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DONNELL ALEXANDER 's bestselling breakout memoir, Ghetto Celebrity: Searching For My Father In Me (Crown), was hailed by Library Journal as "the debut of a brilliant new author," while Keith Olbermann of MSNBC observed, "Donnell Alexander has probably given us a preview of how most American writing will read twenty years hence." A freelance journalist and critic, he has also written about popular culture for publications as diverse as Vibe, Utne Reader, San Francisco Bay Guardian, McSweeney's, L.A. Weekly, and the Los Angeles Times, and his style helped set the tone at ESPN The Magazine, where he was a member of the original writing staff. Rollin' with Dre: The Unauthorized Account: An Insider's Tale of the Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of West Coast Hip Hop (One World/Ballantine), co-authored with Bruce Williams, is his most recent book.

• SESSIONS: "Write it Real: Fictionalist Tools for Fabulous Nonfiction" and "Putting YOU in Your Memoir"

ERIK BORK has been making his living as a film and television writer for the last ten years, winning two Emmys and two Golden Globes for his work as a writer/producer on HBO's From Earth to the Moon and Band of Brothers. He's written on staff for two network drama series, and sold pitches for four others — writing pilots for NBC, Fox Broadcasting and Sony Television over the last three years. Erik has also written scripts for features, series and miniseries on assignment for Universal, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, HBO, TNT, Imagine Entertainment, Steven Spielberg, Original Film, and Playtone, having started his career as one of Tom Hanks's assistants, before writing a variety of projects for his production company. He's represented by CAA, offers consulting to writers, and blogs about his creative life at http://etb1.wordpress.com.

• SESSIONS: "How to Find and Develop Great Ideas — from Concept to Page," "Integrating Others' Input on Your Work to Move Your Career Forward" and "Where's the "Story" in a True Story?"
ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Screenplays, long-form, episodic, first 20 pages in proper format

DRUSILLA CAMPBELL writes about every day people caught up in extraordinary events that challenge everything they believe about themselves and the world. She is the author of twelve published novels, including the bestselling Hopewell Saga, Wildwood and Blood Orange. Her latest title, Bone Lake (Madison Park Press), is about the struggle to save a child from the neo-Nazi terrorists who raised her and now want her dead. Having crossed the Pacific Ocean three times before she started school, and in her twenties lived in Europe and Central America, today Dru's happy to stay at home in San Diego with her husband, the attorney and poet Art Campbell, two rescued dogs and three horses.

• IMMERSION TRACK: "The Novel Cram: Building the Better Book" (Full details)

MATTHEW J. PALLAMARY's first novel, Land Without Evil, set in ancient Paraguay, has been acclaimed by readers and critics alike. Ray Bradbury declared "Bravo!" for Matt's The Small Dark Room of the Soul, a short story collection originally self-published. A memoir, Spirit Matters, chronicling his life-long search for truth, which took him from false faith on the bloody mean streets of Boston's Irish Catholic ghetto to the discovery of spiritual affirmation in the jungles of the Amazon, won a San Diego Book Award for Best Spiritual Book and was an Award-Winning Finalist in the autobiography/memoir category of the National Best Books 2008 Awards, sponsored by USA Book News.

• SESSIONS: Read & Critique
ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Horror, Fantasy, Speculative, first 20 pages double-spaced

GARY PHILLIPS writes tales of mayhem, malfeasance and more in various mediums. His recent work includes Freedom's Fight, an historical novel set in World War II, High Rollers, a gangster fable in graphic novel format, and a short story in the recent anthology, Phoenix Noir. His novella The Perpetrators is under option for film, and he's at work on a multi-platform project with pioneering rapper Ice-T. Please visit his website at:www.gdphillips.com.

• SESSIONS: "Combining Genres without Confusing Your Reader" and "Writing Cross-platform: Novels, Short Stories & Comic Books"
ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Crime Fiction, first 20 pages, double-spaced

DARLENE QUINN is a journalist and author of Webs of Power, her highly topical debut novel from Emerald Book Company, which Laura Taylor raves, "captures the drama, greed, and emotional tumult of personal lives gone awry during the hostile takeover attempt of a high-end retail chain." Aware of the marketing pitfalls most authors face upon publication, from the onset Darlene assumed a highly active and vigilant role in her title's release, managing everything from its jacket design to a sustained national publicity blitz, including bookstore, radio and television appearances. She is currently at work on a sequel, Twisted Webs.

