2025 Faculty: S through Z
Lynn Slaughter
Lynn Slaughter is addicted to the arts, chocolate, and her husband’s cooking. After a long career as a professional dancer and dance educator, she published her first novel at age 65 and then returned to school to earn her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Her six published novels have received numerous accolades, including a Silver Falchion Award, an Agatha nomination, an Imadjinn Award, and a Moonbeam Silver Medal. Midwest Book Review called her most recent work, Missing Mom, a “remarkable book” that “invites readers to immerse themselves in a narrative that beautifully captures the essence of struggle and triumph.”
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/
Steve Stratton
Steve Stratton’s has worked at the White House as a communicator and as a member of the US Secret Service supporting the protection of the President, Vice President, and Presidential candidates. In the 80’s Steve left D.C. for defense contracting and joined 20th Special Forces.
Steve deployed on counter-drug and partner country training missions in South America while working a day job supporting the DOD and the intelligence community. Retired, Steve now writes, travels, and enjoys the Colorado outdoors. You can connect with him at https://stevenstrattonusa.com His latest book Caribbean Harvest published on Jan 14th, 2025.
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._/
Dr. Ronda Wells
Doctor by day, writer by night—award-winning author Dr. Ronda Wells has written fiction for thirty years. Her Novel Malpractice website focuses on authors’ medical questions and points them in the right direction for more research, while dispelling medical myths from film and television. She presents Novel Malpractice: Get Your Medical Stuff Right for writers’ groups and writing conferences. Her first book, “The Christmas Cherub,” releases July 1st and she’s developing a romantic suspense series. Connect with her at www.novelmalpractice.com, www.RondaWellsBooks.com, or @rondawellsbooks on X, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, or Linked In.
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.
L M Whitaker
L M Whitaker (Linda) is an award-winning author of speculative and near-future thrillers laced with science and technology. She writes the Georgia Steele Thriller series. Linda also hosts From Fact To Fiction, a podcast and Substack site devoted to reviewing specialty thrillers.
Her stories are founded on years of research and decades of work in science and technology, beginning with a PhD from The Georgia Institute of Technology. She gathers inspiration in everything from the latest technological advances and scientific discoveries to her dog to slime mold. Yes, slime mold.
Linda resides in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina. Find Linda at lmwhitaker.com or facttofiction.substack.com.
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.
Jack Wolff
Jack Wolff is a Ball State University student studying Media Production and Music Recording. He is the co-creator and co-host of Mysteries to Die For podcast where he is the producer and piano player. Additionally, he has written a number of short stories for the show. When he’s not podcasting, he is teaching marching percussion to high schoolers, writing and shooting films for his own enjoyment, or playing with his psychopathic border collie puppy.
TG Wolff
Like you, I’m not one thing. I’m a writer, a podcaster, an engineer, a wife, and a mother. What is first on the list depends on the day. Beyond the title I claim, I’m a person who loves learning and thoroughly enjoys a good puzzle, is creative and gets bored easily. I hold a BS in Civil Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and an MS in Civil Engineering from Cleveland State University, which gives me absolutely no background in writing or podcasting, but I do it anyway. Writing mysteries and engineering isn’t as different as you’d think. Both require using logic and process to get from a starting problem to a solution.
Lisa Wysocky
Lisa Wysocky is an award-winning horse trainer / riding instructor who runs the nonprofit Colby’s Army. An editor / ghostwriter, she authors the award-winning Cat Enright cozy series (now in film pre-production), hosts the award-winning Celebs with Horses podcast, and often co-hosts Horses in the Morning on the Horse Radio Network.
Mark Zeid
Mark Zeid is a retired Marine and a former military police officer, journalist, English teacher, criminal justice instructor, and technical writer. He also provided ad hoc assistance to NCIS and the International Crimes Division of the Hiroshima Police Station when he lived and worked in Japan for 25 years. Furthermore, as a free-lance journalist, he wrote more than 500 articles for dozens of publications.
He is currently the author of Media Murder Mysteries, two of which won awards in the WhoDunIt Mystery Writing Contest. He is also the author of another series featuring the private investigator Jeff Terrell and his reluctant partner, Bud, whose primary concerns are eating and napping. His fifth novel—The Age-Old Crime of Murder—won Honorable Mention in the Claymore Awards and Second Place in the WhoDunIt Mystery Writing Contest. He also holds writing workshops and does Holocaust education for local groups.