C. Hope Clark

C. Hope Clark is a multi-award-winning author of seventeen mysteries in three series, with many more to come if she has her way about it. She left a career in her beloved agricultural field, which included internal investigations, to marry a federal agent she met on a bribery case and to write stories. Hope is also the founder of Fundsforwriters, a website and newsletter that reaches 25,000 readers and has been awarded the Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers for 21 years. She lives on the banks of Lake Murray in central South Carolina, and vacations on Edisto Beach, the setting of her largest series. www.chopeclark.com / www.fundsforwriters.com.

Amy Collins

Amy Collins is an agent with the Talcott Notch Literary Services agency focusing on non-fiction and international rights. She is a USA TODAY and WALL STREET JOURNAL bestselling author and is currently working with authors with expertise in business, history, personal development, and prescriptive how-to. She is a columnist for and a board member of several publishing organizations and a trusted teacher at publishing conferences and classes. She can also be reached at amysadvice.com.

When not in the office, my focus is on the working poor and poverty elimination, and I spend a great deal of time personally and professionally working with and training women from disadvantaged backgrounds.

(I am also a singer in a Celtic blues band on the weekends and am currently saving for a faster motorcycle.)

Rob Hart

Rob Hart is the author of Assassins Anonymous, as well as The Paradox Hotel, which was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, and The Warehouse, which was published in more than 20 countries. He also wrote the Ash McKenna series, the short story collection Take-Out, the novella Scott Free with James Patterson, and the comic book Blood Oath with Alex Segura. He is currently a writing mentor in Seton Hill University's MFA program. Find more at www.robwhart.com.

MIchael La Ronn

Michael La Ronn (also known as M.L. Ronn) has published over 80 science fiction & fantasy novels and self-help books for writers. 

His fiction includes the urban fantasy Good Necromancer series, the dark fantasy Last Dragon Lord series, and the futuristic science fiction Android X series. Currently, he writes primarily urban fantasy.

His nonfiction books for writers include the bestselling Be a Writing Machine, which teaches how to beat writer’s block forever, and The Pocket Guide to Pantsing, which explains how to write a novel without an outline (with confidence).

Michael also runs the award-winning YouTube channel “Author Level Up,” with over 40,000 subscribers and 2 million views. Writer’s Digest voted the channel one of the “Best Resources for Writers” in 2020.

Michael devoted himself to the writing life in 2012 after a near-death experience, writing 10 to 12 books per year despite working a demanding full-time job as an insurance executive, raising a family, and attending law school classes in the evenings. His productivity methods are so effective that his YouTube subscribers have accused him of being a cyborg in disguise (he pleads the fifth).

For more information on Michael’s books, visit his fiction website at www.michaellaronn.com and his resources for writers at www.authorlevelup.com.

Mia P. Manasala

Mia P. Manansala (she/her) is a writer from Chicago who loves books, baking, and bad-ass women. Her debut novel, ARSENIC AND ADOBO, garnered starred reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Shelf Awareness, hit the ABA Indie Bestseller List, and has won multiple awards. The New York Times stated, “Manansala peppers the narrative with enough red herrings to keep readers from guessing the killer, but the strength of the novel is how family, food and love intertwine in meaningful and complex ways,” which are common themes in her writing.

She is the winner of the 2022 Anthony Award for Best First Novel, 2022 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery, 2022 RUSA Reading List for Mystery, 2021 Agatha Award for Best First Novel, 2021 Chicago Reader’s Best New Novel by a Chicagoan, 2018 Hugh Holton Award, the 2018 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, the 2017 William F. Deeck – Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers, and the 2016 Mystery Writers of America/Helen McCloy Scholarship.

A lover of all things geeky and cozy, Mia spends her days procrasti-baking, gaming, reading, eating, and staring adoringly at her dog, Gumiho. Her husband is pretty cool too.

