We all have teachers who have made a huge impact on us. For me, it was Mr. Tallchief, who taught 7^th grade English.  He taught me the structure of sentences and how important grammar can be, although at the time I don't believe I appreciated his efforts as much as I do now.  In High School, Mr. Steiner taught me a true love of the written word.

The path to Executive Editor at Echelon Press was a wandering one, with the usual odd jobs: onion ring factory, soft drink bottling plant, part-time proofreader, gliderport, a few years in the Air Force, computer geek, and technical writer/editor.

As a computer programmer, I discovered I much preferred writing and editing the documentation than developing the computer program. I am a voracious reader, thanks to parents who love to read, and an early teacher who read books to the class. I will, literally, read anything up to and including ketchup bottles.

One thing just drove me nuts - errors in a published book. I would start worrying about a missing comma rather than how the hero/heroine would get out of the fix he or she had gotten into. I have not only tossed books that were badly edited, but have written to authors to tell them how badly their books were edited. (For some reason I've never heard back from any of them…)

Along the way, I discovered e-books and the world of e-publishing. Starting as a reviewer, I read some truly incredible books, both wonderful and horrid. While reviewing, I found myself grousing about the errors in the books. Soon, someone suggested I try editing. Suddenly, I not only got paid to read books, but I could fix all those punctuation and spelling errors that drive me nuts! I'd found my niche at long last. I was blessed to work with an executive editor who was first a boss, then a friend, and finally a mentor. I worked for her for nearly two years before taking a break when started getting in the way of what I really wanted to do.

Late summer of 2004 I started editing with Echelon Press. A few months later, the publisher offered me the Executive Editor position. After getting over the "Oh, my gosh, what have I done, now!?" feeling, I discovered the new position was a lot of fun and work. I have great authors and editors to work with and Echelon Press is a joy to work for.

In 2007, I retired from my 'day' job, after 24 years of computer administration and security. I worked full time as Executive Editor for Echelon Press, loving most minutes (we all have our days).

In 2011, I left Echelon Press, with regret, after living though about a year of health issues. Somewhere along the way I lost the fire and desire for editing. After the fact, we discovered my editing skills seemed to have gone on vacation while dealing with the health issues. After much thoughts, a period on sabbatical, and discussion, I decided to leave editing and move to the next phase of my life. I have nothing but praise for Echelon Press and Karen, the owner/publisher, and value her continuing friendship.

I like to garden, read books, knit, watch the sky, bicycle, and spend time with my family.