Authors

ReadWithPride_ButtonAvatarWe’re excited to share this year’s awesome line-up of authors and speakers for the Write with Pride workshop (November 3) and the Read with Pride Northwest conference (November 4), both at the Seattle Public Library!

Read biographies of the attending authors and speakers below and join the RWP group on GoodReads to participate in more discussions with attendees!

Announcing the 2017 Keynote Speakers!

November 3 – Write with Pride workshop keynote – Nisi Shawl!

November 4 – Read with Pride Northwest Keynote – Keynote Fireside Chat with Rebekah Weatherspoon and Tobi Hill-Meyer!

RWP 2017 Attending Authors and Panelists include:

  • MB Austin
  • Jove Belle
  • Dev Bentham
  • James Brock
  • Austin Chant
  • Charli Coty
  • Christine Danse
  • CJane Elliott
  • Kim Fielding
  • J.S. Fields
  • Ginn Hale
  • Tobi Hill-Meyer
  • Amanda Jean
  • Nicole Kimberling
  • RL Mosswood
  • LM Pierce
  • Liv Rancourt
  • Rick R. Reed
  • Blythe Rippon
  • Ziggy Schutz
  • Nisi Shawl
  • Andrea Speed
  • CM Spivey
  • Karelia Stetz-Waters
  • Tracy Timmons-Gray
  • Julie Tizard
  • Rebekah Weatherspoon
  • Sheri Lewis Wohl

RWP 2017 Author and Panelist Biographies

MB Austin

MBAustin_icecreamMB Austin, a mild-mannered civil servant by day, spends her discretionary time playing with imaginary friends on the computer and real ones in the dojo. She also enjoys cooking, eating, reading, dancing, and laughing as much as possible. MB’s Maji Rios novels, Strictly Need to Know (2017) and Running Off Radar (2018), are inspired by real people, in and out of uniform, who work to make their communities and the world safer for all. And by the people who feed them. MB lives with her fabulous wife in Seattle, an excellent town for coffee-fueled writers who don’t need too much sun. Learn more at http://www.mbaustin.me

Jove Belle

Jove Belle lives and writes in the Pacific Northwest. She has lots of short stories, novellas, and novels. When she’s not writing, she’s hanging out at Women and Words, a blog dedicated to lesbians, fiction, feminism, and community. Once a week, she and fellow admin, Andi Marquette, do a fun podcast week in review for the blog. She also does another podcast called Badass Women Save Themselves with her friend Blythe Rippon, wherein they discuss feminist representation in pop culture. (Author of Bitterroot Queen, The Job, and more

Dev BenthamDev Bentham

Dev Bentham writes romance because they make her happy. She doesn’t consider herself a particularly political writer, but there’s no denying that she’s an old lefty who knows that the personal really is political. Mostly, though, she believes in happy ever after and is the author of many gay romances, including a DABWAHA finalist, a Rainbow Award Honorable Mention and a Rainbow Awards Finalist. Her latest books are Buyout: A Love Story, from Dreamspinner Press and Making Home from Loose Id. Visit Dev’s website.

James Brock

James BrockJames Brock spent his childhood on a homestead in central Alaska, where reading was the main form of entertainment. Never censored he went directly from the Bobbsey Twins to Dorothy Parker and Edna Ferber. The one thing missing in his reading was a reflection of him, a boy who liked boys. Many Princes got to kiss a Princess but he longed to read about a Prince kissing another Prince. So he wrote is own stories, reflecting who he wanted to kiss. Credits include essays with Alyson Publications, pieces in The Seattle Gay News, Seattle Standard (defunct), two hundred fifty (plus) stories in every gay erotic magazine existing from the early 1980’s through the demise of those magazines by the mid 2000’s. Two family biographies, comedy one liners sold to Miss Phyllis Diller and Miss Joan Rivers and currently ten novels published through Beau to Beau Publishing. James lives in Seattle. View James’ work on GoodReads.

Austin Chant

Austin ChantAustin Chant is a bitter millennial, a decent chef, and a queer, trans writer of romance and speculative fiction. His fiction includes Peter Darling, Coffee Boy, and the forthcoming Caroline’s Heart. He co-hosts The Hopeless Romantic, a podcast dedicated to exploring LGBTQIA+ love stories and the art of writing romance. He currently lives in a household of creative freelancers who all spend too much time playing video games. Website: http://www.austinchant.com. Twitter: @austinchanted. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AustinChant

Charli Coty

Charli Peanutized-croppedCharli Coty also writes under the pen name Charley Descoteaux. Book One of the Buchanan House series was a USA Today Must-Read Romance of 2015. Charli misspent a large chunk of their youth on the back of a Harley, meeting people and having adventures that sometimes pop up in their fiction. Mx Coty writes everything from contemporary to paranormal, always with a happy ending. Charli has survived  earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods, but couldn’t make it through one day without stories.

