Since I came home from work Friday evening, I have engaged in an authorly pursuit my husband refers to as Editing Like A Psycho. Before you are offended on my behalf, allow me to explain. I will go over a manuscript for ten hours in a row, taking breaks to drink coffee and eat while I try to add what my editors suggested and remove what they did not like. Removing is far more painful than adding. Although sometimes adding blows.

When you finish a story you think it is complete. Then an editor reads it and you find out that things which you think are on the paper and clear to the reader are not actually on the paper in a way that paints a clear picture for the reader. This is when wine becomes involved and possibly some chocolate.

When I’m really in the flow of editing, I space out only to realize I never ate the toast I made for myself and it’s now stone cold.  Cold pizza is good. Cold toast is not. At one point Saturday afternoon, my husband said, “You know people are coming over for band practice, right?”

I nodded and kept typing. He said, “Do you want to put on some real  pants?”

“I did.” I looked down and discovered I still had on pajama pants which was funny, because I thought I took a shower. Apparently I planned to do it, but didn’t stop editing long enough to actually go through with it. So, since people were coming over, I took a shower and dressed in yoga pants and a big t-shirt. That’s as close to real clothes as I was willing to get.

I plan to edit like a psycho for a few more hours on Sunday and Monday and then hopefully it will be ready to send back to my editors. I can only imagine what they drink and eat when they are reading revisions. I bet they do it wearing yoga pants.