Cereal: I've got some thoughts, Kessie. Pay more attention to your characters and how they interact.At the beginning of the story, Kayla is a 22 yo intern with what reads like a crazy "You're so brilliant...teach me, mold me," crush on Sam(Nothing against those, I still get them. There is no other way to explain my flash of desire for Michael Moore after "Bowling for Columbine" but I digress. Ahem.) And he's her boss. Then they go on the lam together. How does that affect how they live? Think about that. How do they interact at home? At their workplaces? The grocery store? They really are each other's world? How does that feel?

Thanks Erika! email is Kessiebabe@compuserve.de or Kessie19@gmx.de Hm for the characters , I have to say the more i read the story the more i find things which i wanna change ... really should do a rewrite methinks. Thanks so much for helping ;)

Kessie, insent to compuserve with all my "editorial suggestions"...I hope you find something helpful in there.I had some thoughts for the section you are stuck on.(I read a lot of Elmore Leonard and stuff and I'm a crime geek...it's kind of my thing around here.)

On a totally unrelated note, one of my friends who is an amazing poet just got his first piece of fan mail. He wrote, "If you see a helium balloon over your house, it's because my head has grown too large and carried me away." Makes me happy.

Is it bad form to link to his completely non-profit, struggling poet website? If so I shall refrain. I'm happy for him, though.

No...we keep track of writers and writing stuff here. Have a party, babe.

Definitely link it.

His web site

Here it is. Like I said, I'm just thrilled for him to have gotten a fan-mail. It's not like he's had a collection published beyond self-publication, so his name isn't exactly "out there".

Hmmmm. Part of me really wants to do a novel based on this:

WARRIOR QUEEN IS UNEARTHED (20 September 2003)

A 1,500-year-old Anglo-Saxon "warrior queen" has been found buried just two feet under the surface of a county field.

Lincolnshire's own 6ft tall "Boadicea" has been described as one of the best Anglo-Saxon finds of its kind in the county. She was still holding her shield and had a dagger at her side when she was found. On either side of her at the site just outside Lincoln were the remains of a man and a woman who were possibly her attendants.

The woman was wearing an amber necklace and had her feet bound together with rope. The male companion was buried with his hand over a pot.

The exceptional discovery was originally made by a man with a metal detector. Mystery surrounds the identity of the 6ft tall warrior queen. Her ancient Briton predecessor Boadicea led a rebellion against the Romans in 61AD. After the Romans left England in 410AD tribal conflict was rife and the mystery queen might have fallen victim to this.

All the bones and artefacts discovered at the scene are now being examined by independent conservator Wessex Archaeology and at a later date will be brought back to the City and County Museum in Friars Lane.

Lincolnshire County Council archaeologist Adam Daubney said that there was an enormous sense of excitement when the bodies were unearthed. "Any discovery from Anglo-Saxon times is important for Lincolnshire because this era of history is not as well documented as other periods," he said. "In other parts of Lincolnshire we have found two large Saxon burial sites at Loveden Hill and Ruskington. But one of the interesting things about this is that a total of four shields have been found. The shield would have been originally made from wood but the boss - which held the handle in place - was made of iron and this has survived."

The Channel Four television programme Time Team carried out the excavation and the programme is due to be broadcast next spring. The owner of the land on which the burial site was discovered asked not to be named to avoid the venue's location becoming common knowledge. He said: "Two years ago a discovery of a brooch was made on the site which was unmistakably Anglo-Saxon. It was incredibly exciting to discover the burial site."

Wow, that's some find.

And it would make for one hell of a story...

Problem for me is, I already did one in that period.