About
About the Board
President: Dr. Warren Martin
Dr. Warren Martin (aka Marty) served 21-year career in the United States Army in the Infantry, Military Police and Special Forces (Green Berets). After he retired from the Army in 1996 he earned an MBA from the University of Michigan and a PhD in Business Administration and Organizational Leadership from NorthCentral University. He transitioned to teaching at Bryan University, Norwich University, and Southern New Hampshire University.
Warren was introduced to writing in 2012 when he attended a meeting of the St. Louis Publishers Association (SLPA) and has been writing ever since. Warren is a member of the St. Louis Writers Guild, St. Louis Sisters in Crime, Military Writers Society of America (MWSA), and served as President of the St. Louis Publishers Association (SLPA) and the Missouri Writers’ Guild.
His current writing interest is in Fiction, Non-Fiction, and as a Grandparent he has an award winning Children’s book series based on his experiences with his grandchildren “Adventures with Pop Pop.”
Vice President: Greg Stout
Greg Stout is the author of Gideon’s Ghost, a young adult novel set in small-town America in the mid-1960s, and Lost Little Girl, a detective novel set in Nashville, Tennessee. He has also written 22 books on the history of American railroads.
Treasurer: Jane Rutter
Jane Rutter serves as director of the Office of Stewardship and Development for the Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City. She serves as the lead author of the guide, Gospel, Gift & Gratitude: Cultivating a Stewardship Parish and collaborator on the development of Stewardship: Living Out Discipleship curriculum for K-12 grade students. Her weekly column On the Spiritual Journey is published in the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Missourian.
Secretary: Greg Stout
Greg Stout is the author of Gideon’s Ghost, a young adult novel set in small-town America in the mid-1960s, and Lost Little Girl, a detective novel set in Nashville, Tennessee. He has also written 22 books on the history of American railroads.
Publicity Director: Vacant
Historian: Connie Yen
Connie Yen is a writer and archivist with a passion for history and telling stories. She is the author of Sinner and Savior: Emma Molloy and the Graham Murder, the true story of an 1886 murder in Greene County known as “The Graham Tragedy,” published in 2018, and A Postcard History of Springfield (Arcadia Publishing, 2014). Connie graduated from Missouri State University in 2012 with a degree in History and a minor in Ozark Studies, only the second person to obtain the new minor. She earned a Masters’ Degree in History in 2015, after writing a thesis entitled Horse-Stealing and Man-Hanging: An Examination of Vigilantes in the Ozarks, the most downloaded thesis in university history. Her third book, Springfield: Past and Present, will be available Winter 2022.
Since 2016, Connie has been the director of the Greene County Archives and Records Center in Springfield, Missouri. She is a member of the Missouri Writers’ Guild and the Missouri Association of Museums and Archives. Although an introvert at heart, Connie enjoys speaking about Missouri history and engaging with her audiences at conferences and book signings.
She loves books, history, hiking, and fountain pens. Connie lives in the Missouri Ozarks with her husband and a few hundred books.
Membership Director: Vacant
Director at Large: Larry E. Wood
Larry Wood is a retired public school teacher and a freelance writer specializing in the history of Missouri and the Ozarks. He has published nineteen nonfiction books, two historical novels, and about 500 magazine articles and stories. He maintains a blog on regional history at www.ozarks-history.blogspot.com. Wood was named an honorary lifetime member of the Missouri Writers Guild in 2016.
Director at Large: Billie Holladay Skelley
Billie Holladay Skelley received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Now retired from working as a cardiovascular-thoracic surgery clinical nurse specialist and nursing educator, she enjoys focusing on her writing. She has written several health-related articles for both professional and lay journals, but her writing crosses several different genres and has appeared in various journals, magazines, and anthologies in print and online—ranging from the American Aviation Historical Society Journal and Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors to the American Journal of Nursing and Chicken Soup for the Soul. An award-winning author, she also has written eight books for children and teens. Billie is a Ten Pillar member of the Missouri Writers Guild (MWG), and a current member of the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc. (OWFI), the Joplin Writers’ Guild (JWG), the Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers Guild (CCMWG), Saturday Writers, the Ozarks Writers League (OWL), and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Connect with Billie at www.bhskelley.com.
Director at Large & Newsletter Editor: Jeanne Szarwinski
Jeanne writes under the pen name of Brice A York. Her website is https://briceayork.com. Having retired from the business world of financial services, she was able to transfer her publication skills to authoring books.
She has authored the following: A memoir entitled: Crayons and the Purgatory Journals. Following with a historical fiction, The Fate of Lady Jane and a connecting book, A Documentary: Ozark Flight # 809, July 23, 1973. With this publication, she performed extensive research on the tragic crash of Flight # 809. Along the way she contacted many of the families of the deceased. With the 50th anniversary approaching on July 23, 2023, she was interviewed by KSDK Channel 5 and appeared on their “5 at 75” Special.
She has also authored a fantasy fiction novel which symbolizes feminism in an outrageous and satirical way, entitled: Sisterhood of the Alligators.
Her latest novel, Ghost of Hillbilly Heaven, is a psychological suspense story filled with twists and turns.
She serves on the Board of Directors, as Director at Large for The Missouri Writers’ Guild. She is first VP on the Executive Board for Welcome Club of St. Louis. Retired Executive: Fortune 500 company. She enjoys and is active on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and TikTok.
With her partner and three cats, she lives in St. Louis. In her spare time, she searches for vintage items and sells them on an Etsy.com shop called PoppysQuest. Coffee lover and a true “Leo.”
Director at Large & Newsletter Editor: Jeanne Szarwinski
Gaëlle Freer, a Paris-born native of Neuilly-Sur-Seine, grew up in New York and dedicated 39 years to teaching high school English and writing. Her journey took her through classrooms and leadership roles in New York, Key West, and Missouri, where she chaired committees and led district initiatives. These experiences shaped her skills in organization, multitasking, and building networks—expertise she now brings to support writers on their creative journeys.
https://www.blueroosterco.org/
Director at Large & Newsletter Editor: Jeanne Szarwinski
Jeffrey W. Tenney is retired and living in southwestern Missouri. He is a recipient of a Spur Award for fiction. In addition to writing novels, he occasionally writes stage plays and screenplays, and has produced two films, The Raven’s Prey and Heads. He holds Masters degrees in Anthropology and Public Health.
Webmaster: Nate Hoffelder
Nate has been helping people fix broken tech since 2010. He turns broken down WordPress sites into sites which convert visitors into superfans, also builds sites from scratch, and helps authors with their social media and newsletters.
Nate is the president of the Riverside Writers Club in Fredericksburg VA, and is on the board of the Florida Writers Foundation. When he is not volunteering, he writes bad jokes on Twitter and creates memes and graphics.
In his spare time, Nate maintains two Little Free Libraries.
Connect with Nate via his website: www.NateHoffelder.com