Ana McCracken

Ana McCracken’s writing is published in The California Writers Club Literary Review, and the anthologies Nothing But The Truth So Help Me God, The Joy of Adoption, and Chicken Soup for the Adopted Soul. A former columnist and editor for Maui Vision Magazine, her writing has also appeared in Walnut Creek Magazine, Touching Lives, and other publications. Ana is busy writing a memoir, and blogs about herself and for her prolific Australian Shepherd, Avy. Visit Ana and sign up for her eNewsletter at www.anamccracken.com and follow her on Twitter @anahaysmcc.

Ann Foster

Ann Foster is the 2011 CWC, San Francisco/ Peninsula Branch, recipient of the Jack London Award and winner of the 2011 Foster City Writing Contest personal essay division. She has served as treasurer and membership chair of the branch and currently serves as reservations chair.

Ann writes fiction and narrative non-fiction and her work is published in Fault Zone, Words from the Edge and Fault Zone, Stepping up to the Edge. She is now working on a novel set in post-civil war Missouri and Texas.

Audrey Kalman

Audrey Kalman writes literary fiction with a dark edge, often about what goes awry when human connection is missing from our lives. She is the author of two novels: What Remains Unsaid (Sand Hill Review Press, 2017) and Dance of Souls (2011). Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in Boundoff, Every Day Fiction, Fault Zone, The Jewish Literary Journal, Mash Stories, Pithead Chapel, Punchnels, The Sand Hill Review, and Sixfold. She edited two editions of the Fault Zone anthology and serves as VP/Speakers for the SF-Peninsula Branch of CWC. She is working on another novel. More at her website.

Bardi Rosman Koodrin

Bardi Rosman Koodrin, M.A. As literary director for the San Mateo County Fair, she creates “events within the event” to give writers a presence and a voice. A Local Hero Recipient, she’s been published in Journal of the American Art Therapy Association: Razor’s Edge; We Laughed, We Cried: Life with Fibromyalgia; Patch.com; Fault Zone: Words from the Edge; The Sand Hill Review XII; Fault Zone: Stepping up to the Edge; and The Best of Sand Hill Review. Bardi blurs fact with fiction in her fourth novel, Killing the Kid. Visit her website.

Bette Houtchens

Bette Houtchens recently established a literary imprint to copy edit and publish her father’s books – fifteen translations of English and Spanish literary works and two original books of poetry.

Bill Baynes

Bill Baynes is a writer, producer and director. He has been a reporter for the Miami Herald and the Associated Press and won awards as a documentary filmmaker. He has been active in feature film and video production, magazine publishing, public interest marketing and website development. He has worked with school systems to create student-driven media campaigns about health-related topics. His novel Bunt! was published by Silverback Sages, New Mexico. His post-war novella, The Occupation of Joe, was published by Top Hat Books in late 2018. billbaynes.com

Carole Bumpus

Carole Bumpus’ historical novel, A Cup of Redemption, October 2014, won Honorable Mention – Paris Book Festival 2016; Finalist – International Book Awards 2016; and Honorable Mention in fiction in the London Book Festival 2015. Her newest book, Recipes for Redemption: A Companion Cookbook to A Cup of Redemption, August 2015, also received international acclaim.  Carole is President of the San Francisco Peninsula branch and Chair of the CWC NorCal Group. Three of her short stories appear in three separate Fault Zones. Her blog, Savoring the Olde Ways, is being rewritten into an upcoming series of food/travel books.   

Chris Knoblaugh

Chris Knoblaugh teaches English at a middle school in south San Jose, California. Chris has a B.A. in English Literature with High College Honors, a B.S. in Biology, and an M.A. in Teaching with Reading Specialization. Her novels and stories incorporate myths, cryptids, regional traditions, and historical settings. She enjoys writing for her students and for her tutoring business, Dancing With Words Tutoring.  She and her husband live in California with more books than necessary and two rescue kitties.

Christopher Wachlin

Christopher Wachlin is a grateful and proud member of CWC. He is the co-founder of Stoneslide Media, which publishes books and the online magazine The Stoneslide Corrective. The folks at Stoneslide are also the makers of The Rejection Generator, an entertaining interactive tool writers can use to ease the pain of rejection. For general information about Stoneslide Media, see the profile in Poets & Writers magazine.

