Fran Smith and Sheila Himmel

Fran Smith is a writer, editor, writing coach and communications consultant. Her latest book, Changing the Way We Die, co-authored by Sheila Himmel, inspired this blog. Fran's work has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine; Redbook; Salon; Good Housekeeping; Prevention; Health; the Los Angeles Times and dozens of other newspapers and magazines. She has won many awards for health and medical writing and shared in a Pulitzer Prize as a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News. Fran co-authored the first reporters' guidebook published by the Association of Health Care Journalists and wrote a book on the history of the YWCA. She is a frequent speaker on health writing, the power of storytelling and effective communications. She lives in New York.

Sheila Himmel is an award-winning feature writer, coauthor of Changing the Way We Die and of Hungry: A Mother and Daughter Fight Anorexia (Penguin, 2009). Sheila writes for publications ranging from the New York Times to Eating Well to IEEE Spectrum: The Magazine of Technology Insiders. Her work has appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, theRobb Report, M Magazine and the online magazine Obit. As restaurant critic of the San Jose Mercury News, Sheila won a James Beard Award. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.