The Winding Narrative Turns Three

The Winding Narrative has reached its third anniversary, so it’s time to review progress on my writing journey.

Brightside Story Studio

I launched my book editing business, Brightside Story Studio, and rebranded my website to match. This job gives me the opportunity to use the skills I’ve developed from my own writing, editorial work with NAC and career counseling. I love working with my authors to help them bring their stories to life.

On Jan 31 2021, the first of the authors I’ve worked with was published. Enni Tuomisalo’s Nest or Invest is an enemies to lovers romantic comedy. To celebrate, I’ve started a new page on my website, Clients’ Books, where I’ll share books I’ve had an editorial hand in either through Brightside, NAC or as a key beta reader. Another four books will be added to this list by the end of 2021.

New Authors Collective (NAC)

I continued as Head Editorial at literary agency, NAC, working with authors of fiction and memoir to get their books ready to pitch to publishers. Two of my authors signed publishing deals and their romantic comedies will come out in 2021.

Expat Writers Facebook Group

I started the Expat Writers Facebook group for writers whose work is influenced by living overseas. This group is steadily growing, and we welcome new members whether you write novels, articles or letters home as either an expat or immigrant. Our members come from all corners of the globe. Find out more here.

The Winding Narrative

To allow time for my editing work, I reduced the frequency of my blog to once every two to four weeks, which I plan to continue this year. I still managed 21 posts, around 24,000 words and hit the milestone of 100 blogs. My focus remained on interviews, supplemented by short fiction. Most of my interviews were with people in the book business, particularly writers with expat experience. I will continue this focus this year.

My most viewed new blog was an interview with Michael Cybulski, Literary Agent, New Authors Collective about his job. My most viewed blog of all time is still The Book Publishing Flowchart. The most popular blog this year (based on likes on the blog site) was Cassie Lane on Writing Memoir.

Novel Writing

Last year, I redrafted the second of my four draft novels and it is currently being pitched to publishers. Meanwhile, I’m redrafting the third of my original series as a standalone, ready to pitch later this year.

Please get in touch if you’d like to share your own winding narrative and feature in an interview. I look forward to another fun year of tips and tales.

Next time: an interview with Louise Ross on Documenting the Expatriate and Immigrant Journey.
To see where we were last year: The Winding Narrative Turns Two
To see where we go next year: The Winding Narrative Turns Four