I have always loved words. An insatiable reader from a young age, I couldn’t wait to find out the next word Charlotte would spin in her web, or to see if Nancy Drew could solve the mystery of the glowing horse at Shadow Ranch.  When I was six, my parents gave me a little white diary with a lock and a gold key. I took to journaling immediately, scrawling the day’s events, feelings, and weather across the pages with my newly acquired, albeit shaky, penmanship skills. Soon I was dreaming up my own poems and stories. It was only natural that I would major in English when I eventually enrolled at the University of New Hampshire and continue on to a Master’s degree in fiction writing. I am fascinated by the process of playing with word choice and organizational structure to strengthen and clarify meaning in a way that accesses the deeper tones of human experience. Well-crafted language resonates for others, helping readers to shape their own life experiences into an understandable pattern.

            For seventeen years, I have shared my love of text with students of all ages, teaching in settings from middle school through college. Along the way I got my MFA in poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2007, which was a fantastic growth experience. While teaching, I also had my own writing business on the side where I would coach college students who were writing their Master’s theses or doctoral dissertations. I also provided feedback and editing for writers working on full-length manuscripts in a variety of genres—fiction, creative nonfiction, memoir, and poetry.  

            When I lived out West in Colorado and New Mexico, I took a break from teaching and worked at Telluride Publishing on their advertising section and also wrote copy at the Ouray County Plaindealer. At this time, I found a creative position writing for the City of Livermore, CA newsletter, though I had never even been to Livermore. I wrote about city ordinances, junk cars on lawns, and construction projects. I enjoyed the challenge of whittling several pages of text faxed to me from city professionals down to concise, informative pieces. It was through this experience that I honed my copy editing skills. In recent years I’ve provided feedback for and edited creative works such as The Gift of the Cuentista by Ann Hagman Cardinal and Back to the Past: A Daughter of the Nile by Muriel Angelil.

            My role on your project is to help you to elevate your voice, to reach out to others and express whatever it is that you need to say, whether it is to tell your life story, relate your creative imaginings, or to find the people who need to know you and share your vision and work. My feedback and questions come from the place of a reader trying to understand your message. What details best illustrate your experiences or ideas? How can your thoughts be best organized on the page? How can your purpose be clarified? In the end, you are the author and decide what feedback you wish to pay attention to and what feedback to let go of. My work with clients is in the spirit of collaboration and creative excellence. Seeing someone’s ambitions unfold through a writing project is a great pleasure.