Jeanne Aufmuth is the mother of two daughters, the stepmother of two stepdaughters, and the grandmother of a spirited granddaughter. She is the lead film critic for the Palo Alto Weekly and the acting President of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle. Her reviews can be found on www.paloaltoonline.com and www.aufmuth.com. Jeanne strives to keep mind and body active through extensive travel and a series of rousing contact sports, including ice hockey, sword fighting, and kickboxing. The gentler side is placated with stripping, yoga, and watercolor.

Ronnie Caplane lives in Piedmont, California, where she was a weekly columnist for several Knight-Ridder papers. Her essays have appeared in many publications, including the Chicago Tribune, Cleveland Plain Dealer, San Francisco Chronicle, Detroit Free Press, Jewish Bulletin of Northern California (now known as J Weekly), and several anthologies. By day she is an attorney.

Wendy Cohen is back where she belongs—in Oakland, California—working and raising a wonderful adopted son and getting ready for another empty nest.

Bill Coy is a management consultant, a teacher at the University of San Francisco, and a licensed marriage and family therapist. In his professional life he has worked for both the Catholic Diocese of Oakland and Industrial Light & Magic, thereby being the only consultant known to have facilitated meetings at both the Vatican and Skywalker Ranch. He is the father of David and the stepfather of Jeremy, Daniel, and Liz. He and his wife, Nancy, live in Oakland, California.

Elizabeth Fishel is the author of four books, including Sisters and Reunion, and the co-editor (with Terri Hinte) of two anthologies, Wednesday Writers and Something That Matters. She has also written widely for magazines, such as Vogue, Oprah’s O, Redbook, Parents, Family Circle, and she was a contributing editor at Child. She teaches writing at UC Berkeley Extension and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and also holds private classes on Wednesday and Friday mornings. She lives in Oakland with her husband, and they have two sons.

Roque Gutierrez is a retired postal worker who has been writing most of his life. He has written three books and numerous short stories for children. The short stories have been published in various children's magazines and the books are pending. He is currently working on his fourth book, a young adult novel as well as an adult mystery. He is hoping a publisher soon discovers what they are missing and publishes him.

John Leland is a reporter on the national desk of the New York Times. A graduate of Columbia College, he has been a senior editor at Newsweek, editor-in-chief of Details magazine, and an original columnist at SPIN, and he has written for Newsday, Rolling Stone, Vogue, the Face, the Village Voice, and numerous other publications. He is also the author of two books, Hip: The History, an alternative history of American culture, and Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of 'On the Road' (They're Not What You Think)." He lives in New York City with his wife, Risa. His son Jordan, the subject of his essay, is at press time doing nicely at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. So far, so good.

Joanne Levy-Prewitt is an independent college advisor working with high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area. A former teacher, Joanne is also a short-fiction writer. She writes a weekly, nationally syndicated column called “College Bound,” which can be read locally in newspapers across the United States, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oregonian, and the Capitol Times in Madison, Wisconsin. She has one son who is a college senior, and she lives with her husband in the Bay Area. Contact Joanne at: jklprewitt@gmail.com.

Martha Loeffler, a retired social worker (UC Berkeley, 1941), started her second career as a writer in 1985 when she was 65 years old. Her work has appeared in newspapers and magazines and has won many awards. She is the author of three books, including Boats in the Night, about the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust which is widely used in schools around the country. She is working on her fourth book, and at the age of 87, she currently teaches a writing workshop for senior citizens who are working on their memoirs. She is a member of The National League of American Pen Women.

Al Martinez is an award-winning columnist and feature writer with the Los Angeles Times. Among many other honors, he was named Journalist of the Year by the Society of Professional Journalists (1996), and won the Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Meritorious Public Services in 1994. A San Francisco Bay Area native and father of three, he is also the author of ten books, the creator of three network television series, and was an Emmy nominee for the TV movie "Out on the Edge." He contributed to the Los Angeles Times metro teams that won Pulitzer Prizes following coverage of the L.A. riots in 1993 and the earthquake in 1994. His outstanding contributions to human relations through his work have been acknowledged by many organizations throughout his journalistic career.

Pam Simonsen Muramatsu is a proud Seattle-area native. She earned her nursing degree, married her high school sweetheart, and helped him through dental school. She retired from nursing to be a full-time mom to her two sons. She currently resides in Des Moines, Washington, with her husband, John, and her dog, Butch.

C.W. Nevius is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated columnist who has written about sports, movies, and parenthood, among other topics, for the San Francisco Chronicle. He has two children, both of whom are just about to put their parents into the empty nest phase (hopefully). His book Crouching Toddler, Hidden Father is available at most bookstores.

