Jenny Baumgartner acquires and edits inspirational fiction at Thomas Nelson Publishers. She accepts any fiction except science fiction, fantasy, allegory, or horror. Prior to this position, she edited nonfiction and gift books and wrote and produced newsletters and brochures. She also taught writing at Western Carolina University. 

Session: "What is inspirational or Christian fiction?" This workshop will define this type of fiction, will discuss the sales avenues for it in both the Christian Booksellers Association (CBA) and American Booksellers Association (ABA), and will describe the editing and marketing processes.

Doris Booth is the owner and editor-in-chief of Authorlink.com and of Authorlink Press. Before creating Authorlink she was an award-winning newspaper editor for 11 years. She also owned a Dallas-based advertising and marketing agency which served Fortune 1000 accounts, as well as projects for McGraw Hill, Adweek Magazine, Boys Life, D Magazine, and others. An interactive multimedia/ video producer, Ms. Booth earned New York and Chicago Film Festival awards for her work. She has also written for the imminent LeCroy Center for Educational Telecommunications. The programs have been aired to target audiences by PBS Television. She is past vice president of the board of the International Interactive Communications Society.

Authorlink Press publishes the New American Review, a digest of selected short contemporary fiction, essays, and poetry. The third edition will be released in July 2003, just in time for the HAWC conference. 

Authorlink.com also publishes the AUTHORLINK BOOK REVIEW, both online and in print. Reviews in these publications are also now fed to TheCelebrityCafe.com, the longest running online entertainment magazine, with more than one million readers per month.

Session topic:  "In Search of That Mysterious Element Called Voice"  (What editors really want)

Dennis Christen

Dennis began his career as an actor in Hollywood. During the actors' strike of 1980 he moved to South Korea and became a star on one of the most successful daily sitcoms in Korean television history called “A High Schooler’s Diary" (Ko-kyo Sang-il-gee). During his 12 years in Korea, Dennis performed in over 640 episodic television shows, miniseries, movies of the week and feature films, which took him to 12 different countries, earning him national awards, including “Special Acting Award” for his role in the first all-English language movie of the week that had ever been produced in Korea. The English title was “A Tear for My Enemy” (In-kan-kwa Chun-jang). Dennis was the first foreign actor to be placed on the Korean TV Guide’s list of the 50 most popular entertainers. Dennis was also the first non-Korean actor allowed to join the Korea Television Actor’s Association. It was during one of the association functions that he met his wife, Korean actress Eun Kyong Seo.

Eventually, Dennis stepped behind the camera as an assistant director for the Cannon Group film, “A Field Of Honor.” He then wrote, starred in, and produced the award winning feature film “Soldiers of Innocence” which was nominated for two Grand Bell Awards (Korea’s equivalent of the Academy Award) and won the award for Best New Director.

Dennis authored a nonfiction book, Rape? Not Me!! and several screenplays for motion pictures and television. He is currently based in Los Angeles, California and is the Chief of Production at NewBridge Entertainment. His current project is the novel entitled, “Dennis H. Christen's - Madam, The Grass Is High," a romantic comedy—a love story about the old for the young, presently being sold worldwide, and "Lundon’s Bridge," a children’s story about a heroic little girl who wins a war between the land and the sea using nothing more than her love and belief in her parents. Both novels will be turned into feature films. 

Session: "Writing and adapting for the screen" Understanding the 'visual literature' of our generations. Writing an original screenplay or adapting one from a novel requires two different, but very important, techniques. As a screen writer and a novelist, my goal in this presentation will be to help more writers understand and use these techniques effectively.  

Associate Editor working with both children's and nonfiction manuscripts for Peachtree Publishers in Atlanta, Georgia, Ms. Deardorff also coordinates the handling and reading of the 20,000 unsolicited manuscripts that Peachtree Publishers receives each year and the awards submittal program of the publisher.  As with other members of the editorial department, she works with the acquisitions committee to make decisions regarding the contracting of new books for each season's list.  Ms. Deardorff has degree in English Literature with an English Grammar concentration from Indiana University.  She also received a second degree in Political Economy from Agnes Scott College.  She resides in Decatur, Georgia. 

Session topic: "How to get your children's book manuscript successfully published" Now that you have manuscript in hand, what to do next,  how to know where to submit, how to improve your chances of getting read and getting published; the "inside" story of what happens after your unsolicited manuscript arrives at the publisher; what publishers want (and don't want).

