About Dave King

In addition to editing everything from YA to harrowing memoirs, with romance, mysteries, and historicals in between, I am the co-author of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, now in its second edition, with 200,000 sold worldwide. An independent editor since 1987, I'm a former contributing editor at Writer's Digest. Many of my magazine pieces on the art of writing have been anthologized in The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing and in The Writer's Digest Writing Clinic. I also write a monthly column on Writer Unboxed.

I share a small home in the hills of western Massachusetts with Ruth Julian, my wife of thirty-three years. We often watch bears, beaver, deer, ducks, muskrat, fox, wild turkeys, and the occasional bobcat wander around in the yard and pond. No moose yet, though the occasional young male passes through our town. We grow many of our own fruits, vegetables, and herbs, and manage our forest to provide wood for heat. Even in the worst blizzard, I can keep editing without ever having to move away from the wood stove.

I'm also the organist at a local church, which gives me the chance to explore the connections between writing and baroque music. The independent musical voices of a fugue act in much the same way as the characters in a novel -- intertwining to produce an artistic whole. Being able to hold several musical threads in my head at the same time has helped me untangle more than one complicated plot.

My dream for the future is that all my clients' books will sell so well that they can quit their day jobs. But my goal every day is to make sure that I help my clients become better writers. That, and to someday see a moose.