Lockdown: the proof is in the reading
Despite being theoretically on holiday on the island of Hawaii, I’ve spent most of the past three days working on the proof pages of Lockdown,
which the publishers would like back on Friday, thank you, despite being toastmaster at a crime conference or working on various projects for my many overlords.
I finished today, although my voice is a bit raw since the proofs are the stage I read the book aloud–and not at a whisper, but full voiced. (Fortunately there’s a lot of background noise from waves and wind, so I didn’t drive my housemates too mad with my droning on…)
And I’m glad I did, not only because I caught many misplaced pronouns, dropped prepositions, and wonky time references. In reading through it, I had an experience I’ve never had with my own writing: I got all choked up. I mean, I’ve liked the ending of the book since I first wrote it, but I’d never thought it powerful until this read.
Sure, maybe I’m just so tired I’m shell-shocked and emotional, but I’m going to assume it’s because the ending works so superbly. And since I don’t plan on reading the book ever again, I don’t have to worry about being wrong.
Hope you agree, once you read it.
Lockdown, here.
It’s always the sigh of a good story when we get emotional ourselves. 🙂
Well, however you do it, (proofread), it works. I have moved to the Kindle editions of your books due to lack of space, and I find very few typos and errors in them, and I love that, because that is certainly far from the case with many books for some time now.
I am currently in flight from a Kindle edition of a book on the battle of Trenton. I have had to send in so many corrections on my Paperwhite that I had to stop reading for a while, and I am not even halfway through it. These errors interfere with the flow of my reading, make the meaning unclear, and, it is, in effect, making me an unpaid editor/proofreader. That is not, and should not be my job and I am beginning to seriously resent it. This is something the publishing company should be doing, and I am beginning to suspect that there are those who do no, or do it incompetently.
I am certainly not the grammar police, but I can’t ignore these mistakes when I have the means of sending in corrections. The other reason I had to stop reading was because frustration and snark were fighting to find their way into my corrections, and that’s not who I want to be.
I consider you one of the oases in my reading life. We are of an age, both native Californians, and come from an era when there were competent editors/proofreaders. I have long thought that many of these books would benefit from being read by the high school English teachers of our era. I am sure that their manuscripts would be as blue as Washington’s soldiers’ feet!
I have pretty much stayed with just Russell and Holmes, but I do have “Lockdown” pre-ordered, and I am looking forward to reading it-and seeing Russell and Holmes on the small screen. I’d vote for Emma Watson, too. I have no vote for Holmes, yet. I don’t go to many movies, and I’m still stuck on the late Jeremy Brett as the definitive Holmes. 8) I liked him ever since he played “Freddie” in “My Fair Lady.”