Confessions of the Editor Brigand — Cori Nicole Smith

Zhanna -- a grammarian, compulsive spellchecker, and young copy editor -- simmers when her expert redlines are questioned. As her agitation grows, she begins making editorial corrections outside the publishing house. On a lunch break, she confronts the cashier about quotation marks indicating “free” coffee and finally abolishes them from the chalkboard herself. She broods about careless writing and the death of language. Sometimes she feels like a dangling modifier. Clearly, she needs a break. Confessions of the Editor Brigand chronicles Zhanna's obsession. For six weeks, she travels from one town to the next, visiting her close-knit group of girlfriends, but soon discovering that even a good vacation needs an editor.