They're only imaginary dogs

Nancy Kress has just blogged about reviewing the galleys for her new thriller, Dogs. I only have an inkling of how hard it would be rereading your entire book; when I review my own cover or ad or publicity copy it's usually quite the cringefest. Luckily Nancy's a total pro (implying I'm not? Oops.), and knows to resist the urge to rewrite. Inserting substantive edits into copy edited galleys = potential introduction of glaring errors, and only me to catch them since the proofreader is reviewing the galleys simultaneously with the author. I just can't take that kind of pressure. Ask Jacob. No, don't.

However, if we were making major edits, here's a good suggestion from a mysterious poster to Nancy's blog, "cd," as to how to improve the novel: "I just can't believe you kill dogs - dogs! - in this novel. Could you fix that in the galleys? Maybe, you know, make it rats or weasels instead that carry disease? Surely the press wouldn't mind."

Hmmm. I suppose fewer calls from the SPCA would be nice. What's PETA's stance on vermin?

Good luck at the Nebula Awards, Nancy.