Friends with the Editor

The charm I bought when I finished Chasing Monsters

As of this writing, my fourth novel 'Chasing Monsters' is in the last stages of edits. I'm feeling excited and confident, and it has a lot to do with Heather Savage of Staccato Publishing.

I met Heather through Vamptasy Publishing, the original publishers of 'Thoeba'. When Vamptasy couldn't keep me, they recommended Heather. Heather was, at the time, another Independant Publisher. She read 'Thoeba', liked it, and signed me up.

We've been friends since. I rarely speak to Heather--most of our exchanges take place over Facebook Private Messages. But she's become a valuable friend and business partner.

I can't tell you what it means to me to have an editor I can trust. When you spend several months, a year, sometimes longer working on a book, it's hard to hand it over to someone else to fix all the flaws. My novels are my babies. Trust me, it's like mentally giving birth. You know--the long, painful process that makes you want to collapse with relief when it's over. How you love what you've done, even after all the agony. (At least that's what I assume childbirth is like. No disrespect intended.)

But when Heather is finished with my work, I can breathe a sigh of relief. She's a benevolent spirit who glides through the pages, making them clear and shiny. So polished...It makes me happy and I can barely see where she's been. It's still mine, only better. She makes me look like I actually know what I'm doing.

She understands my vision, my BRAND, and knows what needs to be done. She gets my tetchiness and I can hear the smile in her text when she calls me a perfectionist, even when MY text sounds impatient and itchy. She gets it. After all, she's a damned good writer too. Books by Heather Savage

She recently used the word 'genius' to describe this book. She thinks it's my best one yet, she likes it more than 'Aphrodite's War'. On one hand, I'm exploding with pleasure. On the other hand, I want to run screaming from my keyboard. The pressure! But it's so important to me that she likes my work. And I suppose if it sucked, she would tell me, just when she tells me when phrases and words don't work.

She believes in me. I can't stress how valuable that is. She believes that someday soon all our hard work will manifest into success. I really hope so. For both of us.