Happy Valentine's Day, Rosemary Ahern!

What's funny about this post, and about life in general, is that when I started my fantasy riff about the fine New York editor, Rosemary Ahern, it was sparked by this first rejection.  From there I wended my way with many a fictional tale about how she was going to save my literary life by becoming my editrix extraordinaire. As I recall some of you mice thought the whole thing was a bit creepy and overblown; perhaps you were even right. But, here's a truly amazing thing: my agent suggested I get in touch with her fer-realz to help me with my novel, which wouldn't settle down. So I did just that. I paid her to read my novel and tell me how to make it work as an entity unto itself. It was an expensive phone call, but worth every single penny, because she was hugely insightful and made it really clear what the problem was and how to fix it.  In short, it was a matter of cutting back the secondary and tertiary story lines, which were distracting.  The reader didn't know where to focus, and the primary story and characters were getting lost. So, I cut out some serious back story, a good 40 pages if not more.  And then suddenly the story began to float, the novel was working, and I started getting some traction. Shortly thereafter it was chosen for publication by a literary press.  Ironically, if I wanted to I could now pick up the phone or email Rosemary Ahern directly and tell her personally that she is my Literary Valentine. But in the end, though a lot has changed, much has stayed, since I'd rather post my VD message on LROD. Happy Valentine's Day, Rosemary! You are spectacular.
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