Board of Directors

Louis T. Brusatti

Lou Brusatti
President

Louis T. Brusatti is the current Dean of the School of Humanities at St. Edward's University. He has been in this position for six years. The School of Humanities is dedicated to collaborative effort between faculty and students to enhance the quality of a well-rounded liberal arts education. His English faculty promotes the award-winning journals Arete, a student forum for academic writing; and the Sorin Oak Review, featuring students’ creative composition; as well as the Visiting Writers Series.

Louis obtained his doctorate from The Catholic University of America with a concentration in Pastoral Theology and has published articles, book chapters, book reviews, audio cassettes, and video tapes for nationwide Catholic presses, colleges, and universities.

Louis formerly served on the Seton Ethics Committee and as President of the Brookside Villas Condominium Association.

Larry Norwood
Vice President

Larry Norwood is a retired corporate communications specialist. He spent 28 years in media relations, philanthropy, government affairs, advertising and video production. Larry was publications editor at Tulane University, a Navy journalist aboard an aircraft carrier during two tours in the Gulf of Tonkin, a public relations manager at Baylor College of Medicine, a petroleum industry trade journals editor in Houston and Dallas, and a daily newspaper reporter in Corsicana. He earned a bachelor's degree in English at Baylor University and a master's at Tulane University.

Karen Trikilis

Karen Trikilis

Secretary

Karen Trikilis graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Liberal Arts degree in English and History. Later, she was accepted to the Political Science Department of Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos where she graduated with highest honors.

For 35 years, Karen has worked for a criminal and civil law firm where she works with clients with unique legal problems. These experiences taught her to be a quick and thorough problem solver.

Karen is an avid reader and a long-time book club member.

Rick Guzman

Rick Guzman
Treasurer

Rick Guzman is a former Army officer with a solo general law practice in Williamson County. Rick's practice is diverse and includes entertainment, regulatory, administrative, and criminal defense as well as other matters. A variety of clients include small presses, publishers, record companies, writers, consumers, cities, homeowner's associations, and small businesses.

Rick is a current Board member of the City of Round Rock Community Development Commission and the Double Creek Office Condominium Property Owner's Association, Inc., and a former board member of the Round Rock Ranch Homeowner's Association.

Rick is a longtime member of the Writers' League of Texas and has published ten books with his co-author and wife, Lila Guzman, and many
articles, including one for the League's Scribe.

Directors

Sheila Allee

Sheila Allee

Sheila Allee has been a speechwriter for almost 20 years and has produced speeches for a wide variety of speakers. Sheila spent 12 years as a journalist and has extensive experience writing for and editing magazines. She has written for Reader's Digest, Business Week, Texas Business, and USA Today and others. Her book, Texas Mutiny, a Texas crime novel, is now in its third printing. She has also written Seven Steps to the Podium, A Handbook for Speakers and Speechwriters.

Eric Behrens

Eric Behrens is an Austin attorney with Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody. Eric obtained his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law, where he was the Managing Editor of the Texas Law Review, and his undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas, where he was the Editor for the campus yearbook (the Jayhawker).

Eric is currently also serving on the Board for the Austin Public Library Foundation, just coming off a term as its President, and Ballet Austin. Eric has been re-elected to serve on the 2010 WLT Board.

Susan Blount

Susan Blount

Susan Blount is a veteran of the high-tech industry who migrated from her native Atlanta to Austin by way of Boston and Houston. Susan held senior marketing positions at Dell, Compaq, and Winternals Software and is currently self-employed as a marketing consultant. She attended Vanderbilt University and has a math degree from University of Georgia. From 2003 through 2007, Susan served on the Literacy Austin board as secretary and chair of the marketing committee in addition to tutoring adults in basic literacy.

While in Boston, Susan served on the board of Boston Community Loan Fund as chair of the fundraising committee. She is an active member of Impact Austin and an alumna of Leadership Texas (2004). Susan's professional credits include business and technical writing. She lives in Austin where she practices Bikram yoga, reads extensively, and walks her dog Lulu daily at Red Bud Isle.

Laura Castro

Laura Castro is a writer and media relations expert with more than 25 years of professional experience in journalism, strategic communications and public relations. She currently works for The University of Texas at Austin as director of media relations for the School of Law and as an adjunct professor in the School of Journalism.

A native of Austin, Castro worked across the country as a journalist at national news organizations including The Wall Street Journal, New York Newsday and CNN for more than a decade before earning a law degree from The University of Texas in 1997. She is a founding and current member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Since 2004, Castro has also been an independent media consultant and literary publicist advising and promoting various authors including Pulitzer-prize winner David Oshinsky, historian H.W. Brands, and former national journalist William Cope Moyers.

Harrison Cheung

Harrison Cheung

Harrison Cheung is an award-winning writer and Web marketer. He currently works for IBM as a Web editor. Prior to relocating to Austin, Harrison lived in Los Angeles, pioneering online marketing campaigns for the movie industry, including cult hits American Psycho, Donnie Darko and Brokeback Mountain.

Harrison has been published in Farfelu, Wired, Rock & Soul, and Zap2it.com. His first novel, Idol Worship, was a finalist in The Writer’s Network Screenplay and Fiction Competition. He is currently working on a series of Young Adult novels. In addition to the Writers’ League of Texas, he is a member of the American Library Association and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop.

This year, IBM recognized Harrison for volunteering over 100 hours in the Central Texas area.

Dr. David F. Ciambrone

Dr. David F. Ciambrone

Dr. David F. Ciambrone is a retired scientist, professor, U.S. Treasury commissioner, and award-winning, best-selling author. Dave writes "Ask Uncle Dave," a helpful hints and science newspaper column for the Williamson County Sun. He has published 10 books: six mysteries, three management books, and a non-fiction reference book on poisons.

