Toto?

Finally, the rowboats and puppies have stopped flying past our windows. Which means the satellite's working again. Yay!

Critiquing for my buddy today. I feel so lucky that I get to read her books before they go out into the world. Karen Whiddon's a great writer, and I'm delighting in the latest Pack story. Karen's comments always improve my work--and I think reading for her also improves me because I hope I write as well as she does. So many people in this business say we're in the field of storytelling, and I'm afraid I often wonder, what does that mean? But, as I'm admiring the new twists Karen's taking, I find myself thinking, she's a storyteller.

The cool thing about paranormal is the excellent freedom to create your own world. My stories are more family and realism-oriented so when I read a paranormal, I get the joy of wondering--how did she come up with that? And the more casual an author's tone is, the better I like it. It was what I loved best about Harry Potter. I was reading from Harry's point of view--learning about the magical world, but my favorite moments were Harry's excitement at facets of magical life that the other characters took for granted. And then--Arthur Weasley's fascination with all things muggle.

I guess a different life is always seductive.