Marilyn O’Malley was born in Honolulu, grew up on military bases, and has lived in the northwest for thirty years. She is a graduate of Portland State University, where she studied psychology and sociology. She’s a vocalist and rhythm guitarist, as well as a singer-songwriter. She performed with a number of Irish bands in Oregon and Washington, and also enjoys gardening, hiking, and rafting wild rivers. Marilyn is currently writing a book about restoring cow pastures to the native plants of Klickitat County, Washington, and how several major transitions in mid-life brought her to a new beginning in the High Prairie.

Joan Passman has survived the raising and launching of both a daughter and a son, and now enjoys three grandchildren. It's much easier having children a generation removed. She was a first-grade teacher for many years and is currently involved in rewarding volunteer work. Joan and her family live in various cities in California.

Linda Lee Peterson is the cofounder of a marketing communications firm with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area and Philadelphia. Before her first mystery novel, Edited to Death, was published in 2005, she had written the text for a number of nonfiction books including two books for HarperCollins, Linens and Candles, and On Flowers for Chronicle Books. She is completing work on her second mystery, The Devil's Interval. Linda and her husband, a judge, live in Lafayette, California. She is a graduate of Stanford University.

Sharon Rockey is a freelance writer and ghostwriter living in Portland, Oregon. www.webspinstudios.com. Her advice to moms: "Next time you tearfully pray to understand where you went wrong, and an inner voice secretly whispers that your child came into this world with their own baggage, keep it to yourself!"

Laura Shumaker is the mother of three boys, and has been an advocate for her autistic son, Matthew, and other disabled children in her community for almost twenty years. A regular contributor to NPR Perspectives, she is also a member of the distinguished Wednesday Writers Group of Berkeley, California, whose books of essays fund breast cancer research. Her work has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Autism Perspective, the Contra Costa Times, and Guideposts Magazine, and she has just completed a memoir about life with an autistic son. Laura lives in Lafayette, California with her husband, Peter, and her teenage boys. Her website is www.laurashumaker.com.

Ransom Stephens is a writer, physicist, public speaker, and the author of over two hundred articles in science journals, the electronics industry, and magazines on subjects ranging from global warming to parenting teenagers. As a graduate student he discovered a new type of matter, as a professor he was on the team that discovered the top quark, and as an engineer he led a high-tech commando team, but his greatest accomplishment was raising his daughter. Look for Ransom and Heather’s story in Fade to Pink: From Goth to Graduation set to be released in April 2009. Contact him at www.ransomsnotes.com.

Eve Young Visconti, a freelance writer, lives in Foster City, California. She has written numerous articles that have appeared in career publications, co-authored several training manuals, written movie reviews for a weekly newspaper, and done public relations writing and grant writing for nonprofit organizations.

Penny Warner has published over 50 books, both fiction and non-fiction, for adults and children. Her books have won awards, garnered excellent reviews, and have been printed in 14 languages.  Warner has a Bachelor's degree in Child Development and a Master's degree in Special Education. She teaches child development at her local college, and has taught sign language, special education, preschool education, and creative writing for colleges and universities, and at writing conferences. She belongs to the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, California Writers Club, Women Writing the West, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime. She wrote a weekly newspaper column on family life for 11 years. Warner lives in Danville, California and has two children.
http://www.pennywarner.com/    tpwarner@sbcglobal.net


Philip Weingrow is the father of two sons and the stepfather of one stepdaughter. He has written frequently for The Hills Newspaper Group, a division of Knight-Ridder, writing consumer articles involving residential sales. He is a native New Yorker and a graduate of The New School for Social Research. He has taught in the New York City and City of Berkeley Public School Systems. He is currently managing a real estate firm in the Montclair area of Oakland, California.

Linda Weltner wrote the column "Ever So Humble" in the Boston Globe for nineteen years. The author of two young adult novels and two collections of columns, she has recently written "The Challenge of Childhood Diabetes: Family Strategies for Raising a Healthy Child" with her daughter, Laura Plunkett. She lives with her husband, Jack, a child psychiatrist, in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

"The Challenge of Childhood Diabetes: Family Strategies for Raising a Healthy Child," a week-by-week, month-by-month guide to diet, exercise, and coping with psychological stress can be purchased at www.challengeofdiabetes.com.

Kate Wheatman has worked as a career counselor, the director of a social service agency, an employee relations specialist, and as a recruiter. Most recently, she said good-bye to a twelve-year career in corporate communications to become a freelance writer. She lives outside San Francisco with her husband, daughter Rebecca, and daughter Laura, when she is home from college.