Club Ed Turns Six!

I established Club Ed on a bleak winter day on the Kansas prairies, dreaming of blue skies and sunshine. That was in 2018, and now it’s 2024, and I’m about to celebrate Club Ed’s sixth birthday. Pretty spectacular for something I wasn’t sure would last out the winter.

The following year, I packed up The Chicago Manual of Style, numerous cartons of books, and a couple of pairs of cut-offs and moved to Southern California, where most days I can be found at the beach, laptop in hand, surrounded by palm trees and bougainvillea.

I didn’t plan on this bit of serendipity; the beachy theme of Club Ed was tongue-in-cheek at the time. Now, it reflects my life and I hope it’s a symbol of how I approach things at Club Ed: with a relaxed vibe. Learning how to be an editor (and actually being an editor) certainly has its challenges, but it should also be fun.

I became a freelancer more than twenty years ago, when my daughter was born with a serious, debilitating neurological disorder and I needed a way to pay the rent that didn’t require going to someone else’s office for forty hours a week.

Over the years, I’ve met hundreds of other people in similar situations, and freelancing has helped them pay the bills while also dealing with other responsibilities and demands. My goal is for Club Ed to help anyone turn a way with words into a realistic source of income.

I’ve worked for many years as a freelance book development editor on a wide range of editorial projects for traditional book publishers as well as independent authors, specializing in genre fiction.

Club Ed is where I share what I’ve learned over the years, mostly related to story development. While a lot of the information and classes here are intended for newer editors, I also develop and offer expert instruction in more advanced theories of editing.

I’m the author or coauthor of more than thirty nonfiction books and nearly thirty novels, including my popular and award-winning Dojo Wisdom series (Penguin). My work has been published by Simon & Schuster, Thomas & Mercer, Montlake Romance, and others.

I earned my PhD in medieval English literature from the University of Kansas and a black belt in Taekwondo at approximately the same time. I haven’t quite decided which has been more helpful in my career.