ROBIN CLAIRE BARNES
WRITER/PRODUCER
Robin hails from the San Francisco Bay Area and is a graduate of Berkeley High School. Growing up she was involved with the renowned American Conservatory Theatre and performed in several mainstage productions as a child and young adult. After graduating from Northwestern University, Robin settled in Los Angeles and landed a development executive position at Walt Disney Studios. While at Disney, Robin incorporated her personal experience as a young actress and became instrumental in shifting the way young performers were viewed and worked towards building a diverse palate both in front of and behind the camera.
WILLIAM JONES
FOUNDER OF
AFROFUTURISM NETWORK
William Jones, the founder of Afrofuturism Network, is a historian, “comic book geek”, writer, and educator. He is a sought-after public speaker on the subjects of the history of black people in America, the image of black people in various forms of media, pop culture and hip-hop music, to name just a few. He has spoken on various college campuses and at conferences both nationally and abroad.
JOSEPH THOMPSON
COFOUNDER OF
FRACTURE COMICS
Joseph Thompson and Christopher L. Adams are the founders of Fracture Comics; a bay area based independent comic book company dedicated to bridging the gap between American comics and Japanese manga. The two met in film school and have been self publishing ever since. Their titles include Hellfire, Death of Darkness, ARK: Academy of Research and Kinesis, and Second Summon. Outside of writing comics, Chris can be found working on local film sets, while Joe can be found behind the register of Comix Experience Outpost.
SOMA MEI SHENG FRAZIER
AUTHOR
Soma Mei Sheng Frazier is an East Coast Native living in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she presently serves as a 2017 San Francisco Library Laureate and final judge of the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. Frazier is Chair of English and the Humanities at Cogswell College, where she founded www.cogzine.com.
Her award-winning fiction chapbooks, Salve (Nomadic Press) and Collateral Damage: A Triptych (RopeWalk Press), have earned praise from Nikki Giovanni, Daniel Handler (a/k/a Lemony Snicket), Antonya Nelson, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Molly Giles, Michelle Tea and others. Frazier’s writing has placed in literary competitions offered by HBO, Zoetrope: All-Story, the Mississippi Review and more. You can find her work online at Eclectica Magazine, Carve Magazine, Eleven Eleven and Kore Press.
Ri-Karlo Handy is an Oakland native. At age fourteen, Ri-Karlo began working in the entertainment industry, with some of the Bay Area's most popular artists such as E-40, En Vogue, and Too Short. Starting off as a Production Assistant, at age eighteen Ri-Karlo started directing music videos for Master P, Bone-Thugs, Harmony, Mack 10, and more. He has also directed commercials, films, and a collection of Documentary Projects including the underground hit "Unsigned" which he shot, produced and edited.
In 2003 Ri-Karlo shifted to television, editing shows on FOX and Pros Vs. Joe's for SPIKE TV. He then began show running unscripted programming for BET, MTV, TLC, and OWN. He was Executive Producer for Keyshia Cole's "The Way it is" for BET and for Nick Cannon's "Son of A Gun" for MTV.
By 2011 Ri-Karlo was VP of unscripted development at New Wave Entertainment creating "Buying for Billionaires" for E!. In 2013 Ri-Karlo Handy merged his experience as VP of Original Programming at BOUNCE TV overseeing the networks music specials, stand-up specials, sitcoms, and unscripted programming including their hit sitcoms "Family Time" and "Mann and Wife".
DARREN COLSTON
THE NORTH POLE SHOW
Darren Colston is an Oakland based writer and producer. He has worked in various capacities in the film industry on projects such as Universal Studios’ Steve Jobs, Finn Taylor’s Unleashed, ABC’s When We Rise and Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle In Time.
He has produced a number of short films including a recent production written and directed by Aloe Blacc called Vigil. Darren is one of the co-creators and co-producers for the web series The North Pole and is working on developing a graphic novel and a few feature length film projects as both a writer and producer for his production company Black Square.
Mick Mancuso has been in the game industry for nearly 30 years. He’s worked as a programmer, designer, level designer and producer for companies such as Strategic Simulations, Spectrum HoloByte, Microprose, Maxis and Electronic Arts. He has worked or produced games in nearly every genre, including RPGs, RTSs, First-Person Shooters and Flight Simulators.
