Mission & Me

Since 2016, I have guided traditionally published and self-published authors of diverse content that shares intentional living ideas to directly or indirectly enhance lifestyle choices or worldviews. Before I knew my passion for helping authors elevate their writings, I'd been a lab tech at veterinary facilities, a grad. student and cancer researcher, a public relations rep, a magazine manager, and a health and science writer. A proud Austinite, reading sates my curiosity about people and the world, and practicing a mindfulness-related martial art called Aikido has grounded me for 35 years.

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Where did my interest develop in helping knowledge experts unearth the core message of their content, and learn to meld the essential elements for the layered, linear storytelling of a compelling book?

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My passions initially led to a career as a health and science writer, and I’ve won feature awards in state and national competitions. My previous years of helping university experts present scientific advances in print included covering climate change impacts and research on native plant landscaping. This analytical work often required drafting compelling, succinct recaps of complex information, putting me in good stead for assisting authors. I’ve also managed university magazines and a trade journal.

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In addition to book idea and outline coaching, much of my recent work has focused on early stage developmental and voice/style (line) edits, such as for a hybrid that has won awards for a Mexican-American scholar and Stanford University Press. But I’ve provided manuscript reviews and all levels of editing services for six publishers, including line edits for Sacred Stories Publishing, copy edits for MIT Press, and proofreads for a Penguin Random House imprint and Greenleaf Book Groups.

An interest in the big picture and a fascination with how people process experiences to become who they are developed while growing up in a mostly African-American suburb of St. Louis. This healthy lifestyle interest fostered regular self-development work, including training in a mindfulness-related martial art (Aikido) for decades. I continue seeking to connect more deeply with life and its sacredness. I have attended broadly spiritual churches that promote atheist philosophies like humanism as well as the unifying elements of traditional religions, and have studied and experienced energy healing modalities as part of a progressive Christian perspective.

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I also am fascinated by the way the mind works, animal behavior, mindfulness, meditation, and Japanese culture. And I’ve edited Spanish dialogue and have basic Spanish certification through the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. I reboot through outdoor time, Aikido training, swimming, and writing workshops.​​

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Why work with me? 

I meet writers where their values are while offering the big picture sensibility to help unearth a book's focus early on, plus the eagle eye to help with polishing content. My clear, in-your-corner guidance for service-oriented writers is informed by decades as a strategic communicator of succinct, compelling content about complex topics (see below for experience details).  ​

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Coaching projects have included guiding a women’s fitness expert to clarify essential elements of her self-help book and to develop a proposal, unearthing the genre path and focus of a classroom guide for K-12 teachers, providing feedback on positive psychology and conservation-focused proposals, and helping a journalist of Black women’s cultural challenges begin the querying and agent selection process.

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I look forward to helping writers express their intelligence, passion, and personality on the page while they’re developing values-related or cause-oriented content.

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Barbra A. Rodriguez