Editors!!!!

This post is because I'm dealing with two different editors. Each editor had a novel to edit. One had the one you know as 'There's a Rumor'. This novel is about Katerine and Gabriel. The other editor had the novel you know at 'St. Louis' with Mac and Logan.

I have gone through and made most of the suggested changes in both novels. Where I'm frustrated is editors can't seem to agree on a few things.

1) The use of the word that. As many of you already know, years ago, I had an editor, she has since died, and she suggested that I go through my novels and delete almost all of mythats . She said something to the effect that, that is the most overused word in the English language, and she wishes it would be omitted. I wouldn't go that far. I did and have suggested some of you do the same. One editor, this time, added all the thats . The other editor did not.

I yanked out all six of my editing books and looked it up. Since the books often disagree, I go by what the majority of the books say. Here is the majority rule on that: "If there is no danger of misreading, the word that should be omitted. Occasionally, however; a sentence might be misread without that"

2) Next issue is the use of the hyphen. First, I'll address it with writing numbers. One editor changed my numbers, example, thirty-four to thirty four. Again, I went to my editing books. The majority said thirty-four, but wait! It does make a difference in the sentence when discussing one's age. With hyphens: We have a two-year-old child. Without hyphens: The child is two years old. This is because years is plural.

The second problem becomes is writing time. When should I use hyphens and when not to. GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!! My books stated: "When a number and o'clock together as a noun phrase, no hyphen, example: My appointment is at two o'clock." BUT wait! "When a number and o'clock together form an adjectival compound preceding a noun, a hyphen should be used. example: I have a two-o'clock appointment." That's as clear as mud. There's more, if you leave o'clock off, it's eight-thirty. That I can handle. There won't be any o'clock in my writing.

I do hope this helps. I find this all completely confusing, but that's probably me. As many of you know, I have a problem leaving out those tiny words. When I edit, and I do it a lot before I post, I read as if those words are there. I was shocked at how many times both of my editors still caught many little words left out that you guys didn't catch.

I'm planning on getting back to my granddaughter letters next Thursday. I probably won't post Sunday, but Monday because we're going down to the gulf to spend Labor Day holiday with our son.