Overview
My experience includes over five years at independent publishing house, Cinco Puntos Press, editing manuscripts through all stages of development. At CPP, I edited it all: from YA novels and poetry to graphic novels and anthologies on policy and history, working on books from James Carlos Blake, Benjamin Alire Saenz, and U.S. Congressman Beto O'Rourke. Previously, I worked as a proofreader at Archie Comics, where I edited over a dozen monthly titles and trade paperbacks. While continuing to edit books on a freelance basis, I've rounded out my career with work as a journalist and magazine editor, where I continue to workshop and collaborate with writers.
I work to make editing easy on you! I collaborate with you to hone your story with the utmost respect for the words that make your manuscript uniquely yours. My passion for storytelling and a love for working with authors guide my work in realizing the best version of your story. My toolbox includes a deep knowledge of both Chicago Manual and AP Styles, as well as years of experience in creating style sheets unique to a specific manuscript or author. I'm extremely organized, I live to beat deadlines and I have a talent for graceful multitasking.
Services
Fiction
Comics & Graphic Novels
Cultural & Ethnic
Literary Fiction
Middle Grade
Picture Books
Poetry
Non-Fiction
Political Science & Current Affairs
Work experience
Self-employed
Jan, 2011 —
Present
Edit a range of long- and short-term projects, from developmental editing of novels and copy editing breaking news to proofreading government contracts and annual reports. Create style sheets, follow best practice guides and return corrections in a speedy manner. Notable clients include ProofreadNOW (2018), Duty First Consulting (2016) and Texas Tech University (2014).
Advertising Concepts, Inc.
Jan, 2017 —
Jul, 2017
(6 months)
Managed freelance contributors and in-house staff, assigning and tracking deadlines for 4 bimonthly lifestyle magazines with a combined circulation of 60,000 readers. Line edited all articles; pitched and wrote stories; food and event photography. Maintained editorial calendars, company style sheet and best practices guide. Oversaw freelancer budget and dispatched pay. Scouted and hired new talent.
The Art Avenue Magazine
Jun, 2013 —
Jan, 2017
(over 3 years)
Edited and fact checked all copy for an arts and culture magazine with a bimonthly circulation of 4,500 readers. Wrote articles, press releases, headlines and subheads. Pitched and researched story ideas, and strategized tie-ins to drive traffic to website. Coached staff and freelance writers.
Cinco Puntos Press
Sep, 2010 —
Jan, 2015
(over 4 years)
Edited manuscripts throughout all stages of development—from acquisitions to galleys—while writing website, marketing and meta data copy on a daily basis for award-winning indie book publisher. Managed database and analytics for email newsletter and social media. Built and maintained promotional websites.
Archie Comics
Mar, 2009 —
Jul, 2009
(4 months)
Edited everything from graphic novels to marketing collateral while creating production and ad schedules for over a dozen monthly publications. Aided in developmental editing and editing art pages. Additional duties included writing press releases, story introductions and answering fan mail.
KTVF
Jan, 2008 —
Oct, 2008
(9 months)
Researched, edited and directed daily newscasts for Fairbanks’ NBC-affiliate station. Became interim copy editor and introduced an editing checklist and style sheet to the newsroom. Experience includes everything from floor directing special broadcasts from the field to writing breaking news stories.
