Speakers

Speakers’ Bios Kit (Christopher Robin) Adams has been writing stories, essays, and poems since 1958. His writings have been published in journals from England to Hawaii, California to Florida. His poetry readings in Missouri and Florida have been well received. He retired from teaching English in Brevard County and Florida Virtual School after being Nationally Board Certified and a mentor with the National Writing Project. He is Vice President of the Space Coast Writers’ Guild and President of Brevard Scribblers. His first collection of poetry, Spanish Cedar: Preserving the ART of the Cigar Experience, was released in January 2014. Valerie Allen is an author, psychologist, and speaker. She has written fiction, non-fiction, and children's books. Her articles on parenting and mental health issues have been published nationally. She has two published novels, Sins of the Father and Suffer the Little Children. A third novel, Amazing Grace, is forthcoming. Valerie is a long time member of the Space Coast Writers’ Guild, the National League of American PEN Women, Authors for Authors, and is currently on the Board of Directors for the Creative Arts Foundation of Brevard. Dr. Allen is in private practice in Melbourne and specializes in working with children with learning and/or behavioral difficulties. Bill Allen writes humorous fiction for kids age 9 to 90. His self-published Greg Hart trilogy was picked up by Bell Bridge Books and released as the Journals of Myrth between 2011 and 2012. His most recent release is Orson Buggy's Big Fang Theory, the third volume in his newest series, The Bumpy Daze of Orson Buggy. Mary Dall is a freelance writer, illustrator and artist. A former kindergarten and elementary school teacher, she now substitutes in Seminole County. Mary's newest creations include Happy Birthday, Florida! (1513-2013), a book of poetry celebrating Florida's 500th anniversary, and When Magic Helps Us Steer, a zany, fun poetry book intended for the 3rd grade to middle-school market. Mary is a member of National League of American Pen Women, Space Coast Writers’ Guild, Central Florida Watercolor Society, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (Writer/Illustrator), Central Florida Watercolor Society, and the Florida Reading Association. Jaimie Engle is an award-winning young adult author from Melbourne. Before releasing her debut middle grade novel Clifton Chase and the Arrow of Light, she ran a body shop, modeled bikinis, danced in the Aloha Bowl halftime show, and managed a hip-hop band. Her young adult novella placed honorable mentions in the 2013 L. Ron Hubbard’s Writer’s of the Future contest and she placed second in the 2012 Space Coast Writers’ Guild short story competition. She offers a manuscript critique service to aspiring writers, volunteers at various elementary schools writing programs, and teaches writing skills to several homeschool groups in the county. Learn more at www.jaimiengle.com.

Holly Fox Vellekoop is a poet and the published author of books in the genres of murder mysteries, science fiction, and nonfiction. Her column “Dear Gramma” is published in the Senior Life Newspaper (FL) and the Senior Life section of the Daily Item (PA). Holly is a retired Penn State University Clinical Instructor in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. Visit Holly at her website: www.hollyfoxvellekoop.com Marshall Frank is a retired police captain from Miami-Dade, Florida where he served sixteen of his thirty years in law enforcement investigating murders or commanding those who did. In 1980, he was called to the U.S. Congress to present testimony regarding violent crime in America. Since retiring, Frank has authored five novels and three books of non-fiction, plus over 300 editorial articles published in various newspapers and magazines. Pamela Harty joined The Knight Agency in the summer of 2000, and has placed hundreds of titles in a broad range of categories, including health, parenting, southern history, African-American interest, business, motivation, romance, young adult, children’s, middle grade, and Christian living. She brings to the agency a successful sales background combined with a genuine love of books. Pamela serves as The Knight Agency’s Vice President of Sales, and belongs to the Association of Authors’ Representatives and Romance Writers of America. Saritza Hernandez has always had a passion for the written word. She represents the Corvisiero Literary Agency in NYC. She is an ePub Agent dedicated to helping authors obtain publishing contracts in both digital and print models and help wade through the waters of the changing publishing landscape. Her agency is currently looking for fiction and non-fiction titles with strong characters and established platforms. Linda Jump is a retired reporter-photographer. She has published four books, dozens of magazine and thousands of newspaper articles and photographs. She facilitates “Writing Your Life” classes for the Shepherd's Center of South Brevard, in residential facilities, churches and libraries. Her career spans three decades writing for newspapers and television stations in two states, including print and online stories for USA Today and Florida Today. She has an M.A. degree in Culture and Policy Studies from Empire State College. Steve Kelley is a political cartoonist and humorist. He joined The TimesPicayune in 2002 after spending the first two decades of his career in San Diego. Steve produces three political cartoons a week for Creators Syndicate, which distributes them to more than 100 newspapers and Internet news sites. Kelley joined commentator Juan Williams and cartoonist Roz Chast as a 2008 Montgomery Fellow in residence at Dartmouth College. With cartoonist Jeff Parker, Kelley launched the comic strip “Dustin” in 2010. Syndicated by King Features to 325 newspapers, the strip won The National Cartoonist Society’s “Best Newspaper Comic Strip” award in 2011. Kelley also writes and performs comedy, a pastime that led him to seven appearances on The Tonight Show, both with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno.

