Linda Parker

Linda Parker has worked behind the scenes in publishing as a proofreader and copyeditor since the late 1980s. She has worked with publishing clients such as Carroll & Graf, Shoemaker & Hoard, Crown & Covenant Publications, Christian Publications (now WingSpread), Pegasus Books, and F&W Publications. She also proofreads author manuscripts being prepped for submission to agents and editors.

In the early 1980s, Linda pursued a writing degree from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa. In recent years, her short humor essays have garnered numerous awards—from a national contest on BrassRing.com to the Hall of Fame at the St. Davids Writers’ Conference. She is currently shopping her novels to agents, looking for representation. Several chapters of her first novel, Gray Area, won awards at the St. Davids conference. The entire novel placed as a semifinalist in the national contest Operation First Novel in 2004.

Her second novel, Do-It-Yourself Widow, has fared even better. The opening chapter placed first at St. Davids in 2005, and the entire novel placed as a runner-up in the Operation First Book contest in February 2006. Her favorite writing challenge, though, has been the yearly challenge known as National Novel Writing Month: writing 50,000 words of a single fiction project during the month of November. She loves the pressure of a ridiculous, forced deadline.

Linda also enjoys comedy, computer gadgets, movies, crocheting, and the two guinea pigs who keep her company in her home office. She currently lives in western Pennsylvania with her husband, Wayne. They share six children between them, four of them now grown.

Diane Peifer

Diane is from Bradenton, Florida and now resides in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She attended Milligan College in Northeast Tennessee and has seven years experience teaching in public schools in Tennessee, Virginia, & Pennsylvania, where she taught writing in grades 2-5. She left classroom teaching 2 ½ years ago when her first child was born. Her love for teaching is now expressed as a writing coach for Accelawriter. She enjoys quilting, backpacking, traveling, reading, and writing.

Heather Placie

There’s a certain creative energy writers share when they know they're on the verge of weaving words together to paint and express the perfect image or idea. As a writer herself, Heather Placie thrives on that energy. And as a mentor, there’s no greater achievement then helping students discover that thrill for themselves.

Writing Coach Heather Placie is an accomplished writer whose work has been published in several different formats and has won multiple awards.

In 1993, Heather graduated from the University of Dayton (Ohio) Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Broadcasting and a teaching degree covering English, Speech, Journalism and Theatre. For eight years, Heather worked full time in the television news industry as an anchor, general assignment and education reporter, producer and evening manager at television stations in Lima, Ohio, Fort Wayne, Indiana and Anchorage, Alaska. In 2001, Heather set aside the microphone to become a stay-home-mom.

In addition to coaching for Accelawriter, Heather has served as a high school drama coach, and she continues to dabble as a freelancer for local television stations, all on a part-time basis. In the past, she has done private tutoring and substitute teaching, has taught public speaking at the collegiate level, and was the mastermind behind a program in Anchorage allowing high school students to write and report their own on-air news stories.

In her free time, Heather loves to read and write, scrapbook, and travel the world. She and her husband have visited Verona, Italy, where William Shakespeare received his inspiration for Romeo and Juliet. They also spent two weeks in England – visiting the birthplace of Shakespeare and the Bronte sisters – a highlight for any literature buff!

Robin Prehn

In elementary school, Robin wanted nothing more than to be paid to read books. By the time she reached high school, she learned that wasn't very likely (unless she wanted to move to New York City), and a teacher encouraged her to write, instead. She went to CU Boulder, intending to become a technical writer in the area of Astrophysics. After three semesters of Physics, however, Robin realized the technical parts of the writing didn't appeal to her as much as they needed to. She changed her major to Piano; two years later, she added Elementary Education. After graduation, Robin taught in the public schools for a year before deciding she wanted to do more. She then started and ran her own one-room school (K-12) for eight years. Her favorite parts of teaching were reading, writing, and friending – ie, learning about the students and being their friend/mentor.

When The Schoolhouse was in its fifth year (and Robin celebrated her first graduating class), she began dating Chris Prehn. The two had known each other since junior high, and had attended grades 7 - college together. After marriage in 2000, Robin and Chris decided they wanted a family – and they weren't getting any younger! Balancing everything involved with the school and being a mom didn't seem like the best plan, so Robin closed the school the year before her son was born. Once Ellie came along, Robin turned to writing young adult novels as an outlet for her creativity.

As a writer, Robin especially loves to read fresh voices and to mentor those just starting out – everyone has something valuable to say. It's just finding the best way to say it.

Julie Radachy

Writing has always been one of Julie Radachy’s passions. As a child, she spent most summer vacations reading books from the library, trying to learn the craft from the professionals, and then drafting new short stories of her own using her imagination. When it came time to choose a major, Julie was enticed by the creativity needed in the broadcasting industry, so she earned a degree in Telecommunication Studies and then worked briefly as a television director at an Ohio television station. A few years later, after graduating with a Middle Childhood Education degree with concentrations in both Language Arts and Social Studies, she taught a fifth grade self-contained classroom. During this time, she created several cross-curricular lessons that integrated composition with content area subjects. Then, Julie graduated with her Master’s in Education degree in Curriculum and Technology Integration from an online university.

Currently, she designs online composition courses and coordinates the educational programs for accredited distance learning courses. In addition, she assists high school and college students with writing assignments in asynchronous and synchronous online tutorials. Having experience as both an online educator and an online student, Julie shares her perspectives on online education by writing a column in a monthly newsletter. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and pets in their Ohio home, playing tennis, and playing the piano.

Rachel Rossano

Rachel is a lover of words. She can trace her fascination back into her early childhood. Her affection for writing began when she reached her teens. Since then, stories and words have filled her life. With each project, she tries to improve her craft, striving for more moving, clear, and engaging prose. She keeps a regular blog where she posts stories in serial form. She has published one book, The Crown of Anavrea, and is writing and planning more. In 2002, she graduated from Central Connecticut State University with a degree in accounting.