An Interview with Dania Sheldon, Recipient of Editors Canada’s Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence

Written by Maggie Clark; copy edited by Meagan Kus

Dania SheldonEvery year, Editors Canada presents the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence to an editor for their outstanding contribution to a work published in Canada. A highlight for Editors BC this year was learning that Dania Sheldon, a member of Editors BC, was the award’s recipient. Dania won this award for her editorial work on Charles Gretton: Clock and Watchmaking Through the Golden Age by Dennis Radage, Warner Meinen, and Laila Radage.

Maggie Clark, West Coast Editor’s new managing editor, asked Dania about her experiences with editing and publishing.

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Meet Our Volunteers!

By Amy Haagsma and Maggie Clark

Behind Editors BC’s programming is a team of amazing volunteers who make it all happen. Our volunteers put on our branch meetings and professional development seminars and support our participation in blue pencil sessions and events like Word Vancouver. We would like to express a heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributes to our branch and tell you a little about the people behind the scenes.

Unsurprisingly, most of our volunteers love to read, with 80% preferring fiction and 20% choosing non-fiction. Collectively, our favourite genres are literary fiction, science fiction, and fantasy, with an honourable mention for mystery/thriller. We may be a little too fond of the semicolon, with 37% of us choosing this pleasing symbol as our favourite punctuation mark. As Emma Caplan says, “I often use the semicolon; it is quite useful.” We have similar feelings about proofreading marks, with 33% of us choosing the delete symbol as our number one. Also mentioned were the caret and the transpose symbol, with the latter noted for the enjoyment of “drawing that fun little curve.” Chocolate ranked high among our guilty pleasures, and most of us are quite content with where we live, choosing a location in BC as our favourite place in Canada.

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Volunteer Profile: Wendy Barron

Volunteer role: Communications and social media chair

Company name: Wendy Barron Editorial Services

Website: wendybarron.com

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
I’m told I sound like Dawn French when I put on a British accent.

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
Two, both from my dad, both about work: No one leaves a hole when they get out of the water (no one is irreplaceable), and if you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
Pretty much everything. I laugh a lot.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
Stephen King’s 11/22/63, on audiobook. (Audiobooks are the best!)

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your guilty pleasure?
I don’t believe in guilty pleasures; I believe in loving what you love, even if it’s not perfect and other people disagree. Love what you love!

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
The much-maligned, widely misunderstood semicolon.

What is your favourite word? Why?
Vex and all the words it goes into: vexing, vexatious, vexation, vexed. Such a great word that gets so little use these days.

What is the last book you read?
For pleasure? One of the Mrs. Pollifax mystery series (again, love what you love). For work or school? Probably Health Literacy From A to Z, by Helen Osborne.

What are your favourite book genres?
I read most types of fiction intended for adults, as long as the story is good. My tastes depend on my mood. Thrillers like the Jack Reacher series used to be a guilty pleasure, but now I love them unapologetically, same as I love romance. (Love what you love!)

Volunteer Profile: Tiffany Sloan

Volunteer role: Treasurer

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
YouTube videos of cats falling off things.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
The period. Not everything has to end in an exclamation mark!

What is your dream vacation destination?
Riding the Trans-Siberian Railway. A wildlife safari in Tanzania. A penguin-spotting cruise in the Antarctic Peninsula. So many to choose from!

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
Burn it! No spoilers, please—I’d like all the plots twists to be a surprise.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
Any patio in Vancouver with a view of the sun setting over the water.

What is your favourite book genre?
Historical fiction.

Volunteer Profile: Roma Ilnyckyj

Volunteer role: Past chair and event volunteer

Company name: Talk Science to Me

Website: talksciencetome.com

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Playing Candy Crush.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Transpose: I love drawing that fun little curve.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
Semicolon.

What is your dream vacation destination?
Take my baby to track his roots through Ukraine and the Philippines.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
Put it on a shelf without reading it.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
Jasper National Park.

What is the last book you read?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, by David Shafer.

What is your favourite book genre?
Detective fiction.

Which band or singer provided the soundtrack to your teen years?
AFI.

Volunteer Profile: Rebecca Coates

Volunteer role: West Coast Editor copy editor

Blog: grammarlandia.com

What is the best book you read in the last year?
Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Slug days, when I just read all day or waste time online and do nothing productive or of redeeming social value whatsoever.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Where would we be without the caret?

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
The em dash. We’re in a codependent relationship.

What is your dream vacation destination?
Somewhere cold! I don’t do tropical.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
Burn it to avoid spoilers.

What is the last book you read?
The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison.

What are your favourite book genres?
I like fantasy and science fiction, but I also enjoy a good mystery.

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
Janeane Garofalo.

