Overview
🖋 Please note, I am unable to consider short stories or novellas at this time. 🖋
WHO AM I?
As a writer myself, I have a distinct appreciation for the efforts, time, and emotion writing requires. Sometimes you love your project with the intensity of a thousand burning suns; other times you want to throw your computer from the Empire State Building and never look at your words again. I understand. As an editor, I’m not just a nefarious brandisher of a red pen; I consider myself your partner and cheerleader. I want your manuscript to be the best you can write, and for you to succeed in reaching your publishing goals, whether they are modest or magnificent.
I am a current or former member of the Editorial Freelancers Association, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and Publishers Marketplace. With over fifteen years of experience in editing, writing, and publishing, I've worked with dozens of traditionally and independently published authors, many of whom are award winners and six-figure earners, and I am currently looking for new clients to embark on a writing adventure with.
SERVICES OVERVIEW
EDITORIAL ASSESSMENT (1.5¢ USD/word)
In addition to addressing any specific areas you would like feedback on, an assessment will focus on the following questions:
🖋 Does the plot flow well?
🖋 Are the characters well drawn with clear motivations and goals?
🖋 Does the conflict drive the story forward in an exciting and engaging way?
🖋 Does too much exposition and info-dumping slow down the pace?
A critique includes a three-to-five-page editorial letter to answer your questions and highlight main opportunities for improvement. This service tends to best serve writers who are more confident in their self-editing and rewriting skills or those who are just starting out and are looking for some guidance on where to focus their efforts on improving their craft.
LIGHT/MEDIUM COPYEDITING (1–1.5¢ USD/word)
This is the final cleaning up of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and syntax, including:
🖋 Fixing misused homophones.
🖋 Ensuring correctness and consistency in spelling and capitalization of all proper nouns, titles, locations, etc.
🖋 Ensuring consistency in stylistic and formatting elements such as numbers, quotes, italics, headers, and verb tense.
HEAVY COPYEDITING (a.k.a. LINE-EDITING) (1.6–3¢ USD/word)
In addition to items covered in light/medium copyediting above, heavy copyediting includes attention to:
🖋 Ensuring consistency in tone, style, and voice, characterization, and point of view.
🖋 Reducing word bloat, passive voice, and/or the subjunctive mood when they may be impeding story flow.
🖋 Flagging clichés and mixed metaphors.
🖋 Improving clarity, pacing, and flow in sentence and paragraph structure.
If you're not quite sure where to begin, I'm happy to discuss any questions or concerns you have. Thanks for taking an interest, and I look forward to potentially working together!
Services
Fiction
Action & Adventure
Epic Fantasy
Literary Fiction
Psychological Thriller
Space Opera
Steampunk
Urban Fantasy
Young Adult Fantasy
Languages
English (UK)
English (US)
Awards
- Winner of the 2010 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Best Action/Thriller award
- Finalist in the Kindle Book Review 2012 Best Indie Book Contest for Science Fiction/Fantasy
Certifications
- Copyediting certification through Media Bistro 2010
Portfolio
From Book 1: The islands of Caldera are a shining jewel in a rather bleak world. A terrible calamity in the past had blanketed much of the world with a toxic "fug." Those who survived were forced to take to the mountains and the skies in wondrous airships. Lif... read more
What could be worse than letting billions die?In the near future, to escape the crush and clutter of a packed and polluted Earth, the world's elite flock to Atopia, a massive corporate-owned artificial island in the Pacific Ocean. It is there that Dr. Patricia... read more
***The Newly Re-edited 2nd Edition.Winner 2017 National IE Award for Fantasy.Winner 2017 Readers Favorite for Epic Fantasy. Winner 2017 Beverly Hill Award for Epic Fantasy. RunnerUp 2017 Kindle Book Awards for Fantasy.Born with magic in a world where it's not ... read more
Recent art school graduate Bekah thought she’d hit the jackpot: an unknown relative died, and she inherited a small fortune and a huge house in the mountains of North Carolina. Trey Howard, the lawyer who handled the estate, is a handsome man in his twenties a... read more
Winner 2018 CIPA EVVY Awards for New Adult FictionWinner 2018 Global eBook Awards for Historical Fiction-MedievalRunnerUP 2018 Reader's Favorite Awards for Juv. FantasyFinalist 2018 Kindle Book Awards for Fantasy/Sci-fiMy name is Ayrion...and I've been trainin... read more
Being labeled as a killer is every Upakan’s dream.Being labeled as the killer of your chieftain’s son . . . not so much.Banished from his home at thirteen, Ayrion makes his way to the capital city of Aramoor in hopes of starting a new life. With high aspiratio... read more
In a city at peace, balance means war.Freshly certified for forensics, Alan is ready to do something meaningful with his photography. He's teamed up with his friend Jessie on the police force, and not a moment too soon. A serial killer seems to be copying the ... read more
