top of page
Image by Nicola Nuttall
Kitty of CopyKat Editing

ABOUT ME

Your Book, Solved.

Kitty started her career in finance in 2014, first working as a hiring manager and executive assistant, and then as a copywriter/copyeditor crafting marketing material for a retirement planning team with over $3 billion AUM. Her experience in leadership, editing, and management taught her something crucial: how to juggle various tasks for a large internal team and how to make clients happy, all while performing under tight deadlines.

​

Her true passion, however, has always been in reading, writing, and editing fiction and true crime; thus, CopyKat Editing LLC was born in 2020, a brainchild of the pandemic. Kitty is most at home when she's immersed in a good female-led cozy mystery, mafia romance, or YA fantasy novel.

 

She holds bachelor’s degrees in both criminology and psychology from the University of Denver (2016) and a professional certificate in copyediting from UC San Diego (2021). She's also interned at a non-profit that provides services to children who have been neglected and abused, and for Chicago's Cook County Adult Probation Department.

​

Kitty is a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA), the American Copy Editors Society (ACES), Sisters in Crime (SinC), the Crime Writers' Association (CWA), and Mystery Writers of America (MWA).

​

A Chicago native, Kitty enjoys off-season camping in the Midwest with her partner, Ryan, and their beloved English Bulldog, Meatball; binging true crime podcasts; and planning her next trip to Scotland.

​

She loves:

​

traveling | antique shopping | haunted houses | ice cream |

the Pacific Northwest | ASMR | Colorado | sushi | tarot reading slasher TV shows | historic tours | Halloween | karaoke | the smell of old books | Scotland and the Loch Ness Monster | reality TV | dark beer in the fall

​

editing quill and ink

My fiction expertise includes:

- ​Mystery - Crime​ - Horror - Romance - Erotica - Thriller & Suspense - Gothic - Magical Realism - Dark Fantasy - Urban Fantasy - Low Fantasy - Supernatural & Paranormal - Historical* (at editor's discretion) - LGBTQIA+ - Fan Fiction - Contemporary - Literary Fiction - Women's Fiction - Ghostlore, Urban Legends, & Myths - Novels, Novellas, Novelettes, Short Fiction, Flash Fiction

women reading

My academic expertise includes:

- Law & Criminology - Psychology​​​ - Sociology - Magick & Witchcraft - Celtic Studies​ - Irish History - Mythology/Folklore - Gender and Women's Studies

I'm not a good fit for:

- Sci-fi - High Fantasy - Splatterpunk & Body Horror - Dystopian/Grimdark - Poetry - Cookbooks - Textbooks - Journals - Medical Writing - Christian Literature - Screenplays or Plays - Picture Books - Chapter Books or Early Readers -Someone who thinks editing can be done on a tight budget. Grammar edits are complicated and time consuming, and the work requires experience, education, and skill on behalf of the editor. In the editing world, you get what you pay for. -Someone who's not willing to change anything about their manuscript, or they're looking for only positive comments on their writing. Opening yourself up to professional feedback is scary but ultimately makes you a better writer!

My nonfiction expertise includes:

- True Crime - Memoir - Travel/Tourism - Food Writing - History - Families & Relationships - Humor & Entertainment - APA Journal Articles - ​Essays - Literary Journalism - Self-help - How-to - Letters - Brochures/Pamphlets - Newsletters - Blog Posts - Social Media Posts - Reviews - Film, Music, TV

Age groups:

- Young Adult

- New Adult

- Adult

​​

EDUCATION

​DEGREES

  • Bachelor of Arts, Criminology, University of Denver

  • Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, University of Denver

  • Certificate in Copyediting, University of California San Diego

  • Currently enrolled in the Club Ed Certificate in Developmental Editing of Fiction program

​

COURSES

  • Nightmare Fuel: How to Write Horror That Guarantees Sleepless Nights, Autocrit

  • Editing the Memoir, The PEN Institute

  • Developmental Editing Series, Club Ed

  • Intro to Line Editing, EFA

  • Editing Query Letters, Synopses, and Author Bios; Club Ed

  • Editing Short Stories & Novellas, Club Ed

  • Editing Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense, Club Ed

  • Developmental Editing of Nonfiction, Club Ed

  • Advanced Rhetoric and Writing, University of Denver

  • Intro to Creative Writing, University of Denver

  • Advanced Writing and Research, University of Denver

  • Art of Non-fiction, University of Denver

​

CONFERENCES

  • Fantasy Writers' Week 2023, ProWritingAid

  • ACES Accelerate 2022, The American Copy Editors Society

  • Crime Writers' Week 2022, ProWritingAid

  • Fantasy Writers' Week 2022, ProWritingAid

  • Crime Writers' Week 2021, ProWritingAid

  • Romance Writers' Week 2021, ProWritingAid

  • Murder and Mayhem Chicago 2021, Sisters in Crime Chicagoland Chapter

  • ​ACES 2021, The American Copy Editors Society

  • Midwest Mystery Conference 2021, Sisters in Crime Chicagoland Chapter

​

WEBINARS

  • "Writing Mystery: Anatomy of Writing a Mystery," NAIWE

  • "Editing Memoir," EFA

  • "Inside the Criminal Mind" series, Crime Writers Association

    • "Part 1: Criminal Landscapes" 

    • "Part 2: Minds for Murder"

    • "Part 3: Disrupting Criminal Patterns" 

  • "Walking Through a Crime Scene" series, Crime Writers Association

    • "Part 1: Securing the Scene"​

    • "Part 2: Murder Under the Microscope"

    • "Part 3: Pathology Opened Up"

  • "Historical Fact and Fiction," Crime Writers Association

  • "Know Your Audience: Using the Right Voice and Keywords in Content Marketing," ACES

  • "Getting Your Self-Publishing Client to a Finished Product You Can Both Be Proud Of," EFA

  • "Intro to Becoming a Professional Beta Reader," EFA
  • "Trans Allyship for Writers and Editors," EFA

  • "Immersive Copy Editing for Fantasy & Science Fiction," ACES

  • "Working with Independent Authors," EFA

​

  • Plus, membership in respected online groups for editing professionals

bottom of page