Editor of Select Fiction and Nonfiction
I am a former prosecutor and child welfare attorney with a black belt in a street-fighting self-defense technique. As a litigator, I worked with many forensic experts (and cross-examined others) and listened closely to the testimony of people from all walks of life. As the caregiver (and now guardian) of a seriously mentally ill autistic man, I know the mental health system and special education systems at all levels of placement.
My Background
I have a BA in comparative literature from the University of Virginia, a JD from William and Mary Law School, and an editing certificate from the University of California Berkeley Extension. I have prosecuted homicides (including DUI homicides), arsons, cases with defenses of not guilty by reason of insanity, assaults and domestic violence, animal cruelty, drug distribution, pharmaceutical diversion, and property crimes. I accompanied law enforcement in the execution of search warrants, advised investigators on cases prior to arrests, went to crime scenes, attended autopsies, and tried cases to juries. I was also a child welfare attorney.
In 2013, I stopped practicing law when the needs of my special needs child escalated. I trained as an editor, including earning an editing certificate. I am still licensed to practice law in good standing in two states.
I have published two book chapters; academic journal articles in the fields of comparative literature, psychoanalytic anthropology, and, as second author, social sciences in medicine; and several technical articles. I coauthored a book on drafting editing contracts between editors and independent authors.
Is there violence in your book? I can help evaluate the strength of those scenes. I have a black belt in a martial art from a training center where a third of the student body is active military and law enforcement. This style, a form of Krav Maga, uses adrenaline drills and simulations with single or multiple opponents—unarmed or armed with firearms, knives, or blunt instruments. These training exercises occur in simulated alleys, airplanes (in a mockup that does everything but fly), convenience stores, houses, nightclubs, offices, restaurants, and stairways. We practice firearms retention in and out of the holster, defenses against knife attacks and mass shooters, on our feet or on the ground.
This is important because people under stress perceive events differently, their movements and capabilities change, and they respond differently to pain. Further, people behave differently postincident than they do before. More and more of your readers understand this and your characters need to behave realistically so your reader isn’t exclaiming, “That doesn’t happen!”
I specialize in books, journal articles, pleadings (for attorneys only), reports, and treatises in the areas of behavioral health, education policy, forensic science, healthcare policy, law, medicine, psychiatry, and psychology, as well as autobiographies/memoirs, mysteries, police procedurals, science fiction, speculative fiction, and true crime. Services I provide include copyediting, fact-checking, flagging or fixing of plot holes, line editing, manuscript evaluations, research, rewriting, and structural editing. I work in American or Canadian English.
Keywords: academic editor, academic editing, APA 7, behavioral health, book, book editing, Chicago Manual of Style, child welfare, copyediting, copyeditor, criminal law, developmental editor, dissertation, documentation, family law, fiction, healthcare policy, journal articles, Krav Maga, law, lawyer, legal, line editor, martial arts, mass shootings, medical, medicine, nursing, psychiatry, psychology, public health, rewriting, serial killers, special education, structural editor, thesis
- Co-Coordinator, Phoenix Chapter, Editorial Freelancers Association, February 2018.
- Volunteer of the Month, Editors Canada, May 2017
- Chair of the Publications Committee of Editors Association of Canada, June 2016–January 2018.
- Editing certificate from the University of California Berkeley Extension.
- J.D. degree from William and Mary Law School.
- B.A. in comparative literature from the University of Virginia.
- First academic publication in 1988 (the first of twelve such publications).
- Almost twenty years of complex legal writing for courts, involving thorough research and accurate writing about medical, scientific, or behavioral health evidence.
- Third-degree black belt in tae kwon do, advanced student of Krav Maga, trained in firearms retention and street self-defense under high-stress simulations
- Margulis, Dick, and Karin Cather. “The Paper It’s Written On; Negotiating and Drafting Service Agreements for Editing Clients.” Paper presented at the 12th Annual Communication Central Be a Better Freelancer Conference, Rochester, NY, September 2017.
- Communication Central Conference in Fall 2017 in Rochester, New York.
- Summer 2016, University of California San Diego Extension, Practical Clinical Statistics for the Non-Statistician.
- Spring 2016, University of California San Diego Extension, Medical Terminology.
- Editing Goes Global Conference in June 2015 in Toronto; the conference was sponsored by the Editors’ Association of Canada and was attended by over 500 editors from over twelve countries.
