Welcome

This is a new adventure in my life. Blog? Me? “I don’t have anything to say” has been my excuse for several years now. But after sitting in a workshop taught by my good writing friend Paula Moldenhauer, I realized that this is the next step in the journey the Lord has directed me to. So with the help of another good friend, Heather Tipton, I’m now blogging.

I’m a freelance editor, proofreader, and writer. And yes, each of those things interconnect. Seven years ago my daughter graduated high school, and we searched for ways to help her pay for her college bill. That same year I went from teaching English and Spanish part-time to full-time, but since it was a Christian high school, the pay wasn’t quite enough to cover all the bills. Then Marlene Bagnull, the director of the Colorado and Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conferences, gave my name to an editor at Barbour Publishing as a potential proofreader. I took their test, passed, and began proofreading part-time. Two years ago, at God’s nudging, I “retired” from teaching and entered the freelance world full-time. At that time I took the proofreading test for Thomas Nelson Fiction, and they added me to their proofreading corp. That summer I also started reviewing fiction manuscripts for a local agent. That led to several individual clients, some established authors, some new. And I discovered, much to my amazement, that the Lord has gifted me with the ability to help authors get their work to the next level. I especially enjoy working with new authors, helping them learn the craft of writing, and I rejoice when they get their first publishing contracts . . . almost as much as if it were my own contract. This year two of the authors I’ve worked with are on the Christy Awards finalist list: MaryLu Tyndall and Maureen Lang. Wow, God is so good!

The Writer’s Tool will focus on self-editing helps for writers. As a person who loves order, I find grammar easy to understand . . . even with all the exceptions in the English language. So to start with, I plan to post twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays), and at least once a week I’ll post on grammar. And we’ll start with the comma . . . the one form of punctuation that is poorly understood J. Other times I’ll post book reviews and interviews with authors, other editors, and those who work within the book-publishing world. I may even blog a little on my own writing journey, which has definitely seen some major ups and downs in the last twenty plus years I’ve been learning and working at the craft.

I hope you’ll join me on this journey. Please leave your comments and questions—I love questions! And no question is “silly” or “foolish” when you are seeking to learn. So please ask away. My readers are the ones who will determine the subject matter of my posts. I look forward to hearing from each of you. And thank you for joining me on this new adventure.