Thanks to my editor, Dennis!

I’ve been looking forward to writing about my editor Dennis. Any reminisces about our efforts together are a mix of humor, horror, and in the end, understanding. What an unlikely pair we have been. 

A decade younger than me, Dennis, an east coast man, spent many years as a newspaper editor. Think Ed Asner (rest in peace) on the Mary Tyler Show, picture me as Mary, and you’d be getting close to our dynamics.

In Dennis’s spare time, he’s a photographer and has a BBQ business called Uncle Dempo’s BBQ.

I approached Dennis three years ago with the idea of turning my blog into a book. He accepted the challenge. And it’s been a labor of love ever since… for me. For Dennis, it’s been the longest assignment of his career. 

With that said, it’s only fair to say that it was at his suggestion that I did a significant rewrite of the book, with a new focus on the material I had initially written about. That took the better part of a year, but even subtracting that year, I think I still get credit for being his most extended project.

I’m stupid competitive at games, but not really sure this counts as a win. Kind of like my sweet Aunt Lura being the longest living resident in her Alzheimer’s home. Yikes.

Once I provided him with my rewritten material, our efforts began in earnest. And that’s where we started to learn about each other, the good, the bad, and no room for the ugly. We had signed on for better or worse. At times it was for the worse.

I had much to learn. And in that respect, Dennis was a fantastic teacher. 

We began the painstaking process of going through each of my 32 chapters. A few chapters went smoothly, maybe only three to four versions of the chapter, back and forth. But the majority of chapters experienced anywhere upwards of 10-15 versions. If you do the math, that’s a lot of hours!

As we moved through the process, I began to find humor in our dialogues. Dennis’s balloon comments would come back… “California dreaming,” “Hippy Dippy nonsense,” and more. A few of my favorites were, “Are you on the dope?” and “banging my head against the keyboard.” Those two, in particular, made me laugh out loud, and at times feel like banging my head against the keyboard as well.

But we made our way. We went back and forth as many times as it took to get the writing and the message across in a way that satisfied us both. In the most difficult of chapters, we would end up talking for hours on the phone. 

No call with Dennis was less than an hour. It could be said, we both have the gift for gab. We needed thirty minutes about whatever writing matter we were talking about, and another 30-40 about life or his book or me trying to explain what manifesting really means. Regardless, we always parted ways on a positive note, moving forward.

What is most important for me to honor in this somewhat humorous post is that Dennis stayed the course with me. Regardless of our differences, he worked each chapter through until he could wrap his head around my concepts, helping me reword them for a greater majority of people like him who didn’t grow up in California in the early ’60s. While I was never really a flower child, too young, I nevertheless was still significantly influenced by the era. I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. But I must remember that the experience colored my perspective on life.

As we have made our way to this untimely finish, we each are mellowing, raising an eyebrow of smirk and feeling genuine happiness at our accomplishment. Last week we scheduled a zoom call, our first-ever. Getting down to the end, we had several items that we needed to address that would be easier on a zoom call.

I actually felt nervous as I readied myself for the call. The screen loaded, and there we were, two people who had probably spent hundreds of hours together in one form or another, greeting each other uttering the words, “nice to meet you.” 

And yes, it was more than nice to finally meet Dennis, who has helped me turn a dream into a reality. He even got to meet Rick during the call and took the time to thank him for being such a supportive mate to me during the project. Turns out Ed Asner has a pretty big heart after all, despite his efforts to hide that fact.

We have but a few weeks left until this project comes to an end. Like I’ve written about numerous times, endings are emotional for me, and I’m crying even as I write this. This has been an E-ticket ride to date myself. I am forever changed and beyond grateful.

Thank you, Dennis, for staying the course, for being the editor, the teacher, the critic, the comedian… for being you.

You can find Dennis here: LinkedIn

BBQ info if you happen to live in Dennis’s area:

“Uncle Dempo’s BBQ was started in 2015 as a hobby business to serve friends, family and neighbors. I have about five dozen customers and cook 10-12 times a year. As a native of piedmont North Carolina, I have a refined barbecue taste, and thanks to newspaper jobs in Austin and Knoxville, I own a great foundation for what works. My specialties are hickory-smoked pulled pork, pecan-smoked ribs, mesquite-smoked chili, and I recently added apple-smoked pulled chicken. I also have my own rubs and seasonings, and two branded barbecue sauces, a sweet ‘n tangy red and all-purpose white. “