Games include Falcon 3.0, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath and The Rise of the Witch King. He was the Senior Producer and Senior Designer of MechWarrior 3. In addition, he has done extensive work in Serious Games, including games for the US Infantry, the Singapore Armed Forces and the FDIC.
Mick has taught at The Guildhall at SMU and is currently the Program Chair for Game Development at
SAE Expression College.
JAIMEL HEMPHILL
COMIC WRITER/ILLUSTRATOR
“Welcome to the X-Men, we hope you survive the experience!”
With those ten words, a seven year old Jaimel Hemphill began a life long obsession with the medium of comic books. Whether surfing with the alien or living the latest adventures of a little grey aardvark, Jaimel’s love of comics and reading only grew with him.
Educated at The Academy of Art in San Francisco, Jaimel has applied his unique style to the classic hero archetypes. Shadow, BlackJacks and Son-Lar have been with him since the age of 13, forming the lynchpins of his comic universe. Populated by diverse heroes and villains like Cyberwings, Kidogi, and The Round, Jaimel hopes that his heroes represent the best in all of us.
Jaimel currently resides in San Francisco with his wife Emily, and daughter, Ilori. He plans to keep creating until they nail shut his coffin, and we hope you’ll be along for the ride! (For the writing, not the coffin.)
ZAHRAH FARMER
HOST OF 'DAYS WITH ZAHRAH'
Zahrah Farmer-Castillo is the executive producer and host of Days With Zahrah, a traveling lifestyle show which has aired on KRON4 and PBS stations nationwide. At BET Zahrah was a producer for Teen Summit, where her work included producing a special feature on The "N Word." Zahrah has worked as an assistant writer and director at CNN
On Days With Zahrah, an empowerment show for women and young adults, Zahrah has worked with a variety of celebrities like Daryl Hannah and S.F. Mayor Gavin Newsom to Dr. Maya Angelou, Magic Johnson, Marlo Thomas and Mos Def. Zahrah teaches Film & Television at Laney College, as well as guest teaching at UCLA. Zahrah has taught all aspects of production to students. In addition, she has taught production to inner city kids at the American Film Institute in Hollywood.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Zahrah Farmer holds a Master's Degree in Producing for Television and Film from The American Film Institute. She has a BA from UC Davis in International Relations and Spanish.
NATHAN VARGAS
AUTHOR
Nathan has been orbiting the comics industry ever since Junior High, as the founder of Blitz Comics and The MTheory Creative Foundation.
Both groups are obsessively focused on inventing creative exercises that help people rediscover their creative mojo. It's a serious mission with a little sprinkle of self-help advice thrown in. Nathan himself relies on the systems he's developed to help break through his own creative barriers.
Nathan is the co-author of the popular online book titled "The 24 Hour Comic Day Survival Guide", which was introduced at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con. The book has been downloaded 10,000+ times since.
Nathan's latest fascination is the development of the "Unified Story Theory", an instruction manual for easily writing interesting and multi-faceted story scenes. It takes a "quantum view" of the process and breaks things down to their most fundamental "story particles", uncovering the basic forces that make up all fiction.
JAYMEE GOH
WRITER
Jaymee Goh writes fiction, poetry, and academese. Currently a PhD Candidate at the University of California, Riverside, she has published reviews, short fiction, and poetry in Science Fiction Studies, Strange Horizons and Stone Telling. She co-edited The Sea is Ours: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia (Rosarium Publishing).
ROBERT STEWART
WRITER, ARTIST, CREATOR
Robert Stewart is the writer, artist, and publisher of the graphic novel series Afterburner: Tales of The Cool and The Wicked. As a Blues Man and a modern day renaissance man, his stories infuse elements of film noir, science fiction, and mythology.
Robert is trained in the traditional art of navigating by the stars. His journeys have taken him to a variety of amazing locations including Singapore, Japan, and Africa. Robert has studied illustration and art history at San Francisco’s Academy of Art. His interests include archery and playing guitar.
