Not Exactly an Oliver Twist Story
Books became a part of my life in fourth grade. My family had moved from Shively, Kentucky (be sure to lock your car doors if you plan to visit!) to rural southern Indiana. I went from being surrounded by neighbors to being surrounded by trees!
Southern Indiana is a beautiful place to grow up. But to have been dropped into it in fourth grade left me feeling lonely. The kids I met at school were hard to make friends with, and the few friends I did make all lived miles and miles apart. In Shively, the neighborhood had been full of kids my age, and finding someone to play with was no more difficult than looking out the window. In Indiana, playdates had to be arranged. Parents had to drive you to a friend’s house – which added another whole level of complexity to making friends.
By the end of fourth grade, I think I read every book Judy Blume had published at the time. Plus I did some catching up on the Hardy Boys and some early reader and middle-grade books that I’d missed out on while playing baseball in the Shively streets.
By fifth grade, I was reading Tolkien.
By eighth grade, I was into Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov, and even dabbling in some interpretations of Einstein’s early work. I was still the kid who read everything I could get my hands on, but I was also doing well in science classes, and went on to get a BS in astronomy and astrophysics.
Bachelor degree in hand, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I knew what I didn’t want, though - more school! So, like many people, I backed into a career when my summer job at a big-box retailer became a position in management.
That posed the kinds of challenges I didn’t enjoy, and didn’t pose the kinds of challenges I do enjoy. So, after some years, I took the GRE, went back to school, and got a master’s degree in English.
Since earning my masters, I’ve helped people of all stripes craft prose that is compelling and cogent.
Among my frequent clients are:
businesses small and large that need online text that is compelling, that scores well in marketing, planning, and SEO tools such as SEMRush and MarketMuse, and that gets the results they expect. For the duration of my part of a project – whether it’s creating the initial drafts or editing the final manuscripts – I’m often included on teams through communication and collaboration platforms such ClickUp, Slack, and Trello.
businesses, hospitals, and non-profits that are looking for more in-depth material, such as white papers, interviews with patients and partners, and other long-form articles. These kinds of articles are more of a mental challenge, requiring hours of research, the ability to synthesize multiple texts into one unified theory, and finally the ability to lay it all out in a logical, well-cited way.
researchers who need the help of an experienced editor to hone their prose. Having earned a B.S., I know first hand that most universities don’t expect their science majors to learn how to write or format works of any length. Different disciplines and publications have their own standards for research writing – in their structure, their style guides, and their tone. My dual background in science and the humanities has positioned me to help researchers across the board craft compelling, logically structured articles. I can’t help your research, but I can help you present your research in the most compelling way possible.
self-publishers. I’ve helped writers early in their process organize their material so that their thoughts could later be expressed more easily. I’ve helped people with hundreds of pages of a manuscript adjust their chapters and layout. And of course I’ve spent quite a bit of time copy editing and proofreading.
This is work that I love. When I wake up in the morning, I have a cup of coffee, I get my kids to school, and I look forward in my workday to helping people craft their messages.
The best way to reach me is through email, at thepaperbottega@gmail.com. From there, we can discuss the scope of your project. Usually, I ask for a project brief or a sample of the writing so that I can understand the goals and time I expect the project to take. At that point, I can send you a quote.