Georgia Review

Described as "simply the best literary publication in America, period," each issue of The Georgia Review features some 200 pages of poetry, fiction, essays, and reviews—as well as a visual art portfolio, usually in full color. Writers range from Nobel laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners to the most deserving newer voices. Here is where you will regularly find distinctive writing that invites and sustains repeated readings.

Session: Inside the Literary Magazine: The Editors Tell 'All'. In this question and answer session, The Georgia Review editors will discuss with participants the lit mag publishing process and explain the reasons behind writers' guidelines. Panelists T.R. Hummer, Editor; David Ingle, Assistant Editor; and Annette Hatton, Managing Editor.

Patrick LoBrutto

Patrick LoBrutto has been an editor, author and anthologist for over 30 years. He has worked in all areas of Fiction and Non-Fiction specializing in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, Thrillers, Historical Fiction, Westerns, Military History and Mysteries.

His career in publishing began while in Graduate School for Urban Planning; he took a summer job in the mailroom of Ace Books and discovered there were people who would pay him to read. He never looked back. He has worked for Ace Books, Doubleday, M. Evans, Random House, Kensington, Stealth Press (an Internet Publisher) and Bantam. He has held the position of Editor, Senior Editor and Editor-in-Chief, working with authors like Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, Eric Van Lustbader, Walter Tevis (the author of The Hustler and The Color of Money), the Louis L'Amour Estate, the Star Wars novelizations, Don Coldsmith, F. Paul Wilson, Joe R. Lansdale, the Dune Novels of Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson and Loren Estleman. He has received the World Fantasy Award for editing. 

He currently lectures at writer's conferences and works as an Editorial Consultant and Master Class Instructor for authors, an Acquiring Editor for Tor/Forge and Quill Driver Books/Word Dancer Press and as a scout for the Trident Media Group.

Session: "Publishing: What the &%$*& is going on?" What publishers are doing and why, hitting on changing old trends and the growing new ones...as well as where publishing is headed. From the writer and editor's point of view.

Judy Long is Editor in Chief of Hill Street Press, a publishing company in Athens, Georgia whose editorial goals are to present the best in new writing from the South and to revive and restore to print southern classics. Hill Street publishes literary fiction, women's fiction, nonfiction, mystery-especially anything with a southern flavor. 

Session topic: "The Complete Intelligent Person's Guide to Writing a Winning Proposal" How to craft an ironclad proposal which will grab an editor's attention. Every year in the U.S. 60,000 new titles are published. Learn how to use your proposal as a sales tool to make it stand out from the other 59,000. 

Michele Pezzuti is an associate editor at McGraw-Hill Trade, specializing in nonfiction. Publishing 12 books a year and signing 14 new contracts per year, Michele's categories include narrative nonfiction, self-help, health, diet/nutrition, sports/fitness, women's issues, and pets. She will evaluate any nonfiction manuscript, except Business, even if the subject does not fall under one of these categories.

Session: "Whose Book Is It Anyway?" Will take writers through the process of acquisitions. What I look for and don't look for in a nonfiction proposal. I will then highlight certain marketing and industry issues that weigh heavily on the publishing process; i.e., choosing a package, what our bookstore buyers tell us about a product, title changes, and other editorial changes. Through this presentation I hope that writers will get more of a sense of what happens when they entrust an editor and publishing company with their manuscript.

Brant Rumble is an Associate Editor at Scribner. His list includes Chuck Klosterman's memoir/heavy metal history, Fargo Rock City; Jimmy Gleacher's novel, It's How You Play the Game; Laura Wexler's highly acclaimed Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America; Hallgrímur Helgason's Icelandic novel, 101 Reykjavik; Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Lineups; and, most recently, Tom Groneberg's The Secret Life of Cowboys. His forthcoming publications include Chuck Klosterman's second book, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, James Zug's Squash: A History of the Game, the reissue of Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters, and in 2004, 40 Watts from Nowhere: A Journey into Pirate Radio by Sue Carpenter. Brant also works with Letitia Baldrige, Ivan Doig, Horton Foote, Robert Hellenga, Ted Heller, Stephen King, Hanif Kureishi, and Tim Winton. Brant began his publishing career as an administrative assistant at Simon & Schuster before moving to Scribner, and imprint of Simon & Schuster, in 1997. He grew up in the South and went to college in rural Indiana, but he feels like a real New Yorker now. Brant lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with his wife and their CD collection.

