Meet the Staff
Heidi Komlofske & Ross Rojek
Co-Publishers
The saying “It doesn’t get much better than this” was an understatement with the teaming of Heidi and Ross. There’s also a saying: “Don’t mix business with pleasure.” They ignored the second cliché and dove head-first into conceptualizing the Sacramento Book Review in the spring of 2008 at the same time as beginning a relationship….for they tend to do things in Warp Speed.
As the wearer of many hats (Owner, Co-Publisher, Layout, Graphic Designer, sometimes Editor, and occasional Book Reviewer), Heidi brings more than 15 years of marketing and graphic design experience to SBR and SFBR. Doing newspaper layout and producing a monthly publication is something she’s learning on the fly. You can usually find her perched at the kitchen table, pounding away on her laptop….somewhere amongst a pile of books higher than her head. She’s the “Julie McCoy” of this operation – always the chatty one with wit and prose.
Ross was born and raised in Northern California, and spent most of his life in Sacramento. He graduated high school in Carmichael, and attended CSUS.
In his early twenties, Ross set out to combine his love of comic books with his entrepreneurial spirit. In 1991, he opened his first comic book store–Beyond the Pale, a comic and game store in Midtown Sacramento. After successfully operating that store for several years, he purchased the Comics & Comix chain in 1997 and consolidated the stores down to six locations. In 2001, Ross purchased the Another Universe online retailer and combined that into the retail operation.
After making some poor decisions and becoming involved with a shady set of telemarketer organizations, in April 2004, he was arrested for his part in a telemarketing fraud. He plead guilty to two counts of fraud, and served just under four years in federal prison camps. During this time, he went back to school and started writing book reviews for the local community college school paper. His experiences in finding new books to read for himself and other inmates in his job as prison librarian, lead him to develop his “dream” book review.
Ross’s story is proof that you can dust yourself off after falling down and begin anew. Combining his love of books and business savvy with Heidi’s talent for graphic design led her to open the doors of the Sacramento Book Review in September 2008 and San Francisco Book Review in September 2009, where Ross is the senior editor of the monthly publications.
In July 2010, they launched the book industry’s first Children’s book iPhone application (www.kidsbookapp.com) and plan to follow that up with additional book genres. In August 2010, they will be rolling out the first of many winery iPhone apps — Livermore Valley.
Together, they live near Sacramento, spending most of their time working at opposite ends of the kitchen table producing the paper.
Kaye Cloutman
Associate Editor & Book Reviewer
Kaye has a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism at the University of the Philippines and also attended a 2-year Culinary Program at the Center of Culinary Arts in Manila. She is a self-confessed bookworm who practically grew up in the library, has an unusual penchant for the aroma of old books and finds the ambiance of a library very soothing. Kaye has 9 years of experience working with print, radio, and television media. She is popularly known as the “Love Potion Columnist” for her sex and relationship advice columns in Mirror Magazine. She also bagged some accolades for her 2006 bridal magazine work with Philippine Graphic Publications. She continued her patriotic support of local Philippine talent by creating The Modern Balikbayan Bride published through Blurb, which serves as a valuable resource book to all prospective overseas brides planning their Philippine wedding.
Kaye says that although she may not be financially wealthy, she firmly believes that she possesses the greatest treasures in the world. A loving and devoted husband, a daughter that would make any parent proud, a fourth chance in life and a heavenly little blessing named John Folsom Cloutman IV. “Working at Sacramento and San Francisco Book Reviews with great people like Heidi and Ross has been very therapeutic for me. I will be forever grateful to them for allowing me to be part of their humble beginnings and winning team. There is so much great potential for this publication, and there is something to be celebrated with its immediate success in the face of an imperiled publication industry.”
