Patricia Newman

Patricia Newman has written several books that connect young readers to scientific concepts, including the new fall 2017 release, Zoo Scientists to the Rescue; and previous award-winning titles, such as Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators That Saved an Ecosystem, a Junior Library Guild Selection and recipient of a starred Kirkus review; Plastic, Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a Green Earth Book Award winner; and Ebola: Fears and Facts, a Booklist Editors’ Choice selection. Visit her at www.patriciamnewman.com.

Penny Warner

Penny Warner has published over 60 books for both adults and children. Her middle-grade mystery, THE CODE BUSTERS CLUB #1: SECRET OF THE SKELETON KEY, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Children’s Mystery. It features four kids who solve a mystery by cracking codes in each chapter. The second book in the series, THE CODE BUSTERS #2: THE HAUNTED LIGHTHOUSE, is set on Alcatraz and won the Agatha Award for Best Children’s Mystery. THE CODE BUSTERS CLUB #3: MYSTERY OF THE PIRATE’S TREASURE features the California Missions and the state’s lone pirate, and was nominated for an Agatha Award and an Anthony Award. THE CODE BUSTERS CLUB #4: THE MUMMY’S CURSE, is set at an Egyptian Museum and offers puzzles about artifacts and mummies and was nominated for an Agatha. THE CODE BUSTERS CLUB #5: HUNT FOR THE MISSING SPY is set at the International Spy Museum in Washington DC, and won the Agatha Award. THE CODE BUSTRS CLUB #6: SECRET OF THE PUZZLE BOX, set on Angel Island, and is again nominated for an Agatha. You can join the Code Busters Club at www.codebustersclub.com.

R.M. Gilmore

R.M. Gilmore is a paranormal and mystery/suspense writer and creator of the occult bestselling series Dylan Hart Odyssey of the Occult.
R.M. resides in California with her family and a ton of pets. With an awkward humor, it is likely she will die laughing.
​R.M. prefers to think and live outside the box, without the constraints of social stigma or the ideals of literary rules. That being said, she truly is not your mother’s author. www.rmgilmoreauthor.com/

Sarah Armstrong-Garner

Sarah Armstrong-Garner lives in Northern California with her husband and three children, and get this. Not only is she an author, screenwriter, and photographer, she also shoots indie films with her husband. Sinking is her debut novel. www.SarahArmstrongGarner.com

Shelley Muniz

Shelley has short stories in these journals: Wild Edges, and Wisdom Has a Voice: Every daughter’s memories of mother. Her books, in order of publication, are: Eagle Feathers and Angel Wings: Micah’s Story (2013), Tunneling (2017), and One Great Tribe (2017). She has been a teacher’s aide, elementary school librarian, and a library specialist for thirty years, and lives in Sonora, CA.  shelleymuniz.com

Stacey Cotter

Stacey Cotter has a degree in psychology and business administration, which led her to a career path in long-term care. With a passion for literature, several stories had been in her mind for years, but weren’t ready to come out until now. Harris Estate was worth the wait, as it is her first published novel. The sequel, Harris Estate, The Aftermath, will be forthcoming in late 2016. Closure, a new fictional mystery, will follow in 2017. Stacey lives with her husband and two children. Visit Stacey at: Facebook.com/Harris.Estate.by.Cotter and on
Twitter @StaceyCotter5

Sarah Jamila Stevenson

Sarah Jamila Stevenson is a writer, artist, editor and graphic designer in Northern California. She is the author of three YA novels: THE LATTE REBELLION (Flux, 2011), UNDERNEATH (Flux, 2013) and THE TRUTH AGAINST THE WORLD (Flux, 2014). Her first novel for young adults, THE LATTE REBELLION, was a Scholastic Book Club pick as well as an IPPY Bronze Medalist in Multicultural Children’s Fiction. Her work has been featured on Capital Public Radio’s Insight and NPR’s Tell Me More with Michel Martin. She is also an active blogger: since 2005 she has been posting children’s literature reviews and information at Finding Wonderland (writingya.blogspot.com), a blog she shares with fellow young adult author Tanita S. Davis, and she is a regular participant in the Cybils (Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards). http://www.sarahjamilastevenson.com

