Author feedback

Thanks to…Tiffany Yates Martin at FoxPrint Editorial for your wise advice in early and late drafts.

My developmental editor, Tiffany Yates Martin, is a dream come true. There were moments when I thought this project was slipping through my fingers, and she jumped with me into the trenches, offering abundant and brilliant guidance. From helping me find the exact purpose and direction of the story to your incredibly wise and subtle suggestions that served as last-minute brushstrokes to bring a painting to life, this book is far better because of you. Thank you, my friend.

Thanks, also, to my agent, Jill Marsal, as well as to my patient editors, Chris Werner and Tiffany Yates Martin, who take the lumps of coal I turn in and help me turn them into diamonds. In this case, their insight helped me stay on track with the story I wanted to tell.

Some say a book is only as good as its editors, and if that’s true, I’ve been fortunate to have worked with some of the best…. Tiffany Yates Martin piloted my story into safe harbor, with notes and suggestions that have proved invaluable.”

Special thanks to Tiffany Yates Martin for her incisive edits delivered with humor and grace.

To the deeply talented Tiffany Yates Martin for yet again walking beside me on the editing journey and deftly guiding this story to levels beyond my expectations.

A particular thanks to Tiffany Yates Martin, who had an inordinate amount of confidence in my capabilities and said, ‘What if we did the craziest thing ever?’ and then we actually did it. I would not have had the courage for this book on my own.

I am indebted to my developmental editor, Tiffany Yates Martin, who saw potential for a resonant work of art when it was rough marble, and whose invaluable feedback helped me sculpt this novel into shape.

Thank you for all the hard work and good ideas! I think this story is so much more solid now after your input.

I credit…Tiffany Yates Martin, the best developmental editor, who over a year helped bring the book from good to published. A friend told me that working with Tiffany would be like taking a mini MFA, and they were right.

I’m wildly grateful to…Tiffany Yates Martin, who help[s] make my work shine so much brighter.

Thanks…to my patient editors, Chris Werner and Tiffany Yates Martin, whose keen eyes made this book so much stronger.

I am so appreciative…to Tiffany Yates Martin for helping me dig into the story’s emotional layers.

I’m honored to work with…Tiffany Yates Martin of FoxPrint Editorial. [Her] wise input…showed me the way to fully realizing the heart of Lily and Marvena’s story.

My deep gratitude to Tiffany Yates Martin for providing valuable editorial guidance yet again.

Tiffany Yates Martin, as always, took my early drafts and turned them into something even better than I initially envisioned.

Tiffany Yates Martin, your let us in and what’s he thinking? notes nearly kill us every time but they elevate our books to a place they simply wouldn’t be without your editorial expertise.

Enormous, vast buckets of thanks to developmental editor Tiffany Yates, who pushes me hard to do my best work.

To my developmental editor extraordinaire, Tiffany Yates Martin, I joke that I want to start a fan club themed entirely around your awesomeness, but what you don’t know is one already exists. Every author I’ve met who has worked with you sings your praises, and I know why—you rock. Obviously. Thank you for your honesty, guidance, and most of all patience. It is a joy working with you.

It’s such a blessing to work with someone creative in her solutions and eagle eyed in her perceptions. I feel like we achieved a great result and that through the process I needed only make a peep and you’d be at my metaphorical side. Thanks again!

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Tiffany Yates Martin, my developmental editor, for forcing me to dig deeper and find the treasure trove of emotions hidden beneath the surface.

This book wouldn’t have been written without…my long-suffering, awesome editors, Tiffany Martin and Liz Pearsons.

To my developmental editor, Tiffany Yates Martin, you are a-m-a-z-i-n-g at what you do. You have been the very best writing teacher but, more than that, a treasured friend.

To my developmental editor, Tiffany Yates Martin—thank you over and over again for your patience and hard work. This was a fun one, wasn’t it? I’m always so eager and grateful for your insights and guidance. I love seeing a manuscript transform into a novel as we work together through the editing process.

Tiffany Yates Martin! We don’t want to gush for fear you might make us rewrite it! In all seriousness, we do appreciate when you push us to be our best. You are a talented and insightful editor, and we’re lucky to work with you. And know that we will forever think of our characters’ inner lives as we write.

Tiffany Yates Martin, your ability to help polish a rock into a diamond continues to amaze me; thank you for your wise editorial input.

Your insights and ideas for the book are instrumental. Every time you make the story better. Thank you for always being such a true pleasure to work with.

Thanks to sharp-eyed editor Tiffany Yates Martin for making me dig deep.

Tiffany Yates Martin provided editorial insights that elevated the plot and characters beyond my initial musings and in ways that I could not have done on my own. Thank you, thank you. It was a joyous collaboration.

To our editor, Tiffany Yates Martin—your smart observations were spot-on and made this book so much better than we could have imagined!

You have an attentive eye but strive to retain the author’s voice, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that.

Tiffany Yates Martin—working with you was my grad school.

To Tiffany Yates Martin—oh, girl, you handle the hard work like nobody’s business! Two books in together, your words haunt my dreams and my writing sessions….You make me better in many, many ways.

Tiffany Yates Martin, this book almost died a slow, painful death, but you faithfully brought it back to life. Collaborating with you is always a dream, and I so admire your ability to mold and shape a story until it’s living, breathing, and magical.

Big, gigantic thanks go to my developmental editor, Tiffany Yates Martin…. She saw the potential…asked all the questions that made me dig deeper and deeper and deeper until I wrote what you have in your hands now. I compared it to a literary root canal. I think I made her laugh with that comment. Thank you for the education. I hope to carry it over into future books.

Your thoughts and ideas on Trail of Broken Wings were invaluable and helped me to see things that I hadn’t before. Thank you for your help, insight and a wonderful working relationship—I sincerely appreciate it. I so look forward to working together again soon.

