Margaret Bates
Margaret Bates graduated Magna Cum Laude from Duke University with a B.A. in psychology. Additionally, they were ABD while studying toward their Ph.D. in childhood development at The University of Alabama at Birmingham and hold a master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Baltimore. They have decades of experience in academic writing and editing. Also, they have worked with creative writing students as well as undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Baltimore’s writing center as an on-staff writing tutor.
Currently, they have returned to academia and are earning a master’s in professional writing from Towson University. Their research focus areas include the ramifications of tropes in romance, how romance readers’ personal values drive their book-purchasing decisions, and the experience of women-identifying fanfic writers. They also work with the Towson University Business Department as a writing tutor, where they work closely with students to revise their resumes and cover letters to further their prospects post graduation.
In the realm of fiction writing, they possess almost a dozen years of experience as a ghostwriter and freelance editor, knowledge which gives them a keen eye for pacing, plotting, and character GMC based in psychological underpinnings. As an editor, they have contracted with Mascot Books and NineStar Press previously. They’ve also created a stable of well-respected writing workshops they’ve taught online for Contemporary Romance Writers and Savvy Authors. They have presented previously at the Maryland Writers’ Association and Contemporary Romance Writers’ annual conferences. Additionally, they have presented guest workshops for The Writing Gals’ 2025 online summit and at the Maryland Romance Writers 2025 1-Day writing retreat. Upcoming in February of 2026, they will present a panel on Editing for Authors for the inaugural Mid-Atlantic Romance Writers Conference.
Their current novel-in-progress, The Keening, was a finalist in the “Novel with Romantic Elements” category for The Emily Contest from the League of Romance Writers. It ultimately won 4th place.
Finally, Margaret has a passion for writing that comes from lived experience. Under a pen name, they are a USA Today best-selling author of both paranormal romance and urban fantasy. They look forward to working with you on your paranormal romance, urban fantasy, or horror novel and helping to refine it into the best possible work it can be.
Midnight Voss
Midnight Voss earned her master’s degree in American Literature from the University of Oklahoma and her doctorate in Rhetoric, Composition, and Pedagogy from the University of Houston. Her entire life has been dedicated to writing and the teaching of writing, both in academia through composition and literature classes as well as in one-to-one consulting sessions in the writing center with writers of all levels. Her focus on cultural and disabilities rhetorics has given her a specialty in depth of meaning and structure.
However, alongside her academic specialty, Voss has worked with creative writers for years in workshops and freelance editing and coaching. Her perspective on writing stems from both a literary angle as well as a reader and writer of fiction, enabling her to create focused classes that allow writers to hone their worldbuilding, connect their world to their characters, make use of adaptation theory to develop their manuscripts, and build their novel from in-depth looks at genre and theme. Her workshops and talks have featured in local groups like Central Valley Fiction Writers as well as online platforms like SavvyAuthors.
In her own writing, she leans towards fantasy, urban fantasy, and dystopia, and reads as much of these as she can get her grubby hands on.
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