NETWO 2007 Writers' Roundup - Featured Speakers

2011 Writer's Roundup - NETWO's 25th Annual Writers'
Conference in Northeast Texas

Bios for the 2013 faculty

Agents, and Publishers

Jill Marr is an agent with the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. She has a strong Internet and media background as well as over 10 years of publishing experience. She wrote features and ads for Pages, the literary magazine for people who love books, and continues to write book ads for publishing houses, magazine pieces and promotional features for television.

Jill is interested in commercial fiction, with an emphasis on mysteries, thrillers and horror, women's commercial fiction and historical fiction. She is also looking for nonfiction by authors who are getting their work published regularly in magazines and who have a realistic sense of the market and their audience. Jill is looking for nonfiction projects in the areas of self-help, inspirational, cookbooks, memoir (she especially loves travel and foodie memoirs), history, sports, current events, health & nutrition, pop culture, humor and music.

Please note that Jill is specifically not interested in: YA, children's books, sci-fi, romance or anything involving unicorns.

Jill will be taking one-on-one interviews during the conference. She will also accept a limited number of writing samples in advance of the conference which can be a basis for the interview. See Agent Interviews for more information on this.

Doug Grad is head of the Doug Grad Literary Agency which he founded in 2008. Prior to that, he had spent twenty-two years as a senior editor at four major New York publishing houses. His interests are narrative non-fiction, military, sports, celebrity memoir, thrillers, mysteries, historical fiction, young adult fiction, romance, music, style, business, home improvement, cookbooks, self-help, science and theater.

Doug started in the publishing business in November 1986, working for the renowned Michael Korda at Simon & Schuster. In 1987, he moved to Pocket Books. In 1995, he joined Ballentine Books, and moved to Penguin in 1998 as a Senior Editor for the NAL imprint. In 2005, he moved to HarperCollins. He has served as editor for a number of New York Times Best Sellers.

Doug will be taking one-on-one interviews during the conference. He will also accept a limited number of writing samples in advance of the conference which can be a basis for the interview. See Agent Interviews for more information on this.

Tanya Hall is the Chief Operating Officer at Greenleap Book Group, an independent publisher and distributor and book marketer. Tanya drives Greenleaf's business development efforts, working with authors to develop their publishing programs and developing strategic partnerships to grow Greenleaf’s reputation as a leading independent publisher. Prior to her current role, she built Greenleaf's distribution organization, working directly with retailers and wholesalers to develop one of the fastest growing distribution businesses in the industry.

Before joining the publishing industry, Tanya worked as a television producer for Extra! and E! Cable Networks. Tanya regularly speaks at various events, including the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Publishing University, AuthorSmart, and the Publishing Business Expo.

Tanya will present a two hour workshop Friday afternoon on e-publishing. She also will be taking one-on-one interviews during the conference. See Agent Interviews for more information on this.

Jonas Koffler has more than a decade of success as a creative consultant and problem solver. He has advised high-profile authors, contributed to bestselling books, and built brand engagement, platform integration, and content strategies. Jonas has also spoken at workshops and conferences, contributed to music, narrative film, and documentary projects.

On Friday afternoon, Jonas will be giving a two hour workshop on branding as it applies to authors. He also will be taking one-on-one interviews during the conference. See Agent Interviews for more information on this.

Authors

New York Times and USA Today Best-selling author, Molly McAdams, originally from California, now lives in Texas with her husband. Molly is the author of USA Today bestseller Taking Chances (HarperCollins), and New York Times and USA Today bestseller From Ashes (HarperCollins).

Stealing Harper: a Taking Chances novella and Forgiving Lies (both HarperCollins), will be released in 2013.

Joe McKinney is the San Antonio-based author of several horror, crime and science fiction novels. His longer works include the four part Dead World series, made up of Dead City, Apocalypse of the Dead, Flesh Eaters and The Zombie King. His science fiction disaster tale, Quarantined, was nominated for the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award for superior achievement in a novel, 2009. He has also published a crime novel, Dodging Bullets. His upcoming releases include the horror novels Lost Girl of the Lake, The Red Empire, The Charge and St. Rage.

Joe has also worked as an editor, along with Michelle McCrary, on the zombie-themed anthology Dead Set, and with Mark Onspaugh on the abandoned building-themed anthology The Forsaken. His short stories and novellas have been published in more than thirty publications and anthologies.

In his day job, Joe McKinney is a sergeant with the San Antonio Police Department, where he helps to run the city’s 911 Dispatch Center. Before promoting to sergeant, Joe worked as a homicide detective and as a disaster mitigation specialist. A regular guest at regional writing conventions, Joe currently lives and works in a small town north of San Antonio with his wife and children.

