Longview Literary Festival

Contemporary and Paranormal Romance author, Claire Ashgrove, spent most of her life writing, in one form or the other. She currently writes for Tor and The Wild Rose Press, and has contracted over twenty novels and novellas. Her alter-ego, Tori St. Claire, debuts with Berkley HEAT in January of 2012. Active with her Missouri RWA chapters, and other chapters throughout the nation, she's held the office of Vice President, coordinated programs, guided critique groups, judged countless contest entries, and presented various workshops both locally and nationally. Additionally, under a different hat, she edits for a major digital publishing house, where she guides a stable of sixteen authors in producing compelling, memorable tales.

Robin Wayne Bailey is the author of numerous fantasy and science fiction works, including his latest best-selling series, DRAGONKIN. His other well-known works include the Frost series (republished in omnibus edition as NIGHT'S ANGEL), the BROTHERS OF THE DRAGON series, SHADOWDANCE, and his Fritz Leiber-inspired Fafhrd and Gray Mouser novel, SWORDS AGAINST THE SHADOWLAND, among others. Robin's short fiction has appeared in many magazines and anthologies. Yard Dog Press recently issued a collection of his short science fiction, entitled TURN LEFT TO TOMORROW, and he has edited two acclaimed anthology collections of other authors' work. His novelette, "The Children's Crusade," was a finalist for the 2007 Nebula Award. With the help of the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society and James Gunn's Center for the Study of Science Fiction, he founded Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Hall of Fame, which was transferred to Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen, and became part of the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, WA. He is also a former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA).

Joe Baric works for IBM as a programmer, technical writer and trainer by day. By night, well, let's just say his mind travels to dark places. Extensively read in the horror genre, Joe writes science fiction, horror, and songs. Really, he does write the songs.

My main genres are Contemporary, Paranormal/Urban Fiction, and I'd like to branch out into Romantic Suspense. I live in Lee's Summit, Missouri, just thirty miles south of Kansas City with my husband and our cat, Spook, who's convinced we came with the house as the hired help. My favorite activity beyond writing is cooking and belly dancing. With the maiden name of Love, how could I not get sucked into writing romance? I fell in love with romance novels in college. After reading every romance I could get my hands on, I discovered that I couldn't find the sort of book I wanted to read. More plot, more character growth. I thought, how hard could it be? Famous last words. It took a lot of hard work and determination but I finally sold my first book to The Wild Rose Press. A Perfect Bride for Christmas was released November of 2010. I'm currently working on two different projects now. One is a Paranormal, the other a Romantic Suspense.

Erin Bolton earned her bachelor's in Art History from the University of Kansas and worked in both the Editorial and Sales & Marketing departments of Andrews McMeel Publishing for four years. Erin continues to promote local artists and writers and actively seeks avenues to increase authorship and literacy. Recent efforts include the DHS Discussions series at The Writers Place and promotion for Hadley Rille Books authors nationally and at ConQuesT 41, the local KC science fiction convention. Her background in theater and poetry gives her a different perspective on using dialogue in fiction. Plus, she knows how to talk. A lot.

The Three Hats of Eve: Poet - Bookseller - MCC Writing Tutor: Kansas City poet, Eve Brackenbury lives in nearby rural Sibley, Missouri. Her poetry often reflects both rural and urban landscapes. She frequently reads her poetry at Prospero's Books Pit poetry readings and at the Writer's Place. She works as a Creative Writing and English tutor at MCC - Blue River and hosts a Creative Writing group at The Write Place, located in Blue River's Academic Resource Center. Eve has also become part of the Prospero's Bookstore team, enjoying every bit of being Bookseller and Event Coordinator at Prospero's Parkside Books in Blue Springs, MO. Her first book of poetry was written with co-author Paul McGlamery. Their book, A Companion of Lesser Brilliance is not just a collection of poems, but rather, the story of two lovers who are seduced by the moon. Eve's brand new release, Pressed Between Pages, is collaboration with artist Phillip King. The images and poems capture the darkness and shadows that lurk behind joy and beauty. Find out more about Eve Brackenbury at Amazon.com, www.evebrackenbury.wordpress.com and on Facebook.

Sherri Dean was born both late AND backwards, which explains a lot. The bulk of her work is available through Yard Dog Press as a writer and illustrator. Her latest story, co-written with Bill D. Allen of YDP fame is "Clay Allison and the Haunted Head," a weird western/horror story in the anthology Six Guns From Hell. Her illustrated work, is due out this Fall in "It's the Great Bumpkin, Cletus Brown and Other Stories" written by Kathy Turski. Sherri collects, among other things, non-fiction vampire books, commands armies of flying monkeys and is easily distracted by shiny objects. She likes presents, will autograph almost anything and welcomes emails at conbarbie@hotmail.com

Lewis Diuguid joined the staff of The Kansas City Star-Times in May 1977 after graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism. He is the author of an upcoming book, Discovering the Read America: Toward a More Perfect Union, and the 2004 award-winning book, A Teacher's Cry: Expose the Truth About Education Today. A Teacher's Cry is rooted in his studies with the Class of 1999 from the students' freshman year until graduation at Washington High School in Kansas City, Kan. He wrote about 100 columns for The Star chronicling what it's like to be a teenager and teacher today.

