Kristy Huddle
Kristy Huddle is the Director of Acquisitions and Author Relations for Comfort Publishing. Known for her exquisite taste and professional yet warm demeanor, Mrs. Huddle works directly with the authors as they go through the publishing process, from submission to print. She is credited with being an integral part of the selection process of several of Comfort Publishing’s award-winning and bestselling titles, including Take Back Your Life (Wendy Ida), He Heard Hannah (Lynnette Kraft) and the recently released Burdens to Blessings (Kim Crabill), Infinitely More (Kim Crabill). She is a wife and mom to two boys who is actively involved in her church and the homeschooling community.
Craig Faris
Craig Faris is an award-winning author
of fiction and plays, including four Best of Issue awards in the South Carolina
Writers Workshop anthology. He has been published seventeen times.
Craig served on the Board of Directors
of the South Carolina Writers Workshop, and served as co-chair for the annual
SCWW Writers Conferences. He also served as Vice-President of the Southeast
chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. He has worked professionally as an adjunct
professor of creative writing at Winthrop University and teaches digital design
at York Technical College.
His writing career began when he
completed his first novel trilogy, a 226,800-word sc-fi thriller. His second
novel, a thriller, entitled, The Spectrum
Conspiracy, was published by Bella
Rosa Books in Jan uary 2013. Last
year, the novel received over 54 five-star combined reviews on Amazon.com,
Barnes&Noble.com, Books-A-Millon.com and GoodReads.com
Barbara Lawing
Barbara Kidd Lawing is a writer, writing instructor and
freelance editor from Huntersville, NC. She has worked with hundreds of adult
writers at community colleges, community centers, and private sessions—since
1989. She leads weekend writing retreats. Her 117 Poems offers selections of
her poetry from 1981 to 2005—or age 36 to 50: a woman’s journey. She is
editor of four compilations of work by her students, and organizes and coaches
groups that perform their written work. Earlier this year she opened her
property, north of Charlotte, as a Writers Day Camp.
Catherine Sullivan
Catherine is
a certified teacher in Language Arts and Writing. She worked in middle and high schools for
many years, and also ran workshops for the Writing Center of Gaston College, as
well as advising students there how to write better for success.
Catherine is
also a published writer, concentrating mainly on religious education curriculum,
materials and websites. She maintains a
website and is a speaker for the Antiochian Orthodox Church, for whom she also
writes magazine articles, reviews and interviews. She is an editor, having completed the
editing of several published books, and is in the process of writing a text
book for middle school religious education.
Currently
she lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is the moderator for the University
area’s Write to Publish Meet Up
group. 
Emily Gehman
Emily Gehman is a freelance writer from Lapeer, Michigan. She holds a B.S. in Counseling from Baptist Bible College, PA, and is currently pursuing an M.A. in English from the University of Michigan-Flint. Her work has been published in a variety of magazines across the country and she has experience in ghostwriting and journalism. Emily blogs atwww.emilygehman.com
Tim Small - 2014 Master Motivator
Tim
Small is a combat veteran and powerful speaker who is passionate about having a
positive impact on others' lives. He
understands the importance of investing into people’s dreams. He spent 12 years as a Marine, where he
developed a great work ethic. He also
worked as a police detective for 11 years, which taught him the importance of
working with the community, and spent 6 years as an Army Drill Sergeant, where
he mastered the skill of motivating.
These collective skills are gifts he shares with young men and women,
through positive mentoring, coaching and motivational speaking. He believes that regardless of who you are,
where you come from, or what your current situation is, we were all created
with the ability to achieve great success.
His quote, "Surround yourself with Champions", is a positive
message he's shared with thousands across America.
Louis Smith
Lisa Heidrich
2014 Conference Public Relations Director
Lisa Bongiorno-Heidrich, RN,CCM,CHP, asserts writing unsurprisingly exists hand-in-hand with speaking. An International speaker, Ministry Director, Global Conversationalist and author of Speaking Confidence, Lisa enjoys helping others find their niche through their unique voice, message, and mission. Contributor for monthly web based articles; www.stonecroft.org along with audio blog at www.LisaHeidrich.com . A real social butterfly you’ll catch daily on Facebook and Twitter @LisaCHeidrich. With twenty years experience teaching, speaking and coaching she offers a compilation of vital information for speaking and writing trepidation. She grew up in Florida, now resides in NC and holds degrees in nursing and vocational education.
La-Tan Murphy
Latan has 18 plus years of platform training and keynoting with many years experience in helping others find their voice by assisting writers and speakers in discovering their best book titles, pinpointing writing goals and objectives, as well as helping others establish a platform that fits particular passions.
Dr. Wendy Peterson
Dr.
Wendy Peterson is the CEO of ICP. Dr. Peterson
holds a Doctorate of Public Policy from Ashley University. In addition to operating a small business
full time, she is also a college professor and the Author of four books and
ghostwriter on over 50 published books.
She
uses her experience in compliance to take businesses and authors to a higher
professional level. In an effort to encourage and support others, the Mission
Minded Maven has taken self-publishing and business coaching to another
level.
Dr. Lynellen Perry
My education is in Math and Computer Science, with a BS, MS,
and PhD. But I’ve been an editor and non-fiction author for more than 20
years. I am the President of Chalfont
House Publishing, a traditional royalty-paying non-fiction house with fiction
imprint called HopeSprings Books. My
passion is helping debut authors on their journey to publication.HopeSprings
Books is looking for story lines that address a hard topic in a central
way. We want to see characters learn,
grow and develop their faith into a relevant and vibrant expression of
Christianity. We want characters who
struggle, who are dealing with tough situations… people just like you. Whether these stories are embedded in the
genre of romance, mystery, science fiction, or whatever, the central theme is
characters who find redemption and hope.