Earl Staggs is a two Time Derringer Award winning author. He has seen many of his short stories published in magazines and anthologies. He served as Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Magazine and as President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. His novel MEMORY OF A MURDER earned a long list of Five Star reviews. He is a contributing member of Make Mine Mystery and Murderous Musings and is a frequent speaker at conferences and writers groups. His Email is: earlstaggs@sbcglobal.net

Bios for the 2012 faculty

Agents, Editors, and Publishers

Jacque Graham is an editor at 4RV Publishing. She is a published poet, and a retired English teacher. She is open to a wide range of fiction, but does not want to see children’s books, or any books with graphic se or, violence. She also does not want unnecessary profanity, vampires or werewolves.

Weronika Janczuk is a literary agent with Lynn Franklin Associates in New York. Previously she worked with the D4EO Literary Agency and the Bent Agency, as well as at Flux, among others.

Currently she represents a wide range of fiction and non-fiction for YA and adults alike—and is very actively building her list, especially in areas of crime fiction (especially espionage and literary suspense/thrillers), fantasy/sci-fi, horror, women’s fiction and romance, both literary and high-concept YA, memoir, and narrative non-fiction.

Representative sales include Miserere: An Autumn Tale (Night Shade Books, July 2011), which the Library Journal named its August 2011 debut of the month.

Mary Sue Seymour is listed by Publishers Marketplace as one of the top dealmakers in the country. She founded The Seymour Agency in 1992. Ms. Seymour is a member of the Author's Guild, the AAR, ACFW, WGA, and RWA. She has been nominated for ACFW's Agent Of The Year.

Ms. Seymore accepts queries in the following genres: Christian, Inspirational, Romance (including category), and Non-Fiction. The Seymour Agency does NOT represent poetry or erotica.

Vivian Zabel is the publisher of 4RV. Ms. Zabel is also a published writer. Before starting 4RV four years ago, she taught English, writing classes, workshops and clinics on writing.

Some NETWO members have published with 4RV and speak highly of the experience. 4RV published Confessions of a Former Rock Queen, the 2010 Oklahoma Book Award winner in fiction.

Authors

Corey Mitchell is a Los Angeles Times and Borders International Group bestselling author of several true crime books including Hollywood Death Scenes, Dead and Buried, Murdered Innocents, Evil Eyes, Strangler, Pure Murder, and Savage Son. He is also the founder of the #1 true crime blog, In Cold Blog, a former blogger for the Discovery Channel's Hollywood on Crime blog, a contributor to MetalSucks, and the horror film festival blogger for Bloody Disgusting. He is currently working on his eighth true crime book, Teach Me to Kill, about the murder of Diane Tilly. The book should be released in 2011.

He is also working with Philip H. Anselmo (ex-Pantera/Down) on his autobiography which should be released sometime in late 2011. In addition, He is co-authoring a book with Tracey Damron, ex-wife of former Kentucky legislator Steve Nunn, who has been accused of murdering his mistress, which is scheduled for late 2011.

Sylvia Dickey Smith is a fifth-generation Texan. She grew up in a colorful Scots-Irish family living in the midst of a Cajun culture. She spent six years in the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad & Tobago. Awed by the differences in customs and cultures, particularly as they related to West Indian women, she returned to the U.S. to study and then write.

Her writing features those who recreate themselves into the people they want to be, strong women who take charge of their lives and get things done.

Jodi Thomas, a fifth generation Texan, chooses to set the majority of her novels in her home state. Her first book, Beneath the Texas Sky, (1988), won the National Press Women's Novel of the Year in its category. Book three, The Tender Texan (1991), was Thomas's first national bestseller and won her the first of her Romance Writers of America's RITA. In all, Jodi has won four (4) RITA awards (the latest in 2010) and has been inducted into the Romance Writers of America’s Hall of Fame.

Ms. Thomas made the USA Today’s Best-Selling list. Her sixteenth book rose to number sixteen on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2005, Finding Mary Blaine received the National Readers’ Choice Award. She has since received this award for two other books. The Lone Texan won the Readers’ Choice in 2009 for Best Western Romance. In 2011, her Somewhere Along the Way won the Booksellers’ Best Award.

Ms. Thomas is Writer In Residence at West Texas A & M University. She lives in Amarillo with her husband, Tom. They have two grown sons.

Jaye Wells served as a magazine editor and freelance writer for several years before leaving facts behind to make up her own reality. Her overactive imagination and life-long fascination with the arcane and freakish blended nicely with this new career path. Her Sabina Kane urban fantasy series is a blend of dark themes, grave stakes and wicked humor. Silver-Tongued Devil is due out in December, 2011, and Blue-Blooded Vamp is due out in May, 2012, both from Orbit.

Ms. Wells lives in Texas with her saintly husband and devilish son. Her work is represented by Rebecca Strauss of McIntosh & Otis.