useful comments

Here's a comment I received on the last installment, Girl Meets Boy:

"Ooooh, I like Ben. A lot. Too bad he's about to become taken.

Why is he both Shea and Ben in the narrative? Maybe pick either first or last name and stick with it? (I vote for first name.)"

First: Keep your grubby mitts off Ben Shea. He's mine — er, Kielle's. This should lay to rest any question about whether I'm writing my own fantasy here. Of course I am!

Stick around, though. Ben isn't as perfect as he seems.

Second: D'OH! Yes, I should pick one name and stick with it. Maybe I was trying to convey that he went from stranger to friend in Kielle's mind. But you're right, it looks messy.

Third: I've got the rest of that evening fairly well outlined in my head; just need to sit down and pound it out.

Yeah, I say "just" as if it's so easy to do. But did I mention that I wrote all of Girl Meets Boy longhand in my p&p journal over the course of about 5 hours/2 evenings? Longhand, for god's sake! I don't usually do that, since hello, writer's cramp. But that's how that bit came about. There's something to be said for it; the slower pace of writing longhand forces me to slow my thinking as well and perhaps do a more thorough job of describing things — to produce a painting, not a photograph, to borrow a phrase from the inimitable Sean Altman.

Still crankin'. Stay tuned.