Featured Speakers

Mary Bartek...	is the author of the middle grade novel Funerals and Fly Fishing, published by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers in 2004, and a teacher and writer from Centennial, CO. Two constants in Mary's life have been a love of writing and a love of learning. Her body of work, including articles, short stories, humor and family essays, has been published in over forty publications including Woman's World and Christian Science Monitor. She also holds several advanced degrees in education. Applying newly acquired knowledge to her work in the public schools has been a passion and a challenge for over twenty years. Visit her website at www.marybartek.com
Hilari Bell...	was born in Denver in 1958--you can do the math. She used to be a part-time reference librarian for a mid-sized public library, but in the beginning of '05 she achieved a writer's dream and quit the day job. Librarian-turned-writer is a very schizophrenic state--when she tries to urge people to buy her books, she has to beat down a lifetime of professional reflexes demanding that she tell them to check her books out at the library instead. Those books include Songs of Power, A Matter of Profit (2002 Best Book for Young Adults), The Goblin Wood (2004 Best Book for Young Adults) and her Farsala Trilogy.
Anna-Maria Crum...	is a freelance writer, illustrator, and graphic designer. Since becoming a freelancer in 1989, she has illustrated over 20 books, written 9 books and has stories in 4 anthologies. She also paints murals and wildlife signs for several park districts. You may have seen her work at Cherry Knolls Park, the Peacock Viewing Blind at Carson Nature Center, or the Isthmus Park at Grant Ranch. She recently retired from teaching illustration and graphic design at Arapahoe Community College. Currently she is part of a virtual office for Pacific Learning where she writes, illustrates, and designs books and marketing materials for Pre K – 6th grade readers. Pacific Learning chose her book Survival Fun as the sample book to represent their new High-Fliers reading series. See her work at www.annamariacrum.com
Debbie Dadey...	is the author and co-author of over one hundred and twenty books for children and adults, including the best-selling Adventures of the Bailey School Kids series. New titles include the Ghostville Elementary series, The Swamp Monster in Third Grade series (#2 Lizards in the Lunchline), as well as The Slime Wars sequel Slime Time, co-authored by her teenage son, Nathan Dadey. Find out more about her at www.debbiedadey.com
Laura Deal...	earned a Ph.D. in history in 1996 and promptly fled academia in order to be a stay-at-home mom and fiction writer. Her stories and novels have received several contest awards from Pikes Peak Writers Conference, Southwest Writers, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and Authorlink. Her short story, "The Silent Meadow," appeared in Cricket Magazine in March 2002 and received the Magazine Merit Honor Award from SCBWI. It also appeared in the anthology First Time Writers published by the Institute of Children's Literature.
Eugene M. Gagliano...	is known as "the teacher who dances on his desk," and is a recently retired elementary teacher. Gene received the 2001 Arch Coal Teacher Achievement Award and the International Reading Association’s 2004 Wyoming State Literacy Award. He is the author of C is for Cowboy, a Wyoming Alphabet, part of a national series of state alphabet books published by Sleeping Bear Press, which is now in its second printing. His two middle grade fiction books include Secret of the Black Widow, an historical fiction mystery, and Falling Stars. Gene is the author of a young adult book titled Inside the Clown. He has a short story in Bruce Coville’s Book of Nightmares and Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul.
Carolyn Gard...	has sold over one hundred and fifty articles for juveniles and teens. For six years she wrote a monthly health article for Current Health 2, a publication for high school students. She’s also published history articles in all of the Cobblestone publications. She has had four books published with Rosen Publishing, initiated by the improbable coincidence of sending in a query for a book on shyness and being asked to write a book on the attacks on the World Trade Centers. When Carolyn isn’t writing she can be found hiking with her two German Shepherds.
