Writer, Editor, Publisher, Communications Specialist

Personal summary

I am a publishing professional with more than 30 years of experience in writing, editing, desktop publishing, and managing online and print publications. I help organizations gather and package information into useful and engaging content, which keeps their target audiences coming back for more. Having started my career as a reporter-photographer at a daily newspaper, I became a professional storyteller and plain language specialist before those things were considered essential parts of marketing and communications. Connecting with my readers — so I can understand and tell their stories and meet their information needs — has always been my priority and my passion. Readers tend to have the best story ideas. My skills, experience, and dedication to my work earned me a promotion to editor, first at a weekly newspaper and then for hobby magazines. With my hard work and editorial strategy, their readerships increased, which in turn increased their advertising revenues. My superior organizational and time-management skills allowed me to be a one-person production team to launch a plain-language academic journal. I worked with guest editors, editorial boards, authors, and peer reviewers to ensure articles met academic publishing standards. Once articles are approved, I edited all articles for clarity and language before laying them out and sending files to the printer and webmaster. I also worked with translators. That gave me the experience I needed to become the managing editor of three medical journals, leading a team of editors, a graphic designer, and a desktop publisher. I further honed my plain language skills by transforming psychiatry research papers into media advisories, increasing the journal's profile in Canada. I am a proud member of Editors Canada, Plain Canada Clair, Plain Language Association International (PLAIN), Indigenous Editors Association (non-Indigenous member), and the Canadian Freelance Guild (professional member). These organizations not only provide excellent networking opportunities for me, but they also help me keep my skills up-to-date. I also share my knowledge and expertise by giving webinars and being the managing editor of the PLAIN eJournal. If you have written something, I can polish it, so it is free of spelling, grammar, and syntax errors, and is clear, concise, and better meets your readers' needs. Whether it's a research paper, a magazine article, or a marketing brochure, I can help. I would love to hear about what you've written and how I can help. Please message me, so we can chat.

Skills

Copy editing25 Plain language30 Social media9 Website maintenance5 Writing30