• SESSION: "Sieze the Pay: Making the Most of Your Book Launch"

JUDY REEVES is a writer and teacher with more than 25 years experience as a workshop leader. She’s written four books on the craft including A Writer’s Book of Days, named a “hottest book for writers" by Writer’s Digest Magazine, and A Creative Writer's Kit: A Spirited Companion & Lively Muse for the Writing Life. Her most recent, The Writer’s Retreat Kit, was published last spring. In addition to private workshops, she teaches creative writing at UCSD and at writing conferences internationally. After a few years of off-and-on expatriat living in Barcelona, Spain, she’s once again taken up residence in San Diego where she’s working on a novel and speaking English.

• SESSION: Read & Critique
ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Memoirs and Women's Fiction; up to 20 pages double-spaced

MARK I. REICHENTHAL is an intellectual property and entertainment law attorney with Branfman Law Group P.C., with the emphasis of his practice centered on intellectual property, entertainment law, licensing, internet and book & magazine publishing. Prior to joining BLG, Mark worked at Simon & Schuster, William Morrow, Avon Books, was a Senior Counsel at Wiley Publishing, publisher of the wildly successful "...For Dummies" series where Mark was responsible for managing the day-to-day legal affairs of the company including the negotiation of book contracts, supervising the enforcement of the “…For Dummies” trademark, and all company trademark and copyright licensing.

• SESSION: "Publishing Law Today: Author Agreements, Copyright and Fair Use"

RAUL RAMOS Y SANCHEZ is the author America Libre, a timely, cautionary tale of a modern day Civil War in the U.S. which won the 2008 International Latino Book Award for Best Novel-Adventure or Drama-English. Initially self-published with the support of his agent, Sally van Haitsma, as a founding partner of B/R/C Marketing of Ohio and California, Raul brought his considerable traditional media and online social networking expertise to its publicity campaign. Five months later Grand Central Publishing (formerly Warner Books) acquired it and is releasing a revised version in July, as well as its sequel, El Nuevo Alamo, in 2010. Visit www.RaulRamos.com.

• WORKSHOPS: "Author/Agent Journey: Selling Yourself to Publishers and the Public" (with Sally van Haitsma) and "Social Media for Authors: What Works, What Doesn't and Why"

MONTE SCHULZ's debut novel, Down by the River, was published by Viking in 1991. Library Journal raved that it compared to Stand by Me and Twin Peaks, and seemed "ready-made for Hollywood." He spent ten years writing his next, a massive magnum opus for his father, the late cartoonist, Charles M. Schulz, that had to be broken into three volumes. He spent another eight years trying to sell them. Now having scored five book deals in the past 12 months, Monte's first of the bunch will be released in hardcover September by Fantagraphics. A literary adventure set in the summer before the stockmarket crash of 1929, This Side of Jordan is the first in a compelling new trilogy in the distinctly Southern lyricism vein, to be completed by Fields of Eden and The Big Town.

• FRIDAY EVENING GUEST SPEAKER
• SESSION: "Authorial Voice: Using Style to Transcend Substance"

MICHELE SCOTT is an overnight success only ten years in the making. A graduate of the University of Southern California with a degree in communications with her eyes on being a reporter, she set out instead to write a novel. Enduring rejections of her manuscript for a decade, in March 2004 an agent signed her on and one month later Murder Uncorked sold to Berkley Prime Crime in a three-book deal launching Michele's Wine Lover's Mystery Series, which now includes Murder by the Glass, Silenced by Syrah, A Vintage Murder and Corked by Cabernet. Nine months later another three-book deal followed for a Equine Mystery Series, which debuted November '06 with Saddled with Trouble, and now includes Death Reins In and Tacked to Death. Michele's debut novel for children, Zamora's Ultimate Challenge, is recently out from Quake.

• WORKSHOP: "Muddled: Story Reconstruction Clinic" and "Working with a Freelance Editor" (with Mike Sirota)
ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Mystery, Mystery Series Proposal, Fantasy, up to 20 pages double-spaced

STEVEN M. THOMAS has won dozens of awards as a poet, essayist, fiction writer and journalist. His work has appeared in many literary and small press magazines in the U.S. and England. His first novel, Criminal Paradise, was published by Ballantine in March 2008. Now available in a mass market paperback edition, it has been selected as a finalist for Best First Novel by the International Thriller Writers. Criminal Karma, the second book in Steve's Southern California crime fiction series featuring burglar and stickup man Robert Rivers, will be published by Ballantine in July.

