“I was always interested in books and had aspirations in that area.”
So says Lorraine Ash, a Ghostwriting graduate, who admits that before she actually got into writing books, she already had a writing career. “More than 20 years ago”, she says, “I was a long-form journalism writer, a narrative writer. So I was used to working with photographers, videographers, and graphics people, all clustered in a team.”
Unlike high-speed daily journalism, Ash’s work involved in-depth insights. “We spent time on a story,” she says.
She was already attending conferences relating to books in the 90s. Then, first a miracle, followed by sadness, transpired. “In 1999, when I was 40, I went to deliver my daughter, my first child, who I anticipated being my only child,” Ash says.
But it wasn’t to be. “She was stillborn. She died of Group B Strep, which was transmitted to me in the C-section,” she says calmly, adding that she was herself touch-and-go for a couple of weeks.
A different birthing process
The key segment of her transformation was writing a memoir, one she called, Life Touches Life: A Mother’s Story of Stillbirth and Healing. “I then started teaching ‘Writing to Heal,’” she says. “I did it across the nation at various grief and perinatal loss conferences.”
Gyrating towards ghostwriting
“So, when someone approached me to ghostwrite a book, I sat down and thought about how I’d go about it. And I thought I’m going to get training in this. I saw a lot of weekend training and online quickie courses, but that’s not what I wanted. I wanted to get serious, intense training. I wanted somebody fabulous to teach me.”
“I found Claudia and heard her give a couple of talks which were excellent, and the main reason that I enrolled in the complete ghostwriting class. “I could tell, from class one, that this woman was exceptional,” Ash says. “In addition to having worked so many years as a journalist, I’m also a published author and playwright. I know a lot of people in the field. And she is in the top 1%,” Ash emphasizes.
The teacher gets an A+
What brings this enthusiasm? Ash describes Claudia’s teaching:
“She has passion. She cares a lot about what’s on the page—that it’s true, that it’s real, that it is presented and structured in the best possible way. She cares about the quality of literature. Ash says.
Since Ash took the ghostwriting class and became a ghostwriting graduate, she has deepened and expanded the services she offers through her company, which includes Analysis and Recommendation reports, manuscript development, Musical Line Edits, ghostwriting, one-on-one coaching, and memoir writing workshops and circles. During the pandemic, she has moved her one-on-one sessions and workshops onto Zoom, expanded her offerings, and signed on new clients eager to work on their books during the quarantine.
Ash puts her experience with Claudia and the class this way:
“Claudia is very devoted to the students. I believe she is, in addition to being a literary genius, a master teacher. Those are two different things. She’s both. And that combination is pure gold.”
You can find out more about Lorraine on her company website, Lorraine Ash Literary Enterprises.