Overview
Steph is a freelance copy editor, proofreader, and writer with eleven-plus years’ professional experience working with publishers such as Modern Luxury magazine, House of Anansi Press, ECW Press, UBC Press, and more, including independent authors. She's also a successful creative writing coach, both private and for Giller-nominee Sarah Selecky's Intensive Story is a State of Mind course. Steph writes the popular book blog Bella's Bookshelves.
Services
Fiction
Action & Adventure
Anthologies
Fantasy
Historical Fiction
LGBTQ Fiction
Literary Fiction
Romance
Science Fiction
Short Story
Languages
English (CAN)
English (UK)
English (US)
Awards
- George Herbert English Award
Certifications
- BA Honours English
- Usage Woes and Myths
- Substantive Editing: The Big Picture
Work experience
Steph VanderMeulen
Oct, 2003 —
Present
Professionally copy editing, proofreading, and writing since 2003. Past and present clients include
-Kobo Inc.
-Livres Canada Books
-Modern Luxury Magazine
-Arabella: Canadian Art, Architecture and Design magazine
-Thomas Allen, Ltd.
-House of Anansi Press
-ECW Press
-Quill & Quire
-The Mark News
-Loyalist College
-Ministry of the Environment
-University of Ottawa Press
-University of British Columbia Press
-Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine
-Essence Publishing
-Canadian Journal of Development Studies
-International Journal of Canadian Studies
-Beckett Psychological Services
-Engine Communications (marketing, branding, website copy)
-JB Printing (ad copy)
-The RV Times
-Richard L. Wright Law Office,
-Sherry Strong, food philosopher and nutritional strategist
-authors and writers
-post-grad students
Short story critique and coaching. Creative writing mentor, specializing in short stories. TA for Sarah Selecky's Story is a State of Mind course.
Portfolio
The Canadian Modernists Meet is a collection of new critical essays on major and rediscovered Canadian writers of the early to mid-twentieth century. F.R. Scott's well-known poem 'The Canadian Authors Meet' sets the theme for the volume: a revisiting of Englis... read more
Other Selves: Animals in the Canadian Literary Imagination begins with the premise, first suggested by Margaret Atwood in The Animals in That Country (1968), that animals have occupied a peculiarly central position in the Canadian imagination. Unlike the longe... read more
Margaret Atwood enjoys a unique prominence in Canadian letters. With over thirty books to her credit, in genres ranging from children's writing to dystopic novels, she is as creatively diverse as she is internationally acclaimed. Her success, however, has been... read more
Swinging the Maelstrom is the story of a musician enduring existence in the Bellevue psychiatric hospital in New York. Written during his happiest and most fruitful years, this novella reveals the deep healing influence that the idyllic retreat at Dollarton ha... read more
Cloudburst is a milestone in Canadian literature. For over a half-century, beginning with the Spanish Civil War and continuing through the coups d'etat and military repression in South and Central America in the 1970s and 80s, Spanish-speaking writers have bee... read more
The legendary good guys worthy of a spot in the pro wrestling hall of fame At its core, professional wrestling has always been about the forces of evil trying to undermine everything good — and a red hot heel needs a valiant hero to battle against, someone fan... read more
When singer, musician, and broadcast journalist Malka Marom had the opportunity to interview Joni Mitchell in 1973, she was eager to reconnect with the performer she’d first met late one night in 1966 at a Yorkville coffeehouse. More conversations followed ove... read more
Chances are if you are feeling flat, fat and tired, or are experiencing chronic illness, you are not eating real food. If you want to bounce out of bed feeling fit and fabulous you must find out what is and isn't real food. This book challenges prescriptive ap... read more
A fast, powerful read full of action, twists, and dark humourBounty Hunter Karl Morgen goes after Miro Knotts on a skipped bond, finding the dope dealer wrapped around an underaged girl at a rave in Seattle. Dragging Miro in the hard way gets Karl's licence re... read more
Mark Coakley lifts the veil in Hidden Harvest on the untold story of a group of criminals Ontario police would call them a gang with no name” whose most famous exploit was turning an abandoned Molson beer factory north of Toronto into a giant indoor jungl... read more
