About Me

Heather Ivatt

Founder and Lead Editor

Rufus

Good boy, editing assistant, attention-stealer

Who Am I?

Hi! My name is Heather and I’m a long-suffering writer for my sins, a passionate editor, and someone who is a true believer in proactive mitigation of impacts in all aspects of my life. I have a golden retriever called Rufus (aka my editorial assistant), a loving and incredibly supportive partner, and I devour fantasy fiction in large quantities.

My Qualifications

I have a First Class BA(Hons) in Creative Writing and Journalism, where I focused mainly on fantasy fiction and short horror stories.

I also have a Masters by Research in Creative Writing, where I investigated magic systems such as Shamanism and Heka magic of Ancient Egypt, and how they can be used to create a template to write logical, watertight magic systems in fantasy fiction.

I am trained by The Publishing Training Centre and the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, as well as NCC Home Learning. I am also a qualified Change Manager, with certification in BEE Methodology, and the Yellow, Orange and Green Belts of Lean Six Sigma.

My Professional Experience

I have five years’ experience as a Production Editor at The Open University, working across all faculties, subjects and formats – this is why I am qualified and experienced in non-fiction and academic editing.

I also have two years’ experience as a Change Manager, a role I fully enjoyed up until my chronic illness changed my working life, requiring me to work from home as much as I can.

I have edited for non-fiction publishers, a fiction publisher in the US, and PhD students here in the UK.

I was raised on the two Davids (Eddings and Gemmell), and now fangirl over Kristen Britain, Victoria Aveyard, and Lucy Hounsom. I can spend far too many hours wandering the Ancient History bookshelves at Waterstones!

My Writing Career

I’ve written twenty-five novels over the last seventeen years. None of them are published (yet), but only because life has gotten in the way and I’ve suffered from extreme-perfectionism in the past. In 2025, I decided to focus on my writing career as well as my freelancing one, being accepted onto the Curtis Brown Creative Writing Fantasy course, having the wonderful Stephen Aryan as my British Fantasy Society mentor, and treating my novels as products. My first novel, Of Blood and Ink, is in the developmental editing stage as of August 2025.


Chronic Illness and Me

Before July 2024, I was a healthy young woman with oodles of energy and great ambitions for both my career and my personal life. Then I became really unwell and eventually was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (also known as Myalgic encephalomyelitis), and then autonomic dysfunction.

I learned pretty quickly that finding a job with these conditions is a seemingly impossible challenge, and after being made redundant from my Change Manager role, I embarked on a new venture – freelance editorial consultancy.

Why did I start Ivatt Editorial Consultancy?

There is a gap in the current employment market when it comes to supporting those who, like me, suffer from chronic illnesses and disabilities. Not only do I believe my editing approach is unique and (I hope) could one day revolutionise the industry, but I want my business to keep growing, until it becomes a company that has a list of freelancers with disabilities who are looking for paid employment that is flexible and performed remotely.

I am a member of the British Fantasy Society. I’ve had an article published in their journal (vol. 20), called ‘Magic in Fantasy: Making Fiction Out of Fact’, where I talk about my research.

I’ve been a juror twice now for BFS awards: for Best Anthology (2024) and Best Non-Fiction (2025).