I’ve loved reading, writing, history, and true crime since I was a child. Some of my earliest memories involve demanding someone, anyone, explain the definitions of words to me; poring over my dad’s history books before I was old enough to understand what they were about; and hiding on the back porch to read true crime stories in magazines.
It is perhaps only inevitable that I grew up to be an editor who specializes in history and true crime, as well as other nonfiction, though it took me awhile to figure that out.
I earned a BA in English and history from College of the Ozarks before earning an MA in English (with an emphasis in Southern Literature and, more specifically, Southern Gothic Literature) from the University of Arkansas. My thesis analyzed Truman Capote’s classic true crime book In Cold Blood in relation to the ramifications of historic notions of Midwestern and Southern regional identity. In 2020, one of my thesis chapters was published in Salem Press’s Critical Insights: In Cold Blood anthology.
I’ve been working as a freelance editor since 2011 and also spent a couple of years in-house at a local publisher, where I worked as a project editor and in the marketing department.
Beyond my editing experience, I also have worked as a writing center peer tutor, an English Comp I and II instructor, and library assistant.
In addition to editing, I currently work part-time at my local library as a library associate and am an election official. I’m also an active volunteer with my Friends of the Library group. When I’m not busy with work, I enjoy reading, watching (and rewatching) too much TV, traveling, doing genealogy, cooking, and taking walks in the beautiful Ozarks. I live in Northwest Arkansas with a delightfully eccentric and mildly imperious Chihuahua named after a Roman emperor.
My Favorite Authors: Leonid Andreyev, Ambrose Bierce, Mikhail Bulgakov, Truman Capote, Karin Fossum, Louise Erdrich, David Grann, Jeff Guinn, Paulette Jiles, Ben Macintyre, Hilary Mantel, Georges Simenon, Simon Winchester
My Favorite Books: The Accursed Kings series by Maurice Druon, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Killer Robert Ford by Ron Hansen, Atonement by Ian McEwan, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain, A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Regeneration by Pat Barker
My Favorite Historical Periods/Subjects to Study: 20th Century World History, American Civil War, American West, Ancient Rome, The Jazz Age, Russian/Soviet History, World War I and World War II, organized crime history, historical true crime