• SESSION: "Substantiating the Fictional World"
ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Literary Fiction, Crime, Suspense, first 20 pages double-spaced

LYNN VANNUCCI's first novel, Coyote, was published by Bantam New Fiction in 1987. She has since written three more novels, a weekly newspaper column, nonfiction articles for various sailing lifestyle and other publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, romance fiction (under a pen name), and been included in an anthology of Italian-American women writers, The Voices We Carry (Guernica Press). As founder of Beat the Book, an editorial support program for writers, her clients include best-selling authors from Bantam and other top houses, and include such projects as Revolution in the Garden, the biography of feminist Dell Williams, and Green: Your Place in the New Energy Revolution (Palgrave-Macmillan). Additionally, in the past year alone, she has ghosted three books for major publishers.

• SESSIONS: "Narrative Triage: The Practice of Applying Emotional Logic," "How to Succeed in the New Niche Nonfiction Market" and Beat the Book pre-screening
ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Literary Fiction, Crime, Suspense, first 20 pages double-spaced

ROBERT WARD's first novel, Shedding Skin, won an NEA Award as one of the best novels of 1972 and Red Baker, the scorching tale of an unemployed steelworker, won the Los Angeles PEN Award for Best Novel of 1985. King of Cards, The Cactus Garden and Grace, a fictional memoir based on the life of his grandmother, netted even further acclaim, as did his work as a the screenwriter of Cattle Annie and Little Britches, and a writer-producer for TV's Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, and New York Undercover. 2006's Four Kinds of Rain earned a starred review by Publishers Weekly, while The New York Times proclaimed it, "Fiercely funny ... as sharp and nasty as a paper cut." Due out in hardcover July from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is his immensely anticipated new novel, Total Immunity.

• SATURDAY EVENING GUEST SPEAKER
• SESSION: "Dialogue IS Action!"
ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Literary, Mystery Fiction, Narrative Nonfiction, first 20 pages double-spaced

MARALYS WILLS is the author of a dozen published books in a variety of genres, including the tecno-thriller Scatterpath, of which The New York Times said, "Her cockpit sequences all but put the reader at the controls," and four romance novels. Her nonfiction includes the critically lauded Higher Than Eagles: The Tragedy and Triumph of an American Family, which chronicles the loss of two of her sons and has been optioned for film five times, and Save My Son: A Mother and a Sheriff Unite to Reclaim the Lives of Addicted Offenders (with Michael Carona). Her latest titles include A Clown in the Trunk, a sequel of sorts to her light-hearted memoir, A Circus Without Elephants, and Damn the Rejections: Full Speed Ahead.

• SESSIONS: "Writing Killer Queries and Snappy Synopses" and TBA
ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Memoir, Narrative Nonfiction, Novels, first 20 pages double-spaced

FAN WU's debut novel, February Flowers, was chosen by Picador as the inaugural book for Picador Asia and has been translated into eight languages. Critics lauded it as "fresh and original" (The Age) and "subtly and deftly paced" (The Observer), and hailed that it "commands our attention if we want to understand contemporary China" (The Tablet). Besides being anthologized and nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Fan's short fiction has appeared in Granta, The Missouri Review, Ploughshares, Redivider, and Asia Literary Review. Turning her keen eye and elegant prose to a story of a mother and two daughters struggling to straddle the vast divide between China and America, the past and the present, and their own relationships with each other, Beautiful as Yesterday is out July from Simon & Schuster imprint, Atria Books.

• SATURDAY MORNING GUEST SPEAKER
• SESSION: TBA

• SESSIONS: "Writing Killer Queries and Snappy Synopses" and TBA
ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Memoir, Narrative Nonfiction, Novels, first 20 pages double-spaced

ELISE CAPRON is an agent and executive assistant at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, specializing in debut fiction, character-driven literary and offbeat fiction, and short story collections. She is also interested in selected nonfiction if it has a literary edge. Some of Elise’s recent and soon-to-be-published books include Jonathon Keats’ The Book of the Unknown: Tales of the Lamad-Vov (Random House), Ali Liebegott’s The IHOP Papers (Carroll & Graf), Peter Plate’s Soon the Rest Will Fall (Seven Stories Press), and Whitney Lyles’ Party Games (Simon Pulse) and First Comes Love (Berkley). She is not interested in mystery, thriller, or YA unless they crossover into literary, romance, sci-fi, poetry.

