Years before I began to write, I pieced together this little wall-hanging. I had a handful of two-inch fabric squares left over from another quilting project -- mostly tropical-looking florals but one showed part of a tiger's face. So I visualized a tiger in a lush jungle, keeping watch on her prey,
Fast forward to 2003 when my first book is bought by Kate Miciak at Bantam Dell. Curious to know more about this editor I'm going to be working with/for, I Google her name to find that someone has called her "the tigress of Bantam Dell." It suits her -- fierce and watchful, few things escape her editorial gaze. Kate's taught me a lot about writing in these past four years. A slap of her paw can get my attention -- "trite . . . stale" she said about one of my proposals and "Kinda hate this sentence" was penciled by a particularly lame construction. Now, as I write, this picture is always in my mind and my ear is always cocked for the warning rumble of a growl. "Ooops, Kate's gonna hate that," I think, hit delete and try again.
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