You’ve worked hard and your writing is important to you. But what if you’re not happy with what you’ve done and can’t figure out how to fix it? You could lock it in your desk drawer, or bury it in the basement for your mystified children to find one day. Or you could contact a private editor, someone whose only interest is in helping you do your best. Someone like me.
Over more than thirty years as an editor I’ve collaborated with fiction writers, essayists, and journalists. Many were well-known names but still needed help with their short stories, memoirs, magazine features, or book manuscripts; others were hopefuls, with ideas that needed clarification or lumpy manuscripts that had gotten out of control.
With my experience and track record—and an approach that is informed, sure, and empathetic—I can help. Working together, we’ll clarify and organize your thoughts so that the words on the page come together in a smart and compelling way.
Credit: AFQ Photography
“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.”
—E. L. Doctorow
About Me
Born in Scotland, raised in a quiet suburb of London, educated at Cambridge University, I came to America in the early 1970s at the urging of a New Yorker I’d met, and immediately fell in love with New York City. The energy and excitement I felt here propelled me from my earliest days as a penniless fledgling writer and editor in Greenwich Village through the years of establishing my career as a writer and magazine editor, getting married, becoming a parent, and moving to Brooklyn. That’s where I’m happily ensconced today. I’ve left the world of magazines to work on my own terms and concentrate on the activity that I find most rewarding: helping writers express themselves to the best of their abilities. For details of my experience, click here. And for examples of my writing, click here and here.