Nancy Heckel - Editor
Editor, tutor, teacher--my editorial services reflect my background of helping writers develop their own voices and style!
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Overview
I'm an independent editor whose main line of work is teaching composition and literature at the college level. I got started editing in graduate school and found that editing is what I really love to do--it's all the good parts of teaching without the worst part (grading). When editing, I help clients strengthen and refine their writing to match the vision in their heads--my goal is to help them communicate their ideas clearly and develop their own unique authorial voice.
My particular editorial interests are in genres that I enjoy reading, speculative fiction and non-fiction food writing. I have an academic background in medieval literature and the study of medievalism (how later time periods re-shape the medieval era in their art and culture) that gives me the research abilities necessary to help writers use research well, and my love of science fiction and fantasy has helped me to develop a strong sense for the coherence in world-building necessary to good speculative fiction. Though I haven't yet had the opportunity to edit a graphic novel or comic, I am actively looking for a chance to break into that genre as well.
In non-fiction, I would like to add food writing to my portfolio, as it is a genre I enjoy reading. My time as a composition teacher has taught me how to help writers develop a real story from factual information, a must in any non-fiction, and I have a strong sense of what readers do and don't need to know in order to see the information from the angle the author intends.
My particular editorial interests are in genres that I enjoy reading, speculative fiction and non-fiction food writing. I have an academic background in medieval literature and the study of medievalism (how later time periods re-shape the medieval era in their art and culture) that gives me the research abilities necessary to help writers use research well, and my love of science fiction and fantasy has helped me to develop a strong sense for the coherence in world-building necessary to good speculative fiction. Though I haven't yet had the opportunity to edit a graphic novel or comic, I am actively looking for a chance to break into that genre as well.
In non-fiction, I would like to add food writing to my portfolio, as it is a genre I enjoy reading. My time as a composition teacher has taught me how to help writers develop a real story from factual information, a must in any non-fiction, and I have a strong sense of what readers do and don't need to know in order to see the information from the angle the author intends.
Languages
English (US)
Fiction
Fantasy
Historical Fiction
Literary Fiction
Science Fiction
Work experience
Independent Editor
A Careful Reader Editorial Services
September, 2015
–
Present
(about 5 years)
I am still building my client base, but my projects to date include a self-help book on parenting and an Arthurian novel with a historical setting.
Assistant Professor
American Public University System
October, 2009
–
Present
(almost 11 years)
I teach composition and literature for APUS, as well as acting as a course designer. My research focuses on medievalism, or the way that later era re-shaped and re-created the idea of the medieval period, and I particularly enjoy studying the more fantastic uses of the setting in fantasy literature and video games.
Editorial Assistant
Middle English Texts Series; Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages (TEAMS)
May, 2003
–
February, 2006
(over 2 years)
With METS, I formatted, proofread, and fact-checked critical editions of Middle English literary works, as well as converting the finished texts for electronic publication.
Assistant
The Camelot Project
September, 2001
–
July, 2009
(almost 8 years)
My work with the Camelot Project was part of my duties as a library assistant at the Rossell Hope Robbins Library at the University of Rochester. As part of the Camelot Project staff, I not only formatted and edited Arthurian texts for online publication, but also wrote author biographies and character overviews.
Portfolio (5 selected works)
Stanzaic Guy of Warwick (Middle English Texts)
Alison Wiggins
The poem, which survives only in the Auchinleck Manuscript, deals with the later years of Guy's life, beginning with his return to Warwick after having established himself on the Continent as a pre-eminent model of knighthood. After his marriage, however, he is stricken by remorse for the very actions that have brought him fame, and he sets out anonymously on a series of pilgrimages of atonement.
Confessio Amantis (Teams Middle English Texts Series) (Vol. 3)
John Gower, Andrew Galloway
The complete text of John Gower's Confessio Amantis is a 3-volume edition, including all Latin components - with translations - of this bilingual poem and extensive glosses, bibliography, and explanatory notes. Volume 3 contains Books 5, 6, and 7, which follow another kind of development as Gower shifts from romance banter and formulaic confession to philosophical inquiry.
The Wallace catalogs the sheer brutality of war. We are regaled with such detailed accounts of the sacking of towns and the burning down of buildings full of screaming inhabitants that the smells and sounds, as well as the terrible sights, of war are graphically conveyed in language which seems designed not only to express Wallace's rage and Hary's antipathy but also to incite hatred of the En... read more
Arise Pendragon
Leon Mintz
A more mature, battle-weary sequel that should appeal to King Arthur's most ardent fans. - Kirkus Review
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