Portfolio
Bee stings on the backside! That was just the beginning. Tim was about to enter a world of the past, with bullying boys, stones and Indian spirits of long ago. But they were real spirits, real stones, very real memories In this powerful family saga, author Tim... read more
Which Side Are You On? tells the story of the classic union song that was written in 1931 by Florence Reece in a rain of bullets. It has been sung by people fighting for their rights all over the world. Florence's husband Sam was a coal miner in Kentucky. Many... read more
Khosi lives with her beloved grandmother Gogo, her little sister Zi, and her weekend mother in a matchbox house on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. In that shantytown, it seems like somebody is dying all the time. Billboards everywhere warn of ... read more
“Traverses Texas, finding evidence of the hard boiled, sultry, and disreputable throughout the state . . . Think of the book as a sort of criminal travelogue.” —Booklist If everything is bigger in Texas, then that includes the boldness of the criminals who cal... read more
"Hey, what's up, come a little closer, I have something to tell you," God said to Cornelio. The deal was simple: God would be the silent partner in the norteño band that Cornelio had started with his best friend Ramon. Cornelio would sing and play the bajo sex... read more
"The hour has come to speak of troubled times. It is time we spoke of Skullyville." Thus begins Rose Goode's story of her growing up in Indian Territory in pre-statehood Oklahoma. Skullyville, a once-thriving Choctaw community, was destroyed by land-grabbers, ... read more
Joshua Isard’s debut novel is a hoot. Our hero Nathan Wavelsky moves into the burbs with his wife. Life is good. He’s a successful slacker. He doesn’t want to rock the boat. His definition of a good time is listening to his favorite bands on his iPod and stari... read more
Chosen by the American Library Association as a 2012 Notable Book in Poetry.Beauty is a Verb is a ground-breaking anthology of disability poetry, essays on disability, and writings on the poetics of both. Crip Poetry. Disability Poetry. Poems with Disabilities... read more
The War on Drugs doesn’t work. This became obvious to El Paso City Representatives Susie Byrd and Beto O’Rourke when they started to ask questions about why El Paso’s sister city Ciudad Juárez has become the deadliest city in the world8,000-plus deaths since ... read more
Winner of the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction!Benjamin Alire Sáenz's stories reveal how all borders—real, imagined, sexual, human, the line between dark and light, addict and straight—entangle those who live on either side. Take, for instance, the Kentucky... read more
Mamá says she has the best daughters in the world. The two women live near their mother—Rosa with her husband and children, Blanca by herself. They both have flourishing gardens. Rosa and Blanca are so generous and kind and thoughtful—well, everyone, including... read more
Each page captures a sense of wonder, of the vibrancy of color, the imagination of the artist, the name of the hue. Colors take life in this small picture book, perfect for small hands, in an astonishing pairing of visual intimacy and artistic joy that make t... read more
A page-turning epic about the making of a borderland crime family, Country of the Bad Wolfes will appeal both to aficionados of family sagas and to fans of hard-knuckled crime novels by the likes of Donald Pollack, Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke and James Ell... read more
"Archie Marries Veronica Part 1: The Proposal": Could it be true? Has Archie finally decided to take the plunge and propose to comics' favorite rich girl? It sure looks that way! Earlier this year readers got a chance to relive "Freshman Year" with the famous ... read more
In 1993, Sonic the Hedgehog sped his way from video games to comic books. Hundreds of isues later, "the blue blur" can lay claim to having the most successful comic book career of all video game heroes! Now you can enjoy his earliest comic book adventures with... read more
The Archie New Look Series tells dynamic stories of the Archie gang in a more realistic style by some of comics' best storytellers.The good news is that Archie's dad got a big promotion... the bad news is that Archie and his family will have to leave Riverdale... read more
Perhaps more than any "new look" story so far, "My Father's Betrayal" presents a very poignant situation. When Veronica and her friends vow to save a nature preserve from being turned into an industrial park, they discover the issue isn't as black and white as... read more
“Hayes's flowing plot, enlivened by several wry twists, is decidedly satisfying. Fiedler's spare, earth-toned paintings convey the particulars of the setting from traditional garb to the sprawling landscapes as well as the timelessness of folklore.”—Publishers... read more
A bilingual tale about Little Lilly Lujan who loves her chanclas (flip-flops) going slippety-slappety and flippity-flop. In fact, Lilly refuses any footwear except her favorite pair of flip-flops. "Why does Lilly love her chanclas so much?" her family cries. L... read more
Welcome to the family! It's just like yours: father, mother, sister, brother, abuelita, gato, even a great-great grandmother. Well, but there's something just a little bit different about this particular family. Maybe it's those clothes they wear . . . just a ... read more
Joe Hayes is back with another unbelievable, astounding, and totally true tall tale, straight from his own childhood in the Arizona desert.One day little Joe is out in the desert, walking around, and he sees a rattlesnake in trouble. Joe saves the snake's life... read more
