Courtney Alford-Pomeroy, features editor at the Athens Banner-Herald, manages both tempers and content in her daily job. She oversees an in-house team of writers as well as a mess of freelancers and likes to think her Midwestern sense of humor (i.e. cut-to-the-chase sarcasm) keeps things running smoothly. After hours, you'll find her standing at her stove dreaming up new recipes or decorating tips. She dabbles in writing herself and one day hopes to chuck the frantic daily routine to pen that cookbook or the break-up guide her husband smirks about. On Saturday her presentation will be What An Editor Wants (or, How to Land that Freelance Gig).
Howard Berk is the Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of Georgia. He has written thirteen feature films, three novels, and 123 episodes for television series, including McMillan and Wife, Mike Hammer, The Rockford Files, Mission: Impossible, and among many episodes for Columbo, Harriette's favorite: "The Conspirators." On Saturday Howard will be giving a workshop on Screenwriting.
Robert Alan Black, Ph.D., CSP, is an International Creative Thinking Consultant who gives keynote speeches, leads workshops and teaches in-depth training programs in creative thinking tools, techniques and processes around the US and the world. Each year he is a presenter at several creativity conferences and works with clients on five continents. Alan has written and co-authored several books on creativity and training in the US, South Africa, Slovakia, Turkey and Japan with new ones scheduled in 2007 in the US and the UK. Alan's session on Saturday is NO MORE CREATIVE WRITING BLOCKS, a session designed to provide you tools and techniques to: 1) respark, 2) increase, 3) enrich your creativeness and 4) make your writing more creative and more fun to do (class handouts).
Anna DeStefano (www.annawrites.com), nationally best-selling, award-winning romance author, is the president of Georgia Romance Writers (GRW), a group of over 300 published authors and aspiring writers that meets monthly in Atlanta.
Anna has successfully channeled her skills as a Senior Tech Writer into the more creative field of writing contemporary fiction. A GA Tech honors graduate with 10 years of experience working in Corporate IT, Anna applies the more analytical side of her personality to the study of the craft of storytelling, but her imagination rules when it's time to let the planning go and write. The result--four award-winning novels published since 2004, with three more to be released in 2007, and over a quarter of a million copies of her books in print in over 4 different languages. Her interactive workshops on the writing process--plotting through character, improvisation, and rewriting--regularly attract standing-room-only crowds wherever she speaks.
On Friday, Anna will be presenting a three-hour, three-part interactive workshop that spans the creative writing process: Meet Your Characters First--They're your story; Improvisation--Twelve Steps for putting your planning to work and letting your creativity thrive; Learn to Rewrite--Finishing the manuscript is just a beginning (class handouts: Improvisation and Drafting, Plotting and Character Development, Rewriting)
Rhett DeVane (www.rhettdevane.com) is the author of two southern fiction novels, and a licensed massage therapist. She lives in Tallahassee, Florida, and is writing a series of fiction novels set in the North Florida panhandle. On Satuday, in addition to appearing in our Author/Agent panel, Rhett will be presenting Ergonomics and Injury Prevention for the Serious Writer, a fun, hands-on workshop on proper stretching techniques, work placement design, and self-massage from someone who knows exactly where writers hurt (see her class handout). Her latest short story, "The War of the Gardenias", is available here.
Andy Garrison has over 30 years of law enforcement experienceand has spent the last 23 years teaching in the police academy. His major topics of instruction include Criminal Law, Search & Seizure Law, Crime Scene Processing, Interviews & Interrogations, Firearms Training, Forensic Hypnosis and many more. He has worked on many major crime scene cases including the infamous T.K. Harty murder case here in Athens. His presentation on Saturday is Processing a Crime-Scene...How do they do that?
Wally Eberhard is a free-lance writer, former newspaper and magazine writer and editor, and professor emeritus from the Grady College of Journalism, University of Georgia. He taught news and magazine writing at all levels, along with a required course in media law for journalism students. His writing has appeared in newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals and the final edition of O! Georgia. He is a longtime spearbearer in the legions of Harriette Austin's students, where he is beginning to get the hang of doing good fiction. A native of Niles, Michigan, he holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Bowling Green State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His Saturday session is Protecting What you Create: Copyright Basics for Writers, covering the essentials of the law from a writer's perspective (class handout).
Alan Gratz is the author of the young adult novel Samurai Shortstop (Penguin, 2006) which received starred reviews from The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and Booklist. Among other honors, Samurai Shortstop was also named one of the American Library Association's Top Ten Children's Books of the Year, and one of The Washington Post's 2006 Top Ten Novels for Children. Gratz is also the author of numerous short stories and plays, as well as a handful of episodes of A&E's City Confidential. His next young adult novel, Something Rotten: A Horatio Wilkes Mystery, is due from Penguin October of 2007, and will be followed by middle grade novel The Brooklyn Nine, and the sequel to Something Rotten - Something Wicked - in 2008. Originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, Gratz now lives with his wife and daughter in the high country of Western North Carolina.
