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Henry Denander |
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At the doctor's - I am glad that I was 43 when our son was born and not 23. I am wiser now and more relaxed and I have a lot of time for him. But it's harder to play football and crawl on the floor with Legos when you are older. My son is six now and I had to take him to the doctor because he had a throat infection. There is a doctor nearby and we have been there before. When we walk into the doctor's office, she looks over her glasses and says -Hi William! You have your Grandfather with you today? When I protest she puts on her glasses and is really embarrassed and apologizes and says that she didn't really see without her glasses on. She is a couple of years older than I am and she starts telling me about her grandchildren. Everything gets sorted out and she examines William and he gets his medicine but she is still a little embarrassed when we leave. It will probably be easy getting appointments and prescriptions on short notice in the future. She will remember us. I hope she is not planning her retirement too soon. For my editor - Since I am Swedish I need someone to go through my English stories and poems so there are no mistakes that will make the reader laugh at the wrong place. I have the very good fortune of getting help from an old friend from America who is a much published writer & poet. He reads through my stuff and suggests small changes here and there, correcting my Swedish approach to English. He says there are only minor changes but for me they are vital and I couldn't do without his help. I just read that Raymond Carver's editor claimed that he was the one that actually wrote all of Carver's prose, because of all the changes he made to the text. I don't think that my editor will say this but his influence has been great. And, when writing poems about your family and friends you always run the risk of criticism and that someone will get upset or be offended, so it's good to be able to share the blame: -Well, you know my editor, he has helped me a lot with my writing and he actually suggested I should write it like this…." |