Smut Staff

Nikki Rome – Director

USA Today Best Selling Romance Author Nikki Rome has been a romance junky since a young age. As a girl she reached for book after book, looking for that happily ever after she always believed in. She loves all forms of romance and you can find her latest read not far from her reach.

Nikki writes contemporary romance with a touch of danger and kink. Her love of realistic characters who face real problems provides a story that touches the hearts of many. As a writer, reader and lover of words, it only made sense that she publish her stories.

Now years letter she owns and manages Smut Lovers: The Community. A group of like minded individuals that come together to talk about their love of all things smut. You can find her hosting Smut Lovers: The Podcast or running Smut Lovers: The Conference. Either way you know she’ll always be talking about her love of books.

Ruthie Bowles – Diversity and Inclusion Consultant

Ruthie is an Army Veteran and former marketing consultant from Southern California who now calls Central Maryland her home. If she’s not in her sound booth recording an audiobook during the work day, you can find her sensitivity reading a book. Ruthie’s Black and Latine heritage has made her very devoted to helping authors write inclusively. Besides her experience in critical analysis, she also brings her education in emotional intelligence and social psychology to any conversation about diversity in books. 

Madison Hartung – Director of Operations

Madison lives in the rolling hills of the Kentucky Bluegrass. She has spent her entire life expressing herself through writing and short stories until one NaNoWriMo she challenged herself to write a book to share with the world. By Her Sight is the first book she wrote under the pen name Sunny Hart has published but is one of many floating around in her head. When not writing, Madison is spending time with her dogs and horse and working her ‘day job’ as a business strategy consultant.

Ashley Michele – Assistant Director

Ashley Michele is your neighborhood queer little witch. She likes snark, stuffies and dark, fantastical things. She also enjoys writing about mixed latina plus sized babies such as herself getting to live out their best lives with queer and kinky loving.

She has a BA from Florida State University that she still hasn’t opened. When she’s not doing library things or sending hour long voice notes to someone she loves she can usually be found in her hammock between the trees of her swamp or laying out, listening to an audio while she paints and catches some sun.

You can find her all over the internet, here.

Shannon Elliot – Director of Partnerships

Shannon Elliot is a neurodivergent polyamorous bisexual Gemini who’s never made a decision in her life. She’s also an author of queer kinky romance–spank the rainbow, bitches!

As an author, Shannon believes that representation should be the foundation of the romance genre. We all deserve our own kinky, queer and maybe unconventional HEAs.

When she’s not coming up with fantasies for us to devour, she can be found hanging out with her co-author, Elliot, or hanging out at a club or kink event with her lifestyle community.

BZ and Lewis – Support and Accommodations Directors

Lewis (they/them) and BZ (they/them) are nurses by day and authors by night. They are advocates for equity, autonomy, and education. Using their lived and professional experiences, they are passionate about providing education and perspectives from the space where queerness, neurodivergence, and disability intersect.

They believe accommodations are not “special” or “extra,” they are the bare minimum. This belief fuels them to support their communities in a variety of ways, from serving on the advisory board of the Bellingham Queer Collective to teaching workshops on equity, access, and accommodations.

A real life enemies-to-lovers romance, BZ & Lewis are high school sweethearts. They have been living their HEA for the past 21 years, with no end in sight. When they’re not working, you can usually find them aunty-ing, gardening, or roaming the beaches and forests of the beautiful Pacific Northwest.