Seth Harwood has published four crime novels: Young Junius, In Broad Daylight, This Is Life, and the bestselling Jack Wakes Up. He has taught creative writing at Iowa, UMass Boston, Stanford, and City College San Francisco.

Deborah Reed is the author of the novels Carry Yourself Back to Me, and Things We Set On Fire. She is also the author of the bestselling thriller, A Small Fortune and its sequel, Fortune’s Deadly Descent, written under the pen name, Audrey Braun. She teaches at UCLA’s Extension Writing Program.

Lee Goldberg has written and produced scores of highly successful television series, including Diagnosis Murder, SeaQuest, and Monk. His many books include Successful Television Writing, King City, The Walk, and The Heist, which he co-wrote with Janet Evanovich.

Tyler Dilts's work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Writer’s Chronicle, and The Best American Mystery Stories, and he is the author of the novels A King of Infinite Space and The Pain Scale. He lives and teaches in Long Beach, California.

Johnny Shaw is the author of the novels Dove Season and Big Maria, as well as the creator of the quarterly Blood & Tacos. He has taught writing both live and online at a number of institutions, including Santa Barbara City College, UC Santa Barbara, LitReactor, and various writing conferences.