Inside the mind of an editor (sort of)

For all you HGTV fans (I'm not a huge advocate of television, but HGTV is actually kind of fun), you need to keep an eye on House Hunters. I caught it a few nights ago and they were showing a lady and her real estate agent walking through various condos in Manhattan.

As I watched, I thought to myself, "Boy, that lady sure looks a lot like Brenda Copeland." After a few minutes they started referring to her as Brenda. I sat up in my chair. A few minutes after that, the real estate agent said to her something like, "Look at all that shelf space--perfect for an editor."

Turns out it was Brenda Copeland, who is an Executive Editor for Hyperion. Do you really get to know anything about her as an editor? Not really. As a person? Sure. You get to find out she somehow survived in a 300 square foot apartment and stored stuff in her tub. You also find out that an executive editor makes enough to go out and buy a half-million dollar condo in Washington Heights. Most of all, though, you find out Brenda is a cute, super, wonderful gal who makes me wish I actually wrote non-fiction just so I could try to sell it to her.

My favorite part is the end of the episode where she is sitting at her table reading over some 8.5x11, double-spaced pages with a pen in her hand. I'm pretty sure I saw her mouth the words, "Boy, this is complete crap." (That's a joke.)