Kathy helped me on all levels of the process when I wrote my memoir
Saving Lee, Finding Grace. In the beginning, she read my first draft --
a very rough draft -- and she offered enthusiastic encouragment in all
the places my story needed to be developed. She got me to slow down and
flesh out parts of my story that I rushed through, and she did it so
kindly by expressing a genuine interest in knowing more.
Later in the process, she helped me smooth many
rough edges and spot redunancies. Stylisticly, she helped me see tools
that I overused and she showed me some options to vary my style. She
also helped my writing be clearer by untangling some of my longer, more
confusing sentences.
Kathy reads widely so she has a very strong sense
of story. More importantly, she is a very humane, kind person, and that
shows in the way she edits. She has a good sense for places where warmth
and humor need to be. She has a keen eye for things that could have
unintended negative impact on readers and she helped me work through
those to find what I really meant to say in a book that is meant to pull
people together in greater understanding. She helped me find my
highest and best voice as I wrote about an emotional and intimate story.
The best thing of all was working with Kathy. Her
greatest tools are laughter and lightness. These are necessary for any
writing project lest it turn into drudgery.
George T. Martin, President
The Arcadia Institute
225 Parsons Street
Kalamazoo, Mi 49007
George Martin, President, The Arcadia Institute
Kathy
has worked with me and my staff in writing a program manual. She took
our best effort of a draft and helped us transform it into a piece that
invites people to pay attention and get into the message we want to
convey. She offered her ideas, but rather than attempting to make the
work her own, she helped us to make our own voice clearer and more
appealing. What we had developed as a more technical piece became a
warmer message to friends with Kathy's guiding hand. Kathy added compelling features like quotes and pictures in
sidebars.
Kathy's combination
of technical expertise and general knowledge provided us with a
context for our manual. However, again she did not bring her skills to the
forefront. They added to and helped illuminate what we had to say.
Kathy
has also worked with me on a manuscript which I hope one day to
publish. She knows how to ask the right questions to help me focus and
and require me to ask myself the hard questions.
The Arcadia Institute
225 Parsons Street
Kalamazoo, Mi 49007
