Changes in power distribution between the hero and heroine?

Traditional: Millionaire/Earl/Doctor vs. Secretary/Governess/Nurse

More recently: Mega-Heiress/Duchess/High-level magician vs. Average wealth/Lower Aristocracy/Computer programmer

I'm still not seeing a lot of Duchesses romancing their friend's children's math tutors, but there do seem to be more books with less dramatic Prince/Cinderella power distributions these days.

With all the black clothing in my closet, you would think it would be easy enough to figure out what to wear to a funeral but nsm.

Turns out, it was an ovarian cyst about the size of a cantaloupe that had hemorrhaged and twisted around my f-tube. I got surgery for that one.

I cannot imagine how you managed not to try to do surgery on yourself. My ruptured ovarian cyst is the standard by which I measure all pain, working under theory that 11 is a ruptured ovarian cyst.

Even without an internal frame of reference for the body parts that makes me cringe.

My worst pain was a grapefruit sized cyst, and your non-embellished statement makes it seem to be a 9...

Barb, have you already written about how romance publishing seems to go in cycles? I remember the years-long fad of Baby Romances from the early-to-mid '90s, and now we have vampire/supernatural romances. I'd be interested in hearing how authors handle either writing for the fad or writing in spite of the fad and how they get published if they do the latter.

I haven't written about that, Kathy, but others have tackled the subject. I think just recently there was a column about the differences between urban fantasy and paranormal romance and how the lines are blurring.

Molly Ringwald wrote a lovely editorial about John Hughes in the New York Times.

I think I pulled something in my workout yesterday. Mild pain shoots when I twist in a normal fashion. Streams from left side of abs down towards the groin region. So don't want to work today. Blargh.

Omnis, why do you just try walking on the treadmill today (if it doesn't hurt). You still get in some exercise and don't break routine. That's the killer for me. I get on an exercise kick, something derails it for a few days (say, a back injury) and then I just stop. But, you might be better than me.

And in "I can't believe that people would pay for this" news: Gourmet Iced Coffee Maker for $30. As far as I can see, the only advantage over a $2.99 cone filter is the cooling mechanism, which you can make happen either by waiting or with a simple plastic ice cube.

Omnis, sorry to hear you pulled something. That's so frustrating.

Oy, I've been vaguely nauseated for 48 hrs now, and woke up this morning with a headache to boot. WTH, body?