Karin Rita Gastreich is an ecologist by training and assistant professor of biology at Avila University. The relationship between characters and their environment is a central theme of her work in fantasy fiction. Her publications include the novel Eolyn, now available from Hadley Rille Books. Her short stories have appeared in Zahir, Adventures for the Average Woman, 69 Flavors of Paranoia and A Visitor to Sandahl. Karin is a recipient of the Spring 2011 Andrews Forest Writers Residency. Together with authors Kim Vandervort and Terri-Lynne DeFino, she has started a new blog dedicated to the discussion of fantasy fiction, and especially women in fantasy fiction, entitled Heroines of Fantasy, at http://heroinesoffantasy.blogspot.com. To find out more about the novel Eolyn, including previews of the first three chapters, please visit http://eolynchronicles.blogspot.com/.

Orrin Grey writes short stories of the macabre, occult, and supernatural that have appeared in anthologies like Bound for Evil, Delicate Toxins, Historical Lovecraft, and Candle in the Attic Window, among others. His first collection,Never Bet the Devil & Other Warnings, is due out in spring from Evileye Books. He was born on the night before Halloween, and he's been in love with monsters and ghosts ever since. He lives in Olathe with his wife and two cats. You can find out more on his website at www.orringrey.com, where he mostly talks about ghost stories, comic books, and old horror movies.

Carlton Logan began writing poetry in high school during the late 70's to express his teenage angst. He reclaimed his poetic voice in the 90's and began attending local workshops as well as the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in New Jersey. He also participated in open mic nights at various local book stores and the Blue Room. His poetry was first published in the anthology, The Bridge Is Out But I Can Fly, compiled by the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault (M.O.C.S.A.). He also wrote a male point-of-view column for a M.O.C.S.A. newsletter. Some of his poems were published in a chapbook, each tiny seed by Small Poetry Press. His poetry and commentaries were also published in the Storyboard newsletter for the Film Society of Greater Kansas City. In 2010, he completed a year-long assignment as one of 13 columnists for the Faith Walk column in the Kansas City Star. He is currently working on an inspirational book for African-American men and a motivational book. He is also working with on a collaborative cookbook with fellow chef, Leah Licausi and her husband, guitarist Aaron Duncan. He also recently started his own life coaching business, Carlton Logan Insight Coaching. He writes a blog at www.cliccoaching.wordpress.com.

A Kansas City native, Lindsey Martin-Bowen teaches prose and fiction writing, literature and cultural studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she also serves as Writing Assessment Coordinator. She holds an M.A. in English (creative writing emphasis) and a Juris Doctor. In 2008, Woodley Press (Washburn University) released Standing on the Edge of the World, a full-length collection of her poetry. The Gulf Times and The Kansas City Star named the collection one of the Top 10 (Most Noteworthy) poetry books for 2008, and LoHud.com listed it as one the "Best Books" (in the top 10 for poetry) in 2008. In 2009, Paladin Contemporaries published her novel, Hamburger Haven, available at Prosperos Books, Prosperos Parkside in Blue Springs, and at Amazon.com. Her novella Cicada Grove came out in 1992 (Paladin Contemporaries). Her poetry has appeared in New Letters, Rockhurst Review, Bare Root Review, Coal City Review, River King, Thorny Locust, Flint Hills Review, I-70 Review, The Same, Black Bear Review, Kansas City Voices, Lip Service, and other literary magazines and anthologies, and is forthcoming in Little Balkans Review. For two years, she helped Carl Rhoden coordinate the Borders Second Sunday Poetry Series.

Steve Murphy's story "Tearing Down Tuesday" was published in Interzone Magazine Issue 210. It placed fourth in the annual reader's poll, was nominated for the BSFA Short Story Award (long list, not final) and received an Honorable Mention in Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction 25th Edition. It is slated for republication with Apex Digest Online later this year. Apex also published "The Limb Knitter." Go to http://www.apexbookcompany.com/apex-online/2008/09/short-fiction-the-limb-knitter/. Steve also states the he is "also the historical and military research consultant to Australian writer John Birmingham. He is most notable in science fiction and alternate history circles for his Axis of Time Trilogy. "I provided research for Final Impact, his third novel in the series and I provided research and advice for his next novel which is unrelated to the AoT trilogy, Without Warning. Further, I am slated to provide research for this follow on novel, After America." Steve was also editor of Shorelines for 2007 and received the Longview Crystal M. Fields Award for Excellence in Student Writing.