David Hirzel

David Hirzel’s passion is Antarctic exploration, expressed in such books as the Sailor on Ice series about Tom Crean, one of Shackleton’s hardiest men, and When Your Life Depends on It (with Brad Borkan).  Hirzel’s Terra Nova Press has published books on Arctic exploration (Rough Weather All Day), the business of boatbuilding (The Live Boatworks of Dundee), poetry (Sea Sonnets), with upcoming works on the Arctic Explorer Louise Arner Boyd. David Hirzel writes from Sky Ranch in Pacifica. When not writing, he might be found sailing on the Bay, or crossing the Atlantic sharing his maritime expertise. Blog:  www.davidhirzel.net

Elise Frances Miller

Elise Frances Miller’s collection, The Berkeley Girl: Rendezvous in London, a Novella and other Stories of the 1960s, was published by Sand Hill Review Press in September 2017.  Her novel, The Berkeley Girl, in Paris 1968 (2016) was an Independent Press Awards’ 2017 Distinguished Favorite in Historical Fiction. Her memoir, “My People’s Park,” won the 2nd prize for prose in The Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the ‘60s and ‘70s. Several stories appear in The Best of Sand Hill Review (2012), the Fault Zone series, and The Sand Hill Review (2007, 2010; fiction editor 2008). Follow her blog and updates here.

Ellyn Siegel

Ellyn Siegel is a fiction writer.

She is currently writing short stories, as well as an ongoing series of Mystery Novels, narrated by SF Missing Persons Detective, Richard “don’t call me Dick” Emerson. Emerson Mysteries: Book One, her first published book, is comprised of three stand-alone Novellas. Emerson Mysteries: Book Two, is now available on Amazon and Kindle.

Ellyn’s blog on her Excellent Adventure towards “Becoming a Published Writer.”

Eva Barrows

Eva Barrows is a San Francisco Bay Area writer and editor. She created the online literary journal, Imitation Fruit (www.imitationfruit.com) after learning the fundamentals of publishing from participating in the student run literary journal, Transfer at San Francisco State University and her internship at the book publisher Travelers’ Tales. Most recently Eva has learned how to write television sitcom scripts through UCLA Extension courses and comedy sketch writing with the San Francisco sketch group, Killing My Lobster. Eva is now working on several short story ideas and hopes to add to her publication credits.

Eve Visconti

Professionally, Eve Visconti has written grants, movie reviews; career planning articles, and Internet infomercials. She has always loved to write, and was often deemed the best writer in her class.

Her essay “Off to College and On To The Roller Coaster appears in Writin’ on Empty: Parents Reveal the Upside, the Downside, and Everything In Between When Children Leave the Nest, and “On the Edge with the Stuff of Life,” is included in Fault Zone: Words from the Edge.

George Rodriguez

George Rodriguez of Daly City

Printer, Retail Clerk, Served in the California National Guard – 126^th Medical Bn, Ambulance Co., Editor of a Senior Publication, Rhythm Guitarist. California Writers Club Member. jascas41@aol.com   

Books – Because I Believe,   Sally Grocery Cart,  Sally Grocery Cart Paris Escapade

Geri Spieler

Geri Spieler is a Silicon Valley Freelance Writer. She is the author of Taking Aim At The President: The Remarkable Story Of the Woman Who Shot At Gerald Ford (Macmillan) “Taking Aim” has been optioned for the big screen by award-winning writer/producers, Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan, who wrote and executive produced the film Chappaquiddick, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and will open in theaters nationwide on April 6, 2018. http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/chappaquiddick-review-toronto-1202553436/ www.gerispieler.comwebsite.

Ida J. Lewenstein

Ida J. Lewenstein is a retired English as a Second Language instructor of some 22 years who wears several hats. She has written poems, chants and rhymes to reinforce in a fun way the structures she was teaching.  Some of these have worked their way into imaginative story poems for children. She is an active member of the California Writers Club and some of her poems have been published in Fault Zones I & II.

