Work in Progress

I am currently working with sculptor John DeAndrea on his autobiography, which will span his childhood in Little Italy in Denver, Colorado—”it was like growing up in an Italian village”—through his international success as a leader of the hyperrealist movement that started in the late 1960s.

Mr. DeAndrea developed and pioneered the techniques for life casting his models to produce intensely realistic figures, such as the serene Amber Reclining (left) and Mother and Child (right).

(Photographs courtesy of John DeAndrea)

The Family History Author Is not in the Spotlight

2018-08-14 -
A family history has a broad scope and covers at least several generations. It explores the lives and interconnections of multiple relatives, as well as outsiders who were influential in the family members’ lives. As the author of the family history, you may not appear prominently: your primary role will be as historian rather than… Read more »

More Notes & Musings »

Sample Work and Client Comments

Working with therapists Charlie Donaldson and Randy Flood required translating cognitive behavioral theory and their clinical experience in counseling abusive men into reader-friendly prose. In addition to filling in numerous blanks in the original draft with examples and case studies, I made their different styles sound like one voice. You can see an example here.

“Elaine joined us as a writer, but she contributed above and beyond in challenging Charlie and me conceptually and theoretically as well as grammatically.” — Randy Flood

“I thank Elaine for her exceptional writing and organizational skills, and for her persistence in seeking excellence.” — Charlie Donaldson

This sample shows extensive revisions in the introduction to Karel Roger’s Thinking Green: Ethics for a Small Planet.

Although I rewrote the introduction and revised many of the chapters, most of my collaboration with Karel involved asking questions to help her clarify her themes and nail the organization of a complicated text.

These notes show some of the many questions and comments I made to achieve those goals. By the time we worked our way through this review, the project was clearer and more focused.

“I never understood why so many writers begin their acknowledgments by thanking their editor and saying how their book wouldn’t have been possible without her. Now I understand.

“After asking close friends to read the first draft of Thinking Green I hired Elaine to help me because my friends either quit talking to me, had nothing constructive to say, or didn’t read it at all. I can’t blame them.

“Elaine imposed an organization on my writing, asked the hard questions dealing with logic and consistency, and helped put me in touch with my target audience. I too will be citing her in my acknowledgements. She is worth every cent she charges!” — Karel L. Rogers, PhD, Thinking Green: Ethics for a Small Planet

In college—all the way through graduate school—I had a terrible time coming up with the minimum number of pages an assignment required. If a professor said 8–10 pages, struggling to the top of page 7 was a victory.

Gary, however, had the opposite problem. He needed to distill many years of meticulous primary research into a length acceptable to his book publisher. My job required condensing his manuscript without omitting key information and without altering his distinctive writing style.

“I am absolutely delighted with your revisions! This is precisely the kind of pruning I had in mind—you’ve managed to make my prose much more concise but leave both the substance and my sentence style intact… I am deeply indebted to you for doing exactly what I needed done, and so promptly; you’ll be in my Acknowledgments.” — Gary Stark, Banned in Berlin: Literary Censorship in Imperial Germany, 1871–1918

From the Acknowledgments, page x: “Elaine Eldridge helped me wrestle some of the more lengthy segments into a more manageable, and readable, form.”

I met Marydale DeBor, JD, while working on a Green Seal case study (described below) of her work at New Milford Hospital in Connecticut. This first project led to a long-term collaboration with Marydale as she developed her company, Fresh Advantage®. Together, we wrote website copy and case studies, blogs, and a white paper.

I also wrote “Plow to Plate: The Community Hospital as Change Agent” (Sustainability, 2012, 5:2), which described the development of an award-winning food service operation at New Milford Hospital that featured fresh, locally sourced food for patients, staff, and visitors.

“Elaine has a unique combination of skills that enables her to be extremely effective in developing communications materials for professionals. In working with her I’ve found these talents to include:

Great (not just good) listening skills
Equally strong research skills
The ability to absorb new information quickly and then synthesize the content into a compelling narrative using language appropriate to the target audience(s).

“Elaine is able to take one’s ‘story’ (of skills, experience, and capacity) and assist a client in understanding how to communicate all of that into a rational appeal that works in marketing documents, advocacy appeals, blogs to demonstrate currency and know-how, and when needed, scholarly writings.” — Marydale DeBor, JD, Fresh Advantage®, Cambridge, MA

These “before” and “after” versions of a chapter on writing a business plan are from Restorative Treatment: Build Your Own Successful Practice Helping Court-Referred Clients Reclaim Their Lives by Charlie Donaldson of Therapist Outfitters.

Restorative Treatment, which provides a step-by-step plan for therapists who want to build their practices by serving drug court, substance abuse, and domestic violence clients, is available at Therapist Outfitters.

Greening Food and Beverage Services cover

My first project with Marydale DeBor (see above) was a case study of the game-changing food service operation at New Milford Community Hospital that appeared in Greening Food and Beverage Services: A Green Seal™ Guide to Transforming the Industry by Cheryl Baldwin.

“Elaine quickly understood our project needs and time line and delivered great writing and editing that helped create a strong project.

One key element of her contribution was a comprehensive case study that helped deliver a clear message for Greening Food and Beverage Services: A Green Seal™ Guide to Transforming the Industry.” — Cheryl Baldwin, PhD, Senior Consultant at Pure Strategies, Reston, VA (formerly with Green Seal)