So, who is Sandy Stockton and why did she count every single comma in House Report? Well, to properly answer that question, you have to go back to the beginning.
It
was a dark and stormy night in 1993 when I started writing House Report (really!).
I had spent every night for a couple of months, hand writing this idea out on
legal pads. Then, one day, I got a computer and spent another month or so entering
the first 70 pages of the book into the computer. And then I stopped. I had
worked hard, I liked the book but I had no other feedback. Was it worth moving
on? Would anyone like it?
Then we cut to dinner at my mom's. Sandy and her husband Leighton were there and over one too many glasses of wine and diet coke, I told them about the book and how I wanted to know what someone thought of it. Would Sandy read it? I mean, I liked Sandy a lot, she was well-educated, well read, we had the same tastes (meaning she should like it!) and she was honest. That was the only scary part. So, a little reluctantly, I let Sandy take it home and she and her husband read the story. I sat at home, freaking out, and waited. Well, I didn't have to wait long, I mean it seemed like weeks but really, it was only the next morning when she called and said those immortal words, 'I read this really good book last night.' And that was the start of a beautiful relationship, as they say.
I grilled Sandy for hours on what she liked about the book, as well as what she didn't like about the book and what we discovered is that Sandy loves the little things, the picky stuff, the obsessive compulsive stuff and because I didn't, we made a team. We shook hands and from that moment Sandy became my editor, the historian for the Kate Carpenter universe, in charge of continuity and in embellishing or tightening up the stories. The best part about Sandy is that she is totally honest - she doesn't pull her punches and in the end, the stories are better for it. I am an incredibly lucky writer to have someone to work with, who loves to look after everything I hate to look after, and vice versa.
So through spring storms and winter blizzards, through lack of internet and midnight runs to drop off diskettes with all our edits and changes on them, we have managed to finish three books together and look forward to many, many more in the future.
Sandy Stockton is an incredibly private woman as well, which is why I'm telling you about her rather than having her do the talking here. Maybe, as time goes on, she'll open up a bit. I can tell you she was born in Saskatchewan, she is by trade a library technician, she has a lovely family and is raising two great daughters, and she is very crafty.
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