Meet the people behind our writers’ group
Learn about our Board of Directors and the other important volunteers who help make IWOSC great.
IWOSC is a non-profit organization of volunteers who take on various tasks. Filling our booth with writers at a festival, or greeting and checking people in at our meetings, and helping to plan parties are some of the occasional jobs that volunteers do, and we are grateful to them.
If you’d like to jump in and join us, just say the word.
Board of Directors
Gary Young
President
Gary Young
As Director of Professional Development for many years, Gary’s hard work & energy has brought you nearly every seminar and panel for all these years. He did much more as well.
Gary is an author/actor/playwright. He is co-author of the book, “Loss and Found,” and the soon to be released ghost story, “Glimmer the Bright Moonlight.”
Gary’s been a member of IWOSC since 1999. He is also President of the Publishers Association of Los Angeles, a former coordinator for the National Very Special Arts Festival at the Kennedy Center in DC, Executive Director of the Lifetime Achievement Foundation and Vice Chair of the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights.
Contact:
Gary.Young at IWOSC.org
Steven Sanchez
Vice President
Steven Sanchez
You may recognize Steven as one of our popular Seminar instructors. In 2016 he collaborated with Gary Young to create our first full-day Marketing Intensive.
Steven Sanchez helps people build their online platforms. For more than 20 years his Los Angeles-based Internet Agency has worked for leading companies in industries such as travel, health and racing to create Internet solutions that work for both business and consumer interests.
Steven has helped companies large and small start their web businesses, publish online and serve the needs of their followers and customers.
He has also served as technical editor on bestsellers such as Homepage Usability, Web Design on a Shoestring and The Unusually Useful Web Book. He enjoys the cutting edge of technology, all things Internet publishing and social media, as well as travel, sailing and scuba diving.
Steven is a frequent IWOSC workshop leader and panelist on marketing, social media, and website development, and is currently working on several Internet projects to help writers develop their author platforms. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and four children.
Contact:
Steven.Sanchez at IWOSC.org
Roberta Edgar
Vice President
Roberta Edgar
Roberta Edgar has been VP of IWOSC for eight years and board member for twice that number. She also chairs IWOSC’s booth at the annual Los Angeles Festival of Books.
Ghostwriter/editor Roberta even writes in her sleep. Her dreams are Oscar-worthy.
Website: wordsalamode.com.
Contact:
RobertaGE at aol.com
As Deb takes Monika’s photo at the Summer Party, James seems to be having fun with a giant lemon.
Treasurer
Monika Vogl
Monika is great — and so busy handling our finances and being creative that I can’t get her to take the time to give me a bio for this page. She has been our Treasurer since the dawn of 2014, stepping in when we lost Pam Leven. It was a difficult task and she has never let us down. If you attend a meeting or seminar, chances are you know her face, smile and the credit card machine she introduced.
Contact:
If you need help with an IWOSC financial issue, please contact Vickey, our Office Manager via the official IWOSC email address, info at iwosc.org.
Telly Davidson
Director of Programs
Telly L. Davidson
Many Monday night Panel attendees have seen Telly in action as he has created some fantastic panels for us over the years. In 2017 he consented to officially direct our programs and he has been hard at work on that ever since.
Telly Davidson’s newest book, Culture War has attracted rave reviews from critics.
Telly was senior film and TV reviewer for best-selling pundit David Frum’s FrumForum from 2009-12, has written about movies, TV, and music for FilmStew, 213 Magazine, iF Monthly, Entertainment Today, Guitar Player, AllAboutJazz, The American Conservative, and Attn.com.
He also wrote the Emmy-cited media tie-in TV’s Grooviest Variety Shows, works alongside top indie film producer’s rep Jeff Porter of Porter Pictures on the placement of independent films and worked in the past on TV specials for NBC and PBS, including the Emmy-nominated Pioneers of Television
Contact:
Telly.Davidson at IWOSC.org
James Mills
Director of Meeting Logistics
James F. Mills
James F. Mills writes manuscripts and screenplays in between freelance journalism assignments for various local magazines and websites. He has personally broken more than one news story of great importance to locals in LA.