Alan will be giving two presentations on Saturday:
Whatever: Writing for Teenagers They're not kids, and they're not adults. They're "young adults," and they now have their own section in the bookstore and the library. Learn how to get on that bookshelf by writing books teenagers can't put down.
Bookends: Writing Good Beginnings and Better Endings It's as old as Beowulf - making the beginning of your story mirror the end. Join Alan Gratz for a discussion about crafting deliberate, meaningful bookends to your short story or novel.
Bob Mayer (www.bobmayer.org) a New York Times bestselling author, has published 33 books ranging from military techno-thriller to political thriller to non-fiction to science fiction to romantic suspense. He has over two million books in print with four books to be published in 2007.
Born in the Bronx, Bob attended the Military Academy at West Point and earned a BA in psychology with honors and then served as an Infantry platoon leader, a battalion scout platoon leader, and a brigade reconnaissance platoon leader in the 1st Cavalry Division. He then joined Special Forces and commanded a Green Beret A Team. He also served as the operations officer for the 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and with Western Command Special Operations in Hawaii. Later he taught at the Special Forces Qualification Course at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, the course designed to train new Green Berets. He also lived in Korea where he earned a Black Belt in Martial Arts and in Georgia where he earned a Masters Degree in Education from Austin Peay State University.
Bob draws on all of these experiences to write his novels and his nonfiction books, including WHO DARES WINS: Special Operations Tactics for Success and The Novel Writer’s Toolkit: A Guide To Writing Great Fiction And Getting It Published. He speaks on both of these areas at writing conferences, workshops, and colleges. But his main focus remains his novels, which include the bestselling Area 51 books. Out now are Bodyguard of Lies (under his pen name Robert Doherty) and Don’t Look Down, a romantic adventure written in collaboration with Jennifer Crusie for St. Martin’s Press which hit the NY Times, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and numerous other bestseller lists. Coming soon are Lost Girls for Tor (Feb 2007) and the co-written Agnes and the Hitman (St. Martins, August 2007).
On Friday, Bob will be presenting a three-hour workshop, The Original Idea: The Core of Writing and Selling Your Book, and Idea Workshop (class handout), and on Saturday his session will be Selling Your Book, Marketing It, and Understanding The Publishing World from the Writer's Perspective (class handout).
Elizabeth McGlaun is editor of the University of Georgia’s Mandala Journal, and a member of the Creative Writing Student Alliance. She is an active member of the Athens poetry community where she has collaborated on several chapbooks, started writing workshops, and has hosted numerous poetry readings around town. She has won several awards for her poetry, including a Puffin Foundation Grant for her prose poetry book Thoughts on Hate and Other 20th Century Ideas, and the Chestatee Review Creative Writing Scholarship. In her session on Saturday Elizabeth will be answering the question What Constitutes Good Poetry, and How do I Get it Published? 
Bobby Nash has written for numerous publications. He is the writer/artist of the long running family comic strip Life In The Faster Lane starring R.O. (currently in rerelease at fasterlane.blogspot.com and published for 12 years in Keeping Up With Kids magazine). He has written several titles for a variety of comic publishers including Demonslayer, Threshold, and Jungle Fantasy for Avatar Press. Fuzzy Bunnies From Hell for Albino Alligator Productions and FYI Comics (currently in rerelease at www.drunkduck.com/FUZZY_BUNNIES_FROM_HELL) Yin Yang for Arcana Studios is coming in 2007. Coming up are comic book adaptations of Fantastix: Code Red for FYI Comics, Bubba The Redneck Werewolf for Brass Ball Comics, and others.
Bobby's debut novel, Evil Ways, premiered in August of 2005 from Publish America. Bobby's second novel, Fantastix, premiered March of 2006 from Optic Studios and FYI Comics. His inclusion in the September 2006's Wildcat Books anthology book, Lance Star: Sky Ranger marked Bobby's first foray into pulp anthologies, a genre he will revisit with Domino Lady, Flying Aces, Secret Agent X, Ravenwood: Stepson of Mystery, and Train Tales in 2007 from Adamant Entertainment's Airship 27 imprint.
For more information on Bobby Nash, including past, present, and future projects, please visit him on the web at www.bobbynash.com , www.myspace.com/bobbynash , and www.comicspace.com/bobbynash . Bobby lives in Bethlehem, Georgia. On Saturday Bobby's presentation is Words And Pictures: Novels Go Graphic.
David Oates has a master's degree in fiction writing, and his fiction, nonfiction, humor, and poetry have appeared in a variety of publications. He hosted the Athens Slam for 6 years, and has performed his work before many audiences, both as a solo performer and a member of a slam team. At one point, he worked for Poetry Alive!, performing poetry for school assemblies across the country. His magazine, Monkey, concentrates on humor and slam work. David is currently the host and producer of the Great Apes Humor Show on WUGA, Athens. He teaches creative writing to students of all ages. He has also been a member of an improvisational comedy troupe. On Satuday, David's workshop SLAM! will include some background about the Slam, and will concentrate on learning to perform poetry and short fiction for an audience. Bring something that you think will move an audience--to laughter, tears, thought or action. This is not just for Slammers, but for anyone who would like to improve at sharing his/her own work.
