I am forever grateful to my parents who believed that the best gift for a child was a book. My relationship with words was deepened during my high school years through the influence of teachers of both English Language and English Literature. The latter is a published author, graduate of Howard and Columbia Universities and former professor of English at Bowie University. She possessed the gift of making characters come alive and leap from the pages of short stories and plays into the classroom. 

 

My writing ability was first recognized during my teenage years. At sixteen, I wrote the winning speech at my high school and was chosen to deliver my speech and represent the children of my country at the groundbreaking ceremony for our Children's Palace. My speech was broadcast live on National Radio. Since that time I entered and won essay competitions, and received many accolades from friends, coworkers, and professors regarding my writing skills. I simply saw writing as one of the things that I did effortlessly and since I was always looking for a new challenge, this skill was somewhat overlooked.

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While attending college in New York, my English professor Dr. Thomas Fink asked at the end of the course, if I had learned anything new during the class. In his estimation, my writing skills were way superior to that of my classmates. This resulted in the publication of one of my essays in the City University of New York (CUNY) newsletter. Throughout my life, I offered writing, editing and proofreading services pro bono to anyone who needed them. During my college years, I was also a Peer Tutor for English and Psychology and a Science Research Assistant. For samples of my work, please see my portfolio.

 

The decision to share my skill and talent as an editor and proofreader with the wider community is the result of reflecting on a recent conversation with a friend who received immense personal benefit from my work. My friend was surprised to discover that I never ventured out to share my "word gift" with the world. Except for a few published academic articles in the course of my career, I was even too busy to work on my own dream of becoming an author.

 

Due to my wide readership experience, I have the ability to view many different types of manuscripts through the eyes of the average reader as well as through the lens of the author and the editor. This multifaceted approach allows me to provide unique editing perspectives. So, here I am embarking on this new literary adventure.

 

Here are some tidbits about your editor:

• Things I love most are books, music, gardening and baking.

• The love of books runs in my veins and as a result I have been an avid reader of all genres throughout my life. From fairy tales to fables and fantasy, romance, historical and westerns to the classics and non-fiction, I read them all. For me, reading is akin to taking a mini-vacation. It's an opportunity to shut out the noise of life and be transported into another world.  Since moving to Texas, my love for reading led me to start my personal book collection. And, its growing!

• I listen to music in all its forms. My favorites are worship, classical, jazz and rhythm and blues. I also love singing. Worship songs feed my spirit and I have sang at concerts and led the worship team at my church for many years.

• Tending to my 'green babies' (houseplants) is therapeutic and I love baking. The smell and I daresay the taste of freshly-baked bread makes my day. I also have quite a collection of recipe books from around the world.

• I have one honorable son, a United States Navy veteran.

• I changed careers, so I graduated too many times! I have a BA in Urban and Regional Planning and Bachelor of Science Nursing (Herbert H. Lehman College), Master of Science in Environmental Law and Management and MSN in Infection Prevention and Control (American Sentinel now Post University). I have always excelled at academic pursuits and both careers enriched my life and are sources of immense satisfaction. However, my greatest joy still comes from reading and writing.  

• I also love taking daily walks; this refreshes my mind and keeps my creative juices flowing. I'm a happy person, and a free-spirit.

• I embrace health and wellness. As a Registered Nurse, I realized that many conditions presented by my patients were in many cases due to lack of self-care. Growing old is inevitable, but being ill is not. While we do become more vulnerable to disease as we age, we do not have to be old and ill.

• In recognition of this fact about health, I decided to share information about self care. So, a short while ago, I created a personal blog, Germs and Wellness.com, that I update periodically with short articles about healthy living, recipes, self-care and reviews of books that inspire me, in the hope that this will serve to inspire someone - young, middle-aged or not-so-young - to create the life of their dreams.

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