Creators and Guests

Writer. Reader. Interviewer. Cohost of The Premise Podcast. I help authors build brands + websites. Cofounder of the San Diego Writers Festival. Chicken-mama.

Cecile Pin grew up in Paris and New York City. She moved to London at eighteen to study Philosophy at University College London, followed by an MA at King’s College London. She previously worked in publishing. She writes for Bad Form Review and is a London Writers Awards 2021 winner.Wandering Souls is her first novel and is longlisted for the Women’s Prize for fiction. It is being published in eleven territories in 2023.

Chad Thompson, co-founder of Monkey C Media, offers professional photography and videography services. He has an eye for detail and a command of lighting that gives him the ability to show his subjects at their very best. You can count on seeing Chad around South Park on his bicycle with a camera slung over his shoulder. If he has never taken a picture of you, chances are good you have never met him.

Deborah Holt Larkin is uniquely qualified to tell this captivating yet horrifying crime story. From a front row seat in her family’s living room, she lived the fear and disbelief that gripped her hometown in 1958.

Author, “Khabaar: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory and Family” —April 2022 UofIA Press |Immigrant. Daughter of Refugees. Scientist. |Personal views|

I write from a studio/shed in my townhouse garden in Oxford. A small space, it's perfect for cooking up bigger ones. I love to write about sprawling, dysfunctional families in curious, characterful settings. A crime usually beats at the heart of my books. As I love stories that envelope you in their world but also read at a page-turning pace, I try to write them too.

Licensed psychotherapist & coach. Author & blogger. Coping skills expert. She/Her @PsychToday

I report on the book publishing industry and help authors understand the business. I’ve been working in book publishing since the 1990s, but my views are not from the 1990s. Amidst rapid change in the industry, writers need honest and unbiased guidance to make the best decisions for their careers. I hope to offer you a signal amidst the noise.

Author of I'm Not Broken (@VintageAnchor) & No Estoy Roto (@PenguinLibrosUS) Speaker and consultant to philanthropy and social impact investors.

2023 TEDxSanDiego Speaker for Education. Artist. Author of #CHILDishTheBook. Reiki Master Teacher. Wife and mom.

Along with writing her memoir, Laura holds the office of President of San Diego Memoir Writers Association and is an active member of the International Women Writers Guild. She is also a member of San Diego Writers Ink and San Diego Writers and Editors Guild.

Lilli is our writer and one of our biggest fans. She works freelance as a copy and content writer, loves music, exploring and her little dog, Lucy.

Mike Rothschild is a journalist, researcher, expert witness, subject matter expert, speaker, and debunker of conspiracy theories and fringe beliefs.

Mona Awad is the author of Bunny, named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, and the New York Public Library. It was a finalist for the New England Book Award and a Goodreads Choice Award. It is currently optioned for film with Bad Robot Productions. Awad’s debut, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, winner of the Colorado Book Award and the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. Her most recent novel, All’s Well, was longlisted for the International Dublin Award and a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror. Rouge, her fourth novel, is forthcoming September 2023 with Simon & Schuster. She teaches fiction in the Creative Writing program at Syracuse University and is based in Boston.

Rosie came to writing after a career in factual television, which took her to some of the remotest places on earth. She wrote her first novel while living in South America, where she met her partner, George. They now live in Devon, UK, with their two young children.

SHELBY STANGER has been passionate about storytelling since she inked her first article in a national publication at age 15. As a longtime adventure journalist in the outdoor sports world, Shelby has standup-paddled a portion of the Peruvian Amazon, reported about a summer-long punk concert series called the Vans Warped Tour, surfed from Tofino to Tavarua, had her own adventure column in five San Diego newspapers, and interviewed countless CEOs, entrepreneurs and pro athletes on assignment for national publications like Outside Magazine, ESPN, CNN.com, and Shop-Eat-Surf.com. Prior to becoming a full-time storyteller and consultant, Shelby worked at the iconic shoe company, Vans, where she helped oversee all the women’s branding and later the international marketing for the Americas and Australasia regions. She later served as a media consultant to brands including Nike, PrAna, and Body Glove.

Sophie Mackintosh is the author of novels The Water Cure (2018), Blue Ticket (2020), and Cursed Bread (forthcoming 2023). The Water Cure was longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. Her fiction, non-fiction and poetry has appeared in The New York Times, Granta, Dazed, Guardian, and The Stinging Fly, amongst others. In 2020 she was picked as ‘a face set to define the decade ahead’ by Vogue UK, alongside writers Jia Tolentino and Oyinkan Braithwaite.

Founding member of The Bangles

Suzanne adapted her novel Mr. Malcolm’s List into a screenplay and it was made into a movie starring Freida Pinto, Theo James, Sope Dirisu, Zawe Ashton and Oliver Jackson Cohen. It’s now available on every major rent-on-demand streaming service.

TOM ROB SMITH graduated from St John’s College, Cambridge University in 2001, with a first in English Literature. One of his first writing jobs was story lining Cambodia’s first soap operas. Born in 1979 to a Swedish mother and an English father, he wrote his first novel CHILD 44 at the age of twenty-six.

Walter Green was Chairman of the Board and CEO of Harrison Conference Services for 25 years, during which time it grew into the leading conference center management company in the U.S. He has lectured at the Wharton Graduate School of Business and Hofstra and Long Island universities, as well as being featured as an expert on the topic of effective meetings in numerous national publications. Associated for years with the Young Presidents’ Organization and the World Presidents’ Organization, he’s presently a member of the Chief Executives Organization and the L3 Organization (Leadership, Legacy, Life). Since selling his company, he has mentored young adults and is actively involved in several nonprofit organizations. He lives with his wife, Lola, in San Diego, California.