Christine Danse

ChristineDChristine Danse is the author of The Spires of Turris and other tales of science fiction and fantasy romance. She is a Floridian transplant in the Willamette Valley, which has a great growing climate for nuts like her. She lives with her writing partner and sundry other creatures. This includes a puppy. Who is staring at her. Right. Now. The puppy wants you to know that she smells like lavender and also like garlic rubbed chicken Which She Would Not Let Me Have. At this moment, she may be plotting the next London Wells book or how to save the world. Possibly both. Or she might be falling asleep in another faculty meeting. Whoops.

CJane Elliott

cjanephoto_150After years of hearing characters chatting away in her head, CJane Elliott finally decided to put them on paper and hasn’t looked back since. A psychotherapist by training, CJane enjoys writing sexy, passionate stories that also explore the human psyche. She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband and son. CJane is the author of the award-winning Serpentine Series, New Adult contemporary novels set at the University of Virginia. Serpentine Walls was a 2014 Rainbow Awards finalist, Aidan’s Journey was a 2015 EPIC Awards finalist, and Sex, Love, and Videogames won first place in the New Adult category in the 2016 Swirl Awards and first place in Contemporary Fiction in the 2017 EPIC eBook Awards. Find out more about Cjane at http://www.cjaneelliott.com.

Kim Fielding

Fielding, KimKim Fielding is the bestselling author of numerous m/m romance novels, novellas, and short stories. Like Kim herself, her work is eclectic, spanning genres such as contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and historical. Her stories are set in alternate worlds, in 15th century Bosnia, in modern-day Oregon. Her heroes are hipster architect werewolves, housekeepers, maimed giants, and conflicted graduate students. They’re usually flawed, they often encounter terrible obstacles, but they always find love.

Kim’s novel Brute was the 2013 Rainbow Award Winner for Best Gay Fantasy and tied for fourth place for Best Gay Novel.

JS Fields

JS Fields HeadshotJ.S. Fields is the pen name for Dr. Seri Robinson, an artist and professor of wood anatomy at Oregon State University. Fields is a scientist who has perhaps spent too much time around organic solvents. She enjoys roller derby, woodturning, making chainmail by hand, and cultivating fungi in the backs of minivans. Nonbinary, but prefers female pronouns. Fields has lived in Thailand, Ireland, Canada, USA, and spent extensive time in many more places. Her current research takes her to the Peruvian Amazon rainforest each summer, where she traumatizes students with machetes and tangarana ants while looking for rare pigmenting fungi. She lives with her partner and child, and a very fabulous lionhead rabbit named Merlin.

Ginn Hale

Hale_GinnGinn Hale lives with her lovely wife and two indolent cats in the Pacific Northwest. She spends many of the rainy days tinkering with devices and words and can often be sighted herding other people’s dogs, bees and goats. Her first novel,Wicked Gentlemen, was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist and won the Spectrum Award for best novel. Her most recent publications include the Lord of the White Hell books, the ten part epic fantasy serial, The Rifter, and the novella Things Unseen and Deadly from the Irregulars anthology. Visit Ginn’s website.

Tobi Hill-Meyer

Tobipic2017 RWP Keynote – November 4, 2017

Tobi Hill-Meyer was named #3 in Velvet Park Media’s list of the 25 Most Significant Queer Women in 2010 and is one of the few people in the world who can claim being both an award winning porn creator and a children’s book author. She is a multiracial trans woman with well over a decade experience working with feminist and LGBTQ organizations and currently serves as board chair at Gender Justice League as well as working as Communications Coordinator at Gay City: Seattle’s LGBTQ Center. With her background in activism, she operates her own media production company, Handbasket Productions, creating stories and entertainment that reflect community needs and values, including her erotic documentary series Doing it Online as well as her 2017 anthology – Nerve Endings: The New Trans Erotic. Find out more about her at: http://Patreon.com/DoingItOnline

Amanda Jean

Amanda Jean HeadshotAmanda Jean is an editor, podcast host, and writer. She grew up devouring het romance novels and shifted to LGBT romance as a teen when her thirsty queer nature revealed itself. Amanda has worked with Less Than Three Press, Ylva Publishing, Bella Books, NineStar Press, and serves as Alternating Current’s LGBT Director. When she’s not wrangling manuscripts or co-hosting the queer romance podcast The Hopeless Romantic, you can find her watching documentaries, reading too many books on true crime, and caring too much about fictional characters.

