About Me - Michelle Griffin

Possibly the most important thing you need to know about me is that I am a huge sci-fi, fantasy, romance, supernatural and mythology fan.
Novels, comics, films, TV shows … I love them all. If your work even touches upon one of these genres,
you can rest assured that you and I will have plenty to talk about!

My educational background, meanwhile, is in history. While my main research and past studies have focused on Irish history –
and I have worked on many books on the subject! – I also have a keen interest in world history, as well as in
academic assessments of modern literature and drama.

What others say about me

Experience

Blackstaff Press
May 2006 – October 2019
Production Editor, Editor, Permissions Administrator

Colourpoint Creative
Imprints: Blackstaff Press, Colourpoint Education and April Sky
May 2017 – October 2019
Education Editor, Editor

Brehon Press
October 2003 – December 2012
Editor, Marketing Assistant

Professional affiliations

Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) – Advanced Professional Member
Association of Freelance Editors, Proofreaders & Indexers of Ireland (AFEPI Ireland) – Full Member
Editors’ & Proofreaders’ Alliance of Northern Ireland (EPANI) – Member

Education

2003–04 MA Irish History, Queen’s University Belfast
2000–03 BA History and Politics, Queen’s University Belfast

Training

Publishing Training Centre, London

Basic Proofreading (2007)
Copy-Editing Skills (2009)
Successful Editorial Freelancing (2017)
Grammar at Work (2018)
Advanced Copy-Editing (2019)

Publishing Ireland

Proofreading, Stage I (2007)
Proofreading, Stage II (2007)
Grammar for Editors (2007)

Louise Harnby

Switching to Fiction (2021)
Writing the Perfect Fiction Report (2021)

Software, IT and social media training

InDesign (Giant Training, 2011)
Quark XPress (Giant Training, 2011)
Digital Graphic Design (NRC, 2017)
Social media training (Audiences NI, 2014)
Advanced Social Media (Social Bee NI, 2018)

Clients include

Blackstaff Press, Colourpoint Creative, HarperCollins, Gill Books, Brehon Press, Greenwich Exchange, Dingle Publishing, NIPR, April Sky, Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, Fáilte Feirste Thiar, Prime Cut Theatre Company.

I have worked with authors such as Ciaran Carson, Frank Ormsby, Patricia Craig, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Marianne Elliott, Tom Hartley, Kevin Doyle, Colin Breen, Michael McCaughan, John Killen, Damien Owens and Kathleen Murray.

Special interests

Fiction – supernatural, science-fiction, mythology, fantasy, romance, YA and literary

Non-fiction – particularly Irish history, modern history, memoir, biography and autobiography

Examples of work undertaken

As proofreader

Frank Ormsby & Michael Longley, Selected John Hewitt (Blackstaff Press, 2007)
Marianne Elliott, Hearthlands (Blackstaff Press, 2017)
Juliana Gilbride, Introduction to Christian Ethics (Colourpoint Educational, 2018)
Andrew Keanie, De Quincey’s Consecration of Romanticism (Greenwich Exchange, 2019)
Marnie Pomeroy, Christina Rossetti (Greenwich Exchange, 2020)
Susan McKay, Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground (Blackstaff Press, 2021)
Damien Owens, Duffy and Son (HarperCollins, 2022)

As final reader

Patricia Craig, Asking for Trouble (Blackstaff Press, 2007)
Ciaran Carson, Pen Friend (Blackstaff Press, 2009)
Sophia Hillan, May, Lou and Cass: Jane Austen’s Nieces in Ireland (Blackstaff Press, 2011)
Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Twelve Thousand Days (Blackstaff Press, 2018)
James Napier, et al., Life and Health Sciences (Colourpoint Educational, 2019)

As developmental editor

Terri Hooley & Richard Sullivan, Hooleygan (Blackstaff Press, 2010)
Lee Henry, Belfast Taxi (Blackstaff Press, 2012)
Laurence Donaghy, ‘The Folk’d Trilogy’ (Blackstaff Press, 2013, 2014, 2015)
Jim McBride, Russia 1914–41 (Colourpoint Educational, 2018)
Marya Rumiantceva, Stone Flower (self-published, 2021)

As copyeditor

Michael McCaughan, Titanic: Icon of an Age (Blackstaff Press, 2012)
Tom Hartley, ‘Written in Stone’ series (Blackstaff Press, 2014, 2014 and 2019)
Lesley Veronica, Northern Ireland Government and Politics (Colourpoint Educational, 2017)
Kevin Doyle, A River of Bodies (Blackstaff Press, 2019)
Kathleen Murray, The Deadwood Encore (HarperCollins, 2022)

As editor

Gerald Dawe, Earth Voices Whispering (Blackstaff Press, 2009)
Stephen Douds, Belfast Blitz: The People’s Story (Blackstaff Press, 2011)
Reggie Chamberlain-King, Weird Belfast (Blackstaff Press, 2014)
John Killen, The St Patrick’s Treasury (Blackstaff Press, 2016)
Colin Breen, A Force Like No Other: The Next Shift (Blackstaff Press, 2019)

[Header image: Unsplash, mulyadi]