The Ground Fiction Collective

LYNN BEMILLER

Lynn is a retired physician and Navy veteran. She holds a Certificate in Novel Writing from Stanford. She has two grown sons, and lives in Southern California with her husband.

JANE BOULDEN

Jane is a Canadian and a professor of International Relations. She has been a member of Seth Harwood’s workshop for three years. She has written and published extensively in the academic world.

NELL PORTER BROWN

Nell is a long-time journalist—and new fiction-writer—in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her work is guided by fervid curiosity, a deep love of craft, and the simple, sweet act of letting the imagination run free. A staff writer/editor at Harvard Magazine, she focuses on alumni profiles and New England-based arts/culture, history, gastronomy, and travel. She is also earning a master’s degree in creative writing and literature—and is available for freelance editing and writing projects.

KATE M. COLBY

Kate is the author of the Desertera steampunk dystopian series and forthcoming paranormal fantasy novels. Her writing has been published in regional magazines, won local awards, and been taught in college courses. In addition to pursuing a Master’s degree at Harvard Extension School, Kate enjoys wine tasting, playing video games, and doting on her feline familiars. Learn more at katemcolby.com.

ELIZABETH COLEMAN

Elizabeth is an attorney and writer based in San Francisco. Her work has been featured in Art Animal Magazine and Swoop Magazine, among others. Connect with her at elizabeth-coleman.com or @thelizcoleman.

VICTORIA FERENBACH

Victoria is a retired interior designer. She lives in New York City.

RICH FERRI

Rich is a soon-to-be-retired software engineer and inventor that spends his free time attending creative writing classes and workshops. He’s published stories in Aethlon: The Journal of Sport, and online at literallystories.com. He’s an avid baseball fan and lives in upstate NY with his wife and their fierce Corgi, Nellie. He has a wide collection of plaid shirts.

JENNIFER FICKLEY-BAKER

Jennifer is a Pittsburgh native who’s been a writer for more than 20 years. She focuses on thrillers and ghost stories for adults, as well as middle-grade fantasy (to the delight of her two children). Her first novel, THE WIDOW OF HARTEFORDE, was written under the mentorship of author Seth Harwood.  Follow her on Twitter @JennFickley.

BENNETT GATES

Bennett, once an engineer, now a retired physician, struggles to reinvent himself as a writer – with the patient support of his fellow students and coach. He lives in Silicon Valley with his beagle, cat, and beloved wife Joan, who in COVID days has become a formidable writer of honey-do lists.

SETH HARWOOD

Seth has written ten books, including the the bestsellers Everyone Pays, In Broad Daylight, and Jack Wakes Up, as well as The Maltese Jordans, Young Junius and two other novels in the Jack Palms Crime series, two short story collections, and a novella set in Kurt Vonnegut’s World.

He got his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2002, and has been teaching writing and coaching writers ever since, most recently through Harvard and Stanford.

Seth has led private online workshops for authors since 2014. More on Seth’s coaching and teaching services can be found at writewithseth.com. His fiction lives at sethharwood.com 

ANDREW HINSHAW

Andrew resides in the Midwest with his girlfriend, two cats and a honey badger masquerading as one. Once a trance DJ and dog food lineman, he now works in a field more suited to his background in psychology. He spends his free time rereading the Darth Bane Trilogy, looking stoic in grayscale photographs and participating in online workshops hosted by author and instructor Seth Harwood. He’s published short stories in The Scarlet Leaf Review and Oyster River Pages (the second of which, “Abigail”, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize).

JEANNIE HUA

Jeannie has been a criminal defense attorney for 20 plus years and a genius writer in her own mind since birth. While awaiting her genius to be discovered, she’s attending the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and living off of her husband.

JULIA PARMENTIER

is a retired geologist/environmental scientist who has gone back to writing after years of consulting and teaching.  She has published occasionally in the past in the Providence Journal and the Foster Home Journal. She lives with her spouse in western Rhode Island, sharing the woods with the tree frogs, barred owls, foxes, and far too many deer.

ANDREW C. PETERSON

Andrew C. Peterson is a writer currently working on his thesis for a master’s degree in creative writing and literature at the Harvard Extension School under the tutelage of author Seth Harwood. He is also a frequent lecturer at the annual Tolkien at UVM conference. Andrew is an avid reader, writer, and possible book hoarder who lives in Boston.

J.L. PRICE

J.L. has recently made the move to fiction writing, after spending most of her work life writing academic pieces and teaching. When she isn’t working and writing she loves to spend time with her husband and two kids enjoying places of natural beauty. She is particularly fond of the mountains of Wyoming, where she loves to hike, bike, camp and fish (which for her means reading a good book, on a nice rock by the water). 

B. R. WELCH

B.R. is a professional dilettante and writer of speculative fiction. He is currently working on a novel expanding the universe of Shield Monkeys. B.R. is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and an avid student of Tiger Crane Kung Fu. He likes to dress up as a poet on the weekend and is often mistaken for a houseplant. He tweets sporadically at  @b_r_welch can be reached online at brwelch.net.

ALYCE WERDEL

Alyce lives with her husband in San Francisco, where they raised three children. In a former life, she was a partner at the international law firm, Baker & McKenzie, and was a frequent speaker and author on global equity compensation. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School and Stanford University, where she played on two NCAA Championship tennis teams. Her husband always told her she had an active imagination, so she decided to try fiction writing.