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Our Team

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Sharon Woodhouse

Founder & Publisher

Sharon Woodhouse sees profitable partnerships and business ecosystems that others miss—then activates the conceptual, logistical, and human connections to make them real.

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As the founder of Conspire Creative, Sharon architects innovative collaborations between disparate industries, building sustainable enterprise models for authors, brokering partnerships between literary and other sectors, and creating experiential events that strengthen communities while generating income. Her specialty is designing multi-party partnership models where everyone wins.

 

Her entrepreneurial approach spans four decades. In 1994, she founded Lake Claremont Press, building it into a beloved Chicago brand that published over 500,000 books across 80 titles and won 30 small press awards over 25 years. In 2011, she launched Everything Goes Media to encompass her expanding work in publishing strategy, partnership design, coaching, mediation, and project management.

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Sharon's businesses and the authors and books she has championed have been featured in hundreds of media outlets, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNN, BBC, and the Chicago Tribune.

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A passionate advocate for vibrant local economies, urban neighborhoods, and historic preservation, Sharon's most cherished win was co-leading the community effort to save the historic Davis Theater in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood. She currently lives and works in Chicago's Lakeview East neighborhood, where she continues building interconnected ventures that serve the broader literary ecosystem—including the Storied Hotel Books series.

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Carmen Amato

Founder & Author

Carmen Amato is the award-winning author of multiple mysteries and thrillers, including the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series pitting the first female police detective in Acapulco against cartels, corruption, and social inequality amid the hunt for Mexico's missing. Starting with Cliff Diver, the series is a back-to-back winner of the Poison Cup Award for Outstanding Series from CrimeMasters of America. Optioned for television, National Public Radio hailed it as "a thrilling series."

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Carmen’s historical fiction thrillers include Murder at the Galliano Club, which won the 2023 Silver Falchion Award for Best Historical.

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Her standalone political thriller The Hidden Light of Mexico City was longlisted for the 2020 Millennium Book Award.

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A 30-year veteran of the CIA where she focused on technical collection and counterdrug issues, Carmen is a recipient of both the National Intelligence Award and the Career Intelligence Medal.

 

A judge for the BookLife Prize and Killer Nashville's Claymore Award, her essays have appeared in Criminal Element, Publishers Weekly, and other national publications. She writes the popular Mystery Ahead newsletter on Substack.

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Originally from upstate New York, after years of globe-trotting she and her husband enjoy life in Tennessee.

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​Storied Hotel Books is an imprint of Everything Goes Media, LLC, and a joint project with Laurel and Croton, an independent publisher of compelling crime fiction by women.

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© 2026 by Everything Goes Media, LLC, and Laurel and Croton. All rights reserved.

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