a good copy edit

– write 2k on REDEEMER : 2100 words – revise (or proof) 50 pages on one of 3 different projects 130 pages : proofed – clean a room (thanksgiving is coming) : total failure on this today So I’m doing page proofs on MAGIC & MANNERS, which is a very, very clean manuscript. I keep thinking I must be missing stuff, but I’m not. There’s just not much to catch. The copy editor, Richard Shealy at SFF Copy Editing, is terrific (and for hire :)). So that’s a great thing.…

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the saga of the copy edits

Did I actually post about my wibbling over whether I was going to photocopy the copy edited manuscript of THE PRETENDER’S CROWN? I ended up not doing it, because it was going to cost €92, which is about $116, and frankly that’s a third the cost of a document scanner and I simply do not have a hundred euro to drop on *photocopies*. You can all see where this is going. The manuscript, which was supposed to be in New York by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest, has not…

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done dee done done DONE!

The copy edits are well and truly finished, although I need to see if I can find the Much Larger Version of the map to include, and I need to print off the couple extra pages of Stuff that I’ve edited or added. Then it’ll go in the mail first thing tomorrow. I need to go over the letters for the second issue of Chance. And I need to finish writing the Morrigan short story. And I need to call the bank to find out why they turned down my…

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gettin’ there

I’m down to the last 130 pages or so of copy edits. I’m also in the stage that I suspect most writers find themselves at when they’re going over a manuscript for the zillionth time: there are moments when I think, God, this is really good!, and others when I think, Oh, God, what was I thinking, this is awful. I’ve just finished going over one of the most climactic scenes in the book, and I think it really works (so, apparently, did my agent, who said she almost stopped…

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copy edits

I suspect, but I do not know for certain, that other writers do the same thing I do when working on copy edits, which is to say, they talk back at the copy editor. “How *dare* you remove my italics,” I say (out loud). (This is an important moment for this character. It *requires* italics.) “No,” I say out loud, “I don’t *want* an em-dash there.” (God knows if I did I’d have put one in. I am not afraid of em-dashes. Or semi-colons. Or colons. Or serial commas.) And…

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