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Like a lot of writers, I found joy in putting my thoughts to paper when I was young. The memory is foggy, but my first story was about a girl and her pet duck. I also illustrated the "book."
For three years in high school, I was a creative writing student in the George Caleb Bingham Academy of the Arts, a summer program through the Independence, Missouri school district. This experience gave me invaluable insight into the creative process, but also in the editing and proofreading—the messier part of a writer's life.
In college, while pursuing a degree in psychology, I took as many writing electives as I could cram into my schedule. As a first generation college graduate in my family, my priority was getting a degree in a field where I could find a job and make a living. I didn't think that was English and writing, but if I had it to do over again, I would get an English degree. Alas, I do not have a time machine.
Towards the end of the college career, I took a poetry class, and for my capstone project, I put together a scrapbook of poems I had written for the class, and some new pieces the professor had never seen. Her kind words of encouragement and praise ring through my soul even today. I am forever grateful to her and that class for giving me a creative outlet during a tumultuous time in my life.
In 2012, after graduating from UMKC with that psychology degree, I began writing my first novel as a participant of National Novel Writing Month. Since 2012, I have written over 800k words across ten novels during NaNoWriMo.
Currently, I am writing the second book in a series. I am querying the first book to literary agents with the hope to sell my book to a publishing house.
In 2012, when I first began writing novel-length stories, I received a fortune cookie that said, "You have a charming way with words and should write a book." That small, sweet sentence sent me down a path of living out my writing dream.
Shortly after beginning work on my first novel (which lays collecting dust in a drawer someplace, never to be seen by the light of day), I co-founded a writers' group in Kansas City. That writers' group is where I cut my editor teeth, learning what makes a good story, what makes good feedback, and how to marry those two things using a critical, detail-oriented editorial eye.
In 2018, part of the journey led me to opening Ant Colony Press with a local Kansas City publisher and creative, Jordan Belcher. I was lead acquisitions editor and editorial supervisor while Jordan operated the backend of the business. It was quite a learning experience, and I am so grateful to the authors who put their words in our hands for the short time we were open.
Ultimately, Ant Colony Press closed just before the pandemic shut down the world. But I was able to edit and publish seven novels during that time period: Unconventional by Scarlet Birch; In The House Of In Between by JD Buffington; When Shadows Creep by K. Brooks; The Editor by Luke Carroll; Things by Francine Garson; Bits & Pieces by Dawn Hosmer; and No Such Luck and Luck Be A Lady by Ian Cahill. I have edited other, unpublished work, also.
In 2024, I received certified professional development certificates in copy editing and proofreading from Knowadays. And from that, A3W Editorial was born. My first love remains fiction and helping authors birth their stories, but my scope include copywriting, copy editing, proofreading, and other editorial services for business owners, students, and writers of all kinds.
A3W Editorial
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My monthly newsletter, A Way With Words, is all things A3W: editing tips & tricks, open editing slots, book announcements, deals, and more!