LEADERSHIP TEAM
KC GRIFANT, co-chair
KC Grifant is an award-winning writer of internationally published horror, fantasy, science fiction and weird west stories. In addition to her supernatural western novel, Melinda West: Monster Gunslinger (Brigids Gate Press), her stories have appeared in dozens of anthologies, magazines and podcasts. She is also a co-founder of the Horror Writers Association (HWA) San Diego Chapter.
For more information, visit http://kcgrifant.com
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Social Media & Links
SARAH FAXON, co-chair
On top of writing dark fantasy, horror, and thriller novels, Sarah Faxon is a speculative fiction cover designer and member of numerous writing and publishing organizations. Sarah also co-stars in the writing podcast, Semi-Sages of the Pages and she is the co-founder of the hybrid press, No Bad Books Press.
Website: https://sfaxon.wordpress.com
Dennis K. Crosby, secretary
Dennis K. Crosby is the award-winning author of the Amazon bestselling urban fantasy novels,
Death’s Legacy and Death’s Debt. Dennis has seven short stories published in various
anthologies, and his third novel, Death’s Despair, will be released June 6, 2023.
Website: https://denniskcrosby.com
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Social Media & Links
THERESA HALVORSEN, event coordinator
Theresa Halvorsen has never met a profanity she hasn’t enjoyed. She’s generally overly-caffeinated and at times, wine-soaked. The author of Warehouse Dreams and The Dad’s Playbook to Labor and Birth, in addition to various short stories and non-fiction articles, Theresa wonders what sleep is. When she’s not writing or podcasting at The Semi-Sages of the Pages, she’s commuting through San Diego traffic to her healthcare position. She lives in Temecula with her supportive husband, occasionally her college-age twins, and the pets they’d promised to care for.
Website: https://www.theresahauthor.com/
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Social Media & Links
CHAPTER MEMBERS
Lisa Balderston
Lisa Celia Balderston was born and raised in San Diego, California. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from San Diego State University and recently completed her Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Literature for Educators from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She recently taught Creative Writing 101 at a community center and is currently working as a Supplemental Instruction Leader and tutor at San Diego Miramar College in the English Department. She has been published in local and national magazines and recently won stage readings of her two latest plays. For over a decade, she worked as a photographer telling stories through images of family adventures, couples in love and wedding celebrations. Lisa has been married to her college sweetheart, Matt, for 25 years and they have two college-age sons, Eric and Alex.
JEAN GRAHAM
Jean Graham -- Short stories in anthologies and magazines such as Killing it Softly 2, Alternative Apocalypse, Space Opera Libretti, Weirdbook, Mythic and more. All available on Amazon.
Website: http://jeangraham.20m.com
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Social Media & Links
MARY ETTA BOLLMAN
For as long as the gods have measured time, Mary Etta Bollman has been writing a horror story. A graduate of UC Berkley, she furthered her writing education by attending classes at UC San Diego Extension, and became a familiar face as an attendee at countless, yes countless writers’ conferences. In 2010 she stepped into the organizer position of Fiction Writers Workshop, a now infamous writers group in the metroplex of Temecula, Murrieta, and Wildomar, for which she hosts regular events including critique groups where she has earned the reputation of being a leader with a knack for viewing problems from a different angle, and coming up with solutions that are just a wonky. Her desk is cluttered with tombs and academic papers regarding sorcery, alchemy, vampires, witches and demonic hauntings—everything useful and interesting, except for her car keys, the search for which is an ongoing family activity
A. E. SANTANA
A.E. Santana is a Southern California native who grew up in a farming community surrounded by the desert. A lover of horror and fantasy, her works can be found in Demonic Carnival III, Weird Ales Vol. II, and other horror anthologies. She is the paranormal/true horror editor for Kelp Journal and was the drama editor for The Coachella Review. She received her MFA in fiction from UCR Low Residency program. Her perfect day consists of a cup of black tea and her cat Flynn Kermit.
@floxflur
R W GOLDSMITH
CRYSTIE GOLDSMITH
Member at Large
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Crystie Goldsmith has been a member of the HWA since 2016 and is an original member of the San Diego Chapter. For five years she served as the chapter’s Event and Promotions Coordinator. She organized volunteers and managed the chapter's appearances at some of the biggest literary and horror events in Southern California, including The San Diego Festival of Books, Midsummer Scream, and many more. Crystie and her husband, Richard, have moved from the area, but remain members of the HWA and Chapter Members at Large
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KEVIN DAVID ANDERSON
Anderson’s debut novel the geeky, cult zombie romp, Night of the Living Trekkies, is a funny, offbeat novel exploring the pop-culture carnage that ensues when the undead crash a Star Trek convention. Publishers Weekly gave Night of the Living Trekkies a starred review and the Washington Post listed it as one of the top five Zombie novels of 2010. Night of the Living Trekkies and Anderson’s follow up, Night of the ZomBEEs have become required reading in college courses, most notably, How to Survive Your Freshman Year by Studying the Zombie Apocalypse, at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania. Anderson’s short stories have appeared more than 100 times in different publications from anthologies, magazines, podcasts, radio dramas, and in award-worthy publications like the British Fantasy Award-winning quarterly Murky Depths, and the Bram Stoker nominated anthology The Beauty of Death. Anderson’s stories have been turned into audio productions on Parsec Award-winning podcasts like Pseudopod, Drabblecast, Horror Hill, and the popular No Sleep Podcast. Anderson’s most recent story took first place in Crystal Lakes Publishing’s October Flash Fiction Challenge earning a place in the anthology Shallow Waters, vol. 5. His latest book Midnight Men: The Supernatural Adventures of Earl and Dale is available from Grinning Skull Press. Before Kevin David Anderson became a writer and active member of the HWA, he earned a B.A. in Communications from CSUF, and worked in marketing, managing award-winning campaigns for television and radio. He now works in special education.
