Claudia Volkman

Ginger Wakem

Ginger Wakem is a fourth-generation south Floridian, a region known for its intense hurricanes, incessant mosquitoes, and dramatic sunsets. From a young age, Ginger was enchanted by books, developing a passion for mystery novels and, later, historical romance and spy tales. Her storytelling evolved from weaving stories for her young children to a diverse business writing career. She contributed to a BBC documentary on Tourette’s Syndrome, appeared in the movie “Marcus,” and written across various mediums. Her nonfiction book, in its third printing with over 6,000 copies in circulation is in both English and Spanish. Additionally, Ginger’s love for capturing the world and telling its story through photography has culminated in a portfolio displayed on her website, ggwakem.com. Her first novel, Trust No One, Promise Nothing launched in October of 2024 and reached Amazon's #1 in the Mafia Romance category for ebooks. Since then she has participated in a podcast, was named #1 on the Munn Avenue Press Mystery Suspense books for 2024 and is involved in a nationwide bookclub featuring her book. She is currently writing a sequel to her novel.

Patricia Walsh

A storyteller since her first fib and an explorer since her first runaway, Patti M. Walsh is an award-winning author of short stories, novels, memoirs, and travelogues. Her debut novel and first book in the Companion Moon series, GHOST GIRL was named Best Children’s Fiction of 2023 by American Book Fest. HOUNDED, the second novel in the series, was published in October 2024 as the #1 New Release on Amazon Teen & Young Adult Martial Arts Fiction. ALL THAT REMAINS is a collection of short fiction about ordinary folks who face adversity. Fascinated with science, prehistory, and mythology, Patti offers presentations on Celtic holidays; Celtic gods and goddesses; faeries, myths, and monsters; historically significant landmarks in Ireland; and the Aurora Borealis. She also conducts hands-on workshops that engage middle-school students and their parents. As an avid photographer and adventure seeker, she offers presentations and workshops on a wide range of topics, including Celtic culture, mythologically significant landmarks in Ireland, and the Aurora Borealis. She also conducts hands-on workshops related to these topics that engage middle-school students and their parents. To arrange a presentation, contact her at www. PattiMWalsh.com. Subscribe to her blog, What the Cats Are Reading; sign up for her newsletter, Come to Think of It; and learn more at www.PattiMWalsh.com.

Melissa Waters

Jennie Weckelman

Michael Wendroff

Debut author of What Goes Around, published by Bloomsbury in the USA, UK, and Australia. Foreign language translation rights sold in Japanese, Italian, and Hungarian. Available in bookstores and at Amazon (hardcover, ebook, and audiobook).

Cole Williams

Cole W. Williams is a poet, essayist, and hybrid writer. Recent singular works are featured with The Common, The Florida Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Water~Stone Review, Eastern Iowa Review, Xinachtli Journal, and other journals, anthologies. Williams recently won the Under Review's 2022 annual chapbook contest with a forthcoming prose collection titled The Pump; forthcoming in 2023 and recognized by The Florida Review's 2022 Humboldt Prize for poetry for the poem “Sunset.” The lyric essay titled, “The Godwin Essay” placed in the Creators of Justice Awards, 2021, sponsored by the International Human Rights Arts Festival. Williams attended the 2022 Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference within the poetry cohort; and has been working on creative nonfiction in workshops curated by Granta and Orion this spring and summer.

Suzanne Willis

Suzanne Willis is a nationally recognized etiquette expert who loves teaching manners to children and adults. After spending more than a dozen years as the director of public relations for luxury hotel companies including The Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons, she created “Mimi’s Manners” etiquette classes to instill confidence in kids while teaching basic manners in a fine-dining setting. The class was named in honor, and is taught in memory, of Suzanne’s grandmother, “Mimi”. Suzanne uses her professional experience in hospitality along with the lessons she learned from her grandmother to teach manners to children, teens and adults. She uses humor to make everyone feel comfortable in what is typically considered a stuffy, formal situation. One of Suzanne’s favorite quotes is by Ralph Waldo Emerson “Manners are the happy way of doing things” and she believes that having good manners does indeed make people happy.

Headley Wilson

Christie Zarria

Christie Zarria is a God loving native Texan who retired in 2011 from a 22-year position as executive secretary to the CEO of the largest doctor-owned professional liability company in Texas. She has an Associates of Arts degree in fine arts and is married to the one and only love of her life, her husband, Emil (who is a first generation Ecuadorian-Mexican-American). Together, they raised five amazing kids in Texas for 42 years then decided it was time to embark on a dream journey of their own. They surprised everyone in 2012 by transplanting to Florida (where they knew no one) and have embraced the laid-back tropical paradise lifestyle here with gusto. Their large home on 3/4 acres has become known as the Zarria B&B to their large family (which now includes 15 grandblessings), extended family and many friends who have made their home either a vacation destination, or in some cases, a temporary home on the way to a new life. All of this has given Christie a lot of fodder for personal anecdotal stories that she loves to share with anyone who will listen. Her hope is to somehow consolidate these into some sort of self-help memoir, not just for herself and her progeny, but as encouragement and wisdom to others making their own journey through this crazy thing we call life. She joined GCWA in 2019, only to be sidelined by the COVID outbreak in 2020, but thanks to her dangerously limited knowledge of Zoom, she helped preserve GCWA via Zoom meetings during the pandemic, a fact that she is proud of. Besides writing (which is still a very elusive pursuit), she loves cooking, traveling and entertaining. She held the position of Special Projects Coordinator for three years before becoming Secretary in 2024. One of these days she is going to finish that historial fiction novel she started about four years ago....