Our Team
We strive to treat our authors the way we want to be treated and work with a creative team that shares our passion for bringing great stories and diverse voices to the world.
Echo Montgomery Garrett
CEO/Co-Founder
I decided to take my four decades of experience as a journalist, author, and editor and pour my heart and knowledge into Lucid House Publishing. I’ve written or contributed to 25 nonfiction books—mostly memoirs—three of which garnered six-figure advances. My books have been published by Random House, Harper Collins, and Thomas Nelson, as well as by hybrid publishers. I also successfully self-published My Orange Duffel Bag: A Journey to Radical Change with Sam Bracken. After going through two literary agents and getting 75 rejections over two years, we executed our vision in 2010 and sold 12,000 copies in the first six months. Our groundbreaking graphic young adult/mini-memoir/self-help book won five national awards for best YA nonfiction and self-help as well as two international awards for best designed book in the world. A third agent subsequently sold the rights to Random House/Crown Archetype with a 75,000 first printing.
Over the years, I’ve gotten to know many, many authors, who shared some of the concerns I have about the state of the publishing industry: the lack of transparency; ignoring the ideas of the very people who created the work; taking virtually all the royalties; and only giving a book an unbelievably short window to hit before pulling it from the shelves, among others.
I wanted to create a different sort of book publishing house. The wide range of genres represented by Lucid House reflects my curiosity and taste. I limit the number of authors to those who write books that I believe could inspire movies, episodic series, documentaries, and/or the academic community. The other requirement: You also have to be as kind as you are talented to join our little group. I’ve never been one to want to be put in a box, and I encourage our authors to pursue whatever stories speak to them without limiting themselves to one genre. Most importantly, I plan to support Lucid House authors for the long-haul.
Connor Judson Garrett
Chief Creative Officer/Co-Founder
Connor, a co-founder of Lucid House Publishing, also works as a Content Strategist for a product development and innovation firm and works as a content writer for SnackNation. He is constantly learning and brings the best of his professional experiences and love of creative writing to his role at Lucid House Publishing.
Connor is the author of the Californication-style novel Falling Up in The City of Angels and the co-author of Spellbound Under the Spanish Moss, the first novel in a young adult fantasy trilogy he is writing with his father Kevin N. Garrett (edited by Echo Montgomery Garrett). And yes, he loves working with his family.
As a Chief Creative Officer of Lucid House Publishing, Connor looks to apply creative strategy to support the company and align the brands of each author with their stories, missions, and readers.
I am grateful for the opportunity to work with our son Connor as we build Lucid House. He’s always working to find better ways to do things, whether it’s improving SEO or bringing a new author into the fold. His creativity knows no bounds.
Judy Kirkwood
Executive Editor
I love working with the authors and manuscripts that Lucid House Publishing has selected for its roster and am in awe of the talented designers who make LHP books a visual feast. I’ve edited memoirs, young adult fiction, romance and fantasy (contributing to the new hybrid “romantasy”) and, my current favorite, Joseph Marshall III’s contemporary Native fiction “Smokey River Suspense Series.” I am proud of everything I have worked on. Lucid House is a company founded by writers for writers, and that makes a difference.
When I met Judy Kirkwood three decades ago on a press trip for writers, I was struck first by her openness, warmth, and intelligence, and then by her luminous writing. Over years of meeting up at conferences and traveling together on assignment from various publications, her insights and experience with writing and publishing continued to impress me. We began collaborating on ghostwriting and other editing projects. Wildly creative and solution-oriented, Judy, an award-winning journalist as well as a book author herself, makes anything she touches better. She blends her skills as a researcher, editor, writer, and poet to tackle whatever a book might require—whether original content, restructuring of material to highlight a logical progression or link to relevant issues, or using her command of language to enhance the experience of reading. She makes me better at what I do with her thoughtful questions and willingness to challenge my thinking and does the same for other Lucid House Publishing authors.
Kristel Issa
Managing Editor/YouTube Host
Kristel, who was born in Beirut, Lebanon, speaks English, Arabic, French, and Armenian and translates the latter three for Lucid House Publishing. As a Lebanese-Armenian woman, Kristel brings a multicultural perspective and more than 13 years of English Literature teaching experience to her role at Lucid House Publishing. As managing editor, Kristel coordinates all of the elements that go into the production of our books. She is writing a novel based on her journey of love, loss, and rebuilding as a woman who has overcome many tragedies and the challenges of womanhood in the Middle East.
Kristel’s love of literature underpins everything she does for Lucid House. Her grace and soothing manner as she juggles many roles at once is critically important in a startup. Her mind for organization and systemization is invaluable to me.
