I decided to edit. Professionally, that is. After reading an article about balancing passive voice with active voice in fiction, I got curious. I opened A Rose Beneath the Snow and got the shock of my life! A glaring error! I kept reading on and found more and more errors. Even after 3 beta readers and my own line by line proofing, I still found mistakes. After six weeks of trying to find them all–and fix them, I was sick. The more I looked, the more I found. I cried uncle and came to the realization that I’m a writer, not an editor.
Enter Historical Editorial. Jennifer Quinlan came to my rescue and kept me from having a nervous breakdown. She loves historicals and it showed in the way she handled my story. She was a consummate professional, keeping her edits to a minimum and making suggestions that forced me to look at my story in a different way. Her fresh take was wonderful! Though I thought I had researched everything, she found two things that were historically inaccurate and I was able to make necessary changes.
By the end of the process, I believe I have a much better story. I made a wise decision in having a professional edit done on my book. I know, I know. It’s all over the internet:Â write the best story you can; have it professionally edited and have a professionally designed cover made. I thought I could do the editing myself, but I can’t. I heartily recommend that writers do all three.
I’ve asked Historical Editorial to edit A Rose in Summer, which she will do in July–Jennifer Quinlan is one, very busy lady! Will I have her edit Forsaken? You betcha! And every book after that so long as she’s willing to have me as a client.
So, what’s next? Placing my books on Amazon will be the first order of business–both in print and as ebooks. The Heart of a Rose Series will have brand new covers–more about that in another update! I’m working on a contemporary called Pictures for Maddie, a story that takes place right here in my home state of Alabama. I’m also in the planning stages of the De Montbrai Saga Book 2; Aerck and Anne’s story.
Stay tuned!
Gayle Mullen Pace 
Being a huge fan and not much of an editor I honestly never noticed all the boo-boos. Sure a couple of things here and there but honestly nothing that I thought would really make a big difference. I have printed books that have obvious mistakes that never get addressed. Printing error perhaps?
You’re an amazing author, truly gifted in such a way that your readers feel like they are actually there and one with the story! Very few authors today are capable of doing this. Keep up the amazing work! Looking forward to all the re-releases, Pictures for Maddie, and most definitely Aerck and Anne’s story (poor Connor lol) 🙂
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You are a great writer. There is no denying that. Every line I read took me to the scene being depicted. Have you ever thought of setting the scene of one of your stories at the time of Jesus? You know so much about the characters. I would love to take a pick into the past through your eyes. Love, Miss Ana
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Oh, Miss Ana, your comments are greatly appreciated. I wouldn’t even know where to start in writing any stories based on the Bible. So many have already been done. One of my favorites is The Song of Ruth by Frank G. Slaughter and another is Two From Galilee by Marjorie Holmes. Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments and The Robe remain classics in print and on film. But I’ll mull it over. Nothing is ever outside the realm of possibility. Miss you, dear friend.
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Hi Gayle,
Keep mulling the thought. I believe you could do a great job at it. If anyone can do it. It IS you.
The books you have mentioned are great but in my opinion we need good, modern, writers with a real insight on Christianity to stand up to the Dan Browns of today.
I just read he launched The Inferno. !!!????? and from the review it seems that he just climbed on Dante’s bandwagon to get a bit, or better a lot of the glory of what somebody else has written. I just loathe him.
ana.fausta@yahoo.com ‘ O que ama a correção ama o conhecimento; mas o que aborrece a repreensão é insensato.’ Provérbios 12:12
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