Mary Leonard is a poet, humorist, teacher, and journalist. A longtime Associate of the Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College, she has published widely and has taught in diverse settings ranging from high school classrooms to faculty seminars to intimate writing-as meditation workshops.

Paul Maluccio was born and raised in New York State. He is a graduate of Villanova University. He has taught Junior High School, served as a marketing VP for Time/Life, worked in advertising for a daily newspaper in New York, and has a broad range of experience in the printing industry. In 1988 he established a small independent publishing company and published a series of music books. Currently he is President and CEO of Blue Note Publications, Inc. and its imprint Blue Note Books (www.bluenotebooks.com). The company has been producing an eclectic variety of books for over 25 years. Patricia McDonough is an in-depth copyeditor who custom polishes customer manuscripts to become publisher-ready works. Seven of the titles she edited on have been contenders for the Pulitzer Prize. Her book Without Keys, a treatise on homelessness, was a semi-finalist for a Pulitzer in the biographyautobiography category. It received five other awards. In 1996, she created Terra Sancta Press, which has published a variety of books and e-books, ranging from novels, memoirs, a children's book on egrets, creative non-fiction, biographies, and writing guides. Visit her at www.terrasanctapress.com. Stephen Blake Mettee is the founder of Quill Driver Books and The Write Thought. During his fifteen years at the helm of Quill Driver Books, Mettee shepherded two titles into Book-of-the-Month Club selections and one onto the New York Times bestseller list. Foreign rights to QDB titles have been sold in a score of countries. One title was cited in a Supreme Court decision. Mettee served as chair of the board of directors of The Independent Book Publisher’s Association the nation’s largest book publishing association and the leading advocate for independent presses for two years. He regularly presents on writing and publishing nationally and internationally. He is currently working on two diet books as well as a novel set in the first century. Dean Naegel uses G. Clinton Styles as a pseudonym and business name. He is a graduate of Full Sail University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing for the Entertainment Industry. He has written a science fiction novel, a Sword & Sorcery trilogy, two historical fiction novels, and a YA Adventure novel. In 2009, he published a collection of short stories called Nautical Nights & Still Breezes; Tales from the Deck of the Crystal Anne. He is a Life Member of The Space Coast Writers’ Guild, having served on their Board of Directors for 9 years. He is on the Board of Directors and is a founding member of Screenwriters of Brevard.

Tauhida Parveen is an independent consultant and trainer working in software testing and cloud computing. She’s also the Program Director for Software Engineering at Keiser University, a personal fitness and group exercise trainer, a Realtor® with Keller Williams Realty Brevard, and a published author. She wrote the “Exercise for Busy People” column for Florida Today. Her most recent book is Software Testing in the Cloud: Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline (IGI Global, 2012). Beth Phelan joined the Bent Agency in September 2013 after holding positions at the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency and Waxman Leavell Literary. She is actively building her client list and is looking for complex fiction that pulls you in immediately, characters that you wish were your real friends, and plot lines that drag you away from reality to a world you never want to leave. Her favorite stories are told with humor and sprinkled with surprises. Bob Stover is the Editor-in-Chief at Florida Today. During his tenure the organization has expanded beyond its daily newspaper roots to become a multimedia organization that is an industry leader in delivering news on digital platforms and in video production. Florida Today has won numerous journalism awards for its enterprise work on space, the environment and education and for its video and digital work. Stover serves on the EFSC Entrepreneur Lecture Committee and the Reaching Out Holiday Board. He has previously served on Associated Press innovation committee and was a guest lecturer at Syracuse University. He has a Masters degree in journalism and urban studies from the University of Maryland. Scott Tilley is President of the Space Coast Writers’ Guild. His day job is Professor of Software Engineering in the Department of Computer Sciences at the Florida Institute of Technology, where he is also a Professor of Information Systems in the College of Business, and an Associate Member of the Harris Institute for Assured Information. He is a Visiting Scientist at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute. He is an ACM Distinguished Lecturer. He writes the weekly “Technology Today” column for the Florida Today newspaper. His most recent book is Software Testing in the Cloud: Migration and Execution (Springer, 2012). Lois Winston is an award-winning author of romance, romantic suspense, humorous women’s fiction, and mystery. She’s also an award-winning designer of needlework and crafts projects. The Ashley Grayson Literary Agency (San Pedro, CA) is a full-service agency for authors of both fiction and non-fiction, more interested in growing authors’ careers than just selling books. Lois handles women’s fiction, chick lit, mystery, and romance. Recent sales have been to Ace, St. Martin’s, Pocket, Viking Children’s Books, Knopf, MacMillan, Harper Collins, and Simon & Schuster.