I’m a freelance editor. I help writers create good books.
Lately I’ve worked most often on memoirs, but I’ve also edited books on sustainability and social sciences as well as language textbooks.

Writing with Style

I have always loved the written word. In college I majored in English and American literature because I got to read lots of books. But writing requirements were sparse. It was a few years after I had graduated that I discovered Strunk and White’s Elements of Style and its miraculous-seeming exploration of good writing, good sentences, and good sense. It seemed like magic. For me it was like stepping into a whole new, enchanted world – I felt like the hero in Avatar.

After discovering the joy of editing, I dug further into it over several years, reading about what makes writing good – everything from John McPhee’s books and articles (How about The Magic of the Fourth Draft?) to Dryer’s English. I still devour books on writing and editing to learn everything I can to sharpen my abilities. As a business consultant I taught the Toyota principle of continuous improvement, and I believe that it applies to editing as well as to assembly lines.

Fulfill Your Potential

Developmental and line editing are my calling, and while it took me 50 years to discover that, I’ve now been doing it full time for five years, enough to have gotten my feet wet. I can promise you that if I work with you, you will write well enough to fulfill your utmost potential, and you will be justly proud of the book, essay, or report that you write.