This page will be updated as more faculty members are
confirmed for the 2026 Sacramento Writing Workshop.
Chuck Sambuchino (@chucksambuchino) is a freelance editor, bestselling book author, and former longtime staffer for Writer’s Digest Books.
For many years he edited the GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS and the CHILDREN’S WRITER’S & ILLUSTRATOR’S MARKET. His Guide to Literary Agents Blog was one of the largest blogs in publishing, and he wrote the platform guidebook CREATE YOUR WRITER PLATFORM.
He is the lead director of Writing Day Workshops writers conferences, and he has taught at more than 175 writers conferences throughout his career. He is the co-coordinator of the Sacramento Writing Workshop.
His humor book, HOW TO SURVIVE A GARDEN GNOME ATTACK, was optioned by Sony Pictures. Chuck’s books have been mentioned in Reader’s Digest, USA Today, the New York Times, The Huffington Post, Variety, New York Magazine, Buzzfeed, Mental Floss,New York magazine, and many more media outlets.
All his latest books are about pickleball, including ULTIMATE PICKLEBALL, a 2026 tear-off desk calendar due out in August 2025 (Sellers Publishing). His picture book, GOODNIGHT, PICKLEBALL, released from Hachette in August 2025, as was carried in Target, and hit the USA Today bestseller list.
He is a successful freelance editor of queries, synopses, and manuscripts—seeing dozens of clients get agents or book deals following his consultations/edits. He loves meeting new writers.
Carlie Webber is a former literary agent. She is teaching, and also acting as the onsite facilitator for the 2026 Sacramento Writing Workshop.
Carlie refused to major in English in college because no one would let her read Stephen King or R.L. Stine for class. She took her love of YA and commercial fiction to the University of Pittsburgh, where she obtained a Master of Library and Information Science. For ten years, she worked as a public librarian serving teens and adults, served on book awards committees, and reviewed books professionally for journals including Kirkus Reviews and VOYA.
Wishing to pursue her interest in the business side of books, she then enrolled in the Columbia Publishing Course. Her professional publishing experience includes an internship at Writers House and work with the Publish or Perish Agency/New England Publishing Associates and the Jane Rotrosen Agency. She was a literary agent at Fuse Literary before switching careers into SEO and technology.
Jeanne De Vita is a literary agent with Martin Literary Management.
Before moving onto the agency side of the business, I worked in publishing for over a decade as an acquisitions editor and developmental editor for traditional publishers and authors. I’ve worked with hundreds of new and aspiring authors as well as established NYT bestsellers across the genres. I understand the mechanics of a great story and am looking for un-putdownable voice, expert structure/pacing, and a premise that I want to stay up late reading.
I still teach writing and editing craft at the college level, so I’m a technician who reads quickly and assesses books based on how successfully the submission meets the expectations of the genre, sub-genre, or niche. Are you a superfan of the genre you are writing? Can we swap excited stories about our favorite books and have honest conversations about the business, the process, and the work that goes into creating great stories? I have an editorial approach, a practical perspective on the business, and a deep passion for this work.
At the 2026 event, she is teaching and meeting attendees one-on-one. See her wishlist here.
Laurie McLean is a literary agent with Fuse Literary.
At the 2026 event, she is teaching and also meeting with attendees one-on-one. (See her wishlist here.)
Laurie is a founding partner at Fuse Literary representing New York Times and international bestselling authors, as well as indie published authors who want to also publish traditionally, and debut authors with promise. She spent 20 years as the CEO of a publicity and marketing agency, and 8 years as an agent and senior agent at Larsen Pomada Literary Agents in San Francisco before co-founding Fuse Literary in 2013 with Gordon Warnock.
Laurie was well known in the early days of the Apple Macintosh phenomenon as the CEO of the successful Silicon Valley public relations agency bearing her name. After 20 years there, she switched gears to immerse herself in her personal writing. Laurie had been writing professionally since high school–first as a journalist, then as a public relations agent–but now she could finally spread her wings as a novelist. She penned three manuscripts before deciding that she missed using the shark part of her brain and that the life of a literary agent was her perfect match. Prior to all this, she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the State University of New York and a Master’s Degree at Syracuse University’s prestigious Newhouse School of Journalism.
Fiction
C.S. Lakin (Susanne Lakin) is an award-winning author of more than thirty books, fiction and nonfiction, writing instructor, and professional copyeditor who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Lakin’s award-winning blog for writers, Live Write Thrive, provides deep writing instruction and posts on industry trends and features her coaching and mentorship packages. Her online school, Writing for Life Workshops at Teachable offers writing courses and master classes that have been taken by more than 8,000 writers. Lakin teaches workshops and presents talks at writing conferences and workshops in the US and internationally.
Her novels have won various awards, including Zondervan’s First Novel Award for Someone to Blame and one of 8 best Kindle books of 2014 (Digital Book Today) for Conundrum. Her books have sold more than a quarter-million copies. She also writes the Front Range series of Western historical romance under pen name Charlene Whitman.
