Making it Shine with Shonell Bacon

This week at the Blood-Red Pencil we are celebrating our longest-serving members, with a look back at a selection of their awesome posts.

Shonell Bacon began her journey with Blood Red Pencil in 2009. Since then, her contributions have brought clarity and insight to writers and editors alike. Particularly useful was her 8-part series that imparted vital information to writers about how to choose the right editor for their works. A portion of the first entry, "Inside the Editor's Den: the Beginning," is reprinted below. Links to the rest of the post and the series can be found at the end of the excerpt.

Welcome to the first post in our Inside the Editor’s Den series. This month, we talk to four of BRP’s bloggers – Elle Carter Neal, Maryann Miller, Linda Lane, and Shonell Bacon – on their work as editors.

Since 2008, The Blood-Red Pencil’s goal has been, as stated by founder Dani Greer, “to help writers by blogging about what we know best – editing.”

In this series, we hope to provide information to writers that might be useful when they seek an editor for their writing projects. Learning how to write well is very important for a writer. Learning what to ask your potential editor is just as important.

Shout out to Wise Ink’s article “15 Questions You Should Always Ask Your Editor Before Hiring Them.” The idea for this series came from the great questions posed in this article.

Now, let’s step inside the editor’s den.

Today's question asked to our editors is...

WHY, HOW DID YOU COME TO EDITING?

Not surprisingly, writing plays a huge role in how these four editors came to editing. This makes sense. After all, editors must at least like words and the projects that are developed from them.

Shonell Bacon - I began editing back in the late 1990s. At the time, I just knew I loved to write and loved to read and read voraciously. By this time, I had a BA in communication arts and was about to start an MA in mass communication. I would do edits for free for friends who asked, and one day, a friend of mine who happened to be an author for Genesis Press told me the publisher was looking for an editor. I edited several works for them, and then with some of their authors who had moved on to other publishing houses. Within a few years, clients were sending me new clients.

Read the rest of this post here.

Click the links below to read the other posts in this series:

Inside the Editor's Den: Training and Expertise
Inside the Editor's Den: Fave Works to Edit
Inside the Editor's Den: Editorial Style
Inside the Editor's Den: Services Offered
Inside the Editor's Den: Coming to the Page
Inside the Editor's Den: Strengths and Weaknesses
Inside the Editor's Den: Being a Lifelong Learner

Shon's most popular posts

Eight Questions for Writers
Five Ways to Spring Clean Your Amazon Author Page
3 Steps to Reinvigorating Your Writing

Shon's latest releases

Fresh out of college and ready to pursue her passion for art, Roxy takes a job at a trendy Manhattan gallery. Persuaded to attend an arts event on a cruise ship, Roxy develops more than just professional appreciation when she encounters an up-and-rising artist.

A novel that intertwines the tales of three couples, brought together by friendship and love. Christopher and Tamara are in a relationship already strained by emotional baggage—will sexual indiscretions ruin them? Can Jamal help Shameika break through her past to finally reach “happily ever after”? Will Stephan help Deandra rescue her kidnapped sister?

When one of her friends bets Daphne Collins she can’t go a week without having an orgasm, she scoffs at the idea. Disillusioned by her first rejection, Daph accepts the bet. But Daph soons finds herself having to juggle all the men vying for her attention, and keep her libido cool while she pursues the one who got away. Will a week change Daph’s insatiable ways?


Connect with Shon on Facebook, Twitter, or at her website.