Payback Time

It was difficult for me to wait while my book, A Rose for Sergei, was being edited by my daughter.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from the editing process.  I wondered what she must be thinking as she carefully scrutinized every chapter, every page, and every word.  Would she like it?  Would she say to try again, or politely suggest that I forget it entirely?  I wondered if all writers felt the same way—were they as critical of their own work as I seemed to be?

My daughter is an editor and I trust her.  But, still, I am her mother.  My thoughts flashed back to when she was in the sixth grade and working on a science project for school.  I remembered when she showed me her results.  I told her, “It’s good, but you need a little more work.  You need to explain why something works better.”  I was encouraging her, and I wanted her to ask questions and learn from it.  She won first place at the school science fair that year.

Payback time has finally arrived.  My manuscript came back with her scrawled notes, in red ink, in the margins:  Why?  Because Sergei defected?  What were the broadcasts for?  What are S&H green stamps?

I secretly held my breath as we talked about the book.  It turned out that this payback wasn’t so bad after all.

“Mom, it’s good.  Your book is good,” she said with a smile.