Barry Eisler

Dinty W. Moore

Richard Paul Evans

Richard Paul Evans is the #1 bestselling author of The Christmas Box. Each of his eighteen novels has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list; there are more than 14 million copies of his books in print worldwide. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages, and several have been international bestsellers.

Evans has won the American Mothers book award, two first place Storytelling World awards, The Romantic Times Best Women’s Novel of the Year Award, the German Leserpreis Gold Award for Romance, and the Religion Communicator’s Council’s Wilbur Award.

Four of Evans’s books have been produced as television movies.

Evans received the Washington Times Humanitarian of the Century Award and the Volunteers of America National Empathy Award for his work helping abused children.

Evans lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Keri, and their five children.

Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson is the best-selling fantasy novelist of the MISTBORN series. His novel ELANTRIS was chosen by Barnes and Noble as the best science fiction or fantasy book of 2005, and his works have been translated into fourteen languages. In 2007, he released his first children’s novel, ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBARARIANS. Brandon has a Master’s Degree in creative writing, and in his spare time he teaches a science fiction and fantasy themed creative writing class at Brigham Young University. In December of 2007, Robert Jordan’s estate announced that Brandon would be completing the final book in the WHEEL OF TIME series following Mr. Jordan’s untimely death earlier in the year.

Sarah M Eden

Sarah M Eden is the author of multiple historical romance novels, including Whitney Award finalists Courting Miss Lancaster and Seeking Persephone. She served as the Master of Ceremonies for the 2011 and 2012 LDStorymakers Writers Conferences and as the Writer in Residence at the 2011 Northwest Writers Retreat. Sarah is 1/3 of the team over at www.AppendixPodcast.com. Find her on the web at www.SarahMEden.com.

Andrew Smith

Novels:

• Ghost Medicine (2008, Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan)*
• In the Path of Falling Objects (2009, Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan)*
• The Marbury Lens (2010, Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan)*
• Stick (2011, Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan)*
• Passenger (2012, Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan)
• Winger (2013, Simon & Schuster)
• Grasshopper Jungle (2013, Dutton/Penguin)

*Received ALA/YALSA Best Books for Young Adults and Best Fiction for Young Adults

Besides writing, Andrew Smith is a runner. He has completed more than 30 marathons and off-road triathlons in his life. He enjoys the outdoors, and lives in a very remote area of California with his wife, Jocelyn, son, Trevin (18), and daughter Chiara (15), where they raise horses.

Elana Johnson

Elana's debut novel, POSSESSION, is available from Simon & Schuster now, wherever books are sold! Her second novel, SURRENDER, will be released on June 5, 2012. She wishes she could experience her first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill her desires, she writes young adult science fiction and fantasy.

She is the author of From the Query to the Call, an ebook that every writer needs to read before they query.

She runs a personal blog on publishing and is a founding author of the QueryTracker blog. She blogs regularly at The League of Extraordinary Writers, co-organizes WriteOnCon, and is a member of SCBWI, ANWA and LDStorymakers.

Robison Wells

Maxwell Alexander Drake

Howard Tayler

Annette Lyon

Marion Jensen

Marion Jensen has his feet in two worlds. He's worked for twelve years in the field of instructional design, and currently works for American Express as a Sr. Instructional Designer. He enjoys the field of education, particularly open education, and social learning.

Marion's other foot is in the world of writing. He has two books published: Chicken in the Headlights, and Bullies in the Headlights. His next book, Almost Super, is set to come out in the fall of 2013 with Harper Collins. He is represented by Sarah Crowe.

Margot Hovley

Margot Hovley has received numerous awards for her writing, including a first place in a national short story contest. Her debut novel, a young adult adventure, will be published by Covenant Communications in Fall 2012. She currently serves on the executive board for the League of Utah Writers. She enjoys teaching people of all ages in her favorite topics of creative writing and music.

Daniel Coleman

Daniel Coleman splits his time between the real-life world of firefighting and the fantastic world of writing fiction. He has published three novels and is the co-host of the Create or Die podcast. www.dcolemanbooks.com www.createordie.podbean.com

Susan Nyikos

Susan Nyikos earns her living by teaching writing and literature courses at Utah State University in picturesque Logan, UT. Her poems have appeared in Sugar House Review, ProvoOremWord, wordriver, Loose Leaves, and in the annual chapbook of the poetry group, Poetry@3.

Chadd VanZanten

Chadd is a professional editor from Logan, Utah, with 20 years of experience in journalistic, technical, and creative writing. He began his own writing odyssey 5 years ago, and his short fiction has been published in The Provo Orem Word and New Graffiti.

Kirk Cunningham

Kirk Cunningham is the head publicist for Jolly Fish Press. He spends his days working with authors to create innovative and effective publicity and marketing campaigns, including a strong internet presence. For the most part, Cunningham fills his time with industry pundits and associates, booksellers, reviewers nationwide, sub-right agents, planning book events, and writing press releases. He leads a team of outstanding publicists, and does not ever have free time.

