VOLUME 8 |ISSUE 3 |2017 1719
Profile On...
Edited by Mary O’Connell
Sharon Hamm, writing consultant for ICSA Today and other ICSA
projects, is talking about her paternal grandmother’s influence on
her: “…her tiny frame but big heart and simple, unpretentious, quiet
but strong presence, who she was and how she lived, had a
significant impact.” She continues,
I remember making a conscious decision as an adolescent
to practice thinking clearly and logically after I observed
her giving driving directions to someone only after she
looked up at the night sky to determine her own relative
position to the stars overhead. While this seemed like
magic to me at the time, I also recognized that it worked.
This kind of navigation, aligning herself with what is deeply true, is
what Sharon does daily.
When you think of a modern heroine, editor may not be what leaps
to mind. But when you think of all the trouble and suffering brought
about in recent months through the careless, irresponsible use of
language (often disseminated via 140 characters), you might think
again.
The work of an editor is painstaking, occasionally grueling, and
undertaken in what sometimes must seem solitary confinement.
The work of a freelance editor can be especially difficult, trying to
juggle the schedules of different clients, making yourself available
when they are available, handling personalities… It is not for the
faint of heart. To be good at it you need to have the qualities of
that quintessential athlete: the ballet dancer. You need to combine
grit with precise and delicate movement. In her work, Sharon is a
ballerina. Or, as Ann Stamler, Associate Editor of ICSA Today, puts it,
“Sharon is a force of nature, as they say, behind the scenes.” Her work
is informed by an almost old-fashioned ethos to simply do a good
job. “Benchmarks in my work and life have always included honesty,
integrity, and quality results.”
Sharon brings a wealth of experience and knowledge gleaned from
her early careers in business, secondary education, editorial training
in a computer publishing company, 20 years as a freelance editor and
consultant, and her amazingly diverse interests. The books “on her
nightstand” tell the story of someone whose imagination stretches
in every direction: “Typically, two or three in process. A novel of some
kind something biographical, philosophical, or motivational and
maybe some other genre or topic that has caught my attention.” Of
the “countless titles read over my lifetime,” some areas of interest are
neuroscience and new understandings in medicine and psychology
physics fiction and poetry creative arts and design…
Her college education began with an associate’s degree in business
and continued with a bachelor’s degree in education (with majors
in English and math, and a minor in psychology), followed by
postgraduate work in special education, vocational education, and
philosophy. She also holds certification as a body-mind massage
therapist.
Her introduction to ICSA came
during a very difficult personal period in my life, when a
close family member, barely a young adult, met and became
suddenly and deeply involved with a young man who had
some kind of “undue influence” and power over her.
The research Sharon did in an attempt to understand what was
happening in this relationship led her to the American Family
Foundation (ICSA’s previous name) and to an “initial connection
by phone with Marcia Rudin.” After that, she attended an annual
conference in Denver where she met other people in the organization,
including Michael Langone, Paul Martin, and Nancy Miquelon. She
offered her services to the organization and soon was given the
opportunity to share her editing-related skills on various projects.
Living near the central part of Fort Collins in Colorado, “which has a
current population of about 168 thousand people,” allows Sharon to
be close to nature and the wildlife she loves. In recent days, she has
had a visitor:
Quite unexpectedly within the past few weeks, a young doe
has trotted across my front yard, strolled around the large
greenbelt area behind my residence, and just yesterday
morning appeared and alternated between lying down
and walking around right behind the fence that borders my
backyard. These rare and unexpected sightings have been
beautiful.
There’s a line from an old movie, The January Man: “In order to be
brilliant you have to be in touch with the universe.” Good editors
are passionate about language, know its power, love its beauty. An
almost-stubborn adherence to accuracy can be liberating and even
healing, as I discover early on when working with Sharon for this
profile. I ask her a question (the artfulness of which I am so proud!)
about a “beautiful mistake” she might have made in her life, and her
response begins with a thoughtful, and yes, precise, correction about
the definition of the word mistake:
This may be simply a matter of semantics, but I think it’s
important to distinguish between a mistake as something
one does by accident, as a result of lack of attention, clear
intention, or conscious choice, for example. Otherwise, I
prefer to talk about decisions I may have made from which
I have learned the most because when I made those
decisions I simply did not have access to the necessary
information, support, experience, or perspective—whatever
was missing—to be able to make a wiser decision.
This clarification, in one fell swoop, liberates me from long-held self-
blaming about something that happened in the past which, I realize
now, I could not have controlled because I didn’t have the “necessary
information.”
Sharon begins her morning, her favorite part of the day, centering
herself. These days, that may be by enjoying the “rare and unexpected”
sighting of a young doe, through which she can orient herself and
establish true north before she embarks on her daily tasks.
Sharon Hamm can be reached at sl.articulate@gmail.com
Sharon Hamm
Profile On...
