In a world of war, pandemic, floods, fire and earthquake, it’s hard to stay positive. Anything else feels trite, but we have to keep putting one step in front of the other. So as the Winding Narrative reached its fourth anniversary last month, it’s time to review progress.
Brightside Story Studio
My book editing business, Brightside Story Studio, is steadily growing, with two new team members, Sarah and Tong. We love working with authors to help bring their stories to life.
Sarah Hawthorn has come on board to edit specific projects, which has been a wonderful experience for my authors and for me (and I hope for Sarah, too!). Tong (Firmiana) Wu helps with graphic design – book illustrations, cover design and layout – to add another dimension to our work. See our revised About page.
Check out our Clients’ Book, which we’ve had an editorial hand in either through Brightside, NAC or as a key beta reader. At least another three books will be added to this list by the end of 2022.
New Authors Collective (NAC)
As Head Editorial at literary agency, NAC, I have the pleasure of working with authors of fiction and memoir to help prepare their books for submission to publishers. We had three books published last year and have another on the way this year.
Expat Writers Facebook Group
I continued 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. I still managed 25 posts – interviews and short fiction. Most of my interviews were with people in the book business, particularly writers with expat experience.
As my editing business grows, I’m reducing my goal to one post a month, predominantly short fiction, supplemented by a couple of interview.
My most viewed blog of the year was an interview with Louise Ross on Documenting the Expatriate and Immigrant Journey. 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 Artemis Savory on Being a Virtual Assistant.
Novel Writing
Not much progress to report on the novel front. I’m in various stages of redrafts and submissions, but no deals to report. Still, as a writer, I remain the eternal optimist and one day, I aim to have more exciting news!
I hope you’ll stay with me through 2022. It’s shaping up to be a busy year.
Next time: an interview in which Lisa Darcy Asks Should You Keep a Secret?
To see where we were last year: The Winding Narrative Turns Three
To see where we go next year: The Winding Narrative Turns Five
Brightside Story Studio 
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