A Meerkat's Bolthole

For Gin&Tonic #3, I needed to name a puppy in the outline. The name I chose was Parsifal. No, I have no idea why I chose that name, except it seemed 'right.'

Fast forward months later, when I'm writing the actual scene wherein the puppy is found. I have the main character checking out what the owner of the house is reading. A Ludlum title, I think. The missing person seems like a Ludlum reader. So... not a Bourne title, something else, less obvious.

I go to Ludlum's bibliography, and halfway down the list, I see this:

The Parsifal Mosaic (1982)

Okay, you can't make this shit up and get away with it. But so help me, it's true. I named a dog for the book his owner was reading, before I even knew the owner had been reading it. :-)

Last week, I got an email from Madame Editrix, saying she had read the manuscript for FIXED (Gin & Tonic #2) and loved it. And that I should prepare for incoming notes.

(Because no book is so good that a good editor can't show you how to make it better. That's me saying that, not her. Although she totally would, too.)

In these Modern Times, usually an announcement like that would lead to checking my email for the above-referenced editorial letter. Hell, even when I was back at Penguin in the early 2000s, we were doing it that way, and all the editing work I do for d.y.m.k now is digital....

But Madame Editrix, she is Old School. She sends me a marked-up manuscript. Yes, actual paper (a printout of the file I'd sent her). With an actual pencil.

0-0

It's...kind of adorable. And weirdly reassuring. A reminder that for all that's changed in this industry, all the long-term and overnight disruptions, it really does still come down to this: words. On a page. Marked up and moved around, until they're perfect.

And, if I'm very good, little smiley faces in the margins, where I made her laugh.

So today I will be taking my printout and walking away from the computer screen for a while, to read her comments and see what she's scrawled, and think about murder, mayhem and misdirection in a calm, off-screen manner.

(there will still be caffeine, of course. Caffeine is a constant, no matter what tech you use)

I confess, I'm still not quite sure i feel like a mystery writer. Maybe that's because it's Ms. Kornetsky, not me? Or maybe it will take two or three books to settle into that skin. But this, the editing and being edited side? It always feels right.



Oh, and for those of you who've somehow missed out on COLLARED, the first book in the series? Click Here.