Speaking Engagements and Topics
Writing, Publishing, and mentoring
Who we are
May McGoldrick, Nik James, and Jan Coffey are pen names for USA Today bestselling authors Nikoo Kafi and Jim McGoldrick. Together, they have crafted over sixty historical, contemporary, fantasy, cozy mystery and Western novels, as well as two works of nonfiction.
Garnering numerous awards over the years, their work has been published in print, digital, and audiobook form by Penguin Putnam, HarperCollins/Avon, MIRA Books, St. Martin's Press, Heinemann, Sourcebooks, Macmillan Audio, Dreamscape Media, and Tantor Audio. Their stories have also been translated into over a dozen languages.
Jim holds a PhD in sixteenth-century Scottish and English literature. As a tenured Associate Professor of English at DeSales University, he taught literature and creative writing before pursuing a full-time writing career. Despite her love of writing, Nikoo’s education and training were in engineering, and she worked in robotics and submarine shipbuilding before her change in career. In addition to writing, Nikoo served for seven years as the State of Connecticut Education Connection Writer-in-Residence, developing and teaching an inclusive creative writing program for middle school students.
Mentoring with Nikoo and Jim
Writing and publishing is a complicated business. If you’d like personal guidance through the process, we’re taking a limited number of clients for one-on-one mentoring and coaching. Every session is with both of us, so you get a novelist and engineer who has navigated traditional and independent publishing, and a former professor of literature and creative writing, in the same hour.
Sessions can cover craft and story structure, revision, collaborating with a partner, traditional or independent publishing paths, and building a long-term writing career.
Initial Consultation: $75 for one hour, prepaid. We talk through your project and goals, where you’re stuck, and whether ongoing mentoring is a good fit.
Ongoing Mentoring: $150 per hour, prepaid. These are focused sessions built around your manuscript or publishing plans.
Payment is due in advance to reserve your time.
How to book:
Email us at NikooandJim@gmail.com with a little about your project, and we’ll find a time that works for all of us.
Send payment by PayPal to NikooandJim@gmail.com or by Venmo to @Nikoo-McGoldrick, with your name in the payment note.
Once your payment arrives, we’ll send you the link.
Workshops and Talks
Workshops and lectures may be combined for two-hour, half-day, full-day or weekend presentations.
Programs are flexible and effectively tailored to the skill level and time constraints of the host group, from middle school to MFA Low Residency programs, from beginners to published authors.
Some topics of interest:
Creative Writing Institute: soup-to-nuts, from idea conception to publication.
How to pave your Traditional or Independent Publishing path
Crafting a Solid Story Structure: everything there is to know about plotting your novel
Marriage of Minds: A Complete Guide to Collaborating on Writing with a Partner
Creative Writing Workshops for Middle School and High School student writers (School visits or small group seminars for homeschoolers)
Any topic on writing or publishing not mentioned above. (There is nothing that we can’t speak about.)
The Cancer Journey
Speaking Engagements and Topics
About Nikoo
Nikoo Kafi McGoldrick is a metastatic lobular breast cancer (ILC) patient advocate, speaker, and author. Diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma in 2003 and facing a metastatic recurrence in 2022, she has become deeply committed to advancing research, increasing patient knowledge, and ensuring that those living with lobular and metastatic disease feel informed, supported, and less alone.
Nikoo volunteers with several national organizations, including the Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance, METAvivor, Project Life, Little Pink Houses of Hope, and Sharsheret, where she mentors patients and participates in outreach focused on education, inclusion, and patient-centered care. She has spoken at the International ILC Symposium and at the University of California San Diego’s Sanford Stem Cell Institute MIND Series, recorded a widely viewed message for The Patient Story, and she serves on the governance committee for the Fasting-Mimicking Diet to Enhance Treatment of Metastatic Lobular Breast Cancer study at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She also participates in UCSD’s ONEMIND program (Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement) and is involved in an AI-Driven Consent Simplification Study at UCLA, contributing patient perspective to improve access, understanding, and equity in clinical research participation.
A mechanical engineer turned novelist, Nikoo has co-authored fiction and nonfiction with her husband, Jim McGoldrick, for more than three decades. Her background in engineering, combined with a lifelong career in storytelling and publishing, uniquely informs her advocacy. Writing has given her the ability to translate complex medical and emotional experiences into language that resonates with patients, caregivers, and broader communities. Through mentoring, speaking, and storytelling, she strives to amplify underserved voices, bridge gaps between patients and institutions, and advocate for more compassionate, inclusive, and patient-informed care—particularly for those living with metastatic ILC.
Workshops and Talks
Nikoo is available to speak to groups—large or small—and lead workshops on all aspects of the cancer journey.
Some topics of interest:
writing through uncertainty: journaling as a tool for living with cancer
initial diagnosis — bridging the complex medical and emotional experience
the metastatic recurrence — getting the correct diagnosis, the second opinion, and asking the right questions
handling successive lines of treatment and where to find help with side-effects
building your medical, emotional, and financial support network
clinical trials — where to find them, what to expect, and how to gauge (and handle) trial success and failure
the mentoring experience — how to advocate for yourself
the mentoring experience — how to help others advocate for themselves
Email Nikoo at NikooandJim@gmail.com for availability and additional information.