Jac Fitz-enz

Dr. Jac Fitz-enz or Dr. Jac, as he is known worldwide, is the father of human capital analytics, He’s published 14 books and over 450 articles. Two of his books, Human Value Management (1990) and The ROI of Human Capital (2000) won national Book of the Year Awards. His current work can be seen on drjacanalytics.com and on drjacbooks.com.
An international consultant working in 46 countries, he authored Rough Waters a semi-biographical novel covering his naval intelligence service, in 2014. In August, 2016, he published Undaunted Lovers, first in a series of adventure.

James Hanna

James Hanna, fiction editor of The Sand Hill Review, wandered Australia for seven years before settling on a career in criminal justice. He is presently a probation officer in San Francisco, where he is assigned to a domestic violence and stalking unit. James’ stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Old Crow Review, Edge City Review, Sandhills Review, Eclipse, Fault Zone 1 & 2, The Sand Hill Review V1II & X1, and The Best of The Sand Hill Review. Two of his stories were nominated for the Pushcart Prize. James’ novel, The Siege, is out, published by Sand Hill Review Press. Visit his website.

Jeannine Gerkman

Jeannine Gerkman wears many hats—Author, Poet, Realtor and Volunteer to name a few. She and her husband moved to the Bay Area from the Northwest over 30 years ago and built their home in the Belmont hills. She has written over 60 poems, some of them award-winning. Her debut children’s picture book, “Spring” has been described as:  “a superb choice for a calm, nighttime lap read or a unit on the seasons for lower elementary school classes” – Kirkus Reviews. A Realtor since 1997, she enjoys helping folks market and sell their homes in the Bay Area, focusing on Belmont.

Jim Dudley

Jo Carpignano

Jo Carpignano writes poetry, memoirs, essays, short stories and travel adventures, some having appeared in national magazines. She won the title of Senior Poet Laureate for California in 2011, and was runner up for the national title in the same year. Several years ago she self-published a biography of her immigrant mother entitled Madeline’s Story. Previously a teacher and school psychologist, she currently resides at the Peninsula Regent in San Mateo.

Karen Hartley

Karen Hartley writes short stories, poetry and is working on the second draft of her romance novel. She’s also working on a memoir of her years in Brooklyn, NY where she was born. Her story, “Beach House,” was published in the 2012 Sand Hill Review, and “Graveside Angel” in Carry the Light, 2013 Anthology of the San Mateo County Fair. As a dual member of South Bay Writers, Karen’s stories and poems appear regularly in Writers Talk Newsletter. She also facilitates a mixed genre critique group twice a month. Contact Karen.

Korie Pelka

Korie spent over 25 years working with Silicon Valley executives, building and running communication teams. In 2015, she left the Corporate World to travel and discover her own voice through her 3rd Act Gypsy blog, www.3rdactgypsy.com. With a strong belief that she is never lost, just exploring, she is currently diving into the world of memoir and novel writing. In addition, she is a life coach, consultant and workshop facilitator.

Laurel Anne Hill

Laurel Anne Hill has authored two novels: The award-winning Heroes Arise (Komenar Publishing, 2007) and, now, The Engine Woman’s Light (Sand Hill Review Press, 2016), a spirits-meet-steampunk tale. The Engine Woman’s Light is available on Kindle and scheduled for release in trade paper format by the end of January, 2017. Laurel’s published short stories and nonfiction pieces total over forty and have appeared in a variety of anthologies, collections, and journalistic media. The fans of HorrorAddicts.net elected her “Most Wicked” in 2011 for her steampunk-horror podcast Flight of Destiny. For more about her go to http://www.laurelannehill.com.

Lisa Meltzer Penn

LISA MELTZER PENN is the current president of the CWC SF Peninsula Branch. She has an extensive editorial background in New York publishing, is the inaugural editor of the Fault Zone anthology series, and the author of multiple short stories published in the Fault Zone anthologies, Best of Sand Hill Review, and others. Her literary novel in progress has a touch of magical realism and a decidedly lyrical bent. Lisa is a Louise Boggess Award recipient, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and is the winner of multiple literary prizes at the San Mateo County Fair. Learn more: www.LisaMeltzerPenn.com.

