Look Who's Coming to Our June 20 Online Meeting!

Our first ever online meeting will be an adventure for everyone.

If you haven't done a Zoom meeting yet, email one of the board members, and we'll be happy to guide you through the simple process -- at least, as simple as computer tech can get!

If you're well-acquainted with Zoom, it might be the first time you've ever submitted work to public scrutiny. Have no fear! Your name won't be mentioned (the panel won't know who the authors are), and the agents are kind as well as entertaining. And please be patient in return. While the each board member has participated in Zoom meetings, we are not as well-versed in hosting them.

If you participated in last year's meeting with the same objective, welcome back to The Slush Pile. We hope you enjoy it as much as if we could all meet face to face.

Let me introduce you to our panel this year. J.M. Hochstetler and Tish Martin are delighted to return for the fun, and Rose Tussing, who was our third member last year is wishing she didn't have a conflict preventing her attendance. In her place, we welcome Alyssa Roat.

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 Alyssa Roat has worked in a wide variety of roles within the publishing industry, as an agent, editor, writer, and marketer. Along with being a literary agent at Cyle Young Literary Elite, Alyssa is the publicity manager at Mountain Brook Ink, an editor with Sherpa Editing Services, and a freelance writer with 175+ bylines. She holds a degree in Professional Writing from Taylor University. Her debut novel, Wraithwood, releases Nov. 7, 2020 from INtense Publications. She would love to connect on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @alyssawrote or on her website alyssawrote.com.

Tisha Martin writes historical fiction and nonfiction but edits full-time for beginning and best-selling writers and publishing houses. Since 2017 she has worked on over 250 books. She has a bachelor’s in Professional Writing, a master’s in English Education, and an editing certificate from the PEN Institute. She enjoys speaking at writer’s conferences and supporting writers in the self-editing process. Her nonfiction essay in The Horse of My Heart: True Stories of the Horses We Love is forthcoming in September from Revell. Learn more at www.tishamartin.com.

J. M. Hochstetler is the daughter of Mennonite farmers and a lifelong student of history.

For many years she worked as an editor for Abingdon Press, and currently she is the publisher and editorial director for Sheaf House Books located in Elkhart, Indiana.  Her award-winning historical fiction has been endorsed by bestselling authors such as Lori Benton, Laura Frantz, Jocelyn Green, Michelle Moran, and MaryLu Tyndal.

Hochstetler is the author of the American Patriot Series, the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution. One Holy Night, a contemporary retelling of the Christmas story, was the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year and a finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Carol Award.