Bob Saenz

Bob Saenz is a screenwriter, author, and actor from Nashville with 20 produced films. His film works include “Extracurricular Activities”, “Church People”, “Help for the Holidays”, “Rescuing Madison”, “The Right Girl”, “The Christmas Yule Blog”, the award winning “The Farmer and the Belle”, and “A Dash of Christmas”. He regularly does rewrites, adaptations, and polishes on film and TV projects for Producers and Production Companies. He speaks and teaches at Film Festivals and Writer’s Conferences across the country and is the author of the popular screenwriting book, “That’s Not the Way It Works: a no-nonsense guide to the craft and business of screenwriting” and his first novel, which released in November of 2023, “Jessica’s Vampire Diary”, a unique and funny take on the undead. Acting roles: six seasons on “Nash Bridges”, Francis Ford Coppola’s “Jack”, David Fincher’s “Zodiac”, and Finn Taylor’s “Unleashed”, among dozens of others.

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Joe Castillo

After 21 years in advertising Joe has become a highly requested Keynote Speaker, SandStory artist and best selling Author.

His SandStories have been performed for Pope Francis, presidents, kings and dignitaries in 45 states, and 27 foreign countries and reached the finals on America’s got Talent.

Joe has mastered the ability to share his art stories in a way that inspires, motivates and touches the heart. Speaking, drawing and performing at corporate events, churches, and conferences makes him a perfect solution for your event. Whether online or live your audience will leave his sessions feeling uplifted and filled awe.

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Emily Bleeker

Emily Bleeker is the best-selling author of six novels. Combined, her books have reached over 1.5 million readers. She is a two-time Whitney Award finalist, a Wall Street Journal bestseller, Amazon charts bestseller and was recently listed as one of the top 100 Kindle authors “of all time.”

Emily lives in the northern suburbs of Chicago with her four kids and a growing menagerie of animals. Between writing and being a mom, she attempts to learn guitar, sings along to the radio (loudly), performs with a local improv troupe, and embraces her newfound addiction to running. 

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Carol Van Den Herde

Carol Van Den Herde is an award-winning author who pens stories of resilience and hope. Her novels Orchid Blooming and Goodbye, Orchid draw from her Chinese American heritage, and have won 30+ literary and design awards, including the American Fiction Award, IAN Outstanding Fiction First Novel Award, and Royal Dragonfly Awards for Cultural Diversity and Disability Awareness. 

Buzzfeed, Parade, and Travel+Leisure named Carol’s books a most anticipated read. Glamour Magazine recommended her “modern, important take on the power of love.” The International Pulpwood Queens selected Goodbye, Orchid as a 2022 Bonus Book-of-the-Month and Orchid Blooming as a 2023 International Book-of-the-Month.

Carol’s mission is unlocking optimism as a writer, speaker, strategist, Board member and Climate Reality Leader. One secret to her good fortune? Her humorous hubby and twins, who prove that love really does conquer all.

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Karen Dionne

Karen Dionne is the USA Today and #1 internationally bestselling author of the award-winning psychological suspense novels The Marsh King’s Daughter and The Wicked Sister, both published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in the U.S. and in dozens of other countries. The Marsh King’s Daughter was named one of the best books of 2017 by iBooks and many other booksellers and reviewers, and released in 2023 by Lionsgate as a major motion picture starring Daisy Ridley and Ben Mendelsohn. Karen enjoys nature photography and lives with her husband on a small lake surrounded by forest in the middle of Michigan.

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Allison Brennan

Allison Brennan is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of more than 45 books, including the long-running Lucy Kincaid series.

She is currently writing the Quinn & Costa FBI and the Angelhart PI series; North of Nowhere is her first stand-alone thriller. Allison lives in Arizona with her husband and her youngest two of five children. She loves cats, hiking, baseball, classic movies, and -- of course -- reading.

