My philosophy about editing/coaching is an editor/coach should work at enhancing and preserving their client's voice and unique writing style. The writing has everything to do with the client and nothing to do with me. My main goal is to provide the writer with as many tools in the craft of writing as possible, to help them develop their knowledge and skill -- and to create room for their imagination to fly.

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My interest in writing and editing began while I was in high school. My mother was a published writer and I edited her short stories and juvenile fiction.

In college I took at least one literature class per semester and learned I have an ability to pick up theme and plot most people miss while reading a story -- probably because I've always been interested in what makes 'good story.' After college I became a graphic artist -- the perfect career for learning how to pick images out of another person's imagination and turn them into pictures -- a skill that is useful while coaching writers. I also edited (and wrote for) the company newsletter for two corporations.

In 1987 I enrolled in classes at the University of California Irvine to formally learn the craft of writing fiction -- to improve my own stories. In 1989 I was invited to join Sol Stein's Chapter 1 class in Laguna Beach, California. Chapter 1 was a private class made up of Stein's most promising students from UCI. In 1991 I relocated to New York to work for Sol Stein's company Stein Software, which produced WritePro and other software programs for writers. I sat with Stein several hours each day and edited while he coached me. In time, Stein invited me to edit/advise him while he wrote his acclaimed writing book Stein On Writing. He called me 'the editor who edits editors' and often commented I knew his material better than he did. During this time I began to edit/coach writers who were working on first novels. After returning to California in 1996 I continued to edit/coach beginners as well as published writers.