One man’s prison is another man’s fortress.Alan grew up believing that justice was as simple as throwing criminals in jail. He also grew up believing there was no such thing as a shadow with a mind of its own. A special request to put his photographic talents ... read more
Honor, duty, and family mean everything, but he'll risk it all to prove his worth.For Reslo, the elven guardian of the forest road, upholding his father's oath means serving a usurping, foreign king and spending his life as an outsider. He wants nothing more t... read more
How could a good photo-op go so wrong?A perfect time-lapse of the lunar eclipse should have earned Alan some cash and acclaim. Instead, he came home with an invader in his dreams and a terrible feeling of being watched. Now his life is a tangle of cults, myste... read more
Superpowers have turned out to be a disappointment. Heat vision? Super strength? Flight? They are nowhere to be found. Instead, powers like photosynthesis or the ability to spontaneously change hair color seem to be the best the world can offer. To make matter... read more
Rogue Derelict is pulse-pounding side-story set in the universe of Lindsay Buroker’s Fallen Empire Series.In the chaos following the fall of the empire, Benita Castor wants nothing more than to live a nice quiet life. She thought she made all the right decisio... read more
For some creatures, running and hiding is the only way to stay alive. But no one can run forever.Sorrel and her twins are malthropes, creatures hated by the people of their world. Years of searching for a place where they can be safe has brought them to a myst... read more
What would you risk to do what you were born to do?Since college, Lex Alexander has had two loves. Hoversled racing, and Michella Modane. Everything from mega-corporations to robot rampages have threatened to keep them apart. Now, at long last, Lex may finally... read more
Artificial Evolution is the third book in the Big Sigma series, building upon the story and characters introduced by Bypass Gemini and Unstable Prototypes. Lex, Michella and Squee are once again joined by the mercenaries Silo and Garotte. Along the way they'll... read more
Temporal Contingency is the fourth book in the Big Sigma Series.Trevor “Lex” Alexander’s life has been less than blessed. In the past year he’s had to battle corrupt corporations, deranged techno-terrorists, and a robotic scourge. Now he’s received the opportu... read more
Set in the world of Daniel Ottalini's Steam Empire Chronicles, Roma Aeronautica follows Rufius Tiberius Alexandros as he takes his first steps in becoming a master airship captain. Readers familiar with the Steam Empire Chronicles will love the additional back... read more
Van Childs and Galactic Force chart a bold new course of exploration and alliance building as they prepare for the looming, and potentially humanity-ending, Arkon invasion. The latest gift from the Host, the exploratory cruiser New Horizons, provides higher le... read more
Van Childs continues his mission to ready Earth for the Arkon invasion. He now realizes that his own interplanetary Guardian Force’s and the Earth Federation’s combined ability to prepare for and defend against the Arkon is not enough. If they are going to be ... read more
In this second book of the Host Saga, Van Childs faces a new and more difficult decision. To continue the path he reluctantly started with no turning back and the prospect of facing a lonely, immortal future. Or, opting out and allowing mankind to fend for its... read more
Van Childs’ accidental discovery of an alien cache of advanced technologies thrusts him into the role of reluctant hero. Learning of an extra-terrestrial race, the Host, who visited Earth some 200 years before, Van is forewarned of an impending invasion by the... read more
On his twenty-fifth birthday, Diesel Lagerford meets “Twenty-Six,” a one-year-older version of himself. Twenty-Six tells Diesel that there are others like them in parallel timelines spanning the ages of twenty-five to sixty, and they can visit each other’s wor... read more
Moments after Lisbeth is born, she’s taken from her mother and handed over to an enslaved wet nurse, Mattie, a young mother separated from her own infant son in order to care for her tiny charge. Thus begins an intense relationship that will shape both of thei... read more
He is in a foreign country, he is alone, and he is just a boy...Abbas Kazerooni is not yet ten, but he’s suddenly forced to leave his parents, his friends—his entire world—and flee Tehran. The Iran-Iraq war is at its bloodiest, and the Ayatollahs who rule Iran... read more
“You don’t want to buy me. I’ll kill the man who buys me.”Despite that outrageous threat, plantation owner Boyd Jardine buys Caleb and puts him to work in the fields. But soon Jardine discovers that his new slave is both better educated and more widely travele... read more
An Ahmbren Chronicles tale.The more extraordinary the magic, the more extraordinary the price, and a spell to find true love is the most extraordinary of all. Dalin spends his evenings guiding lovers on his gondola through the canal streets of Tavenport, and h... read more
