Who’s the sharpest-eyed teacher in North America? Janet Masciotra of Springfield, Massachusetts, who found a couple of errors in my newest book, First Descent – errors that I and a team of editors and proofreaders missed (blush, blush).
But better yet, this kindly teacher actually took the time to write me and point them out, complete with page number references (and compliments on the novel in general: Phew!).
Clearly, I write better than I do math, because here’s what she correctly identified: If the novel’s character Gramps visited Colombia sixty years ago, when my character Abuela was seventeen, and if my characters Rex and Myriam are both seventeen in the novel (which they are), then three small aspects of the plot do not work:
- Gramps’ wife could not have been expecting Rex’s mother during Gramps’ long-ago expedition to South America (p. 122, 192 and 217); she would have had Rex some years later.
- Rex’s mother could not have had Rex while she was a teenager (p. 13).
- Abuela would have been slightly younger than the “eighty-something” mentioned on page 192.
For her efforts, this Ms. Masciotra now has in the mail to her an autographed copy of First Descent, and a bundle of autographed bookmarks for her class. As her email stated, “This may seem trivial, but students can be very scrutinizing.”
As they should be! Kudos and a salute to this conscientious teacher. The errors are now on record here, and changes will be made in the paperback version coming out February 2013.
