Overview
I'm here to help you polish your prose until it shines! I'm a published author and a seasoned editorial professional with clients at fiction presses, academic and university presses, large companies such as P&G, ConAgra and Kroger, and web publishing platforms such as Forbes and LinkedIn. I combine an in-depth knowledge of Chicago Style and AP Style with a deep love for the cadence, meaning, and musicality of language to help you clarify and express your unique voice.
Offering your work up for editing, especially if you're a first-timer, can feel incredibly daunting. My approach combines humor, compassion, expertise, and insight into the current market and literary landscape. I stay in communication with you throughout the course of your project, asking questions and making suggestions to ensure I'm helping you meet your publishing goals.
I own and operate an editing/proofreading company called Red Pen Refinery. I'm also the author/illustrator of the middle-grade novels BOTH CAN BE TRUE and FIGHT + FLIGHT (under pen name Jules Machias), both published by HarperCollins. As a YA/MG writer and a parent, I'm interested in a wide range of topics that affect today's kids, tweens and teens, ranging from external factors like our ever-changing political climate to internal concerns like first love, personal aspirations, disabilities, and peer and family relationships. If you're writing for kids, you're writing for our future. I'm committed to helping you share your message and voice as clearly and effectively as possible.
Offering your work up for editing, especially if you're a first-timer, can feel incredibly daunting. My approach combines humor, compassion, expertise, and insight into the current market and literary landscape. I stay in communication with you throughout the course of your project, asking questions and making suggestions to ensure I'm helping you meet your publishing goals.
I own and operate an editing/proofreading company called Red Pen Refinery. I'm also the author/illustrator of the middle-grade novels BOTH CAN BE TRUE and FIGHT + FLIGHT (under pen name Jules Machias), both published by HarperCollins. As a YA/MG writer and a parent, I'm interested in a wide range of topics that affect today's kids, tweens and teens, ranging from external factors like our ever-changing political climate to internal concerns like first love, personal aspirations, disabilities, and peer and family relationships. If you're writing for kids, you're writing for our future. I'm committed to helping you share your message and voice as clearly and effectively as possible.
I live in Cincinnati with my very excellent family, a pack of rescue dogs and reptiles with varying disabilities, and many, many bookshelves (plus a garage full of art supplies and dirt bikes). I love staying active with trail running, weight training, biking and obstacle course racing (OCR). In 2016, I competed in the OCR World Championships with my brother, who is an American Ninja Warrior (watch for the guy with the big spray-painted beard).
Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs
Fiction
Coming of Age
Contemporary Fiction
LGBTQ Fiction
Middle Grade
Short Story
Women's Fiction
Young Adult
Languages
English (CAN)
English (US)
Awards
- American Library Association Rainbow Booklist Top Ten Title for Young Readers: BOTH CAN BE TRUE
- Bank Street Children's Best Books of the Year: BOTH CAN BE TRUE
- Indie Next List Pick: BOTH CAN BE TRUE
- American Library Association Rainbow Booklist: FIGHT + FLIGHT
Certifications
- BA in Creative Writing from Miami University (graduated with honors)
Work experience
Self-employed
Jan, 2004 —
Present
I provide editing and proofreading services to clients in book publishing, web publishing, and marketing. I'm current on all AP Style and Chicago Style rules and guidelines.
Barefoot Proximity
Apr, 2019 —
Present
I provide part-time editing for a marketing firm that serves clients in healthcare, energy supply and delivery, consumer packaged goods, pet food and wellness, and more. Working in the marketing field keeps me constantly tuned in to cultural and societal trends and changes, and it's a great deal of fun.
Northlich
Jun, 2014 —
Mar, 2019
(over 4 years)
I provided writing, proofreading and editing services for clients in such industries as publishing, healthcare, finance, B2B, nonprofit, restaurants, CPG and more.
Portfolio
In Our Last Blue Moon, dancer Kris O'Shee, widow of Alan Cheuse, the novelist, beloved teacher, and literary commentator known as the "voice of books" on NPR's All Things Considered for over thirty years, tells the story of the loss of her husband after he sus... read more
In 1980, as the world is captivated by the Iranian hostage crisis, aspiring doctor Hesam drops out of medical school in Rome and returns to Iran to serve his country. A member of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, he becomes a prison guard in Ahwaz, assigned to i... read more
How does a widower start over? George Elden had it all. A lovely wife. Two beautiful adult children. A condo on the grounds of the Boca Raton Resort & Club. But when his wife dies, he's suddenly alone in retirement. A lost man. Sure, he has his golf buddies to... read more
Dead Hemingway. Dead Baker. Dead Joyce and Dead Fitzgerald. Dead Stein. Dead Picasso. Dead Barnes and Dead Truffaut. Piaf Dead and Breton Dead. Gainsbourg Dead and Monet Dead. Bernhardt Dead and Satie Dead. Baldwin Dead and Foucault Dead too. The Parisian arti... read more
In this masterful novel of inheritance and loss, Sonya Chung (Long for This World) proves herself a worthy heir to Marguerite Duras, Hwang Sun-won, and James Salter. Spanning generations and divergent cultures, The Loved Ones maps the intimate politics of unli... read more
When twelve-year-old Pablo makes the connection between the pills smuggled through the once-abandoned mill, and the pill that Mindy stole from her pain-afflicted dad, he knows he must help his friend. But Pablo is a Dreamer kid with his own problems; his fathe... read more
Bessie's Story - Watching the Lights Go Out is an inspiring story about a charming, brave, chocolate Lab who gradually loses her eyesight. The author leads the reader from the unexpected diagnosis of terminal blindness for his beloved four-year-old pet through... read more
At supermarkets across the nation, customers waiting in line—mostly female—flip through magazines displayed at the checkout stand. What we find on those magazine racks are countless images of food and, in particular, women: moms preparing lunch for the team, c... read more
When a seemingly routine medical procedure results in her mother's premature death, Anne Panning is left reeling. In her first full-length memoir, the celebrated essayist and short story writer draws on decades of memory and experience, piecing together hard t... read more
WE HAVE A SITUATION THAT BORDERS ON A SNAKE PIT. -- ROBERT F. KENNEDY In 1987, following a public outcry about its questionable medical practices, Staten Island's Willowbrook State School for people with intellectual disabilities closed its doors for good. Fla... read more
In this stirring new collection, Ronna Wineberg explores our essential bonds to partners, children, parents, and friends. Intimacy, marriage, parenthood, adultery, divorce, and the legacies left by the past unfold in these beautifully written stories. Men and ... read more
On Bittersweet Place is the powerful coming-of-age story of Lena Czernitski, a young Russian Jew whose family flees their homeland in the Ukraine after the October Revolution. The story unfolds in Chicago during the Jazz Age of the 1920's, where Lena's impover... read more
I would never witness anything interesting. I would never write anything beyond memos and flap copy and travel itineraries. I would simply love my wife and my daughters and hold them close and continue to take in meaningless midweek doubleheaders and mismanage... read more
In Helen on 86th Street and Other Stories, girls grow into women and women become wise in portraits filled with biting humor and small but hard-earned victories. One girl makes a burnt offering of letters written to her wayward father, while another struggles ... read more
From the glittering heat of India's Pink City to the palm-lined streets of Silicon Valley and the vanilla-bean fields of Madagascar, Anita Felicelli's debut collection delivers a dazzling array of precisely drawn characters searching for identity in the seemin... read more
Jules has 25 reviews
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Apr, 2023
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