RDF/RSS Feed
Atom Feed
Remember how I said I was impressed and grateful that NewEditor (hereinafter known as Editor) had read through the whole monster pile of the preceding books? The proof is in the editorial letter I just received this afternoon. WOW. As in, I have landed in the lap (OK, laptop or desktop or whatever) of another great editor. An editor who is going to help me make LIMITS and Book V better than I could possibly make them on my own.
It’s not that I doubted her editorial skills before, especially since (like anyone who’s been in the business this long) I inquired delicately of people who’d worked with her and got rave responses. But with so much backstory to get through, and all her other work, I wondered how much she could grasp of the whole Paksworld mythos, having to read at top speed. And there’s also the chemistry thing. Sometimes it’s not the book, the writer, or the editor…but just a lack of spark between editor and book, or editor and writer.
I actually felt better when she moved the book’s pub date (and had clearly moved it already–I think that email just did a dive into electronic limbo) because to me that meant she wasn’t rushing. And now…now I’m sitting here having thought (before I opened the email) that I was just too tired to face anyone’s editorial letter this evening…and once I’d read it bouncing a little and thinking “I should get right to this…and this…and this other…”
I’m not knocking FormerEditor off her pedestal in my mind…after all, she edited the first Paks books and taught me a lot in the process, and working with her again was sheer delight. I credit her with a lot of my success. Nothing will change my opinion of FormerEditor.
But Editor clearly has a feel for the project, cares about the project, and also has the clear-sightedness and…um…guts to see what’s not working, what’s tangled, and (in one case) what Needs to Go Away. (You will not miss it. Trust me on this. I won’t miss it. The scales have fallen, and now I can see the cheap gold paint is peeling, the plaster beneath has cracked, and the “rubies” aren’t even glass, just plastic. We all have bad days. That’s why Editors are so important.
Also on the good news front today, the green socks are off the needles and on my feet.
Comment by Iphinome the always wrong — May 25, 2012 @ 11:35 pm
Re: electronic limbo.
Did you whitelist her email address? Last year over the matter of yarn and train layovers I noticed that when hitting reply to your emails it vanished down the bit hole but manually changing the address to the website one did get though.
Comment by Annabel (Mrs Redboots) — May 26, 2012 @ 3:49 am
Yay for great editors! I’m delighted for you, and – well, I don’t have to tell you, do I, how much I am looking forward to reading Limits of Power, whenever it comes out. And, of course, to the still-untitled Book 5.
But I really am delighted that your new editor has inspired you – that’s fantastic news.
Comment by Moira — May 26, 2012 @ 10:40 am
Delighted to hear about the editorial inspiration – of course she also gets our thanks and appreciation by proxy!
Yes, email can sometimes take an extended (WAAAY extended) coffee break en route to its destination. And then there are Spam filters that get out of control. And the odd message that truly does get caught in the ethernet, to be lost forever. It’s not a bad idea to take a quick look in your Spam folder each time you check email – I don’t mean open the msgs, just scan the contents of the folder for any valid senders.
Hmm. I’m thinking: re-read. Editor has inspired more than she knows!
Comment by Ginny W. — May 26, 2012 @ 12:52 pm
Great news. A constructive partnership is a real blessing. So are comfortable socks.
Comment by Genko — May 26, 2012 @ 7:30 pm
Oh, yes, re-read — I started again with the Gird’s Legacy books and went through the Deed again (now on my Kindle, where it’s much easier to read before bedtime), and have been going through the new ones. Of course, I’ve also discovered a few different authors (mentioned on this blog, and I don’t know whether to thank you or curse you) that I’m trying to catch up with. However, I don’t have any more hours in the day to read than I used to, so I’m hopelessly behind.
Yay for the editor! Yay for throwing out fake rubies and fixing stuff. There will be time for one more re-read before Limits come out.
Comment by Jenn — May 27, 2012 @ 9:13 am
Now I just pant for next summer.
In the middle of my reread (finally go my hands on a copy of Gird’s Legacy) I realized that Gird’s village does not have a name. Did it lose it in the aftermath since he and Raheli were the only survivors? Does the Fellowship keep a shrine there or near where they suspect it to be? They seem to have an unlimited supply of relics (like my chosen religion) so i thought that them may also have shrines or markers of the acutual (maybe) locations of Gird’s cottage, forest haven, cave, handkerchief in which he blew his nose (oh wait that falls under relic)
Comment by Kip Colegrove — May 27, 2012 @ 6:27 pm
Nothing beats a first-class working relationship. (Said Kieri as he faced Siger in the salle.)
I’m glad for you–and for New Editor, who clearly respects her new sparring partner and is therefore ready to challenge her with everything she’s got.
Go to it!
Comment by Elizabeth D. — May 29, 2012 @ 8:57 pm
It’s taken a few days for me to see this, but it is heartening good news. Everybody in my family has had colds; didn’t get to any cons, and not even much reading. And just before the weekend we had not-so-good news on the health front about my husband, but…
Your news is much better, words and socks, comfort and adventure. Raise those sails and catch the wind!
Comment by Sam Barnett-Cormack — May 30, 2012 @ 9:45 am
Sympathies, Elizabeth D. My allergies usually manage to override my double antihistamines (two different ones) this time of year, which is not fun. I’ve also been having some medical investigations, so I’m sorry to hear you had bad news in your family on that front.