Nicole Kimberling

Kimberling_Nicole_150x150Nicole Kimberling lives in Bellingham, Washington with her wife, Dawn Kimberling, two bad cats as well as a wide and diverse variety of invasive and noxious weeds. Her first novel, Turnskin, won the Lambda Literary Award for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. She is also the Senior Editor of Blind Eye Books.

RL Mosswood

Mosswod-1-600x931RL Mosswood lurks in the depths of the Pacific Northwest rainforest, where they dabble in queer fiction in an attempt to add a little magic to their otherwise mundane existence. Mosswood is the author of the fantasy novella Golden (Ninestar Press 2017.)

Lindsay (LM) Pierce

LMPierce-240x300“Hey, but what if…?” Music to Lindsay’s ears. She is a graduate from The Evergreen State College and bathes in the sweet liberal waters of the Puget Sound. Or she would, if it wasn’t so polluted. She is a lover of the new and the old, of asking questions and contemplating possibilities. Lindsay’s work is primarily speculative fiction and she is an unapologetic Nerd. She lives with her husband and four fur-babies in Olympia, Washington. Lindsay’s first novel is Trans Liberty Riot Brigade (NineStar Press, 2017).

Liv Rancourt

LivRI write romance: m/f, m/m, and v/h, where the h is for human and the v is for vampire … or sometimes demon. I lean more towards funny than angst. When I’m not writing I take care of tiny premature babies or teenagers, depending on whether I’m at work or at home. My husband is a soul of patience, my dog’s cuteness is legendary, and we share the homestead with three ferrets. Who steal things. Because they’re brats.

I can be found on-line at all hours of the day and night at my website (www.livrancourt.com) & blog (www.liv-rancourt.blogspot.com), on Facebook (www.facebook.com/liv.rancourt), or on Twitter (www.twitter.com/LivRancourt). For sneak peeks and previews and other assorted freebies, go HERE to sign up for my mailing list.

Come find me. We’ll have fun!

Rick R. Reed

RickRReed-400x600 (1)Rick R. Reed draws inspiration from the lives of gay men to craft stories that quicken the heartbeat, engage emotions, and keep the pages turning. Although he dabbles in horror, dark suspense, and comedy, his attention always returns to the power of love. He’s the award-winning and bestselling author of more than fifty works of published fiction and is forever at work on yet another book. Lambda Literary has called him: “A writer that doesn’t disappoint…” You can find him at www.rickrreed.com or www.rickrreedreality.blogspot.com. Rick lives in Palm Springs, CA with his beloved husband and their Boston terrier.

Blyth Rippon

blythe headshotBlythe Rippon writes novels and short stories featuring strong women trying to make the world a more just place. She’s an artist-scholar whose work focuses on resisting violence and generating empathy. A professor at a liberal arts college, Blythe loves teaching, hiking the woods, and marching the streets. In addition to writing academic essays and LGBTQ fiction, she co-hosts the podcast Badass Women Save Themselves. Born in the midwest, she’s lived all over the country, and at present can be found in the Pacific Northwest with her wife and children. (Author of Benched, Stowe Away, and Barring Complications; and co-owner of Dirt Road Books)

Ziggy Schutz

Ziggy Schutz HeadshotZiggy Schutz is a young queer writer from the west coast of Canada. She writes mostly YA fantasy and spec fic, with a strong focus on characters who don’t often get to tell their own stories. In fact, that’s the premise of Crossing Wires, a new post-apocalyptic podcast she is creator and co-writer of. Why do we always see the same types of characters surviving? When not writing, she is often found lingering in dark theatres and haunted houses. She also does queer outreach in schools, and knows first hand how important it is that queer youth know their stories don’t always have to be about their coming out, but can totally involve sword fighting or super powers.

Nisi Shawl

NisiWallTwitterSmall_400x4002017 Write with Pride Keynote – November 3

Nisi Shawl’s story collection Filter House co-won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.  She was a Guest of Honor for WisCon 35 in 2011 Shawl coauthored Writing the Other: A Practical Approach, a manual for writers wishing to depict difference.  She edits reviews for the literary quarterly Cascadia Subduction Zone, and recently co-edited two anthologies.  Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler appeared from Aqueduct Press in 2014, and in 2015 Rosarium published Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany.  Shawl’s Belgian Congo steampunk novel Everfair released from Tor in 2016.  She serves on the boards of Clarion West and The Carl Brandon Society.  She’s fairly active on Twitter and Facebook, and promises to update her homepage soon.

