Tag: #bestbookoftheyear

Best Book of the Year

Your Second Finalist for the 2021 Best Book of the Year Award is … Paul E. Kotz, Author of Profiles in Kindness: Stories of Inspiration & Everyday Leadership!

Congratulations to our three finalists for the Outskirts Press 2021 Best Book of the Year award: In the Black by Andrew Ceroni, Profiles in Kindness: Stories of Inspiration & Everyday Leadership by Paul E. Kotz, and Whale of Wonder
by Marie-Paule Mahoney.

All three books took home first place awards from this year’s EVVY Awards, qualifying the authors for Outskirts Press highest honor! Remember, only one book can win — so look into your choices, order their books and cast your vote. Voting will begin Monday, September 13th on Self-Publishing News and will close promptly on Friday, September 17th at 12:01 AM Mountain Time.

So, come back on Monday, Sept. 13th, to cast your vote for the book you believe to be the best of the three.

Meet Your Second Finalist

Profiles in Kindness: Stories of Inspiration & Everyday Leadership

Leadership. You know it when you see it.

Those who make an impact – leave a mark on us. Hopefully, it is a positive one, grounded in those who bring us joy, and those who inspire us. They give us examples of how we can live our own lives, and also push us to be better.

You have so much time. There are plenty of people who have opened my eyes. Often it comes on unexpectedly. You can give back to society. You can bring your community together. You have relevance.

I am not going to tell anyone in this collection of stories of servant leadership, combining unexpected surprises, and lessons learned exactly what to do. I am going to give you examples of those who do make an impact, observations of people who can help us to realize our gifts and those who assist us in consciously or unknowingly changing for the better.

About the Author

Paul E. Kotz wrote the CIPA Award winning – Something Happened Today (2018), featuring stories of mentorship, advocating keeping eyes and ears open to the present and the positive. It addresses seeing the good each day – facing difficulties and adversity with hope and compassion. Dr. Kotz is a lifelong learner with education and business expertise. This includes working as faculty and advisor with undergraduate, graduate students and since 2013, in a doctoral program in leadership. Kotz has taught and served as an executive/life coach to graduate students and business professionals; and has assisted high school students in navigating adolescence. Teaching Ethics, Organizational Effectiveness, Strategies for Adult Learning Theory, and Statistical Research Methods, Kotz brings practical decision tools and discussion to assist in creating opportunities, facing situations that arise in our own lives and organizations. Some of his work in leadership practice includes – Teaching Examples of Extraordinary Leadership – Influence and Inspiration – An Ethnographic Study; Women Who Have Run for President – An Examination of Leadership Qualities; and Reaching Millennials in the Classroom. In addition, he continues to give motivational talks on examples of influence and inspiration. He is a resident of Saint Paul, Minnesota and continues to collect new experiences that shape and challenge his perspectives. Feel free to contact Paul at pkotz@smumn.edu or paulekotz@yahoo.com.

Buy from Outskirts Press: https://outskirtspress.com/profilesinkindness/
Buy from Amazon

Also by Paul E. Kotz

The Best Book of the Year winner will receive a Grand Prize of $1,500 as a direct result of your choice at the polls. So, come back on Monday, September 13th, to cast your vote!

Are you ready to publish your own award-winning book and perhaps find yourself in the running for next year’s Best Book of the Year award? Connect with Outskirts Press now in whatever manner is easiest for you:

GET STARTED

Best Book of the Year

Introducing the Finalists for the 2021 Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year

And the Winner of Best Book of the Year is… determined by YOU!

Congratulations to our three finalists for the Outskirts Press 2021 Best Book of the Year award: In the Black by ANDREW CERONI , Profiles in Kindness: Stories of Inspiration & Everyday Leadership by Paul E. Kotz, and Whale of Wonder by Marie-Paule Mahoney. All three books took home first place awards from this year’s EVVY Awards, qualifying the authors for Outskirts Press highest honor!

While each of these books has achieved great heights, the highest honor of Best Book of the Year is determined by… YOU! So, study your choices, order their books, visit their webpages and social media and cast your vote. Public voting will begin Monday, September 13th on Self-Publishing News and will close promptly on Friday, September 17th at 12:01 AM Mountain Time.

These works are impressive and it’s going to be an interesting sprint to the finish! Here’s a recap of the finalists:

In the Black

CIA’s most valuable foreign agents are being methodically assassinated. With its intelligence network shattering, the Agency begins a desperate search to uncover the traitor within its ranks!

The CIA’s most valued Russian double agents are being assassinated one by one. In Langley Center itself, Jack Barrett, Director of Central Intelligence, barely escapes assassination. When the Agency discovers the attacks originate from a Russian top secret cyberwarfare program called Chernyy Almaz, or Black Diamond, they must respond swiftly to shut down the attacks and extract their top prized agents before they’re lost forever. Chief among them is Dr. Armand Mishenkov, the head of Russia’s research and development for cold fusion weaponry. Pursued by Russian assassins and Spetsnaz teams, Agent Dave McClure must find Mishenkov and smuggle him across Europe and to the United States—but can they make it alive?