He is a North Carolina native who relocated to Southern California after receiving his MA in Communications Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He resides in West Adams.
Contact:
JFMills777 at gmail.com
Directors-At-Large
Sharon Goldinger
Sharon Goldinger, owner of PeopleSpeak, is a book shepherd, editor, and publishing and marketing consultant specializing in nonfiction books. With an eye for details, she leads authors and publishers through the often-complicated publishing process (writing, editing, design, printing, marketing, distribution) and uses her business, marketing, and editorial experience to help produce exceptional, award-winning books. She also consults with authors and publishers on business strategies, marketing plans, and author platforms and coordinates many facets of marketing (including public relations, advertising, speaking, social media, networking, partnering with organizations). She is also “The Answer Lady” for Joel Friedlander’s TheBookDesigner.com blog.
For more information, visit DetailsPlease.com/peoplespeak.
Contact: pplspeak at att.net
Robin Quinn
Robin Quinn
Book coach, editor, ghostwriter, publishing consultant with over 25 years in book biz. Her clients’ self-help books include I Heard Your Dog Died, Diets Don’t Work, the best-seller The Detox Solution.
Robin’s website is: WritingAndEditing.biz.
Contact:
robinkayquinn2 at gmail.com
Mark Miller
Mark Miller
Mark Miller has held positions as a nationally syndicated humor columnist for the Los Angeles Times, an interviewer and humor blogger for The Huffington Post (along with a wealth of other publications and websites such as a column in Jewlarious.com) a TV sitcom and TV variety show staff writer/producer for eight series including, Diff’rent Strokes and The Carol Burnett Show (1991 version), a movie scriptwriter, a stand-up comic in nightclubs and on TV, and a writer for comedians such as Jay Leno, Dana Carvey, Roseanne Barr, Rodney Dangerfield, and Jim Carrey.
His first book, a collection of his humor essays on dating and romance, is 500 Dates: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Online Dating Wars.
And when show biz work slowed down, he developed a whole new career as a marketing copywriter for consumer businesses and professional service firms, where he managed to sneak in some humor as well.
But he says he’d trade all his success away in a minute for immortality, inner peace and limitless wealth.
Follow his website/blog at: MarkMillerhumorist.com.
Reach him at: mark.writer at gmail.com.
Ina Hillebrandt
Ina Hillebrandt
Ina joins our Board of Directors this year, 2016 and, having produced panels for us and taught as well, is now part of our newly-formed Programming Committee.
Ina is a bestselling author and publisher, writing coach, editor, and speaker/trainer. Author of Pawprints and the original guide, How To Write Your Memoirs, she specializes in memoir, and in fiction and humor. She, her articles and books, and clients, appear on TV, radio, print and online media. Latest project: You Are Who You Eat.
You can learn more about her at InasPawprints.com/about_ina.htm and InaTheMemoirCoach.com.
Contact:
CoachIna at InaTheMemoirCoach.com
Desiree Duffy
Desireé Duffy
Desireé Duffy is the Founder of Black Château, a marketing and public relations agency and Books that Make You, a multi-media brand that promotes books and authors through its award-winning website, podcast, and radio show.
Desireé’s early days in radio gave her the foundation to create, produce, and host the Books That Make You Show as well as her keen understanding of podcasting.
In the 1990s to early 2000s Duffy was a radio host, program director, producer, and marketing professional with companies including: The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, iHeart Media’s KFI-AM, and ABC’s and Disney’s ESPN Radio/Radio Disney/KABC-AM/KLOS-FM.
Craig O’Connor
Craig O’Connor
A consulting urban planner, Craig researches and writes planning documents. Drawing upon his studies in anthropology, geography, and linguistics, he explores fundamental oral traditions of Native America, which he is currently documenting in a non-fiction book.
Contact:
c.oconnor3wtech at roadrunner.com
Lisa de Vincent
Lisa de Vincent
Lisa moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of working and writing in the entertainment industry. She believes IWOSC has been instrumental in advancing her career and connections. Besides writing freelance articles, she is fine-tuning a treatment for a TV series, finishing a horror screenplay and a murder mystery. Lisa resides in Brentwood.