Lucy Ann Murray

Lucy Ann Murray is a freelance writer with over 100 published pieces to her credit that include, essay, fiction, poetry, biography, and history. Her writing has appeared in local newspapers, national publications and eight anthologies. She has won eight writing awards. She has been writing for a Chicago-based publication for the last fifteen years, and is currently writing a thirty-five part series on ancient Rome for them. She can be reached at jlumurray@aol.com

Lynne Fix

Lynne Fix has worked internationally as an IP specialist, Linguistic Advisor at the U.N., and business consultant.  She is an award winning author of travel stories and non-fiction.  Her travel memoir, Life and Death on a Contested Island:  Surviving Sakhalin, won top honors at the 2021 San Francisco Book Festival.  She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Margaret Davis

Margaret Davis is the author of Straight Down the Middle, a novel about a young woman seeking her sexual identity.  She’sMargaret R. Davis is a retired Sociologist.  She is the author of two novels, The Miranda Affair (Sand Hill Review Press) and Straight Down the Middle (Kelso Books).  She has also authored two non-fiction books, Families in a Working World and A Practical Guide to Organization Design and several of her short stories have appeared in the Sand Hill Review and in Fault Zone.  She is a Lifetime Member of the California Writers Club.

Marjorie Bicknell Johnson

Marjorie Bicknell Johnson is newsletter editor for South Bay Writers and has published several short stories. A mathematician and mathematics teacher, her articles have appeared in several academic journals. Marjorie drew upon her experiences as a pilot in Bird Watcher, a novel about a small airplane stolen from Palo Alto Airport. After visiting Yucatán, she wrote Jaguar Princess: The Last Maya Shaman, the story of the descendant of a Maya king who learns to read the Mayan stones in a nearby ruin. Visit her website.

Martha Clark Scala

Martha Clark Scala has a split personality as a writer, psychotherapist and collage artist. Her poetry has appeared in Porter Gulch Review, Poetry Now, all four Fault Zones, Cooking Comfort:Stories with Recipes and Home for the Holidays. Martha’s writing on grief-related issues: We Need Not Walk Alone (published by The Compassionate Friends), The California Therapist, SCV-CAMFT News, www.caring.com, and at her website. Martha publishes a free monthly e-newsletter, Out On a Limb which focuses on bringing joy back to our lives. To subscribe or learn more, visit her website mcscala.com.

Maurine Killough

Maurine Killough’s poetry expresses the unseen life of the heart: from confessional to spiritual to grief and loss. She is a two-time first place winner for free-form poetry at the San Mateo County Fair and has published one book of poems, Underseams. Her poems have appeared in the Sandhill Press publications Fault Zone: Shift (2013) and Volumes 1 and 2 of Carry the Light, SenSexual 2013 Anthology, and a number of online publications. She is a frequent reader at the CWC monthly open mic, among others. Visit her art and poetry blog at iwritemyself.wordpress.com

Nanci Lee Woody

Nanci Lee Woody Winner, 5-Star Review and Silver Medal for Literary Fiction from Readers’ Favorites, 2017
Winner of the Fine Arts Juror’s Award, Color Photos, California State Fair, 2017
Winner of the IPPY for Tears and Trombones, “Best Fiction in the Western Pacific Region”
Editorial Reviews: Foreword Review,  Bool Viral Review,  Literary Fiction Review,  The Review (UK), Readers’ Favorites.   

Pat Obuchowski

Pat Obuchowski is the best selling and award winning author of the non-fiction book Gutsy Women Win: How to Get Gutsy and Get Going in which she explains a model that helps individuals get clarity on where they want to go and helps them define what they need to know to get there. She also authored Gutsy Leaders: 140 Bits of Wisdom to Grow Teams with Vision and Compassion and co-authored Scrappy Women in Business – Living Proof that Bending the Rules isn’t Breaking the Law and Success Starts Today. She is a public speaker and a blogger at: GutsyWomenWin.com.

