A friend sent me a goofy picture with a confused look and asked if this is how authors feel about editorial time. I looked at it and thought: 1) I don’t feel confused, but rather, challenged. I pace in order to figure out difficult plot or character situations; and 2) Half of my editorial time is spent cleaning the house, doing yard work and laundry, reading and responding to emails and FaceBook posts. The other half of my editorial time is spent in no-blinking computer screen reading and re-reading and rewriting and revising until my legs go numb and my back feels like it’s had a rod stuck in it for days. Oh, and there’s the print-out version time when I think I’m ready for a final look-through, and end up putting editorial marks and revised words on each page until they’re nearly unreadable.

Maybe it’s not such a good idea for an author to work at home. Not this one, anyway. But since I find other locations very distracting, it’s the best I’ve got.