Ebony – First of all I am very glad to hear you believe in the idea and that you are in.

We haven’t had much of a chance to interact so far, but I wanted to tell you what a big fan I am of your writing. I also have been meaning to tell you for some time that I love your blog. I love the design, I love the content, when I saw it I thought “I want my web presence to look like that.” Big Fan !!

I really look forward to having an opportunity to collaborate and work together on this with you and the others. It think it’s going to be a wonderful learning experience and I know your contributions will make it successful – so thank you.

That’s 4 !!!!

James Lee Schmidt (J.L.S.)

Hey Ann – Great to hear you are in. I know nothing about putting together an anthology either – isn’t that great!!! We’ll learn about the process together. You have a great idea – including a short bio is perfect.

Look – I believe it’s an opportunity to learn by doing and I truly believe that there are writers participating here that have things to say – (I read your Death Dreams so I know). This could be just the platform to say those things.

I am very pleased that you are in – That’s 3.

James Lee Schmidt (J.L.S.)

Lee – I am glad you think it’s a good idea. I only used the end of the course as a starting point for discussion. I myself always get more dedicated with a firm deadline date to spur me on.

I definitely don’t wish to take away from your wonderful opportunity to work with Jon Morrow. I only offer this as a way to connect and collaborate and hopefully compliment the work we are all doing and help to exhibit the vast array of stories we are writing.

I am very glad you’re in. Now if we can convince a few others I think this will make for a great learning experience and hopefully give us a chance to get to know each other a little bit better.

Thanks again for joining in.

James Lee Schmidt (J.L.S.)

Margie – Thanks for all the support. The answer to your question of re-editing is yes. In fact that’s one of the reasons why I have not been as active here in the Story Cartel lately. We are both reworking the story and both of us are listening as well as suggesting things that need to change. It feels very collaborative.

Once again, I really, really appreciate all the advice from you, Sunny, and Angie. I’ll admit that to being a bit downhearted after that initial edit. But after coming to a meeting of the minds things are starting to feel very positive and I am motivated to make big strides.

I’m hoping that you and the rest of the Story Cartel will start to see improvements in my writing as we move forward.

I just wanted to follow up and let those of you who offered suggestions about how to deal with editors know what has transpired since.

I took your advice and I had a real candid conversation with this editor whom I had enlisted to help with my stories. I explained that I thought that many of the editing suggestions were lacking my voice and personality and that I just felt some of the edits were wrong. I wanted to make clear where I was coming from as well as allow them explain where they were coming from.

Well I just wanted everyone out there to know that the conversation went really well. She explained that editor/writer relationships can be a whole lot like dating someone. You need to go out a few times before you really start to know a person, and I appreciated that immensely.

Now she did stick to her guns regarding certain aspects of my writing (My tendencies to OVERwrite things, my poor punctuation, and that I tend to structure my thoughts poorly which makes it difficult for a reader to follow – like what I am doing right now), but I respect that. I mean I am striving to get better. That is my primary goal. Yet she also listened to what I was trying to say and how I wanted to say it, and she let me know that she understood entirely. It was very refreshing as well as extremely motivating.

Again – I want to thank all of you for your advice and guidance. I can’t tell you what it meant and because of your help I think I took a big step forward.

Thanks Again.

James Lee Schmidt (J.L.S.)

Thanks Amanda for the positive feedback and insights. As I told Dawn in my reply to her, my friends are all a different breed of individual. Most of them I have known longer than I have known my sisters – and honestly I like them better than I like my sisters (kidding, sort of). Blumberg is the instigator, Laughlin is the smart one, Dominic is the protector, and Waugh was the fun one. I don’t know how many times I got talked into doing things I would never consider doing by Waugh. He was so relentless in his efforts to get us to go along with one scheme or another that after a while I’d find myself saying “Ok, Ok, I’ll go. Just shut up already,” knowing that at some point bail may have to be posted (kidding, sort of).

You’re right about Waugh’s little golf mantra. I should have used dialogue. I completely missed that. About the action thing, you know the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words?” Well I could have probably written over a thousand just to describe what took place in only 15 or 20 seconds (Let’s face it, there is no way Waugh ran that in a clean ten seconds). However I agree adding a bit more description of the run wouldn’t have really taken much more extra effort.

I will work on bringing you right into the action in future stories. Thanks again for taking the time. I really appreciate the insights and feedback.

James Schmidt (J.L.S.)

Amanda thank you for taking the time to read my story. There isn’t a golfer alive who hasn’t hit that shot. Yet almost none that I know of that would choose to invoke the 10 second rule. A mulligan is not fitting serves no punishment and I myself would rather take the terrible shot, play it and move on, than try to chase after it with the hope of a redo. Plus I’d probably pull, strain, or injure something in the attempt.

All of my friends are Very unique individuals. If I am every lucky enough to become a best selling writer whose sold thousands of books, I would never manage to properly describe them. I am glad people seem to be getting a glimpse into the type of people the are/were. You see, Waugh was killed in a plane crash outside of Chicago in 2006. Now I’m not trying to bring people down or elicit sympathy because that’s not who Waugh was at all. He was an very fun loving guy with great spirit. Waugh left us with a lifetime of great stories and great times. My friends and I really never get tired of telling Waugh stories.

As to your point about the first paragraph or two, I agree, they do wobble. I was trying to show readers – MAN I REALLY WANT TO BEAT THESE GUYS – but it didn’t come off quite so well. I wanted people to understand the competitive nature involved when we get together and that I am not immune to it’s allure. I agree – it could have been done better. I will endeavor to to better in the future.

Thanks again for sharing and for taking the time. I appreciate the feedback immensely.

James Schmidt (J.L.S.)

Mirel – Thank you for taking the time to read The Ten Second Rule. When writing this story there were two aspects that I struggled with quite a bit. Whether to tell the story from a past or present tense perspective, and secondly to try and keep the dialogue of five separate people distinctive enough without having the story decay into indiscernible noise. Honestly this story will probably always sound better told out loud then it does written down.

I don’t know if you read my recent post in the Cantina about my efforts to work with a professional editor. The experience has been enlightening to say the least. I am finding that I have a way to go yet with sharpening my writing style.

You are correct when you site the areas where I probably ran off the keyboard a bit ( I have a tendency to do that.) It does read better “I’m not sure why though.”

The second example sounded way better in my head then it came out in print. Perhaps something like “He will not allow any of us to forget that he is playing at a disadvantage.” That does read more smoothly.

I personally am the type of writer where often I require different eyes to read over what I have written. Too many times I will read and re-read something and yet fail to disconnect myself enough to hear how it might sound to other readers.

Again I really appreciate the help and advice. I really enjoy the interactions and the insights, so thank you.

James Schmidt (J.L.S.)

As always Margie, thanks for the guidance.

You read my Ten Second Rule story, so you know I love playing golf. It’s something I have been doing since the 6th grade and even to this day I still take lessons throughout the year. The golf coaches I work with tend to look at my game, scope my weaknesses, and then give me some exercises to work on to improve and get better. That is kind of how I pictured it would be working with a professional editor. I would show them what I have, tell them where I was wanting to go, and then let them make suggestions how to get there. Looking back – I might not have made that clear.

I think I will take your advice and not cut and run just yet. Maybe we need a better dialogue. Maybe the story I was wanting to tell was not coming through clearly enough. And maybe, when it’s all said and done, this doesn’t make a good partnership, and that’s OK.

Again – I don’t want people to get the impression that this person scalded me because that is absolutely not the case. I believe they were truly trying to be as helpful as possible. But man – it was eye openingly harsh!

Thanks Margie.

James Schmidt (J.L.S.)