What happens while "nothing is happening": Style Sheets

The publishing process is full of invisible steps. The creation of a style sheet, which provides consistency and accuracy in vocabulary across a book, is one of those invisible steps.

Here is an alphabet-bookish selection from the style sheet prepared by Julie Harman for Catch and Release. Julie is the production editor at Lerner, Carolrhoda Lab. (She was an important ally in the creation of The Freak Observer, too.)

Alzheimer's

Blankie
Crisco

Herman the Sturgeon.
I took this picture last time I saw him.
He has a Facebook page...
someone wants him to
o-fish-e-ate at her wedding.

DEET

Evel Knievel 
Flashback Pheasant Tail Nymph
gothasol
Herman the Sturgeon
Jefferson, Thomas

kahuna

Lucky Charms

Moby Dick

NICU

Oreos

Princess Peach

refrieds

Smokey Bear 

Troutzilla
...? (There is no U! It makes me want to yell "stop the presses" and put a sentence in there about the Unknown pokémon...and no V? I'm ashamed of myself.)

 White-Slave Traffic Act

 X-ray
 Yeats, W. B.
 ziplock


The real list is much longer. Here are the rest of the Sssssssss ...

Saltine (brand name)

screwdriver

Here is a rattlesnake shaped
like the letter S.
There is a rattlesnake
in Catch and Release.

seat belt

Seychelles

Sharpie

sloe gin fizz

Smokey Bear

snak-paks

Snow White

snowflake babies

"The Song of Wandering Aengus"

The Sopranos

South Park

speakeasies

Spokane, Washington

Statue of Liberty

St. Regis River (MT)

superbug

systemic

A huge amount of work went into preparing this style sheet. This is just one of the things that happens while "nothing is happening" author-wise during the publishing process. And it's just one of the reasons I am deeply grateful to the people who work together to make my stories into books.

P.S. I had to come back here and correct the spelling on Julie's name. It is Harman, not Harmon. (Maybe Herman the Sturgeon can help me remember this.) Did I notice the error on my own? No I did not. Editor Andrew Karre caught it. The amount of work an editor invests in a book, in an author... imagine.