At its December 10 meeting, the BAIPA awards committee honored 12 authors for their books, with first-place for fiction going to Dennis Koller’s The Oath and first-place for non-fiction to Skye Blaine’s Bound to Love.
Second-place awards went to Marla Rosner for Snob Free Wine Tasting Companion, Wine Smart in a Day! [Napa & Sonoma Edition] and Arlene Miller for Fifty Shades of Grammar: Scintillating and Saucy Sentences, Syntax, and Semantics from The Grammar Diva.
In addition, there were eight books/authors awarded Honorable Mentions — Reader Favorites: The Self-Publisher’s Ultimate Resource Guide by Joel Friedlander and Betty Kelly Sargent; On Softer Ground by Sherrie Lovler; Be Your Own Brand of Sexy by Susan Edelman, MD; De Facto Feminism, by Judy Juanita; Risuko by David Kudler; Music Theory for the Bass Player by Ariane Cap; A Field Guide to the F Word by Ben Parker; and My Butterfly Collection by Stevanne Auerbach.
The 2016 BAIPA Book Award winners were announced at the December meeting. Below is the list of winners, the categories they won in, and a little bit about the authors and the books.
FIRST PLACE WINNERS
| FICTION | NON-FICTION |
 |
 |
| The Oath | Bound to Love |
| Dennis Koller | Skye Blaine |
Dennis Koller was born and raised in San Francisco and attended St. Mary’s College, where he earned a degree in philosophy and later an MBA, spending the first 20 years of his career life in marketing.
However, he had a story to tell about Vietnam POWs and started it in 2008. But by the end of 2012, he had completed only 55 pages. At that rate, Dennis calculated he wouldn’t complete it until all the Vietnam Vets were dead. So in October 2012, he started writing full-time. His writing business is part of his company, Pen Communication. By the time he wrote “The End” to The Oath, he had experienced such a spine-chilling rush, he jumped right into his next book, Kissed by the Show.
Skye Blaine writes memoir, fiction, and poetry — themes of aging, disability, coming of age, and awakening. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University in 2003. Her personal essays, fiction, and poetry have been included in these anthologies: Water, Journey, Stolen Light, Untold Stories, and Sisters Born Sisters Found.
Bound to Love is the true story of a single mother who encountered and navigated a complicated nightmare for any parent: her child, the only baby she could ever bear, was born with a life-threatening congenital heart defect and suffered a more brutal health diagnosis soon after.
Awards: Pacific Northwest Writers Association: Bound to Love won first prize in their memoir contest in 2005. Then it went in the closet for seven years, came off the shelf in 2012 and was rewritten twice. Bound to Love won the IndieBRAG award in 2016.
RUNNERS-UP
Marla Rosner is co-author of Snob Free Wine Tasting Companion, Wine Smart in a Day! [Napa & Sonoma Edition]. She is founder and principal of InstillLeadership, a corporate training firm. Marla’s background includes training administration, instructional design and group facilitation with a focus on “edutainment.”
Her book won the Pinnacle Award.
Arlene Miller, also known as The Grammar Diva, is the author of eight grammar books and two novels. Her Best Grammar Workbook Ever continues to be an Amazon bestseller. Arlene’s weekly blog post was the inspiration for Fifty Shades of Grammar. She is also a copyeditor for both fiction and nonfiction and offers grammar presentations and workshops.
HONORABLE MENTION
Reader Favorites
The following books were also awarded Honorable Mention — Reader Favorites.
The Self-Publisher’s Ultimate Resource Guide by Joel Friedlander and Betty Kelly Sargent
On Softer Ground by Sherrie Lovler
Be Your Own Brand of Sexy by Susan Edelman, MD
De Facto Feminism by Judy Juanita
Risuko by David Kudler
Music Theory for the Bass Player by Ariane Cap
A Field Guide to the F Word by Ben Parker
My Butterfly Collection by Stevanne Auerbach
