Quick Introduction

I expect those outside the V who are reading this will see my name and think, Hmm, I don't know that name. Is she an LDS writer? What has she written?

I have an unusual place in this group of writers in that I'm the only non-novelist. When I write, I write short. Not short like poetry, but short like articles, essays, things like that. But that's not why I'm a part of this group. I had the very remarkable privilege of working with many of these wonderful ladies as their editor, some when they had already published, like Cheri Crane, Lynn Gardner, and Jennie Hansen; and others when they were starting out, like Michelle Bell, Kerry Blair, Betsy Brannon Green, and Anna Jones. About five years ago I changed jobs, first working with a nonfiction publisher and then teaching, but fortunately have been able to keep in contact with them all through the V.

When people learn I'm an editor, they often say, "Oh that's my dream job, reading all day long." And in many ways editing is the perfect job for a reader, for this reader, anyway. To share in someone else's creation process, to encourage them (while they do all the work), to watch in amazement and awe as they create characters and situations and emotions that are all stunningly real--what a gift that has been.

Publishing is a difficult business, as well, though, and there have been plenty of challenges and even heartaches. It's a competitive business and a subjective one where talent and hard work don't always equal "success." Where the products of the heart are subjected to the machineries of business. It takes a tough person to be a writer, not just to write, but to see the book through publication, and then through its readers, all of whom may respond in a variety of unexpected ways.

When I was an English major in college, I had some rather definite ideas about books, about literature, even about the act of authorship. I had some experience with writing and publishing in the fairly limited world of academia and literary fiction, and I'm glad for that. We all have to start somewhere. But working in the larger world of contemporary/commercial fiction, it's been an educational experience as valuable as my college education.

These days I teach an editing fiction class and try to help prepare my students use their knowledge and love of books and the written word to help writers refine their writing and also to navigate the tricky world of publishing. Another dream job? Just call me lucky.