Congratulations to Katie Patterson and Debra Parker Oliver, two more self-publishing authors who have just won Next Generation Indie Book Awards for their Outskirts Press publications.
Everything Happens for a Reason in RIDE.
Seventeen-year-old Alyson Butler is living a dream life in Los Angeles, California, and she’s hoping for the perfect summer before her senior year. The daughter of two successful Hollywood professionals, she enjoys a life of privilege, wealth, parties, and independence—as she rarely sees her parents. But when an unfortunate decision lands Alyson in rural Minnesota as punishment to spend the summer with her grandparents at Davis Lake, she quickly realizes that living in this small town will be a far cry from the glitz and glam she is accustomed to. A slow start at the lake has Alyson believing she won’t survive beyond the first week, but things begin to change when the seemingly perfect Marc Maylore and his friends arrive a few doors down. As Alyson tries hard to keep her own secrets from those she meets, she soon realizes there may be more to this little town than she initially thought—and that anyone can be hiding something. Ride is a story of love, loss, friendship, lies, and self-discovery. As Alyson soon learns, moments in life define us, but it is our choice as to who we become.
Ever since she was born, Colorado native Katie Patterson has spent summers at her grandparents’ lake house in Minnesota. She completed Ride, her debut novel, years ago at the age of fifteen and now attends the University of Colorado, Boulder, studying Biology and Secondary Science Education. Katie hopes to complete her second novel soon.
Legacies From the Living Room is an emotionally powerful love story about family, commitment, and living in the midst of dying. It is a unique memoir written not by an individual who is dying, but by a spouse faced with caregiving and loss. It is targeted for family members facing the terminal illness of their loved one as well as the professionals who are responsible to care for them.
Debra Parker Oliver is the Paul Revare Family Professor of Family Medicine, in the School of Medicine, at the University of Missouri. She has a Masters of Social Work and a PhD in Rural Sociology from the University of Missouri. She was a hospice social worker and administrator in three hospice programs for a total of more than 20 years. After getting her doctorate she continued her commitment to the improvement of hospice care through research with more than 170 peer-reviewed articles related to palliative and hospice care. In an effort to teach and advocate for those facing cancer and terminal illness Debbie and her husband David created a blog to share their journey with others. The received the Project Death in America Community Education Award from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine two weeks before David passed away. Debbie now continues the journey through grief and bereavement, continuing her commitment to share her journey.
Please join us in congratulating them both!
Quite an honor! Congratulations Katie and Debra.