Richard Fendler
Director of Search Engine Optimization
In addition to his position with Lucid House, Richard serves as the Director of SEO and Content Partnerships for SnackNation and is responsible for scaling to more than $200,000 in total partner revenue in the first 6 months and increasing page speeds by over 300% across 1000+ pages. Prior to that, Richard managed a team of 15 SEO specialists at ZipRecruiter, created the first self-serve salary widget, and drove 3x SEO growth to 33.4 million in monthly organic page views.
In his limited free time, Richard enjoys music production, a skillset he developed working with Dana Wolf Cornock, who earned more than one hundred Gold, Platinum, and Diamond albums, several Grammy Award Nominations. Richard had the opportunity to work with and learn from world-renowned artists such as Judas Priest, Michael Jackson, Cameo, and Menudo. Richard applies the same technical mindset and obsessive tendencies it takes to excel at music production to continue to evolve as a marketing and SEO guru. Richard provides guidance and support to help the Lucid House Publishing authors grow their organic presence within various search engines, including Google and Amazon.
Sheer genius are two words that describe Richard. I am awed by his talent.
Troy King
Designer, book covers and interiors, website
“I’m a jack of all marketing trades and have worked to master all parts of the design process. I like work that’s both smart and beautiful. I prefer to design in a way that’s true to the brand personality over just doing something cool with the individual media. I’m a big believer in form following function. And I like to consider myself more of an engineer than a designer.”
Troy brings more than 25 years of experience to the Lucid House team and has done branding and design work for an overwhelming number of companies like Delta, UPS, The Home Depot, and Chick-Fil-A during that time.
We are thrilled that he makes time to work with us to create eye-catching covers and thoughtfully designed interiors for our books. His work has already been named as finalists for best covers in both fiction and nonfiction out of thousands of entries.
Jan Sharrow
Designer, Interiors and Production
“Some people think I’m a magician. Reality is, I use my resources to make ideas come to life. I work with art directors, designers, brand planners and creative directors to ideate, create and execute. Brainstorm to execution. Dreams to press. “What if?” to “that looks amazing.” I come from a long line of farmers who have been known to invent something if there wasn’t already a solution, so problem solving is just in my DNA. I’m always up for learning something new or finding the best resources. My secret skill is sourcing the impossible. Over the years I’ve worked in ad agencies, boutique shops and freelanced for a myriad of industries.”
Calm and patient, Jan is a genius at fixing the invariable challenges that pop up when you are working on a creative project. Whip smart, funny and kind, she is exactly who you want on your team when you are up against deadlines. She also explains the best solution for whatever scenario you are facing, knowing that quality always reigns supreme at Lucid House.
Elise Riley
Publicist & Media Relations
Based in Atlanta, Elise is a seasoned marketing expert with over 25 years of experience in public relations and marketing. She has worked in various industries, including entertainment and television, music, gaming, publishing, hospitality, and many more.
Elise started My Global Presence in 2021 as the Founder & CEO and has hit the ground running, elevating multiple brands and businesses. My Global Presence is a leading marketing and creative agency with a team of experts offering tailored solutions. Elise works with Lucid House Publishing and its authors on brand marketing, public affairs, and media relations.
For interviews with Lucid House authors, please contact Elise Riley elise@myglobalpresence.com
Brette Sember
Content and copy editor/indexer
Brette Sember is an author, editor, ghostwriter, content provider, indexer, and book coach. In her past life she was an attorney. She has written more than 50 of her own books and edited, ghosted, and assisted with many more in the 25 years she has worked in the industry. She loves to help writers bring their book dreams to fruition.
Brette is the best content and copy editor I’ve ever worked with over the course of my 40 years in this industry as a magazine editor and writer as well as an author. She writes detailed editorial letters for our authors. Although she is generous with praise, she also gives honest feedback that invariably elevates the work. For books that require an index, Brette pays strict attention to details and makes sure the important words and topics are meticulously noted.
Sandra Brown
Entertainment Attorney
Sandra Brown is an attorney with the Entertainment & Sports Group of Greenspoon Marder, LLP.For more than 25 years, she has worked with clients in the entertainment industry, including award-winning recording artists, music producers, songwriters in hip hop, pop, rock, and Christian music, as well as independent filmmakers, music managers, music executives, professional athletes, and entertainment companies. She was recognized as a “Women in Music” honoree by the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers.
Sandra displays a genuine interest in our books and our authors and understands our philosophy of being writer-centric. She makes certain our contracts are fair. Besides that, she exudes a love for creatives and is one of the most respected entertainment attorneys out there as evidenced by her extensive client list — and my personal experience of working with her. Her integrity and her brilliance made me know that she was the right attorney for Lucid House.