Brant prefers to review Literary Fiction, Narrative History, Memoir, Pop Culture, and Sports. 

Session: "How to Grab an Editor's Attention"   An editor wants to find a great book just as much as a writer wants to write one. Most editors receive over a dozen submissions a week -- approximately 1000 pages worth of reading, and that's a conservative estimate. Of course, it can be done...if an editor completely ignores all other aspects of his or her job, and decides that having a life outside of the office is entirely overrated. In other words, it can't be done. Editors must carefully gauge which submissions receive the most attention and consideration based on certain assumptions. Scribner's Brant Rumble talks candidly about those assumptions, and how writers can better position themselves to grab an editor's attention.

Michael Seidman, called by Publishers Weekly one of "the industry's more wry and quotable editors" and credited with having created an "intelligent but accessible mystery list that is rare for a house of any size," is an editorial consultant serving both publishers and individual writers.  He most recently signed to be a consulting editor with Forge Books.  He is the recipient of several awards for both his editing and writing and is the author of two currently available books for writers:  FICTION: THE ART AND CRAFT OF WRITING AND GETTING PUBLISHED (Pomegranate Press) and THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO EDITING YOUR FICTION (Writer's Digest Books).  He can be contacted at mseidman@aol.com. 

Michael will evaluate anything that falls under the broad spectrum of crime fiction: suspense, mystery of any kind; literary fiction and general mainstream are also favorites. He will not review BFYR or YA, genre romance, genre fantasy, sf, or action/adventure.  Anything else is fine. 

Question: what does it take to break out a new author? 

Michael Seidman answers: "A better book and a lot of luck. Advertising, promotion, all that stuff can only put the name out there. But if there's no word of mouth, if there aren't enough reviews . . . . I still opt for a book that makes a difference to me as a reader, on some level. If it does that, fine: I'll buy it. If I can't see anything in the book to make it in any way different from the book next to it on the shelf, I don't waste my time or energy. That's as a reader and as an editor." 

Session topic:  "Dialogue Can Sell a Story . . . or, Kill It!" If you eavesdrop on real conversations, you've discovered that most of them are boring and that most people say nothing. But if that's something your storypeople do, you're in serious trouble. What they say . . . how they say it . . . and why they say it . . . those things can make a real difference, a selling difference. Let's talk about how and why...

Intensive Workshops: A Day With Michael Seidman. On Friday, July 18, by special registration, participants can experience a six-hour long restricted admission interactive workshop with Michael Seidman. The workshop schedule will consist of a three-hour morning session, lunch with Michael Seidman, and a three hour afternoon session.
Click here to learn more.

Greg Tobin

Greg Tobin has been a distinguished writer, editor, and publishing executive in New York City for more than two decades, serving most recently as senior vice president and editor-in-chief of the Ballantine Books division of Random House, Inc., and, before that, as chairman of the editorial board, vice president and editor-in-chief of Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc. In 1996 he won the Time Inc. President's Award for co-founding One Spirit Book Club, the fastest-growing new business in BOMC history. He has also held senior editorial positions at Bantam Books and at Doubleday in the book clubs division. During those years he wrote more than a dozen western-historical novels. His most recent work of frontier fiction was PRAIRIE (Ballantine, 1997). In 1999 Mr. Tobin published two books with Roman Catholic themes. THE WISDOM OF ST. PATRICK: Inspirations from the Patron Saint of Ireland (Ballantine), and SAINTS AND SINNERS: The American Catholic Experience Through Stories, Memoirs, Essays, and Commentary (Doubleday). All three books were book-club selections, and SAINTS AND SINNERS was a finalist for the National Catholic Book Award. 

Now a fulltime author, freelance editor, and scholar, Greg Tobin lives with his wife and two sons in South Orange, New Jersey. His current books are novels: CONCLAVE (July 2001) by Forge Books, a division of St. Martin's Press, and in paperback (May 2002) by Tor Books; that was followed by a sequel, titled COUNCIL (August 2002) and in paperback (June 2003). He will also write the third book in a projected trilogy, tentatively titled CREDO. Mr. Tobin is currently researching and writing a biography of St. Patrick for Doubleday, scheduled for publication in 2004, and has just completed a book on the papal election process, to be released by Barnes & Noble Booksellers and Sterling Publishers (April 2003), titled SELECTING THE POPE: Uncovering the Mysteries of the Papal Elections. 

