Editor

Deborah Shouse is a writer, speaker, editor, creativity catalyst, laughter facilitator, and dementia advocate. She has an MBA but uses it only in emergencies. Her writing has appeared in a variety of publications including The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Natural Awakenings, Reader’s Digest, Newsweek, Woman’s Day, Spirituality & Health, The Chicago Tribune and Unity Magazine. Deborah has been featured in many anthologies, including more than five-dozen Chicken Soup books. One of Deborah’s greatest joys is working with authors to help bring their books to life, either through editing or co-writing. She and Ron wrote Antiquing for Dummies and she co-authored several volumes in the Yes, You Can financial series. She was honored to work with Lisa on this important book.

For many years, Deborah and her life partner Ron have been working with care partners and people who are living with dementia. Deborah and Ron raised more than $80,000 for dementia research and programs by donating all proceeds from the initially self-published version of Deborah’s book, Love in the Land of Dementia: Finding Hope in the Caregiver’s Journey, to those causes. Central Recovery Press subsequently published an enriched edition of the book. Deborah’s book, Connecting in the Land of Dementia: Creative Activities to Explore Together, offers readers meaningful ways to stay connected from dozens of innovators world-wide. Marc Wortmann, former Executive Director, Alzheimer’s Disease International, says the book is: A 'must read' for every care partner!

Along with Ron, Deborah is the co-founder of Dementia Friendly KC, which focuses on making the Kansas City area more dementia friendly. Deborah and Ron have shared personal stories and ideas for staying connected in the United States, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, Puerto Rico, England, Ireland, Chile, Costa Rica, India, Italy, Turkey, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Through sharing their message of finding creativity and hope in the dementia journey, they have connected with care partners around the world.

Graphic Art and Design, Acorn Marketing

As an award winning designer and art director with more than 30 years of experience Karen Schotsch has worked in ad agencies, design studios and corporations for clients such as Sprint, The Kansas City Board of Trade, Cerner Corp., Bayer Animal Health, Farmland Foods and the Mid-Continent Council of Girl Scouts. In the process of creating ads and brochures, Karen discovered that she had a talent for presenting hard-to-read information in a user-friendly, easy-to-understand way. It’s her superpower, actually.

In her spare time Karen has remodeled, redecorated and staged dozens of homes. She enjoys reading and has time to do so, as she is one of the twelve people in the world who is not on Facebook. Karen also spends part of her time trying teach people how to pronounce her last name, “Just like flu SHOTS or mug SHOTS or tequila SHOTS ...”

One random piece of information about Karen: Each of the buildings that housed her kindergarten, grade school, high school and college have been demolished. An amazing coincidence or evidence of her efforts to erase her checkered education history? The world may never know...

Shana has worked for O’Brien Pharmacy since 1995, evolving her role within the organization as the business has grown and her knowledge has expanded. She is currently an assistant for Lisa Everett Andersen, RPh, CCN, FACA, owner of O’Brien Pharmacy and author of the book Learning to Thrive in a Toxic World and the Impact of Clinical Endocrinology and BHRT. Shana was one of the editors as well as a researcher for Lisa’s scientific textbook, and is fulfilling those same roles for Lisa’s upcoming book. Shana and Lisa have also collaborated to produce several handouts and brochures for the pharmacy, ranging in content from dietary needs to hormone FAQs to supplement information.

Before taking on an administrative role, Shana started out with O’Brien Pharmacy by managing their high-end gift shop. When the gift shop closed, she became a pharmacy technician, working both front-end with customers and in the laboratory. She served several years as their first technician manager.

Outside of work, Shana enjoys cooking, taking traditional dishes and making them into vegan and healthier versions. She also likes finding treasures at second hand stores and decorating and remodeling her home. All of these pastimes are made more enjoyable when they involve her friends and family, including her husband, three grown children, and granddaughter.

Mission Point Press offers aspiring and veteran authors more than 70 years of combined experience in writing, designing and publishing the written word. The book publisher is an affiliation of talented professionals who have worked on every kind of book imaginable—from two New York Times bestsellers about war to gorgeous cookbooks, award-winning fiction, political exposés, memoir and self-help.

For authors seeking a traditional route to publishing, the company offers an in-depth query service to agencies. It also employs award-winning, traditionally published authors for those who need coaching or ghost writing.

Mission Point Press is a hybrid publisher, meaning that it publishes its own books under the Mission Point Press imprint, as well as books by authors who work with it. Authors who self-publish with Mission Point Press retain 100% of their royalties and full control of their printing and distribution accounts.

Although the company is based in Northwest Lower Michigan and specializes in books about Michigan, it has worked with authors from across the country, including a heavy concentration of work in the Kansas City, Missouri, region.