( continues...) Somehow the American concepts of diversity and reinvention have gotten a bad rap as diversions to allow people to get naked in public and call themselves Moonbeam(Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but there’s more. Really. America used to be where people came to get a new start, leave behind repressive rules. This is very much part of our Western legacy, and we should respect an honor it. My values say if you don’t like abortions don’t have one. But don’t torture somebody else for the hardest decision she has to make, and I guarantee you, whatever your views, you know somebody who had one, whether you know it or not. She’s not “those women”. She’s your mom, your friend, the checker at Target.(My personal count is four women I know. And I’m not freakish and wild, and neither are they. You’d never know just to look. Citizens shouldn’t demonize each other.Don’t we all have demons enough?)

Listen up, because this might be the last thing I write, because right now it doesn’t feel safe to have one of those education things.

Because-because. Can you make that two sentences, cause-effect? "Listen up. This might be the last thing I write, because right now, it doesn’t feel safe to have one of those education things."

I might dump that sentence, actually. Because while I wrote it on Wednesday with every intention of Never Touching my Keyboard Again, it's beginning to come to my attention that I write like I breathe, and I can't live without either for very long., and desire doesn't always enter in. I'll send to you tomorrow...maybe we can work on it. I want this printed more than I believed possible when I started scribbling it aimlessly.

Attawife! I soothed my soul by writing a letter to John Kerry this morning, which I posted in livejournal.

I liked that letter a lot, actually.

I was luke-warm on Kerry going in, but at the end of the day, I ended up having a lot of respect for him. Certainly more than I expected.

I respect him muchly, but I am just perverse enough that even if no-way-in-hell-type numbers came back, I 'd go through it anyway just to deny him as much gratification as it would be in my power to block. Because if he tried to stop me, he'd look like the democracy-hating dick that I think he really is, and maybe he'd get caught having a tizzy on national TV. But sometimes I am petty and not in the least polite or ladylike.

Deb, insent.

Ginger, got it - some excellent catches, especially the age difference. I need to change that; I'd been so busy concentrating on making sure the years scanned that I forgot the age difference calculation.

OK, I need some help getting through a writer's impasse. It's not a block, per se--I could write if I could just make up my mind what would be the most plausible course of action for my characters. As is, I'm stuck, and a pair of handsome young Englishmen (one tall, one short; one fair, one dark) are sitting on opposite sides of a heavy desk, blinking their blue eyes at me (one's sky blue, one's lake blue) and waiting for me to give them some dialogue.

Sebastian (the tall, fair one) has come to call on James because he intends to marry Anna, who is James's sister. James isn't her guardian, since they were both minors when they were orphaned, and the uncle who is dotes on her too much to refuse his consent to any halfway respectable match if her heart is set on it. Sebastian knows this, but wants to discuss his intentions with James because he feels like it's the decent thing to do. James can't stand Sebastian, whom he thinks of as the Pompous Ass, complete with capital letters, and if he were Anna's guardian, would certainly refuse consent.

What I can't decide is, given that James is powerless to actually prevent the match, how much should he let his disapproval show, and how he should go about it. Admit upfront that he'd refuse if he could? Give Sebastian a good grilling about his intentions and motives, and the fact he's only known Anna for ten days or so? Something else entirely?

Help! Give voice to my handsome yet sadly muted imaginary Englishmen.

Susan, from what I've read of James? He'd probably let rather a good bit of his attitude show. If you can find a way to have him make it clear to Sebastian, via choice of phrasing, that he knows Sebastian is a fortune hunter and a climber and that if even looks like making Anna unhappy, by God, he'll personally kick Sebastian halfway to Salamanca and back, I'd do it that way.