Meet the Harshman Services Team

All of the Harshman Services team members are Christians—most of us Eastern Orthodox Christians—though that’s not a requirement for being an independent contractor for this company.  Most of us live with disabilities and have homeschooled our children. Not every team member is on this page, but here is a representative sample.

Age three was a big year for Jennifer Harshman. That year, she taught herself to read and write and hasn’t stopped since. She’s read more than 18,500 books, and because she reads more than 10 million words a year, adds to that figure daily. Jennifer bore the label “twice exceptional” along with severe abuse but brought good out of it all. Combining these and other factors gives her a unique ability to be the bridge between writers and readers. She coaches and consults with subject-matter experts, communicators and other leaders, entrepreneurs, authors, and publishers so they can get helpful writing out into the world where it can do more good.

Jennifer began editing professionally in 1992, has edited more than 30 million words, and now serves as a writing and publishing expert for publishers and independent authors alike. Jennifer’s email address is Jennifer at HarshmanServices.com

 

Child author Joel Michael Harshman began reading at age four. He moved to reading Shakespeare and playing chess at age seven, and wrote his first book when he was nine years old. Homeschooling gives him opportunities other children don’t have, partly because he has a writing and publishing expert for a mother/teacher. Joel Michael doesn’t let being on the autism spectrum keep him from being successful. Interested in IT and the writing/publishing field, he will eventually take over leadership of the family business. He can be contacted at Joel at HarshmanServices.com

 

 

Editors on the Harshman Services Team

Etta Holmes is a regional operations director for an education company based out of Boston, Massachusetts, and she has been writing for over 30 years. She received her BA in English from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, where she taught Freshman Composition as a TA during a brief stint in graduate school. Etta has written articles for a college newspaper, short stories, and poems, and she has edited educational activities and executive reports. Etta has also written and edited executive summaries, business forms, training presentations, business procedures, and business practices.

In her leisure time, Etta enjoys several hobbies. She is an amateur painter whose favorite medium is acrylics. She also recently discovered gardening and is enjoying her produce in Charleston, South Carolina, where she currently resides. She can be contacted at Etta at HarshmanServices.com

 

 

 

 

Books and words have been an integral part of Kristina Roth’s life since childhood. She is honored to have joined the Harshman Services team as a general editor. She considers it a privilege to come alongside fellow authors in their literary journeys. Her essays, poems, photographs, and artwork have appeared in a number of books and magazines.

Kristina holds a bachelor’s and master’s in English and has been involved with professional writing and editing since her first post-college job at a textbook-publishing company.  Kristina recently returned to the Black Hills of South Dakota after many years in California and Texas. Her favorite job to date is mothering her funny, creative young son.

 

Heather has enjoyed reading since early childhood—a love that led to writing short stories and poetry for the past 35 years. She has a strong sense of flow and order that helps in developmental editing and has performed copy editing on both fiction and nonfiction books. Heather’s love of writing has lent itself well to ghostwriting and she has ghostwritten a short fiction novel for the team recently as well as creating the show notes for a popular podcast. Her experiences traveling the world as part of a military family, as well as her degree in nursing, allow her to get along well with others and communicate well. She relies on her faith to carry her through and enjoys working with spiritual material. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, her many family pets, fiber arts such as knitting and quilting, as well as playing cello in her community orchestra and church.

Interior designers and formatters

Jody Skinner and Alan Harshman are two of our interior designers and formatters, and we have several cover designers on our team as well. We want to be sure you get exactly what you need.

Unique to Harshman Services Team: Test readers

One of the bonuses we offer is what we call “a test read.” Years ago, Jennifer created this role to provide even more to her clients. Test reading is a task for an eagle-eyed reader, the kind of person who says, “Typos just jump off the page at me.” Our test readers read a book after everyone thinks it’s ready, right before it goes to print. The goal is to spot any remaining errors and get the book even closer to perfection.

Tammy Foster is a believer in Christ, a wife, and a home-educating mother of two. She loves to cook but dislikes making dinner and has eclectic tastes in music and reading. She thoroughly enjoys learning new things.

Drawing on multiple aspects from her experience in running a small business for 15 years, her philosophy is “Find out what your clients need and/or want, and provide that. Work with them to discover and resolve any issues or concerns. Help them improve. Great customer care serves your clients and keeps them your clients. Regarding editing, help your author to effectively communicate their message, thoughts, ideas, and dreams to their readers.” You can reach her at Tammy at HarshmanServices.com