GREG BRIDGES
RADIO DJ/JOURNALIST
Greg Bridges is a radio dj and journalist living in “Soulsville” Oakland, Ca. Greg can be heard at Jazz station KCSM 91.1fm (www.kcsm.org) and at progressive music, news and culture station KPFA 94.1fm (www.kpfa.org) Monday nights 8 to 10pm and also as a contributor to KPFA’s Hip Hop social affairs and music show HardKnock Radio. Greg can also be heard around the country broadcasting on WFMT’s Jazz network.
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Greg (G1 Rhythm) has written for various publications including Jazz Now Magazine and Bayshore Magazine, and remains a constant presence producing and promoting events on the Bay Area music and arts scene.
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Reach Greg at G1rhythm@att.net and/or G1rhythm@aol.com
JON DUMAN, ESQUIRE
ENTERTAINMENT LAYWER
Jon L. Duman’s San Francisco Bay Area-based entertainment law practice emphasizes arts/media-related intellectual property matters. Jon Duman’s client list includes a diverse array of musicians, performers, graphic artists, designers and media producers. In over 25 years of practice within the entertainment industries, Jon Duman has negotiated favorable deals for his clients with such ubiquitous media brands as Warner Entertainment Inc, Sony Entertainment, Fox Sports International, Apple, Inc., Activision, Mattel Toy Corp., and Google Inc., among numerous others. In addition to regularly participating in workshops and panel discussions covering a wide range of entertainment industry topics. Jon Duman also teaches “Legal and Business Foundations of the Music Industry" and “Introduction to the Entertainment Business” at SAE-Expression College, in Emeryville, California.
LINDA MCDONALD
LIBRARIAN SPECIALIST
Linda McDonald is a Librarian Specialist residing in the San Francisco Bay Area and a former radio personality for the nationally syndicated “In The Know” broadcast on the RMG Radio Network. Born in Oakland, California and bred in Berkeley, California, Linda McDonald is the eighth child of a big brood of ten born to two still united loving parents.
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Her passion for writing was ignited from observing the conflicts, foibles and fun at family gatherings and years of Pentecostal church attendance, which provided generous material for the writing of her first fiction novel, The Perfect Deception. Her hobbies are hiking, skiing and reading books by J California
DAWAYNE JORDAN
ACTOR
Actor/Emcee/Producer/Kanye West Model/Boxing Promoter. He is in the running to play live action Super Hero Static Shock. Until then he has and will be appearing in films and television such as HBO Ballers, Winchester Mystery House, Fruitvale Station, Boiling Pot and many more. Dawayne is from Oakland and has been into comics since the late 80s with X-Men being his favorite to watch especially the videos game on Sega Genesis. Dawayne Jordan is known for his work on Winchester (2018), All Eyez on Me (2017) and Sirens: The Interactive Film (2017).
AJUAN MANCE
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH
MILLS COLLEGE
Ajuan Mance is a Professor of English at Mills College in Oakland, California. She holds degrees from Brown University (BA) and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (MA and PhD). In both her scholarly writing and her comics and zines, Ajuan explores issues of race, gender, and the literatures, lives, and locations, in which they intersect.
She is the author of two scholarly books, Inventing Black Women: African American Women’s Poetry and Self-Representation, 1877-2000 and Before Harlem: An Anthology of African American Literature from the Long Nineteenth Century. Her zines range from A Blues for Black Santa, a comic account of the “real” Santa Claus, to 1001 Black Men, a series of zines that collect images from Ajuan’s 1001 Black Men online sketchbook. Gender Studies is an autobiographical comic book series that uses humor to explore her experiences as a Black nerd navigating the complexities of gender.
THADDEUS HOWZE
WRITER/EDITOR
Thaddeus Howze is a prolific writer of speculative fiction, scientific, technical and cultural commentary from his office in Hayward, California. He has appeared on a variety of podcasts and convention panels as a comic historian and inspirational writing coach promoting Afrofuturism and speculative fiction writing.
Thaddeus works as a writer and editor for the *Good Men Project*, a social men's magazine as well as for *Krypton Radio*, a sci-fi enthusiast media station and website. He is also a freelance journalist for *Polygon.com* and *Panel & Frame* magazine.
