April Michelle Davis

April Michelle Davis wrote her book A Princess in Disguise because of her fascination with princesses. She wrote this fiction book using descriptions of many 1700 and 1800 places and things.

In August 2017, Geri Walton asked April Michelle to guest blog on the boats of this era because Prince Margaret and Huntley, the main female and male characters of A Princess in Disguise, sailed on a boat during many of their adventures and Prince Margaret’s father, the king, owned a fleet of ships.

The boats built in the 1700s and 1800s traveled slower because they depended on the wind to move them, and their lifespans were shorter than those of today partly because of bug infestation, which helped to weaken the wood of the hauls. The wheel to steer the boat was an important component because it determined the direction the boat would move, which also meant it would require crewmen to man it at all times, day and night, to keep the boat on course.

The variety of the food on the boats was limited, and some items were in short supply because of lack of funds or food contamination, yet what was available was still consumed by the crewmen and livestock so oftentimes the crewmen became ill and required medical treatment. Yet, medical treatment onboard the boats was simple and ports could be miles in the distance. The lifestyle of the crewmen on the boats was not very desirable, and the wages they earned were minimal compared to the hard labor that was performed to earn them.

April Michelle Davis’s young adult book A Princess in Disguise was reviewed by Kathleen Lance of One Stop Fiction. And this review led to A Princess in Disguisereceiving an award: The One Stop Fiction Book Award!

Lance’s interpretations were very similar to April Michelle’s, just expressed in different words, such as how Lance described the relationship between Princess Margaret and the emotion love.

Lance wrote, “Readers will appreciate [Margaret’s] courage in abandoning an arranged marriage to seek love. At first this is the love of her mother who disappeared when Margaret was just a baby. But, as Margaret comes to discover, love can include love for one’s country and people, love for a man, and love for the woman who, though not her mother, was always there for her. This important lesson if given through Margaret’s adventures on Huntley’s ship and through her increasing awareness of the world around her. Ms. Davis has given readers a lesson without actually teaching.”

Lance truly understands April Michelle’s special messages that are intertwined in the pages of her book A Princess in Disguise. Missing transition sentence Through growth and maturity, Margaret experiences the many facets of love and comes to rely on this as an inner strength to make her final destiny decision that will drive her forward.

April Michelle Davis was selected as the local author from the northern Virginia area to have a portion of her young adult book A Princess in Disguise read to an audience of elementary school age children and their parents. The event, Reading ROCKS the Red Carpet, hosted by the faculty of Marshall Elementary School, was held at the Barnes & Noble in Manassas, Virginia, on September 15, 2017.

Local celebrities were invited to read stories to the children, and April Michelle was the featured local author. April Michelle grew up in Fairfax County, attending school, elementary through college, before April Michelle married her prince and moved to the Richmond area.

In April Michelle‘s book A Princess in Disguise, the main female character, Princess Margaret, journeyed throughout her father’s and uncle’s lands, living among their people, only to rediscover that to be true to herself she must be true to the people she would someday rule over.

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April Michelle Davis and A Princess in Disguise were highlighted for NEA’s Read Across America in The Bridge, Messiah College Alumni Magazine. “April Michelle is a ’01 English graduate who relies on the education she received at Messiah College in her profession as an author when writing her recently published young adult book A Princess in Disguise.”

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April Michelle Davis taught her course Macros 101 through the Pen Institute March 6 through March 27, 2017. Have you ever made a list of the repetitive tasks that you do on a recurring basis? Your list may consist of a few items to several items based on the project. April Michelle’s course Macros 101 teaches you how to put these lists into a macro where with one touch of a button all the tasks are done, and you can spend your time focused on writing and not formatting.

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April Michelle Davis spoke on the topic of Working with an Editor: The Editorial Process at the Agile Writer Conference on January 28. April Michelle , a professional freelance editor, shared from personal experiences as well as voicing what other editors and authors have told her about what can be done to stimulate the editor/author relationship and make it smooth and efficient while enhancing the end product. April Michelle has a wealth of knowledge and tips from her fifteen years as an editor that she considers as a privilege to pay forward and  in hopes to generate this same attitude in the industry.

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April Michelle Davis taught her course Indexing 101 through EFA on March 23 – May 12. April Michelle is a professional indexer who pays it forward by putting her learned skills into words that she shares with other indexers and those interested in the skill. April Michelle breaks it down in to 7 lessons, and during the final session, the participants actually create an index of the course text, which already has an index written, allowing students to compare their index after it has been written. The added value of this is that the participants’ indexes are critiqued by April Michelle, the professional indexer.

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Learn from an expert in the industry, April Michelle Davis, the best practices of putting macros to work for you. April Michelle will work with you to design macros specifically to your specifications. April Michelle taught Macros 101 through the Editorial Freelancers Association October 5 to November 30. In this course, April Michelle and the participants created macros in several ways to fit each participant’s needs and skill level.

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April Michelle Davis has written and published the technical booklet Choosing an Editor: What You Need to Know. In this booklet, April Michelle shares even the smallest and most commonly misunderstood yet important facets to selecting the editor who will jell personality wise with the author and has the skill set to polish a manuscript to levels only imagined. For your convenience, this booklet is available in paperback and ebook formats.

The description of my book reads: Good editing should be invisible. Editing helps authors convey what they intend to and helps authors look more credible by eliminating errors that would produce doubts in the minds of the readers. Although editors and authors work together toward the same goal—a perfect manuscript—the relationship between them is sometimes adversarial. Writers are working for themselves and will create what they consider to be perfect manuscripts. Editors are working for publishers and readers—even if paid by the author—to produce error-free manuscripts that are clear in terms of grammar, spelling, and flow.

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April Michelle Davis is preparing to publish her first chapter book, A Princess in Disguise. April Michelle began writing this book almost 20 years ago in the height of her fascination with princesses. A Princess in Disguise was her first literary love, and now April Michelle desires to share the book with the world. You can be instrumental in making this happen by your generous donation. Beginning September 14, and lasting for 45 days, April Michelle and Iguana Books (her publisher) are running a crowdfunding campaign to help cover the book publishing costs. All supporters will be rewarded for their generosity with either a thank you note, a signed print of the book’s cover art, a digital copy of the finished book, or a print copy of the limited-edition version of the finished book.

Like many young girls, April Michelle wanted to be a princess when she was growing up. A Princess in Disguise is a coming-of-age story about a princess on a mental journey, which she decides to turn into a physical odyssey as well. The princess is searching for who she is, who she wants to become, and in the absence of her mother, she is being forced to marry a stranger whom her father has chosen.

As a teenager April Michelle noticed while watching TV shows and movies that the princesses often had no mothers present. April Michelle wrote this book to show the struggles that princesses can face and to answer the question of where the mothers are.

April Michelle Davis is a freelance editor, indexer, and proofreader. She is the chapter coordinator for the Virginia chapter of the Editorial Freelancers Association. She is also the Social Media Marketing Expert for the National Association for Independent Writers and Editors and a lifetime member of the American Copy Editors Society. In addition, she teaches courses through Editorial Inspirations, associations, and colleges on topics such as editing, indexing, grammar, writing, and macros.

April Michelle Davis has lived in Richmond, Virginia, since 2007 and is originally from Northern Virginia.