In the next novel, “Captain Henry: 2½ Insurrections, 2 Wars, 1¼ Centuries, and a Story of Love” (Sept 2026), I offer credit to my editor @SarahBelleSelig (https://substack.com/@sarahbelleselig). The came second, because I put two editors names on an unpublished novella that I also share writing credit for.

I am a left-handed dyslexic who escaped an expensive education with a remarkable grade point average (more “red lantern” than “valedictorian”; a lead sinker to the colorful bobbers floating at the top). I love to write. If there’s a ə (schwa-sound) in a word I spell it wrong. Worse, my father held to old style British or prior century spellings of everyday words (get the f’ing “u” out of there). Which was made harder because I had to attend French classes in grade school and both parents used Puerto Rican Spanish as their “adult-only” language. We were no bilingual family, just an American family where people would yell shut-the-door in Spanish and call someone a “pig” in Yiddish while spelling stuff wrong everywhere.

Storytelling? We were experts and loud. But my left hand dragged over my letters. I’d yawn and squirt spray on my paper making the smuggies

worse. I’d obfuscate every ə sound (Oh, honey just sound it out – my mothah said with her Bahstin accent). Who can really agree on color/colour/coleur/wtf-er.

“Hey Ma, how do I spell ‘stoffice’?”

“Sound it out or look it up.”

When I did get her full attention, by asking about the place down the village called the “po stoffice”. I proudly announced I had the “po” worked out. Mom attended Wellesley College and my father Harvard and I’m asking after “stoffice” while struggling to remember my time-tables to 12.

I know I need help and have hired professional editors for twenty years. Some so good, I can’t afford them anymore (I get birthday greetings and discount offers I also can’t afford).

Every writer out there has their own story. Everyone one of us spans skillsets: here a strength; there a weakness; there a blind spot. I don’t write alone.

Do you write alone? Entirely alone?

Do you use AI to help solve a linguistic challenge? Where to you place the hand rails around your work to keep you safe?

I do NOT use generative AI and I will not use it. I despise the conspiracy of theft (ahh… different article).

I want people to know that I work with people. Instead of ranting against AI, praise the human team you built (build).

Let your book, your short stories, your poems have a credits page. If you didn’t use AI and your work is this polished, this professional, let folks know your recipe. As the math teacher once said: “show your work.”

This I got short-listed on a short story contest. When asked to unmask author and run through a quick edit. SarahBelle did a quick white-glove edit and I quietly added her name on the cover page after she finished. Because it is fair. I hear the other argument. I’ve been a tech and ghost writer. When paid well for work, I have yielded ownership. This ain’t that. When SB gets her first novel going, she’ll have a few verifiable credits to her name. I get a greater sense that my creative spelling and inventive punctuation won’t distract from my storytelling. Cuz, it is the story that matters. The story cleaves from us.

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Why NOT credit your editor