Lorna Walsh
​Founder & Chief Wordsmith

My wordsmithing started in earnest at 11 years of age when I wrote my first story: a 20-page, handwritten tome entitled Marianne. I've kept it because I'm still optimistic a publisher will overlook the close resemblance to Flowers in the Attic...

Fast forward 10 years and you find me graduating from the University of Sheffield and asking myself what I was going to do with a degree in English Literature. The answer was "not a lot," and for the next 15 years, I (happily) worked in the not-for-profit sector, serving national and regional charities, individual arts venues, and grassroots community organizations in the United Kingdom and United States.

During that time, writing was little more than a hobby. But in 2014, I took a sabbatical from the nonprofit world to crank out a novel and several short stories (one of which was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2017). The sabbatical culminated in a series of editing classes, taken with UC Berkeley Extension, which was an experience that led to the birth of Ideal Type and the Embark Editorial Agency.

Now here I am, in California, living the dream of being a full-time writer and editor...and I'm ready to serve you! See also my list of clients and testimonials.

A UC Berkeley Extension Success Story

"Not only is Lorna Partington Walsh enhancing her creative writing by learning the ins and outs of editing, she's also helping other editors launch their careers in the field. Titled Embark Editorial Agency, Walsh's new venture matches newly trained copy editors with writers and nonprofits, providing real-world work experience. 'This was directly inspired by my time at Extension,' she explains."
The full interview can be read here.
​And the follow-up interview can be read here (March 1, 2017)

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