My oldest proofreader is dying

Blazing Reader,

My mother was the first person to proofread any of my writings — beginning with my retelling of the The Three Little Pigs in grade two. Fast forward to 2022, she was one of the final proofreaders of my 500-page novel, Much Ado About Corona — catching a subtle but significant typo that passed the radar of the seven other proofreaders.

Mom was eager to review the proof of my next novel, All the Humans are Sleeping. But when I brought it to her on Thursday she was down with a bad cough and feeling rotten. By Friday her condition was much worse. On Saturday morning, she was rushed to the hospital and quickly transferred to intensive care, where she has been since.

Instead of her reading the proof, I've been reading All the Humans are Sleeping to her amidst the beeping and frequent interruptions of ICU. I'm not sure if she'll hear the end of it — at least not from this side of the grave.

As the opening dedication of the novel says, addressed to my late wife, "I sure hope you can read books in heaven."

You can see a pic of me and my (at the time) 77-year-old mother and her reaction to my first novel here: https://blazingpinecone.com/news/2023-05-04/

Stay sane & read great books,
John C.A. Manley

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/