Overview
In addition to ghostwriting books, I have published two best-selling and critically acclaimed novels of my own PROOF OF HEAVEN and PROOF OF ANGELS (William Morrow/HarperCollins). I also have a forthcoming memoir that will be published next year. In addition to books, I have written several profiles of acclaimed writers, including Pulitzer Prize Winner, Dave Eggers, Oprah Book of the Month Club author and best-selling author Janet Fitch, former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, and host of NPR’s Fresh Air, Terry Gross. I have also appeared on NPR’s This I Believe and my essay “Never Give Up,” which aired on the program, was anthologized in This I Believe: On Fatherhood (Wiley).
With over twenty years of experience in publishing–writing, ghostwriting, developmental editing–I am a skilled interviewer and have a knack for getting people to open up and share their story in ways only they can tell it. As a person who has both served as an editor and writer, I understand both sides of the process and try to be the editor I myself need as a writer and the writer I wish to work with as an editor.
I am also an avid reader and look at each text as a reader might—hanging on every word and hoping to come away from each book transformed, enlightened, and a bit wiser, not to mention a more compassionate person for reading it.
Reading, writing, and working with people makes me happy. I love what I do. I try my best to be congenial and easy-to-work-with. I sincerely want every person to experience the process of writing as both the gift and a joy that it is, but I also recognize the extraordinary discipline, strength, patience, skill, effort, and passion required to see a project through to completion. And thanks to years of hard work and experience, I possess these virtues—not to mention a healthy sense of humor and acceptance of my own limitations.
Services
Non-Fiction
Languages
Work experience
Self-employed
I have been freelancing as a writer, developmental editor, and ghostwriter for nearly a decade. My novels Proof of Heaven and Proof of Angels were published in 2011 and 2014 by William Morrow/HarperCollins. I have ghostwritten for authors who have been published by Harper, Penguin Random House, and Simon and Schuster and have helped hundreds of clients edit, write, and/or publish their books on their own. Because of the nature of my work, I can't share all of the books I have ghostwritten, but I can provide samples upon request.
University of Cincinnati
As an adjunct faculty member, I taught classes in writing, rhetoric, and literature.
Franciscan Media
For nearly a decade I served as an editor, writer, copywriter and project manager for an international nonprofit press. Responsibilities included, but were not limited to: acquiring, editing, researching, fact-checking, copyediting, and proofreading book manuscripts (up to 10 per season); assisting authors with the writing of their books; acquiring titles and developing new products; writing back cover copy for books edited; evaluating book queries and submissions, initiating and shepherding titling, design, and production process of each book; working with authors, freelancers, and designers throughout the book production process. As a specialist in marketing and public relations, I was also responsible for developing products and book concepts based on target demographic research, while helping marketing to create promotional material and catalog copy as well as working with designers and professional photographers for book cover shoots.
Portfolio