Penelope Anne Cole

Penelope Anne Cole writes award-winning children’s stories, picture books, poetry and notable short stories for adults—featured in CWC branch newsletters. Like her cats, she’s writing creative non-fiction stories about her many lives. She’s also a member of South Bay and Fremont Area Writers of the California Writers Club. First published with Guardian Angel Publishing and now with Magical Book Works: The Magical Series; Ten Little Tricksters; What’s for Dinner?; In and Out, All ‘Round About—Opposite Friends; Grandma and Me Coloring Book; and My Grandma’s Pink House. She can be found at www.penelopeannecole.com

Richard E. McCallum

Richard E. McCallum obtained a B.S in Film/TV from Montana State U., in 1976. He achieved a Master of Arts Degree from USC-LA in Cinema in 1983. While working in the film industry Hollywood and San Francisco Bay he wrote screenplays. Many of these stories originated as screenplays and now are being converted to books. Richard also served in the U.S. Navy as a Combat Camera operator and traveled the world documenting military exercise and public relations events. www.remstories.com

Russ Towne

Two genres of Russ Towne’s books made it onto Amazon’s Bestseller Lists for their category: Westerns and Children’s Picture Books. Russ writes fiction and non-fiction books in wide variety of other genres including humor, relationships, parenting, speculative fiction, crime drama, thriller/suspense, flash fiction, and poetry. Russ wrote and released more than four dozen books since he began his first book in 2013. His current projects include converting more than twenty titles into audiobooks, two sequels to his Amazon Bestselling children’s picture book, The Duck Who Flew Upside Down, and an anthology of short stories about mountain men.

Sue Barizon

Sue was born in San Francisco and raised in San Mateo. She writes memoir and fiction of life’s lessons learned growing up with immigrant parents in mid-century suburbia. She began writing as a means to “quiet the buzzing in my head left by the Jiminy Cricket moments of my youth.” Her work has been published in the Fault Zone series and Carry the Light anthologies. She has won numerous awards from the San Mateo County Fair including CWC’s 2013 Writer of the Year and 2016 Best of Show for Memoir. She is the Exhibit Coordinator for the San Mateo County Fair.

Theo Coppola

Theo Coppola writes literary fiction and feature-length screenplays. He has had three flash stories published in Miletus International Literature Magazine. He was hired to write a treatment for Lessersound; a website that brings awareness of people with hearing impairments. He has hosted a screenwriting workshop at the San Francisco Walt Disney Family Museum; where he was a volunteer for three years. He likes stories that have substance and mystery; so he dives deep into his characters’ psyche and explores ways to best present this to his audience. Checkout his portfolio.

Tim Flood

Tim Flood retired from many years working at Stanford in information technology and systems followed by several years’ consulting in higher education technology to pursue a lifelong dream of writing. Prior to retirement, he wrote a very personal book of non-fiction, Islands Apart: Chronicles of Family Healing. Now he is learning the craft of fiction with the support of a CWC-Peninsula writing critique group. He is honored that his first short story, “The Storyteller,” is appearing in the 2017 Fault Zone anthology Uplift. He is presently working on his first novel.

Umit Sener Ta

He is the editor of the web site www.Turkishliteratureandart.com and Quarterly journal, Miletus international Literature magazine. He has two poetry books in Turkish called “ Bocekciler carsisi” and “Virjinia Woolf’a Mektuplar”. He has so many translations and poems published several magazines, such as, Blue Nib Literary Magazine, Safron Flavored Rock Candy,  Siirden, Siiri Seviyorum,Agir ol Bay Duz yazi. Currently he is living in United States.
His poems translated several international magazines in many languages such as, Spanish, Bengali.

Vanessa MacLaren-Wray

Vanessa MacLaren-Wray writes science fiction, fantasy, and poetry. Her first novel, All That Was Asked, was published in 2020 by Paper Angel Press. Her science-fiction poetry has been published in Hadrosaur Tales. She also works in the electric power industry, doing analysis and technical writing. She likes to build creative robots—her favorite is a snarky LEGO robot that prepares tea, essential writing fuel—and she’s an avid photographer. Vanessa blogs at https://cometarytales.com/ and uses the CometaryTales moniker on Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and Instagram. She just launched a new Instagram project on formative books.