2025 Faculty: S through Z
Clay Stafford
Clay Stafford is an American bestselling and award-winning author, poet, screenwriter, playwright, and composer; film and television producer, director, showrunner, actor; book, film, and stage reviewer; and public speaker. He has sold nearly four million copies of his books, distributed his work in sixteen languages, and spoken live to over one million people. He is the founder and CEO of the annual Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference, American Blackguard Entertainment, publisher of Killer Nashville Magazine, and a contributor to Writer’s Digest magazine with his monthly column, “Killer Writers.” He has been called “One of the Top 40 North American publishing industry professionals to watch” by Publishers Weekly, Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Book Fair), and the American Booksellers Association. Publishers Weekly lauds that Clay Stafford, through his influence, plays “an essential role in defining which books become bestsellers” throughout “the nation’s book culture.” For more information, visit https://claystafford.com/
Helen Thornton-Gussy
Helen Thornton-Gussy has been editor and owner of Edit Co. for the past eight years, providing editing services such as developmental (structural) editing, line editing, copy editing and proofreading. She works in both US and UK English and loves a good Oxford comma.
With many strings to her bow, Helen decided to give up the corporate world to focus full time on her editing business. With the knowledge she has gained over the years, Helen has now added publisher to her resume, with several books (fiction and non-fiction) published through her Southlight Press publishing company.
In adult commercial fiction, the genre’s she edits are crime, thriller, mystery, epic fantasy/fantasy, and women’s fiction. She loves a good thriller or epic fantasy and considers herself fortunate to have been able to work with Grim Oak Press (based in Washington State) who produce limited edition copies for fantasy authors such as Robin Hobb, Terry Brooks, Raymond E. Feist and many more.
Born and bred in New Zealand, Helen, as is typical of most Kiwi’s, has travelled the world, learning as much about different cultures as she can. Every visit to the United States ends with a standing invitation to those she meets, to come and visit her beautiful country.
Learn more about Helen, and the services she offers here (https://www.editco.nz/) or on Instagram
@edit_co._ or Threads https://www.threads.net/@edit_co._/