Teryn O'Brien – Editor

From a young age, I was writing novels and poetry, weaving stories for my sister during bedtime, creating plays with neighborhood kids. An avid bookworm growing up, stories became my refuge, helping me to learn empathy and see others as protagonists in their lives. Pursuing that love of stories, it was only natural that I graduated from college with a degree in communications.

After college, I found what I thought was my dream job working in online marketing at Penguin Random House, one of the Big Six in publishing. While there, I learned even more about high-quality storytelling as I soaked in the wisdom of the editors I befriended — participating in meetings where books were dissected and developed with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel. I also honed in on what it meant to position, brand, and compel through storytelling. I was also able to help shape several books with editorial input and learn more and more about the editing process as I worked alongside editors there, and I was instrumental in helping to launch Convergent Books, an entirely new imprint of progressively-minded spiritual authors that went on to be amazingly successful ( my time in publishing, I began freelancing in 2015 due to a number of personal reasons. Over five years of freelancing, I've had the privilege of working with a number of authors on their journeys to shape a manuscript developmentally, shape their branding strategy as a writer, and edit their works for clarity. Storytelling is an art that is always being deepened, and I've helped authors who are stuck or just need another pair of eyes on their story to help them take it to the next level. I also have that knack for refining story arcs and thinking through details, subplots, and wrapping it all together into a true package that can be hard for a writer to do when thinking through everything else going on. Whether it's memoir, fiction, or poetry — there are so many things to think about when writing a book or collection of works, and it's helpful to have someone who can walk alongside you during the process!

I was also a managing editor for a publication call Colorado Collective that was all about the creative and entrepreneurial spirit in Colorado, and we did a variety of interviews with writers, artists and small businesses from across the Centennial State. We also featured poetry and creative essays in the publication. Volume Four was nominated for a Pike's Peak Literary Arts Award in 2017. This publication was not available on Amazon or online platforms, so those are the pictures in my gallery at the bottom if you're interested in seeing this what this work looked like.

Currently, I work full time as a writer and content strategist at Salve Regina University, and I freelance on the side.

*Note: The books below are a mix of ones I have given editorial feedback on and helped shape, as well as ones where I have something personally published inside of the pages. Reedsy doesn't give a way to describe these things, so if you have questions, please ask about each project.