Tables of Content

Amanda was born in Illinois, raised in Corpus Christi, lives in Dallas but her heart lies in London. Good thing she loves to travel. During the summer after second grade, she read every book in the young adult section of the library, much to the surprise of the local librarian. So she started making up her own stories and hasn’t stopped.

She has a husband who fights crime, one dog who thinks he’s a real boy, and another who might be a fruit bat in disguise. She recently added a tiny human to the mix who is following in her mother’s footsteps of storytelling.

Amanda is the author of the Diaries of an Urban Panther series and the Merci Lanard Files (coming Jan 2020). She is represented by Kimberly Brower of Brower Literary Management.

Along with her BA in English & Psychology and her MA in Education, Amanda is a graduate of the SMU The Writer’s Path and taught other aspiring authors for six years in the program. She has delivered lectures at several writer conferences and loves discussing craft, character, and structure.

Random Facts:

When not writing, Amanda often dreams of opening an evil bakery and sell despicable desserts.

Amanda is adopted and loves to share that story with others to promote adoption.

Amanda has a collection of turtle figurines that she collects on her travels.

Amanda has a strange love of cheesy horror movies.

Amanda is a really good bowler and completely rocks at croquet.

Greg Brownderville is the author of three books of poetry: A Horse with Holes in It, Deep Down in the Delta, and Gust. At SMU in Dallas, he serves as an associate professor of English, the director of Creative Writing, and the editor of Southwest Review.

Born and raised in East Texas, Heather Harper Ellett has been writing all of her life. For almost a decade, she was Vice President of Publishing for a publicly-traded company in which she wrote and planned content for fifteen million students nationwide. During that time, she ran a creative writing workshop for homeless men and women in downtown Dallas.  She has also written articles for prominent national organizations including the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association. Heather earned degrees in Creative Writing and Biology from SMU and is a graduate of The Writer's Path at SMU. Currently, she is a licensed professional counselor in private practice, a skill set that lends itself nicely to working with writers. She lives in Dallas with her son, her husband, and two cats.

Sarah MacTavish is a librarian-author who writes historical fiction for teens. Her first novel, Firebrand, was recently described by Self-Publishing Review as “a moving, expertly written, and entertaining work of young adult fiction.” She released its sequel, Paladin, in 2019, and is currently working on the third book in the series. When Sarah isn’t writing, she’s either gaming, working on the family tree, or reading Star Wars novels.  

Monica Shaw is a native of Dallas, Texas where she has been a successful entrepreneur.  She  graduated from Woodrow Wilson Highschool and got her Geology/Petroleum Engineering degree from UT Austin.  Her debut novel, The Rainwater Secret, started off as a personal research project looking into the life of her great aunt who became a missionary teacher.  Monica is married with 3 children.

Melanie Sumrow received her undergraduate degree in Religious Studies and has maintained a long-term interest in studying social issues. Before becoming a writer, she worked as a lawyer for more than 16 years, with many of her cases involving children and teens. Her debut novel,The Prophet Calls, was a 2018 Writers’ League of Texas Award Finalist. Melanie lives in Dallas with her husband, her daughter and one very spoiled dog.

Alex Temblador is the Dallas-based author of Secrets of the Casa Rosada, which has won numerous awards including the NACCS Tejas Foco Young Adult Award, Kirkus' Best of YA Books of 2018, and the Writer's League of Texas YA Discover Prize Winner of 2018. In addition to being the moderator and brain behind DFW's quarterly author panel series, LitTalk, Alex is a writing instructor at Writing Workshops Dallas and a freelance travel and culture writer with publications in Architectural Digest, The Daily Beast, Texas Highways Magazine, Travel + Leisure, Lonely Planet, Bustle, among many others. 

David Eric Tomlinson was born and raised in Oklahoma, educated in California, and now lives in Texas. His first novel The Midnight Man was listed as a 2017 top crime debut by Austin’s independent bookstore BookPeople, and was shortlisted for both the PEN Southwest Book Award and the Texas Institute of Letters Sergio Troncosco Award For Best Work Of First Fiction. David has participated in Literary Death Match, contributed to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and teaches craft classes for a variety of writing groups in Texas. He lives in Dallas.