I learned to read at an early age, and have never looked back. I fell in love with the written word, and throughout my school years was happier in a library than on any sports field. And my passion for English earned me prizes in Olympiad competitions and the SACE National Challenge, and led me to take it as a subject at university.
I graduated from Rhodes University, Grahamstown (East London Campus) in 2006. I have a Humanities degree in Social Science, majoring in Economics and Information Systems, and a minor in English. At first I wanted to try to follow my majors, but I kept coming back to my first love.
I found myself at a nationally-distributed magazine, correcting articles for grammar and spelling, and proofreading the final result before each issue went to print. While at the same company I proofed print shop materials for typos as well. During this period I volunteered to proofread for Project Gutenberg via Distributed Proofreaders, and also helped run a vintage gaming website with approximately 200 000 visitors a month, editing reviews.
A few years later, through a friend’s agency, I landed slush reader positions with Flash Fiction Online and UFO Publishing. While I still hold both positions, I managed to land a remote internship with UFO and started copy editing Future Science Fiction Digest, but after some years the magazine has gone on hiatus. All this in addition to an immensely enjoyable freelance editing career.
So, with five years of copy editing at a national magazine under my belt, and having remotely interned with a publisher in Brooklyn, New York, I specialise in everything related to English prose, editing for style and grammar in both American and British English.
I was fortunate to be involved in putting together an anthology of science fiction stories called the Rosetta Archive, which I copy edited. At the same time my co-editor and I were interviewed in Clarkesworld. The interview is here.
My favourite fiction genres have always been science fiction and fantasy, and I grew up devouring authors as diverse as Isaac Asimov, C.J. Cherryh and Anne McCaffrey. Lately I have drifted into historical murder mysteries and archaeological non-fiction. In my free time I weave handmade jewellery and try to explain to my cat that felines shouldn’t eat pizza.
Tarryn Thomas Editing 