September Is Be Kind To Editors And Writers Month

By Rana DiOrio, Founder, Little Pickle Press

A friend of mine sent me an email this week raising my awareness that September is “Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month.” Who knew!? Well, armed with this information I would be remiss if I didn’t take this extraordinary opportunity to thank the Editors in my life.

My first Editor was my mother, Bernardine DiOrio, Ed.D. She patiently revised all of my early writing—right up through and including college. Seriously. I didn’t produce a paragraph that my mom didn’t read with a pencil (very kind of her) in her hand. [NOTE: Not to date myself, but . . . I started writing well before computers were household consumer products. Ahem.] I thank my mom for teaching me how to write and for editing my initial written work so constructively and gently.

My second Editor was Kara LaReau of Bluebird Works (www.bluebirdworks.com). Kara edited my first three children’s picture books. If you are a writer, you can understand the apprehension you feel when you turn over “your baby” to someone you don’t know, and who doesn’t know you (or your baby for that matter), to edit your work. Well, when I received Kara’s initial edits of my first manuscript, I knew I was in the hands of a talented practitioner. She is insightful, helpful, prolific, and generous about sharing her terrifically wry sense of humor. Thank you, Kara, for refining our award-winning books to date.

The third Editor who entered my life was Judy O’Malley (www.judyomalley.com). Judy is editing the two exciting books that Little Pickle Press will be releasing on November 26, 2010. Not only is Judy a wizard at her craft but also she has an amazing ability to say just the right thing at the right time. Her sentiment, word choice, and timing are impeccable. Truly. She is enormously accomplished and widely respected while being self-deprecating. She is a remarkably delightful person and an extremely valuable team member. I am so grateful to Judy for her wisdom, passion, patience, professionalism, and aplomb.

The fourth Editor who entered my life is Dani Greer (http://twitter.com/blogbooktours). Dani guided our first blog book tour with great success and will spearhead the next two we are going to host for our upcoming releases. She is a fountain of refreshing ideas. She is a jack-of-all-trades and master of many. She is talented, tireless, selfless, funny, and interesting. Thank you, Dani, for being our red-pen-wielding Guardian Angel.

So, if you have the opportunity, please make it a point this month to thank the Editors and Writers in your life. Also, please feel free to leave a comment about them here.