Book Genie is Baaack!
And we have news!
Hi, friends!! I’m back from an absolutely amazing summer holiday to England. No, I wasn’t there for the football frenzy (soccer to us Americans), but for something even more moving and sensational: the wedding of dear, dear friends.
I was able to work while I was in England, but I had lots of time exploring, too. The wedding was a dream. Sightseeing, visiting historic cities, time with dear friends… The countryside, London, York, and Cambridge were just absolutely brilliant for the soul. I rested, I laughed, I danced, I painted, I wrote. It was the first proper holiday I’ve taken in over a decade and wow, did I make the most of it.
For this writer, reader, and lover of all things medieval, this was truly the trip of a lifetime. But I fit in some amazing books (reading, editing, and writing!) and got a lot of work done as well.
If you’re looking for recommendations, I’m chock full of them!
Amazing news from Stanford CSP and UCLAX!!
My course evaluations from the first course I taught at the Stanford Continuing Studies Program were absolutely perfect. And I do mean perfect. My score was a 5/5 overall and the comments from students were so thoughtful and wonderful that Stanford has already invited me back! If you missed the 10-week romance writing workshop, this will be back on the Stanford CSP schedule in 2025, along with a course on querying and prepping your work for submissions! I’ll keep you posted on the dates once I know those are available.
I’ll be teaching a six-week course at Stanford CSP this fall on copyediting specifically for authors and aspiring editors. This will be an intensive course, but if you’ve ever wanted to learn more about technical editing—either to improve your own writing or to develop your editorial skills, I would love to see you in that class.
I will continue, of course, to teach at UCLA Extension as long as they will have me! I’m currently teaching two sections of Copyediting I, and my incredibly well-reviewed Freelance Editing course will be offered in September.
If you’re interested in specifics, comment here and I’ll be happy to drop links so you don’t miss enrollment!
Editorial Projects
If you’re familiar with the self-publishing expert Dale L. Roberts, you might be excited to hear that Dale has a book out specifically to help new authors interested in self-publishing! Dale is a light in the indie author community, and truly one of the most wonderful people I’ve met. Give his book a look if you’re interested in a one-stop manual to help you start your author journey off strong. (And shhhh…This is first in a series. More titles are to come!) And congratulations, Dale!
My wonderful client Tod Lending has his debut novel up for pre-sale, although it’s still going through galley corrections at Harper Collins. I messaged him this past week to let him know I pre-ordered the book, and he said he thinks I might be the first person to do so!
This book was a pure honor to edit before Tod signed with his agent and ultimately sold the book to Harper Collins. I can’t wait to put a copy on my bookshelf. It’s powerful and moving, and deserves glowing critical reception. Add this one to your TBR now!
For fans of Heather Morris and Lisa Barr, a powerful and unforgettable novel of survival against all odds and the remarkable power of love, in which a Jewish teenager in World War II Poland fights to save his life and find the young woman who holds his heart.
Born to a secure, middle-class Polish Jewish family, seventeen-year-old Reuven works alongside his father, an artisan businessman whose shop creates the finest handmade umbrellas in Poland. But the family’s peaceful life shatters when the Nazis invade their homeland, igniting World War II. With terrifying brutality, the Nazis confiscate their business, evict them from their home, and strip away their rights, threatening the lives of the city’s Jewish population, including Reuven and Zelda, the girl he loves.
Shortly after the Nazi occupation, Zelda and her family disappear, and Reuven and his father are forced into backbreaking physical labor that nearly kills them. For the young man and his family, the only chance to survive is escape—and some of them will die trying.
Fleeing a Nazi ambush through the surrounding forest, shot and wounded, Reuven is found by a local farmer who has never met a Jew—and agrees to help because he needs the boy to work the farm with him. The farmer’s wife, however, is not as kind. Her betrayal forces a desperate Reuven to escape. He embarks on a perilous journey through the Polish countryside, determined to reach the Kraków ghetto where he hopes to reunite with Zelda, whose life has also been forever changed by the horrors of occupation and war.
A love story and a story of family, The Umbrella Maker’s Son is a riveting, heartfelt, and beautiful tale of survival and unexpected hope in the face of terror and violence. A chronicle of triumph, it joins the ranks of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and other memorable works of modern Holocaust literature.
Pre-Order The Umbrella Maker's Son
Work With Us!
I’m in the final stages of several huge projects, all of which have been giving me LIFE. I can’t wait to share more of the projects once they are closer to release, but for now, if you’d like to work with me on the editorial side, I’ve got just a few spots open for fourth quarter 2024. If you need a tiny bit of help, we can Zoom together and talk through plot problems, story beats and arcs, or strategize options for publishing your work. If you’d like to book a full edit (developmental, copy/line, or a manuscript evaluation), let me know ASAP as my schedule is already packed with wonderful projects through mid-fall. (YAY!)
On the technical side, Michael has been hard at work building websites for some new corporate clients as well as indie authors, and he’s caught up on podcast editing for a few weeks, so if you have videos you need edited, book trailers you’d like done, or even an entire podcast you’d like produced, Michael is open for consultations and bookings. (I’m trying sooo hard to get him to teach a class on running ads for authors… But he’s still doing this only by referral on a case by case basis. So if you’d like an ad manager or consultant, hit him up!)
Do Yourself a Favor and READ THESE BOOKS!
This summer has not disappointed in terms of new reads! I just finished a thriller that was so fantastic, I could hardly put it down. And if you like low-spice, high adventure fantasy with futuristic technology and a kick-butt female main character, I’ve got the book for you. Here are a few of the books I’ve read recently that I absolutely adored:
Thriller: Wrong Place Wrong Time, Gillian McAllister
This book has a brilliant premise and, wow, does it deliver. I devoured it!
Fantasy with a touch of no-spice romance: A Magic Fierce and Bright by Hemant Nayak
This book is the author’s first traditionally published book. It’s fast-paced, and will satisfy readers who love magic, machines, and mythology. The action is unreal, the setting is gorgeous, and Adya might be my second-favorite fantasy MC ever. (Or maybe third: Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, Zetian from Iron Widow, and Adya from Magic Fierce and Bright.)
Don’t fall asleep, or maybe do? But I’ve been brushing up on my CMOS since the next edition is due out this September! The 17th Edition of the Chicago Manual of Style is on sale now, so if you’ve been thinking about grabbing the fiction writer’s style bible, grab this one while it’s marked down!
I hope you're having an amazing summer, staying safe, and fitting in some fun. I had such a blast on vacation, I’ll have to take some more often. But for now, I’m soooo happy to be back to work!