It was only ever going to be a matter of time. And now, the time is here. We have arrived at that point, the logical conclusion for a relationship which always had the words Higher Authority written all over it.
Yes, God has entered the negotiations between my publishers and I over my forthcoming book Take Off Your Party Dress.
We have reached the copy-editing stage you see. There is some finetuning, differences over spelling, issues about repetition, one further instance about whether my attentiveness towards my children is OTT (that's copy-editing language). But the changes required from me are, on the whole, quite light in fact, as Agent Tracy (of the Wylie Agency) informs me.
Except for this one, though. The big one. The one, apparently, that comes under "General Comments" rather than any of the dotted red lines that now politely tiptoe across my manuscript, the tracks of the copy-editor.
"Is there not somewhere we could address your take on the afterlife?" my publishers query. Whatever can they mean? I ask myself. Take Off Your Party Dress is about living with breast cancer. Oh my God, oh Lord, surely not...surely they don't think...
PS: And may I just say I'm only glad to be here long enough to add a postscript, but the ps is to you, fellow-bloggers, just to say I hope, under the circumstances, you'll forgive me this once, a quite short blog.
· Dina Rabinovitch blogs at www.takeoffyourrunningshoes.typepad.com. Her book, Take Off Your Party Dress, will be published in March 2007, with all proceeds going to Mount Vernon Cancer Hospital.
