Keynote Presenter
Hank Phillippi Ryan
USA Today bestselling author HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN has won six Agatha Awards in addition to Anthony, Macavity, Daphne du Maurier, and Mary Higgins Clark Awards. As on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV, she’s won 37 Emmys and many more journalism honors. A past president of National Sisters in Crime and founder of MWA University, Ryan lives in Boston. Her most recent novels include Her Perfect Life, The House Guest, and the forthcoming One Wrong Word.
Additional Workshop Presenters
Samantha Ann
Born, raised, and still living in New Jersey, Amazon Bestselling Author Samantha Ann started writing in the fifth grade out of boredom. At first, it was your run-of-the-mill journal entries but soon became stories of things she wished she had said or done, and soon simply stories about other characters and creatures. Samantha thanks her mother forever for the creative writing gene as her mother is a New York Times Best-Selling author. Samantha is half Cuban (mother) and half Italian (father) but speaks more Korean than either of the languages her parents desperately tried to teach her growing up. Samantha created the Korean From Context website and the Seoul Searching novel that were featured on the Forbes magazine blog as being a fun new way to learn Korean. Samantha has amassed over 20k TikTok followers in just over a year using fun creative ways to promote herself and her book Seoul Searching. When not writing, editing, photographing, creating Tiktoks, Instagram posts, and Tweets, Samantha is an EDI Specialist for a kids clothing company. You can find Samantha at www.koreanfromcontext.com.
Marina Antropow Cramer
Marina Antropow Cramer is the child of post-WWII Russian refugees from the Soviet Union. Her work has appeared in Blackbird, Istanbul Literary Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, Bloom Literary Magazine, Comstock Review, and the other side of hope literary journal. She has participated in the Hobart Festival of Women Writers (2022-23), where she served as a workshop instructor. She is the author of the novels Roads (Chicago Review Press), Anna Eva Mimi Adam (RunAmok Books), and Marfa’s River (Apprentice House Press), and lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.
K.M. Fawcett
K.M. Fawcett writes small-town romance and sci-fi romance and is the author of the award-winning novel, Wilde In Love. She writes stories featuring underdogs and fish-out-of-water characters who find their place in the universe. She believes in happy endings and true love conquering all. She and her husband—the inspiration for all her heroes (and some of her villains)—own Tenchi Dojo in NJ, where they teach traditional Okinawan karate and weapons. K.M. incorporates two decades of martial arts experience into her stories to create strong, kick-ass characters who aren’t afraid to fight for the life and love they deserve.
Debra Mullins
Debra Mullins is the author of historical and contemporary paranormal romances. She has been nominated for awards from RT Book Reviews as well as Romance Writers of America and its chapters, including the Holt Medallion, the National Reader’s Choice Award, the Golden Heart and the RITA. Her book A NECESSARY BRIDE was the winner of the Golden Leaf Award for Best Historical, and she won the Book Buyer’s Best Award for Best Paranormal Romance for her book PRODIGAL SON. The second book in that trilogy, HEART OF STONE, won the National Reader’s Choice Award for Best Paranormal. In recent years, she has self-published her backlist Western historicals, including a brand new book for the series: KERRIGAN’S LAW. Born and raised in the New York/New Jersey area, Deb now lives on the West Coast with her family and some eccentric cats, where she still expects it to snow on Christmas and continues her search for Real Pizza.
Caridad Pineiro
Caridad Pineiro is a transplanted Long Island girl who has fallen in love with the Jersey Shore. When Caridad isn’t taking long strolls along the boardwalk, she’s also a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author with over a million romance novels sold worldwide. Caridad is passionate about writing and helping others explore and develop their skills as writers. She is a founding member of the Liberty States Fiction Writers and has presented workshops at the RT Book Club Convention, Romance Writers of America National Conference as well as various writing organizations throughout the country. You can connect with Caridad at www.caridad.com.
Paula Chaffee Scardamalia
Paula Chaffee Scardamalia is a book coach, dream and tarot intuitive and the author of Enchanting Creativity: How Fairy Tales, Dreams, Rituals & Journaling Can Awaken Your Creative Self. She wrote the award-winning Weaving a Woman’s Life: Spiritual Lessons from the Loom, as well as Tarot for the Fiction Writer, and her novel, In the Land of the Vultures. For 20 years, Paula’s presented workshops across the country for national and regional Romance Writers of America events; the San Diego University Writers Conference; and the International Women’s Writing Guild. She’s written articles for both print and digital publications including “Faerie Magazine,” and “The Crafts Report,” and book reviews for “Foreword Magazine.” Paula publishes Divine Muse-ings, a weekly e-newsletter (since 2009) on writing, creativity, dreams, and tarot, and an author newsletter.
Yvonne Ventresca
Yvonne Ventresca’s young adult debut, Pandemic (winner of SCBWI’s Crystal Kite Award), continues to be a timely read about surviving a widespread deadly virus. Her other published works include Black Flowers, White Lies and several short stories for middle grade, teen, and adult readers. Yvonne holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram at @YvonneVentresca, or visit her website, YvonneVentresca.com, where she features resources for writers and blogs about writing productivity.
Stacey Wilk
Best-selling and award-winning author, Stacey Wilk, writes romance that hooks you heart and soul. She published her first novel in 2013. Since then, she’s gone on to publish twenty-one more so women everywhere could fall in love and find an escape of their own. When she isn’t writing, you can find her on a long walk, or curled up with a cup of tea and a good book by a favorite author. To see what she writes next, follow her Facebook group for her amazing readers – Stacey’s Novel Family https://bit.ly/2FK8Lae Or join her newsletter – https://bit.ly/2A0jEFk Or visit her website – www.staceywilk.com