Speakers for the 2018 conference
Simon Wood
This year the keynote speaker will be the USA Today bestselling author of The One That Got Away, Simon Wood. His latest thriller is Saving Grace. Simon has built a reputation for concocting wild and dangerous thrillers that would have given Hitchcock nightmares. His writing takes an even darker and stranger turn as Simon Janus, his horror fiction identity.
Simon holds both British and American private pilot licenses; he has worked as a petrochemical engineer, racecar driver, and private investigator. It’s not surprising he sees the world a little differently.
Originally from England, he lives in Northern California with his wife, Julie, and a menagerie of rescued animals.
You can learn more about our keynote speaker at http://simonwood.net/
Jordan Hartt
Jordan Hartt is new to the Southwest Washington Writers Conference. He is an avid reader, a writer, writing teacher, and a writing-retreat leader. In his workshop, he will discuss the growing flash fiction market and genre.
Jordan facilitates the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, the YAWP Series, Centrum’s High School Writers’ Conference, Centrum’s Writing Studios, as well as annual private writing retreats in Jamaica, Uganda, New Zealand, and other places.
Participants in Hartt’s writing programs have published in thousands of literary magazines, over two hundred books on nationally ranked presses, and been featured in the Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, and Best American Short Stories anthologies.
Hartt’s own writing has appeared in about forty literary magazines and journals. His collection of stories, “Leap,” appeared in 2015. He is currently at work on a new collection.
To learn more about Jordan Hartt visit his website at, http://www.kahini.org/jordan-hartt/.
Andrea Culletto
Andrea is also new to the Southwest Washington Writers Conference. She is a publisher and freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Mary Jane’s Farm magazine, Mamalode magazine, Black Hills Bride magazine, The La Crosse Tribune, Exceptional Homes, Driftless Notes, Klutch Chronicle, La Crosse Magazine, Coulee Region Women Magazine, ThurstonTalk.com and Nisqually Valley News. Andrea is currently publisher of LewisTalk.com and WhatcomTalk.com. She is also a regular contributor to LINK Magazine.
Andrea will be presenting the workshop, “Writing for Self-Exploration & Discovery.”
Learn more about Andrea at https://andreacullettoportfolio.wordpress.com/
Traci Hilton
Traci is the author of The Plain Jane Mysteries, The Mitzy Neuhaus Mysteries, and the Tillgiven Romantic Mysteries and is also new to our conference.
She has been indie publishing since 2010, and though she’s had offers from small and large presses, she hasn’t gone hybrid yet. She was the mystery/Suspense Category winner for the 2012 Christian Writers of the West Phoenix Rattler Contest, a finalist for Speculative Fiction in the same contest, and has a Drammy from the Portland Civic Theatre Guild. Traci is an active member of the ACFW and currently serves as secretary of the local ACFW chapter.
Traci will be presenting the workshop, “Choose your own Adventures in Publishing.”
She blogs at http://thewriteconversation.blogspot.com/
Clare Meeker
Clare is an award-winning author of 11 books and 30 magazine stories for children. Her most recent publishing credits include the 2016 Junior Library Guild Spring Selection “Rhino rescue!” published by National Geographic Kids, “Soccer Dreams: Playing The Seattle Sounders FC Way” (licensed by Major League Soccer), and the Smithsonian Magazine Notable Book, “Lootas Little Wave Eater” published by Sasquatch Books. Her newest book,” Growing Up Gorilla,” is scheduled for publication in 2019.
Clare will be presenting the workshop, “Plotting the Picture Book: Exploring Story Structure.”
Learn more about Clare at https://www.claremeeker.com/
Veronika (Ronnie), known professionally as The Marketing Coach, has taught at every Southwest Washington Writers Conference because people want to attend her workshops.
Veronica Noize
She is the author of three books: “How to Create a Killer Elevator Speech,” “The 30-Minute Networking Secret Toolkit,” and “Marketing Strategies that Really Work.” A contributing columnist for local publications including the Vancouver Business Journal, she has also written more than 100 articles for The Home Business Journal, The CEO Refresher, and The Home Business Report, among other business and trade publications. She holds a BA in Communications from PSU and is a graduate of Coach U. She was an instructor for three years at the International Coach Academy, and frequently speaks and teaches for many domestic and international organizations.
Veronica will be presenting the workshop, “How to sell your 1st 50 books.”
You can learn more about Veronica Noize at her website, http://www.veronikanoize.com/
Heather Dawn
Heather Dawn
Heather holds an MA in Consciousness Studies from John F. Kennedy University and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the humanistic perspective from Saybrook University. She studied with some of the best-known dream scholars in the field of dream research. She has been a member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams for years and won the Hartmann Student Research Honorable Mention Award from IASD in 2017 for her research on “The Dreams That Were Used as Legal Evidence in the 17th Century New England Witch Trials.” She teaches classes about dreams and conducts individual consultations near Seattle, Washington.
Heather will be presenting the workshop, “Dreams as Inspiration to Write.”
Lindsay Schopfer
Lindsay is the author of “The Adventures of Keltin Moore,” a series of steampunk-flavored fantasy novels about a professional monster hunter. He also wrote the sci-fi survivalist novel “Lost Under Two Moons” and the fantasy short story collection, “Magic, Mystery, and Mirth.” His short fiction has appeared in “Merely This and Nothing More: Poe Goes Punk” from Writerpunk Press and “Unnatural Dragons” from Clockwork Dragon.
Lindsay’s workshops and seminars on the craft of writing have been featured in a variety of writing conferences across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Currently, he teaches creative writing for South Puget Sound Community College’s continuing education program. He is also a volunteer mentor for Educurious, a Gates Foundation-funded program designed to connect high school students with professional writers. He received his BA in Creative Writing from the Evergreen State College. Learn more about Lindsay at http://blog.lindsayschopfer.com/
Lindsay will be presenting the workshop, “Sci-fi for Mainstream Audience.”
Midge Raymond
Midge is the author of the novel “My Last Continent” and the award-winning short-story collection “Forgetting English.” Her writing has appeared in TriQuarterly, American Literary Review, Bellevue Literary Review, the Los Angeles Times magazine, Poets & Writers, and many other publications. Midge worked in publishing in New York before moving to Boston, where she taught communication writing at Boston University for six years. She has taught creative writing at Boston’s Grub Street Writers, Seattle’s Richard Hugo House, and San Diego Writers, Ink. She has also published two books for writers, Everyday Writing, and Everyday Book Marketing. Midge lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she is co-founder of the boutique publisher Ashland Creek Press. Learn more about Midge at https://www.midgeraymond.com/
Midge will be presenting three workshops at the conference: “Say Anything: How to Write Great Dialogue,” “The Art of Submitting,” and “Navigating the High Stakes Seas of Writing Contests.”
Bill Ransom
Bill Ransom
Bill has published six novels, including several with Frank Herbert, six poetry collections, numerous short stories, and articles. He founded Centrum’s Port Townsend Writer’s Conference and was a pioneer in the Poetry-in-the-Schools project for the NEA in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. Bill is the recipient of two NEA fellowships for poetry and fiction. He recently retired as Dean of Curriculum at The Evergreen State College and now lives and writes in Grayland on the Washington Coast.
Bill will be presenting two workshops at the conference: Revision, and Collaborative Writing.
