Throne Price Revisions, Cheyenne Grewe

When we found out we'd have to run Throne Price through one more editing cycle, in January of 2002, after having the pre-publication version in hand since November, I admit I was unhappy. When our new editor, Cheyenne Grewe, sent us 30 pages of notes to work through I took one look, poured a drink, and watched TV that night instead of writing. But by the time we had buckled down to a productive, three-way exchange of files and e-mail, I began to discover feelings of gratitude.

There were thirty pages of errors and rough spots in the book. I had been tripping over typos in the pre-publication version and readers pointed out half a dozen I hadn't noticed. (This is the pre-publication version we are talking about, but it must have bugged Brian Hades all the same because he is very particular about Edge books being beautiful, much to his credit.) Cheyenne also found places where a little effort did wonders for clarity, which is always a struggle in a complex, invented setting like the Okal Rel Universe and doubly so when both authors have been living with it for twenty years longer than readers will have. :-)

Alison, I and Cheyenne may not have seen eye-to-eye on 100% of what needed to be done, but we found better solutions for 95% in everyone's opinion and over the remaining chestnuts, each picked her battles. Then Cheyenne beat up on Brian to win acceptance for our admittedly odd Gelack curses--like "vent it"--and retention of a few mundane vulgarities, arguably common to all mankind. (We hadn't realized, until we went through it that last time, just how many different things Branstatt means by 'oh shit' in the last few chapters. It became a Branstatt trademark.)

All and all, in the end, I find myself more confident about the book as I move towards cons and public readings, for which I am grateful. But most of all I am sincerely moved by Cheyenne's willingness to share the dream and honor the story, while bringing her professionalism to bear. If the book fails to invite people into the Okal Rel Universe, as ambassador for the series, it will not be for lack of application on Cheyenne's part.

The more time I spend, myself, doing things like judging writing contests or giving other writers useful feedback, the more I appreciate how lucky any writer is to have an editor. I hope I have learned things about serving in that role, from Cheyenne, that may benefit writers of my acquaintance in the future.

A big to Cheyenne for so masterfully managing to be part of our world with a foot set firmly in the real one, and doing it all in record time, to preserve the May release date of the book.

PS For an introduction to Cheyenne's approach to editing, in her own words, see the submissions page of the Edge website.

Page last updated: 10-Nov-2003

Corrections to webmaster