I write about business, health care, community, and the arts. Among other things. I’m a bit all over the map.
Under my own name I’ve published fiction, book reviews, and features. As a ghostwriter I’ve reviewed business books about the changing nature of work; interviewed Twitter co-founder Biz Stone; summarized medical studies about the dangers of sitting (very real) and of cholesterol (not so much); written a paranormal romance novella about she-cats & werewolves; and created taglines and menu descriptions for a new restaurant. I have edited and critiqued fiction and nonfiction manuscripts; crafted grant proposals for a community nonprofit arts initiative; and helped high school students write a book.
I was a high school valedictorian–but only because the smartest girl in the class transferred to a private school. I went to an Ivy League college, lost my way and took a year off working at a school for emotionally disturbed boys. I went back to the Ivy League college, stopped taking classes for grades, sang in a gospel choir, and considered the ministry.
After college, I was a community activist, a pastry chef, a bookstore owner.
What I do now: I take information, anecdote, and scribblings, and find the essential story inside.
What I’m good at: finding a form for your vision… of your business, your philanthropic venture, your passion project, your life story, your aborted screenplay or novel.
What I believe in: that stories transform lives and organizations; that syntax matters, and is not a question of rules but of good design; that the Oxford comma mostly makes sense; that Orwell was mostly right; that Ayn Rand was mostly wrong.
I believe Flannery O’Connor captures a truth beyond fiction when she says this: The writer has to realize that she can’t create compassion with compassion, or emotion with emotion, or thought with thought. She has to provide all these things with a body; she has to create a world with weight and extension.
Yes, stories shape the world. Let me help shape yours.