Old Trick, New Dog

Or something like that.

Today, I am learning about the wonderful world of story edits. And I don't mean the changes suggested by my betas. I mean actual edits from my soon-to-be publisher.

I got them on Thursday.

By the time I got them, I was already out of town. I was almost three hours away, at my parents' house, after having gotten some incredible news from my parents (more about that later. Much, much later.), and after going out to the porch to attempt to use my cellphone to get directions to the walk. So, from what I could see on my phone, there were some edits, but I couldn't actually look at the comments. So, I could do nothing with the document at all until I got home.

This was incredibly frustrating for me, since I like being able to start on stuff Promptly.

Especially since the edits are due October 1. Given that I wouldn't be home until late Sunday night... well, let's just say my head wasn't in the game this weekend. And the game this weekend was a 60 mile walk. Yes, you read that right. I didn't walk the entire thing this time, I was short 9 miles off the official route, but with camp walking and the like, managed a respectable 56 miles.

So, I get up this morning and open the document.

And now I need to learn how to use Microsoft Word's Track Changes options. Which I've never done before.

So... this has been fun.

Not.

(First off, I'm apparently a heretic and I put two spaces between sentences. When did that stop being correct?)

On the plus side, the editor did say a few very lovely things with the email.

Attached are the edits on your shifting steam story. I really went through and did an edit geared toward suggesting where you might want to examine your writing. Not every house or editor would agree, I imagine, but in general, I found your biggest problems to be sentence fragments, starting sentences with conjunctions and occasional odd word choice. The first two are great when used for emphasis, but I think there are some constructs that you overuse, and you need to read through your work with that in mind.

The reason I was so invested in pointing these areas out was because I found your story incredibly engaging, with a great premise, good flow and intriguing characters. So the few issues that you did have stood out to me as a reader, and I think the kinks could be worked out to make your writing really effortless to read.