Larry Le Francis
Manager of Ad Sales
Larry Le Francis is Manager of Ad Sales for the Sacramento Book Review, San Francisco Book Review, as well as 1776 Productions. Previously, he was a co-owner of S4 Studios, LLC, based in Los Angeles, California, where he was involved in marketing, production and as a director, writer and story editor for projects such as “Wild Animal Baby” for the National Wildlife Federation, Cartoon Network’s “The Groovenians,” and on-air broadcast graphics promotions for NBC Universal’s “Chiller,” “Sleuth” and “Universal HD” networks. Larry was Marketing and Co-Creative Director for Klasky Csupo, Inc., creators of “Rugrats,” as well as the original animation studio for “The Simpsons” and founded the studio’s Commercials Division. He also was an executive for CBS Television’s Children’s Programming Department and served as a Producer and Development Executive at Nickelodeon, producing the original pilot for “SpongeBob SquarePants.” He is also proud to have been an editor, reporter, and ad sales rep for a community-based free publication centered on Neighborhood Watch called “The Watchdog” in Los Angeles, California.
Jennifer LeBrun
Editorial Assistant & Book Reviewer
I am, in a lot of ways, your typical busy college student. I just received my AA in Social Science from Ohlone College and am now working towards my Bachelor’s in Social Work at SJSU. I hope to one day open an at-risk youth center to help the less-fortunate kids in our society. Having wondered what “I wanted to be when I grow up” for a long time, and majoring in both Business and Child Development before settling on Social Work, this was a passion that found me…so I know it’s the right path. Like Ghandi said, “be the change you wish to see in the world.” I love sports, especially football and basketball (Go Raiders! Go Spurs!), and enjoy going to as many games as possible. I love watching movies, old and new, especially the greatest movie ever created Dirty Dancing. I have an adorable 2-year-old pug named Rocko, who is the apple of my eye. He may have a face only a mother could love, but he’s the best dog in the world. I have a great support team around me, and without them I wouldn’t be who I am today. My parents have been great examples of hard work and dedication, and that example keeps me motivated. My boyfriend, Tim, is also right there supporting me every step of the way. This November will be our 4-year anniversary, and we can only wonder what the future has in store for us.
Wonder how I got involved with SBR? Well, Heidi and my mom work together. My mom came home one day with a book to review and I became interested too. My first review went in the second issue of SBR back in September 2008. I figured, because I had completed all required English classes, this would be a creative way to keep my writing skills fresh. I don’t have much time to read longer books, considering I have text books to read every night, so I decided to review children’s books. That was great because, at the time, I was the only reviewer doing children’s books-it’s like I had my own section in the magazine. I am now also working as an Editorial Assistant for SBR.
So that’s me in a nut shell. Love what you do and do what you love.
Joey Bittick
Editorial Assistant
In 2009, I was introduced to SBR/SFBR through my wife, Autumn Conley, who works as a Copy Editor for them. Since that time, I have been working with Ross and Heidi as an Editorial Assistant, my primary job being locating and contacting recently published authors who may want to consider having their books reviewed in this wonderful publication. Recently, due to my lifelong love of St. Louis sports, Rams football in particular, I was appointed as a Featured Writer for an up-and-coming website called Rams on Demand (you can check it out and join the site at http://www.ramsondemand.com/blog/). Prior to working with the SBR and with Rams on Demand, I have held a variety of jobs, including working on a dairy farm, at restaurants, at a donut shop, and at QuikTrip in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.
I live with my wife of four years, my stepdaughter, and our three dogs in Tremont City, Ohio, and in my spare time, I enjoy reading, writing, watching MLB, NBA, and NFL, blogging, music, movies, cooking, farmer’s markets, and video gaming. Feel free to follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/joeybittick.
Viola Allo
Copy Editor & Book Reviewer
My educational background is in psychology and anthropology, but I have been a poet for many years. I started writing poems when I was about twelve years old. At the time, my family lived in a small town a few miles away from one of the oldest rainforests in the world, the Korup Rainforest. We were living in the southwestern part of the Republic of Cameroon (Central Africa). It rained there; it rained a lot. I remember the rain, the rivulets of rainwater making quick work of slicing up the mud roads, the wide puddles and large, strange-looking insects that scurried in the puddles and over them. I was at once fascinated and disturbed by rhinoceros beetles, and the fact that, at night, someone was poking around our yard and stealing clothes from the laundry lines on our veranda.
