They say it takes a village to raise a book. In my case, the village had a bunch of de Jongs in it: Lisette, Daphne, Maureen Crisp (de Jong by marriage) and Maureen’s daughter Rhia. By far the biggest impact on my story Find Me was from Lisette de Jong, bestie and editor extraordinaire.
Lisette resisted looking at my manuscript until I thought I was finished. Wise woman. Many revisions later, she took a hand and guided my work, elevating my writing significantly. On completion, my very experienced formatter Bev Robitaille, then unknown to me, loved my manuscript, reading it in three days, pronouncing it excellent. I know I have Lisette’s light touch and finesse to thank.
It is very sweet in a soul kind of way to have someone who is there for me when I need her in the usual friendship ways, to also be there for me with her incredible skills and generous gift of time and quality of care for my work. We’ve been friends since we were about sixteen, how cool is that? Very.
