First and foremost, welcome to Red Pen Editing. My name is Melissa Levine, and I am the copyeditor behind the scenes.
My goal with the services I offer, as the site’s tagline states, is to turn your words into my world. I want to ensure that the words you have put into digital ones and zeroes are as fine-tuned as they can be before you release them into the world. Whether you are looking for a simple line edit, a comprehensive developmental edit, a final proofread, or some combination thereof, I will do everything I can to ensure your manuscript is ready for publication.
First, a little about me. I have been married to my husband for several generations. Fifteen years of this time have seen him serving on active duty with the US Army; he has since retired. We have a twenty-one-year-old daughter, Melanie. I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) and a professional certificate in editing from the extension campus at UC Berkeley.
My desire to enter this field stems from my deep-seated passion for reading. I have long enjoyed reading stories from various genres and have diversified my tastes, thanks to my husband. As a reader, I have moved beyond simple enjoyment and taken to looking for mechanical mistakes, continuity problems, or unanswered questions in the stories. As such, copyediting felt like the next logical step to expand my passion from simply reading and reviewing a given story to providing direct, detailed feedback to an author in hope that their works can be enjoyed that much more by their current and future readers.
As an avid reader, I have found myself drawn to a handful of specific genres. My personal favorites include paranormal, historical (romance), YA, horror/thriller, and post-apocalyptic. I will edit any genre, but those previously mentioned are my specific interests.
I feel that my passion for investigating the story’s details, combined with my formal education in the English language, provides me with the necessary skills to help ensure your works are as close to error-free as possible.
I look forward to working with each of you on your journey as you allow me the opportunity to assist you on this adventure toward publication. Whether you are an already established author, a blog writer looking to have your words tweaked, or an author just starting out, I feel that I will be able to provide you with the tailored, world-class editing services that your works deserve.
On a side note, I would like to thank Stephen Jones for his assistance in helping me get this site up as quickly as I did.
– Melissa