Books I Edited in 2021

Reflecting back on 2021, the thing I am most proud of this year is finally kicking off my freelance editing career in a serious way. And the years of working on this blog seriously helped me to get there! I’ve held editorial ambitions since well before I launched The Gothic Library, but spending the last six and a half years writing weekly posts in which I critically evaluate books, communicate about what works and doesn’t work in a story, and build relationships with authors and publishing professionals has given me the foundation I needed to finally embark on this path. And I’ve found editing books to be even more fulfilling than I could have imagined! Read on to learn where you can find some of the books that I’ve worked on this year:

The first author whose books I got to edit is one who has been with me since the beginning of this blog—Leanna Renee Hieber. Leanna’s Darker Still was the first book I ever reviewed here back in 2015. Since then, I’ve followed along with Leanna’s publishing journey, reviewing each of her new books as they come out. And now, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Leanna professionally and helping her to bring new stories into the world. Over the past year, I worked with Leanna on the three novellas in her Time Immemorial trilogy, published by Scribd. This series bridges Leanna’s science-fiction writing with her paranormal fantasy by centering on a character whose consciousness transcends time. The first book, Time Immemorial, came out in June and follows Elizabeth Marlowe as she slowly learns to trust others with her secret: she experiences each of her past lives simultaneously. In the sequel, Time Inescapable, Liz learns that her special abilities make her a unique target to those seeking to eradicate all psychics. The final book in the series, Time Indivisible, has Liz gathering her strength—and her friends—to go on the offensive against her enemies. Each of these books is available in eBook and audiobook form from Scribd, and you can also read all three together in the omnibus edition. If you don’t have a Scribd subscription, you can get a 30-day free trial. 

Since finishing up with Time Immemorial, Leanna and I have been hard at work on another trilogy of novellas. Beginning with The Spirit Suitor, this series will be a spin-off from Leanna’s Spectral City books and focuses on the blossoming romance between a ghost and an exorcist. It’s love at first possession! Keep an eye out for these books releasing from Scribd in early 2022.

Leanna’s books were the main projects that I did major developmental edits on this year (though I did work on a few other books that don’t have release dates yet). But I also want to give a shoutout to another project that I had a lot of fun with—I knocked another genre off my bucket list by working on some horror with short-story writer Jess Charle! For this project, I gave Jess some editorial guidance on selecting and ordering short stories for a collection. This round of short stories wound up becoming two separate books, which are both currently available from Amazon. The first collection, Lost in a Nightmare, contains fourteen of Jess’s most dark and disturbing tales. The second collection, just in time for the holiday season, is Dark Tidings, a bite-sized collection of seven festive horror tales that are sure to make you look at jolly old Father Christmas in a whole new light.

I hope you enjoy reading these books as much as I enjoyed working on them, and I look forward to seeing what new editing adventures 2022 brings!