2007 PRESENTERS' BIOGRAPHIES

Louise Knott Ahern: 20 Questions to a Killer PR Plan Louise spent eight years as a newspaper reporter and three years in non-profit public relations before launching her own author coaching service, The Working Writer Communications.  After reading and writing thousands of press releases and news articles, Louise knows what does and does not grab the media’s attention. Web Site

Christina Hogrebe, Agent: Jane Rotrosen Agency, New York Christina once dreamed of a career with the U.S. Forest Service but a gripping fear of dirty jobs and critters led her to publishing… where she found both. She has been on a constant quest for “three hanky reads” since joining the Jane Rotrosen Agency as an agent in 2003.  A lifelong fan of commercial fiction, Christina has a particular interest in Southern settings, edgy young adult, Latina lit, women’s fiction, big romances, chick lit, coming-of-middle-age stories, cozy mysteries, and thrillers.

Kate Schafer, Agent: Janklow & Nesbit Associates Kate Schafer has been with Janklow & Nesbit Associates for more than nine years, and represents mostly YA and middle grade fiction.  She is also a member of the J&N foreign rights department, and with her three colleagues handles translation sales for the agency's many adult authors, such as international bestsellers Michael Crichton, Clive Barker, and Danielle Steel.  Her personal clients include Maureen Johnson, author of 13 Little Blue Envelopes (HarperCollins), Devilish (Razorbill), Girl at Sea (HarperCollins), and three forthcoming titles with Scholastic; Alyson Noël, author of Fly Me to The Moon, Kiss & Blog, and Saving Zoë (St. Martin’s); Ellen Booraem, author of Medford and the Goatman (Harcourt); Susannah French, author of Operation Redwood (Amulet); Josie Bloss, author of Band Geek Love (Flux); and Matthew Cody, author of Powerless (Knopf), among others.  Kate is a graduate of the University of Delaware’s Honors Program, a former cast member of the New York Renaissance Faire, and an avid collector of shoes.  Her interests cover a broad range from teen chick lit, to urban fantasy, adventure stories, and romantic comedies.  She lives in the aptly named Astoria, Queens.

David Sheffield:  Comedy Film Screenwriter David is a veteran screenwriter whose credits include “Coming to America,” “Boomerang” and “The Nutty Professor.” Taken together, the films he has written have grossed over one billion dollars worldwide. His writing career began at  Saturday Night Live where he had a hand in creating Eddie Murphy's most memorable sketches, including "Mister Robinson," "Buckwheat," and a musical number called “James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub" which will soon appear on the Fox Network in a special called "The Fifty Funniest TV Moments of All Time." Over the past 25 years, Sheffield has written and rewritten dozens of screenplays for almost all the major Hollywood Studios, including Paramount, Warner Brothers, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Columbia and MGM.  He is currently writing an original screenplay called, "Twofer," a romantic comedy which takes place at the Twinsburg, Ohio Twins Days Festival.  David volunteers his time as a teacher and mentor for Inner City Filmmakers, a group devoted to giving young minority writers a voice in the motion picture business. David is very much looking forward to the intellectual stimulation of the Eden Writers' Fall Conference, although his true motive in coming to Utah is to wade the local streams with a bamboo fly rod in hand.

Kay Lockner: AuthorMBA Kay is a former corporate educator and leadership development specialist who has trained hundreds of professionals on business, career, and personal development topics. A graduate of the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, one of the nation's top 20 business schools, she enjoys the challenge of taking high-powered business concepts, stripping away the jargon and double talk, and making them simple, practical, and easy for writers to use.  Kay is an invited speaker on career planning and marketing, and is a strong believer in using humor and real-life examples (often one and the same) to create hands-on, entertaining, and motivating workshops. Web Site

Katherine Nintzel, Associate Editor:  Morrow/Avon/Eos Katherine is an associate editor for William Morrow/HarperCollins where she works with a broad range of fiction and nonfiction.  She is looking for literary fiction and fiction that straddles the line between literary and commercial, speculative fiction and fantasy, and narrative nonfiction, including memoir and pop culture.  Her authors and titles include the New York Times best-selling Sharing Knife series by Lois McMaster Bujold; Christina Baker Kline’s return to fiction with The Way Life Should Be; debut authors Jonathan Selwood (The Pinball Theory of Apocalypse) and Jessica Anya Blau (The Summer of Naked Swim Parties); and Karen Dawn’s Everything You Wanted to Know About Animal Rights but Were Afraid to Get into a Fight About, a hip, glossy call-to-arms covering the broad spectrum of the animal rights movement. She will do advance reading appointments and consultation appointments, and present a topic as yet to be determined.

Rebecca Fox: Yoga Teacher Rebecca Fox is a yoga teacher, writer and social worker. She was first exposed to yoga as the Public Relations representative for Alan Finger's, Yoga Zone more than thirteen years ago. She was trained in classical hatha yoga at Sivananda Ashram and has taught in the Sivananda tradition for more than six years, teaching at institutions such as Scripps institute of Oceanography, the University of California, San Diego and recently, Powder Mountain. She has trained with Stephen Cope, psychotherapist and senior Kripalu Yoga Teacher and author of Yoga and the Quest for the True Self. She has also received training from Rama Berch, founder of Svaroopa Yoga and Nischala Joy Devi, author of The Healing Path of Yoga. She has used many principles of yoga in her work: rehabilitating homeless women and women on parole by applying relaxation techniques, visualization, and breath work to complement counseling--as well as the tenets of awareness, observation, and remaining in the present. She has studied both herbalism and Ayurveda and worked at Kripalu in the Healing Arts Department. She is currently working on a reference book for yoga postures, Inside the Asana. Her own daily practice served as the inspiration for this project.  For more information, please contact her at openyoga@gmail.com

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