2018 Faculty (Mystery Writers Conference)

2018 Faculty

	Isabel Allende Author of a number of bestselling and critically acclaimed books, including The House of the Spirits, Eva Luna, Of Love and Shadows, The Japanese Lover, and the thriller, Ripper. Her latest novel is In the Midst of Winter.
	John Bateson Former executive director of a nationally certified crisis intervention and suicide prevention center in the San Francisco Bay Area for sixteen years. He is the author of The Education of a Coroner and three previous books—The Last and Greatest Battle, The Final Leap, and Building Hope.
	Cara Black Conference Co-Chair Bestselling author, who writes the Aimée Leduc mysteries set in Paris. "If the cobblestones could speak they might tell a tale as haunting as the one Black spins," notes the New York Times. Her newest book is Murder on the Left Bank. She is a member of the Marais Societe Historique, received the Medaille de la Ville de Paris, bestowed on those supporting French culture. Black is a San Francisco Library Laureate, and her books have been Washington Post Notable Picks, IndieNext Picks and shortlisted for the Northern California Independent Bookseller Best Novel award. Mystery Confrence Alum.
	Tony Broadbent Writer and award-winning author of mystery novels and short stories, including The One After 9:09: A Mystery with a Backbeat. His newest title -- a work of non-fiction -- is The Beatles in Liverpool, Hamburg, London: People \| Venues \| Events \| That Shaped Their Music.
	Kimberley Cameron Literary agent and President of Kimberley Cameron and Associates. She has been successful with many different genres, and especially loves the thrill of securing representation for debut authors. Cameron represents both fiction and nonfiction manuscripts
	Karen Catalona As a Deputy District Attorney for the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, Karen Catalona prosecutes sex crimes and domestic violence. Her past assignments included the gang unit, felony trial team and prosecuting elder abuse. She teaches at the Police Academy and recently wrote short plays as a 2017-2018 member of the PlayGround Writers Company. She is currently revising her first novel.
	Joe Clifford Acquisitions editor for Gutter Books, managing editor of The Flash Fiction Offensive, and producer of Lip Service West, a "gritty, real, raw" reading series in Oakland, CA. He is the author of the books December Boys, Junkie Love, Wake the Undertaker, and Lamentation.
	Amy Cloughley Came to Kimberley Cameron & Associates in 2012 with a background in editing, writing, and marketing. She seeks authors with unique, clear voices who put forth smart, tightly-written prose.
	David Corbett Conference Co-Chair A skilled private investigator, having worked 15 years for the famed private investigation firm of Palladino & Sutherland, Corbett is also an award-winning writer of crime fiction and a superb teacher. His novels include Do They Know I’m Running?, Blood of Paradise, Done for a Dime (A New York Times Notable Book), The Devil’s Redhead, The Mercy of the Night, and his latest, The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday. His writing text, The Art of Character, has been called "a writer's bible."
	George Fong Spent twenty-seven years as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, investigating all facets of violent crimes, including kidnapping, extortion, serial killings, crimes against children, bank robbery, drug trafficking, fugitives, and Asian gangs. He was a member of the FBI's Evidence Response Team and a certified undercover agent. Fong is now the Director of Security for the world-wide sports television network, ESPN, and author of the new thriller, Fragmented.
	Danny Gardner From his beginnings as a young stand-up comedian (Def Comedy Jam All-Stars, Vol. 12), Gardner has enjoyed careers as an actor, director, and screenwriter. He is a recent Pushcart Prize nominee for his creative non-fiction piece, Forever. In an Instant., published by Literary Orphans Journal. His first short fiction piece, “Labor Day”, appeared in Beat to a Pulp, and his flash fiction has been featured in Out of the Gutter and on Noir On The Air. He is a frequent reader at Noir at the Bar events nationwide. He blogs regularly at 7 Criminal Minds. He is a proud member of the Mystery Writers of America and the International Thriller Writers. Danny lives in Los Angeles by way of Chicago. A Negro and an Ofay is his first novel.
	William C. Gordon Author of several mysteries set in San Francisco, including Unfinished, The Chinese Jars, Fractured Lives, and The Halls of Power.
	Rachel Howzell Hall Writes the acclaimed Lou Norton series, including Land of Shadows, Skies of Ash, Trail of Echoes, and City of Saviors, and is also the co-author of The Good Sister with James Patterson, which was included in the New York Times bestseller The Family Lawyer. She is on the board of directors for Mystery Writers of America, and lives in Los Angeles.
	Ken Holmes For more than 35 years, Holmes has faithfully served the residents of Marin County as an investigator, administrator and elected public servant. He has been elected Coroner for Marin three times and received national acclaim from Victim's Rights Groups for his leadership and public advocacy. Some of the cases that Holmes handled in his career cast him in the national spotlight because of who they involved—rock legend Jerry Garcia , rapper Tupac Shakur, porn kings Jim and Artie Mitchell, and the infamous Trailside Killer. He is profiled in fellow conference faculty member John Bateson's new book, The Education of a Coroner.
	Elizabeth Kracht Joined Kimberley Cameron & Associates in the fall of 2010. She represents both literary and commercial fiction as well as nonfiction, and brings to the agency experience as a former acquisitions editor, freelance publicist and writer.
