whaddayathink?

Bad editing on everyone’s part, starting with me. Kate’s eyes are hazel and were always meant to be changeable in color. Jim was always meant to be 6′4″, the same height as my dad. I don’t know how Mutt got to be half malemute in one of the books, that is so totally wrong and really was not my doing.

There is a long and involved process when it comes to bringing a book into publication. It goes through my hands at least seven times, through the hands of my editor’s at least three, and there is a copyeditor, a typesetter and at least one proofer as well. That’s how many people–five–and a minimum of 13 steps in the process. I die inside everytime one of these errors surfaces, but I’m also always surprised that there aren’t even more of them.

Kate is not thinking about FAS when she calls Willard a moron, she’s thinking about Auntie Joy coming home to a cold house in the middle of an Alaskan winter. As Jim so aptly points out later, what Kate really wants is for Willard to be charged with Crimes Against Auntie.

Dana

This really isn’t the appropriate place to post this, but I didn’t have much luck finding a better place.

I started reading “A Deeper Sleep” last night. A few pages into it, Kate said to Willard, “You moron”, forgetting that this was almost exactly what he was.

A couple of pages later, the author describes Willard’s elfin features. I thought, uh-oh.

Then, the bombshell, when it is suggested that Willard’s grandmother is upset that she couldn’t get Willard’s mother to stop drinking while pregnant. My suspicions were confirmed-Willard has FAS, and the author called him a moron.

I have no problems with any actions that the character of Willard takes, or what the character of Kate says about him. It’s the literary nodding along of the author saying that Willard is basically a moron that I take umbrage with.

AS the mother of a child with FAS (he’s adopted from Russia), I really take issue with this. My son is almost 4, doesn’t speak, still wears a diaper, and is the love of my life. He has been diagnosed as mentally retarded, which is an ugly word itself. However, it’s a medical term. Moron is not. Moron means foolish or stupid, and is usually reserved for someone who makes foolish or stupid decisions, not for someone who is mentally disabled through no fault or decisions of their own. My son Tommy will be fighting this all his life, and I will be right behind him, hurting twice as badly as he ever will. I found it very irresponsible for Ms. Stabenow to nod along with Kate when she called a mentally disabled man a moron.