My testimonials

This is a testimonial I received earlier this year:

JANIE PENDLETON, novelist: Tom is a writer's best friend. He is doing a fabulous job 'Copy Editing' and 'Vetting' my sequel to "The Gates to Love and War" called "The Heart of Vengeance".

Easy to work with and honest, Tom polishes my skills to shine above my other competitors work. The writing business is slim and none when it comes to hitting the big-time....Only 10% of three-hundred thousand manuscripts got published this year (2008). Of that lucky 10%...only 3% of the authors gained a noticable profit!....So, with that knowledge, you now know you MUST go in the ring with top skills behind you... Tom is that "manager" so to speak. The one who can guide your thoughts and give ideas to boost your manuscripts vision leaving you standing in the winner's circle!

Janie Pendleton, Novelist,
"The Gates to Love and War"
Voted: 1st place Modern War/Romance Novel 2008; 2nd place for "Best Ever Contemporary Romance 2008", 3rd place for "Best Twist" for 2008, 3rd place for "Best Romantic Suspense" 2008.

CONTACT: Email me at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com. Also, my Twitter handle is EDITORatWORK.

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Good Samaritan

• The PRESS cap and my friend Mike

• Watching TV

• No luck with Billy Sims

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!

EDITOR@WORK blog entries

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

Entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2015)

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• OOH! OOH! The stereophonic huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

What do Michael Jackson and my dog have in common?

I know that's a provocative headline, and I wrote it intentionally. But there's a reason.

A few years ago, I was watching my dog Lady do her pee dance. It's part of a dog's marking territory ritual, and Lady is a stylist. Most dogs do a few weak scratches; she's exceptional.

Sometimes Lady will do what I call her levitation pee dance. It's so violent that she actually has all four paws off the ground at a time, and you don't want to be "downwind" of her. You'll be in the line of fire from rocks, gravel, dirt and grass.

Recently, we were at the dog park, and she was about to perform a pee dance. This little terrier was behind her, I guess to sniff her butt, and she did one of her powerful pee dances in which two legs work at a time and she "backs up." The little dog took grass and dirt in the face as Lady moonwalked.

It brought laughs from the terrier's owners, and Lady strutted away proudly. The terrier followed her, and, for a moment, I thought of Michael Jackson.