Keynote Presenter
Christine Gunderson
Amazon Bestselling Author
Christine Gunderson grew up on a fourth-generation family farm in rural North Dakota where she read Laura Ingalls Wilder books in her very own little house on the prairie.
She’s a former television anchor and reporter and former Capitol Hill press secretary. She currently lives in the Washington D.C. suburbs with her three children, Star the Wonder Dog, and a very patient husband.
When not writing, she’s sailing the Chesapeake Bay with her family, playing Star Wars monopoly, re-reading Jane Austen novels in the school pick up line or unloading the dishwasher.
Her debut novel, Friends with Secrets was selected as an Amazon First Reads pick. Readers call it “a timeless, beautiful, relevant, laugh-out-loud, funny homage to motherhood.”
Additional Workshop Presenters
Samantha Ann – Born, raised, and still living in New Jersey, Samantha Ann started writing in the fifth grade out of boredom. At first, it was your run-of-the-mill journal entries but soon became stories of things she wished she had said or done, and soon simply stories about other characters and creatures. Samantha thanks her mother forever for the creative writing gene as her mother is a New York Times Best-Selling author. Samantha is half Cuban (mother) and half Italian (father) but speaks more Korean than either of the languages her parents desperately tried to teach her growing up. Samantha created the Korean from Context website and the Seoul Searching novel that were featured on the Forbes magazine blog as being a fun new way to learn Korean. Samantha has amassed over 20k TikTok followers in just over a year using fun creative ways to promote herself and her books Seoul Searching, Matching Set, and Her Ult. When not writing, editing, photographing, creating TikToks, Instagram posts, and Tweets, Samantha is an EDI Specialist for a kids’ clothing company. You can find Samantha at www.koreanfromcontext.com.
Jo Ann Brown – Jo Ann Brown is the best-selling author of Amish romances for Love Inspired and Annie’s because she loves stories with happy ever after endings. A former military officer, she has taught creative writing, including at Brown University.
M. Flagg – Mickey Flagg writes paranormal tales of passion with a twist of fate. Her mystical warriors, witches, and not-so-normal creatures of the night speak to the heart. Visit https://www.mflagg-author.com for more about M. Flagg’s novels.
Rona Gofstein – Rona Gofstein is a published author, developmental editor, and an Author Accelerator certified fiction book coach who loves working with writers who need knowledge, compassion and courage to make their book writing dreams a reality.
Jeannie Moon – Award-winning, USA Today bestselling author Jeannie Moon has always loved stories. The author of nineteen contemporary romances, Jeannie is married to her high school sweetheart, has three grown kids and two grandchildren, and has lived on Long Island, NY, her whole life. A retired teacher and librarian, Jeannie is also an editor and author coach with a growing freelance practice. If she’s more than ten miles away from salt water for any longer than a week, she gets twitchy.
Barbara Newhart grew up in New Jersey, then headed to Massachusetts for college and law school before settling in Connecticut. After 25 years as a divorce lawyer, she now writes mysteries that lead her characters to romance as they maneuver that crazy roller coaster called life. Barbara’s 2024 release, Love & the Divorce Lawyer, is published by The Wild Rose Press. Visit her website, Barbaranewhart.com to learn more.
Caridad Pineiro – Caridad Pineiro is a transplanted Long Island girl who has fallen in love with the Jersey Shore. When Caridad isn’t taking long strolls along the boardwalk, she’s also a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author with over a million romance novels sold worldwide. Caridad is passionate about writing and helping others explore and develop their skills as writers. She is a founding member of the Liberty States Fiction Writers and has presented workshops at the RT Book Club Convention, Romance Writers of America National Conference as well as various writing organizations throughout the country. You can connect with Caridad at www.caridad.com.
Blue Saffire – Award-winning, bestselling author of over 70 contemporary and PNR romance titles since 2015, Blue Saffire is an NLP Master Practitioner and holds a Marketing & Project Management MBA, as well as an Instructional Technology & Curriculum Design MED.
Paula Chaffee Scardamalia – Paula Chaffee Scardamalia is a book coach, dream and tarot intuitive and the author of Enchanting Creativity: How Fairy Tales, Dreams, Rituals & Journaling Can Awaken Your Creative Self. She also wrote the award-winning Weaving a Woman’s Life.
Stacey Wilk – From an early age, best-selling and award-winning author Stacey Wilk told tales as a way to escape. At six she wrote short stories in composition notebooks, at twelve she wrote a novel on a typewriter, in high school biology she wrote rock star romances in her binder instead of paying attention. But it wasn’t until many years later, inspired by her children and a looming birthday, that she finally took her storytelling seriously. And published her first novel in 2013. Since then, she’s gone on to publish over twenty books so women everywhere could fall in love and find an escape of their own. She isn’t done telling stories. Not by a long shot. If you want to read her emotional and honest books about family, romance, and second chances, visit her at www.staceywilk.com.