About Me

     As a preteen, I won a summer camp award for best writing. I was a circus aerialist and newspaper columnist in high school (Sarasota, Florida). For the formal stuff about my education and work, see the resumé below.  I'm a full member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and have taken creative writing classes from published authors Edwin Granberry, Denise Gess, and Greg Frost.
     My late husband was Richard Staton, an applications engineer retired from the automotive industry. Our grown children are Christopher (Crick) Staton, the technical director for the historic Strand Theater in Lakewood, NJ; and Dr. Valerie Staton, a professor of psychology at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus. We've had fifteen ferrets, one the inspiration for Tattletails’ Ferdo. I’ve had a dog, cats, and horses, and I help sometimes as a trail guide at a riding stable.

 

Resumé

Education
Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism, Evanston, IL (M.S.J., magazine emphasis)
Radcliffe-Harvard Publishing Procedures Course, Cambridge, MA
Rollins College, Winter Park, FL (B.A., English major). Newspaper and yearbook staffs, literary    magazine editor, member of Rollins Publication Union

Employment
Assistant editor, then associate editor for Jack and Jill children’s magazine, Curtis Publishing Co.,    Philadelphia, PA. Wrote features, evaluated and edited manuscripts, proofread galleys, checked    layouts, was liaison with ABC-TV, scheduled some issues. (five years)
Proofreader, book reviewer, photo clerk for Lindsay Newspapers, Inc., Sarasota, FL (one year)
Public relations assistant for New College, Sarasota, FL (one year)

Freelance Editorial Assignments
Copyedited six nonfiction books for Barron Educational Series, Hauppauge, NY; a fantasy for      Simon & Schuster (Atheneum), Parsippany, NJ; over fifty romance novels for Dorchester      Publishing, Inc., New York, NY; two novels for Penguin Group USA, New York, NY; three      naval history books for the Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD; a chemical textbook by Dr.      Russell S. Drago, Department of Chemistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL; and remedial      readers for J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, PA
Proofread sociology book for Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA
Copyedited Ultrapure Water and Industrial Water Treatment (chemical industry journals) and    three technical books for Tall Oaks Publishing, Littleton, CO (eleven years)
Compiled and edited Instructor's Read-Aloud Anthology for Instructor Books, New York, NY
Proofread for Radio Only and Inside Radio, Cherry Hill, NJ
Copyedited, proofread proceedings of viral hepatitis symposium; proofread medical journals for    The Franklin Institute Press, Philadelphia, PA
Copyedited technical manuscripts on computer industry for Auerbach Publishers, Inc., Pennsauken,    NJ (four years freelance, plus ten weeks as acting chief copy editor)
Evaluated, edited manuscripts for Jack and Jill, Review Publishing, Indianapolis, IN (four years)

Published Writing
Book reviews and features for Sarasota Herald Tribune; short stories, articles, features, and play    for Jack and Jill, Odyssey, Stories, and Instructor; company reviews for Ultrapure Water;    short story in Grit

Computer Capabilities
Use Word, including on-screen revision; have used Word Perfect and WordStar


Text copyright by Johanna Bilbo Staton. No text on this or any other page of this Web site may be reproduced without written permission of the author.