“Anyone who is going to be a writer knows enough at 15
to write several novels.”
—May Sarton
—May Sarton
In 2002 an eleven
year-old Caitlyn Mitchell put down her collapsing edition of The Fellowship of the Ring and declared
with confidence, “I will write a book.”
That’s very interesting, her twin sister thought as she turned the
pages of yet another Asimov classic. I
could write a book too. Why not? It looks like Caitlyn is having so much fun. I
think I shall. I’m sure it’s easy.
And it was. A fever
overtook the two sisters, and it was not long before the words that they
discovered would obey them were pouring out onto the page at the behest of
their fingertips. Perhaps their parents might have been concerned at the sudden
increase in hours their daughters were spending on the computer. But the
excitable tap-tapping on the keyboard, accompanied by the frequent abuse of the
backspace key, assured them that it was time well spent. It was not long before
the sisters were able to sit back with satisfaction at the work they had
completed.
The resulting novels
from each aspiring writer were, as one would expect, terrible. Despite being
blessed with advanced reading levels and a vocabulary that wielded words gleaned
from the depths of the greatest minds in literature, the little authors were
simply no match for the inevitable curse of the “first novel.” In the spirit of
preservation, Caitlyn kept a copy of the first edition of her book (and still
keeps it to this day with the occasional haunted whisper of “Is it secret? Is it safe?”). Lindsey,
on the other hand, destroyed the evidence within two years.
However, while the
stories were juvenile, the characters poorly developed, and the descriptions repetitive,
neither of the twins would ever declare the experience to be a failure. It was on
that cold, wintry day at the young age of eleven that they began a journey that
would lead to multiple self-published retold fairy tales, a thesis of collected
short stories and essays on science fiction, hard drives full to bursting with
scraps, notes, short stories, poetry, songs and reference materials, and a
creative relationship that would continue to mercilessly shovel coal onto the
furnaces of their burning imaginations.
Lindsey dabbled in fantasy for a season or two before she felt the pull of science
fiction dragging her back to her roots. Two more novels were written in their
entirety – and a third begun – before the realization struck her in 2006 that
her words were drying up under the strain. Panic ensued. For many years she
feared, as every writer someday does, that her craft had abandoned her. Perhaps
her desire to be a writer had flared up and burned out, never to be revived
again. She turned to poetry as a method to keep the words flowing while she
struggled through the desert of her own creativity.
In the meantime, Caitlyn
continued to refine and rewrite her original work from four years before,
constantly adapting it in an attempt to keep up with her quickly developing
voice. It was at this time, working on this project, that Lindsey turned to
editing and began to concentrate less on the lack of perfection in her own work
and more on how to discover perfection in the work of others.
It was a slow
turning point that led Lindsey from her floundering in poetry on to the medium
of the short story. Gradually she found her voice again, narrowed into the styles
of hard science fiction, comedic fiction, and the occasional recollection of
high fantasy. She constructed a thesis on temporal metaphysics and spent two
years combining academic research with creative writing. She continued to hone
her editorial skills and began to enjoy the craft of editing more and more as
her partnership with her sister moved on to new and exciting projects.
By 2013 Lindsey was
ready at last to consider herself an Editor of Fiction.