Find her on Facebook and Instagram: @MPMtheWriter

Barbara O'Neal

Barbara O’Neal is the author of more than a dozen award-winning, bestselling novels, including the runaway bestseller, When We Believed in Mermaids, which has been published in 21 countries and spent many months on both the most sold and most read Amazon Charts, as well as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller lists. Barbara is an avid traveler and passionate cook, and discovered the Oregon coast on a pandemic-era trip with her husband. She now lives on that rocky, moody coast in a quirky beach house and writes her books from a room overlooking the sea. She lives with her British husband, who has promised to never lose his accent, and their cats and dogs.

Richard Thomas

Richard Thomas is the award-winning author of eight books—Disintegration and Breaker (Penguin Random House Alibi), Transubstantiate, Staring Into the Abyss, Herniated Roots, Tribulations, Spontaneous Human Combustion (Turner Publishing), and The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books). His over 165 stories in print include The Best Horror of the Year (Volume Eleven), Cemetery Dance (twice), Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders (Bram Stoker winner), PANK, storySouth, Gargoyle, Weird Fiction Review, Midwestern Gothic, Shallow Creek, The Seven Deadliest, Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Qualia Nous, Chiral Mad (numbers 2-4), PRISMS, Pantheon, and Shivers VI. He was also the editor of four anthologies: The New Black and Exigencies (Dark House Press), The Lineup: 20 Provocative Women Writers (Black Lawrence Press) and Burnt Tongues (Medallion Press) with Chuck Palahniuk. He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, Thriller, and Audie awards. In his spare time he is a columnist at Lit Reactor. He was the Editor-in-Chief at Dark House Press and Gamut Magazine. For more information visit www.whatdoesnotkillme.com or contact Paula Munier at Talcott Notch.

Zach Honey

Fine Print Literary

Zach Honey is North Carolina-born and Montana-raised with an equal love for sweet tea and waist-deep snow. He studied film production and philosophy at Montana State University and received a master’s degree from the University of Nottingham in England. Zach is primarily seeking thrillers and adult fiction, especially those set in rural places, mountainous regions, or other hard-to-reach corners of the world. His other interests include hiking, skiing, music, board games, golf, and other outdoor activities, and he is open to non-fiction pitches in these categories.

Sheyla Knigge

High Line Literary Collective

After several years spent sleuthing through the submissions in Victoria Marini’s query inbox, Sheyla Knigge (SHAY-luh KUH-nig-gee) is now actively using the skills she sharpened in that capacity to build her own dynamic bookshelf filled with the talented authors she currently represents. Sheyla is an expert at discovering fresh voices and relentlessly advocating for the successful publication of the stories she loves. Her unwavering enthusiasm for her authors is contagious, and she possesses an unrivaled ability to match authors with ideal homes for their books. Sheyla is an active member of the AALA and a mentee for the Literary Agents of Change 2024-2025 Cohort. She can be found at various writers conferences across the country from the Writers' League of Texas Conference in Austin to the Atlanta Writers Conference, fulfilling her love of getting to work with authors one-on-one. Sheyla is also known for spotting universal book concepts with robust foreign potential, with major titles earning out their advances from global sales even before their domestic debuts. When she’s not working, you can find Sheyla tucked away writing, getting more tattoos, or spending time with her family in the Appalachian Mountains.

Jackie Kruzie

Focused Artists

Jackie Kruzie is a literary agent with Focused Artists representing adult and children's fiction. She calls herself a book dragon, seeking and hoarding books like treasure. She has made a career out of creating and sharing books as an author, librarian, and literary agent. In adult Jackie enjoys speculative elements, particularly magic and witches, set in a world where abilities are not publicly known or understood. She likes contemporary and historical Women and Book Club fiction with a budding romance that develops organically. In any genre she wants a book she can live in for a while and feel the bittersweet loss when her time there is over. In children's Jackie looks for picture books and board books that are fun read-a-louds perfect for storytime and loves fast-paced kid-focused books with no heavy moral. For middle grade and young adult, she looks for stories that put young readers in the driver’s seat and speak to those who feel invisible. She welcomes tough topics and loves books that expand a reader’s worldview. Jackie’s full wish list can be found on MSWL and an updated list of events she will be attending on her website.