Monday was a chance to chill, and I took advantage of it. For the third consecutive year (to the best of my recollection), I skipped the MLK parades. We have two such parades on MLK Day in this city, led by different organizations. The "official" parade through the east side of downtown has always troubled me, as high schools and middle schools feel compelled to honor Dr. King's legacy by showing off their JROTC chapters, complete with military dress uniforms and faux rifles.
What did King say about militarism in one (or more) of his famous speeches?
Anyway: I missed it, cleaned the kitchen, prepared a bed for blackberry plants, and after a hearty lunch had a pretty groovy conversation with my editorial consultant at iUniverse.
My editorial consultant is a real person, really living in Bloomington, Indiana (home of iUniverse HQ), and not a Filipino telemarketer trying to get me to spend more money to market my books. Yes, iUniverse does that. That aside, among the many things she did tell me during our hour-long conversation were that
- my manuscript would benefit from the services of a developmental editor, and
- my manuscript deserves the services of a developmental editor.
As expected, from my reading of the Editorial Evaluation, the consultant gave me some hints as to how I might fix the manuscript's problems with point of view and the ratio of dialog to narrative. I hope to get on that very soon.
Also memorable from the conversation: She was really happy to learn that there are indeed liberals and Unitarian Universalists in Texas. "Few, but fierce," I told her. She commiserated with me for my leftish stance in this redneck environment, but I replied that I had been fortunate to find a whole community of activists and advocates for progressive causes, as well as avant garde art and music. No commiseration necessary. I don't think I would treasure that community as much if I lived in a more "liberal" state.