Parenting Experience Trumps Gurus

Publisher Rewarded for Great Ideas— Not Parenting Theories

Minnesota stay-at-home mom, Maureen McKay, is an award-winner in USA Best Books 2007 Competition. USABookNews.com, the premiere online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses, announced the winning finalists on November 1, 2007. Winners traversed the publishing landscape and included Independent Publishing Houses as well as big names like Simon and Schuster, Penguin-Putnam, HarperCollins, Random House, Houghton Mifflin Co., John Wiley and Sons.

Determined to help other families overcome adversity, Maureen formed her own publishing company, Silverlining Press, in 2006. McKay’s first book, Optimistic Outcomes: What Every Parent Wants and Every Child Needs (released 2007) has received two national awards. In May 2007, Optimistic Outcomes received the silver medal for Best Parenting Book in the Independent Publisher’s IPPY Awards. Now it is an award-winning finalist in the Parenting/Family: Reference category of the National Best Books 2007 Awards. Optimistic Outcomes, LLC was also a semi-finalist in the 2007 Minnesota Cup Competition, celebrating innovative businesses with breakthrough ideas.

Necessity was the mother of invention. Frustrated by the lack of useful parenting information available to her, Maureen set out to share tips that really work for kids struggling at home or at school. “I read many books authored by experts and discovered very few strategies that actually worked with my daughter. No one has time for that. Parents need great ideas at their fingertips,” said McKay.

The idea for Optimistic Outcomes came one night while preparing dinner. “I needed to find a strategy to help my daughter with her schoolwork. I never read an entire cookbook to find a recipe for dinner. I wondered why no one had ever organized tangible parenting advice like a cookbook.”

McKay draws upon real-life parenting and her experience as an educational para-professional. “My family has faced many troubled times over the past few years including cancer and struggling with learning differences. Parents can turn tough situations around to benefit their kids and make them more resilient,” said McKay, “There is a silver lining in every cloud.”

The book is available at www.optimisticoutcomes.com for $34.95. Maureen McKay is available for interviews regarding parenting, her company, award-winning book, and her own family’s story. Contact her at Maureen@optimisticoutcomes.com.