I cut my literary teeth reading mysteries, suspense, crime novels and true crime. From short stories to novels, my own fiction follows the same vein. As an indy publisher, I’ve also polished my share of non-fiction prose, most recently Whaleback Ships and the American Steel Barge Company.
Hire Me For Content Editing
I will read your manuscript through from start to finish and flag the following:
- Anything I don’t understand (it needs more background, techno explanation or other information for the reader).
- Anything I don’t care about (it’s cool, this just means it detracts from the story, pulls the reader out and causes them to lose interest).
- Anything I don’t believe (it’s not common knowledge or seems improbable – if it’s true, or a true construct in speculative or sci-fi, it probably needs more facts or foundation).
- Anything else that’s just not working and why.
- Anything that is so brilliant you should never change it (the passages where your writing really shines).
What I wont’t do:
- Content, copy or line editing. I will mark any typos or misspelling I notice, but line editors are super heroes and I am not one. That comes after you’ve completed your umpteenth final draft and the book is in production with a publisher.
- I will not recommend changes, rewrites or fixes to the passages I flag. That’s ghost writing – again, a whole different animal. Sometimes I might break this rule and offer a suggestion – but it’s rare.
- I will not accept for editing any manuscript that is not typed/printed, double spaced, 12pt font, clean copy and reasonably well written. In such cases, I’ll tell you why I am declining and offer suggestions to how you might proceed.
As much as I love a good mystery with a paranormal element, I’m not in the business of ghost writing novels— unless you think you can scare up an offer I can’t refuse (bonus points for getting the pun and the allusion to thuggery).
CONTACT ME FOR MORE INFORMATION
Some of My Fiction:
A crime novel inspired by a true cold-case homicide.
(From Amazon) On a summer morning in 1966, fourteen-year old Michael Fisher set out on his paper route in Superior, Wisconsin and disappeared. That night his body was found in a grassy ditch on a remote road, but to date his killer is unknown. Now, after years of research and dead ends, longtime Superior resident Judith Liebaert commemorates the Fisher case with a murder mystery of her own imagination. “Sins of the Fathers” is set in her childhood hometown and begins fifty years after the unsolved homicide of young Thomas Baker. Her debut novel is pure, fast-paced crime fiction—from the opening scene where a shadowy, old killer confronts a second victim, to the surprising end when both murders are finally solved, in a way nobody expected.
“Sins Of The Fathers tells the story of a small town murder so shocking that it still haunts the people who live there a half century later. The crime has woven itself into the fabric of the place and taken on the proportions of an urban legend. For one woman, it’s a crime she is determined to solve, if for no other purpose that to offer it up for her father’s approval, and perhaps redemption.”
~ Judith Liebaert
Praise for Sins Of The Fathers
“Fast paced edge-of-your-seat suspense. I couldn’t put it down once I began reading. The dialogue between characters is brilliant! It made me feel I was right there, a part of the action. Anyone who is familiar with Superior, Wisconsin will instantly be transported to some famous landmarks and recall the notorious 50-year-old unsolved homicide investigation that inspired this fictional tale, and the effect that shocking crime had on the town. The multitude of sins of the various “fathers” and the unexpected twists in the plot kept me guessing to the end.
~Detective Sgt. Ed Anderson, Forensics Specialist (ret’d.)
A Chilling, Twisting Puzzle
on January 11, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition
Judith Liebaert’s Sins of the Fathers is a modern who-done-it written with the captivating voice and feel of an old, hard-boiled detective story. Liebaert deftly handles the intertwining mystery of a cold case murder from years gone by with a gruesome new case bearing startling similarities. Is it a copycat murder, or has the same killer returned to the scene of the crime after all these years? Smack in the middle of the gruesome discovery is a lady news reporter trying to get the scoop and solve the mystery, yet she may be tied more dangerously close to the twisting puzzle than she realizes.From the very beginning, the story is both gripping and chilling, and the dialogue between the players clips along at a nice crackle as relationships unfold and a killer is slowly revealed. If you enjoy a well-written, small town detective story, you’ll like Sins of the Fathers.
Great read
on October 10, 2016
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Judith weaves a page-turner of a tale that gives Thomas Baker something the inspiration for this story never got, and likely never will without a deathbed confession, according to the Superior police detective who successfully brought two murderers to justice—a decade and two decades after they committed their respective crimes.
Short stories and prose appear in:
- The Northern Reader
- Gypsy Cab
- Aqueous Magazine
- Oatmeal and Poetry
Read The Ice Monger’s Wife (previously published in Aqueous Magazine)
Judith Liebaert 