In addition to writing, Linda is the mother of four wonderful boys and owns three electric guitars. She was at one time the lead guitarist in a heavy metal cover band, but now works as Art Director for Strictly 7 Guitars (www.strictly7.com), owned by her beau, Jim. She's been chasing this writing dream for over twenty years.
Also, Linda will be offering a signed copy of her book to one lucky reader. Read to the Lynda Again section to see how you could win.
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THINGS MY EDITOR TAUGHT ME
In prepping for this blog, I considered various options of things I could blather on about. My ability to give instruction feels wimpy. I’d rather tell you about something I found amusing and helpful. So, I’d like to share a couple examples of what working with my editor was like.
I consider myself a word geek sometimes. In the “I-keep-a-giant-unabridged-dictionary-right-on-my-desk-and-I-look-in-it-often” way. But that does NOT mean that my dictionary-on-steroids will keep me abreast of all the slang that’s out there. I recently discovered a word, scatty, (scatter brained) as I flipped around my biggie-size dictionary and, though it was primarily British Informal usage from a century ago, I thought it fit a certain character well.
My editor suggested I change it, possibly to “scattered” or “scatterbrained.”
I resisted the editor’s snubbing of this word. I thought even though some readers might see it as a reference to jazz singers that scat out lyrics or as a crotchety senior who shoos cats away constantly, it was kind of cute and funny. Then my editor pointed out that “scat” is also a slang term used to refer to heroin. (Forehead, meet palm. whack!) Oh, the embarrassment I suffer being a writer who’s never had a drug problem!
Then she pointed out other meanings, including that it was also a reference to the dark things cats leave in their litter pans. As in cat-scat. Eww. I didn’t know. In my defense, I reminded her that I have dogs, not cats. To which she replied, “I don't want to be a grind, but ‘scat’ is any kind of animal dropping. Scatology (or coprology) is a science. Heck, owl scat was part of the fifth grade visit to the Nature Realm. You even study dinosaur scat...and yes, dog poop is scat.” I have to admit, I do love having these kind of conversations with her.
Bottom line, her basic editorial protest was that the character was not British and had no Britishisms in established speech patterns, particularly archaic ones.
The word came out of the text.
It is stuff like this that my editor catches, information that has not permeated the shuttered world in which I live. I’ve been “mommy” to an increasing number of boys for nearly twenty years so there are many facets of modern culture—primarily the “bad for kids” stuff—that I have made myself ignorant of, willingly. My editor, though also a mother, has accumulated a wide base of knowledge because she is far better read than I, and she has studied more subjects more broadly and read a little bit of everything since she learned to read. (And likely editing various horror and urban fantasy authors has afforded her a basic knowledge on a variety of, shall we say, unusual topics. She’s also been known to edit erotica.)
Another example would be fodder shock.
Apparently most copy editors in New York don’t have a rural upbringing that teaches them the terminology of some of the harvesting practices in the Midwest. This is completely understandable. (And my copy editor did a fabulous job, BTW.) However, fodder shock stymied her. I have to admit, this term isn’t even included in my gargantuan dictionary—which makes me doubt the thoroughness of this usually awesome hardback. (Gads, don’t tell me 2000+ pages isn’t enough words, or that I’ll have to go update it with an even larger, heavier one.)
My editor, bless her, never batted an eyelash over the word; she knew it was an armful of cornstalks gathered and bound. Around these parts, you see them in the fall decorating folks’ porch posts. On this one, my editor went to bat for me. The Midwestern character Persephone would, after all, know and use the term.
So, all in all, I get the feeling that my editor is a person who never stopped asking, “Why?” or digging for answers. I’m glad she’s not an archaeologist. I’m glad she’s my erudite editor.
Or maybe she’s a cyborg with a 500+ GIG memory sent here to collect data on our culture for some alien race...
Either way, I think she’s pretty damn cool. But coolness aside, that’s her job. Part of it anyway. It’s my job to tell a good story and polish it until it sparkles, then turn in that manuscript with a miniscule amount of errors and goofs. She’s good at her job, so she’s taught me a lot but I’m sure I’ll be learning scads more from her.
NEWBIE POLISH TIP: Back in the olden days of typewriters, authors would have to search each page for over-usage of words. Now we have the handy dandy ability to Control-F and FIND those little boogers en masse. Words like: really, very, eyes, hands, smiled, laughed, looked, said. The list is endless. Really. Truly. These are words I often used after/before dialogue to specify which character is speaking or to put across the tone of what they said.
He laughed very hard, eyes rolling and hands holding his stomach. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
See, they aren’t always necessary to say what you mean succinctly. Learn to recognize your own over-used words, and learn ways to say what you truly mean with more polish.
LINDA ROBERTSON
AUTHOR OF VICIOUS CIRCLE
HALLOWED CIRCLE NOW AVAILABLE
FATAL CIRCLE DUE JULY 2010
ARCANE CIRCLE DUE JANUARY 2011
ALL FROM JUNO BOOKS/POCKET BOOKS
WWW.WOLFSBANEANDABSINTHE.COM
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HALLOWED CIRCLE
Persephone Alcmedi has been persuaded to compete for the position of High Priestess of the Cleveland, Ohio, coven -- now that the former priestess, Vivian Diamond, has strangely gone missing. Unfortunately, there are a few small problems with the idea. Not only does Seph know rather more about Vivian's disappearance than the other witches realize, but the epic struggle she's just survived has left her with some highly unusual powers -- ones that could be dangerous to reveal. Despite her reluctance, she agrees to participate, if only to prevent snooty Hunter Hopewell, an obnoxious but talented witch, from ending up in the winner's circle. Can Seph hide her secrets -- including her connection to the master vampire-wizard Menessos -- from the terrifyingly wise judges? Plus, there's her rock 'n' roll werewolf boyfriend, Johnny, and some angry fairies to deal with....
BUY LINK:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439156786/ref=s9_simz_gw_s2_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0FS9WP2D08958CZ8QXND&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
VICIOUS CIRCLE the first in the Persephone Alcmedi series came out last year, and the third installment, FATAL CIRCLE will be available this summer. The fourth ARCANE CIRCLE will be released in January 2011. All are available from Pocket/Juno Books. www.juno-books.com
Linda's website (soon to be redone) has an excerpt of HALLOWED CIRCLE on the home page. (scroll down) www.wolfsbaneandabsinthe.com On twitter you can find her as: authorlinda
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-- Lynda Again
Linda will pick one name from the commentors so make sure you leave a comment by noon Friday then check back to see whose name she pulled. Good luck!
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