Overview
I'm a retired newspaper copy editor. As a freelancer I've copyedited and proofread books in a variety of genres for adults, young adults, and middle graders, and indexed middle grade history and biography titles.My personal interests and experience include architecture and building construction, natural history and the environment, agriculture, gardening, forestry, beekeeping . . .The Portfolio shows some titles I’ve worked on recently, as well as some of my favorites from years past. They're a mixture of books I copyedited and ones I proofread, along with a few I indexed.Most of my experience has been with traditional book publishers, but I enjoy working directly with authors.
Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs
Children’s Non-Fiction
History
Fiction
Fantasy
Historical Fiction
Middle Grade
Young Adult
Languages
English (US)
Work experience
freelance
Jan, 2005 —
Present
Copy editor and proofreader of fiction and nonfiction books for adults, young adults, and middle graders; indexing since 2016
The Free Lance-Star
Sep, 1999 —
Dec, 2012
(about 13 years)
Copy editor/proofreader for daily newspaper in Fredericksburg, Virginia
freelance
Jan, 1993 —
Dec, 2000
(almost 8 years)
Translator of nonfiction books for adults and children, patents, regulations, corporate and personal documents. I no longer accept translation jobs, but you’d be surprised how often the experience comes in handy.
self-employed and for various companies
Jan, 1976 —
Dec, 1993
(almost 18 years)
Restoration and preservation of historic buildings, commercial and residential construction and remodeling, custom architectural millwork and cabinetry
volunteer
Jan, 1967 —
Present
Active with local environmental organizations, especially those involved in river conservation; served on Stafford County (Virginia) Wetlands Board and on Rappahannock State Scenic River Advisory Board
Portfolio
Copy Editing
Copy Editing
Copy Editing
There has been a world of change in journalism in the last fifty or so years. This is the story of a small-town reporter and editor’s journey through the changes, as papers switched from Linot... read more
Copy Editing
A novel set in the seaside town of Astoria, Oregon, based on our true stories and the lies we told our mother to cover those stories up. Through our adventures we uncover a realm of real magic... read more
Copy Editing
Born a slave, Harriet Tubman was determined not toremain one. She escaped from her owners in Maryland onthe Underground Railroad in 1849 and then fearlesslyreturned thirteen times to help guid... read more
Copy Editing
Hilarious and heartwarming dog stories from nine renowned authors: • Ann M. Martin • Jon Muth • Mark Teague • Margarita Engle • Thacher Hurd • Valerie Hobbs • Matt de la Peña • Pam Muñoz Ryan ... read more
Copy Editing
When the albino rat Billycan left Trillium at the end of The White Assassin, he fled to the island of Tosca. There, here learns that a former ally, working undercover in Nightshade City, is pl... read more
Copy Editing
In 1940, nine-year-old Anna Bauman and her parents are among 300,000 Polish Jews struggling to survive the wretched conditions in the Warsaw ghetto. Anna draws the attention of Jolanta (the code name for the real-life Resistance spy Irena Sendler, who smuggled... read more
The inspiring true story of the Giacometti brothers, one an artist, the other a daredevil, both devoted to their craft . . . but even more devoted to each other.Everyone who knew them agreed. Alberto was the genius of the family. His younger brother Diego was ... read more
An illuminating look at the complex relationships between George Washington and the enslaved people of Mount Vernon, and the history still being uncovered there.When he was eleven years old, George Washington inherited ten human beings. His own life has been w... read more
It's 1941 and ten-year-old Norman Mineta is a carefree fourth grader in San Jose, California, who loves baseball, hot dogs, and Cub Scouts. But when Japanese forces attack Pearl Harbor, Norm's world is turned upside down.One by one, things that he and his Japa... read more
A middle-grade retelling of Richard Nixon's downfall, Bringing Down A President: The Watergate Scandal is an inventive and timely look at one of the biggest scandals to ever rock our nation by Andrea Balis and Elizabeth Levy, featuring graphic novel style illu... read more
A young reader’s adaptation of The New York Times bestsellerFollow researcher Carl Safina as he treks with a herd of elephants across the Kenyan landscape, then travel with him to the Pacific Northwest to track and monitor whales in their ocean home. Along the... read more
The true story of the all-black high school basketball team that broke the color barrier in segregated 1950s Indiana, masterfully told by National Book Award winner Phil Hoose.By winning the state high school basketball championship in 1955, ten teens from an ... read more
”Inspiring profiles of six 20th-century trailblazers.”―Kirkus Reviews Super Women celebrates the scientific as well as the social significance of six incredible women who broke new ground with their research, busted through glass ceilings with their careers, a... read more
In an enthralling book, Newbery Medalist Russell Freedman provides a succinct account of perhaps the most puzzling and contentious of America’s wars. Describing how a superpower caught up in C... read more
Copy Editing
Indexing
In 1954, one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions of the twentieth Century aimed to end school segregation in the United States. Although known as Brown v. Board of Education, the ruling applied not just to the case of Linda Carol Brown, an African ... read more
Book Translation
Book Translation
Book Translation
Copy Editing
A Magical Artifact. A Violent Crime Syndicate. A Thief, in over his head…Salvatori Lorenzo seeks to make his place in the world, but first he must survive the mean streets of Dijvois. In a cit... read more
