I've never watched the show, so what's this Vanessa person like? The character in question is practical with a side of ruthless.

That's not a bad description of her. The other thing about Vanessa is that she uses her practical side and ruthlessness as a kind of tough-girl shield against her emotional vulnerability, which sounds much more cliche than it plays. For example, this season she allowed her estranged husband to move back into the house as the best thing for her and the kids, but treated him like crap because (she admitted last week) she didn't want to be in a place where he could hurt her again.

(The spoilers aren't anythign too specific, but better safe than sorry.)

A series of mini-drabbles on green, almost a list, collectively way over 100 words. I couldn't make up my mind, and I could easily come up with half a dozen more. I've always said red is my favorite color, but I begin to think it's really green:

Too Many Greens

It’s been 15 years since I’ve been in Alabama in June. I’d forgotten just how lush, vivid, and borderline tropical the place can be--so flagrant a green that it almost pains the eyes with its brightness.

When I was sixteen my mother made me a dress of velvet so dark a forest green it looked black in the shadows. I wore it with an ivory-colored collar my Mamaw crocheted, and I was proud of their artistry--unlike in years before when I’d coveted the store-bought dresses my friends wore. The rich green made my skin golden and transformed the plain dark brown of my hair and eyes into something as lovely and luxurious as the velvet itself. In that dress I felt beautiful for the first time in my life.

Seattle is painted in a cool palette--all blues and grays and dark northern greens.

A heroine’s eyes, feline and mischievous.

A hero’s uniform, worn and patched and all the more dashingly sexy for it.

A Rich Mullins lyric I sing to God when the world is so beautiful it hurts--“And be glad that you have made/Blue for the sky and the color green that fills these fields with praise."

I find that I write best late at night, and just let it pour out til my eyes feel like sandpaper. But then it's 1:30, and I have to work in the morning. And I think, "why can't I be less nocturnal?"

Deb, I wrote about Nilly coming to visit, and I mentioned you blowtorching the oven (first name only).

erika, I wanted to mention you coming to visit and the freak who drew you a picture at the Coffee Bean, but I wasn't sure if that was a memory you wanted to relive in the pages of something that has a tiny chance of being published. But it was so freakazoid surreal I desperately want to include it. Lemme know.

Oh Allyson, I want to read about the Nilly visit. If you're ready to share it, that is.

Oh! Still working on it, Beverly. I need to add a couple of things, including you know, an ending.

Ok, Allyson, include it. The weirdest part, that's not the weirdest stranger encounter I ever had, but yeah, you can write about it.

Allyson, you can use my name, any or all that you see fit, in anything you choose to write, ever. I love the way you write, and I'm honoured to be in there, and I don't use that word lightly.

Susan, that was really nice.

Crikey, I've just realised, yesterday was a bad day and I'm an idiot. erika! Check your email in a bit - I've had my edits done for you for days and I've been too something-or-other (combo of circs and physical crap) and I forgot to send it.

Please to be vibing for me, not a lot, just a bit. I'm supposed to be getting full commentary back from my agent today, on R&RNF; she loved it but has stuff she wants to talk about. I have the synopses for both. Both novels are done. And Lyssa at Morrow/Avon wants to see the full manuscript of R&RNF. And I want there to not be a lot of stuff Jenn wants done, because I love the books and I want to get this show on the road.

Every vibe in the world for the internet spouse...funny, that's caught on for my local beta, too. He's always asking about "the missus" these days. Allyson, what Deb said. About being in your book. Besides I've named a character after you, anyway.(I probably should have asked first, huh? But she's a hero, so I guessed it would be all right.) Deb, not a problem. I could relate...see tag. (There's this bumper sticker a lot of disability movement people have that says that "natural" thing...to make the point that because we're different, doesn't mean there's anything to fix, nature's infinite variety and so forth..) Everytime I see one, I think of natural things that aren't all that pretty, you know?

Vibeage for Deb, writage for Allyson.

Still pondering green.

Can she have a decent date, erika? I don't want to impose, really, but one of us, either fictional me or real me, should get some smoochies.