The Dwellers, creatures of Chaos in the hidden depths of the universe, awaken hungry to devour life. They float between the stars towards the planet of Ahmbren. Three women pursue disparate paths to salvation. The lich Seredith seeks to unite the four elements... read more
Guns, gods and elves on a magical murder train! The hunter god escaped death by being born as the elf girl Meara. Sixty-five years later, she travels by train in search of a lost dragon scale, the cure needed to save her dying father. Meanwhile, a killer, harv... read more
An Ahmbren Chronicles novelette.Obsessed by a secret glamour he can’t control, the elf prince breaks all his people’s taboos to possess the fisherman's daughter. But desire makes slaves of its masters, and the young woman uses the prince to launch the full mig... read more
Structophis is a heartwarming YA adventure from the author of The Book of Deacon, Bypass Gemini, and Free-Wrench. It is based upon a concept and artwork by ProjectENDO.In a small town in Colorado, Markus Spiros was just getting his life on track. By day he wor... read more
What it means to be a mother, what it takes to save a life.Lucy never confessed her love to her best friend, Harlan, before he passed away. Two months after his funeral, she is haunted by the power of things left unsaid. But then she receives the first of his ... read more
Winner of the 2012 Glass Key Award given by the members of the Crime Writers of Scandinavia All the best homes are by the water, or so the matron of Kongslund Orphanage tells her small charges. But at this particular house by the sea, not all is as it appears.... read more
August Shroeder, a burned-out teacher, has been sober since his nineteen-year-old son died. Every year he’s spent the summer on the road, but making it to Yellowstone this year means everything. The plan had been to travel there with his son, but now August is... read more
Of all of the warriors in the Nightfury pack, none is more complicated or more damaged than Wick. Emotionally scarred from a childhood of slavery and torture, Wick can barely stand the touch of another person. But all bets are off when he meets newcomer J.J. S... read more
Epic Fantasy meets Steampunk! ***** The Complete First Season ***** Saira doesn't know how she ended up in a mountain cave. She's not quite sure where she got this magic sword, either - or the tattoo on her arm. In fact, Saira can't say for certain who she is.... read more
When Adriana, a brilliant young archaeologist, accepts a position at the Museum of Archaeology in her hometown of Santander, Spain, she never imagines that her new boss has lived through the history she can only study.Iago, the charismatic technical director o... read more
2017 CIPA EVVY Award Runner-up for Fiction/ Fantasy2017 Readers' Favorite Award Finalist for Epic Fantasy/ Young AdultEverything changes the night Radyn’s family is slaughtered. Driven by vengeance, he abandons his life in the travelling carnival and sets out ... read more
Pony is a bipedal half-centaur with no desire to waste tears on a history she cannot remember. She’s busy enough with her mail routes and package deliveries and floundering through an unrequited love for the beautiful and aloof elven courtesan, Mardyth. Then, ... read more
A dark fantasy for mature readers. Twelve-year-old goddess devotees seek redemption during a seven year exile.Twelve-and-a-half-year-old Acanthus Breese and his yellow-robed peers have survived without an adult presence for seven years. They’ve scavenged. Endu... read more
The D’Karon Apprentice is the long awaited sequel to the acclaimed epic fantasy, The Book of Deacon Trilogy. It is a direct follow up to The Battle of Verril.It has been months since the Chosen finally defeated the D’Karon and the Perpetual War came to an end.... read more
The God of Space and Time considers himself just a simple baker. Until he meets the Demon Lord of California. LGBT fantasy/paranormal fiction. Stripped of his psychic powers, Calico Winghorse barely made it to 19th century Earth via his interdimensional portal... read more
Taking place prior to the events in OPPROBRIUM, TENETS is a twisting story that can be enjoyed on its own or used to supplement the larger narrative of the series, revealing the events that led Stille van Veen to join the Ukrestian monastery. After a break fro... read more
As a child, Carolle Graean fended for herself as the Pixie of Mawr Bryn. Upon her arrest, she received a choice: join the Patevian Royal Dance Troupe or suffer the full consequences for her crimes. Nine years later, Carolle “Ysbryd” and her fellow former troub... read more
The Lamentation’s End Series:In the world of Cyr, magic is vanishing. The races of elves, dwarves, and satyrs have disappeared, and now too the dragons. Few acknowledge the change, though the decreased power of each new generation of magi is undeniable. Can th... read more
From Book 1: Bad blood. Ancient gods. Alien tech. It's a crappy day to be human. The Facility is a bio-engineering and robotics complex that's been called Area 51 on steroids. It's a place where not all employees are human, and company secrets run deeper than ... read more
Lieutenant Tachikoma commands an Alpha Mike team, assembled and sent to planet One-Nine-Six. Scientists from the Magnetic Anomaly Project plan to explore the alien planet which will become known as Two Moons.Her orders. Keep the scientists safe from the indige... read more
