About me, BSC, and Layla Dog Press

I am the proud co-parent of two derpy doxie mixes. I also have two amazingly talented daughters and a brilliant and funny spousal unit (a.k.a., Jason) who is also a writer, a musician, and a (mostly) retired engineer.

Even though I have a Bachelor of Arts in Government from University of Texas at Austin and a Masters of Teaching from the College of New Jersey, my whole career has been in writing, communications, and some sort of marketing and design. Since 2011, was the principal editor as well as the interior and cover designer for Blank Slate Press and Amphorae Publishing Group, a small independent publisher. Review a selection of cover designs under Portfolio.

I've also worked as a freelance editor and designer, and between my various projects, I have been involved in over 160 book projects. Titles I have worked on have garnered starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and have won numerous accolades including Benjamin Franklin awards, IPPYs, and a Gold Medal for Outstanding Book of the Year from Independent Publishers in the Peacemakers category.

My first solo book was Oracles of Delphi (under the pen name Marie Savage (my middle name and my great grandmother's surname) and I'm co-author, along with those talented daughters of mine, of The Seeds Trilogy (The Sowing, The Reaping, and The Harvest). My latest solo novels are The Trouble with Roommates and The Alchemist of Aleppo. The first book in the forthcoming Pantheon League series, Nemesis in Love, is coming in March 2026. I currently work in communications at a major research university.

Kristy trying to decide what to read next

Me wondering what to read or write next.

Mo being cute.

Ria being coy.

Layla Dog Press & blank slate communications

Layla Dog Press is our family’s publishing imprint under Blank Slate Communications, LLC. Under BSC, we offer design, editing, and some marketing services to authors. Our doggie icon (Layla looking off into the horizon) reflects both. Sadly, Layla has journeyed over the rainbow bridge, but we still love her and think about her every day!

If you’d like to talk with us about our author services, please send us a note using the form on the contact page.

editing

Cumulatively, we have almost forty years of experience writing and editing fiction, non-fiction, technical articles, and commercial marketing copy. Drawing on our extensive backgrounds, we offer both developmental and line editing services. Learn more about some of the books i’ve edited at Amphorae Publishing Group.

Book Design

I’ve designed over 160 book covers and have done at least that many interior layouts—as both a freelance cover designer and in my role as designer for Amphorae Publishing Group, a traditional small press I co-founded in 2014 and for which I’ve served as designer and editor.

Book Design

I’ve designed over 160 book covers and have done at least that many interior layouts—as both a freelance cover designer and in my role as designer for Amphorae Publishing Group, a traditional small press I co-founded in 2014 and for which I’ve served as designer and editor.

Recognitions and Awards

I’m an award-winning advertising copyrighter, fiction and non-fiction editor, and book designer. Among the 150+ books I’ve worked on, many have garnered five-star reviews in publications like Publishers Weekly and Kirkus and others have received awards for their excellence. Working with so many talented authors as an editor and book and cover designer is among the most rewarding work I’ve done. Here’s a list of noteworthy awards:

  • The Samaritan, Blank Slate Press, won the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book: Fiction and the USA Book Award in the Cross-Genre category was also short listed for a UK Kitschie award along with The Night Circus and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (editing & design)

  • Slant of Light and Dancing with Gravity, Blank Slate Press, were both long-listed for a Chautauqua prize (editing & design)

  • Slant of Light was runner up for the David J. Langum, Sr. Historical Fiction Prize, 2012; the winner that year was The Cove, by Ron Rash (Ecco) (editing & design)

  • Dancing with Gravity, Blank Slate Press, won the International Book Award for Literary Fiction and was named a regional Best Book 2011 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (editing & design)

  • Folly Beach Dances, a Vinci Eye award (design)

  • Nowhere Yet, Beverly Hills Book Awards (editing & design)

  • Never Hug a Nun, Blank Slate Press, won a Silver Ben Franklin Award from the IBPA in 2012 in the Humor category (editing & design)

  • Try to Kiss a Girl, Blank Slate Press, won the Gold Midwest Independent Publishers Association (MIPA) Award for Humor (editing & design)

  • This Old World, Blank Slate Press, was a finalist for the M.M. Bennett Award in Historical Fiction (editing & design)

  • A Matter of Mercy, Blank Slate Press, won a Silver Medal from Independent Publishers (IPPY) for Best Regional Fiction: North-East (editing & design)

  • Agnes Canon’s War, Blank Slate Press, a finalist for the 2015 WILLA Literary Award for Historical Fiction (editing & design)

  • Painting for Peace in Ferguson, Treehouse Publishing Group, won 2015 Outstanding Book of the Year from Independent Publishers in the Peacemakers category (production)

  • Beneath Still Waters, Blank Slate Press,won the 2016 Gold IPPY from Independent Publishers magazine in the Mystery/Cozy/Noir category and the MIPA award in the Mystery category (editing & design)

  • Snow Globes and Hand Grenades, Blank Slate Press,was a 2016 finalist in the Humor category from ForeWord magazine and the 2016 MIPA Gold award in Humor (editing & design)

  • Halfway There, Walrus Publishing,was a 2016 finalist in the GLBT category from ForeWord magazine (editing & design)

  • Behind Every Door, Blank Slate Press, won 2017 Gold from MIPA in the Mystery category (editing & design)

  • Royal Beauty Bright, Blank Slate Press, IPPY Gold (editing & design)

  • A Matter of Mercy, Blank Slate Press, IPPY Silver (editing & design)

  • Vernon Poche & The Ghosts of New Orleans, Silver Medal for Juvenile Fiction in the 2025 Independent Publisher Book  (design)

  • The Last Cadillac, Walrus Publishing, da Vinci Eye Award (design)

  • Conspiracy Ignited, Selected “Best Legal Thriller of the Year” by BestThrillers.com Book Awards, Winner of the CLUE AWARD for “Best Suspense Thriller of the Year” by CIBA (editing & design)

  • Give My Love to Berlin, IBPA Book Award, Silver (design)

  • Painting by Numbers, Layla Dog Press, Independent Publishers IPPY GOLD and Foreword Reviews INDIE SILVER (editing & design)