Welcome to My Wordy Life
For as long as I can remember, I've been besotted by words, in love with
the English language. My parents read to me (as I read to my son) practically
from the moment of my birth, and when I learned to read, I always received
books for Christmas and my birthday and had finished reading them within
the week. I still have some of my childhood books: old editions of
Little Women,
Grimms' Fairy Tales, Andrew Lang's fairy books,
Hans Brinker,
The Wizard of Oz, all the Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames books. My mother
was a member of the Literary Guild and because she never got around to
sending the post cards back, I got to read her books, too. (I learned early
on how to climb up and get the ones on the top shelves.) She gave me her
official permission to read
Gone With the Wind when I was eleven. Boy, was that an eye-opener
for a naïve little girl! My parents also bought my brother and me
The Book of Knowledge; I read straight through all twenty volumes.
Yeah. I have been, as they say, bookish all my life. Today, of course,
I spend most of my time editing and writing.
To read my blog, please scroll down.
Secret Lives is now available at the on-line bookstores. Buy
Secret Lives today! And then write a review. And tell all
your friends how much you enjoyed the book.
You can also go to my
Facebook
Secret Lives page and Like the book. Tell all your friends again!
Ask them to Like the book, too. Leave comments and questions. Wouldn't
it be nifty if
Secret Lives turned into a sort of interactive book via Facebook
and the FREE READER'S GUIDE on this site?
Notice the little witch! She’s on the book cover. Because I didn’t want
to rip off anyone’s art and just use one of my 330 witches, I asked my
brilliant daughter-in-law to make me a witch. She—the witch, not Phish—is
now sitting on the shelf in my living room where you see her in the photo.
Let Me Be Your Editor
Are you writing a book? Thinking about writing a book? Let me be your
editor. I've edited more than 250 books (both fiction and nonfiction),
academic documents (theses and dissertations), web site copy, articles,
technical proposals, screenplays, poetry, and things I don't even remember
anymore. As you explore this site, you can read excerpts from my nonfiction
books and some of my articles and poems. If you're thinking about writing,
send me an email and we can talk about how I can help you. I never charge
for email conversations.
Note: if you like my work and want to use it, please do
not just copy and paste. As I have to explain from time to time to
an author whose work I'm editing, copying and pasting someone else's
copyrighted work without their permission is
plagiarism. Which is against the law. Which can get you an F in your
class. Which can get you prosecuted. It's usually easy to get permission
to reproduce someone else's copyrighted work:
just ask. If you want to reproduce anything on my site anywhere else,
please send me an email and ask. I'll no doubt tell you I'm honored that
you like what I've written and then tell you how to give me proper credit.
Posted on
January 24, 2012
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Here we are, four days past the beginning of Aquarius, and I always try
to write my blog a day or two before the sun enters the next sign. I sure
missed it this month! Why? I’m glad to say that I’ve been busy. I’m editing
new books for two new authors. One is a bloke in England who’s writing
about how to improve your life. He’s giving some good advice. The other
is a physician who has enduring interest in the energy of X-rays and MRIs
and other medical apparati. (OK, that would be the proper plural of apparatus
if apparatus were a Latin word. I like it better than apparatuses.) This
physician is also interested in healing energy. He’s had encounters with
the Edgar Cayce folks, attended Jack Houck’s spoon-bending workshops, and
met a lot of other people who do energy work, mostly in holistic healing.
Me, too. I once got a kiss on the cheek from one of Cayce’s sons, and I’ve
bent spoons with Jack. And I’ve been editing for the American
Holistic Health Association, whose president and founder, Suzan Walter,
has been my friend since 1981 when we met at a Women In Management meeting.
I’m also still editing the memoir of the solo violinist, who has had an
extremely interesting life, and an author whose book I last worked on in
2006 is now coming back for more editing.