Thaddeus is the co-founder of Futura Science Fiction Magazine and one of the founding members of the *Afrosurreal Writers Workshop* in Oakland.
You can read more about his work at: http://thowze.carrd.co.
DESCIPLE
FILMMAKER
Oakland native, DESCIPLE, is a Filmmaker, Costume Designer, Prop Maker, Sound Designer, Event Coordinator, Musician, Digital Assassin, and Visual Creator based in the East Bay. Known for his work at numerous conventions and local theaters, DESCIPLE presents COSPLAY FILMMAKING: 101, a 1 hour presentation expanding the cosplay community through indie movie making. (Co-sponsored by Cos & FX)
YULE CAISE
WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
Yule Caise is an award winning Writer, Director and Producer of Film, Television and New Media. Recently he was a Writer-Producer on BET’s “Tales,” a scripted Hip Hop anthology series. Caise is a winner of the WGA West 2014 TV Writers Access Project, and was the winner of the 2013 Fox Writers Intensive, earning him a development deal at FX Networks, in conjunction with Fox Broadcasting Co and 20th Century Fox Television.
Previously, his work and contributions to the NBC hit television show HEROES won an Emmy Award for Interactive Media Programming for The Heroes Digital
Experience. Caise also wrote and directed the show’s first live action web series, Heroes: Going Postal. As writer and director, his award-winning short films Shoes and Boys’ Night Out have played festivals worldwide. Other writing credits include Showtime’s Free Of Eden starring Sidney Poitier and the award-winning film Way Past Cool, Executive Produced by Milos Forman and Norman Lear.
Born and raised in Berkeley, California, Caise graduated from Harvard College and earned his MFA from UCLA’s School of Theater Film and Television.
TYRONE SCHIESZLER
COFOUNDER OF KINSHAPES
Tyrone Franz Schieszler is the co-founder of Kinshapes. He started creating games with his older brother when he first received a Commodore 64 in the early 90's. An avid traveler and being part Jamaican part Austrian he values cultural authenticity and strives to see it reflected in the areas of video-game art creation. Tyrone has experience in all facets of the video-game industry from AAA video-gmaes at 2K games to mobile and VR startups such as STRIVR. His knowledge ranges from 3D environment and 3D character art to Art Direction and production.
He has had his hands in studios such as Red-Accent Studios, the re-branding of Colopl US. to Subdream studios and is now working for STRIVR while teaching at Berkeley City College and building his very own studio as co-founder of KINSHAPES a startup for the local East-bay undeserved tech community.
DONOVAN VIM CRONY
WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
Donovan Vim Crony is a film/TV Producer and visual artist living and working in Los Angeles. His work focuses on fusing themes of rock & roll and speculative fiction (sci-fi, horror, fantasy) in contemporary and dystopian societies. His visual art style is highly influenced by comic book and anime culture as seen through the lens of the African diaspora.
For more information on Donovan Vim Crony, visit www.vimcrony.com. IG: @VimCrony
LESLIE LIGHT
WRITER/EDITOR
Leslie is a writer, editor, mother, and pound cake enthusiast. She stands up for Black Speculative Fiction at BlackNerdProblems.com, where she’s a writer and editor. Her short fiction been published in Finding Home: Community in Apocalyptic Worlds and she’s completed her first novel — The Queen of Hungera Cyberpunk revenge story of a woman and her Gods. While she’s been a speculative fiction fan all her life and has watched every episode of Star Trek, she’s just discovered indie comic books and is hooked.
LAUREN WHEELER
WRITER
Lauren Wheeler writes poetry, really short fiction, and pop-culture editorials. A recovering slam poet, she twice competed at the National Poetry Slam and has featured at Cornell University, where she studied English Literature, as well as in Los Angeles, Miami, and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Lauren's work has appeared in Other Magazine, 365tomorrows, Lodestar Quarterly, Monkeybicycle, PANK Magazine, and The Nervous Breakdown, and she’s a staff writer at the pop-culture website Black Nerd Problems. Lauren works as a producer at a robotics and AI company in San Francisco and lives in West Oakland with her toddler son.
