Selected projects
Below you’ll find a few examples of my past fiction and nonfiction projects.
If you’re looking for information about my business editing, please click here.
Everyone Was Falling
I provided copy editing and proofreading for this novel by the esteemed fiction writer and columnist JS Lee.
From the author:
On the weekend of July Fourth, shots are fired at a twentieth high school reunion in a small US town, killing fifty-six. Three survive. So begins Everyone Was Falling, an empowering novel of friendship and violence on the verge of Trump’s election.
Lucy—a queer, Asian adoptee whose past trauma hypervigilance leads them to safety—is dubbed the hero. White, blond town treasure Christy is the star—using YouTube to garner fame. Donna—the only Black former student of Bixby—becomes the suspect, despite what her wealthy father has done for the town. The three women navigate PTSD and the differences that long ago drove them apart. They’re targeted by racists, opportunists, and violent exes. As the police department fumbles, it’s up to the survivors to lead them to justice.
Learn more at: https://jessicasunlee.com/everyone-was-falling/
Keurium
I provided developmental and line editing for this novel by the esteemed fiction writer and columnist JS Lee.
From the author:
Shay Stone lies in a hospital bed, catatonic—dead to the world. Her family thinks it’s a ploy for attention. Doctors believe it’s the result of an undisclosed trauma. At the mercy of memories and visitations, Shay unearths secrets that may have led to her collapse. Will she remain paralyzed in denial? Or can she accept the unfathomable and break free?
KEURIUM threads through one adopted Korean American’s life of longing and letting go. On a quest for family, sanity and survival, it challenges saviorism and forced gratitude. Woven through its heartbreaking fabric is a story of love and resilience.
Learn more at: http://jessicasunlee.com/keurium/
The Ungodly
The original Dutch version of this book (De Goddeloze) has received a great deal of media attention in the Netherlands, including national press coverage. I provided copy editing and proofreading for the English translation of the book.
From the author:
When I was eighteen, I left my parental home. Taking only two plastic bags of clothes, I faced an uncertain future. I left realizing that no one I knew would ever speak to me again, including my parents, my sisters and my brother. Now, twenty-five years later, I’m still often asked what it’s like to live as a Jehovah’s Witness. In this book I give a detailed look inside that life and reveal the impact of excommunication. I share my struggle, my grief, my anger and my attempts to build a new life. I had to learn to live without rules…
Paula Keessen (1976) released in 2013 a poetry album called The River of Blue.
Learn more at: Amazon.com
Team Amplifiers: 8 Ways Teams Thrive in Rapid Change
I provided proofreading for this team leadership book by influencer and best-selling author Eric McDermott.
From the author:
These last few years have made it more challenging than ever to get teams on the same page. Whether it’s keeping teams engaged, staying highly coordinated, or having folks feel meaningfully connected, working in teams is changing—fast.
The 8 Team Amplifiers are quick, easy-to-use practices that help:
- Increase trust, engagement, and coordination
- Align people to the shared objectives
- Make meetings and work more meaningful and on-point
- Produce outcomes that build progress
- Promote innovation and forward thinking
- Elevate culture
Learn more at: https://www.nextpectations.com/
Out of the Pantry: A Disordered Eating Journey
I provided proofreading for this memoir by book author and journalist Ronni Robinson.
From the author:
Ronni Robinson is pushing forty, stuck at home raising two kids, and inhaling everything and anything in her pantry. For thirty years, from the day her mom first hid the cookies through tween years, adolescence, and an abusive first marriage, Ronni’s been secretly bingeing while trying to appear normal. All she wants is to live a life free of her crippling obsession before she becomes a slave to food forever.
Learn more at: https://www.ronnirobinson.com/
Freedom from the Self
I provided copy editing and proofreading for this book by author Nicholas Blewett.
