Meet Your Coach

My fate as a writer was sealed when I was 8 years old. It came in the form of a blue ribbon attached to a gold medal that read “First Place – State Young Author’s Competition.” I hadn’t known my teacher entered my story, but suddenly I was a winner, all for doing something I loved to do.

Novelist and essayist Anne Lamott says she writes because she wants to and because she’s good at it. It’s the same for me. But I also write because I can’t not write. It’s who I am.

If you can’t not write, then you’re among friends!

My writing & editing career

Although fiction fascinates me and I’ve published a few short stories, my career path took me in a decidedly different direction. I became a content entrepreneur well before the term was conceived.

I founded one of the first online workshop platforms for writers when I was a young work-at-home mom. It grew into a full-time business, lauded as one of Writers Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers three times, and then featured in The Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

After I sold my business in the early 2000s, I took to freelance and contract writing and editing work, and eventually moved into corporate content strategy roles where I’ve earned a comfortable income doing the thing I love most—connecting with people through the written word.

Highlights

• Video game journalist and managing editor: For nine years, I led teams of writers covering massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) like World of Warcraft for a large, successful community gaming website.
• Full-time writer for Grammarly: I wrote over 100 articles about writing and communication as a contractor with Grammarly. I also helped launch and publicize data studies like the viral study that compared the 2016 U.S. election candidates’ supporters’ grammar.
• Managing editor at Macmillan Publishers: I ran the editorial side of Macmillan’s largest digital property, Quick & Dirty Tips. I managed editing and content strategy for up to 9 podcasters (all subject-matter experts), including Mignon Fogerty, better known as the author and podcasting celeb Grammar Girl.
• Corporate senior content writer/editorial manager: I worked for the identity platform ID.me, where I led the team that became the driving force behind launching their e-commerce blog and getting it to 1.6 million views in its first year.