Lucia St. Clair Robson (www.luciastclairrobson.com) The Western Writers of America awarded her first book, Ride the Wind, the Golden Spur Award for best historical western of 1982; it also made the New York Times Best Seller List and was included in the 100 best westerns of the 20th century. Since then she has written Walk in My Soul, Light a Distant Fire, The Tokaido Road, Mary's Land, Fearless, Novel of Sarah Bowman, Ghost Warrior: Lozen of the Apaches (finalist for the 2003 Golden Spur), and her newest, Shadow Patriots, a Novel of the Revolution, has won critical acclaim. On Saturday Ms. Robson will be presenting four sessions: The Ghost that Got into My House (historical characters), The Devil Is in the Details (historical research) (class handout), The Power of Babel (historically correct language and dialogue) (class handout), and Villainous Smells (using the senses in writing).
Lucy Rosenthal is a member of the faculty of the nationally recognized Writing Program at Sarah Lawrence College, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate workshops in the art and craft of writing fiction. Ms. Rosenthal received her B.A., University of Michigan. M.S., Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. M.F.A., Yale School of Drama. Fiction writer, critic, editor, playwright; author of the novel The Ticket Out and editor of the anthologies Great American Love Stories and World Treasury of Love Stories, as well as The Eloquent Short Story: Varieties of Narration; reviews and articles published in The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune Book World, Ms., Saturday Review, The New York Times Book Review and Michigan Quarterly Review; plays produced at Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater Center, Waterford, Connecticut; recipient, Pulitzer Fellowship in Critical Writing; she has served on Book-of-the-Month Club's Editorial Board of judges and as the Club's Senior Editorial Advisor. She will be presenting two three-hour Creative Writing Workshops on Friday; sign up for one or both!
Chuck Sambuchino is the editor of Guide to Literary Agents (Writer's Digest Books) and a former staffer on Writer's Digest. He is a produced playwright, magazine freelancer and former journalist. On Saturday Chuck will be giving two presentations:
Building Your Freelance Portfolio: This session will discuss how novice writers can best break into magazine freelancing, and how published writers can start to contribute to higher-profile publications (class handout).
What You Need to Know about Getting an Agent: This session will discuss the basic need-to-know information about agents, and how nonfiction and fiction writers can best go about securing a good representative to shepherd their work (class handout).
Lisa Samson (www.lisasamson.com) is the critically acclaimed author of eighteen novels, including her latest, Quaker Summer. Publisher's Weekly Magazine has called her, "one of the best novelists in the inspirational market." Her coming-of-age title Songbird won the Christy Award for best contemporary novel. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her husband, writer Will Samson, and their three children, ages 17, 13 and 10. On Friday Lisa will be giving an intensive workshop: Inspired to Write. Inspirational fiction: what it is, who's writing it, who's publishing it, and how do I know if it's right for me? (class handout)
Frederick Smock is poet-in-residence at Bellarmine University, Louisville KY. He has published three books of poems with Larkspur Press; individual poems have appeared in Poetry, The Iowa Review, The Southern Review, and others. His essays have appeared recently in The Writer's Chronicle and Ars-Interpres (Stockholm). His recent collection is Poetry & Compassion: Essays on Art and Craft (Wind). His Friday workshop is titled The Craft of Poetry, and includes a talk about craft, workshop of student poetry, and a poetry reading.
Ginny Stibolt (www.websiteideas4writers.com) taught technical writing at a community college in Maryland before she opened a computer retail store in 1981. She and her staff sold computers with 16K (!) of memory, and taught beginning to advanced computing courses. In those days, the general population had no idea of what to do with a computer. Ginny has been working with computers professionally ever since. She's been a web maven since 1994. Ginny has a mission to help writers and other professionals maximize their web presence through practical design and good marketing. She's even been known to contact perfect strangers with ideas for
their webpages.
Learn to create and maintain a professional web presence! Ginny will be presenting two sessions on Saturday:
Effective Writers' Websites--Part 1: Getting the most from your website!
You don't need to be rich or a technical wizard to create a website. Learn about domains and website focus--author, book, or issue. Develop a critical eye for design, and strategies for long-term maintenance (class handout).
Effective Writers' Websites--Part 2: Creating a sticky website
An effective website is one of the most useful marketing tools a writer can have, but you must tell a compelling story to entice your website visitors (surfers) to return again and again. Learn how to entangle those surfers to make your website sticky (class handout). 
Bettye Stroud is a former School Library Media Specialist with the Athens/Clarke County, Georgia School District. Her entire career has centered around children, books and reading. She is now a full-time writer with five published titles to her credit, and others are on the way. Her book, The Patchwork Path, A Quilt Map to Freedom, is an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award winner, and has been selected to award lists in four states. Her presentation on Saturday will be You CAN Write For Children.
Amy Watts is a graduate of the University of Tennessee School of Library Science and a reference librarian and web editor at the University of Georgia Libraries. Her presentation on Saturday is Money for Nothing and the Clicks for Free: No-cost web solutions for production and publicity (class handout).