"This will take some brave from both of us."--from Sparrow Road by Sheila O'Connor

Editing Genius is something I've been thinking of since I was 20 years old. Don't ask me how long ago that was. But even before I even knew enough to know to pursue an Editorial career at a publishing house (this thought truly didn't occur to me until four years later while taking a publishing course at Emerson College), I fancied myself an Editor. I even had clients--academics at Temple University where I did my undergraduate work who needed help with articles and dissertations. (Overdue apologies to those early clients; I was clueless then but you praised me anyway and I seemed to help despite my clueless-ness), but most importantly, I also had letterhead. I'd ordered it from Spiegel. I am old enough to remember when Spiegel's had actual stores. I was so proud of my nascent client list and my letterhead and in the way of anyone who likes shiny new things, I felt far more validated by the letterhead than I did my clients. Like I said, clueless. But in the intervening years, I've learned a thing or two. And I've learned the most from the wonderful authors I've worked with over the years, cheering them on to success.

The most important thing I've learned from my writers is that writing is hard and brave and scary and rewarding and a way of life. I love writers of all kinds everywhere. It is, indeed, a brave thing to put words on a page and have others judge those words, and in a way judge you. Being an editor to a brave writer is a delicate, intimate dance. An editor encourages and praises with one hand and corrects and strengthens with the other. And sometimes the hand that corrects with the hope of strengthening is a hard hand to bare. There is sometimes crying in writing, there is sometimes despair in writing, but there is always truth and there is always an appreciative reader on the other side of the journey, which equals triumph. There is triumph in writing and it is my distinct pleasure to hold the hands of these brave beings we call writers through this journey.

And as I start my own journey as the proprietor of Editing Genius, I'm going to have to follow the examples set by my authors and be brave. Writers and Editors, here we are, joined at the hip. I fervently believe one does not survive without the other.

Stacey