Writers Conference 2021

Joey Garcia coaches writers and authors on effective strategies to boost their books and platforms. Her clients have been featured in Ms. Magazine, CNN.com, The Tamron Hall Show, and on the TODAY Show parenting blog, among others. Joey is the author of When Your Heart Breaks, It’s Opening to Love, and she’s the on-air Relationship Expert for Fox40-TV. She’s been featured in HuffPost, USA Today, Deutsche Welle, KVIE public television and Global Woman TV Sweden. Her essays have been featured on KQED public radio, the Brevity blog, Sacramento magazine, and are forthcoming in Hippocampus magazine; poems in Calyx, The Caribbean Writer, the Tule Review and several anthologies; short stories in POUi, Mslexia and Writers Digest. In 2018, Joey launched The Belize Writers Conference and established the first literary fellowship for a Belizean writer in the country’s history. www.joeygarcia.com

Dorothy Rice is the author of two memoirs, GRAY IS THE NEW BLACK (Otis Books, June 2019) and THE RELUCTANT ARTIST (Shanti Arts, 2015). After raising five children and retiring from a career managing statewide programs with the California EPA, Rice earned an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Riverside, Palm Desert, at 60. Dorothy co-directs the literary series Stories on Stage Sacramento, reads essay submissions for Hippocampus Magazine and leads creative writing workshops for 916 Ink, a Sacramento-area youth literacy nonprofit. Her essays and stories have been widely published in journals including Hippocampus, Under the Gum Tree, The Rumpus and the Brevity blog. Find more information—and links to many of her publications—at dorothyriceauthor.com. Follow her on Twitter at @dorothyrowena and on Facebook @dorothyriceauthor.

Former middle school teacher, Margaret Duarte, lives on a California dairy farm with a herd of “happy cows,” a constant reminder that the greenest pastures lie closest to home. Margaret earned her creative writing certificate through UC Davis Extension and has since published four novels in her “Enter the Between” visionary fiction series: Between Will and Surrender,Between Darkness and Dawn, Between Yesterday and Tomorrow, and Between Now and Forever. Her poem and story credits include SPC Tule Review; The California Writers Club Literary Review; Finalist in the 2017 SLO Nightwriters Golden Quill Writing Contest; Finalist in the International Book Awards; First Place winner for fiction in the 2016 NCPA (Northern California Publishers and Authors) Book Awards Competition; Second Place for fiction in the 2018 NCPA Book Awards Competition; Honorable Mention for fiction in the 2019 NCPA Book Awards Competition; First Place for fiction in the 2020 NCPA Book Awards Competition; First Place for Adult Fiction in the 2019 California Author Project.

M.H. Brandt (Michael Brandt) is an Award-winning American author, crime fiction writer, and extreme adventurer.  Michael has run marathons and mountain climbed on the seven continents and traveled to the four corners of the world visiting over one hundred countries.  Michael is a decorated retired LAPD homicide detective of 29 years, who writes short stories for anthologies and destination travel articles for magazines and newspapers and is a published photographer.  Michael’s professional career includes writing manuals, training material, and curriculum development for a national anti-fraud investigators academy. He has been a guest speaker numerous times at health care anti-fraud conferences, police conferences, and writer’s conferences across the nation.

Jenifer Rowe writes short stories, essays and memoir.  Her work has been published in Scarlet Leaf Review, Crack the Spine, Wildflower Muse, Liars League NYC, the Sacramento Bee, and the 2018 and 2019 issues of California Literary Review.  She earned Finalist distinction in the New Millennium Writings 46^th Literary Awards.  Jenifer is a board member of the California Writers Club – Sacramento Branch, which has supported and encouraged writers for 109 years.  She lives in El Dorado Hills, California with her partner. Her first novel, Unexpected Findings, was published in 2020.

A national speaker, Janet McHenry is the author of 24 traditionally published books–both fiction and nonfiction. Two have reached bestseller lists: PrayerWalk (WaterBrook/RandomHouse) and 50 Life Lessons for Grads (Worthy/Hachette). A journalism graduate from UC Berkeley, Janet married her Elk Grove High School sweetheart, and they raised their four children in the Sierra Valley, where he is a cattle rancher and where she taught high school English. Janet speaks widely on spiritual topics and writing, is a certified writing and life coach, and hosts the four-day Sierra Valley Writers Retreat. She would love to connect with you: www.janetmchenry.com.

Award-winning indie novelist and forensic historian, Gini Grossenbacher is one of California’s respected, creative writing coaches, teachers, editors, and publishers. Her debut novel, Madam of My Heart, received the 2018 Finalist from American Fiction Book Awards for historical fiction, the 2018 Independent Publisher (IPPY) awards silver medal for historical fiction, the 2018 San Francisco Book Festival award for Fiction, and the 2017 Hollywood Book Festival’s Runner-Up Award for GenreFiction. Her second novel, Madam in Silk, received the 2020 Finalist from the National Indie Excellence Awards and the 2020 San Francisco Book Festival’s Runner-Up Award for Genre Fiction. In 2017 the California Writers Club honored Gini with the Jack London Service Award. After completing a BA in English at Lewis & Clark College, Gini took postgraduate course work in European history and Italian literature in Rome and Perugia, Italy. She gained her California Teaching Credential at CSUS Sacramento. She has an M.S. in Education from University of LaVerne, Los Angeles. After retiring from a career teaching high school English, she founded Elk Grove Writers & Artists, an AWA affiliate, in 2013. In 2017, Gini established JGKS Press, an assisted publisher of fine, well-written books of fiction and poetry. Gini earned her editing certificate from UC San Diego in 2021.

Jennifer Chen Tran joined Bradford Literary in September 2017. Before that, she was an Associate Agent at Fuse Literary and served as Counsel at The New Press. She obtained her Juris Doctorate from Northeastern School of Law in Boston, MA, and a Bachelors of Arts in English Literature from Washington University in St. Louis. Jennifer understands the importance of negotiation in securing rights for her authors. She represents both fiction and non-fiction and is a lifelong reader and experienced member of the publishing industry. She counsels her clients on how to expand their platforms, improve on craft, and works collaboratively with her clients throughout the editorial and publication process. Her ultimate goal is to work in concert with authors to shape books that have a positive social impact on the world – Books that inform and entertain. As a person of color and second-generation daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Jennifer is very interested in diverse writers and #ownvoices from underrepresented/ marginalized communities.

Danita Moon is a freelance virtual assistant who offers author services in addition to proofreading and many other services. She is a certified proofreader and has worked in the book industry for several years. She is an avid reader and loves assisting with book sales. She has also had a short story published in an anthology and has a book in the process of being self-published titled Through the Looking Glass which details her journey with managing Bipolar. She is a big advocate for mental health and stopping the stigma associated with it.