I edit, write, copyedit, proofread, and provide a full range of editorial, web design, graphic design, book design and technical services for Ellen Byerrum, author of the Crime of Fashion Mysteries and publisher of our independent publishing imprint, Lethal Black Dress Press. LBDP now has three titles in print (in both e-book and trade paperback formats) and a fourth title in preparation. The Crime of Fashion series includes ten novels to date, with the eleventh projected to release in late 2015. The first nine books in the series are published by Penguin Group USA, and two have been filmed. Byerrum also writes nonfiction and non-series fiction. I’ve served as in-house editor for all of her work from the inception of the series, as well as for her plays, her other fiction, and her Web site (ellenbyerrum.com). Our published word count to date is well in excess of one million words. I perform all book editing functions for Byerrum’s novels and other published writing. Specifically, that includes substantive editing; line editing; copyediting; editorial critique, commentary, and feedback; proofreading; document production; and preparation of the final publication-ready documents. I also create the cover art and jacket design, design the book interiors, and perform production editing for the author’s independently published e-books and paperbacks. I design, create, and maintain the Web site promoting her work; write and/or edit site and blog content; provide photography, image editing, and graphic design; research story elements, factual questions, and editorial issues; serve as tech support for our IT system; and create Web and print promotional pieces, such as postcards, posters, bookmarks, handouts, and media releases. My work is part of the process for all of Byerrum’s writing that reaches the public, and for every Lethal Black Dress Press publication.

I copyedit and proofread advertising and PR materials on a freelance basis for this busy and versatile advertising agency, including print ads, Web promotions, brochures, posters, postcards, proposals, trade show exhibitor books, and many other things. I also provide substantive editing, copywriting, and writing/rewriting/polishing, as needed. My objective is always to help the agency, and their client, look and sound their best. Our telecommuting workflow circulates via email in PDF or Word doc form. The agency’s workload is unpredictable and deadline-driven, but their jobs are always interesting and fun. The AD Store is my principal freelance client, but since 1988 I’ve freelanced editorial and graphic design work for other ad agencies, legal service firms, theatres, theatre groups, playwrights, and other writers.

I wrote, edited, proofread, rewrote, and fact-checked a vast range of material for Feld Entertainment. This included newspaper and magazine print ads; TV and radio broadcast spots; Web/email advertising; direct mail pieces; print collateral and promotional material; Web site content; marketing and public relations materials; press releases; manuals, booklets, and teachers’ guides; performer bios and press kits; program books for every edition of every show; corporate reports; special promotional copy; and special projects of every description. My principal editorial concerns were factual accuracy, emotional impact, timeliness, clarity, consistency, style, spelling, grammar, usage, punctuation, and brand identity, as well as such legal issues as correct use of logos, copyrights, trademarks, and service marks. Our primary goals were always to perfect and communicate our brands’ messages, to build our brands and sell tickets to our shows, and to help create spectacular entertainment experiences for our public.I was the lead troubleshooter for copy problems under the conflicting demands of urgency and quality. Our work scaled from a few words on a billboard to 50,000-word corporate training manuals and double-truck ads in The New York Times, always against deadlines. A project might require writing powerful sell copy at a moment’s notice for a new show none of us had yet seen, proofreading ad copy in languages none of us could read, marshaling and editing celebrity tributes from around the world overnight for the memorial book for a beloved deceased circus performer, or researching (without Web access, until 1998) the proper names of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs—the French version. (“Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains,” and Sneezy the Dwarf is called “Atchoum.”)

Selling tickets to our shows, maintaining the reservation system, answering inquiries about shows and the theatre, reading scripts, helping to choose scripts, administering the Source Playwriting Competition, running the Washington Theatre Festival Judges' panel, building sets, coordinating auditions and rehearsals, running lights and sound for shows, running the house during shows, helping to interview and hire designers and interns, and miscellaneous duties as necessary.

I wrote proposals in response to RFPs for major government and private contracts for cultural resource investigation and management work, created the budgets, research designs and technical proposals, coordinated the work of contributors and subcontractors, and administered the contracts and projects I won for the company, with the input and supervision of the Principal Investigator, a former State Archaeologist of Colorado. This work included directing the archaeological and historical investigations in the field and the lab, coordinating the work of the field directors and technical specialists, writing the progress and final reports for our clients, guiding the clients through the review process of state and federal agencies, and mitigating project impacts on significant cultural resources, all on budget and on deadline.

I conducted archaeological reconnaissance, cultural resource inventories, and site excavations throughout the state of Colorado. I wrote and co-wrote survey reports and site descriptions, analysed artifacts, and coauthored academic reports for the State cultural resource database.