About the Author

Award-winning author Andrew Ceroni served a distinguished career as a Senior Supervisory Special Agent focused on global counterespionage and antiterrorism operations. He received his BS degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy and an MA from Case Western Reserve University, and he studied the German and French languages at the University of Maryland. Andrew is a member of the Authors Guild.

Buy from Outskirts Press: https://outskirtspress.com/andrewceroni
Buy from Amazon

Profiles in Kindness: Stories of Inspiration & Everyday Leadership

Leadership. You know it when you see it.

Those who make an impact – leave a mark on us. Hopefully, it is a positive one, grounded in those who bring us joy, and those who inspire us. They give us examples of how we can live our own lives, and also push us to be better.

You have so much time. There are plenty of people who have opened my eyes. Often it comes on unexpectedly. You can give back to society. You can bring your community together. You have relevance.

I am not going to tell anyone in this collection of stories of servant leadership, combining unexpected surprises, and lessons learned exactly what to do. I am going to give you examples of those who do make an impact, observations of people who can help us to realize our gifts and those who assist us in consciously or unknowingly changing for the better.

About the Author

Paul E. Kotz wrote the CIPA Award winning – Something Happened Today (2018), featuring stories of mentorship, advocating keeping eyes and ears open to the present and the positive. It addresses seeing the good each day – facing difficulties and adversity with hope and compassion. Dr. Kotz is a lifelong learner with education and business expertise. This includes working as faculty and advisor with undergraduate, graduate students and since 2013, in a doctoral program in leadership. Kotz has taught and served as an executive/life coach to graduate students and business professionals; and has assisted high school students in navigating adolescence. Teaching Ethics, Organizational Effectiveness, Strategies for Adult Learning Theory, and Statistical Research Methods, Kotz brings practical decision tools and discussion to assist in creating opportunities, facing situations that arise in our own lives and organizations. Some of his work in leadership practice includes – Teaching Examples of Extraordinary Leadership – Influence and Inspiration – An Ethnographic Study; Women Who Have Run for President – An Examination of Leadership Qualities; and Reaching Millennials in the Classroom. In addition, he continues to give motivational talks on examples of influence and inspiration. He is a resident of Saint Paul, Minnesota and continues to collect new experiences that shape and challenge his perspectives. Feel free to contact Paul at pkotz@smumn.edu or paulekotz@yahoo.com.

Buy from Outskirts Press: https://outskirtspress.com/profilesinkindness/
Buy from Amazon

Whale of Wonder

An educational tale of love, grief, and resilience.

On a radiant summer day in 2018, an orca named Tahlequah gave birth to a female calf off the coast of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. The calf was emaciated, lacking enough blubber to stay afloat, and she only lived for 30 minutes. Tahlequah placed the baby on her head, and with the members of her pod, she swam for 17 days, covering 1,000 miles before releasing her into the sea.

Whale of Wonder is the dramatized story of this true-life odyssey, told through a dialogue between the mother orca and her curious son, who keeps asking, “Why, Mama?” Young readers will discover how Tahlequah expresses her maternal love, her grief, and slowly overcomes her loss to celebrate life again. This unique story opens a window to the majestic orcas and their complex emotional lives.

The Afterword presents information about orcas in general and the specific culture of the Southern Residents. It unveils Tahlequah’s life with the members of her pod in the Salish Sea, emphasizing the plight these orcas—close to extinction—are facing.

About the Author

Marie-Paule Mahoney was born and grew up in Brittany, France, and now lives in the foothills of New York State. Before retirement, she taught French in a Waldorf School for over 20 years, as well as at the State University of New York. Her professional career includes the publication of The French Connection and as a co-author of En Français. In the last few years, she has taken a greater interest in nature, wildlife, and conservation. She co-authored Molly and Babou, and wrote Coco. Tahlequah’s heroic journey inspired her to write Whale of Wonder.

Buy from Outskirts Press: https://outskirtspress.com/whaleofwonder
Buy from Amazon

The Best Book of the Year winner will receive a Grand Prize of $1,500 as a direct result of your choice at the polls. So, come back on Monday, September 13th, to cast your vote!

Are you ready to publish your own award-winning book and perhaps find yourself in the running for next year’s Best Book of the Year award? Connect with Outskirts Press now in whatever manner is easiest for you:

START PUBLISHING TODAY

Author Spotlight

Self-Publishing Author Spotlight: Two-Time Best Book of the Year Winner Andrew Ceroni

At Outskirts Press, Inc., we take great pride in celebrating the success (and awards) of our self-publishing authors with our Self-Publishing Author Spotlight. This week we highlight self-publishing author Andrew Ceroni, who has published multiple award-winning books with us.