T. E. Watson

T. E. Watson is an award winning children’s author, columnist in the US and Canada, speaker, and philanthropist. His career has spanned the many aspects of the publishing industry.
Having started by accident from the efforts of some 35 6th graders (he was a teacher), his writings have taken readers to worlds they can revisit again and again. From his most recent travels back to Scotland in The Man Who Spoke With Cats and his best selling Glen Robbie: A Scottish Fairy Tale, to the popular educational and historical pioneer series Going West, his readers keep coming back for more, wondering to which magical land he is going to take them next. He has been awarded with The Best Author of 2009 and his book entitled The Man Who Spoke With Cats was Awarded BEst Children’s Book of 2009. He is the author of some 130 stories and now 3 new audio book productions and 12 new books being completed for children… and he says he has slowed a bit!
With over 40 years in the writing world doing everything from reporting to writing for magazines, to political essays for national, as well as environmental issues. He has also penned many guides and teaching curriculums for schools throughout the country. He has written adult works, and even horror, but his first love will always be the Children’s genre. His research and studies in Literature of the U.K, with a focus on Children’s Writers, with a more focused study of Robert Louis Stevenson earned T.E. the very prestigious FSA Fellowship from the Royal National Museum in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2003. tewatsononline.com

Paula Treick DeBoard

Paula Treick DeBoard holds an MFA from the University of Southern Maine and divides her time between writing and teaching. Her novels include the forthcoming Here We Lie (January 2018), The Drowning Girls (2016), which was selected by Target as part of its Emerging Authors program, The Fragile World, and The Mourning Hours. She teaches in the Merritt Writing Program at UC Merced, and is a fiction faculty member at Go Deep, a yoga and writing retreat in the Sierra Nevadas. Professionally, she belongs to PEN America, AWP and WFWA. Paula considers all of life to be material for writing, and spends her spare time with her husband Will, two small dogs with surprisingly vicious barks, and the world’s least patient cat. More information is available on her website, www.paulatreickdeboard.com.

Daniel Babka

Daniel grew up in a small town in the middle of America like the one he describes in Lightning Strikes, his coming-of-age novella set in 1959. He served in VISTA (the domestic Peace Corps), attended law school, a theological seminary, and worked as a community organizer in some of New York City’s toughest neighborhoods. More recently, Daniel ran two small start-up companies. He’s an avid hiker who, like Dylan Blake, the detective he writes about in No More Illusions, his contemporary California noir literary-mystery, needs time in the woods. He has two grown children and lives in the Northern California foothills where he is presently at work on two new Dylan Blake mysteries and several short stories. No More Illusions received a rave review from Kirkus Reviews Magazine, the country’s 2nd largest and oldest book reviewer. The mystery was also named to Indie Reader’s “Best Of 2014” List.

Silvia Minnick

Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Sylvia grew up in San Francisco and has lived in Stockton 56 years. With a Masters in History I wrote and lectured in Chinese American, Asian American and local history, they are the following:  SAMFOW: The San Joaquin Chinese Legacy; CHINESE COMMUNITY OF STOCKTON; STOCKTON’S CROWN JEWEL: The Bob Hope/Fox California; and NEVER A BURNT BRIDGE. She created a publishing house, HERITAGE WEST BOOKS, in Stockton and operated it for 12 years until her retirement. Her community activism include having served on Stockton City Council, president of the Chinese Benevolent Association and, through tax credit, renovated and created a housing apartment for low-income seniors. Writing and lecturing inspire her well being.

Marilyn Meredith

Marilyn Meredith is the author of many published novels, including the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the latest Seldom Traveled from Mundania Press. Writing as F. M. Meredith, her latest Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novel is A Crushing Death, from Oak Tree Press. She taught writing for Writers Digest Schools for 10 years, and was an instructor at the prestigious Maui Writers Retreat, and has taught at many writers’ conferences. Marilyn is a member of three chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. She lives in the foothills of the Sierra. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.comand her blog at http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com/

Gary Dei Rossi

An original member of the first Great Valley Bookfest commitee, Gary presented his book “The ABC Book of San Joaquin County”.  In 2014 he was awarded the 2014 Hero of Literacy. He began his educational career in Manteca USD and served as a teacher, vice-principal and principal. He joined the San Joaquin County Office of Education in 1991 and retired as the Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum. During his time at the county he was involved with many state-wide curriculum issues. He served as the co-chair of the CA history-social science framework committee, was the chair of the CA Pre-school network, and was part of many statewide literacy initiatives. Locally he is on the executive committee of UOP’s Beyond the Gate program (which promotes literacy), on the Ex. Board of San Joaquin A+ which is a joint business and educational group that promoted literacy, and he currently serve on the First 5 Commission which promotes pre-school and literacy efforts throughout the county. His most recent book is a story of a family coming to America and the personality traits it takes to make a journey of that kind. The book is dedicated to all the immigrants that came to America to create a better life for themselves and their families.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee has enjoyed reading and writing most of her life. However, raising a lot of different children, for a lot of different reasons, seldom found her the time to do either one. When Sandy Lee’s grown son Darvis Lee Jr. mysteriously disappeared in October of 2010, she took pen to paper and a story that had to be written, begun. “No Unturned Stone” – A Mother’s Quest is that book. Sandy Lee resides with her husband of thirty seven years, in the small town of Sonora, California where she was born and raised. Sandy Lee has a children’s book coming out this summer entitled, “Hermie the Bug”. This book will capture your heart. A book of 40 poems that Sandy Lee has written, will be coming out entitled “Life, Love, & Loss” later this fall. “Remembering Grandma” will be the fourth book for Sandy Lee. Coming out also this fall, she has written another children’s book from the perspective of her younger son and his experience with his grandma who sadly had Alzheimer’s. You will see a big part of Sandy Lee’s heart in each of her books.