Contact:
DivadeVincent at mac.com
Gerald Everett Jones
Gerald E. Jones
Gerald Everett Jones is a freelance writer and the host of GetPublished! Radio. He has been an IWOSC member since 1985 and is a past Director-at-Large. He is also a member of FIND, WGA, DG, and WNBA.
Contact:
superscribbler at hotmail.com
Erika Fabian
Erika Fabian
A versatile writer/photographer, Erika Fabian has had twenty-three books and nearly two hundred photo-illustrated articles published. Her varied career includes many years of travel on assignment for National Geographic Magazine and other publishers.
When not on the road, Erika Fabian spends her time writing books at home, or ghostwriting or editing someone else’s work.
Contact:
eriakoassociates at gmail.com
Flo Selfman
Ex Officio / Immediate Past President
Flo Selfman
Entertainment/literary/arts public relations consultant and copy editor/proofreader, Flo was IWOSC president from 2003-2006 and 2007-2016. She has been an IWOSC member since 1990 and has served on the Board since 1991, holding many board positions including Vice President, Director of Membership, and Director of Marketing.
She is a resident of Los Angeles’s Westside.
Website: wordsalamode.com.
Contact:
floself at aol.com
Additional Services
Meet more great people who help to make our writers group great.
Satellite Leaders
We robustly applaud those who bring an IWOSC writers meeting to the various parts of greater Los Angeles.
- Los Angeles West Side — Robin Quinn
- Orange County — We applaud the next person who continues this terrific group.
(Thank you to Andrea Ring who did such a great job for area writers until we lost her to another state. Thanks also to Kurt Bensworth for starting this group and running it for so long.) - Pasadena/Altadena Satellite — Jane Neff Rollins
- South Bay Satellite — on hiatus
Thankyou to Joan Rodman for starting this group.. - Ventura County Satellite (Thousand Oaks) — Kathleen Kaiser
(Also, thanks to Sharon Schnell and Dawn Wood for all their work, too.) - San Fernando Valley — Sylvia Cary
We encourage the creation of new satellites. If you can find a meeting location in your area and would like to create one, please let our office know.
LA Times Festival of Books
Chair
Roberta Edgar
Contact:
robertage at aol.com
Volunteer Coordinator
Lyn Corum
Contact:
lyncorum at earthlink.net
IWOSC Office Administrator
Vickey Kalambakal
Vickey Kalambakal
Vickey Kalambakal started as our office administrator in 2015. Prior to taking on the job of keeping us going, Vickey was fantastic as Satellite Coordinator for years and actually ran one of our Satellites for some time. She was also a member of the Board of Directors for several years.
Contact:
info at iwosc.org
Website
Deborah Shadovitz
Deborah has been doing our website designer and maintenance for over a decade now. She also handled our election and helps with all things tech.
She started her professional writing career writing about Jewish philanthropy and other things that helped make New York and the world a better place.
As she backpacked the world solo for 3 years, she started writing about travel.
Moving to Los Angeles after those travels, she turned to writing and teaching Macintosh. She’s the author of many magazine features, columns, and books about using the Mac and about creating great websites as well. Her books include Clarisworks Office for Dummies, the Macworld Office 98 Bible and the Adobe GoLive 5 Bible. As editor of a lifestyle magazine, she got back into travel writing.
In 2011, she gave up her LA abode to travel again and for the rest of the decade, alternated between life on the road and in LA (which was also life on the road).
She’s been IWOSC webmaster for over a decade, even when traveling abroad.
Websites: Shadovitz.com and TalesOfTravelAndTech.com.
Contact:
If you are having trouble or find a problem with this website, email info at iwosc.org with details including the page involved and what exactly you are experiencing. Your email will be forwarded.
Website and email hosting
Our website is excellently hosted by Pixelgate Networks
http://pixelgate.net
Westlake Village, California
805-446-6254 (This is not for IWOSC tech support. Please contact IWOSC if you have site issues.)