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Participating Authors

Adam T. Newman

Adam T. Newman is an award winning, children's book author whose childhood consisted of sports, reading comic books and playing with action figures. His love for film, writing and cartoons led him cross country to Los Angeles where he landed a job working for a children's animation company. Adam has worked for numerous film studios as an art director and graphic designer. He is also the recipient of the prestigious "World's Greatest Dad" award which was presented by his two wonderful kids in the form of a t-shirt.

 

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Amanda LaPera

Author Amanda LaPera has earned IBPA, BookLife Prize, Readers' Favorite, and IAN Book-of-the-Year Awards recognition. She is a member of the California Writers Club and Southern CA Writers Assoc.

 

 

 

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Anatalia Vallez

Anatalia Vallez is a writer, actor and creative alchemist from Orange County with roots in Guerrero, Mexico. She is the author of the poetry collection: The Most Spectacular Mistake (FlowerSong Press, 2020) and has an MFA in Television Film and Theatre from Cal State LA. She has written several plays including Las Sirenas (LATC, 2022) and La Niña del Volcan (Wayward Artist, 2024) and credits her growth as a playwright to OC’s Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble. She is the editor of the Homies Who Submit zines and curator for their online community which is dedicated to bringing visibility and opportunities to artists of color.

 

 

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Brandie June

Brandie June spent most of her childhood onstage or reading, as both activities let her live in fantastic stories. She moved to Los Angeles to study acting at UCLA, and eventually branched out into costume design, playwriting, prose, and got MBA in Entertainment Marketing, becoming the Marketing Director for Kids & Family Entertainment at Shout! Studios. Her award-winning debut novel, GOLD SPUN, is a Rumpelstiltskin retelling. CURSE UNDONE is the second book of the duology. Her new novel is MAGIC AT THE GRAND DRAGONFLY THEATRE. Her theatre credits include TRULY OUTRAGEOUS: AN UNOFFICIAL JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS PARODY and THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING OSCAR. Brandie is a volunteer story coach for middle and high school students through SpiritCorps. She lives with her husband, two spoiled rescue pups, four spoiled birds, and five bookshelves.

 

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Buzz McCord

BS Trinity College, CT.  MS Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY. "Easy Rider" inspired year cross-country trip interrupted by a motorcycle gang in Little Rock and a love commune in The Ozarks. Four years Munich, Germany as Guest Scientist inventing medical lasers. Moved by Big US Corp to California: intrapreneur medical devices. Seduced by capitalism: serial tech start-ups. Marriage to a fabulous wife, two creative, courageous kids. College professor IVC, astronomy and laser tech.  Festival awards for films made with locals in Nicaragua.  Traveled for "A Final Reminder" to Korea, Kamchatka, Japan, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia, New Zealand, Hong Kong thru Cambodia to Vietnam. Writing mostly scientific and patents along reality's ragged edge to sci-fi.

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Carla Fountain

With her book, “Bicycle Odyssey”, Carla Fountain documents a journey of inner discovery as she and her husband explore new countries and cultures during their around-the-world bicycle trek in 1991-1992. Carla Fountain worked in film production and editing, taught elementary school for 15 years, and has been a massage therapist and a yoga/meditation teacher for the past 25 years. As an avid traveler and a student of culture and languages, she has traveled the world extensively, both on and off of a bicycle. Currently, she divides her time between France and California. “Bicycle Odyssey” is her first book. For more details, visit www.CarlaFountain.com.

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Chris Epting

Chris Epting is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning travel writer, celebrated for his impressive repertoire of over 50 nonfiction books. With expertise spanning history, travel, and memoir, Epting captivates audiences by intertwining personal experiences with informative narratives. His extensive work on Huntington Beach and Orange County reflects a profound connection to the region's culture and history.In addition to his writing, Epting has contributed as a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and Huffington Post, where his insightful perspectives have resonated with readers. His engaging prose and keen observations have earned him critical acclaim, positioning him as a leading voice in contemporary nonfiction. Whether exploring the scenic beauty of California or unearthing compelling historical tales, Chris Epting continues to inspire audiences with his unique storytelling approach and passion for travel (he also hosts and produces the Hidden Huntington Beach TV show!)

