Highlighting Our Local Authors at BRAND PC

Brand PC not only features local artists and makers, but features amazing local writers as well. We talk to local Summit County writers featured in BRAND PC about their writing craft and about their journey to where they are today as authors.

Park City Publishing 

Lauren shares her love of mountain town life through her company, Park City Publishing, founded in 2014. The company publishes its own books and also designs, packages and prints books for local authors who wish to self-publish. Park City Publishing has had great success with its award-winning Mountain Town Cookbook series - with two books for Park City and one for Vail. As a design and packaging business the company has worked with many local authors such as Paralympian Chris Waddell who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro on a hand-cranked wheelchair.  

Lauren lived in Park City during the 1980s and then established her career on the East Coast. After studying art in college with Tomie dePaola; then an internship at Milton Glaser Studios, Lauren continued as a designer and art director for top companies such as Conde Nast, CMP, Reader’s Digest and various other book and magazine publishers.  Lauren worked as an art director for Golf Digest and as a designer for Snow Country Magazine. For Reader’s Digest, Bookworks and Sandvik Innovations Lauren designed and art directed children’s books, cookbooks and educational books for local and international publishers. 

Lauren moved back to Park City in 2010 initially working as a free-lance designer, as a ski-patroller and as a ski-instructor. Her free time is spent skiing, road biking, hiking, mountain biking, drawing and painting.

Lauren’s books are currently featured at BRAND PC at 692 Main St. Lauren states that, “Brand PC is a wonderful venue for local artists and designers to showcase their talents and products. We love Brand PC, especially the new location and the continuous support they give us throughout the year.” 

Lucky Penny Press 

Melissa Marsted, founder of Lucky Penny Press, says that when she was four years old, she had surgery to remove my adenoids, and the surgeon decided to remove her tonsils too without telling her parents. Then her parents were late picking me up from the hospital. She recalls even then, the feeling of not having a voice. 

She vividly remembers all of the art and creative writing projects inspired by Mrs. Parry, her second-grade teacher at Cherry Brook Elementary School. Writing became a way for her to express herself. She was always a good student but her passion for writing was not really encouraged so it was brushed aside most of her life until her older son turned eight years old in 2003 (as she approached 40!). He received a hot air balloon Lego for his birthday. Melissa googled the origins of the hot air balloon and learned about the Montgolfier brothers’ 1783 invention, flying the first hot air balloon over the gardens of Versailles with a duck, a rooster and a sheep, thus inspiring her first children’s book. 

Years later, when she turned 50, she found a passion for trail running and exploring the national parks. It was exactly seven years ago, while running her second 50k on Antelope Island, north of Salt Lake that she came up with the idea to write children’s books about the national parks prior to the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service in 2016. Five months later, Buzzy and the Red Rock Canyons was finished, followed by Casey Cruises California. Four years later with the sixth book in her collection almost complete, she is still running and writing, while also advocating for the importance of having nature in our lives and saving our public lands and endangered species. Melissa expresses that, “ she is honored to have the support and encouragement from Summit County, especially Park City Summit County Arts and BRAND PC.

Sage Press 

Corrine Humphrey, the author/ illustrator of the “Tao of Rudy” series, has  been dabbling in painting, pottery and other mediums for years, taking random classes at the Kimball Art Center, at various places in Salt Lake and a few painting vacations in southern France at an atelier near Toulouse, but it wasn't until she took a 5-year leave of absence from her airline job that things shifted into a more balanced, creative life. She signed up for another painting class through Compass Adult Education.

Two specific turning points catapulted her forward--one was adopting Rudy, a battered mutt from Friends of Animals, and also right about that time she went to an opening at Meyer Gallery for Sheila Norgate, a Canadian artist who had a show called "Beaks and Muzzles," featuring whimsical paintings of birds and dogs. She was so inspiring and supportive, and at Corinne’s next painting class she changed her drab landscape into a painting with Rudy, entitled Don't Be Afraid to Leave the Path. It got great reviews and sold that year at the Kimball Art Festival Gala.

Rudy became Corinne’s muse and her model--ideas kept coming, and she kept painting, using the bright simple style she was developing and incorporating positive universal themes. That summer she went to her first "Writing & Illustrating for Young Readers" conference in Provo and was encouraged to turn her pile of Rudy paintings into a children's book. The first book, The Tao of Rudy, won two awards and led to a contract with Chronicle Books for the sequel, Shoot for the Moon, Lessons on Life from a Dog Named Rudy, followed by the third picture book in the series, Wake Up to Love, Lessons on Love from a Dog Named Rudy. All the paintings are large acrylic on canvas and are also available as prints, journals, greeting cards, pillows and other products. 

After she returned to her job as a flight attendant, Corinne created the Roaming with Rudy kids travel guide series to encourage kids to learn about different cultures and cities in a fun format!

Corinne shares that, “The Park City Summit County Arts Council has done so much to help local artists' visibility, from offering large scale community art projects, to education/marketing help, to creating inventive sales opportunities like the annual Brand PC. Brand PC is an attractively designed showcase that allows artists and makers to introduce their work to the public at a reasonable cost--it's like a really fun creative coming-out party!” 

Come to BRAND PC at 692 Main St. and pick up some of the works of our amazing local authors!