When I met Steve, I was delivering mail to his office. Everyone else seemed to know him well because he worked at Surrey Fire years ago and this was only my fourth year in. The first thing I said to him was, “Hi, I’m Lori.” The second thing I said was, “I hope you don’t mind me collapsing in fake drama and sliding down the wall from time to time because that’s what I did to the guy who used to sit in this office and I really miss him.”
“Cool, he’s my good friend. I actually slept at his house last night,” was Steve’s reply.
“Nice!” I said, feeling an instant connection. Then he asked me about myself. I told him the basics – I was a bit of a clown, loved my job, had Tourette’s so if I do anything weird, he can chalk it up to that.
“Nice,” he said.
“Yeah, I even write about it. A little blog to educate and entertain. It’s called Wiser than Before.” He promised to check it out. I also told him I wrote a really great piece of creative non-fiction that I had entered into a contest. He wished me good luck then he said, “I know what it’s like to write as a form of ‘therapy’. I actually wrote a book.”
“No kidding! I love to read! What’s it called?”
“Well, it’s not officially published yet. My publisher is looking for a few changes. I just haven’t had the time.”
“Publisher! Steve, that’s awesome. What kind of changes?”
“Do you read?” he asked.
“Constantly. Anything I can get my hands on.”
“Want to read it?”
“Like, an advance copy? I would love to. I’m a bit of a snob, though. Can you stand creative criticism?” I asked. I am a bit of a book snob. I don’t set out to be and I certainly don’t have the education to be, but I am. When pressed, I will say exactly what I think about a storyline. And I offer, unbidden, what I think about the style of a writer. Most of the people in my life have stopped recommending books to me.
“I would love creative criticism. In fact, the book may need a little editing.”
My heart skipped two beats. I love editing. “Please!” I said.
And that was that. He gave me the almost finished manuscript to The Unbroken and I removed the dashes and semicolons that irritated me, shortened some sentences, removed awkward phrases, and wove together a paragraph or two. Being human, I am sure I have missed a grammatical or spelling error here or there, but most importantly, I loved the book.
I was hooked at the preface. Chapter one took my breath away. And the murder scene still haunts my nightmares to this day (you will know it when you read it). What I loved best was that Steve was not trying too hard. If you read a lot, you know what I mean. His characters weren’t looking in the mirror so the reader knew what they looked like. There were no flowery phrases. This was a raw, revealing memoir with heart. This is an important book. And I told him so.
I’m still humbled beyond words to have my name in the Acknowledgments section. I’m the girl who reads that section of every book because I know that although it takes one person to write a book, it takes a team to make it sound great.
And I am honoured to be part of Steve’s team.
By: Lori Yohannes
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