2025 Faculty: S through Z
Clay Stafford
Clay Stafford is an American bestselling and award-winning author, poet, screenwriter, playwright, and composer; film and television producer, director, showrunner, actor; book, film, and stage reviewer; and public speaker. He has sold nearly four million copies of his books, distributed his work in sixteen languages, and spoken live to over one million people. He is the founder and CEO of the annual Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference, American Blackguard Entertainment, publisher of Killer Nashville Magazine, and a contributor to Writer’s Digest magazine with his monthly column, “Killer Writers.” He has been called “One of the Top 40 North American publishing industry professionals to watch” by Publishers Weekly, Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Book Fair), and the American Booksellers Association. Publishers Weekly lauds that Clay Stafford, through his influence, plays “an essential role in defining which books become bestsellers” throughout “the nation’s book culture.” For more information, visit https://claystafford.com/
Jaden Terrell
Jaden Terrell is a Shamus Award finalist and the internationally published author of the Nashville-based Jared McKean private detective series. Terrell’s short stories, which range from cozy to noir, have appeared in several anthologies, and she’s a contributor to ITW’s The Big Thrill online magazine and Now Write! Mysteries, a collection of how-to essays for writers of crime fiction. Terrell is the recipient of the Killer Nashville Builder Award and two awards for service to the Southeast Mystery Writers of America. She offers workshops, coaching, and courses for writers.
Website: https://www.jadenterrell.com
Helen Thornton-Gussy
Helen Thornton-Gussy has been editor and owner of Edit Co. for the past eight years, providing editing services such as developmental (structural) editing, line editing, copy editing and proofreading. She works in both US and UK English and loves a good Oxford comma.
With many strings to her bow, Helen decided to give up the corporate world to focus full time on her editing business. With the knowledge she has gained over the years, Helen has now added publisher to her resume, with several books (fiction and non-fiction) published through her Southlight Press publishing company.
In adult commercial fiction, the genre’s she edits are crime, thriller, mystery, epic fantasy/fantasy, and women’s fiction. She loves a good thriller or epic fantasy and considers herself fortunate to have been able to work with Grim Oak Press (based in Washington State) who produce limited edition copies for fantasy authors such as Robin Hobb, Terry Brooks, Raymond E. Feist and many more.
Born and bred in New Zealand, Helen, as is typical of most Kiwi’s, has travelled the world, learning as much about different cultures as she can. Every visit to the United States ends with a standing invitation to those she meets, to come and visit her beautiful country.
Learn more about Helen, and the services she offers here (https://www.editco.nz/) or on Instagram
@edit_co._ or Threads https://www.threads.net/@edit_co._/
Christine Mager Wevik
Christine Mager Wevik is an award-winning author from southeast South Dakota, known for her paranormal mystery series, including Borrowed Memories, recipient of the 2021 Silver Falchion Best Supernatural and Silver Falchion Best Book of the Year. Her debut book, It’s Only Hair, offers a humorous and honest look at coping with hair loss, reflecting her personal experience with alopecia. Someone Knows, a regional bestseller, highlights 52 of South Dakota’s many cold cases.
Lois Winston
Lois Winston, a USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, middle-grade, and nonfiction, began her award-winning writing career in 2006 with Talk Gertie to Me, a humorous novel about a small-town girl in Manhattan and the mother determined to bring her home to marry the boy next door. That was followed by the romantic suspense Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception. Lois wrote her first mystery thanks to a conversation between her agent and an editor looking for a crafting-themed amateur sleuth series. Thus, was born the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, which Kirkus Reviews dubbed, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” The series now includes fourteen novels and three novellas. Learn more about Lois and her books at http://www.loiswinston.com.