A Closer Look at the 2009 EVVY Winners

 

Here are more details about the 9 First Place and Second Place EVVY Winners from Outskirts Press, including details about their authors and their book publishing production teams.

FIRST PLACE – Workbook
Award-winning Outskirts Press production team: Deni S. (Author Rep) and Nate M.(Cover Design)
About the Author:Susan Mercer is currently an intermediate math curriculum specialist for nine middle schools in Santa Ana, California. She has spent the last fourteen years teaching, presenting, writing, and developing math resources specifically for English Language Learners, special education and low math skill students in grades 5 through 8. She has presented at national, state, and regional math conferences, and has conducted numerous site-specific professional development seminars for the teachers she serves. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mercer received her B.S. in Computer and Information Science from the University of Buenos Aires. She moved to California to work on her Masters in Education and teaching credential at Chapman University.

FIRST PLACE – Autobiography
Award-winning Outskirts Press production team: Jennifer R. (Author Rep) and Melanie S. (Cover Design) and Barbara W. (Interior)
About the Author: M.A. Cary is an economic and financial management consultant to the private sector and U.S. federal government. From 2003–2007, she worked in central Baghdad. Cary holds a B.S. in International Business from Ithaca College and will receive her M.B.A. from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School in Chapel Hill, NC in 2009.

FIRST PLACE – Humor
Award-winning Outskirts Press production team: Jennifer J. (Author Rep) and Melanie S.(Cover Design) and Barb W. (Interior)
About the Author:The author J. L. Durnin is a World War II veteran who served in Africa, Italy, the Philippines and Japan. He graduated from Carlisle Commercial College and was a career accountant for a major electronic manufacturing firm. After his retirement, he wrote his memoir, Walking the Big Valley. J. L. Durnin is an avid golfer and outdoor sportsman; earlier he was active in local politics. He likes to travel and winter in Florida; he is the father of two and his only grandson is a student in middle school.

FIRST PLACE – Children’s
Award-winning Outskirts Press production team: Laura Y. (Author Rep) and Barbara W.(Interior) and Bobbi S (Illustrator, Style
Dandelion
)
About the Author:Dawn Menge has a Masters Degree and clear credential in Special Education. She has worked with the severely handicapped population for eleven years. She is currently working towards her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction. She combines imagination with practical skills to make learning fun. Dawn used her experiences within her life to create Queen Vernita’s characters and her kingdom. Queen Vernita’s Visitors is a story that is woven around Dawn’s friends and family.

FIRST PLACE – Memoir
Award-winning Outskirts Press production team: Colleen G. (Author Rep)
About the Author:Eric Jensen is a retired high school teacher with 26-years experience in the classroom. Teaching was one of the greatest challenges in his life and one of the most rewarding. After ending one career in 1994, he began another as a writer. He now shares his latest effort in story telling–the Jensen family’s journey and that of this nation through World War II.

FIRST PLACE – Biography
Award-winning Outskirts Press production team: Lisa H. (Author Rep) and Monica D.(Interior)
About the Author:Evie Sweet-Hurd holds degrees from Duke University, the University of Richmond, and Baylor University, but sometimes she still feels like the little girl in pigtails who idolized her older brother. In the decades after his death in Vietnam, she took tiny steps to absorb the reality: She tried to watch Saving Private Ryan, but she couldn’t get past the first three minutes; she visited the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C., but her husband had to carry her out.

SECOND PLACE – How-To
Award-winning Outskirts Press production team: Elizabeth J. (Author Rep) and Nate M.(Cover Design) and Barbara W. (Interior)
About the Author:Barbara Hanks is a communications writer who enjoys dabbling in the art of human resources. She continues to pursue freelance writing and has been published in multiple regional and national magazines.

SECOND PLACE – Biography
Award-winning Outskirts Press production team: Lisa H. (Author Rep) and Melanie S. (Cover Design) and Barbara W. (Interior)
About the Author:Rita Keeley Brown was born and raised in Nebraska, the youngest of six children. After majoring in music at UCLA in sunny southern California she changed careers to education and business while raising six children of her own. She still lives in California and, now retired, she has begun yet another career as a writer. This is her first published work although she has others soon to be published.

SECOND PLACE – Humor
Award-winning Outskirts Press production team: Elizabeth J. (Author Rep) and Nate M.(Cover Design) and Barbara W. (Interior)
About the Authors:Cherie Rodgers & Carol Olson are escapees from the film business. Both are recovering PTA Recording Secretaries, and serial volunteers (especially Carol, who is now in therapy: “Stop me before I volunteer again!”)

“We’re delighted with how our book is selling on Amazon and elsewhere. In this day and age, with access to the public so readily available, we don’t know why anyone would choose traditional publishing. Outskirts provides all the services of a turn-key publisher; the difference is that we keep the profits, and pay only for the services we decide we need.” – Cherie Rodgers & Carol Olson

Ready to start self-publishing?
Start Publishing