It was there, in the fresh place and time of my early adolescence, that I became interested in taking apart my feelings and writing out lines of words that rhymed. I wanted to make sense of my jumbled thoughts. Nothing much came of it, but I kept writing poems throughout my teenage years. In college, I wrote poems sporadically, and I often felt dissatisfied with what I wrote. In graduate school, I abandoned writing poems, until I found myself lost, stranded in an academic world and unable to write. I started writing essays about my childhood in Cameroon. I began to look at writing as art and joy. After leaving graduate school and seeking out ways to improve my writing, I began creating poems again. The poetry workshops I completed at American River College brought my poems to life; the faculty there have been an incredible source of encouragement to me.
I love and believe in poetry, in its power to transform and uplift humanity. I celebrate the fact that poetry is a craft that is affordable and accessible to all. If you have a pen and a piece of paper, or a stick and an area of smooth sand, and if you can write, then poetry is yours. If you can’t write, but you can speak, then your words are songs, truthful poems spoken in your own voice, be they in your adopted language or in your native tongue.
Being a book reviewer and copy editor for SBR/SFBR keeps my reading, writing, and editing skills fresh. Being around books makes me excited about my own projects. It is such a thrill to review a poetry collection, or find authors who inspire me to think and write even more creatively. I dream constantly of being able to live my life as a writer, poet, and editor. Whenever I write a review or edit one, I feel that I am living a piece of this dream. When I am not writing, I am studying to become a yoga instructor. Yoga and poetry fit perfectly together, because they ask us to slow down and be still, to take time to notice ourselves and the world around us, and to remember to celebrate and honor life, in all its myriad forms.
Megan Just
Copy Editor & Book Reviewer
Megan Just has always been reading fanatic. As a child, she required weekly trips to the library where she would pick up a new armload of books. It’s hard to keep track of that many books and, thus, began Megan’s bad record of library fines that continues today. By mid-elementary school, Megan was animating her toys by writing stories about them, one key at a time, on her father’s old manual typewriter.
Megan began reviewing books for the Sacramento Book Review in March. At the time, she was living just up the hill from Sacramento in South Lake Tahoe. Although Megan recently moved south to Redlands, California, she will continue to review books for SBR. She especially enjoys reviewing books by local authors and books that are so new they have not been released for sale yet.
As a freelance writer, Megan writes for a variety of projects. She likes screenwriting and fiction writing best of all. She recently finished first drafts of two different books: one is a contemporary women’s novel, and the other, with some work and time, will be literary fiction. Megan hopes that someday her fellow SBR reviewers will be reading and analyzing her own books. You can read Megan’s Just Writing blog at www.meganjust.com.
Autumn Conley
Copy Editor
At the age of fourteen, I had my first byline in the local newspaper – a short editorial piece I wrote about local sports legend Pete Rose. That byline excited me like nothing ever had, and it was at that point that I decided, “When I grow up, I want to be a writer.” Throughout my many years of life since then (how many, I will not divulge!), I have had the opportunity to see many more ‘By Autumn J. Conley’ bylines in newspapers, websites, magazines, and anthologies, as well as on the covers of my own two books in 2005 and in the credits of an independent film adaptation of one of my books. These days, I not only write, but I also have the opportunity to work with other writers, serving as a copy editor and book editor for students, novelists, businesses, publishing companies, and websites all over the globe… but it is not something that happened overnight.
