After 35 years in the computer industry, 16 years of which were spent at Oracle as senior director of Core Database Documentation, I retired in 2015 to devote myself to writing and to teaching creative writing.

I teach the Mechanics of Story for fiction, memoir and narrative non-fiction writers at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. I also taught technical writing at San Francisco State University. I have a BA and MA in creative writing from San Francisco State University. My short story, “The Chair,” was published in the anthology Fault Zone: Stepping Up to the Edge 2012. I am currently looking for representation for my mystery, Widow’s Weeds while working on my second novel.

Joelle Burnette is an award-winning journalist, writer, and artist. In addition to being a KRON 4 News web content producer, she reported for the Press Democrat and more newspapers for many years before writing her first book, Cancer Time Bomb. She also writes and illustrates children’s books, including Freedom Doesn’t Just Come Along with a Tree which promotes tolerance and diversity, and has turned her pen drawings into her two coloring books for adults, Hearts: Love’s Journey and Snowflakes. Burnette’s magazine writing was awarded Gold by the International Parenting Media Association that represents more than 100 magazines worldwide.

Prior to having received her master’s in journalism from Stanford University, she applied her love of writing to her work in congressional offices on Capitol Hill and in California, and media relations on presidential and other regional political campaigns. Follow her writing at JoelleBurnette.net and her art at 4GenerationArtists.com.

Jennie Orvino is the author of “Poetry, Politics and Passion,” a collection of poems, personal essays, and a memoir of the late 1960s. Her spoken word CD, “Make Love Not War” explores the body erotic and the body politic in collaboration with some of the Bay Area’s finest musicians. She has worked as a newspaper feature writer, grant writer, radio producer and on-air interviewer, and marketing copywriter. In April, 2012, Orvino was one of 10 women honored at the 6th Street Playhouse Women in the Arts Showcase. Her commercial writing credits include 11 years in the marketing and development departments of the Santa Rosa Symphony, Also she is co-producer of the “Steamy Sonoma County” erotica salon series.

Kymberlie Ingalls is a blogger and author, native to and still living in the San Francisco Bay Area. The creator of the successful sites Writer of the Storm and Neuroticy = A Societal Madness, she began blogging in the late 90s, before it became the phenomenon that is prevalent today.

Her work focuses on personal topics such as love, relationships, grief and memory loss.

Ms. Ingalls has a colorful history in stage, comedy, auto racing, radio broadcasting, adult education and individual author coaching. All of this feeds her broad scope of writing in memoir, prose, fiction and opinion essays. She has received praise from critics, colleagues and readers for her heartfelt honesty and emotional depths.

Natasha Yim is the author of 4 picture books: Otto’s Rainy Day (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2000), Cixi, The Dragon Empress (Goosebottom Books, 2011), Sacajawea of the Shoshone (Goosebottom Books, 2012), Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2014), a Junior Library Guild and Scholastic Book Club selection, and a Monarch Illinois Reader’s Choice Award nominee. Her upcoming picture book, The Rock Maiden, will be released by Wisdom Tales Press in March 2017. Natasha has also written nonfiction articles for the children’s magazines “Highlights for Children”, “Appleseeds” and “Faces”, and is a regular contributor to Mendocino Arts Magazine.