Speakers
TY SCOTT
WRITER/PRODUCER
Ty Scott is a television writer, creator, showrunner and the executive producer on Saints and Sinners, the breakthrough primetime series on Bounce TV. Scott began her career in entertainment as a Studio Page (Family Matters, The Jamie Foxx Show) and continued to 'climb the ladder' as a Production Assistant for NBC. She did research for Lifetime Television and as Production Secretary on independent productions.
After 15 years in production, Scott left to pursue her love of writing and joined the Writers Guild of America Trainee program. This landed her on the team of Star Trek Enterprise at Paramount. Subsequently, Scott took a job as a writer's assistant at CBS. Scott then became a produced writer on an industry franchise, the CBS hit CSI (CSI: Miami). Scott continued to write and develop pilots for CBS when Bounce TV came calling.
Scott created Bounce TV's very first drama, 'Saints and Sinners'. The show has broken records as the most viewed show in the network's history! Bounce TV has ordered a third season of this successful series.
Joe founded the Center for Digital Storytelling (now StoryCenter) in 1994. He and his colleagues developed a computer training and arts program known as The Digital Storytelling Workshop. Joe’s and his staff have traveled the world to spread the practice of digital storytelling, to all 50 US States and some 48 countries.
JOE LAMBERT
FOUNDER OF STORYCENTER
Joseph Thompson and Christopher L. Adams are the founders of Fracture Comics; a Bay Area based independent comic book company dedicated to bridging the gap between American comics and Japanese manga. The two met in film school and have been self -publishing works ever since. Their titles include Hellfire, Death of Darkness, ARK: Academy of Research and Kinesis, and Second Summon. Outside of writing comics, Chris can be found working on local film sets, while Joe can be found behind the register of Comix Experience Outpost.
CHRISTOPHER L. ADAMS
COFOUNDER OF
FRACTURE COMICS
RI-KARLO HANDY
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
MICK MANUSCO
GAME DEVELOPMENT CHAIR
SAE EXPRESSION COLLEGE
JULIANA"JEWELS" SMITH
WRITER/EDUCATOR
Juliana “Jewels” Smith is a writer, cultural worker, and educator. She​ is the founder and creator of (H)afrocentric Comics.​
Smith was honored at the African American Library and Museum of Oakland with the first annual Excellence in Comics and Graphic Novels Award​ for her work on (H)afrocentric​
In 2016, she received the Glyph Award for Best Writer on (H)afrocentric Volume 4.
She has given talks about the relationship between using comics to address racial justice, gender equity, political literacy, and humor at the Schomburg Center, New York Comic Con, Studio Museum of Harlem, Baltimore Book Festival and The Cooper Union. Her practice focuses on the links between racial justice, gender equity, and political literacy. For more info, click here.
In the fall of 2017, (H)afrocentric Volumes 1-4 was released on PM Press.
RIPLEY BARNES
SCREENWRITER
Ripley Barnes is an aspiring screenwriter and a graduate of Emerson College. While she was in school, Ripley worked at Under The Stairs Entertainment, where she sat in on project meetings and operated as a liaison for clients and the networks. Right after graduation, Ripley landed a position at MSW management, which allowed her to handle development with writing and directing clients.
Her growing prowess in script development has given her the ability to analyze screenplays and projects for the AFM, Sundance, and Cannes film festivals. Currently, Ripley is at Verve Talent Agency. She has three completed genre screenplays, and her sketch work can be found on Instagram or sold online at Redbubble.com.
BREENA NUNEZ
ARTIST
Breena Nuñez born in SF and raised in the Peninsula of Northern California to a Central American immigrant family while watching cartoons, reading comics, wearing cute hats and not realizing that all of those things would lead her into becoming aspiring artist.
MATT SILADY
SCREENWRITER
Matt Silady taught eighth grade for six years in Champaign, Illinois before moving west to study creative writing at the University of California, Davis. It was there that he discovered comics as a medium for fine art.
In June of 2007, he published his the Eisner nominated graphic novel, The Homeless Channel. Since then, he accepted a faculty position at the California College of the Arts where he helped to expand the undergraduate comics curriculum and founded the MFA in Comics graduate program.