After twenty-some odd years of working secretarial day jobs and writing and editing on the side, I came to a point in July of 2009 where my editing and writing ‘hobbies’ were requiring more time than I could squeeze in after my day job. I am not one to make rash decisions and take risks, but I had to give something up because there simply was not enough time in the day. I had a difficult choice to make: “Do I stop writing and editing and keep going to someone else’s office and filing someone else’s paperwork, or do I give up my guaranteed weekly paychecks on the chance that I might be able to swing it by book editing full time?” I decided to take the leap and leave my nine-to-five job behind. Since that time I’ve had the privilege of editing more than 100 books, many of which are published (and some of which have been reviewed in SBR). It was around that time, back in June of 2009, that I ‘met’ Heidi Komlofske and Ross Rojek when I answered an ad they had placed for someone to copy edit the book reviews that appear on the pages of the SBR/SFBR. What a wonderful opportunity it was, and I could not have asked to work with two better people on a more exciting endeavor! While my book editing business has since blossomed to something considerably time consuming, I do occasionally get the chance to peek in on SBR/SFBR now and again to edit some reviews, and I always appreciate the chance to work with Ross and Heidi.
After growing up in Springfield, Ohio and living in St. Louis, Missouri for a couple of years, I am now living back in Ohio – in a tiny town called Tremont City where there is one traffic light, a tiny post office that shares its building with a beauty salon, and only about 350 people. I met my husband Joey (who also works for SBR/SFBR part time and serves as featured writer on the sports blog, Rams On Demand at http://www.ramsondemand.com/blog/) online in 2005 in a Yahoo Books and Literature chat room, and in spite of our relatively large age gap and the Ohio-to-Missouri geography gap, we were married in March of 2006. I have a twelve-year-old daughter, Cissy, who inspired many of my writings during her toddler years, and I also play ‘mommy’ to three small dogs, Maggie, Monkee, and Mitzi.
While it sometimes gets overwhelming, I love the work I do. There is no better feeling in life than helping someone realize their dreams, and that’s why I love working with authors to see their books come to fruition. You can learn more about me at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tremont-City-OH/Autumn-J-Conley-Proofreader-and-Copy-Editor/133806322428, check out my resume at http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg3472jg_61gtttxz8v, or email me directly at autiej@gmail.com.
Gwen Stackler
Social Media & Book Reviewer
Aspiring Jeopardy contestant, chronically scattered, yet able to read long biographies in a single bound, Gwen Stackler has seldom been seen without her nose in a book.
Gwen grew up in Orange County, California, but knew that life in the O.C. was not for her. This led her to move many times, enroll in many colleges/universities, changing majors every quarter, and basically prove to everyone that she had no idea what she wanted to be when she grew up or that she even planned to grow up, for that matter. She almost has a degree in Psychology, Library Science and Computer Technology.
Fast forward 10 years or so, Gwen found the wonderful Central Coast of California and decided that she had finally found the place to be and needed to get a dog. Happily ensconced on the beach with a book and her dog, Murphy Grace, she decided that getting a job that required her to wear real pants was out. She spends her days with her laptop, reading and exploring the new frontier that is social media, all in the comfort of her sweatpants.
Her reviews, thoughts, and personal miseries can be read at http://www.chewdigestbooks.com , or you can follow her at http://twitter.com/ChewDigestBooks.
Robyn Oxborrow
App Development & Book Reviewer
I am a part-time freelance writer and editor based in Reno, NV. As a native Nevadan–first born and raised in Pahrump, then relocated to Reno to attend the University of Nevada, Reno–I find the desert both relaxing and a challenge at times since the weather can change quickly. I graduated in May 2009 with B.A. in English writing and minor in photography. During my last year at UNR, I lucky to have interned at the University Of Nevada Press and gain a wealth of knowledge about book publishing. I have a growing interest in working for print and online publishers, and greatly enjoy helping others to develop their ideas into a story or artwork.
In my free time, I enjoy writing, rock climbing, lounging by the Truckee River or Lake Tahoe when the weather permits, taking part in Reno’s interesting nightlife, and visiting San Diego or San Francisco when I can get the chance. Currently, I’ve been taking poetry workshops and learning web development.
You can find me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/roxborrow or www.roxborrow.com (under development).
