I grew up with English grammar and the English language being taught, corrected, dissected and analyzed at home as well as at school.  My father was a professor of English, Journalism and Speech, and Mom was a nurse with a passion equal to Dad's for languages and books.

We had no TV, so we spent a lot of time reading and writing and talking.  My parents would have dinner parties where one of the favorite topics for discussion among the professors and teachers present would be English grammar and the origins of words from other languages.

I often sat next to Dad on the sofa while he graded his students' papers.  I could be there only as long as I was quiet.  But one day when I was 10 years old, I noticed that Dad's red pencil had missed an error, and I spoke up.  Instead of chastising me, he gave me the already-corrected papers to read behind him.  And soon I got the first of many paid free-lance jobs: proofreading the college's yearbooks, student directories and other publications.

My degrees are in English and Elementary Education.  After 10 years as a stay-at-home Mom and a year as a substitute teacher, I went to work for a business forms company, drawing business forms. I quickly discovered misspellings in the copy, brought them to the attention of the company's owner, and was immediately given the job of Final Proofreader.  I was in heaven!

A year later, I found a larger version of heaven as an Editor at The Dallas Morning News, and stayed there 13 years. After that, I ran my own business for 11 years (I owned three tattoo studios in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.  Believe it!) and wrote the copy for the ads, website, radio commercials, pamphlets, and business forms.

I sold the company in 2001 and moved to Austin.  But throughout all those decades, authors hired me to copyedit and/or proofread their writings.

Contact me to find out why.