	James L’Etoile With nearly 30 years of experience in the criminal justice system, James L’Etoile called prison home. His assignments included associate warden in a maximum security prison, director of adult parole, hostage negotiator, investigator and national consultant on prison programs. L’Etoile’s screenplays have been recognized by the Creative World Awards, Acclaim Film Awards and the Scriptapalooza television script competition.
	Tim Maleeny Author of the acclaimed Cape Weathers series, including Stealing The Dragon, Beating The Babushka, Greasing The Piñata, and Jump. Maleeny's short fiction has won the prestigious Macavity Award and appears in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen, Crimespree Magazine, and the anthologies Death Do Us Part, Uncage Me, and Thriller 2. His next mystery is called Boxing The Octopus and is due to appear in bookstores in 2018.
	Dr. Judy Melinek Graduate of Harvard University. She trained at UCLA in medicine and pathology, graduating in 1996. Her training at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in New York is the subject of her memoir, Working Stiff, which she co-wrote with her husband. Currently, Dr. Melinek is CEO of PathologyExpert Inc., and works as a forensic pathologist in Oakland. She also travels nationally and internationally to lecture on anatomic and forensic pathology and she has been consulted as a forensic expert in many high-profile legal cases, as well as for the television shows E.R. and Mythbusters.
	T.J. Mitchell Graduated with an English degree from Harvard and worked in the film industry before becoming a full-time stay-at-home dad and screenplay consultant in 2000. He co-authored the New York Times bestseller Working Stiff with his wife, Dr. Judy Melinek, in 2014. He and Judy are currently collaborating on First Cut, the debut novel in a medical examiner detective-fiction series, while raising their three children in San Francisco.
	Vilaska Nguyen Felony trial attorney at San Francisco Public Defender's Office. For over a decade, he has tried cases ranging from drug sales to homicide. He guest lectures at USF School of Law and facilitates the mock-trial workshop at 826 Valencia, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting under-resourced youth in San Francisco. His short stories have been published in NANO Fiction, Blue Fifth Review: Blue Five Notebook Series, Squawk Back and As It Ought to Be. His story "Wardship" was nominated for Best Small Fiction of 2016 in the Queen's Ferry Press.
	Bill Petrocelli Attorney, author, and co-owner of Book Passage. He is the author of the literary thrillers The Circle of Thirteen and the new Through the Bookstore Window. Foreword Review calls it “an unusual, rewarding take on the nature of memory: how it haunts and heals.”
	Amy Rennert Specializes in books that matter, providing career management for established and first time authors. She represents more than a dozen New York Times bestselling authors in many genres. Her authors range in age from 21 to 103 and include Jimmy Buffett, Diana Nyad, Rick Hanson, Tom Lichtenheld, Adam Phillips, Jacqueline Winspear, Simon Wood, Herman Wouk and the late Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Prior to agenting, Amy was an award winning magazine writer and editor.
	Jeffrey Rinek Served 30 years as a Special Agent with the FBI primarily investigating cases of missing and murdered children and is internationally renowned for obtaining a surprise confession from serial killer Cary Stayner to the brutal slayings of four women and girls known as the Yosemite Park Murders. Co-author of In the Name of the Children.
	Susan C. Shea Author of Dressed for Death in Burgundy as well as Love & Death in Burgundy and the Dani O’Rourke mystery series. She is past-president of the northern California chapter of Sisters in Crime and secretary of the national SinC board, a member of MWA, and blogs on CriminalMinds.
	Kelli Stanley Critically-acclaimed, multiple award-winning author of crime fiction (novels and short stories). She is best known for the Miranda Corbie series of historical noir novels and short stories set in 1940 San Francisco. Her latest book is City of Sharks.
	Marilee Strong Award-winning journalist who specializes in reporting on crime and psychological and social issues. She is the author of two previous books: A Bright Red Scream, on the aftereffects of childhood abuse and trauma, and Erased, which presented an original criminal and psychological profile of a particular kind of intimate-partner homicide. Co-author of In the Name of the Children.
	Robin C. Stuart Veteran cyber crime investigator and contributing author to the Sisters in Crime NorCal anthology Fault Lines, due out later this year, and Handbook for Information Security. She consults on all things cyber security for Fortune 100 companies, television shows, and media outlets, including BBC and NowThis News. She was a significant contributor to the Tech Museum of Innovation's acclaimed Cyber Detectives interactive installation, one of the museum's most popular permanent exhibits, which earned praise from the Obama Administration.
	Jacqueline Winspear Author of the New York Times bestsellers A Lesson in Secrets, The Mapping of Love and Death, Among the Mad, An Incomplete Revenge, Leaving Everything Most Loved, Journey to Munich, In This Grave Hour and her latest in the Maisie Dobbs series, To Die But Once. Winspear has won numerous awards for her work, including the Agatha, Alex, and Macavity awards for Maisie Dobbs, which was also nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel and was a New York Times Notable Book.

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2018 Faculty (Mystery Writers Conference)