What happens when an old dog sitting at the dinner table with his master slides a whole leg of lamb, a big bowl of posole, a stack of tortillas and a bottle of wine to a coyote, who just happens to be under the table? A whole ruckus, that's what!But that's not... read more
Joe Hayes must have had a singular growing up in the Arizona desert because he sure loves to write stories about it. And he tells those stories of his so much to audiences all over the United States that it seems like the stories just get more and more fantast... read more
Young Gabe's is a story of heartache and jubilation. He's a child slave freed after the Civil War. He sets off to reunite himself with his mother who was sold before the war's end. "Come morning, the folks take to the road again, singing songs, telling stories... read more
It's crazy! Fifteen-year-old Masi Burciaga hauls bricks to help build a giant pyramid in her neighborhood park. Her neighborhood is becoming more of a ghost town each day since the lard company moved away. Even her school closed down. Her family's bakery and t... read more
Johnny's plans fly out the window when he finds out his single mother is leaving town for the summer. She has a breakthough job in upstate New York. He can live with his Aunt Collette but only on the condition that he "help out with" his autistic older cousin,... read more
Penny is furious, and who can blame her? She has to spend Christmas break alone at the Black Butterfly, an old inn at the coldest, bleakest edge of Americathe coast of Maine. This "vacation" is the brainchild of Penny's flaky mother, who's on the other side o... read more
"With an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the historic underbelly of Galveston and a ringing feel for dialogue, Long Fall From Heaven carries us along on a sordid yet seamless narrative of murderous mayhem." Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire Mysterie... read more
An inventive novel, Make It, Take It sneaks the reader past the press conferences, locker rooms, and huddles of college basketball. Without judgment or sentimentality, Rus Bradburd lays bare the web of conflicts between players and coaches, blacks and whites, ... read more
"Diane Lawson's amazing insight into the mysteries and witchcraft of psychoanalysis . . . combined with her extraordinary writing skills makes this a one-of-a-kind novel that I found impossible to put down."—Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for StoneSigmund... read more
Harvey Araton writes, with keen insight, of a time when power was ebbing fast from both newspapers and their unions. It’s an especially bittersweet tale he tells of the people who had grown up in newspapers and unions, as they struggle to adapt to this evolvin... read more
You can put this little book by your bed, in the bathroom, in your pocket or purse, wherever it's easily at hand so you can consider the bits and pieces of your relationship with your own beloved. The A to Z of this big city romance is like a foamy broth of ko... read more
Growing up in Memphis, #3:In 1952 Dewey Phillips invented Elvis.It happened on the radio.Rock n' Roll saved my life.In 1960 the bad guys sold Elvis into slavery.Don't let anybody tell you different.This morning I made love with the lettuce picker:Every year th... read more
"Drug Lord is the real thing. Raw, immediate, indispensable."—Don Winslow, author of The Power of Dog and California Fire and Life"The [drug smuggling] business goes on, the slaughtered dead pile up, the US agencies continue to ratchet up their budgets, the pr... read more
What's it like to grow up during war? To be a victim of violence or exiled from your homeland, culture, family, and even your own memories? When America's talking heads talk about war, children and teenagers are often the forgotten part of the story. Yet who c... read more
Southern California is ground zero for upwardly mobile middle-class Latinas. Matriarchs like Mercy Amado—despite her drunken, philandering (now ex-) husband—could raise three daughters and become a teacher. Now she watches helplessly as her daughters drift apa... read more
In Indiana, basketball is the next thing to religion. Especially for inner-city black kids like Derrick Bowen. He's a 6'3" freshman, lightning quick, and he can slam the rock. He wants to start at point guard for Marion High, but senior Nick Starks has that na... read more
Maximilian & the Bingo Rematch is the sequel to Maximilian & the Mystery of the Guardian Angel, an honor book for the Pura Belpre Award. Xavier Garza rules the ring when it comes to writing and illustrating action-packed, high-interest books filled with crazy ... read more
Margarito acts like any other eleven-year-old aficionado of lucha libre. He worships all the players. But in the summer just before sixth grade, he tumbles over the railing at a match in San Antonio and makes a connection to the world of Mexican wrestling that... read more
Practice your numbers in English and Spanish when you count the beautiful dancers, playful musicians, and happy children of Oaxaca as the Guelaguetza parade goes by! Pronounced Gal-a-get-zah, the lively celebration—full of traditional dancing and music—takes p... read more
"Chukfi is a trickster worthy of the name, and this fresh, funny tale makes an excellent addition to the genre." (starred reivew, Kirkus Reviews)Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2014Silly kids, tricks are for rabbits! Chukfi Rabbit, that is. The laziest—... read more
Elena has 20 reviews
Professionalism
Quality
Value
Responsiveness
Rita B.
Feb, 2022
James M.
Jan, 2022
Timothy W.
Jan, 2022
Rita B.
Jan, 2022
Amanda B.
Jan, 2022
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