The Gallows would drop Prue, the Tongue Kisser—so would I, but for different reasons. Prue wasn’t funny enough for the Gallows, and I could never be reassuring enough for Prue. Mr. Barlow would stop seeing Eric, who was too young and too demonstrably affectionate for the snowshoer, who was clearly not at ease in Eric’s lap at the Gallows Lounge; the snowshoer still had to be careful, even in New York. Even Eric managed to restrain his affection for Mr. Barlow as a woman. Eric hadn’t become an all-gay band because he wanted to be with a woman.

I hadn’t known that Mr. Barlow had been copyediting his parents’ novels, which no doubt fueled his disdain for their actual writing; Elliot saw firsthand how badly they wrote. The little Barlows’ U.S. publisher had given Elliot the training to be a copy editor—he’d taken a course at one of the publishing institutes, and he’d done some freelance jobs with supervision. I wasn’t surprised to learn that the little English teacher had taken to copyediting, or that he’d proven his worth as a copy editor to the little Barlows’ U.S. publisher, who’d connected him to other publishers in New York. When the snowshoer moved to New York City, he already had a job and some close contacts in publishing.

The long-termism of Mr. Barlow’s decision-making was impressive. For how long had he planned to become a woman? Certainly Elliot Barlow was suited for copyediting, but had he been prescient enough to consider that that profession might work well with his transitioning to female? Yes, people in publishing are usually liberal or progressive—they’re more tolerant than most—but I mean in addition to that. Copy editors aren’t the most public people in publishing; they don’t even take their authors to lunch. I published three novels with the same publisher before I met my copy editor. Copy editors work behind the scenes; for all you see of them, they might as well be working at home.