• AGENTS/EDITORS PANEL
• ADVANCE SUBMISSION: literary, coming-of-age, short story collections, narrative nonfiction, up to 15 pages double-spaced

KATE GALE is and founder and managing editor of Red Hen Press, one of the largest independent presses in Southern California publishing 20 titles a year of poetry, literary fiction and nonfiction. An accomplished author and winner of the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award, her poetry collections include Mating Season, Blue Air, Where Crows and Men Collide, Selling the Hammock, and Fishers of Men, the novel Lake of Fire, and the bilingual children's book African Sleeping Beauty. Two anthologies she co-edited, Anyone is Possible and Blue Cathedral, have been widely adopted for classroom use.

• SESSION: TBA
• AGENTS/EDITORS PANEL
• ADVANCE SUBMISSION: literary, memoir, narrative nonfiction, poetry up to 15 pages double-spaced

JEAN JENKINS is a freelance editor (MsRewrite.com) and consultant to writers. Having worked with a number of authors, she has successfully shepherded to print both genre and mainstream novels for publishers such as Random House, Avon, St. Martins, Rutledge Hill Press, Tor and Donald I. Fine, and maintained her popular "Ask J.J." column for San Diego Writers' Monthly for several years. Jean also "moonlights" for KPBS, Public Broadcasting, various production houses and numerous attorneys. Several recent books that she has consulted on are nearing publication with major houses.

• SESSION: "How to Get the Most from the Conference" and "Rewriting Novels and Narrative Nonfiction"
• ADVANCE SUBMISSION: Mystery and Mainstream Fiction; narrative nonfiction up to 20 pages double-spaced

ALEXANDRA MACHINIST is an agent with Linda Chester Literary, and former literary attorney. Her recent sales include the debut novel Pretty (Plume), Erica Eisdorfer's The Wet Nurse's TaleT, a neo-Victorian novel in the tradition of Sarah Waters (Putnam), Nicole Dickson's Casting Off, a magical novel about a mother and daughter whose lives change during a summer on an island off the coast of Ireland (NAL) and J. Sydney Jones’ The Empty Mirror, a Vienna historical thriller (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s). An admittedly "promiscuous reader," her literary interests run the gamut from swift-moving narrative nonfiction to Jane Austen to cyberpunk. Linda is looking to acquire books in any of those veins including literary fiction, historical fiction, commercial fiction (specifically, up-market women¹s fiction, suspense, historical romance, paranormal romance), popular culture, narrative non-fiction, popular science, travel narrative, and anything and everything having to do with subcultures.

• AGENTS/EDITORS PANEL
• ADVANCE SUBMISSION: Fiction and Nonfiction, first 15 pages double-spaced

MARLA MILLER’s first book, All American Girls: The U.S. Women's National Soccer Team, published by Simon & Schuster, enjoyed three print runs. She is editor-in-chief of Location 3 Magazine, a lifestyle quarterly magazine that circulates in Newport Coast, California. For 18 years, she penned three columns for the Orange County Register’s lifestyle magazine. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, Oxygen.com and co-hosted a radio talk show on a NPR affiliate. A former nurse practitioner, she writes about health and consults on several health care websites. Her travel pieces appear in regional magazines. Miller teaches marketing-to-writers workshops at several conferences. She also has taught narrative nonfiction workshops at the University of California, Irvine - Extension. Of her freelance editing clients, two have authored best-selling. In her monthly column, "Early Years" in Writer Magazine, she talks to notable authors about their early years in this business. Site: MarketingTheMuse.com

• SESSION: "Nonfiction for Newbies: Is It a Book or Isn't It?" and "Pitch it to Me: Let's Fix Your Book Pitch!"
• ADVANCE SUBMISSION: Narrative Nonfiction, Fiction, first 20 pages double-spaced

LYNN PRICE is editorial director of Behler Publications, an independent publisher with an impressive variety of award-winning titles. A 2007 Independent Publisher Book Award recipient herself, for her novel Donovan's Paradigm, Lynn's passion for working with some of the most exciting new voices in American literature, on subjects tackling medicine, aging, family issues, death, abandonment, love, prejudice and more, has produced for Behler a growing list of poignant, lauded personal journeys in both fiction and nonfiction. Recent books include Kate McLaughlin's Mommy I'm Still In Here: Raising Children with Bipolar Disorder, Chip Jacob's Wheeling the Deal: The Outrageous Legend of Gordon Zahler, Hollywood's Flashiest Quadriplegic and Douglas Light's East Fifth Bliss.