 

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Christine Amoroso

Christine Amoroso resides in Huntington Beach, California, where she grew up and raised a family. As a school principal, she craved a creative outlet and started a blog. She has written about body image, mental health, addiction, aging, and grief. In 2017, she sold her possessions and moved to Italy to write. A year later, she returned home with the first draft of her manuscript. Her memoir, Bare Naked in Public, was published in July of 2024 and was A Chanticleer Semifinalist for The Journey Award. When she's not writing, she power-walks along the coast, plays soccer, and indulges her grandchildren. She travels abroad every chance she gets.

 

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Elle Jauffret

Elle Jauffret is an award winning mystery author and former California criminal attorney whose work explores identity, perception, and hidden power structures. Born and raised in France, she draws on her legal background and cross cultural experience to craft character driven mysteries that blend psychological depth with social insight. She lives in Southern California with her family, near the beach, which serves as the backdrop for her Suddenly French Mystery series. You can find her at https://ellejauffret.com or on social media @ellejauffret.

 

 

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Hayley Evelyn

Hayley Evelyn is a devoted mom to three adventurous boys and the wife of an amazing partner. Based in sunny Southern California, she finds joy in capturing life’s little moments with her camera and soaking up the ocean breeze. With a deep passion for nurturing emotional growth in children, Hayley created Sunny Belly to help kids connect with their feelings though simple, mindful tools. You can find her online at www.sunnybelly.co

 

 

 

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Jeannie Choe

Specializing in New Adult/Contemporary Romance Novels, Jeannie offers stories ranging from angsty/emotional to heartfelt and outright adorable. Living off an endless number of paperbacks, cold brews, and 2000’s rom-coms, Jeannie lives in Southern California spending her days with her family and two attention seeking elder dachshunds.

 

 

 

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Joshua Hauke

Joshua Hauke was lucky enough to discover that he was a weirdo at a very young age. After breaking his drawing arm three times in a row, Joshua learned that he could teach almost any part of his body to help pick up a pencil, including his opposite arm and left earlobe. Eventually, he even trained his beard to help out. Joshua has been writing and illustrating comics for over a decade. He is the creator of the webcomic Tales of the Brothers Three and the middle-grade graphic novel series Doom’s Day Camp. His new series, Icarus Chan and the Space Plan debuts 2027.

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Josiah Golojuh

Josiah Golojuh grew up in the woods north of Pittsburgh, delivering newspapers and reading comic books. The region continues to influence his work as it is the setting of his novel The Paper Boy (2024, Stag Beetle Books). Oscar-nominated writer of Little Children Tom Perotta said, "The Paper Boy is a clever and suspenseful contribution to the superhero genre. Josiah Golojuh will keep you guessing and make you think at the same time.” The Paper Boy was adapted from his short story, The Corpse Boy, was published by The Opiate Literary Magazine in 2015.Josiah has a Master's Degree in Screenwriting from USC where he studied under the late great Coleman Hough and S.L. Stebel. There he also met Ray Bradbury who said of Josiah's still unpublished novel, Storm the Machine, "This man is a genius." A personal tragedy has held that project away in a drawer, but maybe the time has finally come.A member of the Producers Guild of America, Josiah's short film, The Illuminator screened in Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. Josiah co-founded and programed the Graphation Film Festival which ran events in Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, & Seattle. Josiah continues to produce film content including a comprehensive history of 90s indie comic character Zen with Zen: Intergalactic Ninja - The Complete History. The feature length documentary is available on his YouTube channel, also named Josiah is Write.Josiah also creates meta-fiction for The Paper Boy via Main Title Comics. Thus far he has produced Young Zombie (issue 1 is available in print or in an expanded digital edition on Amazon). Young Zombie features two covers, the "newsstand" cover, by 90s icon Bill Maus and a variant by Josiah's daughter Penny Golojuh. Josiah will soon be launching a Kickstarter for The Borough bringing the super heroes from the world of The Paper Boy into our world. He will also be adding releasing a series of meta-fiction short stories beginning with Jacob's Passage in 2025.In 2024 Josiah had his short story, Three Strangers published by The Opiate's online magazine, a story he plans to expand into a novel. He also published a poetry book upon the event his and Judy's fifteenth wedding anniversary called One Lazy Sunday in LA a Girl Walked Into a Pizza Shop. It is a collection of years of Josiah's attempts at poetry, which includes excerpts by both of his daughters Penelope and Primrose and a cover by Penelope. 2024 was an equally big year for Judy as she graduated with her Master's in Library Science from San Jose State, so she'll soon be shelving and categorizing Josiah's novels. Josiah writes, teaches at Coastline College, enjoys his kids, and he misses dog Akira who left this mortal coil, exactly a month shy of having been with the family for ten years.

