this is the best job in the world -- she’s the keeper of dreams.
