One Hundred and One Reasons

This is a picture my Buddy, Young Fuzzy, took when we were on our way to Quebec, Canada to assist a local congregation with some renovation plans. We also saw a relic from the past. It was something Superman fans would have seen on his weekly television show.

If I remember right, the one we saw there was blue and white and had a French translation of 'telephone' on it. I don't remember the last time I've seen a phone booth in the U.S.

Outside my window we still have snow powder on the trees. It is very pretty, but when the white fluff is replaced with crystals of frozen ice the trees are burdened. They will crack and break if it gets too heavy.

There are burdens of all kinds in this world. The physical, mental and spiritual. At some point these can overlap. Over the last few months I've sought a bona fide freelance editor for my book.

I specifically have said, 'I'm looking for an editor to help me polish the story that I've written. I am not looking for someone to help me write (or rewrite) a new story'.

There are some idiosyncrasies that make parts of this story difficult. The time frame of 1987 is neither contemporary nor historical. That makes it seem out of kilter.

How do you explain no cell phones? How do you know what technical advances were available to the elite military and law enforcement?

For example, my character, Julius, has been handed a case because of the murder of another agent. The case is set up and ready to run, when the agent (known as 'Snowman') meets his demise.

Julius has been trying to shake enemy agent Z, who is set on getting revenge. Julius has spent days running through airports and countries. He at last has lost agent Z, spent a half an hour with his family (wife and daughter) before he heads for Chicago, and slides into the new case barely in time.

That's the set up. Well, the last editor didn't like the time. "1987 just won't work. He can't have a family, and it's more than a fourteen hour flight (nonstop) from Tokyo to Chicago, and this over here won't work..."

Her solution? Make him a contemporary Chicago cop chasing a gangster/mobster. Get rid of the wife and child, make him a single man, and—apparently she didn't read the part about polishing what I have.

And because I wasn't following her excellent advice she became angry. It probably didn't help when I pointed out that, 'it is a fourteen hour nonstop flight from Tokyo to Chicago, including the short hop to the final airport. You can google it.'

*Side note here, I have a son who has made that fourteen hour trip personally several times.

That, and the fact that Julius couldn't 'google' search the small town he's working from in 1987 (as she had insisted he would have done) because the internet didn't come about until 1990. Sometimes facts got in the way.

There was one point especially she kept hammering on. I asked for an exact place where her point was supported so I could rewrite it to avoid people getting that impression.

She kept trying to explain her point in several different ways. The problem wasn't that I hadn't understood her point. The problem was I didn't agree with it.

Others have read that scene and no one was of her opinion. In the end, even though I will rewrite it, I know I won't change it enough to suit her.

So, I tried to be personable, but our personalities didn't seem to go well together. You know, sometimes in life things are like that.

This exchange reminds me of several things. Everyone doesn't have the same vision. That's alright, we don't have to have the same dreams. We won't all write the same story when the ink is dry on our pages of life.

Walk with God and let him use you as part of His story, and don't worry about the editors.

John 7:38 "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water."