Inkslinger Editing LLC

"Catherine's expertise was instrumental in transforming my manuscript CITY OF LADIES into a marketable and remarkable story. CITY OF LADIES went on to win First Prize in the 2011 Anderbo/Mercer Street Books Fiction contest. Look to Catherine to be your very own smart, gentle, and classy Book Whisperer."

Dorette Snover

We are 25-year-old twin sisters who have spent seven years writing a historical novel together.  We sent out a draft of our manuscript to literary agents and received some interest.  In fact, our first-choice NYC agent sent us a letter saying she would represent us if--if--we re-configured the historical sections of our manuscript and made some major extensions. Our initial excitement about being so close to our dream of being published authors soon gave way to frustration.  After so many years and even with two of us, we just could not figure out a way to revise the book any further. To put it simply, we were stuck.  The day we contacted Catherine changed everything.  Her unique suggestions for development in both character and plot were astounding.  She understood exactly what we wanted our book to "get at," and she understood our style of writing.  The book remained our own.  She simply made it better.  Furthermore, her suggestions were doable.  We incorporated Catherine's edits, and sent our revised manuscript back to the agent two weeks ago.   And this morning, we got a contract offer!

The Deane Twins

Catherine Adams has been brilliant in helping me clarify my writing.  No one I’ve worked with previously—and that includes editors at the major New York trade publishers, as well as those of university presses—has been so astute at honing an author’s arguments.   She turns complex material into crystal clear prose.  No writer of nonfiction could ask for more, and I’ve urged friends in government, academia, and the media to turn to Inkslinger as well.

Derek Leebaert
Author of Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy from Korea to Afghanistan (Simon and Schuster, September 2010),
To Dare and to Conquer (Little Brown, 2006), and The Fifty-Year Wound (Little Brown, 2002)

Catherine Adams provided for me what I could not do for myself; she gave encouragement and direction. With measured, careful words she was able to pinpoint exactly the difficulties I was having as a writer and where my novel sagged. Because of her gentle mentorship I was able to hear both the encouragement and the criticism without becoming either despondant or defensive. It wasn't long after I revised my work that I was able to secure an agent and I believe that was primarily due to Catherine's guidence. She gives above and beyond what is required of her and I hope she and I will have a long partnership.

Ann Wertz Garvin
Author of On Maggie's Watch (Berkley Press, November 2010)

I have worked with Catherine on four projects, one supernatural thriller, two thrillers and a SciFi. I would unreservedly recommend her to other authors. It is not often that you find someone who has a critical literary eye for genre fiction.

On both structural and line by line editorials Catherine raised the level of my writing and improved my manuscripts to a publishable benchmark. She has become part of my writing process. Catherine has not only helped individual manuscripts, but done so in such a way that I can write the next project to a new standard. Teaching the man to fish, so to speak, mentoring and offering up book suggestions that are tailored to my needs.

24 Bones is out through Drollerie Press; Hurakan will be published Winter 2010 through Overmountain Press, and I have four graphic novels out this August with Oxford.

Her unflinching yet constructive criticism is great value, and she will surely help you as much as she has me.

Michael F Stewart
Author of Hurakan (Overmountain Press, Forthcoming) and several graphic novels (Oxford University Press Canada) 

Catherine is not a knuckle-rapper, and her method is the very opposite of prescriptive. Instead, she has the gift of being able to communicate what is good about your work, and helping you see—through reasoned, readable analysis—how it could be made better. That “could” means everything to a writer: it’s means it's still your book. For my novel Scales, Catherine succeeded in introducing me to characters I thought were mine alone; once I was able to see them through her eyes, I couldn’t wait to improve them. All writers need a Catherine Adams.

Brian Harvey
Author of The End of the River (ECW Press, 2008)

Catherine Adams helped me polish my manuscript and make it shine. I will hire her for my next book, too.

Sherry Clements
Author of The Holdouts (Drinian Press, 2008)

Catherine Adams has provided her insightful input for two of my current works-in-progress and I found them to be exactly the factors needed to get me past the difficulties I was encountering with the books. I have worked with other editors for comparison and can state without reserve that Catherine is in a wholly different league. I would recommend her enthusiastically for any writing project. My own endeavors lean toward fiction, and she has proven invaluable in that most difficult of editing tasks. With Catherine, as they say in (my other passion) the car restoration trade: “Do it once, do it right."

Steven M. Greenberg, M.D.
Author of Incantation (received The Independent Publisher's Book Award in Fiction for 2005) and Adam's Will

Catherine Adams has that ideal but too rare combination as an editor: she sees your work clearly as a reader, and she works with you practically as a writer.  I have never had anyone work so much from within my manuscript, someone who understands what my work is trying to do (and why it’s not quite doing it yet), and then suggests writerly solutions that work. Not only did she help me greatly improve my manuscripts, but in the process she taught me how to see my work more objectively.
 