Tom Conner

Thomas Conner, also known as Tom, Tommy, and TC by friends and family, was born in Florida two miles from the Alabama state line. He spent most of his early years living on the Alabama side. He graduated from the University of West Florida in Pensacola with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Humanities. Conner wrote his first novel when he was 12, which burned in a house fire, and has been writing ever since. He published a family history book in 2000 entitled The Conners of Conecuh County, Alabama, and has published several articles. Since 1980 he has resided in Central California’s Big Valley, where he has worked in higher education at a prestigious private university in Student Life. When not writing or working his daytime job, Conner is involved with classic movies, serving on a classic cinema committee and promoting a summer classic movie series.

Jose Lucio

Jose Lucio is an Author and Illustrator living in beautiful Savannah, GA. His first book, Heave Ho!, was awarded Best New Local Book in 2015 and he received Best Local Author in 2016 from the Readers of Connect Savannah. His second book, Free Rain, is about a group of chickens making the exciting journey from life in a cage to the open fields of the free range. Free Rain is written by Daniel Wentzel and has been brought to life by José with his quirky and fun illustrative style. You can catch him in his personal studio working on projects, or just down the street at the Scribble Art Studio, where he works as an instructor. www.JoseLucio.com

Frank Browning Clark

Frank lives in Oakdale with his wife of 56 years Marilyn. He has been a proud member of the community for 75 years. In 2005 he was named Oakdale’s citizen of the year and in 2012 was presented the Oakdale Chamber of Commerce “Lifetime Achievement Award”.  Frank was also the recipient of the Stanislaus County Bar Association’s Liberty Bell Award. He spent 11 years with the Modesto Police Department attaining the rank of Patrol Division Commander and third in command of the department. Three years as a Foreign Service Officer with the U. S. State Department assigned to Vietnam supervising thirteen other officers. Then it was on to E & J. Gallo Winery for the next 23 years. During that time he was promoted to Vice President of Special Services and was responsible for seven different departments. Frank retired from Gallo in 1995 and he & Marilyn raised three young grandchildren to adulthood. Frank has spent the last 20 years involved in community organizations.  Serving as president of the Oakdale Educational Foundation, Oakdale Rotary Club, Senior Citizen Foundation, Oakdale Dinner Club, Oakdale High School Board of Trustees and President of the Oakdale Irrigation District and Board member for 14 years.

Daniel Wentzel

Daniel Wentzel is an author and artist residing in Seattle, Washington. Born and raised in Michigan, he left the state in 2006 to attend the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he received a degree in design for motion media, as well as completing the requirements for a minor degree in creative writing. Free Rain is Daniel’s first foray into the world of children’s book authorship. Over the past 6 years since moving to Seattle, he’s produced projection art and animation displayed at local art shows, providing background visuals for performers in the local experimental music scene.

S. L. Dearing

S. L. Dearing was raised in Westlake Village, California and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. Shannon attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, then spent several years studying at Los Angeles City College’s renowned Television/ Film program. She has worked on several film projects in many capacities: directing, writing, 1st Asst. Director, Etc. Shannon has been writing since grade school. Over the years she has written several screenplays, poems, plays and short stories. She is currently working on her Lia Fail Series, The Gathering: Book One of the Lia Fail Chronicles and From The Gathering to The Bridging (A collection of short stories that provide back story and a bridge to the next novel) are available now. She is working on the next novel, The Bridging: Book Two of The Lia Fail Chronicles, due out soon. In addition, she has several short stories out. And is a contributing member of the Blog, Rising Indies United – a group of Indie artists that try to promote and uplift Indie Authors. She currently lives in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California. Her website is www.sldearing.com

Randy Halford

Randy lived in Idaho for 20 years before returning to his home state of California. He has been creating “Left Field’ cartoons since 1994, and has found the task of creating these humor/satire cartoons both challenging and rewarding. He has self-published six books since 2009, with more coming.

Joseph Crockett

Author J. Crockett was born in Miami, Fl, and now lives in California. He started Nostalgic Blood twenty years ago. It started as a poem, after someone told him that it would make a great story. The journey, his military experience, and world travel not only brought back memories, but help deliver a plausible adventure that the average person would enjoy. Nostalgic Blood on Amazon

List is subject to change