CAMILLE WRIGHT
COSPLAYER/DESIGNER
Cosplayer/Designer Camille Wright is no stranger to the world of Cosplay. For years she has appeared in numerous contests, runway shows and panels. Besides expressing her love for fashion through cosplay and nerdism, she is also a talented clothes designer.
ADRIAN AGE SCOTT
CARTOONIST
Adrian Age Scott is a bay area underground cartoonist who has created the longest running hip-hop comic: Won and Phil, the hip-hop heroes!
TRINIDAD ESCOBAR
POET/EDUCATOR
Trinidad Escobar is a poet, mother, bruha, and educator from the Bay Area, California. Her writing and visual art have been featured in various publications such as Rust & Moth, The Brooklyn Review, The Womanist, Red Wheelbarrow, Solo Cafe, Mythium, Tayo, the anthologies Walang Hiya, Over the Line, Kuwento, and more.
Trinidad has been a guest artist and speaker at the San Jose Museum of Art, Pilipino Komix Expo, LitQuake, and The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. Her forthcoming graphic memoir CRUSHED will be published in 2018. Trinidad teaches Comics & Race at California College of the Arts in Oakland, California.
CHRYSTA BURTON
VISUAL EFFECTS PRODUCER
Chrysta was born and raised in Oakland, California. Entertainment has been a lifelong passion for Chrysta which she began pursuing at just 7 years old; acting and later directing in local community theater. While attending Skyline High School. She then attended the University of Southern California (USC), majoring in Cinema-Television. While at USC she interned first with Spike Lee’s 40 Acres and Mule and continued on to TNT, HBO and Sony Pictures Television Animation, where she took her first full-time position as a Production Assistant. She went on to work in animation at Nickelodeon. In 2005, Chrysta joined the Visual Effects team at Industrial Light and Magic, where she worked on ionic franchises like Mission Impossible, Star Trek, Iron Man as well as the Oscar Nominated and awarded films: Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest. While working at ILM Chrysta helped create and build a Visual Effects Department at their first International offices in Singapore. She began working at JJ Abram’s Bad Robot in 2015, and currently is a freelance Visual Effects Producer. Her most recent films are The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 & 2, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Trek Beyond.
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Chrysta's most prized possession is her golden key and lifetime pass to Oakland's Fairyland, which she earned after her years of work as a child star on the fairytale stage
KAY SHA
COSPLAYIAN ROYALTY
Kenneth Daniels and Shaunte Neely have been front row and center for nerdism, Fanime for many years and not only have they built a Cosplay Empire (Cosplayian Royalty), they are a power couple!
JAZMINE WHITEHURST
COSPLAY/FASHION
Jazmine "Midget Boots" Whitehurst is a Sacramento native but her "Punk Rock" and "New X-Men" Storm made noise all over the Bay Area not only that her fashion forward style got her notice but her love for comics, Syfy and diversity of clothes put her on the map
Lawrence Lindell
Comic Book Creator
Lawrence Lindell is the creator and author of "From Black Boy With Love" and "Hey, People of Color". He teaches comic book workshops for all ages and has self published 20 mini and short comics.
JAMES WESTON
STUNT ACTOR
James Weston II was born in New York, & lived in Queens and Brooklyn. He graduated from Aviation High School, in Queens, N.Y.-served in the Navy Reserves in an Aviation Support Unit.
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James does acting, stunts, precision driving in the movie and television industry and is known for his work in "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon", "Matrix Reloaded", "Red Tails", "Contagion", "Star Trek" and more. James is a local resident of Manteca, CA. See more of James Weston’s movie and television projects visit his IMDB page at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1377340 and Twitter: "TheViper001"
@theviper001.
HEIDI MAYER
WRITER
Heidi Mayer enjoys writing stories that make kids laugh and, hopefully, think critically about the world. As a mother of teenagers the stories she tells began when they were birthed to the eager ears of her daughters, who begged for adventures to distract them, when no books were at their disposal.
By day, Heidi teaches children mostly shorter than herself and thrives on knowing she's fostered a few life long readers. She knows that reading is the gateway to a wondrous world of heros and works hard to pass on the joy of writing.
Whimsy and nonsense are her guides on a roadmap that only disappears once her mischief has been managed.