Lin Floyd

Lin Floyd, a member of LUW and Heritage Writers Guild, fell in love with fairy tales sometime in her early elementary school days. Later she would find science fiction fascinating and wanted to travel in space when she grew up. Graduating from BYU with a Masters degree in dance-it was more fun, she taught college for ten years.

Her publications are listed on her daily blog http://lettersfromlin.blogspot.com where she shares her love of writing, poetry and family. She is co-president of the Utah State Poetry Society’s Dixie Chapter, new coordinator of Poetry in the Park held in Zion National Park each March, and teaches community education classes on creativity-Find Your Voice. Writing a weekly column Looking Back in the Senior Sampler makes for a busy life. She will demonstrate some ideas on sharing poetry and prose by publishing online and using other creative means.

Dianne Hardy

After retiring from Utah State University, Dianne Hardy began writing as a hobby to keep her from watching TV all day.

She is an award winning author and her work appears in the Whispering Prarie Press, Humor Press, and Cynic Magazine. Her childhood memoir, For Cryin’ Out Loud! was published in April, 2012.

Dianne will be presenting a workshop on memoir writing and publishing.

Heidi Thornock

Heidi Thornock has been writing competently for as long as she can remember, but has been writing seriously for nearly a decade. She has written fiction and nonfiction, articles and stories, essays and novels. She has taught English and Creative Writing for three years. She currently serves as the chapter President for Wasatch Writers.

Sandra Tayler

Sandra Tayler is a writer of essays, speculative fiction, children's fiction, and blog entries. She has sold stories to anthology markets, including DAW. In February 2009 her blog One Cobble at a Time won the Association for Mormon Letters award for online writing. She has a picture book Hold on to Your Horses, and Cobble Stones, a sampler of essays from her blog. Sandra spends much of her time as the publication and distribution half of the Schlock Mercenary comic business. Sandra’s publication work and her writing are frequently pre-empted by the needs of her four kids, who alternate between being incredibly helpful and incredibly distracting. Some day in the future Sandra hopes to experience this free time that she has heard so much about.

Ali Cross

Ali Cross is the sensei of the writer's dojo where she holds a black belt in awesome. She lives in Utah with her kickin’ husband, two sparring sons, one ninja cat, two sumo dogs and four zen turtles. Ali is the author of the Desolation series, a young adult paranormal romance about the kick-butt devil’s daughter and her search for a destiny of her own choosing.

Amber Argyle

Amber Argyle grew up with three brothers on a cattle ranch in the Rocky Mountains. She spent hours riding horses, roaming the mountains, and playing in her family’s creepy barn. This environment fueled her imagination for writing high fantasy.

She has worked as a short order cook, janitor, and staff member in a mental institution. All of which has given her great insight into the human condition and has made for some unique characters.

She received her bachelor’s degree in English and Physical Education from Utah State Uiversity.

She currently resides in Utah with her husband and three small children.

Martin R. Biro is a native of Northern California and a graduate of the University of Iowa. He started at Kensington Publishing in February of 2009 as an editorial assistant and has been acquiring commercial fiction for their many diverse imprints ever since.

Some of his projects include Alexander Campion’s Capucine Culinary Mystery series, Mollie Cox Bryan’s Cumberland Creek mystery series, Linda Mercury’s Blood Wings paranormal romance series and Eve Marie Mont’s young adult Unbound series, beginning with A Breath of Eyre. Kensington is the foremost independent publishing house in the United States to publish hardcover, trade paperback, mass-market and e-books. Some of Kensington’s many New York Times best-selling authors include Lisa Jackson, Fern Michaels and Tucker Max.

Samantha Van Walraven—Acquisitions Editor

Samantha Van Walraven enjoys living her dream as an editor for Covenant Communications. She works with extremely talented LDS writers and cherishes not only her friendships with them but also the honor it is to help them turn their manuscripts into masterpieces.

She graduated from BYU–Idaho with a bachelor’s degree in English. She currently lives in Orem, Utah, and, besides reading, enjoys watching and playing sports, cooking, and playing with her friends’ and siblings’ children. Samantha often dreams of traveling, but for now, she is perfectly content to grab a paperback and let it take her where it will.

Christopher Loke—Acquisitions Editor

Christopher Loke is a graduate of Utah State University. He started his career working on editorial projects for houses like Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt Brace, and Harper Collins, to name a few. He is currently the executive editor for Jolly Fish Press. Loke is an avid social networker and the author of The Housekeeper’s Son (May 19, 2012). He currently lives by a lake with his wife and a monster that is his son.

