Our Authors

Karen Siplin

Karen Siplin was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in film production from CUNY’s Hunter College. Her first novel, His Insignificant Other, was published in Serbia in June 2004. Her second novel, Such a Girl, was a Main Selection of Black Expressions Book Club in 2005. She has worked as a telephone operator at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City and as a celebrity personal assistant. Visit her at www.karensiplin.com.

Linda Sivertsen

Linda Sivertsen, author, ghostwriter, and coauthor of eleven books (including two NYT bestsellers), is the host of the top-rated Beautiful Writers Podcast and mentor to thousands of writers online and in-person. She pushed through all manner of rejection to realize her dream to write bestselling books AND help save trees and fragile ecosystems. (Linda’s a Forest Stewardship Ambassador, and this book is printed on FSC paper, with a percentage of sales going to their nonprofit.) With the added fun of broke-ness, death, and divorce, readers will find Linda uniquely qualified to support them through any blocks.

Linda and her work have been featured widely in the media, including Forbes.com, The New York TimesInc., Extra, TeenVogue, CNN, HuffPostGlamour, Los Angeles Times, CARMEL magazine, and on the TEDWomen stage. She loves micro-blogging about all things writing (and dogs and horses!) on social media and blogs regularly at BookMama.com from her ranch office in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Books by Linda Sivertsen

Susan Sizemore

Media junkie Susan Sizemore is the author of numerous novels and short stories, ranging from historical romance to epic fantasy. She has an affinity for vampire fiction, basketball, coffee canines and movies with explosions. For more information, Susan’s Web site address is susansizemore.com.

Bob Skir

Robert N. Skir grew up in Oyster Bay, Long Island. His love of all things fantasy, science fiction and horror led him to make animated films at 14, latex masks at 16 and write short stories throughout high school. He majored in English at the University of Virginia and earned a master’s degree in screenwriting at UCLA. He has written many episodes of animated television, including “Beetlejuice,” “X-Men,” “Batman” and “Superman,” and has served as story editor and written on “The Mask,” “Extreme Ghostbusters,” “Godzilla” and “Transformers: Beast Machines.” His short story “Singularity Ablyss” was published in the 2005 anthology Transformers: Legends. He has taught Animation Writing at UCLA.

Jon Skovron

Jon Skovron lives with his two sons outside Washington, D.C. His first novel, Struts & Frets, is about music. It was recently published by Abrams Amulet. His second novel, Misfit, is about demons and
other monsters. It comes out in the fall of 2011. If you like music and/or monsters, visit him at jonskovron.com.

John C. Smith

John C. Smith has a master’s in celestial mechanics (the motion of heavenly bodies) and has spent more than twenty years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., designing missions to explore the planets. He has worked on successful missions to Venus, Earth and Mars and has been part of the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan for 16 years. He is the designer of the four-year “tour” of the Saturn system that began in 2004 and recently contributed to the design of a two-year extended mission through 2010.

Peter Smith

Peter A. Smith is currently working as a visiting professor and research associate at the University of Central Florida, while pursuing his Ph.D. in modeling and simulation at the same university. He was formally trained as a computer engineer and has spent much of his career working with serious games and simulations as a contractor with SAIC and the U.S. Navy. He is also the community manager for the Serious Games Initiative and a blogger for the initiative Web site as well as the Second Life Insider.

Robin Smith

Dr. Robin L. Smith is a global thought leader in the regenerative medicine industry, one of the fastest growing segments of modern-day medicine. She received her M.D. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business. During her tenure as CEO of the NeoStem family of companies (NASDAQ: NBS), which she led from 2006 to 2015, she pioneered the company’s innovative business model, combining proprietary cell therapy development with a successful contract development and manufacturing organization.

Dr. Smith maintains a regular column for The Huffington Post. In June 2016, she was awarded the Women of Power and Influence Award from the National Organization of Women (NOW) and is the 2014 winner of the Brava Award, which recognizes top women business leaders in the Greater New York area. She was also a finalist for the 2014 EY Entrepreneur of The Year award for the New York area, recognizing entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and success in the areas of innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities.

As a business leader, entrepreneur, doctor and philanthropist, Dr. Smith is uniquely positioned to lead the global healthcare industry into the cellular future, where the cells of our bodies will stand as the foundation for a wide array of cures.

Books by Robin Smith

Grace Smith

Grace Smith is on a mission to make hypnosis mainstream. A pioneer in the Hypnotherapy field, Grace’s private clients including Fortune 500 CEOs, A-list celebrities, Olympic athletes, and government officials. She is founder of the world’s #1 provider of hypnosis education, products, and services, Grace Space Hypnosis (gshypnosis.com) and Grace Space Hypnotherapy School (gshypnosis.com/school), a world-class hypnotherapy certification program. Grace is the author of Close Your Eyes, Get Free: Use Self-Hypnosis to Reduce Stress, Quit Bad Habits, and Achieve Greater Relaxation and Focus.” Grace’s work has been featured in The Atlantic, Forbes, Entrepreneur, InStyle, Marie Clarie, Buzzfeed, MindBodyGreen, She Knows and dozens of podcasts. She is a regular guest on CBS’s hit show, The Doctors and her “Relax, Brazil!” segment on popular Brazilian late night talk show, “The Noite con Danilo Gentili” went viral, bringing her powerful self-hypnosis techniques to millions of viewers. Her keynote speeches include OZY Fest with Hillary Clinton, Proctor & Gamble, SummitLive, Women Empowerment Expo, Soul Camp, and more.