Monday, December 2, 2013

The Author Got Dinner on the Table Early

If you’ve been following the blog, you know that I’m in the midst of editing book three of the Screwing Up Time series. Editing is always a very focused, intense time. I’m looking for the last of the errors, polishing the prose, and hunting the typos.

The other day, I was smoothing out a fight scene when this sentence popped up in the middle of the action, “Raise Matthew’s allowance.” And I laughed. Thankfully, my kids are older and usually don’t feel compelled to hack my computer any more. Years ago, I password protected my computer when I found out that my daughter was reading the endings of my books before I’d printed them out. (A great evil!) Anyway, the kids thought the passwords were a challenge and took to leaving notes in my text to prove they could hack my system.

Honestly, I do miss the notes in my texts that said, “Jacob loves Mom.” On the other hand, this recent foray into my latest novel has revived nightmares that after a book is published I’ll get an email from a reader that says, “In chapter 25, it reads ‘Mark got bit by a zombie and stabbed Miranda. They both died and the author got dinner on the table early.’” 

3 comments:

  1. This makes me hope my children are not that computer-savvy when they get older! Sadly, judging by my lack of technical know-how, it won't be difficult at all for them to get the best of me.

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  2. And now.... I really want to find that in one of the books. That is too funny!

    Good luck with revisions. I am elbows deep in them as well. Just know you're not alone in the slogging (Though I'm in the midst of a first pass, so it is pretty tragic)

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  3. That is absolutely hilarious! Your kids are so sweet and sneaky at the same time!

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