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Kim Ann

Kim Ann is a bestselling, award-winning children’s author who has published more than 30 books since 2019, with over 150,000 copies sold worldwide. Her titles support early literacy, social-emotional learning, and curriculum-friendly themes through engaging fiction and nonfiction, including Ruby the Rainbow Witch®, Goldy the Puppy®, the Go On Vacation series, and her nonfiction Ten Little Adventures series. Primarily known for her picture books, Kim is expanding into chapter books with a new series launching in March 2026. She regularly partners with schools and libraries for author visits, storytimes, and community events that encourage a lifelong love of books.

 

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Kristen Jennings

Hi! I’m Kristen, a contemporary romance and romantic fantasy author. A storyteller at heart, I love writing about happily ever afters and the journeys characters take to get there. When I am not writing (or reading), you can find me visiting aesthetically appealing restaurants and coffee shops with friends, dancing, or traveling. I live in Southern California with my husband and two cats.

 

 

 

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Lisa Alvarez

Lisa Alvarez’s debut collection, Some Final Beauty and Other Stories, was published in 2025 by the University of Nevada Press, as part of their New Oeste imprint which promotes Latinx writers of the American West.  She received her MFA in fiction from UC Irvine. Her work has appeared in About Place Journal, Air/Light, Citric Acid, Huizache, Santa Monica Review and elsewhere, including anthologies such as Sudden Fiction Latino: Short-Short Stories from the United States and Latin America and the recent Women in a Golden State: California Poets at 60 and Beyond Devoted to promoting the writing of California, she has edited three anthologies including Orange County: A Literary Field Guide and Why to These Rocks: Fifty Years of Poems from the Community of Writers. A professor of English at Irvine Valley College, in the summers she co-directs the writing workshops at the Community of Writers in Olympic Valley. In 2025, the OC Register selected her as one of the 125 Most Influential People in Orange County. Born and raised in the Los Angeles area, she lives in Modjeska Canyon in the Santa Ana mountains.

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Mark Zambrano

Mark Zambrano is the author of "Surfing in Huntington Beach," a history of the surfers who shaped one of America's most iconic surf towns. He works with Corky Carroll's Surf School, locally based in Bolsa Chica State Beach, and is a member of the Huntington Beach Historic Resource Board.

 

 

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Mary Camarillo

Mary Camarillo is the author of two award-winning novels: “Those People Behind Us” and "The Lockhart Women." Her poems and short fiction have appeared in publications and anthologies such as The White Picket Fence, Women in a Golden State, 166 Palms, The Ear, and the Sonora Review. She currently serves on the advisory boards of Citric Acid, An Orange County Literary Arts Quarterly, and LibroMobile, An Arts Cooperative and Bookstore in Santa Ana, California. Mary lives in Huntington Beach, California with her husband who plays ukulele and their terrorist cat, Riley, who makes frequent appearances on Instagram.

