The DWW Board

Laura Hedgecock is an author, freelance writer, and speaker passionate about helping others tell their personal and family stories. Her books include Memories of Me: A Complete Guide to Telling and Sharing the Stories of Your Life ( Cedar Fort, 2014) and Blogging for Family History. Her nonfiction articles have been published in numerous consumer magazines.

Laura is currently working on a YA fantasy series and nonfiction articles. She blogs at TreasureChestofMemories.com. In addition to DWW, Laura serves as Secretary of the Genealogical Speakers Guild and is a past president of the Geneabloggers Organization. She also co-leads Youth United, an interfaith youth service organization.

Diane VanderBeke Mager is a design historian, museum educator, and author, presenting the treasures of Cranbrook Art Museum and Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research to audiences of all ages for over twenty-five years. Her love of historical objects and the places that house them guides her writing.

She is currently revising a middle-grade novel, anchored in research and whirling with adventure. Diane holds an MA in Decorative Art History from Cooper-Hewitt Museum/Parsons School of Design, an MS Ed in Leadership in Museum Education from Bank Street Graduate School, and a BA in Art History from Kalamazoo College. In addition to Detroit Working Writers, she is a member of Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, American Alliance of Museums, and Michigan Association of Museums.

Grace Grogan has loved reading and writing her entire life. Her passion for writing drew her to take a course at the Institute of Children’s Literature on writing magazine articles for children. She has an Associate’s Degree in Business Administration with a specialty in Paralegal.

Past positions include Office Manager, Administrative Assistant, Paralegal, Community Opinion Columnist for the Port Huron Times Herald, and freelance writer of blogs for businesses worldwide. Grace has served as Secretary and held committee chair positions for the Mohawk Elementary PTO; Secretary of a Precious Moments Collectible Group; Art Show Committee of the St. Clair Art Association; Historian at Studio 1219; Historian, Vice President, and President of the Blue Water Shutterbug Club; Vice President of the St. Clair County Family History Group and Newsletter Editor of Blue Water Family Backgrounds. Grace joined DWW in 2019.

Grace is currently working on a memoir about her (now deceased) husband and her attempt to adopt their granddaughters, who were taken by Child Protective Services and adopted out to strangers. She writes a monthly genealogy column, Who AM I? for The Lakeshore Guardian, has published several articles in The Freshwater Reporter, and travel articles with photographs in the PSA Travel Journal and RVLiving Magazine. Grace has a personal blog, Life is a Melting Pot.

Rumors persist that the nearly two-hundred-year-old house where Bill Rathburg and his wife, Jan, have lived for half a century is home to resident ghosts. However, there have been no recent sightings to support these claims.

For many years, Bill taught English to middle and high school students and, more recently, college students. During his high school years, he discovered Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone,” which inspired him to write short stories. He never published any of them.

With encouragement from DWW members, he resumed fiction writing after a hiatus of fifty years, concentrating mostly on speculative tales rooted in Southeast Michigan. His short fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including Literary Yard, Ariel Chart, Ghostlight Magazine, and The MacGuffin literary journal. Bill is also a member of the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers.

Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet and author whose work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Her debut novel, In the Context of Love, was a finalist for multiple awards, including the Hoffer Award and Sarton Women’s Fiction Award. She has five poetry chapbooks, including a chapbook award from Heartland. She also wrote and illustrated a children’s picture book. Linda holds an MFA from the University of Southern Maine. She volunteers at Neighborhood House, a local nonprofit where she lives in Michigan. Visit her at LindaKSienkiewicz.com

Richard Stiennon writes nonfiction. He has presented on the topic of cybersecurity in 31 countries on six continents.  He is the author of Security Yearbook 2021: A History and Directory of the IT Security Industry. In 2019 he published Secure Cloud Transformation: The CIO’s Journey. He also wrote Surviving Cyberwar (Government Institutes, 2010) and Washington Post Best Seller, There Will Be Cyberwar. He writes for SecurityBoulevard.com, and The Analyst Syndicate.  He has a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and an MA in War in the Modern World from King’s College, London. Follow @cyberwar on Twitter.