Let there be light!

I just received my manuscript with copy edits (CEs).

Man, the size of this baby never ceases to amaze me. I'm still somewhat dumbfounded about how this big pile of pages will one day become a small book under twenty pounds!

Ahh, but anyway...last week, the discussion of Series Bibles arose.

And no, I haven't added any new, ahem, scripture to mine. During that discussion, Bev Katz Rosenbaum, author of I was a Teenage Popsicle, got my hopes high. She said, that when she received her CEs a tiny packet came along that outlined all of her characters, different locations, nicknames etc...

I thought, Ooooo I want one!!

Well, I got one!!!

Yay!!!!

Sorry. Got a little bananas with the exclamation points.

Apparently, Copy Editors are like Organizational Gods. They take all the minutae that writers create (then run away from, as soon as we finish writing)and put it in a neat little format to tell you when throughout the mss those things are mentioned.

Oh.My.God!

Do you understand how long I've been putting off doing such a thing?

I wrote So Not The Drama in 2003. Three years later, as far as my sketch of the world of Del Rio Bay has gone is to include the names of the characters, the nabe they were from, their parents name, parents occupations and a small blurb on the plot line they were involved.

I wrote the book and yet, when I was doing revisions I still had to pause - hell, who am I kidding?

Not just pause. I had to scan the mss to find out the answer to things like the color of one of the main character's eyes or to remember what I named the street another character lived.

I'll spare the whining about how hard keeping track of all that is. But, I'll openly admit I've been slacking on this very necessary task.

So, it goes without saying that my editor is the shiggity. I mean, who else besides her and my agent would deal with my neuroses?

But, I've learned something new: Copy Editors Rock!