At the 2026 event, she is teaching.
Swati Hegde is a romance and YA author, as well as a freelance editor, mindset coach, and self-proclaimed coffee shop enthusiast. She lives in Bangalore, India, and can often be found at the nearest café with a hot mug of tea or singing her favorite songs off-key at karaoke night. She looks forward to a long career bringing Indian stories and voices to light.
Swati is represented by Rachel Beck at Liza Dawson Associates. Her debut romance novel Match Me If You Can is out now from Penguin Random House, with forthcoming books Can’t Help Faking in Love releasing in February 2025 and As Long as You Loathe Me releasing in 2026.
Find her on Instagram @SwatiHegdeAuthor and Twitter @SwatiHWrites.
At the event, Swati is offering add-on virtual manuscript critiques for attendees.
Michelle McGill Vargas is an author. At the event, she is offering add-on virtual manuscript critiques for attendees.
“I am writer of speculative historical fiction, flash fiction, and short fiction. I’ve published in The Lutheran Witness, Splickety Magazine, The Copperfield Review, and Typehouse Literary Magazine. I’ve also contributed at Short Fiction Break and Noir Expressions.
“I’m currently represented by the amazing Melissa Danaczko of Stuart Krichevsky Literacy Agency, Inc. I pay the bills as a teacher of deaf and hard of hearing. I’m a member of Highland Writers Group, Valparaiso Writers Group, served as vice-president of the Indiana Writer’s Consortium and chair of its 2016 Steel Pen Conference, and am currently on the board of Midwest Writers.”
Lorin Oberweger is a highly sought-after independent book editor and ghostwriter with almost thirty years experience in publishing. Her company, Free Expressions, offers intensive, deep craft workshops nationwide. She’s also known for her one-on-one story mastermind session for writers of all genres of fiction and creative nonfiction.
At the event, she is offering add-on virtual manuscript critiques for attendees.
Lorin’s students and clients have been published by HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Simon and Schuster, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Disney, and many other presses. They have also gained representation with some of the industry’s leading literary agents and several have had work optioned for film and television.
An award-winning author, Lorin has co-written and ghostwritten eight books, several for New York Times bestselling authors of fiction and nonfiction. Her work, commissioned by major publishers, has received glowing notices from the New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, NPR, and others. Her latest co-author credit is THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK, written with Chris Anderson, director of TED Conferences.
With bestselling author Veronica Rossi, Lorin is the author of the New Adult books, BOOMERANG, REBOUND, and BOUNCE, published by Harper/William Morrow under the pen name Noelle August. The novels were praised by Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, among others, and BOOMERANG was chosen as a “new and notable” selection for Target Stores across the US. She is represented by Tracey Adams at Adams Literary.
Bob McGough is a novelist.
Born and raised in South Alabama, Bob is an Eagle Scout who picks up hitchhikers with reckless abandon and once skinny-dipped at a wedding. To go along with his two useless college degrees he has roadied for a band you’ve never heard of and broke his wrist in a wall of death at a Divine Heresy show. He once licked the Wailing Wall, shook hands with Glenn Danzig, and is owed a fair ride by a carnival worker.
He’s written for video games, designed board games, and owns a disturbing number of roleplaying games. He’s given a camel a coke in Israel, got flashed in Paris, and watched a monkey steal a man’s wallet in Costa Rica. In addition to the passible podcasts he’s made he has also filmed terrible short horror movies and been the producer on a trio of albums. He’s worked and written for musical acts ranging from Upchurch the Redneck to Stitches.
He runs a non-profit while thriving on the groans of those he has punned around. He once dug up a dead cow in a creek thinking it was a human cadaver and has a cousin that’s a water witch,. In college he used to give haunted ghost tours of Troy (even though he’s pretty sure ghosts aren’t real). He’s been stalked, gave a Prophet a lift, and been stagger drunk in more states than he would care to admit.
More relevant he wrote some books, then self-pubbed some other books, and has also been published by a number of other folks with questionable judgment. The fictional things he writes sometimes come weirdly true. (Find all books here.)
He lives in the middle of Alabama with his amazing LadyFriend, the Kiddo, and a clowder of increasingly portly cats. At the event, he is offering add-on manuscript critiques.
Rosie J. Pova is a multi-published and award-winning children’s book author, poet, writing coach, and speaker. Her picture book, Sunday Rain, was featured in The New York Times and recommended by Parents magazine. The School of Failure: A Story About Success is a Readers’ Favorite Awards silver medal winner and is now available in both China and the USA. Her latest picture book, Sally’s Musical Tale will be released in the spring of 2025.
Rosie loves doing school visits to encourage kids to read, write, create and inspire them to follow their big dreams. In her role as a Writing Coach, Rosie’s has helped many aspiring picture book authors advance their careers and reach their publishing goals through her popular mentorship programs and signature Picture Book Mastery course.
Originally from Bulgaria, Rosie now lives in Texas with her family. At the event, she is offering add-on manuscript critiques.
The 2026 Sacramento Writing Workshop 