About

Hello! I’m Tamara.

I’d love to chat and get to know you, and in the absence of an internet-capable teapot, here is the next best thing. Come on in, and read all about me, what I do, and why I do it.

I didn’t always know that I’d help entrepreneurs write the book that’s in them, burning to be written.

I started out editing: structural, copy editing and proofreading. I liked it, which was nice, but I didn’t love it. And I was on the lookout for work I loved. So I sent up a request that work I love would find me.

Then entrepreneurs started coming to me with their manuscripts. And most of them were having some kind of trouble with their books. They came with manuscripts that were tens of thousands of words in, but stalled. They came with a mishmash of words that just didn’t quite jive. They were architects and green smoothie enthusiasts, payroll experts and body language experts, and many other interesting things.

To say they were a diverse lot is a supreme understatement.

The one thing that they all had in common was a manuscript that didn’t tell the whole story. It told useful things, mostly. It was a game stab at the genre, but it didn’t tell their deeper truth.

Everyone has a story to tell, and it’s one that other people need to hear.

Humans are storytelling animals. It’s how we learn, and how we relate.  I know that I’m here to find that story, and help you get it into your book, and out into the world.

It’s time to tell yours.

Me in dot points:

  • I’m a long-time word lover. I have always written in some form or another, but forgot it was what I loved along the way, and had to rediscover it.
  • I was a bullied academic overachiever at school: the daughter of first generation Russian migrants. I excelled in any other pursuit I was enrolled in too: ballet, piano, violin, russian language and folk dancing.
  • I wanted to quit school six weeks before my high school finals. My father convinced me not to (thanks Dad!), saying that at university (college) I’d find my tribe. He was right. I found intelligence, and respect for learning and thinking. And writing!
  • I also found politics and activism, and organised rallies and occupations of buildings as protests. Then went to ballet rehearsals in the evenings. I was a walking, talking contradiction.
  • I graduated with top marks and a double major in English (Writing and Literature) and Women’s Studies.
  • Because I like the innovative, and because I was around at the beginnings of the internet (hello! old!) I studied for a Graduate Diploma in Applied Media. I learned the Theory Of The Internet – vastly interesting, not very useful – and also learned the new-fangled thing: html. (I know, right? Old as the hills!)
  • True to my black sheep form, I birthed my two children at home, with midwives. Then I trained to be a doula (birth support person). I learned that birth is a supremely creative event, and that all creativity works on the same blueprint (even for men): if you have respectful and experienced support, you’re more likely to succeed in what you’re doing.
  • Through all this study, I learned that the more words I get out onto the page in a day, the happier I am. It doesn’t matter if they’re for me, or for other people. It just matters that I write.
  • I’ve edited many books, co-written one book, and ghostwritten several others.
  • I LOVE my job: I would roll around in writing and talking writing, and helping people with their writing if I could, like a dog rolls in fox poo. Joyously, completely and with abandon.
  • Same goes for books: if books suddenly disappeared from the world, I’d wander in lost circles like a kitten in a downpour, mewling pathetically. A world without books is not a world I want to be part of.
  • Being part of writing a book makes me happy, along with sunshine, crisp autumn days and a really good cup of tea.
  • Words are rhythm to me. Rhythm tells me if it’s working, and rhythm tells me if it’s not. Every person writes with their own rhythm, and that’s how come I can learn yours. Before children, I worked in Aged Care consulting. I learned to copy my boss’ style so that our reports were seamless. She listed it as one of my superpowers. (Thanks, Jenny!) I just think I know her rhythm. (I’m also kinaesthetic. Words make up images in my head.)

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You’ll want to take the first steps now.

Sign up here for my free 3 Simple Steps to a Book You’re Proud Of Workshop, and you’ll be on your way!