ABOUT
Meet the Editor—Diana Grabau
I have a head for precise communication and a heart to see others succeed in their creative work. Whether yours is a work of fiction or a desire to communicate your expertise in your field, I can help you do so via the written word in a logical, concise, and clear manner. My focus will be on treating you and your work with respect, encouraging you to make every piece your best, most exceptional writing.
My copyediting training comes from a certificate copyediting curriculum through UC San Diego Extension. I constantly work to improve my skills by taking on varied work and continuing education courses. I have spent the last eight years writing fiction, and have studied a multitude of books on the crafts of both writing and editing. My own fiction includes the genres of futuristic medical suspense and time travel—into the past and future. My background and degree in the medical field enables me to give science and medical writing a knowledgeable edit. I've taken extra courses in structural and developmental editing, bookmapping, editing for the web, nonfiction editing, manuscript critique, and ghostwriting.
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Why Seize the Day?
I have worn a number of hats in my life—Occupational Therapist, office manager of a medical consulting business, mother of five, voracious reader, pianist, and last but not least, novel writer. I've adopted "Seize the Day" as my personal work philosophy, as I believe each day is a gift and it is our duty to use it to better the world with the skills and insights we have developed to enhance our natural talents. My goal is to encourage and assist you in your pursuit of excellence in communication.
On a personal note, I've enjoyed both farm life with chickens, horses, bees, and vegetable gardens, and city life, with conveniences and entertainment minutes away. With five children and seven grandchildren, life has been full (feel free to read between the lines). When I take breaks from editing, I can usually be found exploring new places or sewing quilts. My favorite designs are made from bright batik fabrics, and I love geometric designs that give 3-D effects in the finished products. I'm also strangely drawn to fractals.
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Random Musings
To the Virgins,
To Make Much of Time
-Robert Herrick
The Value of Order
"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a'flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying."
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One might say Carpe Diem, Seize the Day, or literally translated, "pluck the day," is an existential look at the futility of life; however, I believe that our efforts to better ourselves in our work improves us until we direct a full orchestra of experience and potential that we can release in creative, productive ways. I plan to make the most of my skills and experience to give not only my own work, but also the work of others, its best performance. Many writers' works outlive them, and therefore deserve their best efforts. A related Hebrew expression says, "And if not now, then when?"
Smile—Make the World a
Better Place
If we successfully bring order to our art, we will be effective at communicating the one-of-a-kind-ness of our own vision, sometimes our own souls, to others. The need for order is never more obvious than in the written word. Fiction writers don't just sit down and write a book. No one sits down and writes any piece without rewriting and reordering, editing, re-editing, and refining. What do all these words have in common? "Re-." The meaning of the prefix "re" is "repetition or restoration," doing something again and again, even in the sense of going backward—undoing—before one can go forward. This is my life as a writer. This is also our task as editor and client-writer. If we do our jobs well, we will be publishable. My job—and pleasure—as editor is to assist you in making your work publishable.
Music, the Ultimate Human Experience
People make the world go 'round. As a young person I was in a local musical group, part of the national Up With People movement. Songs with uplifting messages about life and people were choreographed and performed through song and dance. This was one of the most inspiring experiences of my formative years. What a joy it was to bring smiles to faces and to feel alive and aware of the goodness inside other human beings. People are fascinatingly complex and beautiful.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC."
-Kurt Vonnegut
Music allows us to transcend our earthly existence in a way nothing else can. Music infuses everything: music makes a dance of life, gives pleasure to everyone it touches, and brings us to the heights and depths of emotion and back again. I've been known to say that music must be an intrinsic part of God's nature, as it often seems such a built-in part of our created being. Music enriches everything we do, most particularly our creative work—our writing. Good written work is like music. Words communicate powerfully, as does music.