Meet Our Members:

Pat Ballard	After dieting from the time she was eleven years old until she was thirty-three, Pat Ballard decided to stop starving herself and learn to love the body that developed. Pat now writes romance novels with Big Beautiful Heroines. But her novels encourage women of all sizes to love our bodies because we're each a one-of-a-kind work of art. There never has been, nor will there ever be another you. Pat has seven books in print: Dangerous Curves Ahead  short stories, A Worthy Heir, Wanted: One Groom, Nobodys Perfect, His Brother's Child, Abigail's Revenge, and The Best Man.
Bebe (Sarah) Brechner	Bebe is the WNBA Nashville Chapter's webmaster. She moved to Nashville in 2004. She is a senior product manager for ProQuest LLC, creating and managing research databases in the humanities and social sciences for university and college libraries. Even though she works in electronic publishing and is fascinated with online information, she is a longtime bookworm and fan of the printed word! Bebe is also a librarian. For more information, click on her LinkedIn profile.
Lonnie Cruse	Born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, Lonnie Cruse now resides in Metropolis, Illinois, home of Superman. She writes the Kitty Bloodworth '57 Heaven Mystery Series and the Metropolis Mystery Series. Lonnie is a member of the Womens National Book Association, Sisters In Crime, the SINC Internet Chapter, SINC Mid-TN chapter, Guppys, Heartland Writers Guild, The Southern Illinois Writer's Guild, the Antique Automobile Club of America, and its Southern Illinois Ohio Valley Chapter. Lonnie teaches writing workshops and speaks to writers/readers groups. Her website is: www.lonniecruse.com
Ginna Foster	Ginna Foster received a B.A. in History and Literature from Harvard College, a M.B.A. in Marketing and Management from Columbia Business School and is currently pursuing a M.L.A.S. from Vanderbilt University. After graduating from college, she attended the Radcliffe Publishing Program and worked for the literary agent, Andrew Wylie. Most recently, she was the Director Channel Management at McGraw-Hill managing partnerships for the Platts group. In 2007, she founded the Evening with an Author series, a monthly authors' series hosted at local galleries, to share her love of books, wine and smart conversation with a group of like-minded people in the Nashville area. In addition to her day job as the President of Swift Book Promotion, LLC, Ginna is also the President of the Women's National Book Association, Nashville Chapter and a volunteer for the Southern Festival of Books.
Helen Hemphill	Hailed as a "writer to watch" by Publishers Weekly and a strong new voice in childrens literature by Kirkus, Helen is the author of the middle grade novel RUNAROUND (Front Street, 2007) and the young adult novel LONG GONE DADDY (Front Street, 2006). She holds an M.F.A. in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College and an M.A. in English literature from Belmont University. Ms. Hemphill is an education Artist in Residence for the Tennessee Arts Commission and a member of the Southern Artistry register at the Southern Arts Federation. Visit her on the web at www.helenhemphill.com.
Bunkie Lynn	Monica Wessel (aka Bunkie Lynn) was born in Tucson, Arizona. A graduate of the University of Texas with a B.S. in Film, Bunkies career experiences in filmmaking, advertising, international business management and motherhood provide endless material for her satire. Bunkie is the author of two novels, a non-fiction self-help book, several screenplays and an internet blog for middle-aged women with issues. A self-professed chocoholic, Bunkie is fluent in four languages including Southern, and is a frequent speaker at women's events and literary festivals. Her website is www.bunkielynn.com and her blog is at http://bunkielynn.blogspot.com.
Mary Saums Mary Saums grew up in Decatur, Alabama. In her youth, she worked as a recording engineer in Muscle Shoals on albums by Bob Dylan, Jimmy Buffett, Roy Orbison and many other fine artists. Her music business experience helped in creating MIDNIGHT HOUR, the first of three mystery novels featuring singer and fledgling PI Willi Taft. Mary's poems, stories and essays have appeared in magazines and anthologies. She has a new book from St. Martin's Minotaur, THISTLE AND TWIGG, a comic Southern mystery that features two ladies in their sixties, one British and one Southern. See her website for more information about her books -- http://www.marysaums.com.
Susan Paisley	Susan Paisley was born in Clarksville,TN. Ms. Paisley graduated from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville with a B.S. in Political Science and Law. With a fascination for writing short stories and poetry since her teens, Paisley has had work published in several literary magazines and has received awards from the International Society of Poetry and the Shakespeare Award from the Famous Poets Society. Ms. Paisley has authored 2 books, Her Cumberland- a historical novel about the founding of Clarksville and A Goose Tale -a children's book. She has attended several book signings for her books
Gary Slaughter At the height of successful career as an expert consultant on the management of corporate information technology, Gary Slaughter (www.garyslaughter.com) put that career on hold to write a series of four novels depicting life on the home front during the last year of World War II. Gary has finished his series, which has won a total of five literary awards so far. Cottonwood Summer (www.cottonwoodsummer.com), published in 2004, Cottonwood Fall (www.cottonwoodfall.com) published in 2006, Cottonwood Winter, in 2008, and the latest, Cottonwood Spring, now released. When not writing, he accepts invitations to speak to book lovers in the Nashville and around the country.

WNBA Members

We'd love to list you on this page! Submit a short paragraph (100 words or less) about yourself, and if you have a photo or website link to include, please do so. Submit to Bebe Brechner:
webmaster@wnbanashville.org