At the luncheon where we had the exquisite parsnip soup with our friends, I mentioned that in “The Nesting Dolls” my protagonist, Joanne Kilbourn, is making chicken soup and among the vegetables she throws in the pot are parsnips. When my editor read the manuscript, she vetoed Joanne’s parsnips, saying they would sweeten the soup in a distinctly unpleasant way. I stood up for my parsnips, saying I added them to MY chicken soup, and if it was good enough for me, it should be good enough for the fictional Joanne. My editor and I didn’t come to blows over this, but only because we were half a continent apart.
Our hosts at the parsnip soup luncheon aren’t writers, so they were taken aback at the scope of an editor’s duties. They had assumed that editors simply clean up grammar and spelling. My friend, Clare, who also works in publishing, was at the lunch and she and I were and quick to explain that an editor’s duties go far beyond reminding a writer that ‘accommodate’ is a very accommodating word because it can accommodate two sets of double consonants.
A useful job description for an editor is that she saves a writer from him or her self. An editor corrects errors of fact; plot contradictions; stylistic excesses and garden variety slovenly writing. I could write several books about the editorial suggestions that have saved my bacon. However, instead of celebrating the people who’ve been paid to edit me, I’m going to thank the readers who discover the misstatements and factual errors that slip through the cracks.
I’ve learned a great deal from readers. My children’s godfather, Dr. Roy Crawford, who taught poultry genetics and breeds dogs, cats and other critters, leapt on a scene in one of my novels where a vet named Dr. Roy Crawford identifies a tortoiseshell cat as a male. This is apparently not a genetic possibility. Many alert readers noted that in another novel, Joanne sought spiritual help by walking through the doors of Holy Rosary Cathedral but when she left the church, it had mysteriously become the Church of the Blessed Sacrament. An Anglican all my life, I mentioned that communion involve a belief in transubstantiation – this is not so for Anglicans, and many readers correctly took me to task for that. I could go on, but I’ll spare you.
I’m always grateful when readers point out contradictions or just plain weird stuff in my work. Last week, I had a letter from a Ph.D at UCLA who had read all eleven of the Joanne Kilbourn novels within a period of a month and had caught a huge error about when exactly Joanne Kilbourn met a character who plays a significant role in several of the novels. I’m planning to bring this character back in the novel I’m currently working on, so when I told her how much I appreciated her help, I meant it.
All writers owe a debt to their editors and their readers. That debt does not extend to omitting parsnips from a recipe that he or she knows will be vastly improved by that vegetable’s sweet and nutty flavour.