Without realising it, my Word Emporium was established in 2007 when I became the compiling editor of an South African cookbook. The English and Polish recipes for Gogo’s Kitchen were published side by side in the same volume. You can read more about the process here, and more about the fun in this blog post. Some recipes were written in English, some translated from Afrikaans into English, and the English recipes were simultaneously translated into Polish. The English and Polish versions were published side by side in the same volume.

I have a background in music and psychology, so having this job fall into my lap out of nowhere had everything to do with luck and nothing with wisdom. The book became my ‘baby’ – nine months of paper, ink, and wastepaper baskets (read blood, sweat and tears), and the patient but firm guidance and wisdom of my editor.  The process taught me what the publishing of a book entailed, from the first draft to the final approval of the printing proofs.

My second project was the translation of a South African youth novel from Afrikaans into English, with a simultaneous Polish translation. Although the first ‘baby’ took nine months to be born, Vuvuzela took longer than an elephant pregnancy. Two and a half years.

Our last six months in Poland were spent doing the English subtitles for – a feature film and two documentaries, of which one was for HBO.

Within five years, I had a new career. My first website went live in 2015. It is a proud moment to relaunch the site in 2025.

My work and interests have gravitated towards literature and fiction since 2016. It is what makes me tick. I’m fascinated by how we become what we become, and how that process interacts with the language we use – our stories and how we tell them.

Let’s see what your book needs.