About

I am a freelance editor (“book doctor”) who will help you get your manuscript ready for presentation to agents and publishers. To me, editing is a skill, a challenge, and an art.

I take every job seriously and will not let a manuscript out of my hands until I feel that I have done my absolute best for the writer. If, in my opinion, a manuscript is not of publishing quality (no matter how much work I were to do on it), I will return it to you, rather than waste your money and my time. For the most part, however, I love reading the manuscripts writers send me. I open each envelope with great anticipation and can't wait to get to work! I am every bit as conscientious about my clients’ work as I am about my own.

Please visit my "references," because what my clients say about my editing work for them is far more important than anything I could tell you about myself.


CREDENTIALS

Author of 14 books and over 500 published articles in major publications, including Parents, McCalls, Mothering, Working Mother, Lady’s Circle and Chicago Parent.

An essay of mine was included in The Writer's Handbook, 2004, featured as one of "50 valuable essays by America's greatest writers."

Recipient of two Education-Press Awards for “Outstanding Journalism."
Honored by the Illinois Library Association for “Contribution to Literature.”

Freelance editor for 20 years, both for individual clients and publishing companies: Rand McNally; Scott Foresman; National Textbook; and Evanston Publishing.


I am very proud of the following clients of mine who were published in 2007:

Live Symptom Free with the MS Recovery Diet by Ann Sawyer (Penguin Group)
Stop Aging-- Start Training by Salvatore Fichera ( Basic Health Publications)
How Big Are the Pancakes? Three Biker Chicks Cycle Across America by Kathryn Krull ( Trent 's Prints and Publishing)
Nomad’s Land by Susan Kathleen (Outskirts Press)
Wildflowers; Bridie's Daughter; Secrets (a trilogy) by Robert Noonan (iUniverse)
My Castle in Spain by John Mattson (Publish America)
Touching the American Rainbow by Tapiwa Kapurura ( iUniverse)
Constancy in Courage by Dan Greenig (TSW Promotions)

And the following clients published between 2003 and 2006:

A Place for Me by Walter Allen (Bookmasters)

Apparitions by Robert Chan (iUniverse)
Deparate to Survive by Gordon Baker (Llumina Publishing)
Fontana by Brian Barger (Publish America)
Force a Miracle by Darryl Didder (i-universe)
God's Special Angels by Louis Joseph Cuccia (Morris Publishing)
Hope Amid the Shadows by Dr. Ralph Morales Jr. (Chicago Spectrum Press)
Jenna's Song by Dr. Ralph J. Morales Jr. (Chicago Spectrum Press)

Leftovers by John Matson (Publish America)
Longinus by Steven Maines (iUniverse)
Love Never Dies by Dr. Ralph Morales Jr. (Chicago Spectrum Press)

Massacre at Baxter Springs by Tom Smith (Author House)
Once Upon a Bavarian Winter by Ronald Harmon (Publish America)
Out of the Darkness by Dr. Ralph Morales Jr. (Chicago Spectrum Press)
Shadow of Gold by Arnold Marsh (Publish America)
Tales from the Turf by John Madson (Publish America)
Tears for Grandma by Linda Campbell (Publish America).

The Bottle Tree by Louis J.Cuccia, (Morris Publishing)

The Feel Good Society by Dr. James Hutton (Pentegram Publishers)
The Intelligent Guide to Texas Hold'em Poker by Sam Braids (Intelligent Games Publishing)
The Right1.com  by Naomi Doiuglas Davis (Omnipublishing)
When Cotton Was King by Louis J. Cuccia (Morris Publishing)
Witch & Whimsy by Ann Sawyer (Publish America)


Other books I have developmentally edited are: Bogan Rutha’s The Rat Palace; Ken Dachman’s The Dachman Permanent Weight Loss Diet; Samuel Alesich’s Going Home; Gene Eric Salecker’s Disaster on the Mississippi; Gary Ockunzzi’s Latin Soulmates Live Forever; Alice Conway’s The Green Branch; Bob Noonan’s Wild Flowers; Edith Milestone’s God Writes the Music For Our Life; Wendy Meckel’s Red River Rising; Dennis Flannery's Benevolent Takeover; Jeffrey Strauss’ Pro Bono; Arthur Rhodes’ The Crying of the Wind; Jane Cook's End of a Whisper; Ann Sawyer's Facing the Moon and Daughters of Eden; Robert Chan's Axe of the Gods and The Law Is a Jealous Mistress; Susan Bonifant's Edit/Undo; Raul Hernandez' La Mariposa Cafe; P.B. Odinfish's Murder by Proxy; Desperate to Survive by Gordon Baker; Charles Cook's Soft Shadows; Linda Vogel's Drew Alliance; Sabir Mirza's Shanti; Lee Anderson's The Iron Bridge; Ronald L. Lewis's The Legend of the Golden Apple; Steven Maine's Longinus, Book I of the Merlin Factor; Peggy Ekbert's Homeschooling a Scholar; John Mattson's My Castle in Spain; Diana Ventura's From Brokenness to Love; Salvatore Fichera's Stop Aging-Start Training; Susan Kathleen's Nomad's Land; Raul Hernandez's The Serape Notebook.