From 1991 through 1999, I worked at a place called Eastern Instruments. The engineers were brilliant inventors who wrote tech manuals, white papers and spec sheets that almost nobody except a fellow engineer could understand. My job was proofreading, editing, and simplifying.
I left that job in 1999 to teach English in China for six years. I also spent that time editing over 300 published novels for the US publisher who published my first five books.
Then I spent five years in Thailand editing medical papers for publication in peer-reviewed journals in the US while transforming Michael Edits from a part-time venture into my full-time occupation.
After a year in Hanoi, I returned to the US in 2011 and kept on writing and proofreading.
Listing the range of things I've proofread and edited would be absurd. Eight years as the in-house editing department for an R&D firm, five years learning how to proofread and edit novels, five years of medical papers by non-native English speakers where I literally had to Google at least one word per sentence because I didn't know how to spell it and/or what it meant, responses to RFPs, educational material, textbooks, hundreds of blog posts and newsletters, magazines, newspaper journalism, sales and marketing literature, and I can't remember what else. If you've got something for me that I have no experience with, I'll tip my metaphorical hat to you.
I used to have a list of all the countries where my authors are located. It got too long for anyone to read. Even me. I'll just say five continents (I missed South America and Antarctica), native and non-native English speakers, PhD dissertations and the academically challenged, authors whose skills impress the heck out of me and others who've never written before and swear they never will again, authors overcoming daunting physical challenges to tell their stories, and a diverse enough range of topics to let me impress my wife every time we watch Jeopardy together.
Am I fast? I've been known to edit an issue of Cigar Snob Magazine in two days. Back when I lived in Thailand, and they were cranking it out at 3 in the morning, it was 3 in the afternoon to me. But when I moved back to the US, I had to stay up late with them. Ugh.
I prefer not to work that fast. But if you need it, and my schedule permits, I don't charge extra for rush edits. Just remember that if everything is a rush job, then nothing is a rush job. Back when I was a Military Electronics Specialist at Honeywell, we had a guy who really needed to learn that lesson.
I taught myself to play piano at age 51 and guitar at age 54. Never stop learning.
I've always loved my dogs and my cats, along with other people's dogs and cats. I currently live with a dog. A schipperke, if you feel like looking that up. All my other dogs have been mutts. Same as my cats. Same as me.
Four or five years ago, I had surgery for a detached retina one morning. That afternoon, I edited a manual on using Cisco for networking. But don't worry, the eye patch in the photo is long gone. The guitar is not.
As for my own writing, let me just end this too-long screed by quoting my Amazon bio.
Michael LaRocca was included in the 1982 Who's Who in American Writing before vanishing from the literary scene for 20 years. His published works include a short story anthology, 20 novels, and seven nonfiction works.
Michael is a crotchety old fart who lived in China for six years, Thailand for five years, and Vietnam for one year before returning to North Carolina in 2011, then returning to Florida in 2023. He's a reading junkie, a bicycle nut, an avid hiker, and an NFL addict. He enjoys playing piano and guitar.
Michael has been a medical lecturer, an English teacher, a technical editor, a purchasing manager, a computer programmer, a repo man, an unarmed security guard with a bad attitude, a dishwasher, a busboy, a military electronics specialist, a house cleaner, a gas pumper, a car washer, and a pet sitter. He's also been paid to masturbate boars, but he made sure nobody took photos.
Professional Proofreading Service
Contact michaeledits3@gmail.com