After a very busy start to 2023, I am now ready to take on new clients to my writing business. Do you have a project you would like me to work on with you?

I would like to show you some of my favourite recent writing projects and tell you more about the work I did on them, showcasing my skills, and my interests on the way, as well as giving you a taste of life as a freelance editor.

From the start of my business in 2013 (look out for 10th business anniversary celebrations at the start of May), I have enjoyed working with local authors from Sheffield and South Yorkshire. My first major client was the late Labour MP Joe Ashton, which led to a close working relationship working on his memoir, and fascinating adventures, such as helping him to organise a reunion of Sheffield Blitz survivors. https://wildrosemarywritingservices.co.uk/2013/12/16/attercliffe-blitz-survivors-still-fighting/

At that meeting, I met Joan Lee, a retired pub landlady, who asked me to edit and publish her own memoir, Behind Bars, which I typed up from a hand-written manuscript! It’s a fantastic read, especially if you are interested in social history, and includes Joan’s account of the Sheffield Blitz.

One of my regular clients is now Joan’s son Mick. I’ve edited and published several books with Mick Lee now, ranging from memoir, short stories, and now his crime thriller series, the Tenerife Noir series. Mick has been a police officer, pub landlord and for the past forty years, the Managing Director of Constant Security Services, Mick has a wealth of first-hand experience, stories and knowledge that inform his writing. When Mick sends me a manuscript to work on, I know I’m going to enjoy myself and be taken on a rollercoaster ride. As far as the editing goes, I’m polishing grammar, punctuation and making sure that the descriptions and dialogue are perfectly punchy! I also spot continuity errors and anything that doesn’t quite ring true and work together with the author to iron out any mistakes.

Another novel that took me on a wild ride was Losing It by Adam Kingdon Morris. Back in 2001, I worked with Adam at a music training centre in Sheffield and it was great to catch up with him again, connecting through The Writers Workshop. I edited and formatted the book for the eBooks and for the paperback version. Losing It is a fictional version of Adam’s career managing high profile bands. This book is like a time machine to 70s student unrest, 80s London squats and life on the road with a grimy post-punk band, to the insanity of 90s raves and the drug fuelled excesses of the music industry. This book is an essential for anyone interested in music, and that’s one of the reasons that I really enjoyed working on it. But it’s not just a rockumentary. It’s a tale of a troubled character and his search for happiness or oblivion, with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas amounts of debauchery along the way.

A different sort of excess is explored in Mandy Lee’s X, Y, Z series. I’ve just finished proof reading and editing Y, the second book in the series. Mandy had already worked with an editor, so I was doing a final check (it can be useful to have several pairs of eyes working on your project), and setting the book up for publication on Kindle Direct Publishing It’s free to publish a book using Amazon’s self publishing platform, but it’s useful to have a professional editor to help you. As an indie author myself, I can make books look beautiful as paperbacks and eBooks, as well as graphic design skills to insert illustrations and create covers.

I must admit that I have never read Fifty Shades of Grey, not even when everyone else was reading it, but I really enjoy Mandy Lee’s own brand of erotica. These books are plot and character-driven and Mandy writes intriguing female characters with many facets. In particular, Y is also a thriller about a young woman on the run, afraid to reveal her true identity. I was hooked as I was working on this book. I would love to work on more romance and erotica and I enjoy the great working relationship I have with Mandy.

If you’ve read this far and think I just enjoy working on books about international drug gangs, rock ‘n’ roll managers and sexuality, there’s much more to me and my skills.

I’m proud to have edited and formatted three books for the South Yorkshire Industrial Heritage Society: Wilson’s Piece, The Butcher Works and Suffolk Works. I worked from a manuscript, photos and illustrations to put together detailed academic historical publications. I’ve always been fascinated by archaeology and would one day like to write more historical fiction, so I loved finding out more about the 19th century weaving industry and how the cutlery trade built Sheffield while working on these books. To put these books together, I used a graphic design programme to lay out photographs, diagrams and illustrations, balanced with the text, adding captions and footnotes. These books really appealed to my love of making something look right on the page to enhance the reading experience.

So, no matter what you are writing, please get in touch with me to talk through the options. Start by reading my What I Can Do for You page, which includes my contact details. I look forward to hearing from you.