Mission Mars: Building Red Editorial/Design Staff

 

These are the behind-the-scenes people that helped bring MM:BR to life.

 

Note: Lisa Miller, Kristina Blank-Makansi, and Donna Essner are all partners in the Amphorae Publishing Group.

Janet L. Cannon has taught technology to children and adults for ten years. She enjoys teaching people of all ages a variety of world music and obscure crafts, but also enjoys learning new skills herself. Editing several newsletters and the occasional manuscript carves out time from writing, but those are the jobs that pay (for now). She is active with both the state and local writers’ guilds. Her publishing credits include a technical manual, short stories, flash fiction, and Twitter fiction. With a BA and an MA in English, she hopes one day to use it to publish the next best-selling YA urban fantasy series featuring a re-envisioning of the fairy tales we thought we knew. Her blog, revisionisadishbestservedcold.blogspot.com features articles on how the metaphors of speculative fiction revise our view of the world, interviews with authors, and reviews on a variety of books.

Lisa has a B.A. in English from the University of Baltimore and an M.A. in English from the University of Missouri-Saint Louis.  Lisa is a member of the Missouri Writers Guild and a member of the St. Louis Writers Guild. Lisa worked as a technical writer for many years before becoming a managing editor for new media with Liguori Publications.  After this, she taught composition at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis, Lindenwood University, and at Saint Louis Community College – Forest Park & Meramec campuses.  Lisa has written an award winning essay “Still Falling Snow” which appeared in Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors vol. 3 and has one book published.  She continues to teach through writing workshops and presentations.  Lisa also works for the Missouri Humanities Council as the Director of Communication and Veterans Programs.

Donna Essner holds a BS in Horticulture and an MA in Creative Writing, graduating with honors from Southeast Missouri State University. While serving as an associate editor in grad school, she discovered her love of editing, and after graduation, she worked as the assistant editor and book production manager at Southeast Missouri State University Press. Donna’s writing (and reading) interests run the gamut, but her passion is historical MG and YA fiction and nonfiction. She has written book reviews, short stories, poetry, essays, and two novels. For three years, Donna wrote a monthly feature gardening article for The Southeast Missourian TBY magazine. Credits include Journey, Big Muddy, "newpages.com," and Faulkner and Chopin. Donna’s other passions include wine, fishing, lazy days on the beach—and she shares a love of flip flops along with her oldest daughter, Libby. Currently, Donna is president of the Southeast Missouri Writers’ Guild chapter and recently joined the Heartland Writer’s Guild. She is also an active member in SCBWI.