Beautiful Evil Winter: Historical References and Editing Answers

On a recent book tour, two reviewers mentioned historical discrepancies and editing issues. To one reviewer in a particular, I have to say thanks for providing specific examples. Too often, authors only hear general complaints with little opportunity for improvement. I care about quality, I respect quality, and I’ve spent a great deal of money to provide a quality experience.

Here’s the once-muted backstory on editing:

Looking back, in addition to my own tedious backward and forward reads to search for errors, I paid two professionals, one focused on proof reading and the other on story development, to polish my freshman novel. Why did I pick proofreading? According to the Expert Editor, “Proofreading is the process of correcting surface errors in writing, such as grammatical, spelling, punctuation and other language mistakes.” Based on my educational background, I felt comfortable that my writing skills would be a stronger link than the editing. Editing required the most money the most attention; so, I hired two editors. Like most people, I had limited funds and made the best strategic choices with the exception of the proofreader selected.

Much to my continuing regret, I chose to work with a publisher, First Edition Design Publishing, FEDP. I paid for proofreading services as well as a book cover plus. After I severed ties with the publisher for several other reasons, I discovered that the FEDP employee read the story, but didn’t dig into the details. He made only two changes in a 243-page book! During the time with FEDP, I thought we did such a stellar job because it didn’t require many changes. Little did I know then. Finally, I navigated my way to a top-notch editor for my second novel, Plenty.

I funded the entire first book effort with a small inheritance I received after the untimely tragic death of my biological father. Awful already just became a living nightmare. Since I needed money for my second novel, I pushed ahead without re-editing.

Fast forward to today, hopefully, at some point, I’ll have the resources, at least a $1,000, and fortitude to right the editing wrongs. Of course, I’ll have to fight the tsunami of anger, hate, withering disappointment and ALL of the associated agony and horrifyng memories of his death and funeral as my new editor sifts through the book with me page by page. Even though I wrote Beautiful Evil Winter years ago, I still feel my heart sink as I think of re-editing it. Bottom line: Beautiful Evil Winter represents a snapshot of one of the very best and very worst times of my life. My plan: to keep running my race, to write more quality books and to rely on my tested trusted support team. No looking back and dwelling in the past. Not buying into the Monday morning quarterback syndrome. A valuable lesson learned about editorial choices!

Having said that, I can correct errors and re-publish quickly as an indie author. Recently, I have taken the liberty of making changes and re-publishing to enhance the experience for the reader.

Re: historical references, I made an error with the mention of an iPad. That word has been changed to computer. DVDs appeared on the scene in the US in March of 1997. Specifically, Toshiba introduced DVD ROM in early 1997 as per Wikipedia. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_player.  I also checked with my website manager to confirm my understanding of technology at the time.

Also, re: historical references, our epic adoption took place in 1997. The USSR fell on December 25, 1991. Re: landline and cell phone technology, a 2017 U.S. government study shows that 45.9% of the U.S. population still have landlines. See the following link for more details:  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/milestone-for-cellphones-vs-landline-phones/. Since I lived in that apartment with the phone and since I dealt with Natasha, I can assure you that both existed in 1997.

In 1997, a landline would sit on a coffee table in an expensive Moscow apartment.  And it did. A doctor would recommend putting onions in a baby’s socks and a Mustard poultice on his chest to cure congestion as mentioned in the book. When my husband’s pediatrician, a retiree, heard about the prescribed treatment, he gasped. His American-born grandmother used that same treatment for the same ailment.

In closing, for those who’ve never traveled to ruthless Russia, The Russian Mafia controls the country. Daily life easily mimics the unforgiving gun slinging days of the frontier west even today. My dad, the one who raised me, still travels to Russia a couple of times a year. After he returns, we always chat about this trip as we’ve done since my twenties.