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Mary Vensel White

Mary Vensel White is the author of Resonant Blue and Other Stories, the IBPA award-winning YA novel Things to See in Arizona, Starling, Bellflower, and The Qualities of Wood, the first book published under the Authonomy imprint of HarperCollins. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in numerous publications. She is an English and writing professor, owner/editor at TypeEighteenEditing.com, owner/publisher at TypeEighteenBooks.com, and President of the California Writers Club, Orange County branch.

 

 

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Melissa Whitney

Melissa Whitney is the Amazon Top 100 Best Selling author of heartfelt/humorous/swoony romances featuring disability and mental health representation. Ms. Whitney's work has been featuried in various publications and podcasts for it's authentic disability representation within the romance genre.

 

 

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Neil V. Young

Neil V. Young is a science fiction and fantasy and horror writer with numerous Honorable, Silver Honorable, and Finalist awards from the Writers of the Future Contest. His debut novel, Children of the Stars has placed First Place in the Fall 2024 BookFest Awards, Finalist in the 2024 Cygnus Awards, and been accepted as class course material at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. 
He served as an editor for several California-based writers' groups, and Vice President of Programming for the Southern California Writers Association, He serves as a Board member for the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society.

 

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Rose Molina

Rose Molina was born and reared in Southern California. She served in the Air Force before graduating from the University of North Georgia, with a degree in education. Moving back to California, she completed her master’s degree at California State University, Long Beach. Skiing and scuba diving are favorite pastimes. She is a retired high school social science teacher and currently resides in Huntington Beach, California.

 

 

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Scott McCrea

Scott McCrea has written more than 45 books: westerns, thrillers and YA novels that have resonated with readers around the world. In 2026, he added biographer to his list of titles, with The Old Glory Blowout and the Creation of the Wild West, his biography of Buffalo Bill Cody, published by the South Dakota Historical Society. He has also written television documentaries, nonfiction books, magazine articles, blog posts and even … trading cards. McCrea is a former communications executive and is profoundly glad to be out of that business.McCrea is a Best YA Novel Finalist for the Western Writers of America Spur Award and a Western Fictioneers Peacemaker nominee for short fiction.McCrea has been a frequent talk show and podcast guest, appearing on LA Talk Radio’s Rendezvous with a Writer, Good Morning America, SpyHards, the SuitUp Podcast, the Carbon Arc, the Joey Reynolds Show and the Joe Franklin Show among others.McCrea wanted to be a writer ever since he started crafting stories in the second grade. Aside from his stint in public relations, McCrea worked as a jobbing actor, a bookseller, and a teacher and for an arson investigator. McCrea lives in Southern California; he has been married for more than half his life and really enjoys his dog, Lucas. When he is not writing novels, he writes about himself in the third person. You can learn more about him at scottmccrea.net or on X at @ScottMcCreaWest.

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Tamika Burgess

Tamika Burgess (Tuh-MEE-kuh BUR-jess) is the award-winning author of SINCERELY SICILY and DANILO WAS HERE.Born to parents who migrated from Panamá, Tamika has always taken a particular interest in writing themes that explore her Black Latina identity. Because of her passion for sharing knowledge about her culture, Tamika writes novels featuring Black Panamanian main characters. Tamika currently resides in Southern California. Learn more about her at TamikaBurgess.com and follow her on various social media sites at @TameeksB.

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Toni Haas

Toni Haas is a Huntington Beach artist, author, and illustrator known for creating stories that celebrate the culture, history, and coastal spirit of Surf City. She is the creator of the children’s book Goodnight Surf City, a colorful bedtime story inspired by Huntington Beach landmarks and beach life. Through her watercolor illustrations and storytelling, Toni encourages young readers to explore their community and discover the fascinating history of the place they call home.

 

 

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