Remember I had a phone appointment with my editor yesterday? Well when the word "editor" is combined with an illustration of a meat cleaver, does that convey some of the content of the conversation?
OK, I'm getting far too dramatic. On balance, the conversation was great. She pronounced the first 6 chapters "rock solid" and said that overall she was "thrilled" with the manuscript. There were many other positives, but I don't want to get too braggy. Then we got to the last two chapters of the book, 7 and 8.
Chapter 7 is "Let's Here It From The Boys," and talks about the mother-son relationship from the guys' point of view. Mostly, she liked it, but she said it was too long and anecdotal, and needs to be tightened up, as well bolstered up with some voices of experts. OK - that shouldn't be too hard. Also, I completely agreed with her.
But Chapter 8, my poor Chapter 8, which was "Great Mama's Boys In History." Gone. Finito. History itself. The editor didn't think it was a strong enough finish to the book, that little of the material was new, and while she felt I could salvage some of the anecdotes and use them in other parts of the book, overall, the chapter had to go. All that work!
That said, I believe she knows what she is doing, and she is the boss, so out it goes. Of course I'm a big believer in "reduce, reuse and recycle" so that material may appear at some point as a magazine piece or in another format.
Meanwhile, time to tackle the unwieldy chapter 7.
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