BOARD MEMBERS

A former college professor, stand-up comic, and founder of two successful firms, Dr. Tom Sant 

is the author of the best-selling Persuasive Business Proposals, which was named one of the ten most important books in sales by Geoffrey James of Inc. magazine.  He is also the author of the highly acclaimed The Giants of Sales and The Language of Success.  He is also the author of two mid-grade novels, The Amazing Adventures of Albert and His Flying Machine (Dutton) and Desert Chase (Scholastic). 

Tom earned his Ph.D. in English from UCLA and taught at the University of Cincinnati. He launched a consulting firm focused on business communications and became a specialist in business proposals, writing over $30 billion of winning proposals for clients. He won the Gold Medal at the New York Industrial Film Festival for best industrial video script, the Gold Quill Award from the International Association of Business Communicators, and was named “America’s foremost expert on proposal writing” by the American Management Association. He created the world’s first proposal automation system, which is now used worldwide by more than 5,000 organizations.

Rusty was born in the middle of the previous century, in the small town of Exeter. The hospital where he was born had two nurses and a part-time doctor. It was remodeled into a car mechanics garage a few years later. 

He attended school in Tulare, which he has always maintained was a good place to grow up and leave. He left his mark there as the first male to run for Yearbook Queen (he finished 12th out of 12 contestants). He was involved in creative writing early, winning local contests for both stories and public speeches. He ended up at the College of the Sequoias (yes, he became Vice-President).  There, he flourished in the theater department, writing and producing short plays and musicals. He ended up at Fresno State, where he matriculated in History. 

Rusty moved to San Luis Obispo in 1979 and started an ad agency, GNU Productions. A businessperson, then, he was not. After five years, he needed to make a living and got a real job.

Over the years, Rusty has produced songs, published short stories and essays, stuffed a half-written mystery into his filing cabinet, and founded the only college in America where you can get a BS in BS, Baywood State. He is now working on a collection of thrilling stories about his journey to be even older. 

He has been married to his wife, Stacy, for 43 years, has two daughters, and one life-changing grandson. He brings to the club the perspective of a non-professional writer, one who, throughout his working years and into retirement, has struggled to find the energy and motivation to produce, and has benefited both from the organization and the members of SLONightwriters for their continued support.

Denise Yaffe is a new author of children’s books. She is from California. Denise Yaffe is the former editor of Wordsmiths, the newsletter for SLO NightWriters. She illustrates and writes middle-grade environmental fiction and non-fiction. She is currently writing the Earth Kids series of books addressing pollution, global warming, climate change, and environmental justice. In the past, Denise authored and published scholarly articles and technical papers for national conference proceedings and various peer-reviewed journals such as Risk Analysis, J. Chemical Information Computer Science, and Industrial Engineering Chemistry Research.

Denise, a California Native, moved to the Central Coast in 2019. She has a doctorate degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is also a Licensed Professional Engineer. She works part-time as an environmental consultant.

Leonard Carpenter, more recently known as Leo the Immortal,
is SLONW’s new Secretary, having formerly held the post for
several years. At 77 he is widower of a 50-year courtship
and marriage, and divorced from an 8-year one. Apart from
eleven Conan The Barbarian fantasy pulps, with a million
copies sold and a million words in print, his main output
has been the sea war epic & screenplay Lusitania Lost, and
this year’s Amazon book, Never Get Old, a longevity primer.
(& plus award-winning stories from the previous century.)
Leo was born in Chicago and raised mostly in California,
with stays in El Paso, visits to Cuba, & a 9-month bicycle
tour of 17 countries in Europe with his late wife Cheryl.

An inspired author called, D’Andrea learned the meaning of words like tenacity, discernment, and persistence, grew the author’s determination to overcome weakness through time and perseverance. She conquered working 35 years of long days in Property Management/Marketing, now somewhat retired.

Years ago, Dodi counseled under successful people to investigate other ways to diversify income, and learned an important tip under a network marketing biz – ‘Hang around people you want to become like.’ Another tip – read books by accomplished people- and take the time to get involved in classes or a club that will educate you in the field you’d like to develop. 

Her true literary blessing is when she found consistently reading the Bible led her to church and family community, gaining understanding to practice New Testament conservative concepts. She found ways to soften her anxiety and stress battles, gaining wisdom, quietness and peace.

“My mind is always full, the option to create stories, gave her the ‘why,’ to become inspired to write and become a published author. What eventually happens when you stop procrastinating is therapeutic.

It’s a joy to meet new people, to share, care and serve.

Harvey Ardman has been a professional writer for nearly 60 years. His work includes many magazine articles, dozens of PBS documentary films and 23 published books, both fiction and non-fiction. He is a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Journalism and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

About a year-and-a-half ago, Ardman left his home of 40 years in Rockport, Maine and moved to San Luis Obispo, to be near his younger daughter. One of the first things he did here was to join Nightwriters. He is an avid participant in a critique group and is in the final stages of completing his first science fiction novel, “Hello, Earth,” a book of just over 100,000 words.

Last year, he served as the Golden Quill’s short story judge.

Jon lived in the SF Bay Area since 1964 and worked in technology/engineering starting in 1984.

He attended Willow Glen High School and graduated from De Anza Community College and SJSU. 

Jon started managing privately held properties in 2010 and is familiar with everything that goes into managing properties – the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

Jon raised his son and daughter alone since 2010 from the time the children were in elementary school and into adulthood. 

He was not a soccer mom, but he was a rugby dad, swimming dad, surfing dad and archery dad. 

Both kids are doing fine after dealing with their dad.

Is Jon an engineer, a realtor, a writer….? He’ll let you know when he grows up.

He left in Pacifica in 2024 for San Luis Obispo and is still cutting ties with everything in the SF Area, even his dentist. 

Currently Jon is just putting his house together, writing a self-help book and is recovering from his children’s teenage years.

Michelle’s first career was as an attorney from 1987 to 2020. She is currently working on two novels, one of which she hopes to complete this year. She was awarded first place (in a tie) in the 2023 Golden Quill Poetry Contest for a poem called “The Tomorrow.” Her short story called “The Mystical Summer of El Chorro” will be published in a California Writers Club sci-fi/fantasy anthology “One Universe to the Left” in 2023 or early-2024. She joined NightWriters in 2021 and enjoys meeting with her read and critique group every other Friday.