Mary K is the kind of editor you wish you had in school, when you put your heart into your words, and every red pen seemed determined to destroy you. In her 20 years as an editor and writer, she has developed a style that tempers sensitivity to the music of words with a passion for brevity. Being trained both as a creative writer and a journalist, she loves best when she can help an author discover the truth in stories. In her own writing life, Mary K has written novels, essays, stories and innumerable poems. Mary K has taught English at the college level, edited fiction, worked in marketing and technical communications, and judged in the annual Florida Technical Communication Competition. She has a master's in journalism/mass communications from the University of Florida and a bachelor's in English/creative writing from Old Dominion University. Teachers and writers who have influenced her include Bruce Weigl, Bernard J. Paris, Lawrence Hetrick, Allen Caillouet and Jamie Morris.    More About Mary K What I like most about editing: I really enjoy making sure that an author's unique voice rings clearly in their story, through expert—and creative—use of the English language. My best advice to writers: Sit down and write. What's written can be polished, what's not written is forgotten. My favorite genres to edit: I love editing stories with an element of magic or science fiction, and stories that reflect personal experience, whether memoir, poetry or in disguise as fiction. Number of years I've been editing: 20. Edit hard copy or on-screen: I prefer to edit on-screen copy. My "must have" writing reference books: Strunk and White's Elements of Style. Favorite background music when I edit: I prefer to sit outside or next to a window when I work, so I can hear the birds and other natural sounds. Scene outside the window where I edit: A small pond visited by anhinga, green herons and the occasional alligator. Favorite quotes: "Enlightenment is not imagining figures of light but making the darkness conscious." —C.G. Jung Memorable fictional character: John Carter of Mars, from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Princess of Mars. Most recent blog/website I bookmarked: Elena Filatova's motorcycle ride through Chernobyl Currently reading: Silent on the Moor, by Deanna Raybourn and Death Dreams: Unveiling Mysteries of the Unconscious Mind, by Kenneth Paul Kramer