One for the Books

I am seventy-three, but I’m no Luddite. I have written all of my books on the computer, though it is not always a trouble-­free process. Paragraph settings mysteriously change. Entire sections disappear. Instead of inserting words, I find myself deleting them. Still, with the aid of memory sticks, the miracle of copying and pasting, and the help of a somewhat tech-­savvy wife, I always somehow put together a finished manuscript.

My publisher, House of Anansi Press, has blessed me when it comes to editors. Janie Yoon worked with me on my first twelve Ava Lee books, and Doug Richmond has now done two, along with the first two instalments of my Uncle Chow Tung series. Both of them have tolerated my aversion to electronic editing — a dislike that comes not from principle but from the fact that I truly connect with my books only when I hold them. So the editors will do their line edits by...