Not least because he has a dog named Sargeant Esterhaus.

"Now be careful out there."

At least ERIKA can stay on topic.

That's because she was a high school criminal. They're very single-minded.

And I thought Stephanie Plum should bang Ranger's brains out. A mercenary who doesn't want to meet mom and eat pot roast? Yay! But maybe that's my Committment Issue. No, high school me would've gotten much more high-minded than this...she was most embarrassed about this taste. Because it's not Nice. ETA: But still, in the eighth grade I wanted to be graduation speaker, and I wrote a sample speech, which was probably too sarcastic to ever make a grad. speech, and I forgot my last line. So I would've told my eighth grade class "Hey, let's be careful out there." I...did not get to do that, needless to say.

I've discovered, through my single-minded single-author reading of the last few months (I've been on a huge Pratchett kick) that the easiest narrative hook for me is to have strong female characters in traditionally male roles. The Discworld books that feature said characters get read about twice as fast as those that don't. Monstrous Regiment flew by, for example.

I have also discovered that of the Discworld regulars, Angua is by far my fav.

I suspect my hook would work as well be the character pirate or police, so long as said character is a girl.

How traditionally male do the roles have to be? I mean, traditionally male for us, or for the world in which the story is set? Is it a meta-enjoyment you're getting, or are you feeding off a degree of in-context fish-out-of-water?

I mean, traditionally male for us, or for the world in which the story is set?

World in which the story is set. It dates back to childhood, where The Girl Who Pretended to be a Boy was the fairy tale I liked above all others.

It's not so much the fish-out-of-water thing as the "girls CAN TOO do that!" thing, I think.

My favorite Discworld character is Death. Second, Vetinari, third Granny Weatherwax.

What can I say, I like 'em dark.

Plei, did you love The Black Arrow as I did? I ate up girl-dressed-as-boy stuff. Also Heyer's The Masqueraders.

I have not read The Black Arrow. Perhaps I should.

I think my Discworld character order is: Angua, the Death of Rats (SQUEEK.), Polly, Vimes, Carrot, Dorfl. They're followed by Death and Susan in no particular order.

If you include Wee Free Men, Tiffany Aching should be inserted right behind Polly.

You have to move back into a really Victorian mindset for The Black Arrow: the hero thinks the heroine-disguised-as-a-boy is an incredible coward, then he realizes that she's a girl and all of a sudden she's a hero.

I loved it when I was a kid, but then again there weren't many girl heroes then.

t marks Plei down as a member of the target market for the book I'ma write when I finish the wip