Elise Capron is with the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, which was established nearly 30 years ago and is known for guiding the careers of many best-selling fiction and non-fiction authors, including Amy Tan, Lisa See, Maxine Hong Kingston, Chitra Divakaruni, Eric Foner, and more. A graduate of Emerson College, Elise holds a BFA in Writing, Literature and Publishing, and served on the editorial staff of the Emerson Review there. She joined the agency full time in 2003. Some of Elise’s recent and soon-to-be-published books include Tiphanie Yanique’s “How to Escape from a Leper Colony” (Graywolf), Maureen McHugh’s “After the Apocalypse”, a “Top Ten Best Books of 2011” by Publishers Weekly (Small Beer Press), Courtney Brkic’s “The First Rule of Swimming” (Little Brown), Rikki Ducornet’s “Netsuke” (Coffee House), Jonathon Keats’ “Virtual Words” (Oxford), and Jack Shuler’s “The Noose: A History” (Public Affairs).

Elise is looking for: I am interested in serious character-driven literary fiction that has unforgettable writing, a terrific narrative voice/tone, and memorable characters. I love novels with an unusual or eccentric edge, and am drawn to stories I’ve never heard before. On the nonfiction front, I am looking for narratives with many of these same qualities, i.e. fascinating true stories told in a compelling way. I aim to work with writers who are getting their work published regularly in magazines and who have a realistic sense of the market and their audience.

Elise is NOT looking for: Fantasy, sci-fi, horror, self-help, young adult, middle grade, children’s, romance, spiritual.

Michelle Witte—Agent

Michelle has spent the past seven years dedicated to improving the written word as a writer and editor of various genres. She now uses that experience as a children’s literary agent with Mansion Street Literary Management. Previously, she worked as an associate editor with nonfiction publisher Gibbs Smith, overseeing the editing and production of more than 30 titles. Before that, she was a copy editor and reporter with the Deseret Morning News. Her first book, The Craptastic Guide to Pseudo-Swearing, (Running Press, 2012) will hit stores June 26.

I’m interested a variety of YA & MG fiction, including: Magical realism (think Sarah Addison Allen for teens/tweens), Fantasy, Supernatural (creatures you run from, not date), Sci-fi, Mystery/Suspense, Adventure, Contemporary realistic, Historical. But keep in mind that I am a bit weary of Paranormal Romance and Dystopian.

I’d love to find a manuscript that is: quirky, dark, or somewhat bizarre; contemporary retelling of a fairytale; realistic story about relationship between sisters or girl friends; realistic story about brothers or guy friends; based on lesser-known mythologies; a creepy ghost story (but not too gory or violent); set in the West and/or Southwest; similar to K-dramas, ex. You’re Beautiful, Boys Over Flowers, City Hunter

I’m also open to a variety of children’s nonfiction, such as: Children’s cookbooks, Activity or game books, History

Please no: Picture books, Adult fiction, General nonfiction, Poetry, Short story collections, Memoir, Religious fiction or nonfiction.

Lucas Hunt—Agent

Lucas Hunt studied English and Journalism at the University of Iowa, where he wrote for The Daily Iowan newspaper, and attended the Poetry Writer’s Workshop. He did his MFA at Southampton College, published his first volume of poetry, Lives, and won a John Steinbeck Award. Hunt is an agent and Rights Manager at the Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency, where he negotiates audio, foreign, digital, film, and domestic print deals. His professional interests are literary fiction, travel, crime, and the humanities. Hunt’s second volume of poetry, Light on the Concrete, was published in 2011 to critical acclaim. He likes swimming, opera, cooking, polo and outdoor activities.

Heather B. Moore—Bootcamp Counselor

Lu Ann Staheli—Bootcamp Counselor

Julie Wright—Bootcamp Counselor

Angela Eschler—Bootcamp Couselor

Angela Eschler is a bestselling author of nonfiction inspirational books for women. But she has been devouring fiction since elementary school, and discovered that there was a job called "being an editor" in which you could get paid to read and write; so she grew up as quickly as possible and pursued professional editing from there. After spending nearly a decade as in-house senior editor for a book publisher, she realized she could work from home (or pretend to) while she raised her kids, so she took on freelance editing for many other publishers, businesses, individuals, and universities. Visit her website: www.angelaeschler.com, or if you are in need of editorial services, Angela is the director of Eschler Editing, which offers a range of services from editing to book design to consultations on how to get published: www.bookeditingandmore.com

Shanan Ballam—Bootcamp Counselor

Shanan’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in several literary journals, including Crab Orchard Review, Main Street Rag, Indiana Review, and Cream City Review. Her chapbook, The Red Riding Hood Papers, was released by Finishing Line Press in 2010. Her poetry manuscript, Pretty Marrow, was a semi-finalist for the 2010 Brittingham and Polk Poetry Prizes, the 2010 May Swenson Award, and the 2010 Philip Levine Prize in Poetry. She teaches poetry writing and academic writing at Utah State University.