Jerry Plantz eclectic career has achieved renown as an author, poet, public speaker, public relations consulatant and as a former award winning television executive news producer. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a B.A. degree (Journalism) from Duquesne University, Plantz is currently a columnist with The Examiner newspaper of Jackson County, Missouri. Many of his inspirational poems, stories and anecdotes, extolling the virtues and faux pas' of America, have been featured on broadcast news and talks shows, in newspapers, magazines, the Internet, even a choral concert. As a public speaker and emcee, he has graced the stages of many historic and patriotic events including the first candlelight ceremony for the victims of United Flight 93 to the rededication of the World War I Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri and the Wall That Heals in Blue Springs, Missouri. His speaking engagements run the gamut from public libraries to state conventions to elementary schools to senior citizen meetings as well as troop rallies and military memorial ceremonies. His words are non-political and unifying and are often acknowledged with standing ovations. His signature poem "I Held the Flag Today," from his book of the same name, became the most publicized patriotic poem in the country following 9/11. His most recent poem, "Please Play Taps for Me" became an instant hit on YouTube Memorial Day 2011. "I Watched Them Go" received a standing ovation performed in concert by a university choral ensemble and can be seen on YouTube. His latest book, "More Words of Patriotism," has achieved critical acclaim with such moving poems such as; "If I Should Come Home to Dover," "Where Are All the Citizens?" and "His Address Book."

From the depths of Park Avenue in South Saint Louis, Missouri emerges one of the quintessential literary voices of the 21st century. The Pride of Park Avenue is Toriano Porter's first published book. He is a former All-Conference football player at both Eureka High School in Eureka, Missouri and Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg and a former news reporter with the Examiner newspaper in Independence, Missouri. His work has appeared in publications such as the St. Louis American, St. Louis Evening Whirl, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Riverfront Times, The Kansas City Pitch, inBox Magazine, Playback STL Magazine, Central News Magazine, ENVY Magazine in Kansas City, www.stlhiphop.com and the Houston Press.

Andrew Rambo was lured to the Longview Literary Festival with the promise of brownies. Though he is still waiting for his brownies, he has greatly enjoyed exploring the creative process of transcribing the images and stories in his head onto paper. A veterinarian by trade, he has utilized his rediscovered love for writing as a sort of sorbet to cleanse away the daily grind. His genre of choice includes both the macabre and the humorous?but then again, maybe the readers aren't just laughing with him. His short story, "For the Love of Fairies" has been published in Bards & Sages.

Carl Rhoden was born and raised in Kansas City. He holds an MA and MFA and served as the Associate Editor of the Colorado Review for two years. He has taught literature and composition at Western State College and Colorado State University and has studied with the poets David Ray and Charles Simic, to name a few. For four years, he coordinated the Borders Second Sunday Poetry Series in Overland Park. He has published poems in literary journals since the mid-1970s, and in 1988, he won the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Press Association Award for Poetry. His poetry has appeared in Rockhurst Review, Kansas City Star, Coal City Review, Review, Thorny Locust, The Same, and I-70 Review.

Linda Rodriguez's novel, Every Last Secret, won the 2011 Malice Domestic First Novel Award from St. Martin's Press and will be published in April 2012. Rodriguez has published two books of poetry, Heart's Migration (Tia Chucha Press, 2009), winner of the 2010 Thorpe Menn Award for Literary Excellence, and Skin Hunger (Potpourri Publications, 1995, Scapegoat Press, 2007). She received the 2010 Inspiration Award from the KC Arts Fund, the 2009 Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award from the Macondo Foundation, and the 2009 Midwest Voices and Visions Award from the Alliance of Artists Communities and the Joyce Foundation and has been both a Ragdale Fellow and a Macondo Fellow. She is the vice-president of the Latino Writers Collective, founder/co-coordinator of the Kansas City Women Writers Reading Series, a founding board member of The Writers Place, and has published poetry and fiction in numerous journals and anthologies. Her poems have been broadcast on The Writers Almanac with Garrison Keillor (NPR) and New Letters on the Air (NPR). She is currently working on a book of poetry based on teachings from her Cherokee grandmother, another novel, and a co-edited collection of essays by mixed-blood women writers.