Mr. Tobin will evaluate almost any kind of manuscript except children's books. Prefers nonfiction, but will also review fiction. 

Session: "The Book Publishing Contract: Proceed with Caution" An in-depth examination of the terms and conditions, rights and obligations, entailed in the standard royalty agreement with a trade book publisher. The presenter speaks with experience both as a publisher and an author, with an intimate understanding of the state of the publishing industry and the whys and wherefores of contracts in the current environment. 

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William Clark represents a diverse range of commercial and literary fiction and quality nonfiction to the book publishing, motion picture, television, and new media fields. Based in New York, he has worked alongside industry leaders since 1992, including five years at William Morris Agency.

Offering individual focus and global presence, William Clark follows an innovative and broad-ranged approach to the representation of content and the talent that creates it, ranging from authors of first fiction and award-winning, bestselling narrative nonfiction, to international authors in translation, musicians and artists. The agency mandate is to create new markets for existing clients, discover and nurture tomorrow's most interesting talent, and provide agency services to a new client base emanating from the digital media business wishing to expand into the print publication arena.

Prefers narrative non-fiction and literary fiction. Does not represent genre fiction, i.e. mystery, science fiction, detective, procedural, horror, etc. Does represent some self-help, but it has to stand apart from that genre, as in his titles DANTE'S PATH and THE MONEY TRAP. 

Session: "MAKING THE SALE: What Happens After You Find an Agent?" William Clark talks about strategies for selling, timelines -- an outline of the selling process -- how he (and most agents) approach selling a book to a publisher and create a competitive atmosphere among publishers for a book.

Jeff Herman founded The Jeff Herman Agency, LLC, in 1987 while still in his twenties. The agency has expanded rapidly, and more than 350 titles have been sold. Herman is one of the most dynamic and innovative agents in the business.

Herman's agency has established a strong presence in general adult nonfiction, including business, reference, commercial self-help, computers, recovery/healing and spirituality.

Herman's most notable clients include bestselling authors Dave Pelzer, Jack Canfield, and Mark Victor Hansen.

Herman speaks throughout the country about how to get published. He's a contributor to Writer's Digest Magazine, and has been written about in many books and publications, including Success, Entrepreneur, and Publisher's Weekly. He has appeared on many television and radio shows.

Herman authored the book, Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers and Literary Agents: Who They Are! What They Want! And How to Win Them Over!; and co-authored Write the Perfect Book Proposal: 10 Proposals That Sold and Why!, and You Can Make It Big Writing Books. The titles are considered to be among the best tools available to writers.

Previously, Herman worked for a N.Y. public relations firm where he designed and coordinated national consumer marketing campaigns for Nabisco Brands and AT&T. Prior to that, he was a publicist at Schocken Books, where he promoted the bestseller, When Bad Things Happen To Good People.

Herman graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Science degree in consumer economics. He was Captain of the school's award-winning debate team and a leader in student government. 

Session: "Write Perfect Book Proposals, Query Letters, Pitches, and Story Summaries"  This is a hard copy business. It won't matter how well you can speak it if you can't write it. Well written proposals, pitch letters and summaries are the passports to getting agents and editors to notice you and sign you. Manuscripts will generally not even get read if these crucial elements fail to pass muster. Agent Jeff Herman will walk you through the entire process of crafting and presenting these items to the point of perfection.

Formerly a music promoter for many nationally known country and popular music celebrities, Bob left the music industry in 1976 to form the literary agency of Bob Robison & Associates in Nashville, Tennessee. The agency maintains a short list of producing writers who have among their credits Emmys, Sylvanias, Peabodys, Spurs, Paperback Originals, Porgies, Military Writers, and Pulitzer nominations, to name but a few.  Works of his writers have appeared on the New York Times best seller list, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, USA Today and others. Bob will consider manuscripts in most genres other than science fiction, fantasy or biographies. 

Session topic:  "How to Sell a Book"  (with Robert Vaughan and Marika Flatt)  Get the best advice from experts from three key segments of the publishing business -- author, agent and publicist. Advice based on years of experience and success. 