To Tiffany, my ever-faithful content editor, you are incredible, amazing, uplifting, and hilarious. Thank you for reading my god-awful first draft and not laughing in my face or telling me to get a job. Thank you for reading my endless e-mails where I ranted and raved and had mini-meltdowns and generally acted like the neurotic writer I try so hard to hide. Let’s face it: There’s no hiding from you.

Tiffany Yates was an eagle-eyed line editor.

Tiffany Yates Martin, you are an editorial genius who can make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. Your humor and calm in the midst of technological mishap and your insight into the very heart of a story bring out the best in a writer.

Tiffany Yates Martin, your hard work and input while editing Working Fire has been priceless. Thank you for helping me make this story all it could be and inspiring some crucial and truly beautiful changes. It was an honor to work with you.

‘An author is only ever as good as their editor’—never has this been truer than in the case of Food of Love. To this end I owe a BIG thank-you to the wonderful Tiffany Yates Martin. Thank you, Tiffania Teaseblossom, for patiently adding the fairy dust!

Tiffany Yates Martin, editor extraordinaire, whose guidance and insights were joyfully collaborative and insightful, and who helped elevate the book from something I was pretty happy with to something that I am truly proud of.

Tiffany Yates Martin, thank you doesn’t begin to cut it; this story owes so much to your guidance.

I have never had an editing process that felt so non-invasive and it really, really made it all better…. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for making my book better.

More thanks fired in the general direction of Tiffany Yates Martin, my beloved developmental editor, who works hard to make sense of the incoherent soup I send her.

It was a privilege to work with Tiffany Yates Martin, developmental editor extraordinaire.

This story owes so much to you. Thank you for your wise and witty editorial guidance.

It has been a real pleasure working with you. You’ve taught me so much about the editing process, and I hope we get another chance to operate together again. I can’t say enough about the many ways you made me think, restructure, revise, pull from deep within, and pull my hair out. It was challenging, but again, a truly gratifying experience.

Tiffany was a lifesaver: thorough, precise, and meticulous.  She was exactly what my much-altered, much-muddled manuscript needed.  And her insights gave me a couple of sleepless nights—because they were so spot-on—and my book was all the better for them.

Working with Tiffany was like getting a boost to the left side of my own brain so that I could visualize a very important structural change that improved my novel exponentially. That and she caught that I’d gotten the colors of an Igloo cooler wrong! Tiffany is the editor you always dreamed of: intent upon helping you express your vision, ultra-professional, and a joy to work with. Writers struggling with structure, voice, marketability, subject/verb agreement, look up Tiffany Yates. She’s THAT good….

My gratitude cup runneth over for…Tiffany Yates Martin, for helping me develop the manuscript into a full-fledged novel, and doing it with sensitivity, insight, and humor.

Thanks for all your work on [The Last Dreamer]. You’re an outstanding editor. You saw so much in the manuscript that I didn’t even realize might be there, and your comments hit just the right tone—thoughtful and motivating but never overbearing or confusing.

To Tiffany, my superstar content editor, you’ve ruined me. Your direct uplink into my brain is a scary thing. How did I ever live without you?

Given Oblivion’s Altar’s idiosyncratic complexities, I was totally amazed by what came back after Tiffany’s work. Not only was my manuscript edited and corrected, in many cases, Tiffany had even re-researched for the accuracy of Cherokee spelling and grammar. . . . Not only did my work flow better after Tiffany’s edit, I also knew that it was right. . . . Oblivion’s Altar went on to win one award for historical fiction, and was even a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award (which is a miracle for any Texas writer). Tiffany Yates had a lot to do with the book’s critical and commercial success.

My endless thanks go . . . to my editor Tiffany, who respected my vision and helped me elevate this story to levels I never expected.

Thank you so much for all your work—you have amazing insight and the capacity to help make a book much, much better than an author ever could on her own, without taking over the vision for the story. Which makes you THE BEST of editors, in my ‘book.’ It’s been wonderful working with you. Thanks, again, Tiffany, for your kind words and every good thing you helped me dig deep for in (and weed out of) COML!

Thanks first and foremost to Tiffany Yates Martin, whose brilliant editorial guidance helped transform a sketch of a story into a novel. Tiffany, I literally could not have written this without you.

I was so fortunate to have found you. You absolutely made all the difference in how my story in this book was presented, and I am so appreciative of all that you taught me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Tiffany Yates Martin at FoxPrint Editorial, I’m lucky I found you. As far as editors go, you’re like the Albert Einstein of editing. You have a genius eye for detail and an impeccable knack for finding issues within the chronology of a story. I learned a lot from you and I hope this is the first of many books we can work on together.

I told [my agent] how incredibly helpful your edits—and especially your margin notes—have been to the rewriting process. I told him that he was going to be shocked by how much better it will be.  It’s hard to express what an improvement I’m already seeing—in concision, coherence, character motivations, showing-versus-telling, etc., etc. . . . I recommended that David use you with all his clients.

I just wanted to thank you for the terrific edit you did on Act of War. You made so many good catches!

I just wanted to let you know that I learned a great deal from your comments. Wish I’d talked to you before I ever wrote a word. . . . If I am ever fortunate enough to get established as a writer I will definitely hire you again. You are a real talent. My writing and my understanding of how a novel should be constructed were immeasurably improved by your input.

I really enjoy working with you very much, as I deeply respect your insights and the sensitive, introspective way in which you offer critique that strives to bring out the strengths of the manuscript and make it more powerful. Thanks for getting me unstuck. You’re amazing at what you do. . . . You are the complete package–a developmental and line-by-line editor that truly understands the nuts and bolts of writing as well as the craft.