My husband and I are in the car on the way to his mother’s house. It is my husband’s birthday. I’m driving.
He calls his to tell her we are about half an hour away, and I hear mention apple pie. When he hangs up, I ask, “She made apple pie for your birthday?”
“Yes,” he says.
I think about this and go through the 16 years I’ve known him. “Do you like apple pie?” I ask.
“No.”
Well, of course. Our son doesn’t like pie. And she is diabetic and can’t eat pie. I’m going to have to eat a lot of pie.
It reminds me how I feel when I go home and my father asks me if I want iced tea. “Hey,” my father says, “you might’ve changed your mind by now.”
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When I read guidelines for magazines, journals, agents, et al, I turn to my story and try to figure out if what I’ve written is what they mean. The editors are telling me what they like, and I still don’t know.
Do editors ever feel like my husband on his birthday–he’s always made it clear he likes cake. He really likes cake, but is handed a pie.
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 
I know how he feels. I had to actually tell my wife to stop making me cakes for my birthday. I had to tell my mother the same thing repeatedly. I’m not a fan of my birthday and I don’t like cake for it. But my mother, unlike my wife, never listened.
Editors will always get cake when they ask for bread. Let them eat cake. Some of it is delicious.
I love cake. But I don’t give cake to people who don’t like it–I eat it instead. Why don’t some parents listen? With luck and effort I won’t be like that.
Well, editors aren’t the same as spouses. Although it probably feels like they are in some cases. 🙂
I can’t imagine spending that many years in a relationship with someone and not listening to them. I mean, I can, because I’ve been on the “receiving” end of it. It’s just not a very … equal or respectful relationship.
It reminds me of the time my mother-in-law (along with other in-laws) decided to celebrate my getting my MA by taking me to a barbeque restaurant. I don’t like barbeque and never made a secret of that fact. Congratulations!
Yes. Why do people in relationships do that?