I'm an author and freelance editor providing a variety of editorial services in print and online. I offer high-level structural editing and writing services for clients including Reader’s Digest Australia (I'm a Consulting Editor for Reader's Digest magazine).
I recently collaborated with Sue Pieters-Hawke on the major Hazel Hawke biography Hazel: My Mother's Story (Pan Macmillan) and am now working on a biography of another inspiring Australian woman for HarperCollins. I also contributed a significant amount of copy to the new Random House Australia release Courage in Crisis.
In 2004 I co-wrote Hazel's Journey: A Personal Experience of Alzheimer's (Pan Macmillan) with Sue Pieters-Hawke. This account of Hazel Hawke coming to terms with the much misunderstood condition debuted at No. 7 in the national bestseller list and was shortlisted in the Non-Fiction category of the national Human Rights Awards.
On occasion I also provide services on a one-off basis for clients such as Queens Pinch (website copy) and the 2010 and 2011 Sydney Writers' Festivals (presenting sold-out How to Get Published workshops, at the invitation of festival director Chip Rolley) and Atlantis Healthcare (editing and writing for patient information magazines in Australia and the UK).
My previous roles include curating for the web, publishing and broadcasting.
I was Editor-in-Chief of NeoNeighbourhood.com, a distilled, discerning guide to the best experiences in cities around the world and online, from its inception in December 2007 to December 2008.
Before that I was Commissioning Editor at Murdoch Books, an independent publishing company based in Sydney, Australia. Books I commissioned and nurtured there include Ursula by Eileen Naseby, Nine Summers by Rina Huber, Monsoon Rains and Icicle Drops by Libby Southwell with Josephine Brouard, A Castle in Tuscany by Sarah Benjamin, Blowing My Own Trumpet by James Morrison and The Honey Spinner by Grace Pundyk.
From 1999 to 2002 I was publisher of non-fiction at Random House, where I was responsible for a range of bestselling and critically acclaimed titles, including A Love for Life by Jane and Glenn McGrath, The Money Club by Beck, Chantiri, Hill and Robinson, Don't Fence Me In by Wendy McCarthy, Your Mortgage and How to Pay It Off in Five Years by Anita Bell (the top-selling Australian non-fiction book of 2000) and A Dirty Little War by John Martinkus (shortlisted in the 2002 NSW Premier's Awards).
From 2004 to 2007, I had lots of fun doing a regular book review segment on ABC radio throughout NSW and the ACT on James O'Loghlin's Evening Show. I presented Summer Evenings on ABC Radio (1998-99) to an estimated national audience of 3.5 million. (Radio is a long-term love; I began my working life producing and presenting programs on ABC Radio Newcastle.)
I was part of the team that started the popular culture magazine Who Weekly (a very different beast back then to its later incarnations). I worked in a variety of roles between 1992 and 1998, from Reporter to Senior Editor and was involved in almost every section of the magazine over the years, including editing the highly successful Who Extra Collector's Guide stand-alone magazines on Seinfeld and The X-Files.
I live south of Sydney, Australia, with my web designer husband, Ricky Onsman, and our two children. Ricky and I offer a variety of editorial, design and web development services under the Flyman Partners banner.