biancadarc.com Blog

Copyedits Done

Huzzah! The copyedits are done! Long live the copyedits!

Mass quantities of chocolate, pencil lead, and erasers were consumed, but they are done. Now I have to package them up and get to the post office to return them to my editor.

I had a neat moment while I worked on them. I’ve been sitting with my Mom as she tries her best to rest in preparation for her surgery. While sitting at the table working, she told me she remembered watching her uncle do the same when she was a child. I got a shiver down my spine. Let me explain why…

Her uncle was a famous poet  and writer, in his time. There are museum exhibits in Europe of his life and work to which my mother donated many papers, portraits and other materials, which passed to her after he died (well before I was born). He had no children and he loved her as if she were his own daughter. Part of the reason had to be because she looked a lot like his wife, who was my grandfather’s sister. He left his author’s rights to her in his will, which unfortunately were lost over time and the distance of an ocean.

Even though I never met him, I have heard stories about him my entire life. He’s been a huge influence on everything I’ve done in my life and I can truly say, he’s always been one of my heroes. The idea that I ended up doing something he also did — of course his work was on a much grander scale — touched me deeply. I doubt I’ll ever reach the level of success he did, but it’s comforting in an odd way to know a little of what he experienced in his work.