BOM: Questions and Answers

Have a question? I'll try to come up with some answers!

Also, I'm giving away a free copy of JOURNEY. If you'd like to be entered in the drawing, just leave a comment with "ENTER" and I'll announce the winner tomorrow!

Deborah asked: I always have loved the ending of the book. What made you decide to tie the story up like that? Did you intend on doing that from book 1?

No, I didn't originally intend to come back to Joseph and Tuya at the end of JOURNEY . . . but after settling things with Ephraim and Manasseh, I thought it would be nice to come full circle. After all, Joseph lived a very long and full life, so I'm sure his latter years were interesting . . . and it seemed only natural to bring those two together again. I like the symmetry of that. :-)

LuAnn remarked: There are so many mistakes in books. Where are the proofreaders who should know these things? Maybe you need a book specifically written for proofreaders.

My pal Al Gansky once pointed out that if you have a 100,000 word book and it's 99.9 percent accurate, you're still going to have 100 mistakes. Yikes! We try--all of us--editors and authors and proofreaders--to be as accurate as we can. But every time a human is involved, there's another opportunity to mistakes to creep in. Sometimes I'll correct something on the "first pages," and when the typesetter makes my corrections, another typo slips in. So we all try, really we do, but as long as we're human, mistakes will be made. :-/

And sometimes, to be fair, the mistakes are in the readers' perceptions. Today I read a comment in an online review--the reviewer said something about how THE ELEVATOR needed an editor when it came to hurricanes, Florida geography, and Pinellas County bridges. Since I've lived through hurricanes, I'm a Florida native, and I double-checked all those bridges, I have to wonder what on earth she meant. When I was writing THE ELEVATOR, however, I learned that the bridge I've called the "Howard Franklin" for 20 years is actually called the "Howard Frankland."

Oops.

But the book has it right. I was saved by a sharp-eyed copyeditor. :-)

Thanks for coming along for another BOM. And don't forget to type "ENTER" in the comment box if you'd like to be entered in the drawing!

~~Angie