Award Winning Author Team!
Gary and Elaine Montague, a team of author/educators for sixty years, want people to know there are degrees of blindness and understand more about the challenges of low vision. They believe diverse needs require diverse solutions and have made community presentations and radio interviews.
Gary Ted Montague has coped with low vision from birth and knows the heartache of separation from family, the frustration of difficult challenges, the importance of personal faith, the success of achievement, the warmth of kindness, the relief of hard work, and the joy of academic and career worlds. As a college graduate with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Secondary Education, he advised and taught sighted adults in a major scientific lab for 32 years. He worked in the areas of Education and Training and Safety Engineering. He published “Me? Write a Book?” in Que Pasa, newsletter for New Mexico National Federation of the Blind in 2019 and “Desert Dangers” with Elaine in the 2018 SouthWest SAGE Anthology. His oral history is featured in a You Tube video produced by Historic Albuquerque, Inc., “Firsthand Account – Life in a School for the Blind, 1944-55,” which was presented at the 2018 Historic Society of New Mexico Conference.
Elaine Montague, his fully sighted wife, taught children and trained adults for 31 years in Albuquerque Public Schools. Her students included intellectually gifted children and those with learning challenges due to learning disabilities, emotional/behavioral problems, and communication disorders. Her creative work includes public speaking, short articles, curriculum development, and application of unusual strategies to teach children. She is published in SouthWest SAGE, Resources in Education (ERIC) and Educational Technology and presented original work at a national conference of Council for Exceptional Children. She was honored as Computer Educator of the Year, New Mexico Council of Computer Users in Education, and nominated for Disney’s American Teacher Award for creativity in teaching. She authored Birthdays Are Ageless, about forty years of celebrations by four friends. For six years, she facilitated a memoir writing critique group.
Pull on Gary’s cowboy boots to see his world with low vision as he abruptly leaves his farm home at age eight for a residential school and enters the culture of the blind. With one train ride during World War II, life changes forever. Feel his fear as Mom’s footsteps fade the first night in the dormitory. Follow his later success at a national scientific lab. Celebrate the human spirit, resilience, and optimism. True story of a man’s determination and strength, a mother’s courage, a teacher’s faith, volunteers’ unselfishness, and a wife’s enduring love. Learn about low vision, laws, misconceptions, and today’s resources.
Awards:
- *Finalist, 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Parenting/Family (Non-Fiction)*Finalist, 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards E-Book (Non-Fiction)*First, 2020 National Federation of Press Women Professional Communications Contest, Adult Non-Fiction, Biography
*First, 2020 New Mexico Press Women Communications Contest, Adult Non-Fiction, Biography
*Winner, 2020 NM/AZ Book Awards, Parenting and Family
*Second, 2020 NM/AZ Book Awards, e-Book, Non-Fiction
*Second, 2019 Published Non-Fiction, James McGrath-Morris Award, Albuquerque Museum Foundation’s A Celebration of Writing
*Finalist, 2019 NM/AZ Book Awards, Biography
Victory from the Shadows is available in both Print and ebook formats. It can be found in bookstores throughout central New Mexico or you can Click here to order via Amazon.
