I can’t quite believe how much has happened since I left teaching. I count the year from January 2018 when I made the decision to go freelance, but of course, by then I had already started volunteering with Aurora Metro. Here, of course, is also a shameless plug for my website. And don’t forget to like my page on Facebook. Let’s start towards the beginning of the year (be aware, long post coming). Between January to April, I was completing training and trying to get jobs as a

Thankfully, it continues to be a busy time for me, which I’m very happy about. Currently, for Aurora Metro, I’m focusing on helping with the How the Vote Was Won exhibition. I was very pleased to help with some of the pop up banners forming part of the exhibition, two of which you can see some of above. There are a few venues confirmed, including: King’s Theatre, Portsmouth, 15 – 22 June 2018 The Feminist Library, London, 3 – 31 July 2018 There are also many more yet to be ad

Photo by Artem Bali on Pexels.com I feel I have finally broken through the barrier. You know, that barrier that seems to prevent forward motion? It seems to be all good news from here on in. The moderately-sized ELT publisher has approved my first sample test, and I will be contracted to create four more tests for them, which is absolutely great news. It’s something I’ve never done before, but it was quite enjoyable. It’s good to get the creative juices flowing, especially fo

Photo by Bich Tran on Pexels.com Well, it’s been quite a week, and I’m wondering what Monday has in store. First of all, I had an article published by Huffington Post UK on the Virginia Woolf Statue campaign. I was thrilled to have it accepted, and it shows my skills as a writer (hopefully!). This has been followed up by stories on the campaign featuring in Stylist magazine as well as the Evening Standard. All of this follows on from being mentioned on the Byte the Book websi

It has been rather a momentous week. I learned that I achieved a distinction in the College of Media and Publishing course, Editing and Proofreading. I can’t quite believe it. I started the course way back in 2016 and had completed the first assignment. Then, in 2017, the sudden death of my father and the news of being made redundant were complete shocks. In order to process what was going on, I suppose I needed some time out to find out what was happening. Through this, the

Hopefully I’ll be able to get around to more regular blogging than the last few weeks, now that the move has started calming down. The bank holiday weekend was lovely. We had my Mum come and stay at the new place, and we went to visit a National Trust property called Basildon Park. Absolutely stunning! Thanks to the staff for getting wheelchairs for my mum so she could really enjoy the whole experience. Even riding on the motorised buggy to the house was fun. Even though I’m

This is my new favourite place in our new flat. It’s lovely sitting on these chairs, listening to the birds with the windows open. I have to try hard not to be distracted! Today is the week anniversary of getting all our possessions in and it already feels like home. It’s wonderful. Therefore, this I deign to be the start of new things. I recevied an email from an ELT publisher, asking me to complete an editing test. I’m hopeful about this, because as I was doing it, I found

My last post was full of hope, and to be honest, this one is as well but to a slightly lesser degree. The planned move, for this weekend, has been unavoidably delayed and now we don’t know when we will be moving. To quote a famous drag race show, ‘I’m shook!’. I hate living in mess at the best of times, but now it is all to be decided, I can feel the anxiety building up. Nearly all of my books are packed in boxes so I have a very limited amount of work that I can do. Especial

Virginia’s writing room at Monk’s House, Rodmell It is 77 years to the day that Virginia Woolf committed suicide. This amazing talent, so often misunderstood, walked down from the house she shared with her husband Leonard, filled her coat with stones and walked into the River Ouse. A terrible loss to the literary world, one must not forget the vast scope of work that she left for us to devour. On this anniversary, many of us (myself included) often quote from her last letters

Yet again, I have stolen my title from a volume of Leonard Woolf’s autobiography. This is from the volume that looks from 1939 to 1969 and deals with the death of his wife, Virginia. Even though it isn’t particularly relevant to my research on Virginia and her life in Richmond, as a reader, I’ve only seen the letters and diary entries that Virginia made just before her suicide. As Leonard was such a major part of her life, I wanted to see how he dealt with the loss, just as I

As a fairly new entrant into the publishing industry, the London Book Fair is an essential. It is a perfect place to network, get yourself noticed and also to get a real feel for the publishing industry. I’m planning to get the most out of it. I attended LBF 2017, but due to personal circumstances and bereavement, I wasn’t properly planned and I wasn’t in the right frame of mind. I probably shouldn’t have gone as it was very overwhelming. However, this time I’ve had a year to

Kew Gardens, ©Peter J Fullagar I’ve taken the title of this post from one of Leonard Woolf’s autobiographies; specifically, the one dealing with the years 1904 to 1911. The reason for this is that I think I’m growing, not only in reach, but in confidence as my freelancing journey continues. A little while ago, a friend of mine who currently works for one of the big ELT publishers got in contact, as she had seen that I was trying to start up as a freelance editor and proofread

The above photo shows what I’m feeling at the moment. An uphill struggle, that famed cliché is very true. No matter how patient one might be, no matter how many setbacks one gets and no matter how many non-responses you get, determination is extremely important to get that important freelance career going. I often wonder how long it took experienced professionals to get what they would classify as their ‘first’ freelancing job. Was it a month? Two months? Less? More? On one p

I always knew that the road would be hard, and I’ve read about many experienced freelancers having their own troubles at the start, even commenting on my own posts. Most of their comments mirror my own experiences. It is so hard to get going. In a previous post, I mentioned an ELT publisher had responded to my speculative email, and I was full of hope. Since the second email, I’ve heard nothing. It’s very hard not to be discouraged by this and I’m trying not to be disheartene

I’ve only recently started writing about my career transition from ELT teacher to self-employed editor and proofreader, but the responses I have got from the few posts I’ve shared have been positive. Encouragement in all forms is extremely welcome, and one person I’d like to thank Louise Harnby. She has a wonderful Facebook page which is more like an editor and proofreader community. It’s very welcoming and there is lots of advice for the experienced and newbies among us. I t

Following on from my previous post about patience, I think somebody trying to get into the crowded world of editing and proofreading needs to be persistent. All the training that one can do is all very good (and essential), but if you lack persistence, then it could all be for nothing. As a newbie into the industry, I’m still learning as I try to get my foot (or at least my little toe) on the first rung of the editing and proofreading ladder. I assume there is still a ladder,

http://www.ultimatelibrary.co.uk/books-read-around-winter-locations/ Books have been a major part of my life; I started reading when very young, like most people. I remember Jennifer Yellow-hat, Roger Red-hat and Billy Blue-hat among others in my primary school to titles such as The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler, which ended up being one of my favourite childhood books. At school we obviously studied Shakespeare, as well as others such as Lord of the Flies (which I never want

Editing and proofreading is not an easy business to break into. After deciding that this industry was for me, I needed to figure out the best way to involve myself in the community and to immerse myself into this already crowded world. I thought that my teaching career would set me on the right path, and indeed, it has helped. 17 years of helping international students with their English has enabled me to have a heightened awareness of errors, both grammatically and lexically