Charlie Winton, who started assembling his new indie press powerhouse before the ink had even dried on the Avalon sale, announced two new hires for Counterpoint late yesterday afternoon, both of them reporting for work in the company's Berkeley offices next week. For Sharon Donovan, who left Sausalito's Foundation for Deep Ecology to take on the role of publishing director, that's not such a big leap, but newly appointed publicity manager Abbye Simkowitz pulled up stakes at St. Martin's to make the cross-country trip. (After months of communicating by email about various books, I finally met with her last week, just after she'd finished up at the Flatiron, and she was understandably excited about the move and the authors she'd be working with in the fall.)