Andrea Speed

Speed_AndreaAndrea Speed was born looking for trouble in some hot month without an R in it. She’s the author of the Infected series for Dreamspinner Press, the Josh of the Damned series for Riptide Publishing, and has a bunch of non-series stuff as well. She makes up stuff, just to be an ass. In her spare time, she arms lemurs in preparation for the upcoming war against the Mole Men. Viva la revolution! Visit Andrea’s website.

Read our GRNW interview with Andrea on GoodReads.

CM Spivey

CMSpiveyC.M. Spivey is a speculative fiction writer, author of the high fantasy Trident Chronicles series, and the paranormal series, The Unliving. His enduring love of fantasy started young. Now, he explores the rules and ramifications of magic in his own works—and as a panromantic asexual trans man, he’s committed to queering his favorite genres.

Karelia Stetz-Waters

Karelia_SWKarelia Stetz-Waters is contemporary lesbian romance writer. She is passionate about providing happy endings and a vision of redemptive love for readers of all orientations. Karelia’s points of pride include having the same literary agent as Barack Obama and writing the first lesbian romance acquired by the Forever Yours imprint at Grand Central Publishing. Her most recent release, For Good, tackles the injustices of the prison and parole system by telling the story of a forbidden love affair between a paroled felon and a district attorney.  Karelia’s other novels  include Something True, The Admirer, The Purveyor, and Lambda and Goldie finalist Forgive Me If I’ve Told You This Before.  For more on Karelia, visit her website at kareliastetzwaters.com.

Tracy Timmons-Gray

Tracy serves on the board of the Seattle writing nonprofit Old Growth Northwest, and as a volunteer, leads the organization’s Read with Pride Northwest initiative, which includes the annual Read with Pride Northwest conference. Launched in 2013 under its earlier name Gay Romance Northwest, RWP is the first conference that focuses on LGBTQIA romance fiction in the Pacific Northwest. Tracy’s day job is at FSG, a nonprofit consulting firm focusing on social change issues. As a person with disabilities (low vision) and queer (asexual), Tracy loves to explore how spreading awareness of stories can empower and strengthen communities. In her spare time, she loves reading queer genre fiction, drawing cartoony monsters, singing karaoke, sending Jeff Bezo irritating letters, talking incessantly about community action and romance fiction, and avoiding her cat when he gets “bite-y”.

Julie Tizard

JulieTJulie Tizard has been a professional pilot for over 35 years. She is one of earliest women pilots to graduate from U.S. Air Force pilot training, She was an Instructor Pilot flying the T-37 jet trainer and an Aircraft Commander flying the KC-10 air refueling tanker. She served in several leadership positions including Flight Commander, Chief of Pilot Upgrade, Chief of Flight Safety, and Squadron Commander. She retired as a Colonel from the Air Force Reserve after 25 years of service.

Julie is a Captain at a major airline and currently flies the Airbus 320. She has flown the Boeing 737, 757, 767, and the DC-10. She was an Instructor Pilot and Line Check Airman on the Boeing 737.  She also flies her own aircraft, a T-67 Firefly, a military trainer. When not flying, reading about flying, talking about flying, or attending air shows, she can be found renovating houses, playing a baritone horn in the local LGBT band, and traveling like a normal person. She is the first woman military pilot to be writing lesbian fiction. She lives in Arizona and “The Road to Wings” is her first novel. Contact her at: JulieATizard@gmail.com. Website: www.JulieTizard.com.

Rebekah Weatherspoon

A002_C005_0514C7.0001771F2017 RWP Keynote – November 4, 2017

Award-winning author Rebekah Weatherspoon was raised in Southern New Hampshire and now lives in Southern California where she finally found her love for writing romance.
 Most recently her queer paranormal romance, SOUL TO KEEP, Book 3 in the Vampire Sorority Sisters Series won the Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBTQ Erotica. Come on by and get to know Rebekah on twitter at @rdotspoon and you can find more stories by Rebekah at rebekahweatherspoon.com.

Sheri Lewis Wohl

SheriLewisWohl_150Sheri Lewis Wohl grew up in northeast Washington State and though she always thought she’d move away, never has. Despite traveling throughout the United States, Sheri always finds her way back home. And so she lives, plays, and writes amidst mountains, evergreens, and abundant wildlife.

When not working the day job in federal finance, she writes stories that typically include a bit of the strange and unusual and always a touch of romance (including the Reluctant Psychic series).

Sheri and her K9 partner, Zoey, are a nationally certified K9 Search & Rescue team. She also likes to participate in local triathlons and puts her acting chops to use every chance she gets. You can catch her in televisions shows such as Z Nation and Grimm.