Editors

I’ve added Misty Urban to my list of talented writers who have given me much needed editorial feedback for my book, Clouds Over Bishop Hill.

We sat across the room from each other last fall at a workshop for marketing. Her book of short stories was much further along than my novel.

I caught up with her this spring at the Bettendorf library for a Read Local event and bought her finished book, A Lesson in Manners.

By the time I attended Misty’s Muscatine book launch party I’d only just begun to read her collection of short stories. I didn’t feel prepared for any truly insightful comments. I had to say something and I went with my brief first impression of the title story: commas. She had created a lot of complex sentences loaded with commas. I have been sensitive about my use and misuse of commas for quite a while, so that’s what I noticed first. I was impressed and had to say so. Misty deferred to her own editor.

I changed my opinion after looking over that story again, I should have marveled at her writing it with a second person POV. A far more impressive feat than using a lot of commas.

After finishing the book, I noticed her darker take on life. Misty tackled the major themes of illness, grief, and the search for personal freedom with powerful, insightful prose. The ambitious core of serious literature. It’s no wonder that she can post an impressive list of awards.

My novel is not literature. I have a cozy mystery set in the place I’m most familiar with, Bishop Hill. I’ve said before that what I wanted most was to give people a good read.

I think Misty’s turn as a line editor will have done me a lot of good.

My last editor reviewed for content and had me clear up some character and plot points that truly needed fixing. But I left a few things I knew she would have thought too murky and indistinct. I couldn’t bring myself to have a traditional villain who would be cleanly and clearly punished in the end. Life isn’t always like that. I know this isn’t life, this is a story. Still, I wanted to pursue my theme of preservation.

After reading Misty’s stories in A Lesson in Manners, I feel better about exploring the complex motives behind my different bad guys, some of whom weren’t so bad. Their motives represented different takes on how to deal with preservation: selfish, unselfish, for profit, not for profit, for pride, or for honor.

An additional theme I wanted to explore was forgiveness. I tried to use forgiveness as a way to improve my protagonist’s personal relationships with families, friends, and, in one case, professionally.

It’s been a pleasure to work with Misty. I’ve paid careful attention to her editing. Hopefully, some of the details of comma and hyphen usage will have sunk in and might actually stay with me for a while.