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Boyd & Beth Morrison

Beth Morrison is Senior Curator of Manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum. She received her PhD in the History of Art from Cornell University and began work at the Getty in 1996. During her twenty-five years there, she has curated numerous exhibitions, including Imagining the Past in France, 1250-1500 in 2010 and Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World in 2019. The accompanying publications for both shows were finalists for the most prestigious honor in museum work, the College Arts Association award for outstanding exhibition catalogue. She has written or edited six books as well as a dozen articles in the specialized area of French and Flemish manuscript illumination. THE LAWLESS LAND, co-written with her brother Boyd Morrison, is her first novel.

Boyd Morrison is an actor, engineer, Jeopardy! champion, and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of fourteen thrillers, including six collaborations with Clive Cussler in the Oregon Files series. His debut novel, THE ARK, was an Indie Next Notable pick and has been translated into over a dozen languages. Before becoming a writer, he worked at Johnson Space Center, RCA/Thomson, and Microsoft’s Xbox group. His latest thriller THE LAST TRUE TEMPLAR is the second book in the Tales of the Lawless Land series of historical adventures co-written with his sister, expert medievalist Beth Morrison.

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Clare Macintosh

Clare Mackintosh is the multi-award-winning author of New York Times bestseller I LET YOU GO, and Sunday Times bestsellers I SEE YOU, LET ME LIE, AFTER THE END, HOSTAGE and THE LAST PARTY Translated into forty languages, her books have sold more than two million copies worldwide, and have spent a combined total of 64 weeks in the Sunday Times bestseller chart. Her latest novel is A GAME OF LIES, is the second in a crime series featuring Welsh detective Morgan.

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Martin Clark

Martin Clark is often praised as our best legal-thriller writer (Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Times, Winston-Salem Journal). His sly, smart books, however, aren’t just courtroom thrillers. He has a distinctive, genre-bending style. His latest novel, THE PLINKO BOUNCE (September 12) once again showcases his unique talent, prompting Adriana Trigiani to note: “Martin’s canon…has a permanent place of honor in American Literature.”

Martin is a retired Virginia circuit court judge, who served twenty-seven years on the bench. His novels have appeared on numerous bestseller lists and have been chosen as a New York Times Notable Book, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a Washington Post Book World Best Book of the Year, a Bookmarks magazine Best Book of the Year, a Boston Globe Best Book of the Year, a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, a finalist for the Stephen Crane First Fiction Award, and the winner of the Library of Virginia’s People’s Choice Award in 2009, 2016 and 2020. Martin received the Patrick County Outstanding Community Service Award in 2016 and the Virginia State Bar’s Harry L. Carrico Professionalism Award in 2018.

He and his wife, Deana, live on a farm with dogs, cats, and chickens.

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Tim Lowry

During a circus performance, Tim was bitten by the show biz bug at six years of age. Waiting for his big break, he filled his childhood with performance opportunities. Cast as Ebenezer Scrooge in a second- grade production of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” Tim later played Jed Clampett in “A Beverly Hillbillies Christmas.” Demonstrating that he could raise one eyebrow and thereby look “wicked” Tim’s Sunday school teacher cast him as King Herod in the annual Christmas pageant.

As a young teenager Tim produced puppet shows for children’s birthday parties. His fee was $20 per show, but he offered a $5 discount if you could give him a ride because he was not yet old enough to drive. As an award-winning high school drama student Tim toured the East Coast in 1987 with a Broadway style musical. As a theatre major in college he studied Shakespeare and Romantic Opera, but when he took an elective class in storytelling he found himself.

After graduation, Tim taught English Language Arts for five years. Drawing on his love of show business his teaching methods were often considered “unorthodox and disruptive.” In 2000 Tim left the classroom to pursue a career as a professional storyteller. To date he has shared his “unorthodox and disruptive” teaching methods with more than a quarter million children!

In 2012 Tim began touring the National Storytelling Circuit performing at over fifty different festivals. Occasionally, Tim provides workshops for corporate clients such as the North Carolina County Commissioners, Dollywood Dream More Resort, Ballad Health, and Daramic LLC.

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