Ha! Yep! My first sale was to the US Naval Institute Proceedings; the editor called me to say my piece had been accepted, they loved it, they had some edits, they’d be sending me the corrections. I got the envelope a few days later.

O. M. G.

If my great-grandfather hadn’t changed the spelling of the family name from German to phonetic American, I swear they’d have “corrected” that too! Paragraphs crossed out. Only two paragraphs made it through without changes (each a sentence long). It was… unsettling.

And, of course, after the shock had worn off, I called them back to say, “Looks great! Thanks!” Because DUH!

Still have that issue tucked away. 😊