WordWorks
Writing Coach • Developmental Editing • Manuscript Assessment
Endorsements
Shoshana’s work is tremendously powerful without ever being overpowering. She clarifies your own vision, untangles your own language. Her support in my work has been essential. To whatever degree I can now write, it is because she has shown me.”
—Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness and Faith:Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience
During my twenty-plus year career in print and broadcast media, Shoshana Alexander is the best editor I have ever worked with. She has provided a visionary focus for my projects and has added original and sometimes brilliant insights to the subject matter. I can't imagine having written my books without her—and I wish she were available to help me edit this testimonial!”
—Wes Nisker, author of Crazy Wisdom and Buddha’s Nature: A Practical Guide to Enlightenment through Evolution
Thank you so much for your astute, generous, detailed analysis. It has been a tremendous pleasure for me to have someone of your intelligence and spiritual aspiration devote such lavish attention to my writing. You embody that blend of incisiveness and kindness that I hold high on my list of noble values.”
—Rob Brezsny, author of Pronoia and The Televisionary Oracle
Shoshana challenges and confronts both the material and its authors with a keen and discerning eye that has compassion for the complexity of the process. She's a wonderful companion and guide through the trials and triumphs of becoming an author. We love and cherish her.”
—Jett Psaris and Marlena Lyons, authors of The Heart of Intimacy: How to Create an Emotionally Intimate Relationship
With her clarity of vision and brilliant sense of structure, Shoshana Alexander is an editor who allows a writer to find his or her own most authentic voice.”
—Barbara Gates, author of Already Home: A Topography of Spirit and Place
Shoshana’s ability to grasp the depth of a narrative, its thrust and the direction it needs to go is a gift. At a critical point in my most recent book when I had difficult choices to make, she was there with incisive, detailed editorial feedback. Shoshana works hard and fast, sensitively and responsively, with a sure intellectual grasp of the larger story.”
—China Galland, author of Longing for Darkness and The Bond Between Women: A Journey to Fierce Compassion
Your comments are intuitive, incisive, and surfacing from a great depth. I appreciate it more than I can tell you. I trust you and your responses.”
—Fredric Matteson, creator of Contextual-Conceptual Therapy
Shoshana worked magic on my manuscript, and I am so appreciative of her professionalism and creativity. She did a terrific job of editing and made very useful suggestions. She got into my brain with ease, and I love what she did.”
—Rabbi David Zaslow
Author Support Groups
WordWorks Resume
Shoshana (Tembeck) Alexander
Selected non-fiction and fiction books I have worked on as
developmental editor and/or writing coach (in chronological order).
page 1
The New Games Book
Ed., Andrew Fluegelman
Doubleday & Co., 1976
[Co-author of the text]
Mime: A Playbook of Silent Fantasy
Kay Hamblin
Doubleday & Co., 1978
[Coached author in structuring and writing; edited final text]
Across America on the Yellow Brick Road
Virginia Mudd Madden
Crow Canyon Press, 1978
[Facilitated author in manuscript development; edited, designed and produced mechanicals for this self-published book]
To Hear the Angels Sing
Dorothy Maclean
Lorian Press, 1980
[Facilitated author in creating manuscript]
The Vipassana Journal
Souvenir Edition, 1983
Hyderabad, India
[Worked with S.N. Goenka to edit and finalize compilation of his discourses; supervised final production in India]
Spiritual Emergency: Crisis of Spiritual Emergence
Emma Bragdon
Harper & Row, 1989
[Developmental and copy editor]
To Honor the Earth
Dorothy Maclean and Kathleen Thormod Carr
Harper & Row, 1990
[Edited text]
Crazy Wisdom
Wes Nisker
Ten Speed, 1990
[Developmental Editor]
In the Footsteps of Gandhi: Conversations with Spiritual Social Activists
Catherine Ingram
Parallax Press, 1990
[Edited text]
Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space
Leonard Shlain
William Morrow, 1991
[Developmental editor]
Belonging to the Universe
Fritjof Capra and Brother David Steindl-Rast
Harper San Francisco, 1991
[Editing of initial transcriptions into text]
If You Don't Like the News. . .Go Out and Make Some of Your Own
Wes Nisker
Ten Speed Press, 1994
[Developmental Editor]
LovingKindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness
Sharon Salzberg
Shambhala, 1995
[Developmental and copy editor]
Polarioid Transfers
Kathleen Thormod Carr
Amphoto Books, 1997
[Developmental and copy editor]
Buddha's Nature: A Practical Guide to Enlightenment through Evolution
Wes Nisker
Bantam, 1998
[Developmental editor]
The Clock of Vipassana Has Struck
Pierluigi Confalonieri
Vipassana Research Publications of America, 1998
[Translate/edit Italian version into English]
The Bond Between Women: A Journey to Fierce Compassion
China Galland
Riverhead, 1998
[Consultation/assessment of pre-publication manuscript]
Working Without Pain
Bruce Oliver and Sherry Berjeron-Oliver
Pacific Institute for Alexander Technique, 1997 (self-published)
[Developmental editor and copy editor]
A Heart as Wide as the World: Living with Mindfulness, Wisdom and Compassion
Sharon Salzberg
Shambhala, 1997
[Developmental editor and writing coach]
Undefended Love
Jett Psaris and Marlena Lyons
New Harbinger, 2000
[Developmental editor and writing coach]
Sorrow Mountain: The Journey of a Tibetan Warrior Nun
Ani Pachen & Adelaide Donnelley
Kodansha International, 2000
[Developmental editor]
The Loving Dictionary: A Compendium of Positive Synonyms to Change Your Life
Marian York
Self-published, 2001
[Developmental editor]
Behavioral Anthropology: Toward an Integrated Science of Human Behavior
Theodore D. Graves
Marion Street Publishing Co., 2002
[Developmental editor]
Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience
Sharon Salzberg
Riverhead, 2002
[Developmental editor and writing coach]
page 2
Already Home: A Topography of Spirit and Place
Barbara Gates
Shambhala, 2003
[Assessment, feedback, proposal preparation]
Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha
Tara Brach
Bantam, 2003
Winner of Books for Better Living Award
[Developmental Editor and writing coach]
Enlightenment for Idiots
Anne Cushman
Random House, 2008
Named as Booklist’s Top Ten First Novels in 2008
[Developmental editor]
Unfinished Conversation: Healing from Suicide and Loss
Robert Lasoine and Marilynne Chophel
Parallax Press 2009
[Developmental and text editor]
Saved by a Poem
Kim Rosen
Hay House, 2009
[Development of concept and proposal preparation]
Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge of History
Canyon Sam
University of Washington Press, 2009
Winner 2010 PEN American Center Open Book Award
[Developmental editor during inception]
Boxes: Lifting the Lid on an American Life
Donnan Beeson Runkel
XLibris, 2010
[Developmental editor]
Carry on the Flame: Destiny’s Call, Ultimate Magic
Jodine Turner
Two volume series, Young Adult fiction
TAG publishing, 2011
[Developmental editor]
Laughing with Leukemia: A Journey of a Lifetime
Sypko Andreae
Self-published through Finally Publishing, 2012
[Developed, edited, and designed]
Bouncing Back
Linda Graham, PhD
New World Library, 2013
[Developmental and text editor]
Resonance: A Photographic and Poetic Reach for Meaning
Paul Hwoschinsky
Self-Published, 2013
[Developmental and text editor]
Bicycling Home: My Journey to Find God
Virginia Mudd
Sunstone Press, 2014
[Developmental and text editor]
Reimagining Exodus: Interfaith Reflections on the Most
Influential Liberation Story Ever Told
Rabbi David Zaslow
Paraclete Press, 2015
[Text editor]
Coming into Your Own: A Woman’s Guide through Life Transitions
Barbara Cecil
White Cloud Press, 2015
[Developmental Editor]
The Winter Loon
Lori Henricks
Cougar Creek Press, 2016
[Developmental coach]
Embodied Presence, A Spiritual Memoir
Terry Ray
Self-published, 2017
[Developmental and text editor]
Scone by Scone: Tales from an Innkeeper’s Life
Deedie Runkel
Bookbaby, 2018
[Developmental editor]
The Soul of Nations: Healing and Evolution
Wolfgang Aurose
Lulu.com, 2021
[Editor of English edition]
Trusting the Gold: Uncovering Your Natural Goodness
Tara Brach
Sounds True, 2021
[Text editor]
As a Matter of Heart: A Nuclear Engineering Professor’s Life-Changing Journey from Safety to Self
William E. Kastenberg
Seena River Press, 2022
[Developmental and text editor]
Paradoxical Possibility: How Anti-racism Transforms People and Institutions
Susan Sturm
Princeton University Press, 2024
[Developmental and text editor]
Turning Back to Ourselves: A Women’s Guide to Healing Self-Abandonment and Loving Who We Are
Dalya Tamir
Manuscript complete, awaiting publication
[Developmental and text editor]
The Freedom of True Success
Maureen Fallon-Cyr
Dart Frog Publishing, 2023
[Developmental and text editor]
Thriving in Uncertainty: An Embodied Response to the Challenges and Opportunities of Our Lives