Jacky Sach is cofounder of Bookends LLC, an innovative literary agency representing a diversity of authors of both fiction and nonfiction. Jacky is a veteran of the publishing industry. During her seventeen years in publishing at Penguin Putnam, she had the privilege of working on many bestselling books as Senior Managing Editor of the Berkley division. When Jacky cofounded BookEnds with Jessica Faust, she embraced the opportunity to develop long and fruitful relationships with both new and experienced authors. Her interests and expertise include mystery, thrillers, women's fiction, self-help, spirituality, especially eastern wisdom, and innovative, offbeat nonfiction. Jacky is a published author and speaks widely on publishing topics throughout the country.

Session topic: "The Search--Finding an Agent"  When, where, and how to find and agent and why you need one.

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Marika Flatt began her media career at CTSA-TV in San Antonio, Texas, as the host of the "Teen and College Reports." While attending Texas A&M, Flatt worked as a city reporter for the university's newspaper, The Battalion, and as a production assistant for KAMU-TV. She later worked at KXAS-TV, the NBC affiliate in Dallas, Texas. 

As the Director of Publisher Services for Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists, Flatt specializes in managing key publisher publicity campaigns and serves as the Phenix & Phenix spokesperson with media. She also conducts educational workshops for writers' groups and conferences around the country on topics related to book publicity. 

Flatt currently serves as the President-elect for the Austin chapter of the Association for Women in Communications (AWC). She graduated Cum Laude from Texas A&M University with a degree in communications. 

Session topic:  "Vital Book Publicity: You Can't Succeed Without It" The time to think about book publicity is before you write the first page. But if you're past that point, you still need to attend this MUST HAVE workshop on publicizing and promoting you and your book. Marika Flatt will offer advice and tips on outlining a successful publicity campaign, which includes strategy, back-door approaches, building relationships and even a bit of media training. After this presentation, you'll understand why publicity is a vital investment in your book as a product. It's a marathon, not a sprint!

Panel topic:  "How to Sell a Book" (with Bob Robison and Robert Vaughan) Get the best advice from experts from three key segments of the publishing business -- author, agent and publicist. Advice based on years of experience and success.

Steve K. Brown

Steven K. Brown began his investigative career as a Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, serving for 11 years in Phoenix, Chicago and San Juan, Puerto Rico. For the last 18 years he has successfully managed his own private investigative firm serving clients with investigative needs ranging from simple pre-employment background checks to sophisticated white-collar crime thefts, from murders disguised as suicides to the returning of parentally abducted children from foreign lands. 

Steve has published nonfiction articles in Gambling Times and been mentioned professionally in newspapers across the nation and national magazines such as Business Week. He has appeared on local and national television programs, including an interview with Hard Copy and Sixty-Minutes. 

At the 2001 Harriette Austin Writers Conference, Steve presented a proposal to Jessica Faust of Bookends, LLC. Growing out of that introduction, Bookends took on Steve as a client, and together they developed Steve's forthcoming book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Private Investigation (2002). 

Session: "The Seven Worst Mistakes Writers Make With Their Fictional PIs" This year Steve brings his expertise to the conference in a session about private investigation. His interactive presentation has been called "The most informative writers presentation ever." Brown brings real cases and published works to the table and uses them as examples of what and what not to do. Expect a "pop" quiz.

Kelly James-Enger is the author of "Ready, Aim, Specialize: Create Your Own Writing Specialty And Make More Money." She is a full-time freelance journalist who is a contributing editor for The Writer, Oxygen, Complete Woman, and For The Bride. Her work has appeared in more than 40 national magazines including Redbook, Woman's Day, Family Circle, Self, Shape, Parents, Fitness, Fit, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, and Marie Claire. Her first novel Did You Get The Vibe? will be released in the fall of 2003. 

Session topic:  "Get into Writing for Magazines"  Want to see your byline in magazines--and get paid for it? While basic writing skills are essential, magazine journalists must know how to select potential markets, develop winning article ideas and craft attention-getting query letters. This program will show you how to get started writing for magazines and cover the basics including finding markets for your work, writing powerful queries, and nailing your first assignments. Helpful handouts provided.