It was both an enjoyable and rewarding experience working with Catherine. I can’t recommend her highly enough.

Karl Meade
Author of the novels Odd Jobs and Half-Life

I am so happy that I was introduced to Catherine before I sent the final manuscript to potential agents (five are interested).    She praised the strengths (the plot, the prose), identified the weaknesses (character development and background depth), and quickly pointed to the areas where a slightly different angle might significantly improve the book.    She was organized (nothing went unexplained), clear (I understood what she was trying to tell me), and totally absent of ego.  The whole process was unbelievably positive.    I cannot say enough good things about Catherine.  It’s been an absolute pleasure and, going forward, I will get her input much, much sooner – from the outline to the complete product. 

Gerry Kontos

Catherine Adams provides insight, concern, support and a critical eye that raises prose to a better and more powerful level.  I cannot recommend her more highly.

M. O'K.

Catherine, I sent you a fiction manuscript and you turned it into a customized manual to teach me about writing.  You used it to show me where I had a strong scene or did a good job of sustaining tension and that allowed me to clearly understand the difference when you pointed out where I interrupted the tension or had a weak scene.  Your thoughts on how to add complexity to the characters showed me you cared about my story.  I deeply appreciate where you took me in developing my manuscript and my writing.   

John H. Croton, NY

If only we Americans could come up with some viable way to anoint commoners with titles, Catherine Adams would be on my suggested list.
To say she “helped” would be miserably understating the service she performed.
More like solidifed, focused, harnessed, my story. Without telling me what to do, she led me to a path of greater understanding of what I was trying to do.
Would I go to her again?
In less than the beat of the heart of a hummingbird.
She is that good.

L B Gschwandtner
Author of The Naked Gardener (2010) and Page Truly and the Journey to Nearandfar (2011)
www.thenovelette.com

Writing is a very lonely endeavor. When Catherine gave so much time, thought, and care to my characters and my story it took away a lot of that loneliness and made me feel I had a true ally. My confidence and enthusiasm improved as much as my manuscript. The saying is true: “To write is human; to edit, divine.”

Cathy Baldau
Harpers Ferry

Formally educated as a writer, I was well aware of the importance of a good editor. I knew it was a good editor that stood between the writing and the audience, making the work legible--which is to say, marketable. What I didn't realize was how rare a good editor was. After four highly recommended editors and several thousand of dollars later, sadly I concluded that by most standards a "good editor" was simply a grammarian. They knew nothing of the most important element--the content. It was Rebecca Miller's main character in her film, a laser eye editor, that had me calling the prestigious Iowa Writer's Program. I was given Catherine, their most prized editor's number, and soon discovered why. Not only is Catherine extraordinary in the construction of English, but her brilliance and mastery lay in the rare gift of content editing. This makes Catherine the editor of a writer's dreams.

L'Dawn O.

Here is a short manual regarding the indications and contraindications of using Catherine’s services:

Use them if:
-    You want to learn your strong and your weak points as a writer;
-    You want to see your work grow and overcome puberty;
-    You need to build an audience beyond the folks usually gathering in your living-room.

Don’t use them if:
-    You actually need a therapist,
-    Or a cheerleader.
-    You like the warmth of the sand surrounding your head.

Combining elegance and rigor, Catherine represents for me a benchmark of constructive criticism. I will have to use her services again because she has become one of the voices buzzing in my head when I write. And I always talk back to those voices. I owe them that. As for Catherine, I owe her more than a good imaginary conversation.

Maya Levantini
Author of Tales of Mating and The Lost Art of Flying

After many months of fluid creativity, the breadth of my memoir had begun to overwhelm me. I had written myself into a corner that only logical sensitivity and professional expertise could guide me out of.  Catherine’s editorial mentoring provided me the tools of the creative process that took a fresh approach to culling my prose by sharpening my sense of just what it was I was trying to say . . . thanks, Catherine.

Kevin--Los Angeles

Catherine Adams, in my opinion, is an extremely knowledgeable and gifted editor.  She has the unique ability to thoroughly and correctly assess a new work of literature, and then guide the author to a much higher level of structure and design.   Her assessment of my novel has given me not only a much deeper insight into the workings of a literary piece but also a greater understanding of the publishing world.  I truly do not know what I would have done without the expertise and wisdom of Catherine Adams.  She absolutely is a gift to the literary world.  Any new or seasoned author who has ever called upon Catherine Adams assistance would attest to her invaluable expertise and wisdom.

Anthony L. (Tony) Korey