“As I was finishing my first novel, I knew that editing was going to be a necessary and vital step. And that’s about it. I didn’t know anything else about how the process worked or how a person could professionally gauge my work and still feel the deep connection I had with the story and its characters. But Maura did it. From the beginning, she felt more like a collaborator than an editor. Her notes and suggestions were invaluable. I took almost every single one, and why wouldn’t I? They made my book so much better! Maura has a knack for offering a writer just the right amount of compliments, which create the courage to address her criticisms. She gets subtle humor, she loves badass women (characters), and I suspect she liked my bad guys more than the good guys. From grammar and word usage to story arc and character development, Maura helped me make a book I could be proud of.”