Ralph McInerny holds degrees from the St.Paul Seminary, University of Minnesota and Laval University. He has taught at the University of Notre Dame since 1955, and since 1978 he has been the Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies. For seven years he was director of the Medieval Institute; since 1979 he has been director of the Jacques Maritain Center. A specialist in the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, he has written and edited 22 books about Thomistic and other medieval philosophies, including Aquinas and Analogy, The Question of Christian Ethics, Aquinas on Human Action and the Penguin Classic, Thomas Aquinas Selected Writing. In addition, he has written more than 60 novels, including the well-known Father Dowling mysteries, the most recent of which is Triple Pursuit (2001), the Andrew Broom mysteries, the Sister Mary Teresa mysteries and a series of mysteries set at the University of Notre Dame, the most recent of which is Emerald Aisle (2001).

He has served as president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, The Metaphysical Society, the American Maritain Society and the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. He has been visiting professor at nearly a dozen universities and is the recipient of various fellowships, honors and awards, among them the Bouchercon Lifetime Achievement award. He is a fellow of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas. His Gifford Lectures, delivered in Glasgow in 1999-2000, were published under the title Characters in Search of Their Author (2001).

President Bush in January 2002 appointed professor McInerny to the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. The committee, established by an executive order in 1982, is charged with advancing public understanding of the arts and the humanities and forming new partnerships between the private sector and federal agencies to address critical issues in cultural life. First lady Laura Bush was the honorary chair of the committee.

Dr. McInerny is active in assisting struggling writers through his commercial writing courses, his work with the Elder Hostel, and his many workshops and presentations.

Session: "Fiction Writing: Crafting the Novel" 

Dinner topic: "The Mystery Novel as Literature?" Is the mystery and other popular fiction radically different from what we call literature or located on a spectrum with it...I will argue on behalf of the second.

J. L. (Jackie Lee) Miles' first novel, Roseflower Creek (September 2001) was inspired by a death penalty case in Athens, Georgia. Her current novel, Copper Ridge Mountain, under contract with Arthur Pine Associates, Manhattan, parallels the journey of two young women—one white, one black—of the south born 100 years apart. Blackwater Moon, the prequel to Roseflower Creek is next. Cold Rock River, a southern tale chronicling the struggles of siblings grappling with the death of their WWII war hero father at the hands of their mentally ill mother, follows. When not writing, Ms. Miles is a featured speaker at schools, book clubs, libraries and writers workshops. She actively promotes the written word and is a Board member for Sisters In Crime (Atlanta Chapter) and of Georgia Writers. A screenplay is being considered for Roseflower Creek. Watch for Jackie portraying herself in the upcoming movie production of Dennis Christen's Madam, the Grass Is High! 

Session topic:  "Opening Lines That Get Published" This interactive presentation will cover the essentials of an opening line, the bridge, an opening "to die for," what to watch out for, and getting it "write." (Click here for an outline of the presentation.)

Peter Reinhart is the founder of the award winning Brother Juniper's Bakery in Santa Rosa, California. He is now a full-time faculty member in the International Baking and Pastry Program at Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. 

He is the author of 5 books: Bread Upon The Waters: A Pilgrimage Toward Self-Discovery and Spiritual Truth (Perseus Books, 2000); Crust and Crumb: Master Formulas For Serious Bread Bakers (Ten Speed Press, 1998); Sacramental Magic In a Small Town Cafe: Recipes and Stories From Brother Juniper's Cafe (1994); and Brother Juniper's Bread Book: Slow Rise As Method and Metaphor (1991, both from Addison Wesley). His fifth book, for Ten Speed Press, The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread, was released in Nov. of 2001, and was the recipient of the International Assoc. of Culinary Professional's Cook Book of the Year as well as the James Beard Cook Book of the Year awards. In February it also received the International Gourmand Cook Book Award as Best Bread Book in the World. He has also been published in many magazines and has appeared on numerous national television and radio programs.

Peter won the 1996 James Beard Foundation's National Bread Competition for his "Wild Yeast Country Bread," featured in Crust and Crumb. That book was also the recipient of the James Beard Award as the Best Baking and Desserts Book of 1998. 

He was also the bread chapter author and editor for the revised Joy of Cooking, released in the fall of 1997. For the five years prior to teaching at Johnson and Wales, Peter was a full time instructor at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.