Susan Satterfield is the author of a number of published short stories including "Mirror of His Soul" and "The Changing," both appearing in Eldritch Tales, and "A Perfect World," appearing in the Yard Dog Press anthology, Stories That Won't Make Your Parents Hurl, in November of 2000. Her chapbook, Mirror Images, was published by Yard Dog Press in May of 2002. "The Lady Killer" and "Sweet Teddy" appeared in an anthology entitled Small Bites in September 2004. She is also the author of "A Bubba Poet" found in The International House of Bubbas and "What Goes Around" from the anthology Flush Fiction, and "Close Encounters of the Bubba Kind," in the anthology, Houston, We've Got Bubbas. Her a zombie poem entitled "The Hunger," can be found in the anthology, Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes. Her latest story, "A Bad Case of the Munchies," is available in the new anthology, I Should Have Stayed in Oz from Yard Dog Press. Susan is an English Instructor at MCC Longview.

Brian Schmidt is the author of the newly released space opera novel The Worker Prince, the collection The North Star Serial, and has several short stories forthcoming in anthologies and magazines. He's also the host of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Chat every Wednesday at 9 pm EST on Twitter, where he interviews people like Mike Resnick, AC Crispin, Kevin J. Anderson and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. He can be found online as @BryanThomasS on Twitter or via his website. Excerpts from The Worker Prince can be found on his blog.

Alan Spencer is the author of "The Body Cartel" (Damnation Books) and "Inside the Perimeter: Scavengers of the Dead" (Living Dead Press). Look for his work in many horror anthologies, including, "Love is Dead," "The Book of Cannibals," and "Book of the Dead 2," to a name a few. This fall, his latest short fiction will appear in the anthology "Toe Tags 2."

Allison Stein is an author, artist, TV addict, geek princess, and cat servant – not necessarily in that order. Her award-winning short fiction appears in several Yard Dog Press anthologies:

• Her most recent short story, "But Wait! There's More!" appears in "I Should Have Stayed in Oz" (Yard Dog Press, 2011).
• "They Blamed Sherman", from "A Bubba In Time Saves None" (Yard Dog Press, 2010) was named Best Short Story of 2010 by Missouri Professional Communicators and placed second in the same category by the National Federation of Press Women.
• "Curious George Visits the Solar J Astroport Diner" from "Houston, We've Got Bubbas" (Yard Dog Press, 2007) was named Best Short Story of 2007 by Missouri Professional Communicators.
• Allison's other fiction credits include short stories in Flush Fiction (Yard Dog Press, 2006) and 365 Scary Stories (Barnes & Noble Books, 1985)
• Allison also provided cover art for "Music For Four Hands" (Yard Dog Press, 2011), "Tick Hill" (Yard Dog Press, 2006), "Diva" (Yard Dog Press, 2005), and "The Blood Within" (Yard Dog Press, 2003), all from Yard Dog Press.

Allison is a member of Science Fiction Writers of America, the National Federation of Press Women, the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society, and the NobleFusion writer's group. When she's not painting, writing, tending her online shops, updating her social media status, or serving as cat furniture, she's a technical writer and technology marketing communications specialist. (allisonstein.com, allisonstein.blogspot.com, @allisonstein on Twitter)

The first woman accepted as the personal student of the Taika, Seiyu Oyata, Marti Verlander taught Ryu-Te® Karate for 18 years, including eight in her own dojo. She earned a 5th-degree black belt and membership in the elite Oyata Shin Shu Ho Ryu organization. For fourteen years, she was the editor, publisher, and primary writer for the Ryu-Te® Karate organization's international newsletter. Mr. Oyata gave her special training in a small weapon called chisaikunbo, which she taught on his behalf at his annual summer and fall conferences. Her articles on martial arts topics have appeared in Consumer's Digest, Kansas City Magazine, Inside Karate, and American Karate. Marti has worked as a corporate training specialist and taught such classes as Total Quality Leadership, Creative Problem-Solving, and Peak Performance in Presentations, as well as First Aid and CPR. Her short stories have appeared in Flashquake, e-clips, and Alienskin Magazine. Her novel, Legend of the Black Diamond, placed 3rd in SF/F/H category of the 2010 PPWC Paul Gillette Award. She can be found online at www.marthagilstrap.com.

Lawrence and Suella Walsh are freelance writers, writing teachers, consulting editors and publishers. They are frequent contributors to Writers' Journal Magazine and are Consulting Editors for Goldminds Publishing and have sold over 70 articles and short stories to national magazines. They teach writing classes at Johnson County Community college, Maple Woods College, and for the Kansas City Writers Group. Their book, Creating Fiction That Sells, A Compilation of Published Magazine Articles, is used as the text for their classes. They have taught more than 50 writing workshops for elementary schools in Kansas and Missouri and have done presentations for thirteen writers' conferences in addition to teaching classes in the Mid-Continent Public Library system. See our website: www.walshwritingservices.com They have sold six children's books, two adult mysteries and two books on writing techniques. Their adult novels, The Last O'Neil and Inherit The Land are currently available in book stores and on Amazon.com.