QA & MARY ANN WINSLOW, PH.D., AUTHOR

Q: What brought you to Prescott; how long have you been here?

A: We — Kent Winslow, my husband, and our four sons — moved here in 2000. I was teaching at the University of Arizona, and my husband was teaching p.e. and coaching baseball at Canyon del Oro High School. We had been thinking we would like to raise our boys in a smaller community and opportunities fortuitously presented themselves in Prescott.

Q: How did you become interested in your career field?

A: Kent and I majored in physical education and played intercollegiate athletics. However, we both earned graduate degrees in other fields. When we moved to Prescott, I transitioned from being a university instructor to a high school science teacher. Currently, I am a self-published children’s book author, putting to work my science knowledge and my love of art. God’s Cool Creation Book Series takes one topic per book, be it Earth, trees, deserts or sea mammals and explains God’s complexity in a simplistic way. My “baby” lives in Scottsdale with some of his former ASU fraternity brothers and they read the books. My sister, Teresa, reads them to her fourth and fifth grade special education classes in North Carolina. My current task is volcanoes, but Teresa’s class asked that I write a book about sharks, so I guess that’s next!

Q: What is the biggest challenge of your job?

A: As with all self-published authors, we find marketing to be the worst. We like to write, and I like to create the artwork, but I’m not very good at advertising. My purpose is to spread God’s fantastic creation to everyone, and I’m not doing a very good job at it!

Q: What is the greatest reward of your job?

A: Recently, a friend told me she ordered all of my books for her children; another friend told me he learned things he never knew. That kind of feedback is rewarding. Kids today are so smart. They get it, they’ll understand it, and they’ll hopefully understand who is responsible for this amazing creation.

Q: Where would you like to vacation next, why?

A: Any place by the ocean, but I love the central coast. We love Morro Bay and first started going there when our oldest played baseball for Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo. Those sea otters prompted my God’s Sassy Sea Mammals book!