In 1999 he started "Transmission of Knowledge Mentoring", a consulting service for professionals seeking to further their career and life goals, and a coaching service for writers. He lives with his wife, Susan, in Cranston, Rhode Island.

Session: "The Leaven Factor: Bread Baking as a Metaphor for How Touching Others With Words Changes You" Bread is a transformational food. That is, it undergoes two major, radical changes, unique from all other cooked foods, during its twelve stage journey from raw ingredients to consumption. As such, it serves as a universal metaphor for transformation itself. Writing is also a transformational process in which not only is the reader potentially touched and radically changed, but the writer as well. This presentation will explore that transformation and what it reveals about our mission as writers.

Journalist Carroll Dale Short is an author and writing instructor. He was the winner of the very first Redbook Fiction Award and was twice named Alabama’s best newspaper columnist. He is a five-time winner of the Southern Literary Festival Prize. His short story, Evening Glass, was broadcast on NPR's “The Best of Our Knowledge” with host Glenn Busby. He is also a playwright and was a journalism instructor for over 17 years at the University of Alabama as well as an instructor in fiction and playwriting at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. He is author of the novel The Shining Shining Path (1995), a collection of poetry and essays titled A Migration of Clowns (April 2000), a work of narrative nonfiction The People’s Lawyer (October 2000), and A Writer's Tool Kit (2001).

Dale has published fiction and nonfiction in Redbook, The New York Times, USA Today, The National Observer, Newsweek, American Lawyer, The Runner, The Oxford American, Hartford Courant, Southern Humanities Review, UAB Magazine, Roanoke Review, Birmingham, Medical Center, Country Music, Appalachian Journal, Arts and Sciences, Business Alabama, South Carolina Review, Aura: Southern Fiction, Country America, Appalachian Ways, Southern Exposure, and dozens of other periodicals. 

His writing has been anthologized in the textbook Sanctuaries: Readings for College Writers, and he is a contributor to the international reference volumes Magill's Literary Annual, Cavendish Literary Encyclopedia, and The Sixties in America, and a book reviewer for Kliatt Librarians' Journal.

Session topic:  "Narrative Boot Camp" "Narrative Boot Camp" is a highly condensed version of Carroll Dale Short's new how-to book about narrative structure, A WRITER'S TOOL KIT. The workshop will examine the "Big Three" components that make narrative style different from expository style: (1) visualization, (2) transitions, and (3) dramatic timing, and show strategies to get the most from each technique. Time will also be allotted for questions and discussion.   

Robert Vaughan sold his first book when he was nineteen.  That was 42 years 200 titles, and twenty million books ago.  Writing under 35 pseudonyms, he has hit the NY Times, and PW Bestseller lists twice: (In 1981, Love’s Bold Journey, and Love’s Sweet Agony were both Number One on the NY Times and PW mass market list, with sales of 2.2 million each.)  His book Survival won the Spur Award for best western novel, (1994)  The Power and the Pride won the Porgie for best paperback original, (1976) and Brandywine’s War was named by the Canadian University Symposium of Literature as the best iconoclastic novel to come from the Vietnam War. He was inducted into the Writers’ Hall of Fame of America in Springfield, MO in 1998.  His current book TOUCH THE FACE OF GOD is an inspirational novel about missions flown over Europe by the B-17 crews during World War II. 

In the 1970s Robert was an on-air television personality, hosting EYEWITNESS MAGAZINE, for WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, VA and doing a cooking show for PHOENIX AT MID-DAY on KPHO-TV in Phoenix. 

During his military service he was selected by ARMY AVIATION DIGEST as having written the  “Best Article of the Year” for six consecutive years.  He also wrote and produced several training films for use in the Aviation Maintenance Officers’ Course.  Robert is a retired army warrant officer, a helicopter pilot who served in Germany, Korea, and did three tours in Vietnam.    For his combat tours he was awarded: The Distinguished Flying Cross, The Air Medal with the “V” Device, The Purple Heart, The Bronze Star, The Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. 

Keynote address: "Observations from a 40-Year Writing Career" . 

Session topic:  "How to Sell a Book"  (with Bob Robison and Marika Flatt)    Get the best advice from experts from three key segments of the publishing business -- author, agent and publicist. Advice based on years of experience and success.

