Mystic Ink Publishing Voices of the Masters Series - Santa Barbara Writers Conference 2024 -Novel Panel
Moderator: SBWC faculty member, Trey Dowell, is a novelist and a short story aficionado. His expertise in writing effective query letters has helped numerous writers get their projects reviewed by agents and publishers.
Margaux Dunbar Hession is a funny, off-beat, award-winning writer of dark humor stories that balance darker subjects with audacious wit and off-the-wall scenarios, many inspired by her own escapades. Her first novel, Soaring to New Lows springs from her life as former wife of Journey Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drummer, Aynsley Dunbar. Her writing has appeared in multiple journals and publications. She resides in Kailua Hawaii, where she paddles on a 6-person, co-ed, outrigger team.
David Starkey, served as Santa Barbara’s 2009–2011 Poet Laureate. He is founding director of the Creative Writing Program at Santa Barbara City College, co-editor of the California Review of Books, and the publisher and co-editor of Gunpowder Press. Over the past thirty-five years, he has published 11 full-length collections of poetry with small presses and more than 500 poems in literary journals. His novel Poor Ghost was released March 2024.
Candi Sary graduated from the University of California, Irvine. Her novel, Black Crow White Lie (2012), won Reader Views Literary Award, a CIBA, and was first runner-up in the Eric Hoffer Book Award and made into a short film by Chase Michael Wilson. Her latest, Magdalena (2023), also won a CIBA. A mother of two adult children, she lives in Southern California with her husband, a dog, a cat, and several ducks. She can often be found surfing and paddle boarding in the waters of Newport Beach.
James Darnborough grew up in London, UK, before spending 30 years in the media business in South Africa, Australia and the USA. He resides in LA. His historical saga, The Gambler’s Game, is set in the twilight of the 19th Century, as the Old West collides with the opulence of the Gilded Age. One man embarks on a journey that redefines his life. His audacious spirit leads him from dust-chocked plains to the refined ambiance of English garden parties and the allure of Belle Epoque Monte Carlo.
Nancy Klann-Moren was raised in North Hollywood. Her novel, The Clock of Life, is an award-winning story of friendship and struggle at a time in our history when American protests changed the status quo. In her short story collection, Like the Flies on The Patio, she brings us fallible and human characters who live on the page and gently break your heart. Her new novel, Love and Protest, begins with the chance discovery of a diary. This is a coming-of-age-story about two young women’s paths toward becoming activists.
