Contact Me
Email: bawriting@earthlink.netPhone: 562 628-9688
Get My RSS FeedHere’s what some of the authors I’ve worked with say about my work.
American Holistic Health Association (AHHA), Suzan Walter, M.B.A., president.
Whenever a consulting client or an AHHA member practitioner is authoring new material for our web site, I recommend that they consider having their material edited by Barbara. She has the unique perspective of being both a published author and a professional editor. In addition to her superb skills, I particularly appreciate that she never imposes any of her "stuff" into the author's creation. I am proud that Barbara also edits the AHHA Monthly Updates and my President’s Letters.
Marcus F. Griffin, author of Slaughter, a novel (Alexandrian Archives, Inc., 2009), and (as Lord Foxglove) Advancing the Witches’ Craft (New Page Books, 2005).
Barbara proved to be invaluable in helping me discover my true author’s voice and in bringing my writing skills to a previously unrealized level. For me, the most bothersome and time-consuming parts of writing were (and still are) proper grammar and avoiding the pitfalls common to most new writers. Working with Barbara allowed me to get on with the creative process without having to sweat the little things. With each of my books so far, she helped turn what could have been a real nightmare of a project into an enjoyable and spiritual experience. Barbara is honest, hardworking, and intelligent, a highly experienced expert in her field. She is a rare find and a bargain at twice the price. I plan to work with Barbara on all of my future projects.
Ricki Lewis, Ph.D., author of Stem Cell Symphony (Trafford Publishing, 2007).
I came to Barbara after having published four college-level life-science textbooks, a collection of essays, and thousands of articles ranging from a cover story in Discover to soft porn in Playgirl. But I'd never written fiction (not even the piece in Playgirl). Barbara showed me how. She turned my feeble attempts, but good ideas, into flowing conversations among real-sounding people. She vastly improved my first novel.
Terence Lee, L.L.M. (Sydney, Australia) author of Time Camera (Trafford, 2005).
Barbara has been of the greatest assistance to me in the preparation of my novel. Among many other things, she has assisted in breaking sentences that were too long by half into shorter ones, by rearranging the order of words in order to assist the flow, and in checking to ensure that my Australian/British English would be understandable to the American public for whom the book has been principally written.
Bobby “Boris” Pickett, author of Monster Mash: Half Dead in Hollywood, a Memoir.
The monumental task of editing a book is not to be taken lightly. Barbara is a master at this process. My personal experience while working with her on my autobiography was both enjoyable and educational as I learned many things along the way. My admiration for her extreme talent at rearranging paragraphs and correcting and spotting glitches, etc., is boundless. She took a mish-mash of bad syntax, misspellings, poor grammar, rotten punctuation, and on and on, and made the final product something readable and hopefully enjoyable. If she'd let me, I'd start a writers' fan club for her. She's the best!
Shannon Dorey (Ontario, Canada), author of The Master of Speech and The Nummo (Trafford Publishing).
I was very pleased with the help Barbara has given me in the editing of my two books about the Dogon religion. The subject matter in both books is very complex and a considerable amount of research was involved. Barbara is a wonderful resource and provided me with the names of numerous books that were relevant to the subjects I was researching. She also helped me with correct English usage and taught me to be more precise with etymologies and cognates. She also helped me to rework some of my ideas, making them more palatable for my readers. Overall, I am very appreciative of her help.
Mashallah Ali-Ahyaie (Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran), author of Seven Articles on the Qiblah: The Case of the Taj Mahal (Trafford Publishing, 2006) and New Insight into the Qiblah, Through the Application of Sciences (Trafford, forthcoming).
I had always wished publishing a part of my works in English, to be able to convey my ideas to others, since I thought the opportunity for translating my works from Persian to other languages was rather low. Dr. Barbara Ardinger not only edited my two manuscripts, but her comments as a reader made the books more understandable. She followed my wishes to keep the style intact as much as possible. Dr. Ardinger is very precise, straightforward, and honest. I do not hesitate to recommend her for editing projects to authors around the world.
Bodie Parkhurst, author of Redeeming Stanley and Good on Paper (Magic Dog Press, 2009)
The day we handed in our first papers for grading, my Honors Comp professor started his lecture by saying, “Having your paper edited is a bit like paying someone to cut off your baby’s legs so it’ll fit into the cradle.” I’ve often had cause to think of that terrible image in the years since, as I’ve written articles for magazines and newspapers, and then my own books. I've thought of it each time I handed my tender, perfect, literary “baby” over to an axe man—or woman. Each time I have faced that moment I have said that I “expect to be edited.” What I really meant was that I expected the editor to read every gleaming word, throw up his or her hands in amazement and exclaim, “But this is perfect! Absolutely perfect!” And then refer me to their very special friend at Doubleday, who would take the book for immediate publication. This has never happened. I have found that the editing process in most cases does indeed feel like paying someone to cut off my child’s legs to fit it into the cradle. With Barbara, it doesn’t feel like that. It feels more like putting on orthopedic shoes, maybe a brace, possibly a cast. Her editing is less a matter of cutting away at my “baby” than it is strengthening, directing growth, reinforcing weak spots. And in the end, my wordy child is better and stronger, able to stand on its own two feet. I’m still waiting for that dream book that I present to the world whole and perfect in every way, direct from my hand. Until then, I have Barbara. And that's a very good thing to have.
Lise Patt, Ph.D.
Barbara edited my Ph.D. dissertation, That Which Stimulates and Numbs Us: The Museum in the Age of Trauma. The study, written through the City University of New York, Graduate Center, to complete my Ph.D. degree in Art History, is 218 pages long and includes 476 footnotes. That Which Stimulates and Numbs Us is a theoretical study that straddles the fields of psychoanalysis, visual studies, museum studies, and post-Foucauldian French philosophy. Barbara was responsible for editing and editorial suggestions that created a more fluid and understandable text. Her attention to detail and very knowledgeable questioning of key passages produced a final product that was acceptable to four diverse dissertation committee members with very few changes. I am indebted to her for creating a clear, concise text out of a jumble of sentences that through five years of work had often become jumbled. Her editing advice, always given in a timely manner, helped me work through the last stage of my dissertation with confidence and grace. I was very pleased with her work and give her my highest recommendation.