Five Sleeps til the Australian Landing

My beloved Aussie ed, Elise Jones.

See this woman? See her? Do you know who that is? That, dear friend and heart, is my beloved, my darling, my I’m-never-letting-you-go-as-long-as-I-have-finger-nails-to-cling-with* Australian editor Ms Elise Jones.

I may have mentioned her before** but in case you don’t know, Elise and I have worked together since 2009. Since then, we’ve pummelled four very fat, very complicated books into shaped, and we’re just about to launch ourselves into our fifth (possibly the fattest, possibly the most complicated) when we start edits on Resonance this Autumn.

Elise is incredibly dedicated, amazingly astute, and beautifully creative (especially when it comes to accommodating my rather kinky use of language) Moreover, she’s MAD AS A BAG OF CATS. We never cease to make each other laugh out loud (even right at the end of the editing process, when the two of us have our eyeballs hanging out on strings, and are stressed out on coffee and too much work and have reached the point where we’re arguing over whether or not ‘a day ago’ means ‘yesterday’ (ha ha haaaa! Irish speak vrs Aussie speak – will our differences know no bounds?) )

This is why I am so excited to FINALLY GET TO MEET HER! Yes, despite having e-mailed each other daily for four years, we have never once laid eyes on each other. In fact, I’m not certain we’ve ever even talked on the phone! But not for much longer, for it is only five sleeps til Elise-Time. Soon the Antipodean Lunatic and I will be sitting in the sunshine sipping white wine and nibbling cheesy wotsits (or more likely – given the summer that’s in it – huddled by the fire covered in blankies and sipping hot chocolate) EITHER WAY I’M GOING TO MEET ELISE JONES!!!!!

Now excuse me, I have dust bunnies to evict and a camp bed to root out from its hiding place.

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*There are all kinds of editors, most great, some OK, a few monstrous. You take what you’re given as a writer and you try and get the best out of the situation, no matter what it is. It’s rare (especially nowadays) that a writer gets the chance to develop the kind of ongoing, exploratory and creative partnership with an editor that I’ve had with Elise. Long may the publishing Gods shine on our partnership.

** forgive the hacker defaced appearance of the old blog.