Cynthia Morris...	is founder of Original Impulse and helps people bring their creative visions to reality. She has been inspiring writers and artists for over nine years as a writing instructor and certified coach. Cynthia is the author of Create Your Writer’s Life, a book that guides writers to develop a regular and fulfilling writing practice. Cynthia leads workshops and retreats in Colorado and Europe and publishes two free e-newsletters. She has written short stories, poetry, essays, and was a columnist for two Denver neighborhood papers. Cynthia is currently writing a historical novel set in Paris. For more information, check out her website at www.originalimpulse.com
Nancy Oswald...	is a teacher and writer living on a family ranch south of Cotopaxi, Colorado. Her recent book, Nothing Here But Stones, is a young people's historical novel based on the Jewish colony at Cotopaxi in the 1880's. Nancy has published one other children's book for middle graders, Bees, Bugs and Baseball Bats, Scholastic Canada, 1985, reprinted 1990. The different experiences she has had with these two books, and the time that has elapsed between them, gives her a unique perspective on writing and publishing. She believes in the philosophy that you get writing done "one word at a time." Just keep moving forward.
Lori Kiplinger Pandy...	is a relative newcomer to the field of children’s book illustration. She spent the first 20 years of her career painting and sculpting for the interior design industry and fine art galleries. She first began attending RMC-SCBWI in 1998 where she won the Best Book Dummy award. Since then she’s been published by Humpty Dumpty's Magazine, Rourke Publishing, SRA-McGraw-Hill and painted over 20 cover illustrations for McGraw-Hill, School Specialty Children's Publishing and Frank Schaffer. Lori has enjoyed working with self-publishing authors as well, designing and illustrating 6 children’s books and 3 adult book covers for the independent publishing industry. A graduate of Ringling School of Art and Design, Lori's work can be seen at www.kiplingerpandy.com.
Kathleen Pelley...	is a native of Glasgow, Scotland, where she was an elementary teacher for several years before moving to the States in 1990. Her published works include a children's play and short stories in Cricket and Hopscotch. The Giant King is her first children's book, but she has two more on the way from Farrar, Straus & Giroux - Inventor McGregor (Spring 2006) and Magnus Maximus, A Marvelous Measurer (TBA). When she's not writing, Kathleen enjoys recording books on tape for the blind at the Colorado Talking Book Library, and reading picture books to the children at an inner city school.
Caroline Stutson...	says that, "Holding a book in my hand that I actually wrote is truly a dream realized, because, although I love to write, writing and having books published has been a long journey." She began writing for children about twenty years ago when she taught Kindergarten and special reading. During those years, and when she left teaching for part-time library work, she accumulated at least 100 rejections along the way. Nine books later, she continues to accumulate them. Writing books for children is well worth those low uncertain times when a child's eyes light and she's asked: "Read that again." Her books include the upcoming Pirate Pup, Mama Loves You, Night Train, Cowpokes, Mountain Meadow 1 2 3 (illustrated by Anna-Maria Crum), and more.
Denise Vega...	has had short stories and articles appear in such places as Highlights for Children, Pockets, Spider, Ladybug, Discovery Channel School science series, and Meadowbrook Press. She was the Honor Winner in the 2001 Lee & Low New Voices Award for a multicultural picture book manuscript, and has two toddler books coming out from Cartwheel/Scholastic. Her first "tween" novel, Click Here (To Find Out How I Survived Seventh Grade) will be published by Little, Brown in April 2005 and was picked up by the Scholastic Book Club and Fair earlier this year. Denise recently sold a picture book manuscript to Little, Brown and is currently working on a second novel for them. Find out more at www.denisevega.com.
Carol Lynch Williams...	is a five-time winner of the Utah Original Writing Competition and winner of Nebraska's Golden Sower Award. Her books deal with issues as challenging as child abuse and death, as well as lighter matters of the heart, like childhood romance, and those crazy things parents can do to embarrass their kids. Her books include The True Colors of Caitlynne Jackson, Carolina Autumn, A Mother To Embarrass Me, If I Forget, You Remember, and more. Carol's characters often find themselves in situations in which children can relate. In her travels to schools throughout the United States, Carol discusses plot and character development, how her own life's experiences have helped in her writing and how to sketch out that story sitting in your brain. She conducts writing workshops for children, as well as education workshops for teachers and library professionals, on how to use good writing as part of effective course curriculum. She is co-director of BYU’s Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers and in her spare time, Carol home schools her six daughters.