Ande Pliego began writing stories when she discovered she could actually wield her overactive imagination for good. A lover of stories with teeth, she writes books involving mind games, dark humor, general murder and mayhem, and most importantly, finding the hope in the dark.

When not reading or writing, she can usually be found dabbling in art, scheming up her next trip, or making constant expeditions to the library. Born in Florida, raised in France, and having left footprints all over the globe, Ande is settled in the Pacific Northwest, USA, with her craftsman husband and little son.

Breanne lives in the sleepy foothills of Northern California with her husband, two daughters, and a slew of farm animals. When she’s not writing, you can find her wandering the property searching for fairy portals or serving elaborate stuffed animal tea parties.

As a journalist, her work has been featured in Good Housekeeping, Fit Pregnancy, Disney Family, Bustle, Brides, et. al. A seasoned traveler, she imbues her stories with the magic and culture collected from the over forty countries she’s visited.

CL Montblanc is a writer, producer, and escape room enthusiast who dominates at Jackbox game nights but can easily be defeated in physical combat.

They are passionate about writing fun queer mysteries for young audiences, and are only moderately interested in cultivating skills related to hand-to-hand sparring.

If you wish to engage CL in a brawl, they will be waiting in the Arby’s parking lot at 6pm tonight. Although they originate from Texas, this will, in fact, be CL’s first rodeo.

Erin has been telling herself stories for as long as she can remember, and once she realized she could write them down and share them with others, there was no going back. She loves writing about messy women, platonic and romantic love, and happily ever afters.

Erin lives in the PNW with her spouse, two large dogs, two lazy cats, and more houseplants than she can count. When not exploring fictional worlds, she enjoys hiking, cooking, emo nostalgia, and slowly but surely actualizing her lifelong goal of becoming a forest witch.

Rep: Hannah Schofield @ LBA

Jade Presley is a pen name for a fantasy and contemporary romance author who loves cranking out stories about seriously sexy males and the sassy women who bring them to their knees. She’s a wife, mother, and board game connoisseur. When not writing she’s hanging with her family, wrangling her two wild doggos, or devouring the next steamy read on her kindle!

Jennifer Chen is an award-winning freelance journalist who has written for Today, New York Times, Oprah Daily, and Real Simple. She has been interviewed on NPR’s Weekend Edition about the rise in anti-Asian hate and discussed pregnancy loss for a Glamour PSA video with actress Melissa Rauch. She was named a 2023–2024 Huntington Library Fellow to research the history of Chinatowns in California for an upcoming historical fiction novel. In addition, she was chosen as a 2024 Lando Grant finalist by the DeGroot Foundation. She wrote a short story featured in the young adult anthology, First-Year Orientation. Her debut young adult novel, Artifacts of an Ex, is out now. Her second YA book, Hangry Hearts, publishes in March 2025. She is a proud volunteer for WriteGirl, a creative writing and mentoring organization, and a loving foster parent for kittens at Best Friends Los Angeles.

Kait Ballenger is an award-winning author of dark romantasy and paranormal romance. She is obsessed with tales of morally gray, sometimes villainous heroes and can’t resist a spicy redemption arc. When Kait’s not busy writing kinky paranormal fantasy, she can usually be found with her nose buried in someone else’s naughty books. She lives in Florida’s Bible Belt with her husband and two adorable sons—and will gladly use that belt to whip you.

Katie Naymon lives and writes in Stockholm, Sweden. Originally from Northeast Ohio, she got her BA in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University and her MFA in poetry from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. YOU BETWEEN THE LINES is her first novel. 

She is represented by Hannah Mann at Writers House.

Kaylie Smith is a writer and lover of all things magical and fantasy. She grew up in Louisiana where she frequently haunted bookstores and practiced her writing craft. After getting her BFA, she decided to fully pursue her dream of being an author and now writes both young adult and adult romantic fantasy novels full time. When she isn’t writing or reading, she can be found at home napping with her pets, fussing over her houseplants, or dusting her growing collection of knitted frogs.

Lauren Kung Jessen is a mixed Chinese-American writer of rom-coms with lots of food and big feelings. She has a fondness for witty, flirtatious dialogue and making meals with too many steps but lots of flavor.

Lauren’s books have been featured in People, E! News, The Seattle Times, Cosmopolitan, Forbes, and New York Post. Her debut novel, Lunar Love, was chosen as a Book of the Month main selection and was included in NPR’s 2023 Books We Love.

She also has a blog, A Dash of Cinema, where she makes food inspired by movies and TV shows, and lives in Nashville. She’s the author of Lunar Love, Red String Theory, and Yin Yang Love Song (out 1/28/25). She writes the Substack past, present, future.

Shameez was born and raised in South Africa. She lives there with her husband, child and three cats.

Shameez fell in love with fiction at a young age. Her parents fondly recall receiving her first handwritten story before the age of ten, titled The Treasures of Zombie Island, which surprisingly featured no zombies at all. She has been writing ever since. 

Shannon Ives is a horror and dark historical fantasy author writing from the deep, dark woods of Vermont. 

She graduated with honors from the University of Iowa with a B.A. in Anthropology and a minor in Latin. Her studies focused on myth, religion, and magic—themes that she continues to explore in her writing.

Her work strives to capture the beauty in the grotesque and show how traditional power structures perpetuate violence. More often than not, you’ll find her characters behaving badly; they are monsters, after all.

For rights inquiries, please contact John Baker at Bell Lomax Moreton. 

Born and raised in Arizona, Sonora Reyes is the author of contemporary Young Adult novels The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School and The Luis Ortega Survival Club, and the forthcoming Adult Romance novel The Broposal. They also have contributed short stories to the anthologies Transmogrify! and For the Rest of Us.

They write fiction celebrating queer and Mexican stories in a variety of genres, with current projects in both kidlit and adult categories.

Outside of writing, Sonora loves breaking their body and vocal cords by playing with their baby niblings and dancing/singing karaoke at the same time.

Fueled by the magic of espresso, Miami-born Vanessa Montalban channels her wanderlust for far-off worlds into writing young adult fiction. She’s a first-generation graduate from the University of Central Florida and is hard at work creating a collection of stories. She is represented by Danielle Burby of Mad Woman Literary and her work has appeared in Diabolical Plots and Entropy Magazine.