Newly promoted to the rank of Captain, Tachikoma will now lead another off-world mission. This time to retrieve advanced alien technology.The problem is that her team will have to travel to a planet where the pillars only open once every six months. The timing... read more
In 2071, Sergeant Tachikoma leads a Marine combat armor squad. She knows the Corps never promised her a rose garden, only the chance to fight for her country.Now, she faces her greatest challenge, two terrifying alien pillars that trapped her into reliving the... read more
New York–based photographer Cat Jordan is ready to begin a new life with her successful, button-down boyfriend. But when she learns that she’s inherited the estate of a complete stranger—a woman named Isabelle de Florian—her life is turned upside down.Cat arri... read more
Private Investigator Gen Delacourt is hired to find a missing sibling, but it's complicated: the woman supposedly committed suicide twenty years before, and she was the only suspect in a murder before she disappeared. Client Sophie Keene revives the case when ... read more
In the Arena, there is no place to hide.Nearly twenty years have passed since a determined dwarf and a confident giant changed the Arena forever. Now, new fighters enter the sands of battle. As much as any before, these hopefuls feel the need to win. The narro... read more
In the Arena, there is no place to run.The world of the Arena is a personal one. In the shadow of the crowd, on the sands of battle, each combatant has something to prove. Here, a wizard wants to show everyone that an orc can become the most celebrated spellca... read more
From Book 1: Kathy and her sister, Samantha, have always been a team. Throughout their time as witches, they've taken out more than their share of bad guys. But after Kathy meets Will, who she learns is a demonic Dark Knight, her loyalties begin to change. Mea... read more
Crystal Horizon, a short prequel to the books of the Crystal Series, is a mini-adventure that provides a sampler for new readers and a fun diversion for fans. Set five years before the time of the first full-length book, Crystal Deception, it tells the backsto... read more
Ruga, leader of the Mars ruling council, is building a secret facility to produce four-gen crystals, each a sentient AI with the cognitive ability of a thousand humans. Criss, the only four-gen now in existence, discovers Ruga’s plan and alerts Sid, Cheryl, an... read more
Aliens fire the first shots in their invasion of Earth, and that’s when Criss realizes he’s outmatched. He spent years preparing for this moment, working with his human leadership to develop weapons and refine strategies. Created with the thinking and reasonin... read more
Criss lives in a special kind of prison. He can see and hear everything around the world, yet a mesh restrains his reach and keeps him cooperative. His creator, Dr. Jessica Tallette, believes his special abilities offer great promise for humanity. But she fear... read more
Power is pornographic Can love sustain light when the forces of evil close in?Paris, 1939-1942. A fallen angel is trapped in the web of German occupation. The deadly noose of Nazi control grows ever tighter, ensnaring her and two of her lovers, a bullfighter a... read more
A girl with a clockwork heart must make every second count.When Penny Farthing nearly dies, brilliant surgeon Calvin Warwick manages to implant a brass “Ticker” in her chest, transforming her into the first of the Augmented. But soon it’s discovered that Warwi... read more
CONSCIOUSNESS IS IN THE CODEThe year is 2045. 18-year-old Charlie Nobunaga creates the world’s first sentient AI and becomes an overnight sensation. But amid the red carpet galas and TV interviews, Charlie is diagnosed with cancer, and her promising future gri... read more
In a place untouched by the Perpetual War, a new conflict threatens to ignite.Generations of war have been put to rest. The D’Karon scourge has been wiped away. All that remains for Myranda, Deacon, and the other Chosen is the long, slow road to recovery for t... read more
The Complete Edition: All three volumes of When Dragons Die, in a single book. Includes: Lightfall, Covenant, and The Tides of Artalon.After the Artalonian God-King, Champion of the three good Archdragons, sacrifices himself to save the world and slay the Blac... read more
THE PHANTOM OF THE EARTH: BOOKS FOUR-FIVEThe Phantom of the Earth (Books 4-5) Omnibus Edition contains The Descent into the Maelstrom and The Restoration of Flaws.In The Descent into the Maelstrom, newborns Oriana and Pasha Barão are developed in preparation f... read more
THE PHANTOM OF THE EARTH: BOOKS ONE-THREEThe Phantom of the Earth (Books 1-3) Omnibus Edition contains The Song of the Jubilee, The Gambit with Perfection, and The Synthesis and the Animus. In the Great Commonwealth of Beimeni, a subterranean civilization in N... read more
Between is a new sci-fi/fantasy adventure from the mind behind The Book of Deacon, Free-Wrench, and Big Sigma.Philo Middleton wasn’t having a very good day. It began with him waking up strapped to a chair inside a strange, high-tech chamber. His mind was wiped... read more
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