Nancy Cassidy
About me – After achieving a business degree with a double major in management and marketing, and after years of writing technical sales proposals, I decided to bring the passion I felt about books to a more public level, and follow my writing dreams.
Seventeen years ago, I joined the Romance Writers of America and the Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada, and began writing romance. Eventually, thanks to some wonderful editors, I learned what made a story work. I have now been published with a variety of publishers, including Red Sage Publishing and Carina Press, Storybones Publishing, and as an independent author under various pen names. I’ve written romance, erotic romance and science fiction.
In the spring of 2011, I began a year-long, distance internship with top New York literary agency, The Bent Agency. I spent my time there as a romance specialist, reviewing queries and manuscripts. It’s a fascinating side of the publishing business!
In August 2011, I opened TheRedPenCoach.com and began my freelance work, editing all genres of fiction, with the exception of picture books or middle grade fiction. In May 2012 and until June 2013, I completed freelance edits for Crescent Moon Press, and worked with some great authors in Horror and Fantasy.
In July 2012, I joined the Editors Association of Canada, and spent a short time as the chair of the Publications Committee. In August 2012 I became an acquisitions editor for Etopia Press. In February 2013 I became a senior editor and in September 2013 I became Managing editor of Romance at Etopia until July 2014 when I decided to return to freelance editing.
In November 2015, I released my first book about writing – Quickies: Writing Short Fiction for the Romance Market.
In 2016, author Donna Alward and I published a series of articles in the RWA magazine about Rediscovering the Joy in Your Writing. We later developed and expanded this series into the book – Joy Your Way to a Bestseller, released in December 2017.
In March 2018, Donna Alward and I published Adulting 101 – Writing Through Life and Other Adventures, discussing the difficulties and joys of being an author. For some time, Donna and I partnered in an editing website called WordsBetweenPages.com.
In 2019, I took time of from editing and completed a graduate diploma in Creative Writing from Humber College and the first half of my Masters in Creative Writing from University of Gloucestershire. In 2020, despite the personal grief of losing both my parents, I completed my Masters in Creative Writing, graduating with merit.
With the summer of 2022 I am returning to writing and editing. Should be fun!