Dave was a professor at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona and is president of the San Gabriel Writer's League. He is also a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the Writers' League of Texas. Dave is a professor and dean in the Georgetown Library's Writers' College and a speaker at writer's conferences around the country. He lives in Georgetown with his wife, Kathy.

Rita Mills

Rita Mills

Rita Mills' passions are the First Amendment, books, and literacy so it is understandable that her career would take its charted path. Her career started at The Odessa American, in far West Texas. In the early '70s she moved to Houston and started a 20-year stint at The Houston Post. She left there in the early 1990s to become the managing editor of Arte Publico Press at the University of Houston, where she helped with the start-up of a new children's picture book imprint, Pinata Books.

Rita left the University of Houston in 1997 to start her own company, The Book Connection, where she consults with small and independent presses in proper book-publishing-industry standards and protocol. TBC works with a roster of 35+ freelance individuals with book-specific experience in all areas of writing, editing, design, illustration, marketing and public relations. She guides her clients through the publishing maze to produce and sell bookstore-quality books.

She also started a small publishing house called Bluebonnets, Boots & Books Press, and has published 10 titles since 1997. She also has a children's picture book imprint, The ABC's Press, under which she publishes the winners of the ABC's Children's Picture Book Competition.

Her other endeavors include Texas Authors Group, a Web site hub where independent Texas publishers showcase their books and highlight their availability as speakers.

James A. Pounds

James A. Pounds

James A. Pounds received his MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He has published poetry, martial arts essays and interviews, and most recently a short story in The Sorin Oak Review. His work has been a finalist in three different divisions of The Pirates Alley William Faulkner Competition and in the WLT Manuscript Contest. He is currently at work on a second novel. He is on staff at St. Edward's University in Austin and is also a yoga and karate instructor.

Evelyn Palfrey

Evelyn Palfrey writes romantic suspense for the marvelously mature and has published four novels (Three Perfect Men, The Price of Passion, Dangerous Dilemmas, and Everything In Its Place) and stories in two of the Chicken Soup series. She credits WLT with advancing her writing career by helping her meet an agent at the Agents & Editors conference resulting in sales of her books to Simon and Schuster.

Evelyn's accomplishments include establishing the League's online group and serving as its moderator since 2005; being active with the Austin Romance Writers of America; and formerly serving on the boards of Austin Community Radio, Austin Public Library Foundation, Texas Municipal Courts Education Center, State Bar of Texas, and WLT.

Tweed Scott

Tweed Scott

Tweed Scott is a retired broadcaster of 31 years. Although he wrote thousands of commercials and promotional announcements, he never really thought of himself as a writer. In 2001 he began writing for Countryline Magazine and the Austin Business Journal. In 2004 he opened Tejas Communications, a writing & professional speaking company.

Tweed has written the three-time national award-winning book, Texas In Her Own Words—a peek into the Texas psyche explaining why Texans are the way they are…where all that attitude comes from. The book achieved a second printing in three months and is sold at the Alamo and the Bob Bullock Museum. His passion is writing about Texas. He enjoys the company of other writers and anyone connected with publishing and the writing business.

Beth Sample

Beth Sample

Beth Sample owns Full Sentences consulting services and is writing her fourth novel. She holds a Journalism B.A. from Texas State and a Project Management Certificate from St. Edward's. She's helped raise thousands of dollars for the Writers' League's Bess Whitehead Scott scholarships, coordinates social media for Wonders and Worries, and co-founded Pen & Fork, a critique group in its fifth year. A past President of Sisters in Crime and WLT Board alternate, she formerly managed production for best-selling educational products at Harcourt.

Laura Seaborn

Laura Seaborn

Laura Seaborn is the president and one of the founding members of the Writers' Guild of Texas. This 100-plus member organization seeks to promote and encourage the writing community and presents monthly programs of interest to writers and authors.

She is a member of the following critique groups: Lesser North Texas Writers, North Texas Speculative Fiction Writers' Group, and Future Classics.

Laura Seaborn is employed as a CPA in a corporate tax department. She obtained her B.S. in Accounting from the University of Texas at Arlington. She later obtained an M.A. in History, her first love, from the University of West Florida but instead of teaching, she joined the Air Force to see the places she studied. Now she writes of those places and other historical worlds in her time travel Young Adult novel.

Michael W. Stockham

Michael W. Stockham is an attorney in Dallas who specializes in complex business litigation. As part of his practice, he writes about and counsels on First Amendment issues. His legal writing has appeared in such journals as the Cornell Law Review and in publications sponsored by the American Bar Association's Media, Privacy, and Defamation Committee.

Prior to becoming an attorney, Michael received his Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico and his Master of Arts in English, with a concentration in Creative Writing, from Texas A&M University. His fiction has appeared in such journals as The Writer's Forum, The Berkeley Fiction Review, Short Story Review, Outerbridge, Art Times, Collages and Bricolages, and Flipside. His poetry has appeared in such journals as The Allegheny Review and Conceptions Southwest. He is a recipient of the Frank Waters Southwest Writing Award.

Frances Townsend

Frances Townsend received her B.A., magna cum laude, in Journalism and Political Science from Trinity University in San Antonio. She graduated with honors from the University of Texas School of Law in 1997. She is a member of the Writers' League of Texas, and her first novel, Blood Ties, was a finalist in the Mainstream Fiction Category of the WLT's 2009 Manuscript Contest. A native Galvestonian, Frances has one son and four Boston Terriers.