*Grumble*

[alfreda89]

I hate it when copy editors change the names of minor characters. I didn't have immediate plans for this one, but now I have to double-check that she changed him everywhere...and that the name she chose was period.

Comments

[msagara.livejournal.com]

I’ve never had that happen - was there a reason she changed it, or did she just get the spelling confused somehow?

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Because she did it back in 1997, Michelle, I will probably never know. I scanned, and it's not a duplicate character name. All I can think is she saw the name (a nickname of an Old Testament name) and thought some hillbilly or pop name had slipped in, and dropped in "Luke" which was not used hardly at all in 1790, as best as I can make out.

It's fantasy, so I do play with things, but I don't want "Luke" in there anymore. So we're going with Elijah.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

That was my question too.

[carbonel]

I'm a copyeditor, and that one gets a big "WTF?" from me. Copyeditors should not be making those sorts of changes. At most, they should query.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

It was too long ago to know what her thinking was--I don't even have any memory of seeing the copyedit on this book. But when I sold the first one to HP, it took them eleven months to counter-sign the contract, and we almost pulled the book. So it was very odd all the way around. The editors were good people who liked the books, but the covers, the editing--this editor changed a myth, which really irritated me. The previous volume, that editor changed something that could be very dangerous for people, if they followed the advice.