Holly Race - Editor
Holly is a YA author and a script editor for television and film. Her debut, the first in a YA urban fantasy trilogy titled Midnight’s Twins, was published by Hot Key Books in 2020 as part of a three book deal. The final novel in the trilogy, A Midnight Dark and Golden, was published in 2022. She currently writes YA and adult fantasy and urban fantasy.
Before becoming an author, Holly worked for nearly a decade as a script reader for a wide range of production companies, including Working Title, the BFI and Pathé. She has a Diploma in Script Development from the prestigious NFTS and cut her teeth working in the film department of Aardman Animations. Since then she has worked as a development editor for Red Planet Pictures and as a development executive at Andy Serkis’ Imaginarium Studios. Holly also runs a successful ‘Screenwriting for Novelists’ course and teaches creative writing at festivals and as a guest lecturer at Cambridge University’s ICE.
You can find Holly on Twitter here: @Ecarylloh
Testimonials
- Jane S.
WHY WE LOVE HOLLY
Holly is a powerhouse of writing talent. When she’s not working on her YA fantasy, she’s working across the medium of script and screenwriting – both as a writer and an editor. In fact, she’s hosted two webinars for us on the topic: Writing Screenplays 101 and From Moodboard to Chapter: Using Films to Inspire your Novel. Holly is always thrilled to help you take your manuscript to the finishing line – whether that involves structural changes, or adding some sparkle.
WHAT HOLLY SAYS ABOUT EDITING
For a writer, there’s little better than those moments when you figure out the perfect way to express your story. For an editor, there’s a genuine thrill in helping a writer to reach those moments. It’s the magic of being a creative sounding board.
I understand how frightening it can be to show your writing to a stranger. But as the graduate of a novel writing course, I also know that feedback from a safe, honest and experienced pair of eyes is invaluable.
My priority will always lie in making the most of the story you want to tell. I certainly don’t believe that there is only one correct way of writing. I won’t tell you exactly what to do, only make suggestions and explain the reasoning behind them. It’s crucial that you always feel ownership over your work.
I love reaiIng YA, fantasy (and YA fantasy!) as well as scripts of any genre. I also have a soft spot for speculative fiction. I offer editorial and submission pack assessments as well as mentoring and line-editing.
What Holly works on
Manuscript assessment
Agent Submission Pack assessment
Post-editorial guidance
Genres Holly specialises in
Holly's published books
Midnight’s Twins
Fern King is about to uncover a place that she could not have imagined in all her wildest dreams. Annwn is the dream mirror of our world, a place where Dreamers walk in their slumber, their dreams playing out all around them. An enchanted, mysterious place that feeds our own world – as without dreams, without a place where our imaginations and minds can be nourished, what kind of humans would we be?
But Annwn is a place as full of dangers as it is wonders: it is a place where dreams can kill you. Annwn and its Dreamers are protected by an ancient order known as the Knights – and when Fern’s hated twin Ollie is chosen to join their ranks, Fern will have to do whatever she can to prove she is one of them too.
