Editing wasn’t my first career choice, but it’s my last. When I edit, I feel like a superhero! This timeline is my origin story.
c.1994
Wrote the first story my mother considered worthy of saving, an Amelia Bedelia/Magic School Bus crossover fan fiction.
1997
Co-wrote my first script for an Odyssey of the Mind (now DestiNation: ImagiNation) competition. A soap opera set in a bathroom.
1998
Read first unabridged Shakespeare—A Midsummer Night’s Dream—when I was ten. Adapted it into a 6-minute skit for Odyssey of the Mind. I kept writing and performing for OM/DI competitions through middle school. In 2004, when I was in tenth grade, my team advanced to the Global Finals.
1999
First poem published, nominated by my fifth-grade teacher for Teacher’s Selection Anthology of Poetry. It was called “My Favorite Things,” heavily featured dairy products and waterfowl, and had a twist ending. (Miss Williams, thanks for giving me your copy of A Wrinkle in Time.)
1999–2006
Kept writing, but drama, of the theater variety and otherwise, took up most my time in middle school and high school. In eighth grade, I was drama student of the year. In twelfth grade, I was English and theater student of the year. My classmates voted me Most Theatrical and predicted I would become an editor, a teacher, or “President of the Moon.” (Okay, Brett.)
2005–2006
Worked as the TA for eleventh-grade English my senior year of high school. I also volunteered as a literacy tutor. Upon graduation, I was awarded the highest possible scholarship to the University of Northwestern—St. Paul, as a part of their honors program.
2006–2007
Interned at my hometown’s local newspaper. During my freshman year at university, I wrote a guest column for this newspaper about adventures as a rural Colorado girl living in a Midwest city.
2007–2009
Worked as the TA for the English department’s Advanced Grammar: Syntax classes. I created tests and graded homework.
I changed my major from English: Literature & Writing so I could include more art and design classes into my curriculum. Hermione had a time turner; I had an interdisciplinary major. During the summers I worked as a graphic designer.
Inkstone literary magazine published five of my poems and one short story, with the latter winning first place in their fiction contest. One poem was simultaneously published in The Cedarville Review. Later I became an acquisitions editor for Inkstone.
2009–2013
Freelanced as a graphic designer and copyeditor, got married to a US Marine, had two children.
2012–2014
Launched my editing blog Write, Edit, Repeat (formerly Write, Lara, Write). I decreased design work and built up my freelance editing business, focusing on fiction. I copyedited Lora Innes’ The Dreamer Vol. 3, a literary agent’s own WIP, and several other forthcoming novels (like Love Songs and Other Lies)
2015–now
- Founded MS Editors, a team of manuscript editors.
- Assisted former Marvel Comics editor Nicole Boose on a comics editing gig.
- Hosted #pg70pit, an international, online manuscript contest.
- Mentored two novelists during #PitchtoPublication, of whom both now have an agent.
- Trained an editorial intern.
- Wrote an Addendum for Revolver, which is on sale locally at Magers & Quinn.
- Obtained my LLC.
- Went back to work full-time as a copywriting and content marketing consultant.
- Currently applying for MFA programs.