Andrew Ceroni served a distinguished career as a Senior Supervisory Special Agent in the conduct of global counterespionage and antiterrorism operations. He received his BS degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy; MA from Case Western Reserve University; and studied several foreign languages at the University of Maryland. He is the author of three espionage thrillers published with Outskirts Press. He lives in Colorado with his family.

A murder in the Alaskan wilderness is only the beginning of the unimaginable…

Dave McClure is on a plane to Alaska in early winter, having quit his job with the FBI and turned his back on the world. It’s been a year since the horrific accident that claimed his wife and son, and McClure is still unable to move beyond his grief. Remembering the joy he once shared with his wife on vacation in Alaska, he heads north… seeking solace and resolving to either put his painful past behind him or succumb to the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness. Instead, McClure finds a grisly scene in the forest — the body of a hunter whose throat has been cut ear to ear. And that’s only the beginning. In Snow Men… equal parts international thriller and wilderness survival — McClure uncovers a cache of nuclear weapons and a Russian-Iranian plot to wipe the nation of Israel off the map. With only a hunting rifle, a pistol, and a few days worth of supplies, Dave McClure not only faces Russian Special Forces and the harsh reality of nature, but discovers a will to live he didn’t know he still had. Spanning locales in Alaska, Paris, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Thailand, and Washington, DC, Snow Men is a heart-pounding thriller set against the pristine beauty of Alaska’s rugged Wrangell-St. Elias wilderness.

SNOWMEN was the First Place-Gold Winning Novel for Action-Adventure in the 2015 EVVY Awards, and the 2015 Outskirts Press BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR.

Product Details:

Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 Black & White Paperback, 321 pages
ISBN10: 1478773472
ISBN13: 9781478773474
Genre: FICTION / Thrillers / General

ASSASSINATIONS OF CIA AGENTS BATTLING TO PROTECT AMERICA’S DARKEST SECRET SPIRAL INTO A TRAIL OF HORROR AND BLOODSHED IN THIS SIZZLING THRILLER!

It is the biggest of America’s big secrets—MERIDIAN, the deepest black and most intensely protected program since the Atom Bomb. The MERIDIAN program contains the furthest leading edge of weapons technology and with origins more profoundly startling than the technology itself. Governments will stop at nothing to get it. Laszlo Csengerny, a Russian–controlled spy, a man haunted by demons from his past, has uncovered the key to destroying the program.

In this prequel to SNOW MEN, CIA agent Pete Novak is racing to Europe with orders to stop Laszlo, to kill him if that’s what it takes. Several agents have already died trying. Novak’s dedicated security escort, J.T. Brannon, former assassin unmatched in the art of killing, is leery of Novak’s assignment and warns him of its danger. As Novak unravels the alarming secrets behind the MERIDIAN program and his path converges with Laszlo’s desperate pursuit to annihilate his demons, Novak and his family are swept into the crosshairs of rogue Agency assassins. Only Brannon can save Novak’s family, and he is committed to sacrificing his own life to do so. The final confrontation and profound revelation of MERIDIAN explode into a deadly struggle over what may be the very future of mankind itself.

MERIDIAN was the First Place-Gold Winning Novel for Action-Adventure in the 2016 EVVY AWARDS, and the 2016 Outskirts Press BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR.

Product Details:

Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 Black & White Paperback, 363 pages
ISBN10: 1478773227
ISBN13: 9781478773221
Genre: FICTION / Thrillers / Espionage

Russia—no longer convinced of American resolve or military preparedness—has decided to test the U.S. as never before…plunging the planet toward the slippery edge of World War III.

Dave McClure arrives in Bar Harbor, Maine, for some rest and relaxation before returning to the CIA—a world he left behind years ago. But he is unaware of the danger he’ll face in the days ahead as he discovers the secrets that lie in the deep ocean trenches of the Atlantic. Deadly secrets.

McClure is unexpectedly thrust into the middle of a vicious Russian plot and a harbor town’s lethal intrigue, each as perilous as they are startling, and struggles to make sense of all the jumbled pieces in this deadly puzzle. Is there a connection between Russian drone submarines probing the U.S. coastline, a Top-Secret, advanced technology Navy torpedo program, and the sinister secret behind Tamarack Harbor’s missing boys? Another brutal murder is the catalyst that finally leads McClure to the juncture of high-stakes espionage and an impending attack on American soil. As the CIA and the U.S. Navy race against time and the Russian threat, the powerful pull of emotion will test the limits of Dave McClure’s skill, strength, and courage.

Will THE RED SHORE be a Best Book of the Year “three-peat” for this talented author? Find out this fall when the Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Nominations and Finalists are announced.

Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 Black & White Paperback, 332 pages
ISBN10: 1977207006
ISBN13: 9781977207005
Genre: FICTION / Thrillers / Suspense

Ready for your own manuscript to be in the running for the Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year Awards and its $1,500 Grand Prize? Get started with a consultant today for free.