THE SPARKPRESS TEAM

Crystal Patriarche has an extensive 14-year background building a simultaneous career in both public relations and publishing. She has built and executed PR campaigns for established brands such as Microsoft and Pulte Homes to hot startups including Nomad Brush and Auryn Inc., and has had a strong focus in creating female-targeted campaigns, brands, and content. She is known for her creativity, fresh perspective, passion, and results—all of which make referrals the top driver of SparkPoint Studio’s business. Crystal’s life-long love of reading and books, combined with her PR expertise, fueled the growth of an industry-leading division of SparkPoint Studio focused on building women author brands, experts, and book publicity, called BookSparks, where she thrives on reinventing traditional book PR and helping her clients beat the competition through savvy marketing, integrating digital with traditional platforms and storytelling.

Brooke Warner is the publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, and president of Warner Coaching Inc., where she specializes in helping writers get published. In her 20+ years in the publishing industry, including eight years as Executive Editor at Seal Press, Brooke has shepherded hundreds of books through the publication process. In addition to her role as Publisher, Brooke is a TEDx speaker (“Green-Light Revolution”), weekly podcaster of Write-minded (with cohost Grant Faulkner of NaNoWriMo), and author of Write On, Sisters! (She Writes Press, 2019), Green-Light Your Book (She Writes Press, 2016), What’s Your Book? (She Writes Press, 2012), and three books on memoir. She writes a monthly column for Publishers Weekly and lives and works in Berkeley, California.

Sometimes, you can judge a book by its cover! Julie Metz is a graphic designer with more than 25 years of experience, working primarily in the publishing field, and is thrilled to be working closely with SparkPoint Studio on the SparkPress and BookSparks divisions. She has created covers for a wide range of books including fiction/nonfiction, cookbooks and more, including her own New York Times bestselling memoir, Perfection.

Lauren Wise’s passion for reading and writing brought her to the Walter Cronkite School of Lauren Wise’s passion for reading and writing brought her to the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. In 2009 she founded Midnight Publishing, an editorial company focused on helping authors publish positive, influential and inspirational books. Over the years she has worked as a book editor, publishing consultant, and award-winning travel and music journalist. Since 2015, Lauren has worked as an Editorial Manager for She Writes Press and SparkPress, and became Associate Publisher in 2019. She currently sits on the PubWest Board of Directors and on the IBPA Advocacy Committee, and volunteers regularly in literacy efforts and the AZ Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Lauren currently lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with her husband, young son, a healthy whiskey collection, and wall of books.

Shannon Green grew up in a small town in Arizona, where she escaped boredom by memorizing David Bowie lyrics and running a one-woman gazette called The Green News that she forced on her middle school classmates. She graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in creative writing. In 2017, her published work “Mis Estrellas, Mi Alma” received the Jane Shaw Jacobs Award for Fiction.

Through creative writing workshops, she discovered a zeal for editing. She worked as a judge and editor for the global competition The Writer’s Games and was later hired as the Assistant Editor-in-Chief at Lux Undergraduate Creative Review, where she oversaw the editorial development of submissions in art, music, film, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Her love of writing and editing landed her a coveted position in the 2018 Columbia Publishing Course. In Oxford, England, Shannon studied all aspects of the book publishing process under the direction of seasoned publishing professionals from Europe and North America. She graduated from the program with experience, new connections, and above all, the commitment to help authors bring their stories out into the world.

Shannon is thrilled to continue her book publishing career with the SparkPoint Studio team as an Editorial Project Manager for SparkPress and She Writes Press.

New and fantastical worlds within books have always influenced Addison to dream outside of the box. As an aspiring author herself, she has always dreamed of putting books into the world – whether it be her own or others. As a Colorado Native, Addison loves to explore the outdoors and hopes to travel the world in search of the ones she reads about.

Addison received a Master’s degree in English Literature from Arizona State University, focusing on Young Adult and Children’s Literature. Previously, she also received her bachelor’s degree in English Creative Writing from ASU.

Addison has served on the Editorial Board of the Marooned Journal with the English Department at ASU, as well as being the Undergraduate Intern with the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. She directed the Undergraduate Reading Series and Showcase in which the undergraduates in the creative writing program had the opportunity to share their stories with the communities that surround and participate with the university. Addison joined the SparkPoint Studio team in 2021 as an intern and was hired as the Editorial Assistant in 2022. She is now a Project Manager for SparkPress and She Writes Press.

Born and raised in rural communities, Megan Milton had a vibrant imagination and quite a bit of time on her hands as a child. This made escaping into her own world, or one settled between the pages of a favorite book a piece of cake. Now, as a graduate from the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s in English and minor in creative writing, Megan feels indebted to that sweet tooth that led her to the publishing industry.

In the last year, she was accepted into two internship programs within the industry. She was a writer and editor for children’s and young adult publication Pine Reads Review, which was an important step that led to her internship at Macmillan. Megan was a part of the team at Macmillan Audio as the marketing & publicity intern. She served as support for the marketing, publicity, and editorial departments. This position gave her the opportunity to expand her knowledge and love for publishing while helping audiobooks reach the audiences who were meant to hear them.

With these experiences in her back pocket, Megan joined the She Writes Press and SparkPress team as an Editorial Assistant in 2023.