Lori Joan Swick

Lori Joan Swick writes novels about women whose contributions to religious history have been neglected and misrepresented. She also edits historical fiction, nonfiction, or academic/dissertation work in the humanities. Her published written works include the historical fiction novel, Comfort and Mirth (TCU Press, 2009), and a nonfiction book entitled Dreaming~ The Sacred Art (Skylight Paths Publishing, 2014). She is an award-winning poet and essayist. She is a Doctor of Philosophy in the Humanities with concentrations in religion and women’s studies. She instructs English, religion, and philosophy as a university professor, and resides in Southwest Florida.

Chris Underwood

I started seriously writing back in 2012 when my concerns of a power grid failure began to creep into my mind. My concerns festered into a storyline that continued to bug me until I got it on paper. I’ve heard that good writing is like sharing a good secret. It took five years of honing my craft to get the first book out, but it has been fun sharing this secret. I have always loved to write, even as a kid in elementary school. I still have my first book about a three-headed snake, complete with a Crayola cover stapled together. Several short stories were written in high school and college, but no attempts to be published. College courses in creative writing were taken at Ohio State, but again, another path was chosen. A business degree in Computer Science and Accounting was selected as a more promising road to success. My original career path was in accounting and included the CPA exam, of which I passed two of the four parts. However, I soon found that I was too creative to be an accountant, and I moved to computer programming. My rationale was that creative accountants usually ended up in prison. My computer consulting career has allowed me to be creative, but I have more passion for my artistic pursuits. During the housing boom leading up to 2008, I did a lot of woodworking and restoring antique furniture. The quiet times of working on the pieces were great; I enjoy my solitude. But the initial interaction with the customer to make the sale was a fun process as well. This is why I do so many book signings in person. I enjoy the conversations and the feedback I receive from these events. I am certainly not an introvert who wants to stay locked away in my writing laboratory weaving my tales! My other passion is sailing. I have worked on a sailing charter boat in Key West and taken some sailing classes to develop my skills. I have a sailboat in Ohio, and I spend more time aboard each season. A blue water sailboat in the Gulf of Mexico is my next goal, and it feels to be not far away. I pine for the day that writing and sailing consume my life, and hopefully I can take a few readers along in my stories!

Charley Valera

Charley Valera, a renowned author, has penned best-sellers My Father's War: Memories from Our Honored WWII Soldiers and A Military Mustang: The Extraordinary Life of Captain John W. Arens. His interviews with WWII veterans, originally part of a cable TV miniseries, are being adapted into a feature film. Valera's writings span across aviation, real estate, and WWII publications. Valera's also a commercial-rated pilot and former flight school owner and Realtor. For book signings or presentations, visit www.charleyvalera.com. He resides in southwest Florida with his wife, Cheryl.

Bianca Vlad

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....