Today I finished reviewing the page proofs for The Nansen Factor. I read them over twice. Page proofs are super exciting for an author because the next step will be the physical creation of the book. Why review page proofs? Sometimes two-syllable words are too long for the space available on a line and the hyphen is missing. Sometimes a mistake has slipped past the copyeditor. If this happens, fixing the word may involve changes to the rest of the paragraph. Sometimes a paragraph needs to be indented. All these small changes matter. The goal is as few mistakes as possible, as perfect a book as possible. Reading over my words for the umpteenth time made me smile because this short story collection of mine is good, even if I say so myself. And timely, although the stories take place across a century.
