Ann Shepphird

When her editor at Carmel Today magazine instead asks her to write a travel piece about the local Monterey County area as part of a special issue around the upcoming Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament, Sam is initially hesitant.

On her third outing as a travel writer for “Carmel Today” magazine, former investigative reporter Samantha “Sam” Powers is invited to cover the reopening of the historic Lake Tahoe Mountain Lodge.

Ever wonder what it would be like to be able to hire a team like the one from “Mission: Impossible” to solve your relationship woes? A young communications professor attempts to do just that in “The War Council." After the love of her life leaves her for a job on the other side of the...

Samantha (“Sam”) Powers, a 34-year-old investigative reporter, has returned to her hometown in California, to take care of her ailing father, the town’s former police chief. At the urging of a family friend, she takes a job as the new travel columnist for Carmel Today, a local lifestyle magazine.

Four years after her adventures with The War Council, UC Berkeley Professor Maggie McGrew’s professional life couldn’t be better. In addition to teaching communication studies, Maggie has added consulting gigs with Silicon Valley tech companies and a successful book to her resume.