When I set out to learn about my mother's bridge club, the Jewish octogenarians behind the matching outfits and accessories, I never expected to fall in love with them. This is the story of the ladies, their game, their gen, and the ragged path that led me back to my mother.
Did any of you see Genius, the new movie about Maxwell Perkins and his relationship with Thomas Wolfe? It’s a fantastic story of an editor and writer whose connection goes deeper than most until it implodes completely. I’ve always nursed a theory that all editors have one writer with whom they spend endless amounts of time editing — far more than they would devote to other writers. THey are more invested in their success, lending them money, going out on limb with the publisher, throwing publication parties. I’ve also suspected that this writer speaks to the creative soul of the editor. These relationships are uncommon, exquisite, and fraught. I felt this way about a writer, heart quickened when her pages arrived, went above and beyond the call of duty, moved mountains where I could. I was truly, madly, deeply in love with her writing.
What kind of relationship have you had with your editor?
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Betsy Lerner 
I’ve had three editors.
First one jumped on my pages like a horny rabbit and then often told me how much her boss LOVED my writing.
Second one yanked me away from the first. I liked her carrots on a stick.
My now editor is polite, kind and emails me when my columns stir her own memories.
No one moving mountains for me yet.
Melanie Kroupa edited two of my books. She’s brilliant
, kind, and professional. I miss her.
I haven’t seen that movie, but now I’m going to be on the hunt for it!
My editor and I are doing that strange dance – the one where there’s a lot of distance, only the barest tip of finger touching a shoulder. It’s like any relationship in the beginning. Polite to the point I’ll work on a two sentence email longer than I care to admit – just so I don’t come off as sounding goofy. He likely zips off his replies to me in seconds. Zip, zip, done, now that’s out of the way!
I hope one day, I won’t feel like like I’m still doing the box step (1, 2, 3, 4).
My editor is lovely, good at her job, and still young enough to have some optimism. I don’t think her heart quickens over my pages.
Quoting Don’t Rain on My Parade up there? Love it!
I had an editor for a few years who was more of a father to me than my own father ever had, or took, the opportunity to be. This did not make the relationship between me and the editor entirely healthy. It may not have been entirely healthy even had I not come to him with such an unforeseen daddy-gap. (Are relationships between editors and writers ever entirely healthy? Can they be?) The editor had something to prove by taking me on as a writer, and I had something to prove by taking his edits. I think we both got what we needed, then we moved on. Cigarette?