This was my graduate exam paper for the publishing program at Portland State University. Conflicts, Contradictions, & Advantages of both Writing and Editing Frequently editors are writers, and writers are editors. Every author has a distinctive, unique voice. It is crucial for an editor who also writes to refrain from…

In 2011, I finished grad school and worked at a small press that planned to publish a series of classics for young adults but folded before the books were published. Here is some front and back copy I wrote for a collection of stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Salem Salem, Massachusetts…

I wrote this circa 2009, but it’s still basically relevant to today’s Young Adult market. Through the author’s understanding of psychology and her use of themes, character, pace, and action, Kristine Cashore has created in Graceling a feminist fantasy novel relevant to contemporary young adult readers. The traditional fantasy setting…

It’s kind of like if a witch hunter accidently sent a letter to a woman accused of witchcraft, and the letter was meant for other witch hunters. I inexplicably received an email that, in my inbox, indicated that it was from “Donald J. Trump.” WTF?!? The subject line is: “These…

I’m sure you’ve heard something like this: “I don’t hate queer people. I just wish they wouldn’t flaunt it in public.” Or, “I don’t hate gays. I just wish they wouldn’t shove it down our throats.” I thought cliched bigot-sayings like that were a thing of the past, memories of…

When I was in my thirties, my mother and Aunt Ethel said something about math. Whether or not the subject started as simply their rubbing in how bad I am at math, that is what the topic became. Being bad at math has been a part of my “character” for…

I’m in a writers’ group that meets on Zoom, though before the pandemic we met in person. Every week, we do a writing prompt: someone gives a page number, and our organizer picks a word from a huge dictionary. We write for five minutes. In this example, the word is…

The things you learn about your own house…. This morning a contractor from Climatize did the initial inspection for my heat pump. My quirky house is so complicated. It’s a Cape Cod cottage built shortly after WWII, and it’s had add-ons and updates here and there. …

I’m in a writers’ group that meets on Zoom, though before the pandemic we met in person. Every week, we do a writing prompt: someone gives a page number, and our organizer picks a word from a huge dictionary. We write for five minutes. …