What drew me in were the characters--I have always been interested in books as a window into other people's lives and hearts.

This really resonates with me, although I guess I'm simply more interested in a window into women's lives. And now I feel terribly sexist.

Argh! AmyLiz, please don't agenda yourself out over your artistic preferences. If you were writing horse stories, would you be worried that you were speciesist? If you were a ballet dancer, would you feel guilty for not tap dancing. You know what interests you--gets your mind thinking--your creative juices flowing, and you're able to harness that power. That's a gift, not a moral failing.

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can't... breathe...

(also dying over here)

And now I feel terribly sexist.

But why? You're female. When I was bedbound as a kid, my sister Alice would draw exquisite little paper doll characters and act out the scenes from the books for me. Her favourite - considering the name, no big shock - was Alice and Through the Looking Glass. But she also adored Milne and acted out Pooh for me. I was very much a Christopher Robin child, but interestingly, I never saw him as a little boy - I just saw him as a kid. There was nothing "Boys Book of Big Boyish Adsventures!" about Christopher Robin - he could just as easily have been a little girl. "Silly old bear!" is not gender-specific or even gender-inclined, surely?

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You guys, I've got too much to write to be thinking about writing crazy stuff like that. Please to not encourage my Ultimate Badfic. Kthxbye.ETA: And I think it's natural for women to read women stories. And it's not like we ever miss getting the guy's side, believe me.

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"Silly old bear!" is not gender-specific or even gender-inclined, surely?

I loved Pooh, too. I never saw the animals as gender-specific, and Christopher Robin was so young that he was just "kid" for me, too.

I suppose I shouldn't feel sexist, but yeah, if the only thing around to read had been (or still was) the Hardy Boys, I'd read it, but only grudgingly.

"Boys Book of Big Boyish Adsventures!"

Snerk.

That's a gift, not a moral failing.

Thanks you! That's a lovely way to think about it.

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Hmm. Now I'm trying to think more thematically about what I read as a child and how it's influenced what I write, and it's not easy. I know I write about women learning to take power over their lives even when it'd be easier NOT to, but I think that's more to do with my life experiences of the last decade than anything I read growing up. And, I suppose I write about staying true to yourself and your beliefs and using them to transcend the apparent ordinariness and pettiness of life--at least, I try to--and that's pure Silver Chair. Which was my least favorite Narnia book as a child, but is my favorite of the lot now.

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Wheee! I just got the galleys for the novel! It looks pretty good, too. Now to sit down and patiently scan it for typos, which I suck at with a capital S.

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Sending line-editing ma to AmyLiz, and oh yes, YaY!

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Woohoo! I just got my first definite yes from an agent for our conference! And not even one of the two who were all friendly-chatty because I knew one of their clients. Though I still think I'll get at least one if not both of them.

Now, to nail down those pesky editors.

And I'm realizing the real benefit of being an editor-agent chair, for an unpublished writer, is not so much the networking, though that's useful, but that it's helping me lose my fear of talking to these people.

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Now to sit down and patiently scan it for typos, which I suck at with a capital S.

Try it when big chunks of the dialogue are in French.....

I hate passpage editing. But it has to happen, because otherwise? No one to blame but myself.

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No one to blame but myself.

Don't I know it. And I hate typos. But I've got a copyeditign job to finish, progress to make on the new book (which is already -- sigh -- behind) and I feel like crap.

Still, I love seeing the galley pages. Makes it that much more real.

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