Wherever You Go, There You Are

 This beautiful sample book cover for Jane Eyre was created by Claire Louise Milne. I think it is the best cover I've ever seen for this book. Jane is wearing her modest gray dress and carrying her sketchbook. She's plain, but with a graceful simplicity and she's aware of what's happening around her. I think the artist's love for the book is evident.

I'm currently proofing the galley passes of Dark Companion. I get fixated on little things: a comma here, hyphenation there, the repetition of a word or phrase. I am armed with green pencils, a pink eraser, post-its, and tea. No matter what changes and corrections I make, after the book is published, I will find Issues that I wish I had addressed.

But there is something to be said for not overthinking and futzing too much with a story. The classics that we all love may have been rigorously edited, but they were not endlessly tweaked.  Charlotte Bronte didn't send letters to dozens of carefully selected agents saying, "It's like The Devil Wears Prada only without the fashion and the crazy woman isn't her boss, but is locked in the attic!" Or "She's as plain as she is plain-spoken, and he's as angsty as he is wealthy. Will they ever find love? A precocious illegimate child provides hijinks!"

If this book were submitted to agents today, they'd want 200 pages cut. They'd want more action. They'd want the sexy times. They'd want Jane to have a makeover and a sassy ethnic and/or gay best friend. Oh, la...how lucky we are to have the book as it is!