Ronnie, a hairdresser with a history of recklessness, feels stifled by the predictable, comfortable life laid out before her with her live-in boyfriend. Charlie is an anxiety-ridden award-winning writer, burdened by his literary success and familial responsibi... read more
?Ben is a performance artist about to enter his forties. His father and mother are both dead, and his brother, Jake, is a lousy source of information. So when he begins to struggle with a particularly nagging memory, he doesn’t know where to turn. The memory: ... read more
A haunting story about rapture and grace Amanda Leduc’s stunning novel is the tale of two unlikely dreamers: Sam, a man who wakes up one day to find himself growing wings, and Lilah, a woman who has lost her brother to the streets of Vancouver. As Sam finds hi... read more
Phoebe’s Way is the story of a Saint John Ambulance therapy dog whose unsentimental lessons on aging propel this powerful work of fiction from author Pamela Ditchoff. Phoebe’s cross is carried throughout the rooms of Mersey House, a nursing home in Safe Harbou... read more
Eleven-year-old Maya Devine has grown up with a warped view of reality. For one, she sees colour around people’s bodies and can sometimes hear what’s going on inside their heads. These insights make everyone a bit more interesting, but the one person she’ll ne... read more
Does one honour one's country, or one's heart? This classic dilemma is the theme of this lyrical and passionate first work of fiction by Malka Marom. Drawn from Marom's experiences as an Israeli and Canadian citizen, Sulha is the story of Leora's search for an... read more
When Emily was a little girl, all she wanted to be when she grew up was a Full-Time Pioneer; in her Jehovah’s Witness family, the only imaginable future is a life of knocking on doors and handing out Watchtower magazines. But Emily starts to challenge her upbr... read more
In the late 1870s, thousands of Chinese men left coastal British Columbia and the western United States and headed east. For these men, the Prairies were a land of opportunity: there, they could open shops, and potentially earn enough money to marry. The resul... read more
An outlandishly funny, unambiguously bloody novel about fame, love, religion, politics, and appetite It is one thing to die, alone and confused, trapped with your pants down around your ankles in the filthiest bus restroom in existence. It’s quite another thin... read more
A Christmas Story has become a perennial holiday favourite since its release in 1983. While millions watch the movie every year on television, few know the story behind the film’s production, release, and unlikely ascent. Ralphie Parker’s quest for a Red Ryde... read more
As Julia Harrison's first summer of living in Ontario approached, she became aware of the culture of the cottage. Friends talked of nothing but languid afternoons on the dock, but Harrison marveled at the investment of money and labor that the idyllic escapes ... read more
Situated within the area stretching from Georgian Bay in the north to Lake Simcoe in the east, the Wendat Confederacy flourished for two hundred years. By the mid-seventeenth century, however, Wendat society was threatened by European disease and Iroquois atta... read more
"Thirtysomething Nicky Fowler has it all-- a rewarding career, a loving husband and the perfect home. But when she and her husband suffer a complicated tragedy, the strain of two people dealing with an impossible situation in different ways breaks up their mar... read more
A testament to the healing power of unconditional love.Widely acclaimed for her emotionally powerful stories that capture the real lives of women, Heather A. Clark, bestselling author of Chai Tea Sunday, tackles the subject of childhood mental illness and the ... read more
More than fifty years after the publication of Anatomy of Criticism, Northrop Frye remains one of Canada's most influential intellectuals. This reappraisal reasserts the relevance of his work to the study of literature and illuminates its fruitful intersection... read more
In the late 1990s, three monuments - Crab Park Boulder, Marker of Change and Standing with Courage, Strength and Pride - were built in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Located within a few city blocks of one another, the monuments were grassroots initiatives tha... read more
In recent decades, educators have been seeking ways to improve outcomes for Indigenous students. Yet most Indigenous education still takes place within a theoretical framework based in Eurocentric thought. Teaching Each Other provides an alternative framework ... read more