Special Agent Terry Cooper - Crime Scene Specialist with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and a favorite at the Harriette Austin Writers Conference. Specially trained and equipped with the latest technology for crime scene analysis and reconstruction -- everything from super glue to laser lights to bullet trajectories and blood splatter pattern computer software. With 28 years in law enforcement and over 500 (and counting) death investigations, Agent Cooper will discuss actual processing and collection techniques.

Session topic:  "How is a Crime Scene Really Processed?" Before the DNA, Bullets, Fingerprints, Fibers, or Body can be analyzed, the evidence has to be identified and properly collected.

Marla Lawson has served as a Forensic Artist with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for six years. Prior to that she was a Police Artist with the Atlanta Police Department for fifteen years. Her work has been featured on America's Most Wanted, Unsolved Mysteries, Beyond Chance, appeared in People Magazine, Time Magazine, has been featured in Atlanta weekly magazine, Readers Digest, and has been written about in many state and local newspapers across the country. Perhaps her most famous work was the composite sketch of 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Park bomber suspect Eric Robert Rudolph that appeared around the world.

Session topic: "Forensic Reconstruction Techniques and Establishing Identification" Marla applies her talents and skills to putting faces on bare bones and creates sketches of suspects from eyewitnesses. In her forensic reconstruction workshop, she will discuss and demonstrate the techniques used by modern forensic reconstruction artists. 

She will share how she fell into this line of work 25 years ago and show samples of her composite drawings and the suspects' photos after arrest. You will see reconstructed skulls and examples of people that were identified from clay reconstructions, and photos of deceased victims and sketches of these people drawn for circulation through the media. 

Marla will be joined by Doctor Carol A Terry and Sgt. Tina Miller. Dr. Terry is with the Fulton County Medical Examiners Office, a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta with a degree in Pathology, who will lecture with her slides of homicide victims and unidentified skeletal remains. Dr. Terry has assisted in the identification of numerous unidentified individuals not only while on duty at the morgues and hospitals around the metro Atlanta area, but also after hours in downtown Atlanta neighborhoods where skeletal remains were located, combing the areas with photos of missing persons, looking for family members or friends who might identify them. 

Sgt. Tina Miller, Atlanta Police Missing Persons Unit, has been employed with APD for 15 years and will tell about several missing persons cases she has solved.

Dr. James McCarthy's novel Ground Zero and Beyond must hold the record for the best cover photo. As a writer, Dr. McCarthy has an appreciation of the need for detailed information and factual accuracy. He brings to the conference his strong background in Forensic Odontology. Following graduation from the Maryland School of Dentistry and subsequent training in forensic dentistry at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Jim served twenty-three years of combined military service. He presently practices dentistry in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and is on the staff with the Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Police Department where he works closely with their crime lab when dental forensics comes into play. He recently was promoted to the rank of Colonel in the USAR and stationed with the 114th Combat Support Hospital, Fort Snelling, Minnesota. He has written articles for the du Pont Registry and Vintage Motorsport magazines. He is author of the nonfiction book Vintage Racing—Start to Finish and now his debut novel Ground Zero and Beyond.

Session topic: "Taking a Bite Out of Crime: Forensic Odontology and the Crime Scene" Dr. McCarthy's session will provide a fascinating overview of how Forensic Odontology is used to solve crimes. With handouts and visual illustrations he will cover such topics as Dental Identification, Age Determination, Dental Jurisprudence, Bite Mark Evidence, Human Abuse and Neglect, Computer Aided FO, Mass Disaster Management, Forensic Photography, and DNA and FO. He will bring to the presentation examples of recent cases in which dental forensics has played a role, and will provide detailed analysis of some more famous cases, such as the Ted Bundy serial murders.

Jennifer Richardson, a licensed clinical social worker and certified cognitive behavior therapist, spent 15 years in the private practice of psychotherapy.  She currently trains therapists, lectures, and writes.  She is the author of Diary of Abuse/Diary of Healing (1996) and Holy Dirt (2000).  She is also a professional musician and performs regularly on flute and harp. 

Session topic: "Let's Get Crazy !! -- Exploring Psychological Aspects of Character and Motivation" This workshop will provide the layman with an introduction to psychopathology in order that the writer may create deviant characters with greater accuracy. At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to identify:

a. Character types most likely to commit murder
b. Motivations for murder
c. Symptoms of various character disorders.
d. Correct psychological definitions of common "psychobabble" words.