Copy Editing
In a debut historical novel about the Great Migration a boy discovers Chicago's postwar South Side and the poetry of Langston Hughes. When 11-year-old Langston's mother dies in 1946, he and his father leave rural Alabama for Chicago's brown belt as a part of w... read more
Since NASA was established in 1958, it has landed rovers on distant planets and launched telescopes deep into space―all so that we can look back to the beginning of time.Through stunning images provided by NASA and fascinating profiles and sidebars of lesser k... read more
Strudel, a homeless dachshund, loves listening to Jake read from Chief, Dog of the Old West at the animal shelter. When Jake decides to adopt him, Strudel vows to be as brave and loyal as Chief. Only trying to fend off danger in his new home leads to trouble w... read more
If Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby, and the graveyard shift at Taco Bell. But after graduation, the only thing separating straightedge Skylar from art school is three months of summer… until S... read more
When Daniel's class hatches chicks as a science project, he adopts them. When he finds out that his favorite bird, Peepers, isn't a hen but a rooster, and therefore illegal to keep in the city of Portland, the Secret Chicken Society is quickly formed to save P... read more
This stunning book looks at how animals use camouflage in seven distinct ecosystems spanning the globe: swamp (Florida Everglades), desert (Africa's Sahara), rain forest (South America's Amazon), savanna (East Africa), deciduous forest (Europe), arctic (North ... read more
In the second installment of the SPLICED series, sixteen-year-old Jimi Corcoran risks her life to clear a friend's name--and uncovers the horrific truth about one of the most powerful men in the world.All Jimi wants is pick up the pieces of her life and move o... read more
All aboard for a fast-paced, Jazz Age–era murder mystery set aboard a Chicago-bound train!It’s 1923, and thirteen-year-old Bobby Lee Claremont is leaving the Sisters of Charitable Mercyorphanage in New Orleans, certain a better life awaits in Chicago’s glamoro... read more
Orion has survived the tunnels of Outpost Five, filled with mutant creatures and dangers around every bend. She has traversed the cordons, exposed to the radiation of the flash curtain and hunted by forces that want her stopped, dead or alive. Now, with Dram b... read more
A behind-the-scenes exploration of a LEGO master's body of work―for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages.Kids love building with LEGO bricks, and so do "professional kids" like Sean Kenney. After twelve years writing code and designing websites for major corporations,... read more
Autumn 1944. World War II is nearly over in Europe, but in the Pacific, American soldiers face an enemy who will not surrender, despite a massive and mounting death toll. Meanwhile, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team of scientist... read more
When Gwendolyn Bloom’s father vanishes, she sets off on a journey she never bargained for. Traveling under a new identity in a world of assassins, spies, and criminal masterminds, she uncovers a disturbing truth. To bring her father back alive, she must become... read more
When the Marquis de Lafayette ran off to join the American Revolution against the explicit orders of the king of France, he was a strong-willed nineteen-year-old who had never set foot on a battlefield. Although the U.S. Congress granted him an honorary commis... read more
Enter the Grishaverse with Book One of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom.Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her f... read more
The exclusive, authorized biography of the late Deadliest Catch star, written by his two sons: “outrageous tales of a man who lived without restraint, like a modern-day mythical figure” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).The electrifying behind-the-scenes sto... read more
Raised by her pirate father on a Mississippi keeler, River is a half-feral river rat and proud of it. When her powerful father disappears in the great earthquake of 1811, she is on the run from buccaneers, including Jean Laffite, who hope to claim her father's... read more
In the tradition of The Year of Magical Thinking and What Remains, this breathtaking memoir by a young Army widow shares her heartbreaking, candid story about recovering from her husband's death.In this powerful memoir, a young woman loses her husband twenty y... read more
“A funny yet surprisingly nuanced look at the legends and ideas of the self-help industry” (People, 3.5 stars), Promise Land explores the American devotion to self-improvement—even as the author attempts some deeply personal improvements of her own.Raised by a... read more
A hilarious and moving memoir of growing up Iranian in America, and the quest to make it in Hollywood without having to wear a turban, tote a bomb, or get kicked in the face by Chuck Norris.When he first started out in show business, Maz Jobrani endured sugges... read more
It all begins when Alexander H. Gory Jr. passes around a notebook in which he reveals a tantalizing secret: he has proof that their teacher, Mrs. Penrose, is a vampire. Soon the entire class is speculating and adding their opinions to the notebook until . . . ... read more
When thirteen-year-old Rose Solomon's brother, Abe, left El Paso, he told the family he was heading to Brooklyn. But Rose discovers the truth the day she picks up the newspaper at Pickens General Store and spies a group photograph captioned The Southwestern Sc... read more
George has 4 reviews
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Quality
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C. J.
Aug, 2020
Jeremy O.
Nov, 2019
Taylor O.
Jun, 2019
Kathleen H.
Jun, 2018
