Authors Participating

Sangria Summit welcomes some of the most respected, knowledgeable veterans of the writing and publishing industries to help you find your way in this constantly evolving field.

Our speaker list is ever evolving. Be sure to check back often.

Bob Mayer
New York Times Best Seller author Bob Mayer will lead the workshop. Mayer, a West Point graduate, served in the Infantry and Special Forces commanding an A-Team and as a Special Forces operations officer, and was an instructor at Fort Bragg. Mayer sold 347 e-books in January of 2011. In just six months, by July 2011, he was selling over 65,000 e-books a month. By the end of 2011, he sold over 400,000 e-books. Mayer is a co-founder of Cool Gus Publishing (http://www.coolgus.com) which has grown into a seven-figure indie publishing house in just two years. He has authored books in different genres, including thriller, science fiction, suspense, romance and non-fiction.

 

 

 

Caitlin Rother
New York Times Best Seller author, Caitlin Rother, will be leading a workshop on how to bring life to your characters. Rother has written or co-authored eight books, including Poisoned Love, Dead Reckoning, Twisted Triangle, Deadly Devotion, The bestseller My Life, Deleted, and her first thriller, Naked Addiction. Rother teaches journalism, interviewing and creative writing at University of California, San Diego Extension, and also works as a book doctor/editorial consultant. She is also the founder of the authors group San Diego Writing Women and its blog.

 

 

 

 

Kelly Kennedy
Combat reporter and Army veteran Kelly Kennedy will be a keynote speaker. Her Army experience in Somalia and Iraq allowed her to return as a combat reporter and write the story of the hardest-hit unit in Iraq in her well-received book The Fought For Each Other. Kennedy has written for Army Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Associated Press, NASA, The (Boulder) Daily Camera, The Denver Post, The (Portland) Oregonian, The Salt Lake Tribune and The (Ogden) Standard-Examiner.

 

 

 

Mark Coker

Mark Coker is the founder of Smashwords, an e-book publishing and distribution platform serving approximately 40,000 independent authors and publishers around the world. Smashwords gained international attention for its simple but radical idea: Provide a free service that enables any author anywhere to publish their ebook in seconds, making it available for immediate sampling, sale and distribution to a worldwide audience via major online ebook retailers and mobile smartphone platforms.

He will share his perspective of the future of the publishing industry and give advice about how writers can get published in today’s marketplace.

 

 

 

Nate Brookshire and Marius Tecoanta

Also speaking will be Army Captains Nate Brookshire and Marius Teconanta. Their fiction book Hidden Wounds, A Soldier’s Burden brings insight from a World War II perspective of what we now term PTSD.

 

 

 

 

 

John Holmes

Holmes is the author of the popular Internet military comic strip “Power Point Ranger”, as seen on Facebook and in Army Times. He is also the editor of the book “The Longest War: Stories from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.” It is anthology by  veterans of the wars.  A second volume will be released this fall. With more than 20 years of service, Sergeant First Class John Holmes currently serves in the New York Army National Guard. Hailing originally from Long Island, John now lives in upstate New York.

 

 

 

 

Jennifer Talty
A published romance author and creative writing instructor, Jen Talty brings fascination to her romances, creating dark villains who wreak havoc on the hero and heroine, and producing page-turning suspense. She is the co-founder of Cool Gus Publishing handling the technical operations of the company. She has the expertise of closely working with companies like Amazon KDP, CreateSpace and Kobo.

 

 

 

Maryann Karinch

Literary agent and author Maryann Karinch will speak about the need for an agent, and the process of moving from manuscript to approval by a publisher. She is the head of the Ruby Literary Agency in Estes Park, Colo.

 

 

 

 

 

Several book agents and editors will be on hand to critique works of aspiring authors, as well. There will be sufficient time to meet other authors and spend time talking about writing during the two-day conference.