Don’t be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality, if you can dream it, you can make it be.– Belva Davis.
One-on-one editing services available to writers who need help starting a writing project, structuring a book, polishing the work, clarifying goals, readying a manuscript for publication, helping with the ins-and-outs of finding an agent, publishing, and much more. By-the-hour work is done on a sliding scale basis. Work can be done via email attachment and phone. Possible collaborations include: successful non-fiction proposals, applications to MFA programs, copy-editing completed manuscripts, ghost-written memoirs, and one-on-one tutorials for writers who want the tools of the writing trade so they can go on to write publishable work.
The editing process is an intimate relationship. When a writer asks an outside editor to assist with a writing project, a sacred door opens. The editor must be able to put aside her own ego and identity in order to meet the work on its own terms. The editor’s responsibility is to understand the writer’s vision for the project, to see its strength and absolute potential and bring it to its ultimate fruition. Every writer’s needs are different, every project has its own voice, its own tale to tell, its own journey to the agent’s hand, to the publisher’s desk, to the bookstore shelf. I am here to assist you on all levels in this wild world of expressing yourself on the page.
If you would like to inquire about editing services, please feel free to contact me at suzannekingsbury@yahoo.com
A Sample of Current Clients
Non-fiction Writers
Listen Closely
By Anthony Florence, Panama City
A coming-of-age memoir chronicling one boy’s journey from the ghettos of inner-city Roxbury to the manicured lawns of the very wealthy, an exploration of class and race in the era of Martin Luther King, the Vietnam War and John F. Kennedy.
Untitled Memoir
By Lindsay Frucci, New Hampshire
When a housewife decides to start a no-fat brownie company on her kitchen stove, the world better watch out. In this funny, heart-warming tale of a woman who crawls out of bankruptcy to succeed in the world of business, the reader finds her own sense of empowerment blooming along with the narrator’s.
Dealing With the Tough Stuff: What They Didn’t Teach You in Business School
By Lisa Lorimer and Margot Fraser, Vermont and California
Former CEO, Lisa Lorimer (Vermont Bread Company) and Margot Fraser (Birkenstock) sat down with seven gurus in the socially responsible business world and talked truthfully about the unspoken secrets of growing a business and sustaining values in a cut-throat capitalist world. Chapters include Facing Goliaths in Business, When You Really Do Screw-up and Playing president and contributors include such contemporary hots as Gary of Stonyfield Yogurt and Marie Wilson of the Ms Foundation. Publication date: October 2009 with Berrett Kohler Publishing House.
Confessions of a Serial Celibate
By Greg McAllister, Vermont
The memoir of a young seminary student coming-of-age during the staid, moralistic years of the McCarthy era and breaking free at 18 into San Fransisco’s mission district, where he experiments with a post-Catholic church world of the 1960’s: sex, drugs, rock and roll, political protests, and finally a nomadic van ride across a changing American landscape.
Healing in Post-War Bosnia: Stories of Connection and Courage
Demaris Wehr, Massachusettes
What can we learn from the victims of genocide? How does surviving great tragedy enable us to not only survive but also transcend our own limits. Meet eight survivors of the Bosnian Genocide and learn how suffering can lead to spiritual awakening and the profound blessing of community.
Fiction Writers
The Mystery of the Old Sow
By Meg Donahue, Maine
YA novel set in Maine, exploring the journey’s of Lydia into to find an ancient language that can make miracles and empower magical tale where bats can speak, cloaks can fly and books change before the readers’ eyes.
Birds Flying South
By Elaine Little, Georgia
Set against the backdrop of 1960s Georgia during a time of school integration and the Nixon era, Ellen comes-of-age and the horrible secret about her family, her town and her friends that ruins her innocence.
Landing in the Lupine Field
By Lava Mueller, Vermont
Coming of age novel set in 1970s Maine, four young people about to graduate, beautiful Berrie who carries on a sexy private trist with three boys, Lili, the talented actress, who is harboring a long-held secret that is eating her alive, Mary, who is committed to a psyche ward and comes o out enlightened and Zana, the girl-loving, athlete, who brings truth and ultimately redemption to the foursome.
The Devil’s Sourcebook
By Stephen Schoen, California
Set in contemporary California, this novel opens with the Devil’s fiery proclamation:
A lyrical book that challenges the readers’ assumptions about relationships and the ways in which we hold onto people and create prisons for ourselves. With prose that is reminiscence of Henry James and a tale that is as salacious and circuitous as the best Russian novels, this book will keep you turning pages.