aRGH

I need to find a sort of personal editor. Someone who actually reads and understands what I mean when I say because I have actually studied poetry that it is something that lingers in my writing and I therefore believe that like poetry my writing has to be read outloud. I have a certain rhythm to my writing. I don't think that it doesn't work in printed form, but I like when I read a sentence or paragraph written by someone else that makes me want to read it aloud.

It breaks a barrier, crosses from paper over the eye and through the ear. It has movement. Movement is one of the things that fasincates babies and makes them curious. It lures kittens. It makes a dress more than something you throw on your back. It makes a story revert to oral tradition. How many stories have you been told by someone that you never bothered to count but, have never forgotten?

I need someone whose mother tongue is English, who has better grammar than me, who has taste and likes books I don't like, about things I wouldn't care to know about, who has a heart made of pumice - so that while it's still made of stone, maybe my words can seep in. I need someone who I don't know who can be just as mean and critical and as much of a bastard as any editor or agent is going to be.

I need George Plimpton meets that sort of overzealous personal trainer every gym seems to have, with the tongue and finesse of a mother-in-law who doesn't think their kid should have married your worthless good-for-nothing ass.

If you're out there and you have better spelling than MS Word's F7 key, would you lend me your ears by way of your eyes?