Connie, only one thing made me blink a moment, and that's that Ethan thought, and so did I, that he was teaching the baby to say Cthuhlu, and then she called the spinach that. Where did she learn it, then, in a household where the father doesn't approve?

I absolutely loved that. I want to visit that family and let our little raptorgirls play together.

Fay, I don't know LotRs, so I'm not qualified to comment, and yet... it's beautiful and if it were all I knew of a novel, it would make me buy it.

Wow, morning, what a way to wake up.

Connie, that is bloody wonderful stuff. There's not an ounce of cuteness in there, and cuteness is the only thing that would or could have harmed it.

Fay, as you know, I'm generally Tolkein-allergic. But this:

Eowyn's breasts weighing in his palm

is exquisite under any circs. Just delicate and gorgeous. Brava, sweetie.

shrift, you rock, and mightily. I have a bunny, BTW, courtesy of Evil Roz in AIM: Steed, and his bit of history with Spike and Dru. That's going to bubble a bit, since we're out in the bright Cali sun today and anyway, I'm in a groove on novel, but it's bubbling.

Deena, my goddaughter stopped calling her maternal grandmother "Gaggy" (pronounced GAH-gee, hard gee) and transferred it to her dummies (sorry, pacifiers) when she was about 18 months old. I had no trouble with the spinach/tooloo transference, really.

The only thing that made me hesitate about the spinach transference was that everyone else seemed to already know that she'd done that transfer -- which meant she already knew the word and had started calling spinach "Tooloo" before Uncle Ethan taught it to her. That could be because her brother already taught her the word, and would even fit the circumstances, as well as being a brotherly thing to do (I believe my brother taught me the word "maggot"). I had to think about that a nanosecond, though, before going on, because I really thought it was new to her when Uncle Ethan was teaching her words. It really was only a little hesitation though, and I don't think it's a drawback, just the only thing that might be out of place in an otherwise incredible story.

I am excited about Steed/Spike/Dru backstory.

Ah, timing issue? That makes a lot of sense. Deena has good eyes.....

(tooloo!)

I am getting such a giggle over that: "One of these days, it's going to work..."

I mean, baby girl sitting there waving a plastic fork with a Donald Duck head on the top end, and whammo! there's one the Elder Gods, smack in the middle of the roast parsnips....

I love that image myself.. and then what would they do about it?

I think what makes good writing is when I can see the characters before and after this one moment, see what made them what they are, care about what happens to them, and see a reasonable (as in possible, not necessarily happy) future for them.

I love that I get so much of that here. Poor Greg is feeling neglected. I haven't asked for a new library book in weeks.

Deena, you could always read "Weaver".

Oh, Deb, I fully intend to. If you want to send it to me now, be my guest! If you don't, Greg has promised that the library will buy at least one copy as soon as it's out.

Wait, so, if I let you read the prepress version, I lose a sale?

Couldn't you read it now and not tell him? I need the library sale....

oh, goodness, I'm pretty sure he's going to buy it for the library anyway. Then, if I give it a good review (as if that would be in question), he'll get them to buy copies for each branch, which would add up to anywhere from 4 to 10 sales, depending on how popular it is.