• SESSIONS: "Backstory Bedlam: What to Use, What to Lose?" and "Today's Publishing Options: What's Best For Your Book?"
• AGENTS/EDITORS PANEL
ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Narrative Nonfiction, Fiction, first 20 pages double-spaced

MIKE SIROTA is a freelance editor and author of 19 published novels including The 22nd Gear, Bicycling Through Space and Time, Demon Shadows and The Well, from such publishers as Bantam Books, The Berkley Publishing Group, Pocket Books and Zebra Books. Among his most recent client successes: Michele Scott's Tacked to Death, Jeff Sherratt's The Brimstone Murders and Dr. Paul Bernstein's Courage to Heal. He was the long-time editor and award-winning feature writer for a San Diego newsmagazine, and he presently evaluates and edits manuscripts professionally.

• SESSION: "Narrative Hook: Where Your Story Really Starts" and "Working with a Freelance Editor" (with Michele Scott)
ADVANCE SUBMISSION: Mainstream, Adult and Young Adult novels, up to 20 pages double-spaced

KELLY SONNACK is an agent with Andrea Brown Literary Agency, and a former Acquisitions Editor under the Academic Press imprint for publishing giant Reed Elsevier. Specializing in all types of children's literature, in picture books and middle grade fiction Kelly looks for a good sense of humor, stories that stretch a young reader's imagination, and an authentic voice. In young adult, she appreciates literary voices and character-driven stories with heart. In nonfiction for children, she enjoys projects that inspire and stimulate the minds of the younger generations. At this time, Kelly is not accepting adult-oriented material.

• SESSION: TBA
• AGENTS/EDITORS PANEL
• ADVANCE SUBMISSION: Childrens, Young Adult, up to 15 pages double-spaced (unless picture book)

LAURA TAYLOR's acclaimed novel, Honorbound, received endorsements from authors Pat Conroy, W.E.B. Griffin, and Stephen King. The recipient of two Maggie Awards, as well as a Career Achievement Award, a Reviewers Choice Award, a lifetime achievement Award and Best Contemporary Mainstream Award from Romantic Times, she has written 22 books ranging in genre from romance to mainstream fiction, works as a freelance editor and is currently writing a true crime book. Among her recent clients' success is Andrew Peterson's First to Kill.

• SESSION: Read & Critique
ADVANCE SUBMISSION CRITIQUE: Mainstream and Genre Fiction, first 20 pages double-spaced

SALLY VAN HAITSMA is an agent for the Castiglia Literary Agency, which represents an international client database and has successfully placed numerous significant nonfiction and fiction titles with major publishers by first-time authors. With several award-winning writers included, these sales have also extended to film, audio, foreign, commercial and electronic rights where appropriate. Actively seeking unrecognized authors, Sally is interested in ethnic, commercial, literary and women's fiction, offbeat mysteries, science-fiction, narrative nonfiction, health, science, parenting, biography, architecture, interior design, current affairs and niche books.

• WORKSHOP: "Author/Agent Journey: Selling Yourself to Publishers and the Public" (with Raul Ramos Y Sanchez)
• AGENTS/EDITORS PANEL
ADVANCE SUBMISSION: Fiction, synopsis and first 15 pages, double-spaced; nonfiction: overview, author bio, table of contents and sample chapter, double-spaced

MICHAEL STEVEN GREGORY is an independent filmmaker and WGA screenwriter of material ranging from mainstream drama and bio-pics to animated action-adventure and videogames. He has scripted series for Fox, UPN and HBO, directed television and features in a variety of genres, and been involved as a writer, producer or director in over 150 short films. His recent longform projects include the award-winning We, The Screenwriter and romantic-comedy A Valentine Carol, as well as Don King Presents: Prizefighter, a videogame for 2K Sports. He is currently at work on Border Badge: Crossing the Line, a documentary, while his book Disc Golf: All You Need to Know about the Game You Want to Play is in its third printing.

• Executive Director, SCWC   [ contact ]

WES ALBERS has spent 19 years in law enforcement and is a veteran sergeant with the San Diego Police Department. A decorated officer who has been commended by the SDPD, the San Diego City and District Attorney’s Offices, the California Legislature, the Governor of California, and the Department of Homeland Security, he has consulted internationally on policing issues and recently spoke at a legislative conference with representatives from the U.S. and Mexico. His written work has been used as source material for U.S. Department of Justice publication. Additionally, his work has been used for Department training and operations manuals. Wes’s latest book, Black & White, generated immediate agent interest and is being shopped as a series. His next book is under way.

• Director, SCWC   [ contact ]

CHRISSIE BARNETT
• Assistant Director   [ contact ]

CRICKET ABBOTT
• Associate [ contact ]

EDWIN DECKER
• Associate [ contact ]