Meet Our Members:

Pat Ballard	After dieting from the time she was eleven years old until she was thirty-three, Pat Ballard decided to stop starving herself and learn to love the body that developed. Pat now writes romance novels with Big Beautiful Heroines. But her novels encourage women of all sizes to love our bodies because we're each a one-of-a-kind work of art. There never has been, nor will there ever be another you. Pat has seven books in print: Dangerous Curves Ahead  short stories, A Worthy Heir, Wanted: One Groom, Nobodys Perfect, His Brother's Child, Abigail's Revenge, and The Best Man. Pat is the Events Chair for the WNBA Nashville Chapter.
Bebe (Sarah) Brechner	Bebe is the WNBA Nashville Chapter's President. She moved to Nashville in 2004. She is a senior product manager for ProQuest LLC, creating and managing research databases in the humanities and social sciences for university and college libraries. Even though she works in electronic publishing and is fascinated with online information, she is a longtime bookworm and fan of the printed word! Bebe is also a librarian. For more information, click on her LinkedIn profile.
Ginna Foster	Ginna Foster received a B.A. in History and Literature from Harvard College, a M.B.A. in Marketing and Management from Columbia Business School and a M.L.A.S. from Vanderbilt University. After graduating from college, she attended the Radcliffe Publishing Program and worked for the literary agent, Andrew Wylie. Most recently, she was the Director Channel Management at McGraw-Hill managing partnerships for the Platts group. In 2007, she founded the Evening with an Author series, a monthly authors' series hosted at local galleries, to share her love of books, wine and smart conversation with a group of like-minded people in the Nashville area. In addition to her day job as the President of Swift Book Promotion, LLC, Ginna is also the Past President of the Women's National Book Association, Nashville Chapter and a volunteer for the Southern Festival of Books.
Elizabeth Heffington	Elizabeth Heffington, Catalog Librarian at Lipscomb University, came to Nashville five years ago by way of Georgia - the state of her birth; Arkansas - the state of her undergraduate education; Seattle - the place of a bad romance; and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, where she earned a Master of Library and Information Science. After spending two years at the Edmondson Pike Branch of the Nashville Public Library, the fates smiled on her when Carolyn Wilson needed a Catalog Librarian at Lipscomb Univeristy. Both positions have afforded Elizabeth wonderful opportunities for some great reading, as a volunteer book club moderator at Edmondson Pike, and as a WNBA member. Elizabeth is the editor of The Nashville Edition.
Helen Hemphill	Hailed as a "writer to watch" by Publishers Weekly and a strong new voice in childrens literature by Kirkus, Helen is the author of the middle grade novel Runaround (Front Street, 2007) and the young adult novel Long Gone Daddy (Front Street, 2006). She holds an M.F.A. in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College and an M.A. in English literature from Belmont University. Ms. Hemphill is an education Artist in Residence for the Tennessee Arts Commission and a member of the Southern Artistry register at the Southern Arts Federation. Visit her on the web at www.helenhemphill.com.
Linda Leaming	Nashville native Linda Leaming's Married to Bhutan (Hay House, April 2011) is the story of her 14+ years in the Himalayas. It has become an international success, translated into German, Korean, and Turkish, with other deals pending. She writes for Huffington Post, Ladies' Home Journal, Mandala magazine and other publications, and divides her time between Nashville and Thimphu, Bhutan. When in Nashville, she and her painter husband, Phurba Namgay, live in Bellevue. Her website is: www.marriedtobhutan.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lindaleaming.
Ellen Myrick	Ellen Myrick has been marketing books for more than 20 years including time with Davis-Kidd Booksellers, The United Methodist Publishing House, BookPage (ProMotion, Inc.), Ingram Library Services, NorthSouth Books and, most recently, at Myrick Marketing & Media where she provides marketing, publicity, and conference services for independent and international publishers. She has a deep respect and admiration for librarians, which has found an outlet through her work with TSLAFriends, the newly formed Friends group for the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Ellen has also dabbled in audiobooks and narrated the YALSA Notable Recording Stop the Train by Geraldine McCaughrean. She is serving a fourth year as Judging Chair for the Audie Awards, the audiobook industry's awards for excellence. Ellen has also contributed to several industry publications including Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and Audiofile. Ellen is a past president of WNBA-Nashville and served as editor of The Bookwoman.
Susan Paisley	Susan Paisley was born in Clarksville,TN. Ms. Paisley graduated from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville with a B.S. in Political Science and Law. With a fascination for writing short stories and poetry since her teens, Paisley has had work published in several literary magazines and has received awards from the International Society of Poetry and the Shakespeare Award from the Famous Poets Society. Ms. Paisley has authored 2 books, Her Cumberland- a historical novel about the founding of Clarksville and A Goose Tale -a children's book. She has attended several book signings for her books
Gary Slaughter At the height of successful career as an expert consultant on the management of corporate information technology, Gary Slaughter (www.garyslaughter.com) put that career on hold to write a series of four novels depicting life on the home front during the last year of World War II. Gary has finished his series, which has won a total of five literary awards so far. Cottonwood Summer published in 2004, Cottonwood Fall published in 2006, Cottonwood Winter in 2008, and the latest, Cottonwood Spring, now released. When not writing, he accepts invitations to speak to book lovers in the Nashville and around the country.
Gloria Toler	Gloria Toler is the Webmaster for the WNBA Nashville Chapter and the Managing Editor for the WNBA national newsletter, The Bookwoman. Gloria moved with her family to Franklin, Tennessee in 1998 and does freelance copyediting and proofreading. She holds a CPA license in Texas and has a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Central Missouri. When not reading, she enjoys playing the piano and listening to her two college-aged sons perform.
Alana White	With encouragement from authors Lee Smith and Alex Haley, Alana White wrote her first published novel, Come Next Spring (Clarion), set in Appalachia in the 1940s. Since then, Alana's publications have included nonfiction Sacagawea (Enslow Publishers), and short stories (Gathering: Writers of Williamson County COP Publishers). Her fascination with the Italian Renaissance led to her first short mystery fiction, then to a full-length novel, The Sign of the Weeping Virgin, set for publication with Five Star Mysteries in 2012. Alana's articles and book reviews appear regularly in Renaissance Magazine and Historical Novels Review. Visit her on the web at www.alanawhite.com.
Carolyn Wilson	Carolyn Wilson is Director of Library Services for Beaman Library at Lipscomb University. She serves actively in numerous professional organizations, but her associations with WNBA have been long and rewarding. She served as chapter president, served on the national board for over fifteen years, and was national president during a period of establishing two new chapters. She was WNBA Awards chair when the award was presented to Barbara Bush, and she and current treasurer Margaret Auer developed the Strategic Plan for the national organization. She was on the initial planning committee for the Southern Festival of Books, and has worked with Humanities Tennessee in that event since. Carolyn enjoys cooking, reading (of course), book collecting, travel, and "hanging out" with her two daughters and three beautiful granddaughters.

WNBA Members

We'd love to list you on this page! Submit a short paragraph (100 words or less) about yourself, and if you have a photo or website link to include, please do so. Submit to Gloria Toler:
webmaster@wnbanashville.org