Edited by Mary O’Connell
Sharon Hamm, writing consultant for ICSA Today and other ICSA
projects, is talking about her paternal grandmother’s influence on
her: “…her tiny frame but big heart and simple, unpretentious, quiet
but strong presence, who she was and how she lived, had a
significant impact.” She continues,
I remember making a conscious decision as an adolescent
to practice thinking clearly and logically after I observed
her giving driving directions to someone only after she
looked up at the night sky to determine her own relative
position to the stars overhead. While this seemed like
magic to me at the time, I also recognized that it worked.
This kind of navigation, aligning herself with what is deeply true, is
what Sharon does daily.
When you think of a modern heroine, editor may not be what leaps
to mind. But when you think of all the trouble and suffering brought
about in recent months through the careless, irresponsible use of
language (often disseminated via 140 characters), you might think
again.
The work of an editor is painstaking, occasionally grueling, and
undertaken in what sometimes must seem solitary confinement.
The work of a freelance editor can be especially difficult, trying to
juggle the schedules of different clients, making yourself available
when they are available, handling personalities… It is not for the
faint of heart. To be good at it you need to have the qualities of
that quintessential athlete: the ballet dancer. You need to combine
grit with precise and delicate movement. In her work, Sharon is a
ballerina. Or, as Ann Stamler, Associate Editor of ICSA Today, puts it,
“Sharon is a force of nature, as they say, behind the scenes.” Her work
is informed by an almost old-fashioned ethos to simply do a good
job. “Benchmarks in my work and life have always included honesty,
integrity, and quality results.”
Sharon brings a wealth of experience and knowledge gleaned from
her early careers in business, secondary education, editorial training
in a computer publishing company, 20 years as a freelance editor and
consultant, and her amazingly diverse interests. The books “on her
nightstand” tell the story of someone whose imagination stretches
in every direction: “Typically, two or three in process. A novel of some
kind something biographical, philosophical, or motivational and
maybe some other genre or topic that has caught my attention.” Of
the “countless titles read over my lifetime,” some areas of interest are
neuroscience and new understandings in medicine and psychology
physics fiction and poetry creative arts and design…
Her college education began with an associate’s degree in business
and continued with a bachelor’s degree in education (with majors
in English and math, and a minor in psychology), followed by
postgraduate work in special education, vocational education, and
philosophy. She also holds certification as a body-mind massage
therapist.
Her introduction to ICSA came
during a very difficult personal period in my life, when a
close family member, barely a young adult, met and became
suddenly and deeply involved with a young man who had
some kind of “undue influence” and power over her.
The research Sharon did in an attempt to understand what was
happening in this relationship led her to the American Family
Foundation (ICSA’s previous name) and to an “initial connection
by phone with Marcia Rudin.” After that, she attended an annual
conference in Denver where she met other people in the organization,
including Michael Langone, Paul Martin, and Nancy Miquelon. She
offered her services to the organization and soon was given the
opportunity to share her editing-related skills on various projects.
Living near the central part of Fort Collins in Colorado, “which has a
current population of about 168 thousand people,” allows Sharon to
be close to nature and the wildlife she loves. In recent days, she has
had a visitor:
Quite unexpectedly within the past few weeks, a young doe
has trotted across my front yard, strolled around the large
greenbelt area behind my residence, and just yesterday
morning appeared and alternated between lying down
and walking around right behind the fence that borders my
backyard. These rare and unexpected sightings have been
beautiful.
There’s a line from an old movie, The January Man: “In order to be
brilliant you have to be in touch with the universe.” Good editors
are passionate about language, know its power, love its beauty. An
almost-stubborn adherence to accuracy can be liberating and even
healing, as I discover early on when working with Sharon for this
profile. I ask her a question (the artfulness of which I am so proud!)
about a “beautiful mistake” she might have made in her life, and her
response begins with a thoughtful, and yes, precise, correction about
the definition of the word mistake:
This may be simply a matter of semantics, but I think it’s
important to distinguish between a mistake as something
one does by accident, as a result of lack of attention, clear
intention, or conscious choice, for example. Otherwise, I
prefer to talk about decisions I may have made from which
I have learned the most because when I made those
decisions I simply did not have access to the necessary
information, support, experience, or perspective—whatever
was missing—to be able to make a wiser decision.
This clarification, in one fell swoop, liberates me from long-held self-
blaming about something that happened in the past which, I realize
now, I could not have controlled because I didn’t have the “necessary
information.”
Sharon begins her morning, her favorite part of the day, centering
herself. These days, that may be by enjoying the “rare and unexpected”
sighting of a young doe, through which she can orient herself and
establish true north before she embarks on her daily tasks.
Sharon Hamm can be reached at sl.articulate@gmail.com
Sharon Hamm
