urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:seanan_mcguire The Journal of Seanan McGuire Seanan McGuire 2008-08-28T16:48:56Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:seanan_mcguire:31606 2008-08-28T16:48:56Z 2008-08-28T16:48:56Z Seanan McGuire, 'Pumpkin Patch.' (To be specific, today we're spotlighting Amanda-the-physicist, not Amanda-who-isn't-a-physicist. Why doesn't real life work like fiction, where two people are only allowed to have the same name if one of them promises to die five pages later?)<br /><br />Amanda was one of the first people ever to get their hands on <i>Rosemary and Rue</i>, in a much earlier form. She's also one of my longest-running proofreaders, having now been involved with every book in the series. Oh, and she's married to Michael, the man that <i>Newsflesh</i> was functionally inspired by. All of which makes her an awesome friend, but not necessarily an awesome proofreader.<br /><br />Luckily for me, she <i>is</i> an awesome proofreader, and because she's known me -- and been reading for me -- for so long, she's capable of making statements that might be offensive coming from just about anybody else. Right now, she's proofreading <i>Late Eclipses of the Sun</i> (the fourth Toby book), and had this to say:<br /><br /><i>"Okay, hon. During the Shadowed Hills sequence, they are all still having a major attack of stupid."</i><br /><br />Behold the honesty! Being a) an academic, b) a folklore geek, and c) a scientist, she then proceeded to support this argument with fully two pages of 'this is why all your characters are dumb right here.' Seriously, <i>two pages</i>, not of edits or continuity catches, but of detailed and nit-picky textual critique. I'm going to lose my entire weekend to rewrites solely based on this set of notes, and I am <i>overjoyed</i>.<br /><br />Good writers are made by talent, practice, persistence, luck, and alcoholic muses with sick senses of humor.<br /><br />Great writers are made by their editors.