MWPA link
FWA link
My name is Meredith A. Rutter (sometimes Meredith Ann Rutter). My entire working life has been devoted to creating books, in part or in whole. I worked from the ground up. Fresh out of Tufts University with a B.S. in zoology, I took a secretarial position in the high-school science department at an educational (textbook) publishing house in Boston, Mass. With its filing and recording tasks, the job was an ideal way to get a hands-on overview of what each level job involved. From the start, I memorized Chicago Press’s A Manual of Style and took to proofreading like a hippie to dope.
That company, Ginn (a Xerox company) is defunct now, but before I left fifteen years after starting, I had worked my way from science into reading and language arts, from editorial into marketing, from high school into elementary and then a spectrum of el-hi products. I even spent two years onsite in Tallahassee, Florida, while Ginn worked with FSU to develop an all-new middle-school science program.
After leaving Ginn, I started a full-service book “packaging” operation (called Publicom, Inc.) that had a successful eighteen-year run, growing to employ over a hundred people in a supportive work environment before cash-flow challenges won out. I also founded a tradebook company (called VanderWyk & Burnham, or V&B; see VandB[dot]com) that I sold, twenty-eight book products later, to another publisher in order to pursue writing as the final endeavor I’ll call a career.
As a writer, I’m working on memoir material and suspense fiction. My first publication is titled The Cleveland Rutters. You can learn more about it elsewhere on this website.
I still have much to learn as a writer, especially when it comes to fiction. I’m working at it, though, and loving it just as much as every other aspect of books I’ve been involved in.
On the personal side, I’ve been married to my first husband, Gary, since 1988, and in the process gained two stepsons. Thanks to their subsequent families I now have five grandchildren “just like that.” Our vacations have often involved scuba diving. Also, we have raised and buried–of old age–two cats, Redford and Newman, and two bearded collies, Thistle (the mom) and Duncan (the son). We’re pet-free for a while but “intending.”
Hi, sister!
You are doing great things.
I can’t wait to read your next piece.
Jon
love your hat but get sunscreen on those knees!
Hi Meredith, I’ll never forget your kindness to me when as a brand new writer, you helped get my book published. The joy of it all stays with me. Much success to you.
Hi Marcia – Thank you for your Comment and the kind memory. I loved your book, “Widow Words,” and am so glad we had a chance to publish it. Stay well. –Meredith
Happiness and good health to you, Meredith. Marcia
Hi Meredith. Saw your note on book blogs and am now a blog subscriber. Looks like good stuff. I’m not seeing your twitter link and would be happy to follow.
My web site is above and my twitter is twitter.com/#!amylpetersonblg. Thanks.
Amy L Peterson
author of From Zero to Four Kids in Thirty Seconds
Hi Amy – Oops! My Twitter name is yoursinbooks. Thanks!
Pingback: Guest Post: Mentors in My Publishing Past - Publishing Trendsetter