Clapping wildly for erika...

Bravo!

Seconding Teppy, erika. See me nodding wildly?

Yeah, I think I should too. I got a million of 'em, as far as that goes. You know what I forgot? A bio. That was dumb, huh?

Okay--see there, what happened there? I was going to post "See me nodding madly?" and had just read AmyLiz's "clapping wildly..." And what I read went down on the page.

It's how I'll fasten on a "word of the day" when I'm writing. I go back later and find the same word five or six times in three or four pages...that's how I can tell all those pages were written in the same session.

Woot Erika!!!

Also, Amy and Deb, I'm sorry if I came across sounding defensive. I was mostly joking and didn't convey it well.

I will look for betas eventually, but that's a long way off, I think! Hard to beta just the very first few chapters of a book. I'm more at the "tell me it's pretty!" phase right now. ;-)

Thanks..I will definitely take Astarte and others up on the offer later.

Yay, erika!

Thirding Teppy's suggestion.

Yeah...I'll do it. I shouldn't have any problems...we didn't even sign a contract, but I'll ask as a courtesy. But I should get right on it, cause I've got what the politicians call "mo" now. But, of course, for me, "mo" is Just Jack, but...um...this is that stream of consciousness thing my friend gets so confused by, isn't it? I'll also get some subscription figures that I can use to...bullshit, um I mean sell myself, in the query process.

Kristin, you didn't sound defensive at all. More like...deflated. And I, at least, didn't want you to feel that way, because just doing the damn writing, whatever it is, is something to cheer on and shout about.

And we all know some of the biggies on lots of people's reading lists are fantasy. Like Tolkien, and L'Engle, and C.S. Lewis (and here's where my lack of fantasy knowledge shows because I'm running out of examples). And...the guy (?) who wrote The Once and Future King, et cetera, et cetera (imagine that with Yul Brynner's King accent, just for fun).

I'm just glad you're writing, 'cause I encourage all my friends to do it. Nods.

erika, yes, submit, submit, submit! Hmmm. That could be taken so many different ways.

I go back later and find the same word five or six times in three or four pages

Beverly, I do this all the damn time. Earwormed by a word, I guess you'd call it.

And...the guy (?) who wrote The Once and Future King

T.H. White. One of my favourites. But I may have a different definition of fantasy than most people, because I don't consider Arthurian legend fantasy. I do call Tolkein fantasy, and I can't read him. I'm also the only human being I know that thoroughly allergic to him.

But Kristin, I'm with Amy. You sounded deflated. And why on earth? YOU WROTE!

Speaking of which, I am quite unbelievably proud of my internet wife.

Deb, what's the difference between fantasy and magical realism?