From the author:
Whether or not you are aware of it, most people around the globe are trapped in a cycle of hurt and suffering. They experience an ever-present emptiness, a void, a chronic lack of fulfillment. For centuries, billions of people have sought various solutions outside themselves in attempts to address this immense disorder. Yet the source of hurt, suffering and unfulfillment remains elusive. This book—if you allow it—will take you on the greatest journey of your life. You will inquire deep into yourself to learn the true source of Humanity’s malaise, how to break free from our self-imposed cycle of hurt, and how to embody true love and compassion. Here you will discover the incredible Art of Living.
Learn more at: https://nicholasblewett.com/
Short stories and narrative essays
All of my standard editing services are available for short stories and narrative essays in most genres.
I served as a short story evaluator for a prestigious literary journal, and I have experience editing anthologies.
2023 update:
Edited books awaiting publication
•Genre: Fiction (Literary/Historical/Horror)
(Title and author withheld until publication)
•Genre: Fiction (Contemporary)
(Title and author withheld until publication)
•Genre: Fiction (Contemporary)
(Title and author withheld until publication)
•Genre: Fiction (Literary)
(Title and author withheld until publication)
•Genre: Hybrid (Literary Fiction/Memoir)
(Title and author withheld until publication)
•Genre: Nonfiction (Memoir)
(Title and author withheld until publication)
•Genre: Nonfiction (Anthology)
(Title and author withheld until publication)
A Case of Madness
I provided a customized blend of line editing, copy editing, and developmental editing for this literary romance novel by Yvonne Knop.
From the author:
Andrew Thomas, a world-weary Sherlock Holmes scholar, hits rock bottom when he loses his job at the University of London. On top of that, he’s awaiting a cancer diagnosis and evidently losing his mind—because Holmes himself appears in his flat. The great detective and persistent hallucination presents a case involving a handsome stranger named Matt who shows Andrew that life might be worth living after all. What ensues is a madcap race through literature, London, and love.
Learn more at: https://improbablepress.com/products/a-case-of-madness
25 Tango Lessons
I provided copy editing and proofreading for this book by author and tango instructor Andrea Shepherd.
From the author:
Andrea discovered Argentine tango in her 20s. Over the next decades it gradually changed—and in many ways became—her life. Just about everything in tango is a microcosm of life at large, and just about everything learned on the dance floor is a life lesson as well. This book is a collection of some of the most interesting and valuable things this passionate and complex dance has taught Andrea over the years she has been practicing and teaching it.
Learn more at: https://andreashepherd.ca/
Exhausted to Empowered
I provided copy editing and proofreading for this book by author and speaker Mari Verano.
From the author:
Do you often feel as if you give and give to people and have nothing left at the end of the day? Like you just don’t have energy for the people and things that truly matter to you? You’re frustrated with the chaos of your life and the people around you who are always in chaos, all the time. Do you suffer from feelings of worthlessness and anxiety only to have gone to therapists and support groups who tell you that you are being “difficult”? Have you gone to therapists who didn’t understand you and made you feel worse? I Know What It’s Like . . . I’ve been there before—and I counsel many women like you.
Learn more at: http://mariverano.com/
American Buyout
I provided developmental and line editing for this book by thought leader Robert C. Whitehair, PhD.
From the author:
Here’s a shocking truth: We’re on the brink of global catastrophe because of a simple mistake that has gone unnoticed for almost a century.
How is this possible? Because every economy in the world is based on this mistake.
This is not an abstract threat in a faraway future. Every US citizen will soon face the consequences when:
- Automation eliminates half of US jobs.
- Few remaining US jobs pay a living wage.
- Our economy collapses into the Greatest Depression.
- Environmental destruction reaches extinction levels.
That’s the bad news. The good news is we can fix the mistake.
American Buyout is a world-changing blueprint that proves we can:
- Guarantee a living wage for all citizens.
- Provide universal health care and education.
- Eliminate income taxes and government debt.
- Halt environmental calamity.
- Give every citizen $100,000. Cash.
We’re rushing toward the point of no return, but there’s hope. You can help save the economy—and the world.
Learn more at: http://www.americanbuyout.com/