Volunteer Profile: Nancy Tinari

Volunteer role: West Coast Editor contributor and copy editor

Company name: Nancy Tinari Edits

Website: nancytinariedits.com

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
Fictional—Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
To be humble in all ways.

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
Word jokes and clever and funny fiction.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
Hope Makes Love, by Trevor Cole.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Chocolate. Except I don’t feel guilty.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Dele.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
Ellipsis.

What is your dream vacation destination?
Vienna.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
I would be afraid to read it. I don’t want to know the rest of my life ahead of time.

What is your favourite word? Why?
Serene. Because it is.

Who are your favourite poets?
Sharon Olds, William Blake.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
Vancouver.

What is the last book you read?
4321, by Paul Auster.

What are your favourite book genres?
Literary fiction, biography, memoir.

Which band or singer provided the soundtrack to your teen years?
Led Zeppelin.

Volunteer Profile: Meagan Kus

Volunteer role: West Coast Editor copy editor

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
Kate Winslet.

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
Do not spit over the Cliffs of Moher (it blows back up).

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
Ricky Gervais.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History’s Great Personalities, by Claudia Kalb.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Non-fiction.

What are your guilty pleasures?
Netflix and cake.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
Begin new paragraph.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
Semicolon.

What is your dream vacation destination?
Spain.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
Read it once and cringe.

What is your favourite word? Why?
Sagacious. It sounds beautiful and slightly mysterious.

Who is your favourite poet?
Shel Silverstein.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
Vancouver.

What is the last book you read?
The Dinner, by Herman Koch.

What are your favourite book genres?
Satire and history.

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
Frances McDormand.

Which band or singer provided the soundtrack to your teen years?
U2.

Volunteer Profile: Marianne Grier

Volunteer role: Branch chair and event volunteer

Company name: Marianne Grier Editing

Website: mariannegrier.com

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
I’ve been told I look like Kylie Minogue (I don’t see it!).

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
I love those awful “10 worst spelling mistakes” lists that pop up in my Facebook feed.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
I like stet. If only we could stet things in real life!

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
The question mark.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
I’d throw it in the ocean.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
A cottage by the water in Nova Scotia.

What is the last book you read?
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, by Jenny Lawson

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
Michelle Williams.

 

Volunteer Profile: Maggie Clark

Volunteer role: Publications chair, managing editor of West Coast Editor, and event volunteer

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
I have actually been told at least once that I resemble Emma Watson! But I’ve mostly been mistaken for the character Anne from Anne of Green Gables.

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
I think the most important lesson I ever learned is that educating yourself is important, whether you experience it from school, books, or life lessons.

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
It’s easy to make me laugh! Friends, family, strangers, comedy movies, television shows, video games, and so on can all make me laugh at times.

What is the best book you read in the last year?
For editing purposes, the best book I read in the last year was Practical Grammar: A Canadian Writer’s Resource, by Maxine Ruvinsky. For leisure purposes, the best book I (re)read in the last year was any one of the Harry Potter books.

What is your favourite reading: fiction, non-fiction, or poetry?
Fiction.

What is your guilty pleasure?
My guilty pleasure is going to the bookstore to buy more books when I already have so many other books that I need to read!

What is your favourite proofreading mark?
My favourite proofreading mark has to be the caret! I love when I can find just the right word or symbol to insert in a sentence that clarifies meaning to readers.

What is your favourite punctuation mark?
My favourite punctuation mark is the Oxford comma! I like how it allows writers to avoid confusion in lists.

What is your dream vacation destination?
I think my dream vacation destination is split between revisiting Venice and exploring Japan for the first time.

If you were presented with a book that told the story of your entire life from start to finish, what would you do with it?
Like the character Dustfinger in the book Inkheart, I would try to avoid knowing how my story ended, but I would still be tempted to know about it.

What is your favourite word? Why?
My favourite word is grace, mostly because it’s the name of my feline friend, but also because I love how it sounds graceful.

Who are your favourite poets?
It’s been a while since I read a lot of poetry. But I would say that my favourite poets probably are Edgar Allan Poe, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

What is your favourite place in Canada?
My favourite place in Canada is Victoria, British Columbia.

What is the last book you read?
The last book I read was the fourth volume from the graphic novel series Ms. Marvel.

What are your favourite book genres?
Admittedly, I really enjoy the fantasy genre, but I’ve been broadening my horizons by reading from a variety of genres, such as science fiction and historical fiction.

Which actor would play you in a biopic of your life?
I think (and would love it if) Emma Watson would play me in a biopic of my life. She and I share similar ideas about trying to help society, so I think she would play me more accurately than other actors.

Which band or singer provided the soundtrack to your teen years?
I have listened to many bands in my teen years, but if I had to pick one to be the soundtrack for those years, I would pick the band My Chemical Romance.